Chapter 169 - 165: He Should Be a Little More Awesome
The next afternoon, in a men’s dormitory at Zhejiang University.
"We weren’t supposed to have any classes this afternoon! Damn it, why’d they suddenly spring a public lecture on us? And make it mandatory for everyone to attend?"
A guy in flip-flops complained to the other three people in the dorm room, stuffing a piece of bread into his mouth as he spoke.
His name was Zhao Lei, a junior in the School of Mathematics.
For someone who was supposed to be enjoying a Tuesday afternoon playing a couple of rounds of video games, this sudden, mandatory lecture was a bolt from the blue.
"I know, right? What does a lecture on analytic number theory have to do with us?"
"I haven’t even taken the analytic number theory elective yet."
Another guy, Ma Wenjie, chimed in.
After speaking, Ma Wenjie turned to the tall, thin guy by the window, who was putting on a jacket.
"Guan Yi, do you have any idea who this Li Dong guy is?"
Guan Yi was the only one of the four roommates who had already secured a spot in a direct Ph.D. program.
Although the Zhejiang University School of Mathematical Sciences was one of the top math departments in the country, not every student kept up with the latest developments in top-tier international journals.
Especially not juniors.
Their concerns were a bit more down-to-earth.
For instance, how many spots were there for admission to the graduate program without taking the entrance exam?
Had any of the official questions for the Math I postgraduate entrance exam been leaked?
After graduation, which tech giant could they go work for and make over twenty thousand a month?
These were the things they were most anxious about.
As for analytic number theory and top-tier journals...
That stuff felt further away from them than the moon from the Zijingang Campus.
Guan Yi nodded.
"A freshman from Yan University."
The dorm room fell silent for half a second.
Then, the other three exploded in an uproar, almost in unison.
"Wait, what? A freshman?"
"A freshman is giving *us* a public lecture? Who is this guy?"
Guan Yi replied without turning around.
"’A New Dimension-Reduction Algorithm for Multipoint Evaluation of the Riemann Zeta Function on the Critical Line.’ He’s the first author."
He thought for a moment, then added.
"And also, ’Proof of Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association in the Interval |α|∈[0, 4].’ That was him, too."
The expressions on his three roommates’ faces were a sight to behold.
They were completely lost just hearing the paper titles.
At the Zhejiang University School of Mathematics, analytic number theory courses were electives for juniors and seniors.
They might have vaguely heard of the Riemann Zeta function, since the Riemann Hypothesis is incredibly famous—like the Goldbach Conjecture, it’s one of those things with a well-known name that 99% of people don’t actually understand.
But Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association?
That definitely had a higher barrier to entry.
Ninety percent of third-year math students, even those at Zhejiang University, had likely never heard of it.
Or if they had, they had no understanding of what it actually meant.
Guan Yi didn’t bother waiting to see if they understood. He just opened the door and headed out.
"Hurry up. He’s lecturing to graduate students today. We need to try and get good seats, otherwise there won’t even be any standing room left."
The other three were even more bewildered. They knew the school had required them to attend, but they had no idea they were essentially crashing a lecture for grad students.
A freshman lecturing grad students?
What kind of bizarre setup was this?
Zhao Lei jogged a few steps to catch up to Guan Yi and asked in a low voice.
"Hey, Guan Yi... between you and this Li Dong, who’s more impressive?"
Guan Yi, walking ahead, faltered for a moment.
He thought for a moment before saying, a little uncertainly.
"We’re not in the same field, so it’s hard to compare. But... he’s probably a little more impressive."
The three roommates behind him froze.
Coming from Guan Yi, those words carried extraordinary weight.
After all, who was Guan Yi?
Last year, this quiet, taciturn young man had published a paper on the convergence of curvature flow in the *Duke Mathematical Journal* as the first author.
The *Duke Mathematical Journal*.
In the mathematics world, it was considered a "near-top-tier" journal, just a notch below the "Big Four."
Most mathematics professors in the country couldn’t necessarily publish a first-author paper in such a journal.
But Guan Yi had.
And he was only a junior.
His advisor was Professor Xu Hongwei of the Zhejiang University School of Mathematical Sciences.
Professor Xu Hongwei was a leading authority in the domestic fields of the Differentiable Sphere Theorem and curvature estimation, as well as one of the most senior professors in the Zhejiang University School of Mathematics.
