Chapter 1151: Can you be a little bit more mindful!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
At 9 in the morning.
On Central TV News Channel, Beijing Television News Channel, Jinshi Morning News Broadcast, and a dozen other television stations, every one of them simultaneously announced an important piece of news: “We interrupt this broadcast with a news update. Our station’s reporters have just received news about the proof to one of the famous Math Problems that had caused quite a sensation throughout the field of mathematics. There has been now been a major breakthrough, with an update coming from the World Mathematics Association’s Dale’s Conjecture verification team. A press conference will be held later today at 1 PM Beijing time in Peking University. Our station’s reporters will be following up with details when the event begins and update our viewers on the latest developments!”
They did not say everything in full.
Nor was it thoroughly explained.
But that announcement alone was more than enough!
The common folk were not stupid. How could they not know what this was about?
Then, Zhang Ye’s army swept across Weibo!
“Heavens!”
“Oh my God!”
“Zhang Ye’s proof has been validated?”
“It’s been confirmed?”
“That’s really awesome!”
“Teacher Zhang has really freaking become a preeminent world-class mathematician!”
“Has there ever been a preeminent world-class mathematician who hailed from China? There have only been a handful of world-class mathematicians, right? And most of them are dead now!”
“I don’t know. There wasn’t any classification like this in the past, so there was no such label as a ‘preeminent world-class mathematician.’ After it was implemented, China has only had Zhang Ye who has been labeled as such. But nowadays, as long as a mathematician can solve a major math conjecture or make an important contribution to the global field of mathematics, they are conferred the title of preeminent world-class mathematician. That title is definitely in the bag for Zhang Ye! There shouldn’t be more than 40 people in the entire world who have obtained the title! While those who have this title and are still alive shouldn’t number more than 20!”
“How exciting!”
“Yeah, our country’s mathematics world shall have a major figure from now on!”
“Teacher Zhang is going to be on fire again!”
“Hahaha, he was already barely holding on to the first place on the A-list celebrity rankings and was almost going to be surpassed. In the end, everything just worked out nicely and Teacher Zhang is finally going to be able to gain a foothold in his ranking! This time, he is definitely going to gain a lot of popularity again. I just wonder if it would allow him to start breaking into the international celebrity’s popularity ranking list!”
“Let’s wait for the press conference then, it’s all only guesses for now!”
“What do you mean it’s all guesses? Even a fool can see what’s going on!”
“Yeah, why else would they hold a press conference for?”
“Congratulations, Zhang Ye!”
“This is really Zhang Ye’s year, isn’t it? Haha!”
…
Peking University.
The students were already on vacation, so there shouldn’t have been much people around at the school.
But when Zhang Ye drove over, he saw a crowd of cheering people the moment he reached the school gates. There were some people in the crowd that he knew and some that he didn’t!
When they saw the car arriving, everyone rushed forward and surrounded it!
When Zhang Ye stepped out of the car, Dean Pan immediately gave him a bear hug. It was an extremely tight hug as he patted Zhang Ye on the back thumpingly. It was obvious that Old Pan was extremely happy today!
Pan Yang said, “Congratulations!”
Zhang Ye nodded. “Thank you.”
Han Henian also came forward to give Zhang Ye a hug. “Congratulations, Professor Zhang!”
This was Zhang Ye’s former love rival, but that was already a thing of the past. “Thank you, Teacher Han.”
Xin Ya, Old Wu’s best friend, also came up to him. “I won’t be hugging you, but congratulations anyway!”
“Same to you.” Zhang Ye said with a smile.
Xin Ya said in a smiling way, “What has it got to do with me? You’re from Peking University while I’m from Tsinghua University.”
Zhang Ye said amused, “Professor Xin, why are you still so narrow-minded about things?”
Xin Ya rolled her eyes. “You just can’t say anything good, can you? Can’t you see that I’m just making a joke? Now that you have reached the pinnacle, it has given an invaluable boost to our Chinese mathematics world! Who wouldn’t be happy for you?”
Zhang Ye said, “Thank you.”
Over there, a British female mathematician named Jennifer came forward with a smile. She gave him a hug and said, “Congratulations, my Chinese friend!”
Zhang Ye said, “Thanks, my British friend.”
