My Study Chat Group is Full of Real Big Shots

Chapter 210: Chapter 202: Closing the Net

Li Dong didn’t think much of it after hanging up on Lin Wei.

He had already figured out the whole situation with Shengda Precision.

As for Lin Wei...

He was confident Lin Wei would give him a satisfactory answer.

...

Afterward, Li Dong hailed a cab straight back to Yan University.

On the way, he kept thinking about the research project he was pushing forward.

The general proof path for the local-global compatibility of automorphic representations of GL(n).

It sounded like a simple sentence.

But in practice, every step was like carving stairs into the face of a cliff.

Although the division of labor across the three lines of inquiry had been clearly established when he met with Penrose and Yang Shengguo yesterday.

But the problem was, extending the zero-point criterion required a crucial intermediate step: generalizing the complete results of Montgomery’s pair correlation conjecture from the zero statistics framework of the GL(1) Riemann ζ-function to general automorphic L-functions for GL(n).

The difficulty of this step was greater than everything he had done before combined.

Li Dong felt he needed to talk to Riemann again.

Back in his dorm room, Li Dong took out his phone and opened the Cyan Dragon Study Group.

The group chat was quiet.

Madam Curie and Mendeleev weren’t arguing, for a change.

"How rare."

Li Dong didn’t dwell on it and, switching to his alias, sent a message to the group.

[University Research in Progress]: @Bernhard Riemann

[University Research in Progress]: Your Excellency Riemann, my nephew has recently been working on extending the zero-point criterion towards GL(n) and has encountered a problem concerning the interval convergence of the pair correlation function of zeros for High Tier automorphic L-functions.

[University Research in Progress]: I haven’t studied this problem in depth myself, so I was hoping to hear your thoughts.

He paused, retrieving the core framework from the first paper in his Memory Palace.

He sent a message combining what he already understood with a question about a specific direction.

This was a little trick he’d recently figured out to exploit loopholes in the system.

This way, the message could be sent, because the other person’s answer would necessarily be knowledge they possessed. All he really needed was a direction.

[University Research in Progress]: To be specific, when they take the GUE convergence condition for the pair correlation function F_π(α)...

[University Research in Progress]: But the proof for sufficiency requires a completely new set of spectral analysis tools. Do you have any good ideas?

After he sent the messages, there was no response from Riemann.

His profile picture was lit up.

But he just wasn’t replying.

"What are you busy with now, you great master..."

Li Dong sighed helplessly.

Just as he was about to lock his screen, his gaze unintentionally swept across the group member list.

And then...

His movements suddenly froze.

Fields’s profile picture... was half gray.

Li Dong’s heart sank.

He knew, of course, what this meant.

In this group, the status of a profile picture directly reflected the member’s life status in their parallel universe.

Except for Gauss, of course...

A gray profile picture meant that the person was very close to death.

And Fields...

Historically, he died on August 9, 1932.

If Fields’s parallel universe roughly aligned with the timeline of real history...

Then he had a little over a year until his death.

A little over a year.

Li Dong closed his eyes, and his Memory Palace automatically pulled up all his chat records with Fields.

That night, Fields had excitedly explained the Riemann-Roch theorem to him.

He explained it earnestly. Although he was a bit less impressive than the other masters in the group, his enthusiasm and patience were real.

Later, when Li Dong mentioned "young mathematicians under 40," Fields had gotten so excited he spammed several exclamation marks, then gleefully went off to revise the charter for his award.

He even forgot to send a red packet.

Li Dong had grumbled at the time that he was going to block him.

But thinking back on it now...

Fields’s greatest wish in life was to see the award he personally established actually be presented.

But in history, he never got to see it.

Fields passed away in 1932.

The first Fields Medal wasn’t awarded until the International Congress of Mathematicians in Oslo in 1936.

He missed it by four years.

Four years.

’It seems that even in a parallel world...’

’Fields won’t get to see the award ceremony for the prize he created with his own hands.’

Such a regret was too cruel.

But there was nothing he could do.

He couldn’t even get in touch with Riemann right now, let alone worry about a dying mathematical educator in another parallel universe.

Just as he was about to turn off his phone and continue his derivations at his desk...

His phone vibrated violently.

A group announcement popped up in the chat.

[When the bell of civilization tolls for the seventh epoch, those who forged torches for knowledge will finally face a judgment they cannot evade.]

[Not a judgment of their mistakes, but a judgment of their regrets.]

[John Charles Fields, a pioneer who poured his life’s blood into a medal yet to be born, is running out of time.]

[He never asked history for glory, only yearned to witness the moment the flame was passed on.]

[Yet the night draws near, and the torch is not yet lit.]

[Group Leader, you have rewritten Riemann’s fate, ignited the spark of the Second Industrial Revolution, and turned Mendel’s regrets to dust.]

[Now, you have an obligation to help every group member., not just with their academics, but also with their unfulfilled wishes.]

[Mission triggered: Allow John Charles Fields to witness—the first Fields Medal award ceremony.]

Immediately after, a countdown timer popped up on the screen.

[Time Remaining: 2 years, 11 months, 17 days, 04:32:19]

The red numbers ticked down on the screen.

