White-Hot

The scent of hormones lingered on the large bed in the hotel room after their passionate lovemaking.

"Look, we've bought bags, had a big meal, and solved equations. Tell me, Little Yezi, what's the mathematical principle behind calculating blackjack?" Shen Qi asked humbly, as he also had some models in mind and wanted to confirm them with Ou Ye.

Ou Ye hugged the big, snow-white pillow and giggled, but wouldn't say a word.

"You've been putting it off from the luxury store until now, you're not trying to fool me, are you?" Shen Qi snatched the pillow away.

"Oh dear!" Ou Ye, who was in a vacuum, covered her chest with her hands and immediately burrowed under the covers, peeking out her head. "Nine out of ten gamblers lose, you can't predict the outcome."

"So you won three games in a row, purely by luck? What do you mean the chance of losing the fourth game is over 80%? Are you trying to provoke me?" Shen Qi realized he had really been fooled. Winning three games in a row was something any ordinary person could do if they had a bit of luck.

Ou Ye buried her head under the covers, chuckling to herself.

Shen Qi threw back the covers. "Little Yezi, you've changed!"

"Wait a minute! It's actually possible to calculate it manually, it's just that I didn't calculate it today..."

Shen Qi and Ou Ye had a great time during their short Atlantic City vacation. They went to a casino and won $700. Other expenses totaled $5,000, and they bought a lot of gifts.

Back at Princeton, Ou Ye's dissertation defense results came out: he passed.

Ou Ye was overjoyed to have secured her PhD from Princeton, and Shen Qi was very pleased. "Ou Ye, you've read over a dozen books, and you've finally reached the end. Reading is something that always comes to an end; whether you want it to end or not, it has to. Congratulations, Dr. Ou!"

"Thank you, Dr. Shen!" Ou Ye and her boyfriend strolled through the campus of Princeton University; the couple held three doctoral degrees.

"Little Yezi, your Doctoral Thesis needs to be published. Being the first to prove the Yesmanovich Conjecture is a great achievement. Once it's recognized by IMU, you might win an award," Shen Qi suggested.

"I don't even dare to dream of the Fields Medal," Ou Ye said, knowing her limitations.

"Winning the Fields Medal is difficult with the achievement of being the first to prove the Yesmanovich Conjecture, but there are other awards as well; you should win one."

"Hmm, I hope so."

Ou Ye submitted his Doctoral Thesis, "A Proof of the Yesmanovich Conjecture," to the Annals of Mathematics of Annals of Mathematics, hoping it would be published there, thus completing his mission.

Now that Ou Ye had some free time, she waited for Shen Qi to complete the Hodge conjecture project so they could return to China together.

Shen Qi certainly wanted to be the first in the world to prove Hodge conjecture, and he knew that his other competitors were also working on it.

The latest version of Yu Lei and Ralph's paper was delivered to Shen Qi. After studying it, Shen Qi said, "Not bad."

Yu Lei and Ralph were both in Shen Qi's office.

"Thank you both very much. Only I know how much effort you've put into this project since last summer. Now we're just one small step away from success." Shen Qi was quite satisfied with the two doctoral students' hard work.

"So, does Yu and I still need to revise our paper?" Ralph asked. Shen Qi was extremely strict with them. This paper had already been revised sixteen times, and this version was V17, the seventeenth version.

"I believe version V18 will be the final version, so I'll have to trouble you all for a while longer." Shen Qi walked to the blackboard and wrote down his opinion.

"We're in charge of the Hodge conjecture Algebraic Geometry section, and we've completed 90% of the work. The next 10% is what we should be working on."

Shen Qi tapped the blackboard. "Let's assume the base field k is complete. If we add N^2 indeterminate variables uik, theoretically we can obtain a new base field. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Yu Lei walked to the blackboard and said, "Professor Shen means that through linear transformation, it is possible to make ε1 to εm algebraically independent quantities on K?"

"That's right, this task is assigned to you, Yu Lei. Are you confident in verifying my deduction?" Shen Qi asked.

"I'll try to finish this work as soon as possible," Yu Lei said confidently.

"Very well, Yu Lei has taken on this task, so Ralph, you have no other choice." Shen Qi looked at Ralph and said, "I conjecture that every point y in Vx has a definite closed chain such that its corresponding point z lies in the image cluster of point O under the rational mapping. Ralph, can you prove my conjecture and provide the most rigorous derivation?"

The situation was pressing; he had no choice but to accept the task, even if he felt it was impossible. Ralph reluctantly took on the assignment. "I think I should be able to."

"Excellent!" Shen Qi clapped his hands and blew the charge. "Brothers, the moment of decisive battle has arrived! Believe me, decades from now when we're old, we will never regret not having accomplished something in our youth. Let's get to work!"

Yu Lei and Ralph went to work; the new task Shen Qi assigned them was not easy.

Shen Qi was responsible for gathering intelligence and overseeing the overall progress of the three teams from China and the United States.

"Director Lu, how's the progress of your Mathematical Analysis section?"

"Professor Shen, please don't worry! We'll start collaborating on the manuscript in July as planned."

"Director Wu, what's the progress on the derivation of the remaining four Standard Model in the topology section?"

"Following Professor Shen's approach, we've completed two, and progress is going smoothly!"

"Can we combine the manuscripts in July?"

"We are going all out to achieve our goal of compiling the final draft by July!"

The morale of the two Chinese teams was quite high. Yenching University's Lu Guozhen team had been progressing smoothly and had basically not caused Shen Qi any trouble. Yenching University's Mathematics Department was the best in the country, and that was no small feat.

The team Director Wu at the Morning Star Mathematics Center did not have as many talent resources as Yenching University, and they encountered many problems during the project's progress. Fortunately, Shen Qi helped them solve these problems after returning to China.

That's how research projects are; sometimes things go smoothly, sometimes they get blocked. An academic leader with both strategic and tactical skills is very important. Sometimes a decision made by the academic leader can make the whole team achieve twice the result with half the effort. Of course, a wrong judgment can also ruin the team and lead to its demise.

Princeton, Yenching University, and the Morning Star Mathematics Center fully trusted Shen Qi Shen Qi, allowing him to fully utilize his abilities. He couldn't allow himself to fail; if he did, who would he be able to face? He couldn't afford to make such an international joke.

However, the international situation is extremely complex, and competition is constantly taking place on a global scale.

Just after Shen Qi finished his call with Director Wu, a major announcement came from Germany: Schultz's team at the University of Bonn claimed that they had proven that every harmonic differential form on a beta-class nonsingular Projective algebraic variety is a rational combination of the cohomology classes of algebraic chains.

Shen Qi immediately searched for information about the Munich academic conference.

Schultz presented his latest research findings on the Hodge conjecture at this conference, but it was only an abstract and the full results were not published.

"So that's how Schultz defines non- Projective algebraic variety of class β. If he really proves this special case of class β, he won't be too far from fully proving the Hodge conjecture." Several months later, Shen Qi felt nervous again. Schultz had started studying the Hodge conjecture three years ago, and Shen Qi was actually a latecomer.

The more Shen Qi chased, the faster Schultz ran, and the competition became increasingly fierce.