Jin Ling University, mathematics department building.
In a modernly decorated office, an old man with gray hair stood in front of a lifelike painting, staring straight at the person in the portrait. He seemed to have fallen into a distant memory.
Footsteps came from outside the office, followed by two soft knocks on the door.
The old man, who did not look away from the painting, spoke in a steady voice with a hint of majesty.
“Come in.”
The door was pushed open.
A tall and thin young professor with glasses opened the door and walked in.
“Supervisor, were you looking for me?”
The person standing at the door was named Sun Jingwen. He was in his mid-thirties.
As a genius in the mathematics department of Jinling University and even in the Pan-Asian mathematics field, he was awarded the Fields Medal at the age of 31 and was regarded as the most promising young scholar to win the Lu Zhou Mathematics Prize before the age of 40.
The old man standing in front of him, staring at the painting, was even more impressive.
His name was Qin Chuan. Although he was now 80 years old, he still had a pivotal position in the mathematics world. When he was young, he won the Fields Medal at the age of 30, and at the age of 40, he won the top honor in academia—the Lu Zhou Mathematics Award. As a top scholar in the field of mathematics today, his research in the field of number theory was unrivaled.
Although he had devoted himself to education since he was awarded the Wolf Prize, which was a lifetime achievement award, and had rarely appeared in the top journals in mathematics, many people still regarded him as the leader of the Lu Zhou school of thought.
Also, he had an important background.
He was the second-generation “head” of the Lu Zhou school of thought, the grandson of Qin Yue, a student of Lu Zhou…
The old man did not directly answer his question. His muddy pupils were still staring at the picture, and it took a while before he said slowly, “Do you know who this person is?”
Sun Jingwen looked at the person in the portrait. He was slightly stunned, and a trace of confusion appeared in his eyes.
This bit of confusion was not aimed at the person in the portrait, but at the question itself.
“It’s the Patriarch… Why?”
In the land of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, this face was not only a public favorite but also a household name. A scholar who had pushed the scientific process of the entire world forward by more than a hundred years with his own power, leaving legends about him.
Perhaps not everyone was a fan, but most people were familiar with this name and this face.
Not to mention, they were at Jinling University.
Every whiteboard and every tile here had witnessed the legend he left behind.
Even now, 100 years later, the students who graduated from here were proud of having Academician Lu as alumni.
“That’s right.” The old man nodded. Looking at the painting on the wall, his turbid pupils gradually became fascinated. “That was the most glorious era of our school and the most prosperous era of academic circles.”
The unrivaled master of the 21st century.
This wasn’t only in the mathematics world. This had almost become a consensus in the academic world as a whole.
The prosperity of an era could not be achieved by a person’s mighty power, but the person hanging on the wall had undoubtedly stood at the culmination of that era.
He felt like the building of science had already been completed, and the rest was only the trivial and minutiae of research.
In the eyes of others, he had made a lot of outstanding contributions in the past 80 years and retired with full glory. However, only he knew in his heart that all the research he had done from beginning to end was nothing but the extension and repair of the academic legacy left by the patriarch of the Lu Zhou school of thought.
After living for a whole 80 years, he failed to leave a single groundbreaking achievement. The distress in his heart was clear only to him.
Many years ago, he had exchanged this question with the dean of the Jinling University School of Medicine and got a consistent answer. The man seemed to drain out the aura for the next 100 years, and the entire academic world seemed to fall into a trap of prosperity.
All kinds of research results were born in a spurt; the number of papers and the growth rate of impact factors hit new highs every year. Among them, there were some excellent research results, but none of them could reach the height comparable to the “Unified Theory of Algebraic Geometry”.
The same was true in physics. Ever since the hyperspace theory, the physics community had not produced a theory that could be regarded as groundbreaking for nearly a hundred years.
Although Qin Chuan didn’t know what was going on in other disciplines, he believed that this was not an accident.
“My grandfather was his student…”
“Whenever he mentioned that name, he could not help but bring nostalgia and regret on his face. I have heard him say many times, if he could live for two more years, everything wouldn’t be so bad.”
Sun Jingwen frowned. A trace of confusion in his eyes.
He didn’t know what was so bad.
Although the brilliance of the Lu Zhou school of thought was not as unparalleled as it was back then, it was definitely not terrible either.
Jinling University was still the center of the world’s mathematics circle. The land under their feet was a paradise that mathematicians all over the world yearned for.
However, even though his heart was full of doubts, he did not interrupt the professor. Instead, he quietly waited for the old man to continue speaking.
After pondering for a long time, the old man spoke slowly.
“These days, you’re retreating in the library?”
“Yes.” Sun Jingwen nodded. “My research on Dirichlet functions has just entered a critical stage. If you didn’t call me, I would probably still be in the library at the moment.”
“Then you seem to know nothing about what happened yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Sun Jingwen frowned. “What happened yesterday?”
“A man… claims to be from 2024.”
“2024?” Sun Jingwen was taken aback for a moment. “A dormant person? That is a long sleep.”
The old man sighed slightly. He stared at the hanging painting on the wall and slowly spoke.
“The problem is not how long he slept, it’s the fact that he’s from Mars.”
“From Mars… Wait, you mean… really?!”
