After ending the call, Lu Zhou continued to pack his suitcase. However, this time, the small display floating next to him began to flash.
Xiao Ai: [Master, when you were video calling just now, it seemed like someone was spying on you guys. ( ́◔‸◔’)]
Lu Zhou: [… Spying?]
Xiao Ai: [Yes! When the video call data was transmitted to North America, it was received by more than one IP address. Xiao Ai sent a series of encrypted data to the IP and received a response just now. There was more than one person listening in on the call.]
Does this mean we were spied on?
“Oh, I see…”
Even though Lu Zhou had expected something like this to happen, he still felt a little shocked.
A few years ago, when he was back at Princeton, the academic environment was totally different. He didn’t expect it to deteriorate so quickly.
It seemed like it was a smart choice for him to return to China.
Staying in Princeton for another year could have meant trouble for him, especially with the FBI.
Xiao Ai: [Xiao Ai has found the intruder, should Xiao Ai install a backdoor?]
Lu Zhou immediately said, “No it’s fine, it’s not something we should worry about.”
Hacking a server was easy.
However, hacking into an American server would be risky.
If the other party found out that something fishy was installed on their computer, Lu Zhou would be fine, but his students wouldn’t have a good time.
Even though Lu Zhou was confident in his information technology abilities, when it came to hacking and cybersecurity, the FBI and CIA were kings.
Even Xiao Ai wouldn’t be able to fight against them.
There was no upside to hacking the server, it would be risk without reward.
Lu Zhou thought about Wei Wen’s situation and went silent for a while. He took out his phone and called Director Li from the State Administration for National Defense, giving him a brief explanation of the situation.
For the scholars in America, this was a disaster.
However, this could benefit China.
If they could formulate some kind of attractive policy for talent attraction, they could seize on this opportunity. There had to be a ton of Chinese scholars who were willing to return to China.
It seemed like Wei Wen was describing McCarthyism on the rise, and that the freedom of academics was being challenged…
Lu Zhou felt powerless.
…
Early August.
On a flight from Beijing to Russia.
Lu Zhou boarded the plane and watched Wang Peng put his luggage in the storage. He happened to bump into quite a special individual.
This individual was also sitting in the first class.
The two made eye contact.
At last, Lu Zhou spoke first with a friendly smile.
“What a coincidence.”
It was like Wang Shicheng had just snapped back to reality, his mouth twitched as he quickly smiled.
“… Oh yeah, what a coincidence… Hahaha.”
What are the odds!
Not only are we on the same flight, but our seats are right next to each other!
How did I not see him when I was boarding?
If he noticed that Lu Zhou was also on this flight, he would have refunded his ticket and went on another flight instead!
It was too late to change seats. Wang Shicheng hesitated for a bit before sitting down next to Lu Zhou.
Under the guidance of the flight attendant, he buckled up his seat belt and closed his eyes, waiting for the plane to take off.
He thought he could sleep peacefully through this flight, but Lu Zhou took the initiative and spoke to him.
“Academician Wang, you’re also going to St. Petersburg for the conference?”
“Yeah,” Wang Shicheng said. He didn’t really want to converse, but he couldn’t help but say, “The IMU asked me to do a 45-minute report, so I decided to go.”
Wang Shicheng was far beyond the prime age of mathematics research, so it was quite impressive for the International Mathematical Union to still invite him to give a report.
This shows that the international mathematics community hadn’t forgotten his research contributions. This delighted the old man.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Oh, I see, congratulations.”
Wang Shicheng looked at Lu Zhou’s face and felt annoyed.
What a fake person!
We all know you’re doing a 60-minute report!
You just want to humblebrag, right?
Haha, I’m not giving you the chance!
Hence, Wang Shicheng purposefully ignored asking what Lu Zhou was doing at the ICM. He smiled and began to change the subject.
“How about you? How’s your research on Riemann’s hypothesis going?”
Lu Zhou looked a little sorrowful.
“It’s a bit unfortunate, it hasn’t been going well.”
It really was unfortunate.
He had been busy all year, and he barely had any time to work on Riemann’s hypothesis. If he had spent all his time researching Riemann’s hypothesis instead, he might have been able to produce some beautiful theorems.
However, Lu Zhou’s words were like music to Academician Wang’s ears.
Haha!
Sucks to be you.
Even though there was nothing embarrassing about not being able to prove Riemann’s hypothesis, Lu Zhou boasted about not doing the sixty-minute report if he didn’t solve Riemann’s hypothesis.
I look forward to your report.
Wang Shicheng pretended to be surprised as he spoke.
“Oh, really? I heard you say that you wouldn’t do the report at St. Petersburg unless you made some outstanding results. I thought you might have solved Riemann’s hypothesis already… I guess you didn’t… That’s just unfortunate.”
Wang Shicheng was clearly trying to be passive aggressive.
However, he did too good of an acting job. Lu Zhou wasn’t offended at all.
Lu Zhou sighed and said, “Yeah, it is unfortunate… I didn’t plan on coming, but I couldn’t refuse.”
“… Why not?”
For some reason, Wang Shicheng had a bad feeling about this.
As expected, Lu Zhou had a cheeky smile on his face.
This smile…
Was way too familiar to him.
“Yeah,” Lu Zhou awkwardly scratched his head and said, “they want to… give me an award.”
Wang Shicheng: “…”
