Chapter 230: Chapter 221: Gu God
Wang Hao’s eyes lit up instantly.
’Someone Li Dong is introducing?’
Anyone Brother Dong knew was someone most people could only dream of meeting.
"Who is it?" Wang Hao immediately sat up straight.
"What department?"
Li Dong said with a smile.
"The School of Mathematics."
The moment Wang Hao heard "The School of Mathematics," he was clearly disappointed.
His focus was mathematical modeling, and the team’s greatest need was someone to handle the paper-writing.
If Li Dong was also introducing someone from the School of Mathematics... that would create a bit of a conflict for him.
But since Brother Dong was the one who brought it up, he asked subconsciously.
"From the School of Mathematics, huh? That role conflicts with mine a bit. What’s his name?"
He often audited classes at the School of Mathematics, so he knew a lot of people there.
Li Dong thought for a moment and said,
"I think his name is... Gu Ming?"
As the words fell, Wang Hao, who was sitting opposite him, froze for a full two seconds.
"Gu... Gu Ming?"
"Gu God?"
Li Dong was taken aback by his reaction.
"Gu God?"
"What’s that?"
"Is that his pet name or a nickname?"
Wang Hao looked at Li Dong with an expression that basically screamed, ’Are you for real or are you just pretending not to know?’
Li Dong genuinely didn’t know.
He was so busy day in and day out that he’d barely attended any classes. He didn’t have any time to care about which student in the department had what background or achievements.
So, Wang Hao could only suppress his shock and start bringing Li Dong up to speed.
"Brother Dong."
"Senior Brother Gu."
"Let me put it this way."
"Before you showed up, he was the ceiling of the Yan University School of Mathematics."
Wang Hao wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest.
Gu Ming’s achievements ranked him among the top three within the Yan University School of Mathematics.
As a freshman, he won a gold medal in Analysis and a silver medal in Number Theory at the Qiu Chengtong University Student Mathematics Competition, with his total score placing him in the top five.
As a sophomore, he received an Honorable Mention in the Putnam Mathematical Competition, ranking second among all contestants from Huaxia.
Last year, as an undergraduate, he independently published a paper in the Journal of Number Theory on the zero-density estimates of Dirichlet L-functions.
Then, he presented a poster at an international conference on p-adic geometry and was personally invited by two Princeton professors to apply for their groups’ summer programs.
On top of that, for two consecutive years, he had won the Yan University President’s Scholarship, the National Scholarship, and a personal scholarship named after an old academician. The combined amount was almost equivalent to a Ph.D. student’s two-year salary.
He was a junior now, and almost no one in his year at the School of Mathematics dared to compare their grades with his.
If not for Li Dong’s sudden appearance, which kicked the title of "Strongest Undergraduate at Yan University" to a height far beyond his reach...
...then Gu Ming would undoubtedly be the unanimously acknowledged "Treasure of the School of Mathematics."
As Wang Hao rambled on, explaining all of this, Li Dong’s expression slowly shifted from an initial "Oh" to an impressed "Whoa."
"He’s that incredible?"
Li Dong was a little surprised.
"Very incredible!" Wang Hao said decisively.
"He’s just a bit arrogant. Sometimes he even talks back to some of the professors."
Li Dong thought back carefully.
’Wang Hao must be spreading rumors.’
’This Senior Brother Gu seemed quite approachable to me.’
Wang Hao continued.
"Brother Dong, help me get in touch with him!"
"As long as we can get Gu God to join, I’ll be the one to write the paper."
Li Dong was amused by his eagerness.
"Weren’t you just complaining that I was introducing someone from the School of Mathematics?"
"That’s different!" Wang Hao said excitedly.
"Anyone else from the School of Mathematics, I could definitely only have them as my assistant."
"But Gu God is different!"
Actually, there was another reason why Wang Hao was so excited.
