In the entertainment industry, the happiest people are undoubtedly the crew of the TV series " Youth Here " and the program " Walking the Flower Road Together ".
" The Youth Here " has finished airing.
The buzz surrounding the finale hadn't completely died down when Cheng Che's thesis pushed the show back into the trending topics.
Although the profits could no longer be realized, Producer Fang knew that the subsequent sales of the series would be even better.
With Cheng Che's identity, the value of overseas distribution, second-run broadcasts, and merchandise development more than doubled.
Producer Fang sat in his office, staring at the still-rising playback data in the backend, and sighed.
"The best deal I've ever made in my life was spending so little money to hire Cheng Che as the lead actor."
Director Zhou sat next to him, his lips twitching slightly.
"Twenty million."
"Yes, twenty million." Producer Fang turned to look at him, his tone filled with sincere emotion. "A mere twenty million to get such a star like him as the lead actor is like our ancestors' graves emitting auspicious smoke. Look at those brands now, LV, Nike, Rolex, Gucci, which one wouldn't spend tens of millions to sign him? We bought his entire series for twenty million."
Director Zhou thought about it and agreed with him.
When Cheng Che was signed, no one knew he would end up like this.
At that time, he was just a tennis player with some popularity. Although the title of top scorer in the college entrance Zhuangyuan was prestigious, it was not worth much in the entertainment industry.
A salary of 20 million was already a premium at the time.
Looking back now, that 20 million was practically free.
The production team of " Walking the Flower Road Together " was so excited they were practically blushing.
The reason is simple: this is the only variety show so far that still has footage of Cheng Che.
" The Youth Here " has already finished airing, he only made a guest appearance in one episode of " Life Slowed Down ", and there's still the Europe episode of " Walking the Flower Road Together " that hasn't been filmed yet.
In other words, if audiences across the Xia Country want to see new scenes of Cheng Che, they can only wait for " Walking the Flower Road Together ".
The production team leader sat in the conference room, slammed the subsequent filming plan on the table, and gave a firm order.
Give Cheng Che more screen time. Give him as much as you can, and put everyone else's shots in the back.
The people below looked at each other, but no one objected.
With Cheng Che's current popularity, every second of screen time he gets will bring more attention to the show.
"There's no upper limit to the cost of the Europe portion," the person in charge continued. "Accommodation, venues, and mission design—everything will be upgraded. The previous budget is scrapped, and we'll start from scratch."
"No upper limit on fees?" the assistant director asked quietly for confirmation.
"Yes." The person in charge nodded. "Do you know what level he's at now? A top mathematics journal, an Australian Open Champion, and a luxury brand ambassador. There's only one guest of this caliber in the entire Xia Country. If we mess up his footage, it would be a huge waste."
Everyone in the conference room nodded.
Some people have already started brainstorming filming plans for the Europe segment.
Meanwhile, Cheng Che's popularity continues to grow on foreign websites.
He already had a large fan base.
After winning the Australian Open, his international reputation has been established.
His discussion threads can be found on major tennis forums in Europe, Americas, and Asia.
But back then, people were discussing his ball skills and appearance.
Things are different now.
The official ATP account posted again, this time combining Cheng Che's Australian Open victory photo with the first page of his thesis.
The caption was just one sentence. "There's more than one definition of Champion."
In the comments section, tennis fans and academics mingled together, engaging in a lively discussion.
A France netizen wrote, "I follow the ATP account to watch tennis, but today I saw a math paper. My life has been turned upside down."
Another United States netizen replied to him, "Scroll down, his resume also includes top scorers in the national college entrance Zhuangyuan and students from Peking University. This person's career path is farther than my journey from New York to Los Angeles."
Federer retweeted for the fourth time. This time, he only wrote two words.
"Genius."
The comments section erupted again.
Some people have dug up Federer's three previous tweets mentioning Cheng Che: the first was "I want to see his matches," the second was "Welcome to professional tennis," the third was "The future is in his hands," and the fourth was "genius."
Four mentions, forming a complete progression.
Cheng Che's female fans were even more excited at this moment.
They flooded Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, expressing their adoration in various languages.
In the English-speaking section, people are writing, "He's not just handsome, he's a genius."
In the Spain region, people are spamming "He's a genius."
The French-speaking users directly posted a screenshot of Cheng Che's paper with the caption, "I can't even understand what he's writing, but I'm deeply attracted to him."
A Portugal female fan posted a video that combined clips of Cheng Che playing basketball with the first page of his thesis, using the chorus of the song " Chasing the Wind " as background music. At the end, she said:
"I initially started paying attention to him because of his looks, but now I love him even more because of his brains."
This video has been viewed over a million times.
In academia, however, the level of discussion is completely different.
Cheng Che's name was repeatedly mentioned in the mailing lists of the mathematics departments of several top universities, including Princeton, Cambridge, École Normale Supérieure of Paris, the University of Tokyo, and Moscow State University.
Someone posted on the internal forum. "I'm planning to go to Capital City for the end-of-month report meeting. Anyone want to come?"
A string of replies followed.
I'll go too.
I've booked my plane ticket.
"I heard that Peking University has expanded the scale of the lecture; it was originally scheduled for a small classroom, but has now been moved to the auditorium."
"I read the paper, and the idea is so novel. I've never seen the combination of p-advance and potential theory before. I have to go and hear him explain it in person."
"Does anyone know how he came up with this proof? I'd like to ask him."
"Line up, I want to ask him too."
An email from France was pushed to the top of the list.
The sender was a professor at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris, specializing in number theory and having published numerous papers in top journals.
He wrote, "I am fifty-seven years old this year. I have been studying the Schinzel-Zassenhaus Conjecture for thirty years. Today, it was solved by a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student from Xia Country. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. But anyway, I will be going to Capital City at the end of the month."
No one replied to the email.
Quiet silence carries more weight than any commentary.
Amidst all this hustle and bustle, Cheng Che was sitting in his apartment in Capital City.
The PowerPoint presentation in front of him had been revised more than a dozen times, and he felt that each version was not good enough.
He broke down each formula in the paper, adding diagrams and background information.
In some places, fearing that others might not understand, he added a couple more sentences of explanation.
He felt some parts were too wordy and deleted them.
He finished adjusting the layout of the last formula, saved the file, then leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.
Outside the window, it was a cold February night in Capital City.
A few buildings in the distance still had lights on, twinkling like stars.
He picked up his phone and glanced at it.
He received many messages, but he didn't reply to them one by one.
But he came across a notification from the official ATP account, accompanied by a photo.
The photo shows his Australian Open victory picture alongside the first page of his thesis, captioned " Champion has more than one definition."
He stared at the photo for two seconds, then smiled.
He put down his phone, reopened the PowerPoint presentation, and flipped to the first page.
The first page contained only one line, his prepared opening remarks.
" The Schinzel-Zassenhaus Conjecture was proposed in 1965. Sixty years later, I provided a proof. But before I go into the proof, I'd like to explain why this problem has fascinated me."
He moved the cursor to the end of that line and added another sentence.
"Because it made me believe that a person can do several things at the same time, as long as you want to do them enough."