Although the presentation had ended, quite a few scholars still came up afterward to speak with Xiao Yi further, especially those who had not asked questions earlier.
Xiao Yi patiently remained onstage, standing before a small blackboard and welcoming every scholar who came up to talk, answering their questions one by one.
Gradually, more and more scholars gathered around that small blackboard.
The presentation had ended, but the discussion had not.
These scholars ranged widely in age: doctoral students in their twenties, associate professors in their thirties, and full professors in their fifties and sixties.
They gathered around the small blackboard, standing quietly nearby as they listened to the seventeen-year-old explain things to them. Their faces either showed an eager thirst for knowledge or humble curiosity.
There were also quite a few reporters at the scene. One of them suddenly found the sight before him rather interesting, then found the best angle and captured the moment.
In the photograph, the young man pointed at a line of equations on the blackboard with one hand while explaining their meaning to the mathematics scholars of various ages around him. The scholars either wore thoughtful expressions or wrote down what the young man had said and written in their notebooks.
The reporter stared at the photograph in silence for a long while, then suddenly wondered whether he might have a shot at winning a Pulitzer.
At last, as it grew late, the scholars who wanted to ask questions had finished asking them.
No one else came forward with a question.
Xiao Yi stretched. He had finally gotten through them all.
By his rough estimate, he had probably answered fifty or sixty questions today.
The presentation had originally been scheduled to end at 8:15, but it had actually gone on until 8:30. Now