For a paper so famous in both the history of mathematics and the history of China, Xiao Yi had naturally read it long ago.
Although he had not put as much effort into studying it as he had Wiles's paper proving Fermat's Last Theorem or Zhang Yitang's paper making a breakthrough on the Twin Prime Conjecture, he had still grasped seventy to eighty percent of it.
After all, this paper had been published decades ago, more than twenty years earlier than the paper on Fermat's Last Theorem.
To some extent, although this paper was not something an undergraduate could casually understand, it was comparatively much easier to grasp.
So, when selecting the first question, those academicians had ultimately shown a little mercy.
He looked again at the excerpt.
With a quick scan, Xiao Yi understood it.
"It mainly extracts Lemma 8 and Lemma 9, which Mr. Chen used to prove Theorem One in the paper. Hmm, Lemma 8 states that if x is a large even number, then Q≤3.9404xCx/(logx)^2. Lemma 9 is... Lemma 9 uses Bombieri's Theorem..."
After reading it once, he had completely seen through it.
Finally, he looked at the question the academicians had designed based on this excerpt. Hmm...
The difficulty was much lower. Basically, as long as one analyzed the mathematical methods used in this excerpt, the problem could be solved with ease.
Overall, for students who had studied Math Olympiad material, the crucial point was having a sufficiently solid grasp of the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion.
The Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion was one of the topics in the competition syllabus, and it was also Eratosthenes' original Sieve Method, which had served as a major foundation for Chen Jingrun's proof.
Together with some of the hints provided by the academicians in the question, there was every chance of solving it.
With no issues in the first question, and since the exam had not officially begun yet, Xiao Yi turned to the second test paper and looked at the second excerpt.
However, when he saw the second excerpt, his expression turned strange.
Well, wasn't this a perfect coincidence?
The second excerpt was actually from Zhang Yitang's paper on the Twin Prime Conjecture!
How should he put it?
In this examination hall, no one understood this paper better than he did!
Hmm...
Perhaps not even all the academicians who wrote the questions understood it better than him.
He had read this paper too many times. He reckoned that no matter which excerpt the academicians had chosen, he could tell them exactly which page of the original paper it came from.
He then glanced at the excerpt, and sure enough, he immediately knew that it was from page twenty-six.
The dispersion method—Zhang Yitang's Sieve Method.
In addition, it included a section that was also a rather crucial part of the paper, concerning the Bombieri-Vinogradov theorem.
Simple enough.
Xiao Yi shook his head.
But while it was like this for him, for the other examinees who had never studied this paper, this excerpt would probably become their nightmare tonight.
It seemed that although the academicians had been rather kind in their choice of the first excerpt, the second one was full of malice.
He could practically call it bullying of mathematical beginners by their elders in mathematics.
Although the examinees present could not exactly be called mathematical beginners, in front of academicians, they were not much different from beginners.
In short, unless one was extraordinarily gifted or had already studied this paper beforehand, there was a ninety percent chance they would not understand the second excerpt at all.
"Ring-ring-ring~"
The bell signaling the official start of the exam rang.
Xiao Yi did not think any further and flipped back to the first test paper, immediately picking up his pen to answer without even pausing to think.
After all, he had already thought through everything worth thinking about back when he had first read the paper.
Beside him, Ye Cheng had been studying the problem for several minutes, yet he was still completely baffled by the excerpt on the paper. When he heard the sound of writing from beside him, he could not help turning to look.
Then he froze.
What the hell?
What had he just seen?
Xiao Yi... had already started answering?
In fact, Xiao Yi's was the only writing sound in the entire hall.
"Scratch, scratch..."
Though the sound was faint, it was exceptionally clear in the silent examination hall.
If Xiao Yi finishing the morning's exam in only twenty minutes had still seemed acceptable to them—because they had heard that God Wei from Peking University, who had once won an IMO gold medal for China, could also finish all the questions in roughly several dozen minutes—
But if Xiao Yi could even solve questions this far beyond the standard now, wasn't that a little...
Unreasonable?
As a fourteen-year-old genius, Ye Cheng felt as if his entire worldview was about to be distorted!
He turned back and looked again at the excerpt from Chen Jingrun's paper, then clutched his head with both hands as though he were about to go mad.
Yet before long, he heard the sound of pages turning beside him again.
No way...
He cautiously turned his head bit by bit toward Xiao Yi, then his eyes widened.
Xiao Yi had actually already finished the question for the first excerpt?
This...
Right, the second excerpt looked much harder than the first. In that case, Xiao Yi surely would not...
The next moment, Ye Cheng's eyes widened even further, because after flipping to the second test paper, Xiao Yi had actually begun writing again right away!
Ye Cheng rubbed his eyes, suspecting that he had seen wrong.
But when he opened them again, Xiao Yi had already written several lines.
Come on, could he solve it without even needing to think?!
After staring in stunned silence for a moment, Ye Cheng suddenly realized that he had been watching Xiao Yi for too long. Wouldn't the proctors notice?
He immediately came back to his senses and glanced toward the front of the examination hall, only to freeze.
Huh? Where were the proctors?
There were three proctors. Why could he not see any of them?
His gaze shifted about until the corner of his eye caught sight of behind Xiao Yi, and he froze once again. Good lord, at some point, the three proctors had circled around to the back. They were now watching Xiao Yi solve the problems, their faces all filled with astonishment.
Fine, fine, even the proctors were joining in, huh?
Ye Cheng covered his face.
As expected of the "national top scorer," he had effortlessly done what so many of them could not.
After calming himself internally, Ye Cheng finally lowered his hand.
No matter what, he had to work hard too!
Lowering his head and looking back at his own paper, Ye Cheng stopped getting distracted and began thinking seriously.
Although Xiao Yi had dealt him quite a blow, it was not enough to make him lose his composure. On the contrary, Xiao Yi's image in his heart had grown even greater. Perhaps one day, Xiao Yi might even catch up to the admiration Ye Cheng had for Terence Tao.
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