Chapter 137 - 135: Immortals Meditate, Mortals Retreat
Shuimu University, Meng Minwei Music Hall.
The award ceremony for the Qiu Chengtong Middle School Science Award was being held here.
There was no suspense.
When the award presenter announced the winner of the Gold Medal in the physics category, the audience erupted in thunderous applause.
Even when the highest honor of the competition—the Highest Interdisciplinary Award—was finally revealed, that same name still firmly occupied the center position on the big screen.
Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, Li Dong.
By riding on his coattails in this incredibly successful endeavor, Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School had become legendary overnight, officially joining the ranks of Huaxia’s top "super" middle schools.
And at that moment, the silver medalist standing next to Li Dong to receive his award was, once again, the familiar Qiao the Second.
This young genius, who was treasured and revered by Rongcheng Seventh Middle School, seemed as if his soul had completely detached from his body.
The light had gone out of his eyes.
He just couldn’t understand. His project on Faraday waves and pilot waves had explored such profound theoretical depths, so why had he still lost to Li Dong?
’I must have missed something...’
Qiao Fan clenched the silver medal in his hand and made a silent vow.
Once the organizing committee published the papers for all the winning projects, he would study Li Dong’s "Hysteresis Loop" model, word by word!
He turned his head and glanced at the absent-minded Li Dong beside him.
’I’m going to Yan University in the future, too!’
Li Dong didn’t care what Qiao Fan was thinking. In fact, he hardly cared about the gold medal or even the Highest Interdisciplinary Award.
For him, the greatest gain over the past two days was having the chance to ask Mr. Qiu Chengtong and Professor Su Qiwang some questions about mathematics.
Just a few casual words of guidance from the two top international masters of mathematics gave him a feeling of sudden enlightenment.
After the award ceremony, Professor Gao Yunfeng from Shuimu University had wanted to come over and chat with Li Dong for a bit.
But before he could make a move, he felt a chill run down his spine.
He turned to see Academician Gao Yuanlin, the Dean of the Yan University School of Physics, glaring daggers at him.
Professor Gao could only clear his throat twice and retreat.
Only then did Academician Gao Yuanlin walk over, pat Li Dong on the shoulder, and say in a kindly tone,
"Li Dong, you did well. Let’s find some time for a proper chat after we get back."
That night, after the award ceremony ended, Elder Chen booked a flight back to Jiangcheng for the next day.
Li Dong offered to see him off the next day, but the old man refused.
"See me off? What for! Your job right now is to study hard at Yan University! Don’t you dare embarrass me later!"
Elder Chen stood with his hands behind his back, his tone stern, but his eyes were filled with relief and pride.
...
By the time everything was over and Li Dong returned to his dorm, it was already nighttime.
The three beasts in his dorm were all there.
"Yo, Brother Dong is back?" Wang Hao said, putting down his book.
"How was that Qiu Prize thing? Was it fun?"
Li Dong nodded, feigning composure.
"Mm, it was alright. I just casually picked up the gold medal for the physics category and grabbed the highest interdisciplinary award while I was at it."
He had expected this humblebrag to be met with a chorus of "holy shits" and utter worship from his roommates.
However...
"Oh," Wang Hao nodded, then went back to his book.
"Oh." Liu Qiang turned a page in his Real-Valued Function notes.
"Oh." Chen Nan didn’t even look up.
Li Dong: "..."
’Seriously, that’s your only reaction?!’
But after a moment’s thought, Li Dong let it go.
These three beasts just had way too high of a threshold for shock nowadays.
His attempt to show off having failed, Li Dong sighed and sat down in front of his mobile workstation.
He’d been so busy with the competition that he hadn’t paid much attention to his non-trivial zero verification program for the past two days.
He opened the console window.
One glance was all it took for Li Dong to freeze on the spot.
[Verified Zeros: 9,999,999,999,999,999,999...]
[Verified Zeros: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000...]
He counted the digits: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands...
to the 19th power!