He had always wanted to keep up with Li Dong, but every time Li Dong explained a problem to him, he would launch into a whole spectral decomposition framework right off the bat. It made him feel like his brain was undergoing plasmolysis.
But Gu Ming’s stuff, he felt he could actually learn.
Li Dong nodded and said,
"Alright, I’ll ask for you."
"But there are no guarantees. If he’s not willing, there’s nothing I can do."
Wang Hao nodded repeatedly.
"I know, I know. Just asking is good enough."
Li Dong opened WeChat, ready to find his contact information.
...And then he discovered that he didn’t have Gu Ming in his contacts at all.
’Makes sense,’ he thought. ’Gu Ming and I only ever met once in Qi Yu’s research group, and we didn’t even add each other on WeChat afterward.’
So, he opened his phone’s address book and directly dialed Liu Ruochuan’s number.
BEEP—
"The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable..."
Li Dong gave Wang Hao a wry smile, planning to try again later.
But then he saw Wang Hao’s face, full of expectation.
He sighed.
’Alright, poor Haozi.’
He thought for a moment, opened WeChat, and found his chat with Qi Yu.
"Senior Sister."
Not even three seconds after he sent the message,
[Qi Yu]: What problem?
Li Dong: ...
He silently rolled his eyes.
[Li Dong]: It’s not a problem.
[Li Dong]: Senior Sister, I was wondering if you have Senior Brother Gu’s contact information?
Soon, Qi Yu sent over a string of numbers—a phone number.
Looking at the phone number, Li Dong felt a little bad.
After all, Qi Yu was always so responsive whenever he asked for anything.
’She’s even this proactive about something for Wang Hao...’
So, he quickly typed,
[Li Dong]: Ah, thank you, Senior Sister. I’ll have my roommate treat you to a meal.
After he sent the message, the other side went silent for two seconds.
[Qi Yu]: ???
Li Dong realized it too. What he said was too weird. "I’ll have my roommate treat you to a meal"—the two of them didn’t even know each other.
So, he quickly typed another line.
[Li Dong]: Just kidding.
[Li Dong]: I’ll treat you to a meal when the semester starts.
A few seconds passed.
[Qi Yu]: No need to wait for the semester to start. I’m at the university right now.
...
「At 6:30 p.m., in a small restaurant not far from campus.」
The owner was from Sichuan, and his boiled beef, spicy rabbit, and mao xue wang had a great reputation up and down the street. Most importantly, it was cheap.
Six people were sitting in a small private room in the restaurant.
Li Dong, Yang Shengguo, Penrose, Wang Hao, Qi Yu, and... Gu Ming.
Qi Yu really hadn’t expected this.
When she had agreed this afternoon, she thought it was just Li Dong treating her to a meal. But when she pushed open the door to the private room and looked inside...
’Oh, man.’
’With a lineup like this, are we here for dinner or a meeting?’
Gu Ming, sitting opposite her, was also stunned.
Gu Ming had received a call from Li Dong this afternoon.
When he heard "East God" himself inviting him to dinner, his first reaction was...
’Has East God discovered some potential in me worth cultivating?’
After all, the entire Yan University School of Mathematics had heard that East God’s current project was extending from GL(2) to GL(n).
There were only three people in the research group right now.
If he could get his name attached to a project like this, even just by doing menial tasks, it would be enough to sustain his academic resume for half a lifetime.
More importantly, he was a junior now, preparing to apply for summer camps and recommendation-based programs at top universities both at home and abroad.
Places like summer camps look at what tangible results you have, whether you’ve published papers, participated in high-level research projects, or have recommendation letters from top professors.
Any scrap from the project Li Dong was working on now, if he could just get a piece of it, would be a "king bomb" in the graduate school recommendation system.
So, Gu Ming had eagerly scurried over.
He had even arrived at the restaurant an hour early, not only requesting a quiet private room but also proactively paying a deposit.
Then he sat in the private room and waited.
When everyone had arrived, he too was completely bewildered.
’What is this situation?’
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