Chapter 11
Before he had started writing, he had spent just ten minutes flipping through textbooks on the relevant fields of mathematics.
What could anyone do in ten minutes?
For an ordinary person, that might not even be enough time to solve a sixth-grade math problem from the latest textbook.
Yet he had gone straight for a famous conjecture in the field of mathematics.
Thanks to popular science explanations, most people now understood the significance of Zhou's Conjecture.
It could be called a key to one of the great problems of the century.
Solving Zhou's Conjecture and proving it could greatly aid research into the Riemann Hypothesis, one of the world's seven great conjectures.
Practically everyone who studied number theory had, to some extent, looked into special primes such as Mersenne primes, twin primes, and Fermat primes.
Most of them had tried to prove Zhou's Conjecture.
Yet not one of them had succeeded!
"Good grief, I came to watch human nature and enjoy the show, and Jiang Ye ended up showing me how he solves math problems."
"So what if he really does solve it? Will that help him survive from here on?"
"You should worry about your own countries' contestants. As long as Jiang Ye shows extraordinary talent, would a genius like him still need to take part in the show!?"
Some viewers abroad were still making snide remarks.
Meanwhile, netizens back home were discussing how, if the proof Jiang Ye had just written was correct, it would mean he was a mathematical genius.
If that were the case, the country certainly wouldn't let him continue participating in the show.
But if netizens at home had thought of that, those abroad naturally had too.
On Twitter, a newly posted message received millions of likes and reposts.
"If Jiang Ye really is a mathematical genius and the production team plans to replace him, then we won't watch the show anymore. Everyone who supports me, hurry and like this post so the production team can see how determined we are!"
When a netizen brought the tweet to major platforms back home, countless self-media accounts, major public accounts, and big-name influencers began reposting it with comments of their own.
Before long, netizens across the country were in an uproar.
"Damn it, whoever posted that tweet has truly sinister intentions!"
"As long as Jiang Ye really is a mathematical genius and stays on that show, the ten major conglomerates will make a move against him in secret and put him to death."
"Exactly. Science knows no borders, but scientists do. What happened to Elder Qian back then says it all."
"We also call on the country to step in. If he really is a mathematical genius and falls before everyone's eyes just like that, it would be a tremendous loss for our country."
"I think it'll be difficult. The ten major conglomerates have poured so much effort, manpower, and material and financial resources into this show that I'm afraid they won't let Jiang Ye come back easily."
"Now I actually hope Jiang Ye's proof is wrong. At least then he won't be targeted."
At a certain special department.
Zhang Puze looked at the two contingency plans in his hands, his brow tightly furrowed.
One laid out what to do next if Jiang Ye's proof was correct.
The other covered what to do if Jiang Ye's proof was wrong.
After looking at them for a while, Zhang Puze asked, "Is there still no result from Elder Yang?"
The Elder Yang he spoke of was the mathematics heavyweight currently checking Jiang Ye's proof.
"Not yet. His assistant said it'll take at least another hour."
Zhang Puze nodded. "All we can do now is wait."
[I'm very grateful for everyone's support. Thank you. No more talk-here's an update as thanks.]
Chapter 11: That Man Stood at the Pinnacle of This Era (Please Send Flowers, Rating Votes, and Monthly Votes)
In a quiet, secluded private residence in Princeton, New Jersey.
A bald old white man was also checking Jiang Ye's proof on a blackboard.
His name was Pierre, the man who had proved the Weil Conjectures. The Fields Medal, the Crafoord Prize, the Wolf Prize, and last year's Abel Prize—he had won practically every award the world of mathematics could give him.
Even in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, a building that housed mathematical geniuses from around the world, his brilliance could not be concealed.
When the white chalk in his hand suddenly fell to the floor.
When he took a step back and stared blankly at the formulas on the blackboard.
After a long silence, Pierre let out a long breath and softly uttered a word in French. "Impressive!"
Other than impressive, he couldn't think of any other praise.
The young man's line of argument was clear, his logic rigorous, and the methods he had used were so ingenious that Pierre couldn't find a single flaw.
He couldn't even find anything that could be improved.
It was too smooth.
So smooth it was hard to believe.
He simply couldn't imagine that it had come from the hand of a young man only twenty years old.
At that moment, the study door suddenly swung open, and his assistant rushed in and said quietly, "Professor Pierre, Jiang Ye has actually started again!"
As he spoke, the assistant held his phone out in front of the professor and added, "This time he's solving the Beal Conjecture."
The moment he heard "Beal Conjecture," Professor Pierre's pupils contracted.
"Doesn't he need to rest? Just how is his brain made?"
Looking at the slightly thin figure in the first frame of the livestream, Professor Pierre's eyes were full of disbelief.
The next moment, Pierre's attention was instantly and completely captured by the formulas Jiang Ye was writing on the A4 paper.
"Professor, was his proof of Zhou's Conjecture correct?" the assistant asked quietly, but the professor gave no response.
Seeing that the professor's soul had been spirited away, the assistant could only ask again, "Professor, the production team wants to know whether Jiang Ye's proof of Zhou's Conjecture was correct."
"Yes, yes. Go out and shut the door, and don't disturb me!"
At a mathematics research institute back home.