Guan Yi was his student and had entered the direct Ph.D. program under his supervision.
What did it mean to be a junior at the Zhejiang University School of Mathematics who had already secured a direct Ph.D. track and published a first-author paper in the *Duke Mathematical Journal*?
It meant you were the undisputed "ceiling"—the absolute best—of your class.
And now, this "ceiling" had personally admitted that Li Dong was "a little more impressive."
The three roommates looked at each other, not daring to say another word.
...
When they arrived at the International Conference Hall in the Mong Man Wai Building.
The hall’s several hundred seats were almost completely full, with people even standing in the side aisles.
Guan Yi even spotted several Ph.D. students and junior faculty members he rarely saw around the school.
He had assumed that, aside from the undergraduates who were forced to be there, not many people would have voluntarily come to a public lecture on analytic number theory.
Analytic number theory was considered a niche subject, even within the math department itself.
But this turnout...
He was starting to have his doubts.
’Has analytic number theory suddenly become a hot topic?’
In reality, Guan Yi was overthinking it.
At least a third of the audience was there for the spectacle: "A Yan University Freshman Lecturing Grad Students at Zhejiang University."
The world of academia is its own society, and where there’s a society, there’s always a good show to watch.
Seeing that there were no seats left, Guan Yi was about to find a place to squeeze into in an aisle.
Just then, a girl with a ponytail stood up from her seat in the third row and waved to him.
"Guan Yi! Over here!"
There was an empty seat next to her, a backpack saving the spot.
Guan Yi made his way through the crowd, feeling the envious glares of his three roommates on his back.
Of course, his roommates’ envy wasn’t because he had a good seat for the lecture—they weren’t interested in that anyway.
"That lucky bastard actually gets to sit down and listen!"
"I wish I had a grad student girlfriend, too!"
After sitting down, Guan Yi said to the girl.
"Senior Sister Lin, thank you."
Lin Xue waved a hand dismissively, her tone casual.
"Oh, it’s no big deal. You just focus on the lecture."
"Honestly, me being here is kind of a waste of a seat."
"I seriously can’t understand a single word of this analytic number theory stuff."
"If you hadn’t tutored me, I’m not even sure I would have gotten into grad school."
Lin Xue was a first-year graduate student in the School of Mathematics. She had nearly failed Advanced Algebra on her entrance exam, but Guan Yi had tutored her for two months straight, allowing her to just barely make the cut.
Guan Yi gave a slight nod.
"Senior Sister Lin, I can explain it to you after the lecture."
"Okay."
Lin Xue nodded noncommittally, thinking to herself.
’I’m after your body, not your brain.’
As they spoke, they didn’t notice that in the front row, Professor Cai Tianxin had turned to his side and was speaking with a chuckle to Professor Xu Hongwei.
"Old Xu, your disciple seems quite confident."
Xu Hongwei’s face was grim.
He ignored Cai Tianxin.
’That kid may be quiet,’ he thought, ’but he’s got a proud heart.’
But then again...
He glanced at the lecture abstract in his hand.
It read: Li Dong, Yan University, Freshman.
Sigh.
Xu Hongwei sighed internally.
Guan Yi was truly his most prized disciple. Publishing a first-author paper in the *Duke Mathematical Journal* as a junior was a vanishingly rare achievement in the history of the Zhejiang University School of Mathematics.
And yet...
The person about to take the stage today was Li Dong...
Others might not know, but he did. He had heard that three of the "Big Four" journals were currently fighting over Li Dong’s paper.
And while Guan Yi’s publication in the *Duke Mathematical Journal* was also top-tier, it was still a notch below the Big Four.
Xu Hongwei wasn’t jealous. His heart simply ached for his student.
Guan Yi was incredibly proud. He hadn’t come today just to listen to a lecture.
"I hope the kid doesn’t take this too hard."
Just then, a young man of about twenty walked in through the conference hall’s main entrance.
He was dressed simply in a dark blue hoodie, jeans, and white sneakers.
But as he walked onto the stage and faced the hundreds of pairs of eyes in the audience, his expression held not a trace of nervousness.
He looked out at the sea of faces below, smiled faintly, and began to speak.
"Hi, everyone. I’m Li Dong."