From child prodigy to chief scientist

Chapter 120 Will You Keep This a Secret?

Schultz, standing to the side, was quite surprised by Xu Xiao. He had initially used the quantum group approach as well, but after realizing that this approach was difficult to calculate, he immediately began looking for a new one.

Just as he was about to try the Kaufman bracket approach, Xu Xiao had already completed the full proof.

"Is this... the true strength of this eleven-year-old Chinese math prodigy?"

Schultz had to admit that even though he respected Xu Xiao a great deal, he had actually underestimated his true strength.

This unusually ignited Schultz's competitive spirit, preparing him to adopt a stronger stance in the face of the upcoming challenges.

In the following period, several other contestants shared the problems they had thought of that they had not yet solved.

But every time, Xu Xiao is always the first to find a solution to the problem.

His performance earned him the complete respect of all his teammates.

You should know that those sitting here now are the most mathematically gifted young people in each country.

However, their mathematical abilities were clearly not on the same level as Xu Xiao's, and even understanding Xu Xiao's thought process was not easy for them.

"No wonder he was able to participate in the IMO at the age of eleven; Xu Xiao's mathematical talent is truly amazing."

"None of these problems that have stumped us for days have been able to hold Xu Xiao back for more than half an hour."

"Even eleven-year-old Terence Tao wasn't as good as Xu Xiao is now, was he?"

Compared to Xu Xiao, Schultz appears rather lackluster.

But Schultz was completely impressed by Xu Xiao, and having the opportunity to meet such a mathematical genius was a good thing for him.

After successfully answering these questions, Xu Xiao blinked her big eyes and looked expectantly at the team members.

Xu Xiao naturally cherished this kind of scenario where he could almost always obtain fragments of inspiration; it was a rare high-level opportunity.

To his disappointment, no one else raised any more questions of that high quality after that.

After all, many of these problems were the result of a long period of thought, and it would be difficult for them to come up with any particularly good solutions in a short period of time.

After everyone had finished discussing their questions, the team members gradually left the coffee corner.

Xu Xiao, Pan Hong, and Schultz weren't in a hurry to leave. Anyway, they didn't have much to do back home, and staying here was better than being cooped up in their rooms.

At this moment, Xu Xiao keenly noticed a detail.

During this period of time, Schultz did not raise any of his own questions; he was only thinking about other people's questions.

With Schultz's strong mathematical abilities, he is indeed not easily stumped by problems.

However, such mathematical geniuses are often also very good at asking questions, so they shouldn't be unable to come up with any interesting questions.

Xu Xiao guessed that Schultz, like himself, might have already studied his problem as an academic issue, and perhaps even submitted a paper.

Just then, Schultz suddenly said, "Xu Xiao, would it be convenient for us to talk alone?"

Xu Xiao seemed unprepared to receive such an invitation from Schultz.

Although he didn't know what Schultz wanted to talk to him about, Xu Xiao was certainly very willing to communicate with such a future Fields Medal winner.

Schultz clearly didn't want to bring Pan Hong along, which left Xu Xiao unsure how to explain it to her.

Pan Hong understood Schultz's words and immediately said, "I was just thinking of taking a walk downstairs, so I'll wait for you there."

Pan Hong is a very perceptive person, but considering Xu Xiao's safety, she still can't go back to the hotel alone first.

After Pan Hong went downstairs, Schultz led Xu Xiao to a semi-open rooftop terrace on the side of the main building.

"There aren't many people here usually; it's much quieter than the coffee shop area."

Feeling the wind caressing her face, Xu Xiao did indeed experience a comfortable sense of tranquility.

However, Xu Xiao also understood that Schultz had brought him here not just to see the scenery and enjoy the breeze.

Sure enough, after that, Schultz started talking about what happened at the coffee shop.

"Xu Xiao, what do you think of the issues we just discussed?"

"These are indeed some good questions, much more interesting than doing IM0 problems."

This is indeed Xu Xiao's true feeling. It is clear that these team members have a very rare talent in mathematics. At such a young age, they can already think of some basic scientific research problems.

The fact that she had gathered so many fragments of inspiration gave Xu Xiao a pleasant surprise.

During his time participating in the national math competition training camp, Xu Xiao had essentially extracted the full value from the IM0 problems.

too much.

Even if you use unconventional methods to solve IM0 problems, you will likely find that similar methods have already been used, and you will not be able to get any more inspiration.

But these team members had incredibly creative ideas, which provided Xu Xiao with the opportunity to collect fragments of inspiration.

"Yes, you're right, that's why I really enjoy coming to the coffee corner."

At this point, Schultz suddenly changed the subject.

"But in the end, these are not real academic issues; at most, they are just the prototypes of some academic issues."

This is why Schultz was willing to discuss these issues with them without reservation; he was simply using such occasions to further hone his mathematical skills.

In any case, these issues don't reach the level of real academic research topics. We can discuss solutions together, and it won't involve the privacy of the research results.

With Schultz's abilities, given enough time, he would be perfectly capable of solving those problems, just not as quickly as Xu Xiao.

"Yes, I completely agree. If we want to make this an academic topic, we need to continue to improve both the depth and breadth of the questions."

Having published a paper and participated in three academic projects, Xu Xiao has a certain right to speak on this matter.

It's no exaggeration to say that even if you put all those questions together, they still fall short of being an academic research topic.

After hesitating for a moment, Schultz continued, "Xu Xiao, if you're willing to keep this a secret, I can share some more interesting questions with you."

Hearing Schultz say this, Xu Xiao suddenly became quite excited.

In fact, he had already guessed that Schultz was probably hiding something more complicated in his mind.