And it had only been five days!
He knew that the team who had pushed his dimension reduction algorithm to its furthest limit so far was Jiang Yubai’s team from Capital University.
They had used a supercomputer cluster and run it for over half a month, and they had only just barely reached 2 x 10^17!
Yet he had already broken past 10^19!
Version 2.0 of this algorithm was terrifyingly powerful.
Li Dong quickly checked the data distribution of these non-trivial zeros.
Just then, the phone on his desk began to vibrate, much more urgently than usual.
Li Dong quickly picked up his phone and opened WeChat.
The "Cyan Dragon Study Group" chat he had pinned to the top was blinking, alternating between gray and white.
He hurriedly tapped into the group chat, but there were no chat records or group notifications.
’The previous message history is gone, too?’
Then he opened the member list, and his pupils contracted.
In the group member list, aside from Isaac Newton’s profile picture, which was still lit up, the profile pictures of all the other greats had turned gray!
Before Li Dong could even wonder why, he saw the text next to his own profile picture.
[Group Leader] And the word "(Intern)" that used to be next to it had disappeared.
’So my permissions have been upgraded? How come there wasn’t even a group notification?’
Li Dong quickly tapped the group functions button.
To his slight disappointment, the two advanced function icons, [File Transfer] and [Data Migration], were still locked.
However, a new section had appeared at the very bottom of the panel.
It showed that there were two unread messages.
He tapped to open them and saw they were two "group join requests"!
But the applicants’ IDs were completely garbled and censored, making it impossible to see who they were.
He subconsciously tried to tap the [Accept] button.
But, just like the grayed-out profile pictures in the group, the button didn’t respond no matter how many times he tapped it.
Li Dong returned to the main interface and once again looked closely at the blank space next to his title.
It turned out the word "(Intern)" hadn’t completely disappeared.
It had just faded until it was nearly transparent.
’No... something’s not right!’
Li Dong began to reason through it in his mind. His 0.3 Logic attribute allowed him to instantly grasp the blind spot.
’It didn’t happen sooner, it didn’t happen later. The group’s status only changed the moment the non-trivial zero data reached 10^19.’
’It must be related to this!’
’What’s the point of calculating all these non-trivial zeros, anyway?’
All of Li Dong’s attributes were currently at 0.3, completely maxed out.
He stared at the screen and began to observe the data of the non-trivial zeros.
"14.134725..."
"21.022039..."
"25.010857..."
"30.424876..."
...
Li Dong suddenly paused.
He stared intently at the spacing between adjacent zeros, feeling as if he had just discovered some incredibly staggering mathematical pattern!
But the feeling was like looking through a pane of frosted glass; no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn’t see it clearly.
Still, he had a strong premonition.
This thing was extremely important!
’I can’t, I can’t let this go!’
Without hesitation, Li Dong opened WeChat and navigated to the card pack in his wallet.
[Isaac Newton’s Exclusive Red Packet: Concentration +1]
’Use!’
As he used the red packet, Li Dong felt everything around him rapidly recede. The sound of his roommates turning pages as they studied and the whistling of the wind outside vanished in an instant.
In his world, only the massive amount of non-trivial zero data before him remained!
The numbers flooded into his mind, and he began to calculate at lightning speed.
But... his progress was slow.
’No, no, an hour isn’t nearly enough!’
In his current state, it was as if he were possessed by Newton himself.
Since he didn’t have enough time to derive a complete mathematical proof, he immediately thought of the most efficient solution.
He would first brute-force memorize all the patterns of these zeros!
Newton’s "Concentration +1" trial card came with all of Newton’s top-tier auras, infinitely amplifying his original 0.3 Memory Attribute.
He frantically imprinted the mathematical truths hidden deep within the data up to 10^19.
...
Time passed unknowingly.
In the dorm, Wang Hao, Liu Qiang, and Chen Nan had just finished an intense study session for their major courses and were getting ready to wash up and rest.
