Awakening Elementary School System in University

"The worst part is when you’ve become a math professor and, by some stroke of luck, won a Fields Medal, only to run into the exact situation I mentioned."

"HAHAHAHAHA—!"

His witty, self-deprecating humor instantly brought the house down!

The audience first erupted in good-natured laughter, which was immediately followed by a round of applause and cheers more thunderous than ever before!

Many in the audience already had an inkling of what the Fields Medal laureate was about to say. Their faces flushed with excitement, they clapped and cheered wildly.

Sure enough, after the applause subsided, Professor Figali continued, "Professor Deligne is one of the senior academics I respect most, and I have complete faith in his judgment."

He looked at Chen Lin again, his bright blue eyes full of sincere encouragement.

"Therefore, I would like to yield the remainder of my speaking time to Mr. Chen Lin, so that he may complete the exciting challenge just proposed by Professor Deligne!"

After speaking, Professor Figali didn’t even glance at the audience’s reaction. He simply nodded toward Chen Lin and then the organizing committee before turning, striding off the stage with impeccable style.

ROAR—!

This time, the entire auditorium erupted.

The applause, cheers, and whistles were like a tsunami of sound, threatening to blow the roof off the auditorium!

Everyone was deeply impressed by Professor Figali’s magnanimous gesture, offering their most heartfelt and enthusiastic respect to the visiting scholar.

Chen Lin was in the crowd as well, clapping vigorously for Professor Figali.

But inwardly, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

’Oh, for crying out loud. He didn’t just give me his time; he accepted the challenge for me in front of the whole world!’

’So much for that. Now I don’t even have a chance to make up an excuse to refuse.’

He picked up the microphone and looked out at the sea of faces, all filled with fervent anticipation. He knew that any unnecessary words now would be a waste of time.

"Excuse me, could a volunteer please bring me a few large whiteboards? Thank you."

As he spoke, the auditorium fell instantly silent. Everyone knew—

The real show was about to begin.

It had to be said that the organizing committee’s preparations were flawless. They had clearly anticipated all sorts of strange requests that geniuses at international academic conferences were liable to make.

In less than a minute, several staff members deftly wheeled three enormous, brand-new mobile whiteboards onto the stage, arranging them in a triangular formation right at the center.

At the same time, the large projection screens on either side of the hall, as well as the screen share for the online conference, instantly switched from the PowerPoint presentation to a high-definition live feed focused on the first whiteboard.

A fresh wave of irrepressible whispers broke out among the audience. All eyes were glued to the young figure at the center of the stage, everyone wondering if he could possibly create a miracle in the time he had.

Chen Lin took a few new markers from a staff member, nodded, and said, "Thank you." Then he turned to face the whiteboard alone.

He took a deep breath.

Empowered by [Little Mathematician], the clamor of the outside world and the distracting thoughts in his own mind were instantly blocked out. His mind became as still and tranquil as a deep well.

’The forty-five minutes Professor Figali gave me probably won’t be enough.’

’However, the closing ceremony was scheduled for ninety minutes, and there’s usually some buffer time. Taking an extra twenty or thirty minutes shouldn’t be a big problem.’

To make the most of his time, Chen Lin decided to write at his absolute maximum speed. He would also skip over certain non-essential, more conventional steps in the derivation, summarizing them with a single, simple line of notation.

He raised his hand and uncapped the marker.

SWISH.

The tip of the marker met the whiteboard with a soft, crisp sound.

Picking up from the final step he’d worked out in his hotel room the previous night, Chen Lin wrote the first new line of the equation at the very top of the whiteboard.

[∂t g_ij = -2R_ij +∇_i∇_j f +...]

Without the slightest pause, a second line followed, then a third...

A stream of complex, elegant mathematical symbols flowed from his marker, as if they had a life of their own.

However, as Chen Lin meticulously filled the board, the hall’s initial, absolute silence gradually gave way to a restless stir.

Once the initial novelty wore off, Chen Lin’s silent, nonstop writing on the whiteboard proved to be quite inaccessible. For the complete novices attending their first top-tier academic conference purely for the spectacle, it was tough to follow.

In less than five minutes, several students who had been dragged along by friends to watch the show were completely lost. They stared in a total fog, their heads already starting to ache.

They instinctively turned to whisper to their neighbors, only to find that the scholarly-looking people in glasses all around them were staring at the large screens with rapt attention. Their faces showed such deep concentration that they were clearly not to be disturbed.

For a moment, these "slackers" were on pins and needles, fidgeting in their seats and looking around, bored out of their minds.

However, for the heavyweights in the front rows, who were long accustomed to the nature of academic conferences, the scene was perfectly normal. Their expressions remained calm as they watched with focus.

When Chen Lin wrote the tenth line of the equation on the first whiteboard, Professor Schulz, who had been watching with a gentle smile, suddenly arched an eyebrow.

The smile vanished from his face. He reached into his old brown leather briefcase, pulled out a notebook and a pen, and flipped to a fresh page.

His bright blue eyes were fixed on the rapidly growing lines of equations on the screen, his expression growing intensely serious.

「Meanwhile, on the other side of the auditorium.」

Annie and her advisor, Professor Moitra, were also staring intently at the screen.

"How marvelous... this approach..."

Professor Moitra muttered in quiet admiration, his hands a blur as they flew across his laptop keyboard, terrified of missing a single detail.

Annie, sitting beside him, had her brows knitted in confusion.

She finally couldn’t hold back any longer. Leaning close to her advisor’s ear, she asked in a hushed voice, "Professor, this proof method Chen Lin is using... I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. It’s completely different from the method in his JAMS paper, isn’t it?"

Professor Moitra didn’t answer Annie’s question. It was his first time seeing this method as well, but he was thrilled that he could follow it, and he continued to type furiously, recording everything.