A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 279 Chinese New Year
After hanging up the phone, Chen Hui went into the bedroom. Thinking of the relieved smiles on his uncle and aunt's faces before the video call ended, Chen Hui felt a mix of amusement and exasperation.

Lin Xiaotang had already dried her hair and was sitting on the bed playing on her phone. "There's been so much more and more extreme weather lately."

Before Chen Hui could make a move, Lin Xiaotang spoke up, "It snowed heavily in the capital all day long. The capital hasn't seen such heavy snow in decades. The snow is 30 centimeters thick, which can be called a snow disaster."

Chen Hui immediately understood what Lin Xiaotang was trying to say. His eyes lit up. Calculating the time, there should indeed be a result today. The capital city was the fourth location he had given. According to the model prediction, it would start snowing heavily at 10 a.m. today, causing a snow disaster.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xiaotang received the news so quickly. He is now eager to know the situation at the other three locations.

But he remained outwardly calm, saying, "A timely snow promises a good harvest; next year will surely be a bountiful one!"

"That's not necessarily true. Besides the capital, a strong sandstorm hit the Taklamakan Desert, lasting for more than ten hours. It almost swept into the residential areas. There was also a mudslide in Shanhai Village, which buried the entire village. Fortunately, it was discovered in time and people were evacuated in advance. Otherwise, we don't know how many casualties would have been caused."

Lin Xiaotang seemed possessed by a contrarian, constantly refuting Chen Hui, "And with the earthquakes happening all the time, it feels like the living environment is getting worse and worse."

"What does the Taklamakan Desert have to do with you? Don't worry, you're perfectly safe in Princeton!"

Chen Hui was in high spirits. The four locations identified by the model had been verified, and now he could implement the second step of his escape plan.

Do you have plans to return to China?

Chen Hui had just sat down at his desk when Lin Xiaotang's words stunned him for a moment. He turned around and looked at Lin Xiaotang blankly.

Everyone knew there were listening devices in the room, so what was the point of her asking that question?
"You've been at Princeton for over half a year now, and it's almost Chinese New Year. People's opinions of you aren't so good right now."

Lin Xiaotang held the phone in front of Chen Hui and smacked her lips.

This question was asked on Zhihu: "When will Professor Chen be able to return to China? China needs talents like Professor Chen."

Some people analyzed the ins and outs of Chen Hui's stay in the United States and the current international situation, but many others began to have other ideas because Chen Hui had been silent for more than half a year.

[I think he's doing quite well in America. Just a few days ago he proved the twin prime conjecture. If he had really been forcibly detained, how could he have the mind to do academic research and produce results of this caliber?]

Just because you can't do it doesn't mean others can't either.

[There are still people who doubt Professor Chen. So many scholars protested at the time, and Professor Chen was almost thrown into a dark room. These things were all exposed by the media. Yet there are still people who doubt Professor Chen. A brain is a good thing.]

Who knows if it was a charade he and America staged together? Anyway, I don't think a detained scholar could possibly have such a research environment, nor could he possibly concentrate on academic research. Don't look at what he says, look at what he does!

"..."

Chen Hui didn't know what to say, so he could only say that Grandpa Yuan Longping was entirely to blame for letting these netizens have too much to eat.

He didn't care what these people said at all, because he knew that everyone would know the truth soon enough, and he could wait that long.

However, just as he was about to exit, he saw another related topic under this question.

Why can't China retain top scientists like Chen Hui, Yin Xi, and Cao Yuan? What are we lacking?

Another case of a reflective oddity.

Chen Hui didn't know why, now that China had become the second strongest country on Earth, there were still so many people who lacked confidence and thought that the grass was always greener on the other side.

Picking up Lin Xiaotang's phone, Chen Hui quickly typed on the keyboard with both hands.

"Hey, this is my account, don't mess around."

Lin Xiaotang said with dissatisfaction.

Chen Hui completely ignored it. When he was video chatting with his family earlier, Lin Xiaotang didn't try to avoid suspicion. Now he knows it's her account.

late!

Lin Xiaotang didn't snatch the phone, but instead came behind Chen Hui and looked at the answers he typed in.

