Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

There was an intense discussion happening around the world, and Lu Zhou, who was in a retreat, was oblivious to those discussions.

His research didn’t go as smooth as expected, but he had confidence in his final result.

If the Navier–Stokes equation was like a maze, then there was only one wall separating him and the exit. Passing that wall was only a matter of time.

There was a week left until the end of the month.

His research entered its most critical stage.

There was only a thin line separating success and failure.

This was it.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and placed his phone on his desk. He then set a timer for 168 hours.

He pressed start on the timer and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, the light in his dark pupils was gone; all that was left in him was cold, hard logic.

This type of sensory reinforcement didn’t increase his brainpower, nor did it increase logical thinking, but it did increase mathematical intuition.

It was like all of the numbers were his friends, and all of the images were transformed into geometric figures.

Lu Zhou was well familiar with this feeling.

Mathematics was the language of God.

At this moment, he was an omnipotent god!

…

The day before the IMU conference thesis submission deadline, dark clouds covered the sky, and the rain was pouring down before the sun even came up.

It kept raining until the morning; it didn’t look like it would stop anytime soon.

Vera had an umbrella with her as she came to the Princeton University classroom to fulfill her duties as a teaching assistant and to help Lu Zhou with his lecture.

Even though the students had barely seen Professor Lu this semester, they were fond of this teaching assistant.

Especially after Vera proved the Collatz conjecture, her reputation among the undergraduate students skyrocketed. Many students that hadn’t done number theory before would come here and listen to her class.

At the end of the lecture, as usual, Vera allowed her students to ask questions.

Suddenly, an Asian girl with long black hair raised her hand.

“Miss Pulyuy, has Professor Lu produced any research results?”

Normal university students wouldn’t pay any attention to the IMU conference, but Princeton was no normal university.

Especially for the students that were taking high-level number theory classes, their plans for the future were to study pure mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study. It wasn’t unusual for them to pay attention to the IMU conference.

Because of this, lots of students were interested in Vera’s answers.

They were all curious about how Professor Lu’s research on the Navier–Stokes equation was going.

Vera looked at the curious students and shook her head.

“I don’t know. I’m afraid only Professor Lu himself can answer this question.”

A tall boy with curly hair raised his hand and asked, “Miss Pulyuy, do you think he can successfully solve the Navier–Stokes equation?”

When Vera heard this question, she replied without any hesitation, “Of course he can.”

The Asian girl asked, “Why?”

Vera smiled and gently tapped the podium with her fingers.

Then, she spoke in a confident tone.

“Because I believe in him.”

Her belief wasn’t based on mathematical logic; it was purely based on belief.

Of course, her belief wasn’t unreasonable.

Whether it was the Berkeley report, the Collatz conjecture, or the upcoming 45-minute International Congress of Mathematicians report…

That shy little girl who sat in the conference venue by herself; that girl who spent most of her time working at restaurants; and that girl who looked at the mathematical world in awe.

That girl could never imagine what she could accomplish.

All of this was like a miracle.

She believed that Lu Zhou was the one that made this miracle happen; there was nothing Lu Zhou couldn’t do.

Suddenly, it stopped raining.

The dark clouds disappeared, leaving a colorful rainbow in the air.

Lu Zhou, who was also in the town of Princeton, also saw that rainbow.

He put down his pen. He looked outside quietly and stared at the rainbow.

He suddenly smiled; his dark, logical pupils gradually lightened up.

Suddenly, the timer on his phone went off.

Lu Zhou turned off the alarm and unlocked the screen. That was when he saw dozens of missing calls.

Some of the calls were from a week ago, some were from today.

He finally had time to deal with these calls.

Lu Zhou picked the phone number with the highest number of missed calls and dialed back.

The phone connected, and an anxious voice came from the other end of the phone.

“Oh, god, if you didn’t pick up, I might have driven to your house. Do you know what day it is?”

Professor Fefferman had always been an easy-going person; this was the first time Lu Zhou saw him all fired up.

Lu Zhou moved the phone half an inch away from his face and said in an uncertain tone, “There’s a fruit discount at Walmart?”

Fefferman: “…”

Fefferman wanted to punch someone.

He took a deep breath and calmed down. He then yelled into the phone.

“Submission day! Conference submission deadline! According to the rules of the IMU conference, the report presenter must disclose the report content two months before the conference and upload the relevant thesis within one month… Seriously, you didn’t forget about this, right?”

“How could I forget about it?” Lu Zhou yawned and said, “… But I remember that we can postpone the thesis, right?”

Professor Fefferman sighed and said, “… Change the report topic, there’s still a chance.”

Although Lu Zhou could postpone uploading the thesis, Fefferman didn’t think it made sense to do so.

Instead of holding onto failure, Lu Zhou should correct his mistake now.

Lu Zhou had plenty of material other than the Navier Stokes equation to report on.

However, Lu Zhou didn’t

“Why should I change it?”

The other end of the telephone went silent for a minute.

Professor Fefferman’s voice trembled, and he spoke in disbelief.

“… You solved it?”

“I can’t solve the Navier–Stokes equation. At least for now, we can’t find a general solution,” Lu Zhou said. As he placed his phone in his other hand, he smiled and said confidently, “But I can promise you there exists a smooth solution!”