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

A luxurious single-level apartment.

Night fell through the floor-to-ceiling windows, beyond which stretched the dazzling skyline of Beijing, with the lights of countless homes flickering in the distance.

But only one floor lamp was lit in this spacious living room, casting a warm yellow glow on the sofa area and shrouding everything in darkness.

Su Wan leaned back on the sofa, wearing a silk T-shirt with a very drapey feel. The hem of the shirt hung casually on her sides, and her two slender legs were crossed and rested on the edge of the coffee table.

His brows furrowed tightly.

"How could this be..." Su Wan muttered to herself.

Ji Bai completely deciphered all the arrangements on site.

Chandelier, microphone, steps, chalk...

Seemingly unintentional, yet it precisely located every spot.

It's like... there's a mole among your own people!

When this thought popped into her head, Su Wan's fingers paused slightly.

The people around her are all carefully selected, and each of them has something on her. Her control over people is known for being watertight in this industry.

But at this moment, she felt an extremely unfamiliar unease for the first time.

It's not the anger of being defeated by an opponent, but the feeling that even though you've set a trap in the dark, there's always a pair of eyes watching you from a higher place.

"Could there really be a terrifying force behind Ji Bai?"

Su Wan muttered to herself, another bit of cigarette ash falling.

Then she shook her head.

No.

She had looked into Ji Bai.

His parents died, and his grandparents passed away on the same day three years ago. His second uncle and aunt extorted all his property, leaving him only a dilapidated old house in Fucheng.

He spent three years at the worst high school in the city, No. 99 Middle School, and only scored a little over 300 points in the mock exam a month before the college entrance examination.

His social relationships were shockingly simple: a homeroom teacher, a principal, and a few teachers who had taught him but hadn't really interacted with him.

Such a person cannot possibly have any powerful backing.

But it was precisely because he had nothing that she found him even more terrifying.

A person, with no background and no resources, just appeared out of nowhere and turned the world's mathematics community upside down in just a few days.

You either win him over, or you destroy him completely.

Su Wan stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray, picked up her phone, and dialed a number.

The phone rang twice before I answered.

"All my setup here is ineffective."

There was a moment of silence on the other end, as if they were processing the weight of those words.

Su Wan didn't wait for his response, but continued speaking:

"Oh, I almost forgot, you should have been there at the time, right, Vice Chairman Zhou?"

The person on the other end of the phone was Academician Zhou, the vice president of the Chinese Mathematical Association.

There was a long silence on the phone.

Then he slowly uttered two words: "Useless!"

Su Wan smiled.

There was no anger, no rebuttal, but instead a meaningful smile.

She leaned back on the sofa, holding her phone between her shoulder and freeing her hand to light another cigarette.

The light from the lighter illuminated the smile on her lips, a smile that contained self-mockery, coldness, and an indescribable meaning.

"Then... shall I show you, Vice Chairman Zhou, your skills?"

"Beep beep..."

The other end of the phone hung up immediately.

Su Wan tossed her phone onto the sofa, exhaled a long puff of smoke, and the smile on her lips lingered.

Although some unexpected things happened, she still had a backup plan.

She never puts all her eggs in one basket.

Vice Chairman Zhou is just one of the lazybones... a mere scapegoat!

"Ji Bai, you have no idea what you're about to face!"

Su Wan picked up her phone and dialed another number.

This time, however, he spoke fluent English.

……

Beijing Hotel.

Besides Ji Bai, all the foreign scholars who had just arrived in China were also arranged to stay here.

It has a superior geographical location.

At this moment, in an executive suite.

Charles, the Secretary General of IMU, and several blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners gathered together.

Night had fallen, and outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the traffic on Chang'an Avenue stretched out in golden ribbons, but the people inside had no mood to appreciate the night view.

Four preprints lay on the coffee table, each one worn and frayed from being turned over so many times, with the blank spaces filled with annotations.

"The verification conference is tomorrow."

Charles broke the silence first.

He leaned back on the armrest of the single sofa, his suit jacket draped over the back of the chair, his tie half-loose, completely lacking the composed demeanor he usually displayed when meeting at IMU headquarters.

"These past few days I've read Ji Bai's four proofs over and over again, going through each one line by line, trying to find even the slightest logical flaw."

"But... to be honest, I haven't found one where every step fits perfectly and every structure is just right."

"God, I have to admit, that Chinese boy really proved it."

An elderly man with white hair next to him sighed and nodded: "God is my witness, I initially thought it was an academic hoax, but after seeing the proof, I can't find any flaws. Eighteen years old... it's unbelievable!"

"Proving something is one thing, but whether it can stand firm is another." Another scholar with a hooked nose raised his eyes, his gaze carrying the pride of a veteran scholar.

"We can't let him finish speaking for five days easily, walk off the podium in glory, like a triumphant hero."

"So, are we all flying here just to be spectators?"

After these words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

The reason is very simple.

The validation conference is never a one-way presentation of results, but a collective examination by peers around the world.

If you can verify the correctness of a paper by reading it at home, then why travel thousands of miles to gather together?

It's about asking questions, challenging, and making things difficult.

Only by withstanding the relentless questioning from the world's top minds will your achievements be truly recognized.

It's not just your paper that's recognized, but also you as a person, and that you deserve this honor.

This is a century-old tradition in academia, and also the last pride of Western academia.

They can acknowledge the achievements, but they absolutely cannot allow an eighteen-year-old Chinese boy to stand at the top of the world without any setbacks.

"I've looked at the conference schedule." Charles tapped the schedule with his fingertips.

"For the first four days, he explained the proof ideas for the four major conjectures. We asked questions according to the procedure and did not make things difficult for him."

"The last day is for scholars from around the world to freely review and answer questions. This day is our opportunity."

Their idea was actually quite simple: to find an extremely difficult question and, in the manner of a student seeking knowledge, ask Ji Bai for help in solving it on the spot.

You're so amazing! I have a question I can't answer, so I'm asking you. You won't be angry, will you?

Of course, this question shouldn't be too difficult.

If you bring up the Riemann Hypothesis, then who can prove it?

This is the same principle as the questions posed at the last High Intellectual Alliance event.

In short, we can't let you just casually walk off the stage.

Your flawless golden body must be broken!

Even if you've proven the four world-class mathematical problems, there will still be some you can't solve!

You are not omnipotent!

A few foreigners were whispering in the suite, wondering what kind of question they could use to break Ji Bai's impeccable golden body!

"Got it, guys, what do you think of this problem...?"