"Who are you?" a wary voice rang out.
Following the voice, Chen Wu was startled to find a Westerner in his thirties or forties, dressed in a straight-collared robe with an outer vest, his official speech impeccably precise as he stepped forward to block Chen Wu's path.
"I am..."
Chen Wu was about to explain when the Westerner rudely cut him off. "I've seen plenty of your type."
"You read a couple of newspaper reports, have a sudden whim, and think you're some mathematical genius. You haven't even studied calculus, yet you come here to solve a top-tier problem."
"Go on, then. What did you use to solve the Emperor Taizong Conjecture? I've already chased off several people who came to solve it this morning!"
"If you ask me, this reward never should have been printed in the newspapers. Why does every last one of you think the Emperor Taizong Conjecture is so easy to prove? Is it because you can't understand any of the other problems?"
The Westerner spoke at a breakneck pace, and Chen Wu could not keep up at all. Only after the man finally paused did Chen Wu get a word in.
"No, no, it's a misunderstanding," Chen Wu said. "I'm not here to solve some Goethe—oh, no, the Emperor Taizong Conjecture. I'm here to find someone."
"Ah... I'm terribly sorry. I was a little impulsive." Hearing this, the Westerner grew awkward. "There have been too many deluded people coming to solve the Emperor Taizong Conjecture since this morning. The most outrageous was one carrying a yin-yang bagua diagram, pointing at the Xun trigram and telling me he'd proved the Emperor Taizong Conjecture."
"Are you... the Chancellor of the Academy of Sciences?"
"Ah—far from it, far from it!" The Westerner waved his hands. "I'm merely an