To put it bluntly, talents like Cao Yuan and Yin Xi choose to stay in the United States not because they don't want the social customs and traditions of China, but precisely because they need them.

People who come from China often have too much of a gap between themselves and the international research community. Many of them never truly understand the community from the time they leave until they return. At most, they only have one-way communication with their supervisors and a small network of connections in the lab. They then assume that scientific research abroad is really that simple.

Is scientific research really that simple?

Where did your funding come from?

Whose connections do you work with?
Whose face are you giving by submitting your article to the top journal for review?
Have you thought about these questions?
Very few people in China can truly understand this, and those few who can influence the mainstream academic discourse are now influential figures in China.

The influence of academic cliques abroad is no less than that in China. What makes Harvard publish 200 Nature and 80 Science papers a year? It's because many top researchers can get papers submitted for review by using connections. As long as they get submitted, they can get published, and once they get published, they keep publishing.

Cao Yuan is essentially such a product. I'm not saying he's not capable; he certainly is. But his research keeps getting published in top journals because there's a circle endorsing him. And this endorsement goes beyond scientific research itself; it's about discourse power, a kind of academic politics.

Academic pursuits everywhere require competition for resources, though the methods may vary, they are essentially the same.

Therefore, given that Cao Yuan has already deeply integrated into this ecosystem, he can obtain far more resources in the United States than in China. Moreover, he doesn't need to use domestic resources to gain a higher status, which is different not only from ordinary overseas PhDs but also from some other returning business leaders in the past...

Chen Hui omitted some insider details and wrote this answer in one go.

Still not quite satisfied, I added one more sentence.
Conversely, from a domestic perspective, Cao Yuan's value as an American academic tycoon far outweighs his value as a Chinese academic tycoon.

As for the issue of saving face that you're arguing about, it's completely unimportant.

After writing his answer and clicking send, Chen Hui returned the phone to Lin Xiaotang and sat at his desk, looking at the manuscript of the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.

He originally planned to organize his thoughts and then submit them to the "Annals of Mathematics".

But now, after thinking about it, he put away the manuscripts and prepared to find an opportunity to destroy them all, because the proof was already in his mind, and with his current memory, he couldn't forget it even if he wanted to.

Given his current standing in the mathematics community, publishing a paper in either the Annals of Mathematics or the Acta Mathematica Sinica would not significantly affect his status; on the contrary, it would enhance the prestige of those two journals.

If that's the case, why was the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis published in the Annals of Mathematics?
Chen Hui already had a clear plan.

While China still lags behind the West in academics, its academic achievements are gradually catching up. However, it still has a long way to go in terms of academic foundation.

Academic prowess, to some extent, can be equated with top-tier journals.

If you don't even have a top-tier journal in your field, who will acknowledge your status?
The reason why the West is able to attract so many geniuses is because they have top journals in various fields, and these geniuses need to publish in these top journals to gain recognition from the academic community.

These top-tier publications are like streetlights in the dark, attracting countless flying insects to flock to them.

Now, Chen Hui wants to establish such a beacon in China to attract geniuses from all over the world. It's difficult, but Chen Hui is confident.

An obscure Chinese journal might go unnoticed, but if it publishes a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, it would likely attract considerable interest from academic circles.

If only this journal contains a complete proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, then scholars interested in the Riemann Hypothesis would have no choice but to purchase and study this journal.

As long as enough high-quality papers are published, this journal can gradually make a name for itself in academia, until it becomes a beacon!

"We'll start making preparations for this as soon as we get back!"

……

Washington, D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, 11 p.m.
Nick remained seated in his office, frantically dealing with the mountain of tasks piling up every day.

Following the events of the past few days, the surveillance on Chen Hui's side has been further strengthened, requiring him to devote more energy to it. He has been returning home after midnight for the past two weeks.

At 12:30, Nick finally finished dealing with all the matters. He breathed a sigh of relief, took a sip of water, stood up, and prepared to go home to rest.

Suddenly, an agent came running up hurriedly, "Chief, there's something going on."

Nick felt dizzy and suddenly couldn't catch his breath, almost fainting on the spot.

