Chapter 13
The meeting concerned the request recently submitted by Dragon Country's stationed representative: Jiang Ye was to be replaced.
The Ten Conglomerates had communicated with one another before the meeting and agreed on a common position and strategy.
The representative from the DuPont Consortium took the lead and asked, "Chief director, how difficult would it be to replace Jiang Ye?"
The chief director had already prepared his answer and immediately said, "Extremely difficult!"
He continued, "Even if we could now find a young person from Dragon Country who still doesn't know about our show and go to great lengths to send them to the island city where Jiang Ye is and start over,
"Leaving aside the time and effort involved, the direct financial loss alone is estimated at as much as one billion dollars, and the indirect losses will exceed two billion dollars."
As soon as he finished speaking, an uproar broke out among the people seated there.
They discussed it quietly among themselves for quite a while.
Once the noise had died down a little, the DuPont Consortium representative continued, "The compensation the Dragon Country representative just offered was only one hundred million dollars at most. From a purely financial standpoint, we cannot agree."
"Besides, I think it would be difficult to find a young person from Dragon Country who doesn't know about the show now!"
"That's right, sir."
"Speaking of which, the other five contestants are all ordinary people. With a mathematical genius suddenly appearing, the show is not only more eagerly anticipated, but also has more highlights."
"Then we representatives of the Ten Conglomerates will vote on this matter. The result and the meeting minutes will be sent to our respective headquarters afterward."
A moment later, the result came as no surprise. The representatives of all Ten Conglomerates voted against replacing Jiang Ye.
As for communicating with Dragon Country, someone would naturally handle the wrangling.
After the vote ended, the chief director suddenly asked, "What should we do about Jiang Ye?"
He hadn't spelled it out, but all ten representatives understood the implication.
The DuPont representative smiled. "He's just a young man with a little talent for mathematics, isn't he? You can grab a whole handful of young people like him at the Sam Empire's top universities."
"So he isn't worth too much attention from our Ten Conglomerates."
At 9:30 in the morning.
In the international livestream room.
A hint of a smile flashed in Chen Danni's eyes. "We will now announce the decision regarding Jiang Ye."
"After deliberation and comprehensive consideration, the production team has decided not to replace contestant Jiang Ye!"
"The specific reasons are as follows: 1. Replacing Jiang Ye would send the production team's early preparations flowing east with the water and cause enormous, irrecoverable financial losses. 2..."
As soon as the announcement was made,
Viewers from various countries who had been calling for Jiang Ye to stay erupted in cheers.
Meanwhile, netizens back home indignantly began arguing on all fronts, seizing on one point to rail against the other five contestants.
For a time, it was quite a spectacle.
Another group, however—the mathematicians of the world-were staring at the first feed in the livestream room in shock.
They included people from the Paris Institute for Advanced Mathematical Studies, the International Mathematical Union, the Sam Federation Mathematical Society, the Ivy League's Eight Member Schools, Dragon Country's mathematics community...
No one knew what those big names in mathematics had seen on the young man's A4 paper in the first livestream feed that had captivated them so.
But their reactions gradually spread to academic circles at top universities around the world.
From there, word continued to spread beyond academia.
On domestic internet platforms,
While viewers were still engrossed in their arguments with international viewers,
Several independent online media outlets suddenly published articles at the same time, dropping what was like a depth charge and causing a public sensation.
"According to a prominent figure in academic circles, Jiang Ye may be able to solve the Beal Conjecture."
"Big names in mathematics around the world are watching the livestream. Compared with Zhou's Conjecture, the Beal Conjecture carries greater weight."
"A professor at Shuimu University who wishes to remain anonymous claims that if Jiang Ye can solve the Beal Conjecture, Shuimu University will make an exception and appoint him as a professor of mathematics."
Chapter 13: Jiang Ye! Evolving from Man into God (On My Knees Begging for Flowers, Monthly Tickets, and Rating Tickets)
The public uproar at home continued to grow.
Whether it was the one-million-dollar prize for the Beal Conjecture or the exceptional appointment as a professor at Shuimu University,
Both made countless people burn with envy.
As long as he solved the Beal Conjecture, fame and fortune would both be his in an instant.
But in response to such superficial thinking from most people, many young scholars in academic circles gave interviews to convey a deeper point and explain its significance to the public.
"If we discuss only their academic value to the mathematical community today, then the tens of thousands of mathematical conjectures can roughly be divided into several tiers.
"The first tier undoubtedly includes Millennium Prize Problems such as the Riemann Hypothesis, the NP-Complete Problem, and the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap hypothesis—the so-called World's Seven Great Mathematical Problems-as well as some of Hilbert's 23 Problems, and so on.
"Once proved, these conjectures would advance not only mathematics, but would also have an extremely profound impact on other academic fields.
"The second tier naturally consists of the three best-known modern mathematical problems: Goldbach's Conjecture, the Four Color Problem, and Fermat's Last Theorem.
"Two of them have already been solved. On the remaining one, Goldbach's Conjecture, Old Mr. Chen has already achieved '1+2.'
"In addition, some problems in the Langlands Program and some of Hilbert's 23 Problems can also be placed in this tier.
"The third tier: the distinction between conjectures at this level and those in the second tier is actually not very clear, and since subjective opinions are involved, there may be considerable disagreement.
"As a typical example, the Beal Conjecture can be counted in this tier.
"And proving a problem at this level would put one close to the Fields Medal, or at least earn a nomination-provided, of course, that one is under forty.
"The fourth tier: Zhou's Conjecture can be counted here. Subproblems of any first-, second-, or third-tier problem, or the 'weak conjecture' of some conjecture, can also be tucked in here.
"The fifth tier contains even more: obscure branches that attract no attention, conjectures proposed by little-known mathematicians, and any conjectures that do not reach the fourth tier can all be placed in this tier."
Once the young scholar's remarks came out, countless people shared them, and they became known to even more people.
"So, if he can solve and prove the Beal Conjecture, he could be nominated for this year's Fields Medal?"
"What's the Fields Medal? Can some expert tell me?"