Chapter 325 - 283: Public Lecture at Fudan University (3)
The original poster had only dropped a single, simple bombshell, and it was followed by a long, dense chain of replies.
"Wow! East God is finally coming."
"When Professor Wiles came to Huaxia a while back, I made a special trip to Yan University to attend his lecture."
"When East God walked past me, he even patted me on the shoulder!"
"The poster above is full of it, right?"
"I’m not! It’s true!"
"Which department is handling the reception this time?"
"I heard it’s a joint reception by the School of Mathematics and the School of Physics, with Academician Shen personally taking the lead."
"A public lecture? What topic will he be covering?"
"It’s got to be on the Langlands program, right?"
"Sigh, it would’ve been great if they could’ve gotten Professor Wiles... Li Dong still feels like he’s lacking something."
The moment this reply appeared, the comments below it exploded.
"Do you even know what you’re saying?"
"The poster above is obviously not in the math field. You really have no idea what East God’s status is in the world of mathematics, do you?"
"That Li Clan Conjecture he put out there... I heard through the grapevine that the Clay Mathematics Institute is already preparing to add his conjecture to the new list of prize problems."
"And you’re here telling me he’s ’lacking’?"
"If you don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t come to the math forum to stir up trouble."
The replies under the post piled up past the 300th comment.
...
「The next morning.」
「The entrance to Fudan University.」
A minibus bearing the Fudan University emblem came to a steady stop in front of Li Dong’s hotel.
When Li Dong came downstairs, he saw the vehicle’s door was already open.
The person who came to pick him up was an administrative director from the Fudan University School of Mathematics, and he was incredibly polite.
"Thank you for making the journey, Teacher Li Dong."
Li Dong silently grumbled to himself.
’He called me Teacher?’
He calculated his own age.
’I’m only nineteen.’
This director looked to be in his late thirties, old enough to be *his* teacher.
But since the man was being so courteous, he could only reply in kind.
"Hello, Director. Thank you for coming to pick me up."
The minibus started up.
「Half an hour later.」
The vehicle turned through the gates of Fudan University.
The moment Li Dong pushed open the door and stepped out of the vehicle...
...he froze.
An elderly man was standing at the university entrance.
His hair was graying, and he wasn’t very tall.
Li Dong recognized him at a glance.
Academician Shen Wei.
He had been elected to the Academy of Sciences in his fifties and was a pillar in the domestic field of dynamical systems.
His research spanned ergodic theory, low-dimensional dynamics, and complex dynamical systems.
In the area of the Collet-Eckmann condition, in particular, he had produced several core results that his European and American peers could not ignore.
And now, this Academician Shen was the Dean of the Fudan University School of Mathematical Sciences.
’He’s personally standing at the university entrance to receive a nineteen-year-old undergraduate?’
Li Dong hurried forward.
"Academician Shen, hello."
Shen Wei grasped Li Dong’s hand and shook his head with a smile.
"Ah, Li Dong."
"It really wasn’t easy getting you to come here."
Li Dong: ???
He muttered to himself internally.
’But no one invited me.’
Outwardly, however, he immediately adopted a respectful attitude.
"Academician Shen, you’re too kind."
"It’s an honor that your esteemed university thinks highly enough of me to let me hold a public lecture at Fudan University."
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries.
Only then did Shen Wei lead him inside.
It was only then that Li Dong noticed.
Two banners were hung on either side of the entrance.
One of them had a neat line of red characters.
[Warmly Welcome Teacher Li Dong from Yan University to Fudan University for a Public Lecture on Mathematics]
Li Dong muttered to himself.
’So I’m getting the Professor Wiles treatment.’
Two rows of students from the School of Mathematics were also standing at the entrance.
Each of them wore a Fudan University department T-shirt with a "Reception Committee" badge pinned to their chest.
When they saw Shen Wei leading Li Dong in, the group of students nodded and greeted him in unison.
Li Dong returned their greeting with a polite smile.
He actually felt a little embarrassed, since all of them were older than him.
The two of them walked further in along Fudan’s Ginkgo Avenue.
Shen Wei explained as they walked.
"Li Dong, because the public lecture was a last-minute decision, we didn’t have time to ask for your input. It’s scheduled for two o’clock this afternoon. How does that sound?"
"No problem, Academician Shen. My undergraduate classes are usually at this time anyway."
Naturally, Li Dong had no objection.
Shen Wei: ???
’Am I imagining things? This kid seems to be humble-bragging...’
He quickly decided he must be overthinking it and continued.
"We’ve set the location in the 500-person lecture hall in our Guanghua Building’s East Main Building."
"We haven’t put a limit on the number of attendees."
"Anyone from undergraduates to PhDs can come."
Li Dong hummed in acknowledgment.
In reality, he was wrestling with a different problem.
’What on earth am I going to talk about?’
On the way, he recalled the lecture Professor Wiles gave at Yan University.
After that lecture, he had felt as if something had just clicked for him.
He quietly mulled it over in his mind for a moment.
’Maybe I should just talk about my journey here?’
But he immediately shook his head.
’Damn it.’
’I’ve been in university for less than a year. What damn journey do I have to talk about?’
’If I talk about that, people will think I’m joking.’
He sighed helplessly in his heart.
’I guess I’m just too outstanding.’
The two walked all the way to a small reception room.
Shen Wei pushed open the door.
Someone was already sitting inside the room, a man in his sixties.
Li Dong didn’t recognize him.
Shen Wei smiled and made the introduction.
"Li Dong, this is Professor Wu Jianguo from our School of Physics."
"The director of the State Key Laboratory of Applied Surface Physics, and a Changjiang Scholar."
Li Dong let out a silent ’huh?’ in his mind.
’The School of Physics?’
’I’m here to give a public lecture on mathematics, so why is a big shot from the physics department here?’
But he still hurried to greet Wu Jianguo.
"Hello, Professor Wu."
Wu Jianguo stood up with a smile.
"Hello there, Li Dong."
He waved a hand at Li Dong.
"You must think it’s a bit strange for me to be here, don’t you?"
He chuckled and cleared up Li Dong’s confusion.
"Actually, I was the one who asked Lin Wei to invite you."
"Lin Wei is my student."
Li Dong understood at once.
Lin Wei had a Ph.D. from the Fudan University Department of Physics.
Wu Jianguo continued.
"Besides, you and I have a bit of a connection."
Li Dong looked up.
"A connection?"
"Your high school teacher, Chen Ke."
Wu Jianguo smiled.
"He’s an old classmate of mine."
This time, Li Dong was truly stunned.
’Elder Chen?’
’Elder Chen was classmates with *him*?’
He thought about it for a moment, and then it made sense.
After all, the circles in this field were all connected.
When Elder Chen was young, he himself was a top student who graduated from Ke Da.
It was perfectly normal for him to have been classmates with someone from the Fudan University School of Physics.
He smiled at Wu Jianguo.
"In that case, I’ll have to tell Teacher Chen about what happened today."
Wu Jianguo burst out laughing.
"You little rascal, are you trying to make me owe him another favor?"
"Alright, alright, you go ahead and prepare."
"We won’t disturb you."
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries, then left Li Dong to prepare for the afternoon’s public lecture.
Li Dong sat on the sofa.
In truth, he didn’t have much to prepare.
With his Memory Palace, a task like "preparing a lecture" took him almost no time at all.
He slowly went over the outline for today’s lecture in his head.
About a minute later, he knew what he was going to talk about.
He was going to give this group of Fudan University students...
...a little mathematical shock.