Scientists who revitalized the country (3): Touch porcelain¹

While the students were watching in astonishment, the old man ran over and held Si Qi’s hand firmly. He said to Si Qi in a choked and cautious tone, as if he was afraid of disturbing anything: “You, are you Si Qi.? ”

The students around him looked puzzled, and the student sitting next to Si Qi even said frankly: “Professor, he is Si Qi.”

Of course the old professor knew Si Qi’s name. He looked at Si Qi excitedly, but when he saw the young man’s calm eyes, he was stunned. He didn’t know whether it was disappointment or luck and he said to him: “Have you published in a journal? I mean the [Annual Review of Mathematics]”

The professor who was standing on the podium and whose lecture was interrupted came over in confusion. Hearing this sentence, he became even more puzzled.

“[Annual Review of Mathematics]? That is a top international journal. How can a senior student publish a paper there…”

The students around him nodded subconsciously, very much in agreement.

They understood why the old professor was behaving like this. They looked at such a large group of professors dumbfounded, thinking that it was a misunderstanding.

Si Qi, however, under everyone’s astonished eyes, replied: “Is this what you’re here for? Yes, I published it.”

He reacted and asked: “Has the paper been approved? I haven’t checked my email yet. Thank you for letting me know.”

The people around him stared in disbelief and took a breath of cold air – he actually said such words in such a nonchalant tone! !

If this were to happen to others, even to these professors, it would be something that would make them smile and make them so excited that they could hardly contain themselves! !

The professors shouted at the top of their lungs: “Do you know what you are talking about?! That is ‘The Riemann hypothesis’!!! You proved ‘The Riemann hypothesis’!!!”

In an instant, the classroom filled with noisy discussions fell silent.

A few seconds later, the atmosphere in the lecture hall boiled and became as noisy as a pot exploding.

“The Riemann hypothesis?!”

“The problem of the century???”

“real or fake?!”

“Quickly pinch me, I seem to be dreaming… Ouch! You really pinched me!”

The old professor, with a bright face, took Si Qi’s arm and said to the professor in class: “I will take him away for a while, and you can continue the class.”

The professor who was lecturing opened his eyes wide. He looked at the students around him and then at Si Qi in front of him. His face was red, but he couldn’t say “Take me there too”, he was so anxious.

The students were excitedly talking about what had just happened, and every one of them was extremely excited.

“The Riemann hypothesis! The Riemann hypothesis! Ahhhhhhhhh I’m going crazy!”

“Damn, I’m so excited, you guys can skip class with me! I can’t wait to see that paper with my own eyes!”

“Keep your voice down! The professor is staring at you!”

“Come on, the professor definitely wants to see it more than me!”

It had to be said that Si Qi’s appearance was like a shot of energy, hitting the hearts of everyone who had been depressed during this period. Many people who learned the news immediately called their leaders and reported Si Qi’s name.

The next day, reporters came to Si Qi in high spirits and interviewed him.

Another day later, all of China knew that their country had a talent who could easily solve problems that foreign scholars had been unable to solve for hundreds of years. This was enough to make all compatriots feel deeply proud.

After all, he had just turned seventeen this year and was not even an adult yet. He still had an infinite future worth looking forward to.

What was more important was that he was also the central figure in the war between the two countries during this period. He was a case used by the Country E’s people to attack China for having no talent available in the future. Now it was just enough for Chinese netizens to show off in a proud way.

——You said there are students like Si Qi all over your university? Haha, then you can’t solve world-class mathematical problems even if you gather so many mathematicians, how come our students can solve it?

It could be seen that the guys over there with names that sounded louder than anyone else were just a group of mediocre people. Thousands of them gathered together were still no match for our native Chinese compatriots! !

How arrogant were they?!

The Country E people were dumbfounded by this powerful blow, and no matter how much the Chinese people ridiculed them, they couldn’t reply. In shame, they all cursed on the Internet why their country was so useless and such talented people were let go. It was obvious that their country E was the greatest country in the world and had the most intelligent talents.

