A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 294 You'll Regret This

"Fuck."

At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Witten sat at his desk, looking at a Chinese language test paper he had downloaded from the internet, and couldn't help but swear.

Over the course of three days, he memorized 2000 commonly used characters day and night, and thought he had already achieved a certain level of proficiency in Chinese. So he wanted to test his current level of Chinese proficiency.

Unexpectedly, the first question stumped him.

The question is as follows:

Boss: "What do you mean by this?"

You: "It doesn't mean anything, it's just a token gesture."

Boss: "That's not very kind of you."

You: "No problem, no problem."

Boss: "You're a really interesting person."

You: "Actually, it didn't mean anything by it."

Boss: "Then I'm sorry."

You: "I'm the one who's embarrassed."

Now, please tell me the meaning of each sentence in the question.

Now Wei Teng is completely confused and finds learning Chinese very boring.

What infuriated him even more was that this set of questions was supposedly done by Chinese primary school students, meaning that his current Chinese language proficiency was even inferior to that of Chinese primary school students.

Angrily leaving his seat, Wei Teng left his desk. He finally decided to take a look at the paper first. As for learning Chinese, it seemed that it would not be something that could be accomplished overnight, and he could only take it slowly.

In the office, Wei Teng's students couldn't help but suppress their laughter when they saw him like this. They rarely saw their teacher looking so embarrassed, and thinking about how their teacher usually scolded them, they actually felt a little smug.

……

On the second floor of Princeton's Fein Building, Xu Pingfei looked at the classrooms that were full and felt very gratified.

As a Chinese mathematician, being able to stay and teach at Princeton after graduating with a PhD is undoubtedly a recognition of his abilities. However, it is clear that in Princeton, where there are many brilliant minds, he is just an unknown figure, especially since his area of ​​expertise is number theory.

When Chen Hui was still at Princeton, the classroom was always empty when he taught, but today the classroom was full of students because his lecture today was an analysis of Chen Hui's paper on the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.

At this moment, the advantages of being Chinese are clearly revealed.

"Okay, all the prerequisite knowledge has been covered. Next, we will begin explaining the main content of the paper."

After writing a series of formulas on the blackboard, Xu Pingfei faced the students and said with some excitement, "According to my understanding, Professor Chen has three important steps in the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis."

"Firstly, it utilizes noncommutative geometry to reconstruct the quantum fluctuations of prime numbers. Riemann's complex plane is a two-dimensional prison, while prime numbers breathe in infinite-dimensional space. The complex plane is an illusion from a low-dimensional perspective. The real battlefield is in the vast universe of von Neumann algebra."

“By treating each prime number p as a projection operator e_p of a type II_1 factor M, a prime quantum state space is constructed…”

As Xu Pingfei spoke, pointing to the formula on the blackboard, he suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye that several people had appeared at the back of the classroom. They were none other than Fefferman, the head of the Princeton Mathematics Department, Edward Witten, Deligne, and Bargava…

The big names from Princeton's math department actually came!

Because the classroom was already full, they stood at the back of the classroom, looking at Xu Pingfei explaining on the podium and the formulas on the blackboard. Their eyes were focused, just like elementary school students listening attentively.

Clearly, the fact that he was lecturing on Chen Hui's thesis in class had already reached the ears of these bigwigs.

Xu Pingfei had never experienced such a scene before, and he couldn't help but feel excited and his blood boil.

However, he quickly calmed down and continued explaining the paper.

But another thought suddenly arose in his mind: "Should I go back to my country?"

He came to Princeton to better study mathematics, but now, the center of mathematics seems to have shifted away from Princeton and back to China.

Or, to put it another way, wherever that person is, that's where the center of mathematics is.

……

Yuan Xinyi, who was in Beijing for a meeting, stopped by his teacher's office on his way to Yanbei University.

After discussing his latest research with Tian Yang for a while, he suddenly asked, "How's Xiao Hui's journal going?"

Tian Yang looked at Yuan Xinyi with a strange expression and said with a half-smile, "It's already been published, didn't you know?"

"Oh?"

What kind of publication is it?

Yuan Xinyi asked curiously, "We've just made some progress in our research these days, and everyone's been busy with it, so I haven't had a chance to pay attention yet."

"It's a quarterly journal with extremely high publication requirements. It's a fully Chinese-language journal, and currently only one paper has been published."

"what?"

"A journal entirely in Chinese, doesn't it have an English supplement?"

Yuan Xinyi frowned slightly. Chen Hui had told him that the purpose of publishing the journal was to enhance the influence of Chinese mathematicians in the international academic community. To achieve this goal, the journal's influence would naturally need to be as high as possible. And to enhance the journal's influence, it would naturally need an English supplement. Otherwise, Westerners would not understand it, so how could the citation rate be increased, and how could the impact factor be increased?
"No."

