Xu Shengzhou followed Mr. Cheng's request and sat with him in the back seat of the car. He knew that Mr. Cheng should have something to say to him, but after getting in the car, Mr. Cheng kept closing his eyes to rest.

He was a little confused.

The car was speeding on College Road, with traffic outside the window and silence inside the car.

It took a long time before Old Man Cheng opened his eyes and said carefully: "Originally, it was my idea to introduce you to study for a Ph.D. with Qiu Xindong. Now Qiu Xindong has agreed, and so have you. The dignity of a teacher is here, and I shouldn't say anything else.

.But just because I introduced you, I think you should still say a few words before you two meet. It’s up to you whether you listen or not, but I have to fulfill my responsibility as a reminder."
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Xu Shengzhou turned sideways and replied respectfully: "Teacher, please give me your instructions. I am all ears."

Mr. Cheng said slowly: "Qiu Xindong is very smart and has made outstanding academic achievements. He is one of the few outstanding mathematicians of his generation, let alone in the Chinese mathematics circle.

.Because of this, he is also a little arrogant. He has always been open-minded and unscrupulous about those who have disagreed with him or had conflicts with him. But he treats his own people, especially the students who follow him.

, and extremely caring, even protective. You should know the debate over the proof of Poincaré’s conjecture, right?”

Xu Shengzhou replied: "I've heard a little bit about it."

Because this dispute not only involved the ownership of the proof of Poincaré's conjecture, but also involved the reputation of Chinese mathematicians, and even about who would win the Fields Medal. It was a commotion back then. Even today, these disputes

Gossip is still circulating in the mathematics community. Anyone who is involved in mathematics should know something about it.

Mr. Cheng nodded: "There are indeed very few people in the industry who don't know about this matter. To be fair, Zhu and Cao have made some contributions to the proof of Poincaré's conjecture. As for the actual contribution, whether it is to check for omissions and fill in the gaps, to be meticulous and perfect, or to

You can sit down and discuss the test and explanation. But obviously, their contribution is far less than Perelman's pioneering work. There should be no doubt that the proof of Poincaré conjecture belongs to Perelman. But here

In this academic dispute, Qiu Xindong was overly protective of his students, favored sides, and sought hot spots. He eagerly wanted to put the crown of proving Poincaré's conjecture on his own head, and once caused a "Chinese mathematician's final" incident.

Big news that proved the Poincaré conjecture. The international mathematics community also criticized Qiu Xindong because of this matter, and his evaluation was somewhat negative. Qiu Xindong himself is a person who values ​​his reputation very much, otherwise he would not have caused such a thing.

Come. And after this matter became a stain on his life, it made him even more worried, but it is not easy to clean it up."

Xu Shengzhou vaguely guessed that Mr. Cheng's words should be related to his intention to prove the Hodge Conjecture.

Sure enough, Mr. Cheng continued: "According to usual practice, Qiu Xindong usually flies from the beautiful country to stay in the United States for a month or two every May when the spring flowers are blooming in Beijing, and then flies away when the weather gets hotter. I know why.

Will he fly back in mid-April this year?"

"Did he also hear about my plan to prove Hodge's conjecture?" Although Xu Shengzhou's tone was questioning, it was actually an affirmative statement.

Mr. Cheng said: "People like Qiu Xindong, who founded a sect, must have inquired about everything and reported to God. It is not surprising to know that. The only way to wash away the shame of defeat is to win a battle. Huo Qi guessed that it was with Pang Pang

The Calais conjecture is a world-class problem. Is there any more suitable way to clear your name and prove yourself? It is even possible that after you prove the Hodge conjecture, the academic world's contribution to Zhu and Cao will be restored.

Evaluation, do you think Qiu Xindong will care about it?"

Xu Shengzhou scratched his head: "But I haven't even proven what Huo Qi guessed!"

Mr. Cheng said: "The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, followed by now. What's more, among the younger generation, you are the most talented and definitely worthy of Qiu Xindong's bet. The reason why I say this is not to let

You have prejudices against Qiu Xindong, are estranged from you, and even go against it. Qiu Xindong is worthy of your study in every sense. I just want you to grasp yourself and insist on seeking truth from facts no matter what the situation.

You must keep your academic bottom line and don’t let yourself become a joke in academic history. Do you understand what I mean?”

Xu Shengzhou solemnly replied: "To understand means to know what you know, to know what you don't know, and not to deceive others or yourself."

Mr. Cheng nodded happily: "Gauss did not solve Fermat's Last Theorem, and Selberg did not solve the Riemann Hypothesis. It does not prevent them from becoming world-famous mathematicians. Of course, if you can prove the Hodge conjecture, Qiu Xindong will also

will be your biggest help, because a cruel reality in today's academic world is that if you are not a famous math master like Atiya, or a future student like Schultz who has solved major conjectures and proven his talent,

Star, even if Hodge's conjecture is proven, no one would be willing to take the time to look at it. After all, the one-legged Su Maozi has become extinct, and the lucky De Blancs (De

anges) will never appear again."

Xu Shengzhou also knows about Debrance's gossip.