But far away in country E, after spending two years with Si Qi, all the classmates who thought they knew him well were confused.

“They just have the same name, right?”

“No, the newspaper said it was from our school, and there were photos.”

“This guy hides it so well…” The students who had previously mocked Si Qi for surely bowing down to reality and despised him for not being able to feed on his patriotism did not feel good: “No wonder he’s determined to go back to China, After he returns, he’ll be pampered like a baby by everyone.”

“So what if he´s pampered? He still has to live a hard life with them.” One person rolled his eyes and said disdainfully: “like we said, some people have never seen the world. If he stayed in country E with this paper, he would be able to live well and enjoy life for the rest of his life, he would have everything they wanted”

“That is, so what if he writes the world’s best paper? No matter how good his mathematical research is, without scientific and technological support, it is just a castle in the air, beautiful but useless! If he stayed in country E, would the institutions of country E treat him badly? Wouldn’t they give him everything he wanted? I’ve already said that the more capable you are, the more you can use your skills here. I think he’s just too stupid!”

“Being so bad as to hide it from us” Another classmate said with jealousy: “I used to ask him to go to parties and take him to bars. He always said he wanted to read a book. I thought he was too lazy to get along with us and deliberately made excuses. In fact, he was just writing a paper behind our backs. This thing would cost at least a lot of money. It should have taken a lot of years to make, but we heard nothing about it.”

“That’s right. Why not tell us…”

Seeing that everyone was pointing out that S Qi was not doing the right thing and had a bad head on his shoulders, one man suddenly grinned and scoffed: “Come on, will he come back after you say that?”

The people around him exploded immediately after hearing this, cursing and saying, “Fuck! What do you mean by that!”

The man sneered, raised the beer bottle and took a sip. After putting it down, he said nonchalantly: “We’re all smart people, why are we playing dumb here? When Qian Lu persuaded you to stay, couldn’t you see what Qian Lu had in mind? If Si Qi said that he had solved the Riemann hypothesis, not to mention a smooth return, if the resistance is too strong, maybe ……”

With a mocking look on his face, he stretched out his thumb and made a cutting motion towards his throat.

A group of people looked at each other, speechless.

After a while, someone said, “Where is Qian Lu?”

“What the hell?” The man sneered: “After something like this happens to Si Qi, he will be the first to be unlucky!”

“hhmm……”

Qian Lu knelt on the ground in pain, clutching his abdomen. Several tall men surrounded him, kicked him on the head, and shouted loudly: “You have been classmates with him for so many years, how could you not know that he has this ability!”

“You kept so many classmates, but you left out the most powerful one, and you said you didn’t do it on purpose?”

Qian Lu gritted his teeth, raised his upper body and said in frustration: “It’s not my fault!”

“Snap!”

The strong man rounded his arms and slapped Qian Lu hard on the face. The young man fell backwards to the ground. His dignity and personality were trampled on. His body trembled as he said: “I really don’t know!”

The man grabbed him by the hair and lifted his head up.

“That’s not what we want to hear. Money, not only did we lose the support we gave you, but you also personally let go of a huge threat! You must pay the price for this.”

Qian Lu was forced to raise his head, and his scalp hurt terribly. He gritted his teeth and said, “He has lived here for two full years. He can always leave something useful like notes and online records…”

“We have already checked those!” The man threw away Qian Lu’s head and said in a fierce tone: “He cleaned up all the traces and left no clues! It must be you, stupid monkey, who exposed his purpose, otherwise how could he do this!”

Qian Lu clenched his fists secretly and whispered angrily: “Damn it…”

If it weren’t for Si Qi, how could he have encountered this kind of thing? If Si Qi was willing to stay here honestly, he could gain the trust of these officers immediately. It was all because of Si Qi!

Qian Lu argued: “Is it possible that these things were not written by him at all? Do you really think that a senior student can write such things? He might have plagiarized other people’s work!”

