I should start thinking about a topic for my paper.
Xiao Yi thought to himself.
It was already late April. Just over a month remained until the college entrance examination, while USTC would begin in only four months.
For him now, the college entrance examination was not much of a problem. None of the high school material posed any difficulty for him anymore.
There was no need to mention mathematics. If he failed to get a perfect score in math, he would eat all his books on the spot. As for English, after merely a month of studying, his score had risen from 130 to 144. By the time of the college entrance examination, English would be even less of a concern. Science Comprehensive was the same as mathematics—if he failed to get a perfect score, he would eat his books. Basically, only Chinese Language still required a bit of luck.
All in all, he had set his sights on being this year's top scorer in the college entrance examination.
The only pity was that even if he became the top scorer, he could not apply to any school other than the USTC Young Scholars Program. After all, as a second-year high school student, he was not technically qualified to take the college entrance examination.
This was also a form of protection for third-year high school students. After all, universities had limited admission slots each year. If non-seniors were also allowed to take the college entrance examination, it would severely squeeze the available places for third-year students.
Still, though it was regrettable, Xiao Yi had no reason to regret it.
He knew clearly that while environment might matter in learning, one's own ability mattered more.
And now that he had a twelvefold learning-efficiency bonus, the influence of something like environment no longer counted as an important factor at all.
There was no need to worry about the college entrance examination. All that remained was writing a paper before enrollment.
"Four months to complete a paper..."
Actually, this was still quite easy for Xiao Yi. Take the paper Hu Guangde had asked him to read, "The Convergence of Riemann Integrals and Lebesgue Integrability." Objectively speaking, even though he had never written a paper before, he could churn out several in a day—it just depended on how fast he typed.
But clearly, papers like that would not meet the standards of a Core Journal.
And even if one barely met the threshold for a Core Journal, that was not Xiao Yi's goal.
As the first paper of his life, he hoped for a good result.
At the very least, when he looked back on it years later, he would not feel overly embarrassed by its immaturity.
Perhaps I should ask Professor Liu Bin and hear whether he has any suggestions.
In the end, Xiao Yi made his decision.
When writing a paper for the first time, asking a teacher was always the right choice.
He took out his phone—the students' phones were normally kept by the homeroom teacher while they were at school and could only be taken home.
But now, those rules had become things of the past for Xiao Yi. He could even go to the principal's office this afternoon to collect a laptop.
He took out his phone and called Professor Liu Bin.
The call was answered quickly.
"Xiao Yi, what made you call me?"
Liu Bin asked with a smile.
Xiao Yi explained why he had called. "Professor Liu, I'm preparing to start writing a paper, but I'm having trouble choosing a topic. I hope to receive your advice."
Liu Bin said in surprise, "You're already preparing to write a paper?"
"Yes," Xiao Yi said. "After all, there are only four months left."
Liu Bin fell silent. At that moment, he really wanted to tell Xiao Yi the truth: even if he did not produce a paper at the Core Journal level, he did not need to worry about enrollment.
Four months to have a novice who had never published a paper complete a high-quality one—Liu Bin truly could not imagine it.
He had been considered quite outstanding in his youth. He had published several mathematics papers during his undergraduate years, yet his first paper had taken nearly a full year to complete. It had not even come close to a Core Journal; it was merely an ordinary journal.
Although, judging by Xiao Yi's performance, he was indeed far superior to Liu Bin in his younger days, Liu Bin still did not really believe Xiao Yi could accomplish this, even after what Academician Hu Guangde had told him.
Of course, regardless of the outcome, Liu Bin strongly approved of Xiao Yi's plan to begin writing papers. No matter what the final quality was, it would give Xiao Yi some experience in academic writing.
It was like when every freshman first entered university: teachers would more or less explain the benefits of writing papers to them, though in the end more than ninety percent of students would forget all about it.
"So, do you have any direction in mind right now?"
"Algebra? Geometry? Or number theory?"
Xiao Yi thought for a moment, recalling the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem he had read. Then he said, "Number theory."
"Oh? Number theory?" Liu Bin's tone rose as he asked with a smile, "There's a saying in mathematics: number theory is a game for geniuses. Hmm... it does seem quite suitable for you."
"But why did you choose number theory?"
Xiao Yi said, "I read Wiles's paper proving Fermat's Last Theorem. It gave me a strong interest in number theory."
Upon hearing Xiao Yi's words, Liu Bin immediately lost his composure.
He asked in astonishment, "What? You read Andrew Wiles's paper proving Fermat's Last Theorem? The original paper? Or some proof process you found online?"
"The original papers," Xiao Yi replied.
"There are two of them, both published in the third issue of Volume 141 of Annals of Mathematics in 1995."
Xiao Yi sighed. "I saw that Annals of Mathematics usually had four or five papers in each issue, but that issue had only these two. Was that the treatment given to papers that solved world-class mathematical problems?"
Hearing Xiao Yi's words, Liu Bin drew in a sharp breath.
The fact that Xiao Yi could name Annals of Mathematics and point out that the issue had published only Andrew Wiles's two papers proving Fermat's Last Theorem was already proof that Xiao Yi had indeed read the original papers.
And that was far more impressive than reading papers that had later been summarized and simplified.
This kid... could actually read the original proof of Fermat's Last Theorem?
"The forty books I gave you... have you finished all of them?"
Xiao Yi replied, "I've already started reading them a second time. In a few more days, I'll finish the second pass too."
The second reading should naturally have been faster than the first, but because he also had to read papers and the like, his pace had slowed considerably.
Still, Liu Bin was filled with admiration.
After finishing them once, he was even willing to read them a second time.
This kid really loved mathematics!
Perhaps he truly had a chance of producing a Core Journal-level paper with his very first paper?
Then Liu Bin said, "All right. Since that's the case, I'll recommend some potential topics in number theory for you."
Please bookmark and vote!!
Before you continue