On December 18.
The auditorium on Jinling University's old campus welcomed a special group of guests. They came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and ranged in age from their early twenties to their seventies and eighties.
So many foreign visitors gathering on the old campus, which even the university's own students might only have visited a handful of times, was decidedly unusual. It drew repeated glances from countless students.
To maintain order and ensure the safety of the speaker and attendees, the Jinling City authorities had mobilized nearly half a district's police force. They had even deployed armed police officers and soldiers to safeguard the entire presentation.
For a scholar to receive such attention was truly rare.
But on closer consideration, it was not particularly surprising.
More than two thousand internationally renowned scholars were attending the presentation. Another thousand or more PhD students, and even master's students, had failed to secure admission but traveled to Jinling at their own expense or with their supervisors to join this major academic gathering, simply to learn the outcome firsthand.
With such an enormous lineup, even premier conferences like the International Congress of Mathematicians and the International Congress of Pure and Applied Mathematics would probably struggle to rival it.
At the old campus gates stood two master's students wearing bilingual Chinese-English volunteer armbands. Some professor had apparently coaxed them out of his office with the promise of "broadening their horizons." They gazed at the grand spectacle in the distance, overwhelmed with emotion.
"With a turnout like this, you could call it the mathematical world's contest of masters on Mount Hua!"
"What contest on Mount Hua? There are only two stars at this presentation. This is clearly a showdown atop the Forbidden City..."
One was the youngest Fields Medal winner, the undisputed king among