Wang Yiming.
Fellow Wan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A young German mathematician.
A French mathematician that Zhang Ye knew from before.
And so on and so forth. There were too many of them and they were all present here today to applaud Zhang Ye!
“Zhang, you are really awesome!”
“I welcome you to visit Germany and be our guest!”
“My friend! You’re a great mathematician!”
“Congratulations! I knew that your proof would definitely be proven right!”
Many reporters have also gathered around, and the number was only getting more and more. A lot of them rushed over to the school immediately after receiving news about this and had wanted to get first-hand information about the matter. There were even many foreign faces within the reporters, including the Japanese and Americans!
However, Zhang Ye did not take any interviews. The press conference was scheduled for the afternoon, so of course he could not talk about it right now. Therefore, he followed Dean Pan and the others into Peking University and left the reporters waiting outside.
On the way in.
Xin Ya said, “In this past year, we’ve all really been tired out badly. It’s not too bad for us since we’re stationed in Beijing, but for those in the verification team who are from other countries, they keep having to fly around. They would head back to their own countries for a few days before coming back here to continue on the verification work again. Don’t even think of not giving a treat today, you have to make it up to us for our suffering!”
Zhang Ye smiled and said, “That’s of course, it has been hard for everyone.”
That French mathematician smiled and said in English, “Zhang, I hear that you’re a big star in China. My wife likes Miss Zhang Yuanqi a lot and her movies are really very popular back in my country too. Can you help me to get an autograph from her? I think my wife would definitely be very happy if you could!”
Zhang Ye smiled and patted him on the shoulders, “No-pra-bo-lem!”
The French mathematician was dumbfounded. “What pra-bo-lem?”
Xin Ya was left speechless by that. She translated for them and said, “He just means ‘no problem’.”
A Russian mathematician who was a burly man laughed when he heard that. “Zhang, you better not speak in English. Your English standard is really too atrocious!”
Everyone laughed.
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. “Don’t talk about me, you’re not any better yourself.”
The Russian mathematician laughed heartily.
At this moment, Fellow Wan found him. “Professor Zhang, are you interested to join us at the Chinese Academy of Sciences?”
Zhang Ye was taken aback for a bit. “Someone has already asked me that before.”
“I know.” Fellow Wan said sincerely, “I heard that you rejected the offer, so I’m here to invite you again.”
Zhang Ye thought about it for a moment before saying with a wry smile, “Let me think about it again.”
Fellow Wan could only say, “Alright, I’ll be waiting for your news then.”
As there were a lot of people here, Fellow Wan did not speak further about this. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was an academic institution. It was different from those companies or television stations which could use money to attract people to join them. To be able to get admitted into the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the most important prerequisite was ability. The second thing would be that one would have to join willingly. This was not something that could be forced.
…
1 o’clock in the afternoon.
The press conference started on time!
A dense crowd of Chinese and foreign reporters had already filled up the entire venue. There were a lot of video cameras set up for a live broadcast, as countless cameras flashed clickingly across the floor.
Zhang Ye sat down at the middle of the stage.
Fellow Wan, Dean Pan, Xin Ya and those mathematicians of the verification team were all gathered beside him!
In front of the television, the viewers were already unable to wait!
“How many press conferences has Zhang Ye attended in these past few days already!”
“He has been hogging all the news headlines across the country in recent days!”
“That’s so impressive!”
“Quickly announce it!”
“Yeah, we’re all waiting!”
Zhang Ye’s parents were watching in anticipation!
His relatives were also waiting excitedly in front of their televisions!
Then, there was also Ning Lan, Xiaodong, Li Xiaoxian, Chen Guang, Fan Wenli, Yao Jiancai, Zhang Yuanqi, Wu Changhe, Li Qinqin, Rao Aimin, Yang Shu…
Although they could already guess what it was about!
Although there was already no suspense to it!
But for some reason, everyone was still waiting eagerly in front of their televisions, just so that they could see and hear it for themselves!
Fellow Wan adjusted the microphone before announcing loudly, “This morning, we have finally wrapped up the validation work for Dale’s Conjecture. I hereby officially announce on behalf of the verification team that Zhang Ye’s proposed proof has been fully validated without any errors!”
In an instant, the sound of applause broke out!