His eyes widened instantly. Sun Jingwen looked at his supervisor incredulously; his pupils were filled with shock.
He remembered a rumor.
Or rather, a legend.
Although the legend was only one part of the history of mathematics, it changed the history of mathematics over the next 100 years!
The shock in Sun Jingwen’s pupils faded a little. He tried to calm himself down, but it didn’t make any difference.
He had no idea whether he was surprised, excited, shocked, or worried after hearing the news.
“How is this possible? He is still alive? This… This is ridiculous.”
“I also think this is ridiculous, but he did claim so, and it was reported in the news.”
The old man went silent for a while. He withdrew his gaze from the painting, looked at the student standing aside, and continued, “You and I are both direct descendants of the Lu Zhou school of thought, so this matter has something to do with us.
“The meaning of that name is more than just a name, it is also a symbol.
“It doesn’t matter if he is real or fake.
“I have to go and see him!”
…
The entire mathematics department of Jinling University, and even the entire international academic community, were shocked due to the news that “Lu Zhou is still alive”. Lu Zhou himself, who was at the center of the attention, was muddled.
He faintly saw a few lines of digital stripes from the dark pupils. He had a guess in his mind.
Lu Zhou asked tentatively in an uncertain tone, “Are you… Xiao Ai?”
“Yeah! Master is so smart! Hehe. (///ω///)”
In the black pupils, the abstract digital stripes instantly changed patterns under emotional fluctuations.
Lu Zhou was now 100% sure that the “girl’ in front of him was Xiao Ai.
Anyone that used old-fashioned text emojis had to be from the same era as him.
“Master, Master, during your absence for a hundred years, Xiao Ai really missed you so much…”
“I missed you too,” Lu Zhou said with a smile on his face. He said, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Do you need to eat first, take a bath first, or play with Xiao Ai first? (///ω///)”
“Eat first, I’m a little hungry.”
“Okay! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”
The emojis in its pupils were so full of enthusiasm. Hearing that its owner was hungry, Xiao Ai quickly got up from the ground and ran to the kitchen.
However, after rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen for a while, it quickly poked its head out in frustration.
“Master… There seems to be no food in the refrigerator, is it okay to have takeaway today?”
Lu Zhou sighed.
“I’ll just order it myself.”
Lu Zhou knew how to order takeout.
After all, eating was a top priority. The first thing Li Gaoliang taught him was how to use the urban cloud system to call for a takeaway.
About 20 minutes or so, the takeaway was delivered quickly.
The delivery was not done by a boy wearing a yellow jacket. Instead, a food delivery drone with two pairs of rotors flew over. The food was directly placed on the special drone docking point on the windowsill.
In this age, almost every house had a semi-open space reserved on the windowsill. Not only were they used to pick and place takeaways, but some delivery packages were also delivered to people’s homes this way.
Lu Zhou picked up his chopsticks and tasted the barbecue meat from the future.
Although the taste had changed, it was still as delicious as always.
Especially the rice, the crispy meat on the outside, and the evenly spread cumin powder; every bite was full of happiness.
“Speaking of which, what have you been doing all this time?”
Xiao Ai, sitting opposite Lu Zhou, looked at Lu Zhou happily and said, “Xiao Ai has been good! Apart from doing some tour guide work at the old site of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, Xiao Ai didn’t do anything else! (•̀∀•́)”
What Lu Zhou wanted to complain about was why Xiao Ai added such a useless feature.
If he wanted to see clearly what emojis it used, he had to stare into Xiao Ai’s eyes.
However, staring at the robot girl’s eyes intently made Lu Zhou felt a little uncomfortable.
Probably because he was too much of a gentleman.
But if he ignored those emojis, it always felt like something was missing.
Lu Zhou: “The old site? So… The Jinling Institute for Advanced Study has been relocated?”
Xiao Ai: “Well, it was relocated decades ago, and the old site was transformed into a tourist attraction. In order to prevent the scenic staff from discovering that Xiao Ai is secretly using electricity, Xiao Ai worked very hard!”
When Lu Zhou realized that he had disappeared for a whole century and only gave Xiao Ai instructions to “hide”, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed.
“Thank you.”
After hearing this, Xiao Ai, with a shy and content smile on her face, gently shook her head.
“Haha, you’re welcome, as long as master comes back. (///ω///)”
At this moment, a knock on the door came from the hallway.
Xiao Ai supported the table with both hands and immediately got up from the chair.
“Xiao Ai will open the door! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”
“Wait a minute, I’ll do it.”
Thinking that the person might be from the Freezing Human Rights Protection Foundation, Lu Zhou raised his hand and stopped Xiao Ai.
After placing the chopsticks on the bowl, he pushed aside the chair to stand up and walked toward the entrance.
However, when Lu Zhou opened the door and saw the person standing at the door, he was stunned.
His lips opened and closed involuntarily.
“Xiao Tong…”
However…
The next words from that person made Lu Zhou wake up in an instant.
“Nice to meet you, I am Lu Xiaoqiao, the chairman of the Freezing Human Rights Protection Foundation.”
The woman in her twenties bowed to Lu Zhou politely. She then looked at him nervously.
“Excuse me… Are you my great-grandmother’s brother?”