Qian Lu’s mind was racing, and he quickly thought of something, and said loudly: “There is a professor in our school who specializes in the Riemann hypothesis. This may be his result! And Si Qi stole other people’s research!!”

Hearing this, several strong men around him looked at each other and said meaningfully: “You are right, this is a good idea.”

So, early the next morning, a letter of condemnation from Country E was delivered to Si Qi.

In the letter, they accused Si Qi of plagiarizing many years of academic achievements of a university professor in Country E, and wanted Si Qi to publicly apologize and admit his crime.

This letter of condemnation was not only delivered to Si Qi in a written form, but was also openly published on an online forum.

Driven by some people with ulterior motives, someone quickly translated this letter of condemnation into Chinese and published it on an online platform for everyone to see. And he loudly promoted this “big scandal” with gongs and drums, and said sarcastically:

“Look! I said this is impossible! It’s a lie fabricated by the media! A senior student has solved a problem that mathematicians around the world have been unable to solve for a hundred years. Do you think this is possible? “

“Open your eyes and see reality clearly! Stop bragging about so-called young geniuses, it will only make the world laugh!”

“Now the plagiarism has been confirmed, and it has even been sued to the court! It’s so embarrassing. Now the whole world is watching the excitement of our country!! I really don’t want to admit that Si Qi is Chinese, and I still think it’s better for him not to come back!”

“If you don’t have the ability to catch up slowly, why do you have to hype up the so-called young genius and let the people live in a fantasy that doesn’t exist at all! In order to build up our self-confidence, the media promotes a thief as a hero without confirmation. Do you think it’s sad? This just proves how helpless we are that we need such coaxing!”

When the people saw these “truths”, their joyful mood immediately turned into embarrassment and even shame.

Many people went to the newspaper office to protest in anger, and even tried to break into the university to find trouble with Si Qi, accusing him of deceiving the public and being a bastard liar who had disgraced the Chinese people.

The school gate was filled with angry crowds, and students did not even dare to go out at this time.

When the old professor heard about this, he was very angry. He quickly found Si Qi and comforted him: “Don’t take this matter to heart. People who understand will naturally understand. We all know that you are really capable.”

“We can’t expect those who are clean to clean themselves up and keep everyone sane.” The school leaders who came after hearing the news sighed: “He is a long-established scholar, but Si Qi is just a student.”

“So what” the old professor analyzed seriously: “Academic research is not like other things. Whether there are real materials or not will be revealed with just a few inquiries. The professor probably didn’t even understand the paper written by Si Qi, so it’s even worse to accuse Si Qi of plagiarizing his results. It’s ridiculous, and the truth will be revealed after a little confrontation between the two sides.”

The school leaders shook their heads: “That’s not the point. People know what is going on in their hearts, and they also know that falsehoods cannot be true. They just want us to feel unhappy even if we win, so they deliberately create this kind of public opinion to slander us. As long as the people of the country are uncertain and have doubts, their goal has been achieved. “

After hearing this, the old professor looked sad, “Then what should we do? We must let Si Qi prove his innocence as soon as possible? We can’t really let him be scolded by so many people for no reason! For example, find the professor and let him debate Si Qi face to face…”

The school leaders said helplessly: “You still don’t understand. He won’t cooperate with us. He even wants this farce to continue as long as possible. This matter is just a mess. It’s impossible to lose, but we won’t be happy if we win! “

“Then we can’t just do nothing!” The old professor was furious.

A group of people were discussing non-stop, but the increasingly fierce protests could be vaguely heard outside the campus, which made them even more upset.

“Is there no way to quickly prove Si Qi’s strength?” The old professor was indignant.

Xiu Xiu reminded: [Master, the second paper has passed the review and has been published in the journal]

Si Qi chuckled: [What a coincidence, there is such a way]

Notes

1. Touching porcelain, refers to a financial fraud in which a fraudster deliberately causes others to break fake goods and demands high-priced genuine goods or high monetary compensation. Later, it was also extended to the act of deliberately creating fake car accidents to extort others, or just in general refers to different ways to extort/ blackmail others. ↩︎