Tian Yang gave an affirmative answer without beating around the bush. He got up, went to his desk, picked up a stack of papers, and handed them to Yuan Xinyi, saying, "Take a look for yourself."

Although Chen Hui was the editor-in-chief and main creator of the journal, his papers were still reviewed before being published, and the reviewers were naturally Tian Yang, Terence Tao, and Qiu Chengwu.

A Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis!
Upon seeing the question written entirely in Chinese, Yuan Xinyi roughly understood what was going on and couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. Just how many surprises would his student bring him?

The proof of the Riemann Hypothesis was completed so quickly!

Ignoring everything else, Yuan Xinyi picked up the paper and began to study it intently. The fact that it was written entirely in Chinese made him feel very familiar with it.

"The explosion of curvature is the scream of geometry, the rigidity of KAM is the silence of topology—the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis blossoms in the gap between scream and silence..."

At this moment, Yuan Xinyi felt his mind was clearer than ever before. He never imagined that reading such cutting-edge research papers would give him such a refreshing feeling.

Time passed slowly, and two hours later, Yuan Xinyi put down his paper.

"finish watching?"

Tian Yang, who was enjoying his tea, asked in surprise.

Although Chen Hui's proof was very clear, it was not easy to understand. It took him an entire afternoon and evening to barely understand the whole proof. How could Yuan Xinyi only have two hours?
“Teacher, I suddenly realized that Xiaohui’s journal, besides enhancing the influence of Chinese mathematics in the international academic community, may also have other benefits for Chinese mathematicians.”

Yuan Xinyi gave an irrelevant answer: "There is such a big difference between reading papers written in one's native language and reading papers written entirely in English!"

This was something he hadn't considered before, because his English was also excellent, and he had no trouble reading any papers. In fact, he had even written more than one paper entirely in English. So he had always thought that there wasn't much difference between English and Chinese papers. But today he realized that was simply because he hadn't read any good Chinese papers.

Tian Yang exclaimed in surprise. He hadn't noticed the problem before, but after Yuan Xinyi reminded him, he realized it too.

"In that case, we must help him get this journal up and running, not only to run it well, but also to make it bigger and stronger."

Yuan Xinyi gave a wry smile, "There's not much we can do to help; it's up to Xiaohui himself."

"If Xiaohui publishes a proof of the Millennium Problem in the journal every year, the journal will be bound to become popular."

Now he has shifted his focus to applications, but there's not much he can really help with anymore.

Tian Yang chuckled, "Talented people emerge in every generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years. To find true heroes, look to the present!"

……

In the Penguin Building, on the 33rd floor of the office building, Fang Wen sat at his workstation, slacking off, scrolling through his WeChat Moments and news from various social media platforms, thoroughly enjoying himself.

After graduating with a master's degree, he found a job as an algorithm engineer. With his SCI paper, he actually got a job at Tencent. Of course, his own abilities were also quite good, otherwise he would have been eliminated long ago.

Now, the junior sister has also graduated, and both of them work at Tencent.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten his benefactor, so he had been keeping an eye on Chen Hui's news. He had just logged onto Weibo when he saw #ChenShenProvesTheRiemannHypothesis, #ChenShenFoundsAnAllChineseLanguageJournal, #TheWholeWorldIsSpeakingChinese...

Five or six of the top 10 trending topics were related to Chen Hui.

Upon clicking in, Fang Wen realized that what Chen Shen had done was even more ruthless than he had imagined.

The fact that Chen Shen proved the Riemann Hypothesis was already outrageous enough, but what was even more surprising was that he published the proof in a Chinese-language journal that he founded, a Chinese-language journal without an English supplement.

Fang Wen felt his blood boiling. Back when he was a student, he was tormented by English papers. At that time, he thought how wonderful it would be if all these papers were in Chinese. Did he never expect that day would finally come?
Although it's outrageous, it seems quite reasonable if this person is Chen Hui.

Fang Wen is not the only one or two people who share this sentiment; in fact, the Chinese journal founded by Chen Hui has generated more discussion than the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.

[Chen Shen is awesome!!! He solved a Millennium Problem in a year, I suggest we just lock up the solar system!! (doge)]

Holy crap, I think I can actually understand the paper proving the Riemann Hypothesis!

[My heart is breaking, everyone! #The whole world is speaking Chinese is trending! The Riemann Hypothesis was first published entirely in a Chinese journal. Will foreign scholars have to take the HSK exam to do math from now on? (doge)]

[Just one question: Does the editorial department hire a janitor? I'll bring my own rag; I just want to be the first to touch this journal!!]