Fortunately, before becoming the director, he was also a front-line special agent who had undergone countless training sessions, so he still had the physical foundation to withstand this wave.

Professor Chen posted a response on social media.

The agent, oblivious to Nick's unusual behavior, took out a tablet and placed Chen Hui's answer in front of Nick. "This is a social media platform from China, similar to Quora. Professor Chen didn't use his own account, but rather his girlfriend's account, so his comments are quite sensitive."

Nick looked closely,
His complexion actually softened considerably.

"Conversely, from a domestic perspective, Cao Yuan's value as an American academic tycoon far outweighs his value as a Chinese academic tycoon."

Nick muttered this phrase over and over again, and a smile slowly spread across his face.

Judging from the context of this answer and the situation monitored by S.H.I.E.L.D., Chen Hui's answer was likely given in a state of heightened emotion, and the more emotional he was, the more likely he was telling the truth.

So, it turns out he wanted to become an academic tyrant at Princeton to pave the way for Chinese scholars!
In a way, former director Fury's detention was actually a convenient thing for Chen Hui. He was certain that even if Fury hadn't kept him there, he would have ended up at Princeton anyway.

He knows these so-called scholars all too well.

That's really gilding the lily.

Nick thought of his old boss and shook his head.

"Understood, let's go down."

Nick waved his hand, walked out of the office in high spirits, and drove his Infiniti QX50 home with a roar.

……

January 15th, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, is the traditional Chinese Laba Festival.
Chen Hui sat at his desk, logged into the supercomputer, and input the public meteorological data obtained from the America Weather website into the model.

This batch of data is much smaller than Huaxia's; the model only ran for a few minutes before providing a set of data.

After processing the acquired data, all that's left is to wait.

"The timing of the rain was off by three minutes, and the amount of rain also differed by about 10..."

Three days later, Chen Hui looked at the statistics from the America Weather website and compared them with the results from the model, his brows furrowing slightly.

America's meteorological statistics data are still too granular. Not only can the initial data not be guaranteed to be completely accurate, but the final rainfall statistics are also not necessarily completely accurate.

He found it difficult to assess the model's accuracy using this data, yet it was crucial to his grand plan to escape America; a slight error could lead to disastrous consequences, so he had to be extremely cautious.

After a moment's thought, he buried himself in the draft paper and began to calculate. Based on the data collected from China, he was able to confirm that the model was correct.

Since America's meteorological data statistics are biased, we can add a correction term to correct this error and still get the correct result; it just takes a little more effort.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; time flows relentlessly.
Princeton has had several snowfalls.

It was snowing in Chengdu, far away in China. Li Tianhua, along with Fan Rong, Qingrui, and Qingshan, all bundled up in thick clothes, left their home.

"Old Li, going back to your hometown again?"

Walking in the neighborhood, Grandma Wu from next door greeted me with a smile.

Happy Chinese New Year, Grandma Wu!

The two little ones greeted the adults in their clear voices without needing to be reminded.

"Hey, Happy New Year, Rui Rui and Qing Shan!"

Grandma Wu was overjoyed. Looking at the two little ones, her heart overflowed with love. She patted herself down for a while, and finally managed to find two red envelopes to give to the two little ones.

After some initial refusals, Grandma Wu finally forced the red envelopes into the two children's arms before smiling and asking again, "Xiao Hui, didn't you come home for the New Year this year?"

"Ah."

Li Tianhua nodded, "He has some things to take care of this year and can't come back."

"That's such a pity, I haven't seen that little guy in ages."

Grandma Wu sighed, and after chatting for a few more minutes, they all had their own things to do and waved goodbye.

After finally managing to hail a taxi at the entrance of the residential area, the group headed back to their hometown.

When Li Tianhua video-chatted with Chen Hui yesterday, Chen Hui offered to buy his uncle a car, but Li Tianhua promptly refused.

According to him, his commute to school is only a short walk, so buying a car would just leave it gathering dust, and he would have to find a place to park it, which was completely unnecessary.

Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year.
Chen Hui ultimately failed to keep his promise to go home for the Chinese New Year.

(End of this chapter)