"Let me tell you, the homology group they covered in topology today was so beautiful..." Liu Qiang said excitedly.
Wang Hao looked at him with disdain.
"Give me a break. Real-Valued Function is the real truth. The Lebesgue integral is so much more elegant..."
As the three chatted animatedly, they suddenly noticed Li Dong sitting motionless in front of his computer.
"Brother Dong?" Wang Hao called out.
Li Dong didn’t react at all.
The three of them exchanged a look, seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes.
"Don’t you think... Brother Dong’s concentration is... a little too intense?" Chen Nan said in a hushed voice.
"No kidding. We get pretty absorbed when we’re focused, but I feel like Brother Dong right now... is like he’s cultivating immortality or something."
Liu Qiang muttered under his breath.
"Best not to mess with him. When an immortal meditates, mortals should keep their distance," Wang Hao said with a shrug.
Taking the hint, the three of them quieted their movements, finished washing up, read for a little while, and then went to bed.
When the morning sun shone into the dorm the next day, Wang Hao yawned, rubbed his eyes, and climbed out of bed.
He habitually glanced down.
"Holy shit!"
Li Dong was still sitting there! And he was holding a pen, frantically writing something on a piece of scratch paper!
Wang Hao couldn’t help but call out.
"Brother Dong?"
Li Dong slowly turned his head.
His face was a little pale, but his eyes were astonishingly bright.
He looked at Wang Hao and said, his voice a bit hoarse,
"Haozi, help me call in sick for class, and bring me back some food."
Wang Hao froze for a second, then nodded repeatedly.
"Okay... Okay!"
He didn’t ask any questions. From Li Dong’s current state, it didn’t look like he was sick. Instead, it seemed like he’d stumbled upon something exciting and was in a state of frenzied academic euphoria.
Wang Hao quickly got ready, ran to find their counselor, and told him that Li Dong needed to be excused from class.
The counselor asked for the reason, and Wang Hao said he didn’t know.
The counselor then asked how long he’d be out, and Wang Hao still said he didn’t know.
Just then, their class advisor, Professor Zhou Qifeng, happened to be passing by.
After hearing Wang Hao’s description, Professor Zhou frowned.
"Let’s go. Take me to your dorm."
The two of them hurried to Dorm 404.
Li Dong didn’t even notice them enter, his attention still completely fixed on the scratch paper in front of him.
Professor Zhou walked up behind him and asked,
"Li Dong, why are you asking for leave? And for how long?"
Seeing that it was Professor Zhou, Li Dong answered, his gaze still somewhat unfocused.
"Ah... I don’t know. I’m thinking about something and I haven’t figured it out yet."
Professor Zhou glanced at the A4-sized scratch paper next to Li Dong, which was already covered in dense writing.
And then he realized he couldn’t understand any of it...
But he naturally recognized the symbols—they were mathematical formulas.
Professor Zhou had seen all sorts of geniuses and knew that they entered this kind of absorbed, fugue-like state when inspiration suddenly struck.
And it was obvious that Li Dong was in exactly that situation right now.
Professor Zhou immediately backed out of the dorm room.
He walked into the hallway and directly called Liu Ruochuan, the Dean of the School of Mathematics.
As it happened, Liu Ruochuan was also on campus today. As soon as he heard about the situation, he rushed over without even finishing his breakfast.
Liu Ruochuan pushed open the dorm room door, and upon seeing Li Dong’s state, he wasn’t surprised at all.
In his youth, he had also experienced moments like this, staying up for days and nights over a single mathematical conjecture.
He didn’t speak, because he understood. He was afraid of interrupting Li Dong’s fragile and precious inspiration.
He just walked over quietly and took a brief look at what was on Li Dong’s scratch paper.
On the paper was a line with the formula for a pair correlation distribution function:
- [sin(πu)/(πu)]^2
Looking at this formula, Liu Ruochuan froze, then said in a daze,
"Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association?"