Debrons is a beautiful Chinese. This guy is very smart, but his reputation in the academic circle is very bad, because he often comes up with some specious proofs. Everyone tries their best to check, but finally finds that the proof is not valid. For example, he proved Biberbach

(Bieberbach) failed twice when he conjectured. By the third time, everyone was numbed by the "crying wolf". In addition, the paper was too long, more than two hundred pages, and no one was willing to review it for him.

Fortunately, there was a magical creature called Lao Maozi in the world at that time. They read his proofs bit by bit with extraordinary seriousness and found that Debrons had successfully proved the Bieberbach conjecture and also gave the

Simplified version:

3 pages long!

Xu Shengzhou followed Mr. Cheng's words and continued: "Yes, few people are willing to study the proof of the ABC conjecture like the neon mathematician Mochizuki Shinichi's proof of the ABC conjecture."

Mr. Cheng said: "Yes, everyone in the academic world is very busy. They can't even finish their own papers, and they can't even understand the papers of famous people. Who would take the time to help an unknown person check whether the proof is correct?

But after you become Qiu Xindong's disciple, if you can prove Hodge's conjecture and get Qiu Xindong's recommendation, at least you won't suffer the cold shoulder."

Seeing that he has entered the school to study in the United States, Mr. Cheng concluded: "In short, you have to control yourself, not to be happy with things and not sad with yourself, and to learn knowledge step by step in a down-to-earth manner. This is what I want to say to you. As for

How you choose is entirely up to you!"

When the car arrived at the downstairs of Liumei's Mathematics Center, I saw a dozen people standing at the door to greet me from a distance. It was obvious that they paid great attention to Mr. Cheng's visit. Mr. Cheng pointed to the gray-headed man in the middle of the crowd in the car.

The elegant old man introduced: "Look, that person is Qiu Xindong." Qiu Xindong has a typical southern appearance. He is not tall, has thick lips, and has a broad and shiny forehead that is common among math people. He wears glasses and smiles.

Standing there.

When Mr. Cheng got off the car, Qiu Xindong came up to him with a smile: "Brother Cheng, how are you? It's been a long time, I miss you so much!"

Xu Shengzhou followed Mr. Cheng and found it very interesting to hear Qiu Xindong's polite greeting with a Hakka accent. After the two of them exchanged a few words, but before they had time to say hello, Qiu Xindong pointed at Xu Shengzhou and asked: "Brother Cheng,

Is this your student Xu Shengzhou? I have been famous for a long time, and I am like thunder!"

Mr. Cheng smiled and said: "He is not only my disciple, but also your disciple."

Xu Shengzhou hurriedly stepped forward to greet me: "Hello, Academician Qiu, my name is Xu Shengzhou, and I am a graduate student from the School of Mathematical Sciences of Beijing Normal University."

Mr. Cheng suggested: "You should call me 'Teacher Qiu'!"

Qiu Xindong looked at Xu Shengzhou with a smile: "I know you! In the past year or two, I have published a lot of high-quality papers, especially before I studied for a Ph.D., I have already published two 'Big Four' papers, which is rare even in a beautiful country.

Yes. And I heard that Xiao Xu, your undergraduate degree is still in information engineering, and you are all self-taught in mathematics?"

What the hell is information engineering? But if you think about it, you will know that it should be the name of the computer major in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Regarding Qiu Xindong's question, Xu Shengzhou had answered it at least ten times on different occasions, and he was already familiar with it: "Yes, I didn't know my preferences during the college entrance examination, so I chose the most popular computer major. After going around and around, I discovered

Mathematics is my favorite, so I studied part of it on my own after school. Fortunately, I received guidance from Teacher Cheng, Teacher Zhang, and Teacher Heng from the School of Mathematics in our school, and I reluctantly stepped into the door of mathematical research."

Qiu Xindong led everyone into the conference room while chatting with Xu Shengzhou: "You are not forcing this! I have read some of your first papers published in Chinese journals before. Although you were still an information engineering student at that time, the papers

The quality is not inferior to that of graduate students majoring in mathematics, which shows that they have great minds and extraordinary abilities. If you studied mathematics as an undergraduate, you must be even more outstanding now!"

Mr. Cheng said, "It's better for young people to take more detours, so that they can walk faster and more steadily on the right path."

Qiu Xindong nodded repeatedly: "Brother Cheng is right! The Bernoulli brothers have long proved that although the shortest path between two points is a straight line, the fastest path is the fastest descent line. Facts have also proved that the second-best path

It can also enable people to reach the high point they long for."

Sitting down in the conference room, the two academicians Qiu and Cheng took the seats. The others were arranged in order according to their positions and titles, like stars over the moon. Only Xu Shengzhou was left beside Mr. Cheng. Someone offered tea.

, Qiu Xindong chatted with Mr. Cheng about the recent major events in the domestic and foreign mathematics circles, and then he suddenly said: "As for the recent major events in the domestic mathematics circle, I heard that Xiao Xu made some breakthroughs in the Hodge conjecture. Is that so, Xiao Xu

?"
Chapter completed!