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Chapter 167: Chapter 163: The Ceiling Among Peers

”Hello, Professor Cai!”

Li Dong hurriedly greeted Cai Tianxin.

He sounded respectful, but inwardly, he was baffled.

Cai Tianxin was a Qiushi Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University’s School of Mathematical Sciences, with profound achievements in number theory.

The ”additive-multiplicative equation” he proposed was dubbed the ”Yin-Yang Equation” by the German mathematician Mikhailovskiy.

And his research on the Xinhualin problem was even lauded by Fields Medal laureate Alan Baker as a ”truly original contribution.”

’Why would a math professor be at the high-speed rail station to pick me up?’

Li Dong subconsciously glanced at Sun Xiang, who was standing beside him.

Sun Xiang put on a ”don’t ask me” expression.

Cai Tianxin said with a smile.

”Don’t look at Xiaosun; I decided to tag along myself.”

He spoke in a very casual tone, as if chatting with a junior.

”A couple of days ago, I went to see Old Zhang. I was originally there to discuss the School of Mathematics offering a Biostatistics course for the School of Life Sciences’ graduate students next semester.”

Old Zhang referred to Professor Zhang Minfang.

Cai Tianxin continued.

”As it happened, when I got to Old Zhang’s office, I overheard him and Xiaosun talking about a student named Li Dong who was coming over to work on a biology project.”

”I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I casually asked, ’Which Li Dong?’”

He looked at Li Dong, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

”Heh, I didn’t expect it to actually be you.”

Cai Tianxin sized him up and suddenly asked.

”You’re interested in biology, too?”

If anyone else had asked this question, Li Dong probably would have just given a noncommittal answer.

But when a top mathematician in number theory asks if you’re ”interested in biology,” the subtext couldn’t be clearer.

’You’re a rising star in the world of mathematics. Why aren’t you focusing on math instead of messing around with biology?’

Li Dong felt he couldn’t be vague.

So, he shook his head very seriously.

”Professor Cai, to be honest, I actually prefer physics.”

A smile immediately spread across Cai Tianxin’s face.

”Haha, so you like ma—”

He was halfway through his sentence before he registered it.

Cai Tianxin’s hand, which he had raised to pat Li Dong’s shoulder, froze in mid-air.

”...Close enough, close enough.”

Cai Tianxin let out a dry laugh and retracted his hand.

Beside them, Sun Xiang nearly burst out laughing.

’Close enough, my foot. Mathematicians and physicists would probably jump out of their skins if they heard that.’

However, Cai Tianxin quickly composed himself, and his tone became more serious.

”Alright, no more joking around.”

He looked at Li Dong.

”I came to find you because there’s actually something serious I’d like to ask your help with.”

”I want to invite you to the Zhejiang University School of Mathematics to give an academic lecture to our graduate students.”

Li Dong was slightly taken aback.

”An academic lecture?”

Cai Tianxin nodded.

”That’s right, a public academic presentation.”

”It would be about an hour and a half. You’d just need to talk about the core ideas of the dimensionality reduction algorithm you presented at the ICCM.”

”You don’t need to go into the deep end with the Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association stuff. They wouldn’t understand it even if you did.”

”The main goal is to let them feel the charm of mathematics and see the heights someone their own age has already reached.”

Then, Cai Tianxin added,

”By the way, I’ve already mentioned this to Old Liu, the dean of your School of Mathematics.”

Li Dong asked subconsciously.

”What did he say?”

Cai Tianxin’s expression immediately soured.

”He told me to get lost.”

Li Dong: ”...”

’Wait, Old Liu told you to get lost, and you just came to ask me directly?’

’How could I possibly agree?’

Li Dong said with some hesitation.

”Professor Cai, I’m mainly here for the biology project. I might not have enough time...”

Before he could finish, Cai Tianxin raised a hand to cut him off.

”The best exchanges always happen at unexpected crossroads.”

”Don’t be in such a hurry. Stop for a moment, and perhaps you’ll see a different scenery.”

Li Dong paused, stunned.

He suddenly remembered something.

Besides being a professor at the Zhejiang University School of Mathematical Sciences, Cai Tianxin had another widely known identity—a poet.

His poetry had been translated into more than twenty languages, and he had won the Naji Naaman Literary Prize in Beirut and the Kathak Literary Award in Dhaka.

The combined total of his published literary and academic works exceeded thirty volumes.

At Zhejiang University, his general education course, ”Mathematics and Human Civilization,” was perennially packed and was one of the most popular electives on campus.

The students privately called him ”the poet-mathematician.”

’So when a poet uses poetry to persuade you not to be in a hurry...’

’How could you have the heart to say no?’

In truth, Cai Tianxin’s idea to invite Li Dong to give a lecture was indeed a spur-of-the-moment decision.

That night, because of Li Dong’s paper on Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association, Professor Tian Gang had pulled together an online seminar in the middle of the night.

Cai Tianxin was among the attendees.

Although his own specialty was Waring’s problem and Diophantine equations within number theory, which didn’t completely overlap with analytic number theory.

But as a senior scholar in the field of number theory, he was very clear on the background and significance of Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association.

During that seminar, Cai Tianxin had read through the core proof of Li Dong’s paper in its entirety.

His first reaction at the time was shock.

’This person’s understanding of the pair correlation statistical properties of non-trivial zeros has surpassed that of every living scholar in this field that I know of.’

You have to understand, before Li Dong, the person who had conducted the most in-depth research on the pair correlation data of non-trivial zeros was Professor Andrew Odriozola from the University of Minnesota.

But even Odriozola’s work had remained at the level of ”verification.”

What Li Dong had achieved, however, was ”advancement.”

Not only had he pushed the applicable theoretical boundary of Montgomery’s Conjecture from |α|