The night before the college entrance exam results were released, I redeemed my Peking University ad

An hour later, at 8:00 AM, the official account of the Chinese Mathematicians Association simultaneously released another formal statement in white text on a blue background across all platforms.

Following his proof of Goldbach's Conjecture, my country's brilliant mathematician Ji Bai completed a full proof of the Collatz Conjecture early this morning.

After being verified overnight by several academicians and number theory experts organized by the Chinese Mathematical Association, the proof was found to be logically rigorous, ingeniously constructed, and without any substantial flaws.

The Chinese Mathematical Association has once again extended a formal invitation to the global mathematics community: We cordially invite top international number theory experts to come to the capital of China to participate in the "International Academic Conference on the Proof of Goldbach's Conjecture and the Collatz Conjecture".

The simultaneous breakthroughs in two world-class mathematical problems are a shared treasure of human wisdom! China is willing to witness this historic moment with mathematicians worldwide, adopting an open and sincere academic attitude.

The message caused an uproar across the internet.

"What? The real evidence is out?"

I haven't even recovered from the shock of Goldbach's Conjecture, and you've given me another one? Ji Bai, are you even human?!

"Another official statement has been released!!! An invitation has been extended to the world once again!!!"

"Let's see if they come this time!"

"These are two world-class achievements!"

"Wait a minute, do you think Ji Bai might be trying to attract international mathematicians?"

"You mean, Ji Bai is using this method to put pressure on the International Mathematical Union?"

"Not coming? Then I'll force you to come!"

"One isn't enough? Then we'll have two!"

"hiss!!!"

"One sword cleaves the heavens, two swords settle the universe!!"

"This is awesome! Didn't you say you weren't coming? Didn't you say you were so high and mighty? Let's see if you'll actually come this time!"

"I'm already looking forward to IMU's response! Hahahaha!"

"Where are the people who said Ji Bai acted impulsively? Come out and apologize! He was playing a long game!"

Everyone is waiting.

How will the prestigious International Mathematical Union respond to this second move?

. . .

Meanwhile, the international mathematics community...

Princeton University, Vane Building, Mathematics Department Lounge.

Professor White Anderson had just sat down on the sofa with his coffee, ready to enjoy his daily 10 a.m. coffee break of fifteen minutes, when his colleague Stephen Warren pushed open the door and walked in.

"Hey White, I'll tell you a joke."

White didn't even look up, continuing to stir his coffee: "Oh, Stephen, please stop telling me your old jokes about physicists walking into bars."

"I told my wife the joke about Schrödinger's cat going into a bar and then not going into a bar last week, and she didn't talk to me for three days."

"Oh no, no, no, White, listen to me, I promise, this is a freshly baked, still-hot joke, absolutely hilarious."

White sighed, put down his coffee cup, and made a "begin your performance" gesture.

"White, do you know?"

Stephen pulled up a chair and sat down, deliberately lowering his voice as if he were sharing top-secret information.

Yesterday, the Chinese mathematics community officially announced that they had proven Goldbach's Conjecture.

White raised an eyebrow.

This opening remark was indeed unexpected, but he didn't laugh.

"Stephen, I don't find this funny! The Chinese mathematics community has made rapid progress in recent years. If they really proved Goldbach's conjecture, it would be surprising, but not entirely unimaginable. I will read their preprint."

"No, no, Mr. White, I haven't finished yet."

Stephen raised a finger, his suppressed laughter almost bursting out, his lips twitching as if someone were tickling his armpit, which reeked of strong body odor.

"Of course I know that the Chinese mathematics community is making rapid progress, but they actually announced that it was proven by an 18-year-old high school student!"

"What? My God! Have the Chinese gone mad?"

White's voice rose a full octave, prompting several graduate students passing by in the corridor to peek inside.

"An 18-year-old high school student? Prove Goldbach's Conjecture? Are they crazy?"

"Right? I think this is hilarious, isn't it?"

Stephen finally couldn't hold back his laughter and leaned back in his chair, laughing so hard he slapped his thigh.

"The most exciting part was yet to come. They even wanted to hold an international verification conference and formally invite IMU to send experts to China to participate, but IMU directly refused."

"The Chinese people have really lost face this time!"

"Indeed! IMU finally did something decent."

White took a sip of coffee. Although he didn't have any prejudice against China, it didn't mean he was willing to attend a verification conference for an eighteen-year-old high school student.

"By the way, Steven, have you seen the preprint they released?"

"Please, White, who's going to look at an 18-year-old kid's doodles?"

"That's true!"

"These mere high school students from China actually dare to dream of holding a world-class verification conference?"

"Hahahaha, that's hilarious!"

……

The same scene is playing out at all the world's top universities.

In the hallway of Harvard University's mathematics department, several professors were chatting and telling this story as a joke:

"Have you heard? A genius boy has emerged in China, proving Goethe's predictions wrong at eighteen!"

"Hahaha, I saw the news yesterday and almost burst out laughing."

"Do they think Goldbach's Conjecture is a high school math problem? That they can just write something down and prove it?"

"I bet a hundred dollars that the preprint didn't even use the basic screening methods correctly."

"What's so interesting? At the ICM conference, we can just pick a couple of loopholes and he'll be crying as he leaves the stage."

Oxford, Cambridge, MIT...

Nobody in the entire Western mathematics community took this seriously.

In their eyes, this was nothing more than a self-directed and self-acted academic farce in China, a joke used for hype.

……

Even some Chinese students studying abroad felt their faces burning with embarrassment, as if they had been slapped in public.

Someone posted a screenshot in an international student group with the caption, "I didn't dare to make eye contact with my foreign colleagues in the lab today."

Some even took to social media to criticize:

"What are they doing domestically? Can they please stop embarrassing themselves on the international stage?"

"Do you know how it felt when someone at school asked me to my face today, 'Is there a high school student in China who passed the Gold Seal exam?'"

"How shameful! So shameful! Now the whole world is laughing at us."

"Please, stop bragging and shut up. We overseas people are getting slapped in the face by our own people."

"Can't we do something about this academic fraud? Foreigners are even looking at us differently now!"

"If you really want to pursue academic research, you have to come abroad!"

"It seems my decision to go abroad was absolutely the right one!"

……

Just when everyone was treating this as a joke and the ridicule was overwhelming.

An even more explosive piece of news has arrived!

China issued a statement announcing that they have proven the Kolas conjecture!