The Chinese reporters were applauding with everything they had!
The foreign reporters also gave a round of enthusiastic applause!
The clapping went on for a very long time. It lasted for a full minute before gradually stopping. Many of the foreign mathematicians were even standing up and giving Zhang Ye the thumbs up! For the past year, Zhang Ye had barely taken part in the verification process as he was the one who had originally proposed the proof, so it wasn’t proper for him to get personally involved in it. But at the very least, he would still spend some time to go down to verify some key parts of the proof. After such a long period of contact, these foreign mathematicians had generally gotten to know Zhang Ye better. Even the two American mathematicians who had had a conflict with Zhang Ye before were already having a very harmonious relationship with him. As such, they spared no effort in sending him their blessings and congratulations!
It was time for the Q&A session.
A female American reporter raised her hand.
Pan Yang who was chairing the conference pointed at her. “This lady here.”
The female reporter asked, “Mr. David, can you tell us why the verification process for the proof to Dale’s Conjecture has taken so long to complete? Why did it drag on for a year?”
A translator repeated the question in Mandarin.
The American mathematician, David, clearly knew this reporter. “Miss Denise, you might not be familiar with the verification process for a mathematical conjecture. It is very tedious work and requires a lot of meticulous going through. What’s more, Dale’s Conjecture is different from the other mathematical conjectures in that it is one of the major Math Problems of the mathematics world. As such, the workload would definitely be much greater. Luckily, Zhang has provided us with very clear formulas and detailed notes about it. That has greatly cut down the amount of time that we needed to validate the proof. Otherwise, it would have taken much longer to complete. Zhang Ye is really very great.” He looked at Zhang Ye, then said, “He is one of the youngest, most talented and greatest mathematicians that I have ever seen!”
Zhang Ye smiled and nodded at him to express his thanks.
Comrade David was indeed nice!
Then, a barrage of the reporters’ hands shot up again!
Pan Yang pointed out at a French reporter.
The French reporter said, “Professor Zhang, there are people who say that the validation of the proof to Dale’s Conjecture is a very historical moment in mathematics. They also claimed that you’re the hero who saved the Chinese mathematics world by allowing the Chinese mathematicians to have a renewed chance of being seen by the world again. According to what I know, there are already five to six mathematics organizations who have actively sought out Chinese mathematicians to join their new projects or research in the past year. All of that was undoubtedly to your credit. I interviewed a young mathematician earlier and he said that you were the mathematics world’s hero. What do you have to say to that?”
That was indeed the truth. In recent international mathematics projects around the world, there has really been quite a number of Chinese mathematicians taking part in them. If anyone claimed that this wasn’t because of Zhang Ye, even a fool would not believe that!
Fellow Wan looked towards Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye did not even think it through and directly answered, “I’m not a hero, I’m really not one. There are many heroes in the mathematics world, some of whom you can see and others that you don’t know about. Everyone here harbors a dream and has a sincere passion for mathematics. Speaking about the past, there have been countless mathematicians in China who have done a lot. In the future, there will also be many young mathematicians appearing who will lead the world forward. It was our predecessors who have supported the mathematics world up to this stage step by step, and it will be down to the future generation to lead the Chinese mathematics world forward step by step. Who am I in all of these? I’m not anyone at all. If there are any heroes to speak of, it should be them instead!”
His words were concurrently translated!
When then French reporter heard that, he immediately stood up in awe and started clapping!
The German reporter beside also clapped hard!
Those other foreign reporters who heard it were also praising it inside their hearts!
But the bunch of Chinese reporters nearly fainted onto the ground!
Fellow Wan: “….$%^&*() !”
Pan Yang felt like vomiting blood!
Xin Ya also very nearly fell off from her chair!
The viewers in front of the televisions were left looking confused!
Those words…why did those words sound so goddamn familiar, huh?
Fuck, didn’t you say something similar to this during yesterday’s press conference for the war between humans and the machines? And it even fucking sounded like the original speech from then?
Everyone had to take their hats off to him!
They were really left kneeling to him!
Just what kind of an occasion did you think this was? This was a press conference that was going to be broadcasted to the entire world!
Can you be a little bit more mindful!
Can you fucking be a little bit more mindful!