I just want to know, does that mean we won't have to read English academic papers anymore?

[Thank you for the invitation. I'm a PhD student in the Mathematics Department at Yanbei University, currently in the lab, and I just finished reading a paper. Three things struck me: 1. A terminator of language hegemony: the journal has no English supplements, meaning Western academia will face a "Chinese listening comprehension test" even harder than the Riemann Hypothesis. 2. The academic center is shifting eastward in certainty. My classmate at Princeton told me that when Professor Xu Pingfei lectures, big names like Fefferman and Witten are forced to stand in the back row. This isn't cultural export; it's cultural demolition (laughs). 3. A revolution in research efficiency: I heard from social media that Professor Yuan Xinyi personally tested his ability to understand the Riemann Hypothesis in two hours. Fluency in a native-language paper is roughly equivalent to having a 5G chip installed in the brain. Finally, I suggest the journal be renamed: "Rebirth: Teaching Foreigners to Speak Chinese in a Top Journal!"]

What level of skill did Chen Hui demonstrate in this move?

[Skill level? I just want to kowtow to Chen Shen!]

[It has to be Chen Shen again. He's only been back in the country for a short time, and he's already given us a huge boost. No wonder he was brought back with a seventh-generation fighter jet. Chen Shen is worth it!]

I'm already looking forward to seeing what surprises Chen Shen will bring us next year.

The online discussion remained heated, with Chinese netizens collectively reaching a fever pitch. It seemed that every time Chen Hui produced a news story, they felt the same way: first disbelief, then gradual acceptance, and finally a sense of pride.

Now, they've even skipped the first two steps and gone straight to celebrating and partying.

[What's so great about it? It's just self-entertainment. Chen Shen is indeed amazing, but a journal can't be run by just one person. It requires the efforts of many brilliant mathematicians. Right now, the Chinese language barrier alone is shutting out the entire Western academic community. Such a journal has no future.]

Of course, many rational netizens are also worried about this, believing that Chen Hui is being overly ambitious.

However, such comments were quickly drowned out and even met with insults, which disappointed these netizens who considered themselves rational.

Not only Chinese netizens, but also Western netizens have had a heated discussion about this matter.

[Chen Hui publishes proof of the Riemann Hypothesis entirely in Chinese, with no English supplement in the journal!]

[Princeton is a place of magical reality today. My advisor (a Fields Medal winner) skipped a seminar to attend Xu Pingfei's lecture, and upon returning, he muttered, "So the complex plane is a two-dimensional prison..." Can anyone translate the meaning of this Chinese poem?]

Yes, I know you want to know who Xu Pingfei is. Let alone you, I'd never even heard of him before.

Dude, you should learn Chinese.

[I second that! I just saw a quote from the journal, 'Curvature explosion is the scream of geometry,' and the English translation suddenly feels bland and uninteresting.]

When language becomes the vehicle of thought, cultural codes become the ultimate academic barrier! Also, Weiteng asked me to buy him "Five-Year College Entrance Examination: International Edition" /doge

……

In the office of the head of the Southwest Institute of Physics of the Nuclear Industry, Liu Yong looked up from the swirling data and gazed at the elderly man before him. "Mr. E, what brings you here?"

"I've come to say goodbye."

Eweinan said with a radiant face, it didn't look like a farewell, but more like some happy occasion.

"bid farewell?"

"Are you encountering any difficulties?"

"You said the research institute would definitely find a way to help you solve this!"

Liu Yong said firmly that Professor E is now the top expert in the field of materials science in China, and their next plan needs talents like Professor E. He didn't want to let E Weinan leave no matter what.

E Weinan shook his head, "A friend extended an invitation to me, and I couldn't refuse."

"friend?"

"Old E, believe me, if you can make something of yourself in the end, it will definitely be the Southwest Institute of Physics of the Nuclear Industry!"

Liu Yong lured him with benefits.

Eweinan simply shook his head and smiled without saying a word.

He had thought so before, but if Chen Hui gets involved, then the nature of the matter changes.

"May I know who this friend of yours is?"

Seeing that E Weinan was determined to leave, Liu Yong asked.

"Chen Hui." E Weinan didn't hide anything. The circle of controlled nuclear fusion research in China is only so big; he would find out sooner or later.

"Chen Hui?" Liu Yong's forehead veins bulged, and he was furious. That kid had ruined his plans time and time again, he was truly despicable.

Watching E Weinan's departing figure, Liu Yong secretly made up his mind: Qian Lao, E Weinan, Song Yuntao... he would make these people regret it!

(End of this chapter)