Li Dong hadn’t given Professor Jiang Yubai’s tentative invitation from Capital University a second thought.
All that talk about ’winning the Fields Medal before forty’ and ’the algorithm still having room for optimization’...
Words that would have been enough to make any outsider’s blood boil with excitement earned little more than an ’oh’ from Li Dong.
’Is your praise really more valuable than praise from Newton?’
So, early the next morning, completely unaffected by the public buzz, Li Dong went straight to Science Building One at Yan University.
The Yan University supercomputer room was located here.
Ordinary students and professors weren’t allowed inside.
Of course, Li Dong couldn’t get in either. He had come with a note from Gao Wen to activate his node access privileges.
After receiving a slip with his exclusive account username and password and binding an OTP dynamic token to his phone, Li Dong headed straight back to his dorm.
’I wonder how fast this 2.0 algorithm can run?’
Full of anticipation, Li Dong connected to the Yan University campus network and opened a terminal.
He typed: ssh lidong@....
He then followed the prompts to enter his password and the six-digit dynamic security code from the OTP app on his phone.
A welcome message from the Yan University Supercomputing Center appeared on the screen. Li Dong had successfully accessed the supercomputer’s login node.
Using SFTP, he transferred his new optimized code—Riemann_Dimensionality_Reduction_v2.cpp, which integrated deep topological isomorphism techniques from Riemann’s Manuscript—along with the compiled executable file into his dedicated storage space.
Next, he had to compile the job scheduler script.
This script was primarily for specifying the number of CPU cores the task required, the memory allocation, and the estimated runtime.
With all preparations complete, Li Dong typed the final command:
sbatch run_riemann_v2.sh
[Submitted batch job 1048576]
A success message appeared on the screen, confirming the job submission.
The next second, the speed at which the numbers on the screen refreshed made Li Dong freeze.
[Verified Zeros: 10,000,000...] [Verified Zeros: 500,000,000...] [Verified Zeros: 3,000,000,000...]...
’This is insane.’
The 2.0 version of the dimensionality reduction algorithm, running on a Yan University supercomputer node, was achieving incredible results. A milestone that would have taken several hours on a single machine was surpassed in less than a minute. It had already broken the hundred-million mark and was still climbing at a furious pace!
Just as Li Dong was watching the numbers scroll by, inwardly reveling in his success...
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ
His phone suddenly began to vibrate.
Li Dong picked up his phone and saw it was Liu Ruochuan.
’Why is Dean Liu calling me? Has the prize money been approved?’
Filled with anticipation, Li Dong answered the phone.
"Hello, Teacher Liu."
"What do you mean, ’Teacher Liu’?! Just call me Teacher!"
Liu Ruochuan’s voice immediately cut him off. His tone felt wrong, like he was suppressing a great deal of anger.
Li Dong corrected himself.
"Okay, Teacher. Is there something urgent?"
"Listen. This coming January, in Shanghai, there’s an ICCM conference. You’re giving a 45-minute invited talk!"
ICCM?
Li Dong, of course, knew what that was.
The International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians. It was the most prestigious academic conference for Chinese mathematicians worldwide!
It was held every three years, and the speakers invited to give 45-minute talks were, at a minimum, distinguished young scholars or tenured professors from top universities at home and abroad.
"Teacher," Li Dong began, hesitating slightly.
"I’m just a freshman. I haven’t even finished my first semester. Giving an invited talk at an international conference of this caliber... isn’t that a bit much? Wouldn’t it seem too ostentatious?"
"What’s wrong with it?"
Liu Ruochuan’s voice boomed over the phone.
"With a result like yours, you’re more than qualified to be up on that stage!"
"Do you have any idea what’s happening over at Old Jiang’s? They used your algorithm on Capital University’s supercomputer and have already reached 10 to the 17th power! This is clearly a revolutionary algorithm for all of computational number theory!"
"The way I see it, forget the ICCM! You could give the keynote address at the annual AMS or SIAM conference right now, and *they’d* be the ones honored by *your* presence!"
Li Dong was completely dumbfounded.
’The AMS and SIAM annual conferences? Those are the most important stages in the entire world of mathematics. Why is Teacher Liu so furious today?’
Before Li Dong could even ask, Liu Ruochuan continued his tirade.
"Do you have any idea what those arrogant academic hacks online are saying about your paper?"
"They’re saying your algorithm is just a minor tweak to the framework Xavier Gourdon established more than a decade ago! They’re saying your efficiency boost of ’just’ three to four orders of magnitude lacks any fundamental theoretical significance!"
Liu Ruochuan grew more furious with every word; Li Dong could practically hear him slamming his desk in his office.
"Not a big improvement, my ass! It’s an improvement of several orders of magnitude, and they call that ’not a big improvement’?!"
"Are they even mathematicians?! Don’t they know perfectly well how demanding it is to push even one more order of magnitude past 10 to the 13th power?"
"Tinkering with Xavier Gourdon’s framework? The fucking underlying Logic is completely different, isn’t it?!"
"And they have the audacity to say it’s meaningless? Fuck their ’meaningless’!"
Liu Ruochuan’s tirade was impressively laden with profanity.
"They’re just jealous! If a Westerner had developed it, let’s see them call it meaningless then! That bunch would be hailing the algorithm as a divine revelation!"
Listening to Liu Ruochuan’s furious rant, Li Dong finally understood what was going on.
It turned out that while his paper had caused an international sensation, these people couldn’t stomach the idea of a Huaxia undergraduate revolutionizing their core algorithms. They had resorted to playing the "sour grapes" card in international journals and forums, attempting to downplay the algorithm’s theoretical value.
This, in turn, had sent the fiercely protective Liu Ruochuan into a rage.
After hearing him out, Li Dong quickly tried to console him.
"Teacher, please don’t be angry. It’s not worth getting worked up over people like that."
"I don’t read any of those online comments anyway. It’s fine, really. I think the ICCM is a great idea. I’ll follow your arrangements."
Hearing Li Dong’s completely unconcerned attitude toward the international criticism, Liu Ruochuan’s anger visibly subsided.
"It’s good that you have that mindset. In academia, you need that kind of composure, to be unfazed by fame or criticism."
Liu Ruochuan let out a long sigh, his tone softening.
"As for the official invitation to the ICCM conference, keep an eye on your email over the next two days. It’ll be coming from Professor Su Qiwang."
As a permanent invited guest and a member of the ICCM’s steering committee, Su Qiwang naturally had the authority to make such a recommendation.
"Okay, Teacher. I’ll be sure to prepare well."
Li Dong agreed.
After hanging up, Li Dong thought back to what Liu Ruochuan had said.
’An improvement of three or four orders of magnitude... meaningless?’
Li Dong turned and looked at the screen of the mobile workstation.
On it, the Yan University supercomputer node, connected via SSH terminal, was calculating the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann Zeta function at a terrifying speed.
’An improvement of two or three orders of magnitude... perhaps that really is meaningless.’
’But what about an improvement of five, six, or even seven orders of magnitude?’
By now, the numbers on the screen had long since blasted past the hundred-billion and trillion marks. They were mercilessly crushing their way toward an abyssal, god-like order of magnitude!

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