Li Dong looked at the group announcement with a strange expression.

If it had been him from half a year ago, he might have jumped up in excitement upon seeing such an announcement and immediately started thinking of a plan.

But things were different now.

His Basic Attributes had all reached 0.4, and his Memory had even broken through to 0.6.

So, when he read this group announcement, he immediately noticed a detail.

After the sentence "you have an obligation to help every group member," an extra comma had appeared where there should have been only a period.

This had never happened in any of the previous group announcements.

But this time...

’This wasn’t sent by the Cyan Dragon Study Group!’

Li Dong came to this conclusion.

Then he recalled the anti-scam alert the group had sent out before.

’Don’t tell me this is actually dimensional fraud...’

For a moment, he actually hesitated...

’Should I wait a bit longer? See if the group fixes itself?’

Thinking of this, Li Dong decided to observe for a while first.

’I should finish the project at hand first.’

Li Dong calculated in his head.

At his current pace, he was confident he could finish the GL(n) project within a year.

After finishing, if the group still wasn’t fixed, he would figure out a way to deal with Fields’s situation then.

The mission was for a little less than three years. If he spent a year on the project, he would have almost two years left.

Enough.

Having made up his mind, Li Dong locked his phone screen and turned to pick up some scratch paper.

...

He had locked the screen for less than three seconds.

In the group chat.

[Marie Curie]: ...

[Mendeleev]: ...

「The same day.」

「Capital University.」

An internal notice was quietly posted on the school’s OA system.

[Following a decision by the academic committee, and in consideration of Professor Zhou Shenzhi’s personal reasons, his resignation from his current teaching position and his role as head of ongoing research projects has been accepted, effective immediately.]

[Additionally, in light of Professor Jiang Yubai’s application for early retirement, and following review by the Party committee and approval from the university, his request to begin retirement procedures at the end of the current semester has been approved.]

No explanation, no background, no additional comments.

But everyone in the circle understood what this meant.

「Evening.」

「South Gate of Capital University.」

Jiang Yubai stood on the sidewalk outside the gate and glanced back.

In the twilight, the lights of the campus buildings were turning on, floor by floor, a scene almost identical to when he first walked into this school over twenty years ago.

He sighed, turned around, and prepared to leave.

Zhou Shenzhi had already been taken away by the academic integrity committee for questioning.

At the last moment, that kid shouldered the blame for everything.

The authorship dispute, the true origin of the core idea, the credit for the key constructions in the paper...

Zhou Shenzhi confessed to it all.

He claimed that while organizing his advisor’s research notes, he had compiled and published preliminary results that were not yet credited, without proper communication. The responsibility, he said, was his alone and had nothing to do with his advisor.

This story, of course, wouldn’t hold up to close scrutiny.

But without more concrete evidence, the academic committee could only proceed based on this official story.

Zhou Shenzhi resigned.

Jiang Yubai took early retirement.

On the surface, it seemed like a respectable end to the matter.

At least, it was far more respectable than a public investigation, official censure, and the revocation of degrees.

Jiang Yubai knew that this respectability had been bought with Zhou Shenzhi’s future.

This student had been with him for over a decade, and in the end, he had taken the fall for him.

It wasn’t that he felt no guilt in his heart.

But guilt was one thing; he still chose to accept it.

Because he had no other choice.

"Time to go."

He muttered this to himself and started walking toward a taxi parked by the roadside.

However, he had taken less than ten steps...

"Professor Jiang Yubai?"

A voice called out from behind him.

Jiang Yubai turned his head.

Two men in black jackets were standing behind him.

One of them flashed a badge.

"We’ll need you to come with us."

The color drained from Jiang Yubai’s face in an instant.

...

「At the same moment.」

Capital City, Chaoyang District, the Ocean International Center Office Building.

The elevator doors on the 23rd floor slowly opened.

Two men wearing the same style of black jackets stepped out of the elevator, walked straight down the corridor, and headed for the entrance of the Shengda Precision Beijing Office.

The young woman at the front desk looked up, and just as she was about to ask, "Excuse me, do you two have an appointment?" she saw the badge they presented.

Her smile froze on her face.

"Is Mr. Qian Zhiyuan here?"

"Ye... Yes, he is. I-I’ll inform him for you..."

"No need."

The two men didn’t stop, pushing open the door to the general manager’s office directly.

...

「On this day.」

Similar scenes were playing out in many places across the country.

At a precision profile processing base in Hebei, two black, unmarked sedans pulled up to the factory gate.

At the school of materials science at a university in Wuhan, an associate professor was called out of his classroom mid-lecture and never returned.

At an electronic components company in Shenzhen, the CEO was on a call with an overseas number when someone knocked on his office door from the outside.

Even within Huaxuan Technology, two mid-level managers were brought in for questioning that same afternoon.

Their desks were cleared out by that evening.

Of three suppliers under the National Power Equipment Group, the legal representatives of two of them disappeared within 48 hours.

There were no news reports.

No online discussions.

Everything was quiet.

It was as if an invisible net had been cast, and at a specific signal, it was drawn tight all at once.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!