Over the past few days, almost every hotel near Jinling University had been fully booked.
It was not because Valentine's Day or Christmas was approaching, but because so many visiting scholars had stayed on.
For three days, apart from eating and sleeping, Lu Zhou had barely gone anywhere. He spent his days in the lecture hall temporarily converted from the gymnasium, answering other scholars' questions about the grand unified theory.
And some questions about the standard conjectures.
Honestly, faced with this situation, Deligne no longer knew which part he should be more astonished by.
Although the moment he first saw Lu Zhou's paper on the grand unified theory, he had felt that the standard conjectures might be only one final step away from resolution, he had never expected that day to arrive so quickly.
He had not even had time to prepare himself.
Right there at the presentation, Lu Zhou had stood onstage and taken less than two hours to settle this problem of the century once and for all.
On the Jinling University campus.
After dinner in the cafeteria, two elderly men strolled along the tree-lined path leading to the observatory.
Glancing toward the gymnasium, Professor Sanak, who was walking beside him, suddenly spoke.
"It only troubled the mathematics community for half a century... doesn't that make it seem a little less impressive?"
Deligne shook his head.
"No... that man is an exception. I think any problem he solves should be considered separately."
After all, the standard conjectures had guided the course of algebraic geometry's development for half a century. Even if they had become history a little too "quickly," that did nothing to diminish their contribution to the field's development.
Professor Sanak gave a wry smile.
"Fair point."
At that point, for different reasons, both men fell silent.