The outside world's turmoil did not disturb Cheng Che.
Qin Lie's inbox was overflowing with interview requests—variety shows, magazines, brand events, award ceremonies, you name it.
Cheng Che only selected a few interviews with CCTV, which he accepted.
He left the rest to Qin Lie to handle.
The CCTV interview was arranged in a studio near Peking University.
The host asked some standard questions about math, tennis, and balance.
Cheng Che answered steadily, without pretense or excessive modesty.
The host concluded with a question, "Do you consider yourself a genius?"
Cheng Che thought for a moment.
"I don't consider myself a genius," he said. "I just spend a little more time on everything than others. Math, tennis, acting, it's all the same. If I had to say what's special about me, it's probably that I can sit still longer."
The host laughed, "Being able to sit still is a rather novel compliment."
Cheng Che smiled slightly, "It's difficult to sit still. Many people are smart, but they can't sit still."
After the interview aired, CCTV edited it into a short video and posted it on Weibo.
Someone in the comments section said, "He said he 'could sit still,' but he's the kind of person who proved a 60-year-old conjecture in just three days without leaving the house. Is that what you call being able to sit still? That's called enlightenment!"
Cheng Che called Teacher Chen from Esquire magazine.
" Teacher Chen, I heard you want to reshoot?"
Teacher Chen paused for a moment on the other end of the phone:
"Yes, I feel the previous plan wasn't comprehensive enough. Now that you're a mathematician, I'd like to add a scene, like you standing in front of the blackboard—"
"No need," Cheng Che said.
Teacher Chen paused for a moment.
"Student and Champion are my two most authentic sides," Cheng Che explained earnestly. "The identity of a mathematician is relatively new, but the identity of a student has been with me for over a decade. Mathematics is what I do, but the school uniform is my true identity. The previous plan doesn't need to be changed."
Teacher Chen thought about it for a long time on the other end of the phone.
Then he said, "You're right."
After hanging up the phone, Teacher Chen sat in the editing room, looking at the set of school uniform and tennis uniform photos that had already been edited on the screen.
The student and the Champion: one represents the path he came from, and the other represents the position he reached.
Adding mathematics only makes it more complicated.
"I'm not changing it," he muttered to himself.
In the following two weeks, several foreign mathematicians arrived in Capital City.
Students from Princeton, Cambridge, the École Normale Supérieure of Paris, and the University of Tokyo flew in from different countries and checked into hotels near Peking University.
Someone posted a photo on social media with the caption, "Arrived, looking forward to tomorrow's presentation."
These posts were screenshotted and shared on Weibo by Xia Country students studying in China, and they trended on Weibo every day.
A France mathematics professor was recognized by students while taking a walk on the Peking University campus, and they surrounded him asking for his autograph.
He was surprised and said, "Nobody knows me in Paris, but someone in Xia Country knows me."
Unbeknownst to him, the student next to him was scrolling through Cheng Che supertopic on his phone.
The end of the month has arrived in the blink of an eye.
The auditorium at Peking University was packed to capacity.
The auditorium, which can hold eight hundred people, was packed with people; people were standing in the aisles and crowded at the door.
The front row consisted of professors from the School of Mathematical Sciences and scholars from abroad, followed by students from Peking University, and then media reporters.
Three cameras were set up: one facing the podium, one facing the audience, and one shooting a panoramic view. The number of viewers in the live stream had already exceeded five million before the report meeting even started.
Cheng Che stood backstage and glanced outside through the gap in the curtain.
The lights are on, the projector is adjusted, and the microphone has been tested.
Today he wore a black LV cashmere coat, a dark gray turtleneck sweater underneath, and slim-fit black trousers.
The gold-rimmed glasses sat on his nose, the lenses so thin that the prescription was almost impossible to read. His hair was neatly styled, and he looked more scholarly than usual.
He was 185 cm tall, and when he stood there, he had broad shoulders and a neatly sculpted waist.
Professor Liu stood next to him and patted him on the shoulder.
Are you nervous?
Cheng Che shook his head. "There's nothing to be nervous about."
Professor Liu smiled and said, "That's true. You've even played in the Australian Open final."
The dean walked over from the front, holding a flowchart in his hand.
"I'll go up first, say a few words, and then introduce you. Come up when you hear my name."
Cheng Che nodded.
The dean walked onto the podium, and the auditorium fell silent.
The chat in the live stream stopped; everyone was waiting.
The dean's speech was short; in essence, he thanked all the guests and his colleagues from the School of Mathematical Sciences, and concluded with a brief remark.
"Today's protagonist is a nineteen-year-old. His achievements in mathematics are already well-known and need no further explanation. What I want to talk about is something else. When he chose to study Peking University School of Mathematical Sciences, someone asked him why he wasn't playing basketball anymore. He said, 'Playing basketball and mathematics don't conflict.' At the time, I thought it was just youthful impetuosity. Now I don't think so."
He paused for a moment, then said, "Please welcome Mr. Cheng Che."
Applause erupted in the auditorium.
That wasn't the screaming of entertainment industry audiences; it was the recognition of equally outstanding individuals by scholars.
The applause was deep and powerful, coming in waves.
Cheng Che walked out from backstage.
The light shone on him, reflecting a thin beam of light off the frames of his gold-rimmed glasses.
He walked behind the podium, bowed slightly, then looked up and scanned the auditorium.
Then [ Stars Surrounding the Moon ] was triggered.
The chat in the live stream paused for 0.5 seconds.
Then it exploded.
[Holy shit]
[Is this a mathematician??? Is this a mathematician???]
He looks so good in glasses!
He wore Louis Vuitton to a math presentation?!
[Gold-rimmed glasses!!! Gold-rimmed glasses!!!]
[When he stood behind the podium, I thought he was a professor, but it turned out to be a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student.]
When did the academic world become so obsessed with appearance???
I originally came here to learn, but now I'm judging people by their looks.
[His presence alone was enough to steal the attention of everyone else in the auditorium.]
Is this what it means to be at the top of academia?
[Can the comments be quiet? He hasn't even said anything yet.]
[I don't care, I'm going to take a screenshot, I'm going to use this as my wallpaper]
He looks like a completely different person with glasses on, but he's still just as handsome.
[Academic superstar + handsome guy + world Champion + luxury brand ambassador – does this kind of person really exist?]
When he said he could "sit still," I thought he was a scholar. Now that he's standing on the podium, I think he's a star. But now that he's about to talk about mathematics, I think he's a genius.
[I hereby declare that, from this day forward, mathematics is my favorite subject.]
[Warning: He's about to start talking about his conjectures!]
Cheng Che adjusted his glasses and spoke.
"Thank you, Dean. Thank you, teachers and students. I don't plan to read a paper today. I'd like to tell a story first."
The auditorium fell silent. The online comments also fell silent.
In 1965, two mathematicians proposed a conjecture. They believed that the roots of a polynomial with integer coefficients could not all lie near the unit circle; at least one must be far away. This conjecture sounds simple, but proving it requires traversing three branches of mathematics. Over the past sixty years, many people have tried, but no one has succeeded.
He paused for a moment.
"When I chose this hypothesis, many people asked me why. I didn't have an answer. I just thought it looked good."
A soft chuckle came from below.
"Later I figured it out. I think it's beautiful because it has a structural beauty. That kind of beauty isn't something you can see at a glance; you have to go in, peel back the layers, and you'll see it. It's like a person; the longer you spend time with them, the more interesting they become."
He picked up the remote and pressed a button.
The first page of the paper appeared on the screen behind me.
"And now, I'm going to start talking about what's interesting about him."