"Professor, are you really sure?"
Peter Schultz said in disbelief.
At seventeen, he had been able to write a paper like this?
Thinking back to when he himself had been seventeen...
To be honest, at that time, he had only just started secondary school—and had even repeated a year.
Of course, he had not repeated a year because his grades were poor. On the contrary, it had been because they were too good.
Because he had such extraordinary mathematical talent and could win gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad, he had deliberately repeated a year to compete. He won silver in his first year, followed by gold medals for the next three years.
Only then had he entered university at the age of twenty.
He might have started much later than others, but that did not stop him from completing everything from undergraduate through master's-level study in just two and a half years. He earned his doctorate at twenty-four, and his dissertation had directly placed him in the seat of a future Fields Medal winner seven years later.
His own experience could certainly be called dazzlingly brilliant.
Yet at this moment, he could not help being astonished by what Faltings had said. After all, publishing an article in IHES at seventeen was indeed far more remarkable than what he himself had achieved back then.
"Of course it's true. It's already become major news over in China. I heard it from a friend there."
Faltings said with a chuckle, "Well? Do you feel challenged?"
Schultz came back to himself and accepted the fact, then shook his head helplessly. "Professor, don't joke around. I hope mathematics can produce more geniuses. If more and more geniuses come to challenge me, it means the future development of mathematics will only get better."
"If