Ignition

Wang Yi's reply made Xue Chuan feel awful, but quite a few bystanders online found it amusing instead.

People's sense of humor online was clearly much lower in those days, and many nearly burst out laughing.

"Hey, hey, I'm starting to doubt whether this blogger is real."

"Yeah, you're so good at this."

"I think the blogger is doing it on purpose."

"If the blogger wants to learn from Sister Feng, then you've already succeeded."

Looking back from the future, it was obvious that the Sister Feng incident had been designed to draw traffic, but at the time, many people still firmly believed it.

Of course, plenty of people had also started hurling personal insults, while the blogger behind Studying Abroad in the Beautiful Country and a group of agencies were fanning the flames from the sidelines.

Wang Yi, who had been buried in programming, returned midway to take a look, then posted another update as if to emphasize his point.

"Someone has already sent it to professionals for review, and the result will be out soon. Stay tuned.

"I hope everyone can give me some trust then. If you have similar problems that you can't solve, you can contact me. To avoid harassment, leave a message first explaining the situation."

Wang Yi did not directly publish his contact information. Otherwise, he would be bothered to death. When he had time, he would occasionally check through the messages. If he saw someone who genuinely had something worthwhile, he planned to visit them in person.

Meanwhile, the Mathematics Department at Xi'an Jiaotong University was brightly lit throughout the night.

Almost everyone had thrown themselves into checking the proof that had suddenly appeared.

They had actually completed a preliminary verification and found that it checked out.

But this was too terrifying. They had to make absolutely certain before they dared say anything...

Just as Shudian had entered the dead of night, and Wang Yi was rapidly compiling the underlying logic of "artificial intelligence"...

The other side of the ocean had entered its most energetic hours.

The University of Pennsylvania, one of the Ivy League schools.

As a private research university, the University of Pennsylvania had practically taken the word "profit" to its utmost extreme. It had the Beautiful Country's first medical school and first business school, and it was also home to one of the Beautiful Country's earliest student organizations.

The Wharton School had cultivated countless members of the upper class and boasted many billionaire alumni, giving it immense influence.

However, compared to the popular fields of finance and nursing, the Mathematics Department under the College of Arts and Sciences ranked relatively low for a university as famous as the University of Pennsylvania.

It ranked eighteenth that year, and was clearly showing a gradual downward trend.

But it was still a world-class university, with its own independent College of Arts and Sciences. Its broad and well-connected Alumni Group also gave it exceptionally efficient access to information.

That day, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences who looked to be in his fifties stared blankly at the paper before him.

One of his students had sent it to him. That student worked on Wall Street and held a very respectable position.

After looking up the Mote post his student had mentioned, Professor Walker understood that the student had keenly sensed the brewing controversy over racial discrimination in academia.

He was considering whether it would affect the financial sector.

As long as they could catch the scent in advance, Wall Street hyenas like them could find ways to hunt. Whether shorting, going long, repeatedly switching sides, or deliberately steering events themselves, they had plenty of methods for cashing in on rumors they obtained ahead of time.

However, this student also had a solid foundation in mathematics. He had initially only been watching the potential turmoil caused by racial discrimination in academia, but later discovered that the proof looked quite convincing, so he sent it to his Teacher to find out more.

Since it had been sent by his own student, and the paper's presentation was indeed clean and pleasing to read, Walker decided to try verifying it.

It would have been better if he had not started. Once he did, even though he had not yet finished, he already knew this paper was extraordinarily remarkable.

It was just that his energy was no longer what it had been in his youth, forcing him to stop midway.

After rubbing his throbbing forehead, he did not reply by email. Instead, he directly called his student.

After several rings, the other side answered.

"Professor, I didn't expect you to call me directly. Did the email I sent cause you trouble?"

"It did cause me trouble, Noxi.

"But I called specifically to tell you that this matter will inevitably ignite the academic circles across the Beautiful Country and even the entire world. Your judgment was correct. This is a nuclear bomb about to explode."

Noxi, who was at the exchange, was slightly stunned when he heard his professor's words.

A nuclear bomb?

"Although I haven't fully verified it yet, I can guarantee that this paper has extremely high academic value. It is enough to be published in the Annals of Mathematics, and its author may even be invited to give an academic lecture. Now I need to find a few old friends to verify it with me."

Walker paused before continuing in a quiet tone.

"If our verification is completed and confirmed, then this will be one of next year's Fields Medal winners. You should understand the impact of that. Based on my current judgment, the possibility is very high."

Upon hearing his professor say that, Noxi understood why he had been contacted directly by phone.

"Oh, God, a Mote paper possesses major academic value? It's simply unbelievable! I understand. Thank you so much for calling, Professor!"

Could a mathematical proof affect Wall Street?

Of course it could!

As long as people like them wanted it to, it could have an impact.

Racial discrimination in academia?

What a wonderful new battlefield!

As long as it was guided properly, they could even force journals like Science and Nature to suspend publication for several issues, while mobilizing large numbers of researchers to speak out or even go on strike.

The stocks of companies involved in cutting-edge fields such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, and education could be broken with ease.

It was no longer a question of whether they could make money, but how much they could make.

Obviously, this was not something he could swallow alone. He immediately began contacting his Boss to make a report.

The media would need to cooperate in advance, and they might even need to persuade several "persecuted" individuals to come forward, tell their stories, and accept interviews.

This was exactly what they were best at...

After clattering away at the keyboard for a while and then deleting everything again, Xue Chuan felt utterly frustrated.

Good grief. Once the other side had jumped into the cesspit themselves, all his mud-slinging became completely ineffective.

They had already started catching ghosts. If he kept grabbing at them and firing off attacks, wouldn't he just be humiliating himself?

But he had long been arrogant and extremely paranoid, and he simply could not accept this. He had to find some way to regain his footing.

Just as he was considering it, however, his diehard Shake Message group began frantically tagging him.

Anyone Xue Chuan had personally brought into his diehard Shake Message group was definitely among his most loyal and important fans. They could even be called believers.

They had even donated to a fund for him, with some individuals donating more than three million on their own.

This was one of the sources funding his comfortable life.

When he opened the Shake Message group, the first message caught him completely off guard.

"Teacher Xue, Xi'an Jiaotong University's Official Weibo has come out to back that person..."

First update~

Asking in advance for Tuesday follow-up reading. At least give it a read through on Tuesday~

I changed some of the remarks because I was worried about censorship, but some comments online in reality are actually even more outrageous...