The Academician's Interest

In Shangjing, a banquet was underway in the grand hall of a Shangri-La Hotel.

This was a mathematical academic conference organized by the Chinese Mathematical Society. Attendees included mathematics professors from universities across the country, as well as people from relevant research institutes and associations, mathematics enthusiasts, and mathematics students who had registered to attend.

There were simply too many academic conferences like this in the mathematics world—so many that they were almost too frequent.

Of course, these scholars and professors who studied mathematics rather enjoyed attending such conferences.

The reason was simple: if they did not attend an academic conference now and then, they basically did not know what else to do with their time.

Work on research projects?

They did that too, but there was a saying about mathematics that applied to anyone in the world who studied it—if you could not do it, you could not do it. No matter how hard you studied, you still could not do it.

As a result, mathematical research projects often stretched out for a very long time, taking at least one or two years.

And when they were not working on projects, they generally had plenty of free time. So they might as well attend academic conferences. Perhaps listening to someone else's presentation and chatting with other friends would give them an idea for their own project.

Besides, attending academic conferences gave them a perfectly legitimate way to spend some of their research funding, which had always been one of the main expenditures for mathematics projects.

After all, a mathematics project might receive funding of one or several hundred thousand yuan, but when actually solving the problem, mathematicians only needed a pen and a notebook. From beginning to end, the total expense might not even reach a hundred yuan. And if the extra money was not spent, it could instead affect future project applications.

Thus, in order to spend the surplus research funds, the people in charge of mathematics projects would think of every possible way to use them up. Academic conferences were one such excellent method.

Since it was such a way to achieve multiple goals at once, quite a lot of people attended mathematical academic conferences.

"I heard Professor Liu recently found a pretty good student at our Affiliated High School?"

At a table somewhere in the banquet hall, several mathematics professors who knew one another well were seated together, and Liu Bin was among them.

Hearing his friend bring him up, Liu Bin smiled. "He really is an outstanding prospect. Maybe someday, he'll become another Cao Yuan in our mathematics world."

The friend beside him was also a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China's Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science. Hearing Liu Bin say that, his brows rose. Cao Yuan was far too familiar to USTC teachers like them. At just twenty-two, he had already been expected to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. If Xiao Yi could be called the Cao Yuan of mathematics, would that not mean he might win a Fields Medal someday?

"Professor Liu, you think that highly of him?"

Liu Bin nodded. "You may not understand because you haven't met him, but the talent he has displayed is enough to make me believe he has that kind of future."

It was already Thursday. He had been attending this academic conference for four days, and during those four days, aside from attending the conference events, he had spent some time looking over Xiao Yi's sheet of draft paper.

Every time he looked through it again, he marveled inwardly once more.

He wanted to discern Xiao Yi's way of thinking, and then... learn from it.

Yes, this professor was trying to learn from Xiao Yi.

But clearly, it was difficult to learn anything through such a method alone. After all, only geniuses could think like geniuses. Imitating a genius was simply impossible.

At that moment, Liu Bin turned to another professor beside him and said, "Professor Xu, if I remember correctly, you're in charge of the Hua Loo-Keng Class, right? Once the student I've got my eye on enrolls, you'll see just how remarkable he is."

Professor Xu was taken aback by Liu Bin's words, then laughed. "I thought you were going to ask me for a favor—pull some strings for that student so he could get into the Hua Loo-Keng Class."

Liu Bin waved a hand. "Now that's a joke. Would a student I think highly of need someone to pull strings for him? If he needed that, he wouldn't be worth my attention."

Professor Xu shook his head with a laugh. "All right, all right. We know what kind of person you, Liu Bin, are."

"Going by that, the student must be in his final year of high school and about to take the college entrance examination... so he'll be coming to our school soon, in the second half of the year."

Liu Bin laughed. "He is taking the college entrance examination this year, but he's actually only in his second year of high school."

"Second year?"

All the professors present were stunned.

"Could he be in the Young Scholars Program?" Professor Xu quickly realized.

"That's right." Liu Bin nodded.

That immediately piqued the professors' interest, and they also understood why Liu Bin had compared him to another Cao Yuan. After all, Cao Yuan had also come from the USTC Young Scholars Program.

"Oh? Is the USTC Young Scholars Program about to produce a mathematical genius?"

Just then, a voice sounded.

Everyone turned toward it, and the professors from USTC all brightened at once.

"Academician Hu!"

Hu Guangde, the honorary president of the Chinese Mathematical Society and an academician at their USTC Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, was the institution's greatest treasure.

They had not expected their casual conversation here to attract Academician Hu's attention.

"Hey, don't make it so formal. Little Liu, I heard you say you came across a good prospect. Tell me all about him."

Hu Guangde sat down directly beside them and spoke with a genial smile.

Hearing Hu Guangde's words, Liu Bin's heart stirred.

Although he believed in Xiao Yi's abilities, he had not considered immediately introducing him to the greatest treasure of their academy. Academician Hu had studied and exchanged at the Mathematics Departments of both École Normale Supérieure and Princeton University, and he had seen countless mathematical geniuses. If Liu Bin rashly ran over and claimed he had discovered a genius, Academician Hu might simply take it as a joke.

But Academician Hu apparently had some free time now, which was why he was willing to hear about it.

And... was this not a perfect opportunity to introduce Xiao Yi to Hu Guangde?

For any mathematics scholar, having a good teacher was extremely important. Just like those famous mathematicians, whose teachers were generally famous mathematicians as well.

With that in mind, he immediately said, "If I just tell you about him directly, I'm afraid you won't get a deep enough impression. I'll contact the student now, and you can test him in person."

"Besides, once he enrolls, you'll meet him sooner or later anyway."

Hearing Liu Bin seize the opportunity at once and try to introduce the student to him, Hu Guangde could not help but laugh helplessly. Liu Bin really knew how to spot an opening.

But it also made him even more curious. Just what sort of student could make Liu Bin value him so highly?