Capital University, Supercomputing Center.
Inside the server room, indicator lights flashed frantically.
Zhou Shenzhi stood before the main control screen, staring at the data, which had turned a stark red.
[Verified Zeros: 2 * 10^17...]
It had broken past one hundred quadrillion.
But Zhou Shenzhi couldn’t feel a shred of happiness. A sense of helplessness washed over him.
"Warning: Node memory overflow (OOM)"
"Warning: I/O throughput has reached physical bandwidth limit"
"Warning: CPU cluster temperature has triggered the downclocking threshold"
In the system monitoring interface in the bottom right corner of the screen, all physical hardware metrics were maxed out, and alerts popped up one after another.
It couldn’t run anymore.
This was the physical limit of Capital University’s supercomputer cluster.
No matter how ingenious the dimensional reduction algorithm Li Dong had open-sourced was, when faced with calculating a terrifying 2 * 10^17 non-trivial zeros, the massive number of temporary matrices generated by the FFT grid expansion still overwhelmed the physical memory of every node.
The data exchange latency magnified exponentially at that moment, completely shutting down any possibility of the program continuing its calculations.
This was a number that would go down in the annals of history.
After all, the world record set in 2004 by the French mathematician Xavier Gourdon was a mere 10^13.
From 10^13 to 2 * 10^17 was a leap of over four orders of magnitude, a twenty-thousand-fold increase in computational scale!
But for Zhou Shenzhi, or rather, for his professor, Jiang Yubai, this was far from enough.
He knew his professor’s ambitions all too well.
Professor Jiang Yubai had bet half a lifetime’s work on the grand unified theory of mathematics—the Langlands Program.
His professor was attempting to use a massive amount of data on the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann Zeta function to build a perfectly self-consistent bridge between automorphic representations and Galois groups.
If he succeeded, what a monumental achievement it would be!
A look of unwillingness flickered in Zhou Shenzhi’s eyes.
If his professor could truly make such a groundbreaking achievement in global compatibility, then what would all that p-adic Hodge theory Dean Liu Ruochuan of the Yan University School of Mathematics was so proud of—not to mention his so-called "world-class results" that were just patching up local geometry—amount to in comparison?
They wouldn’t even be worth mentioning!
In the past, whenever the zero verification stalled, Jiang Yubai would always blame it on the hardware, claiming that the computational power of the era was clipping the wings of mathematics.
But now, as Zhou Shenzhi stared at the C++ code on the screen—a code so perfect one could find no fault in it, yet one that ground to a halt in the high-order intervals—he finally understood something.
It wasn’t just a problem of physical hardware limits; it was a problem with the mathematical algorithm itself.
When processing the remainder terms of extremely high-frequency oscillations, the algorithm’s memory recovery mechanism was still imperfect. It lacked that final, Midas touch of topological isomorphic convergence!
"Li Dong..."
’What on earth did you hide in this algorithm? Why did you leave such a massive computational black hole right before the most critical threshold?’
Just as Zhou Shenzhi was fuming helplessly at the screen in the Supercomputing Center, speculating about what Li Dong might have hidden...
At a barbecue stall outside the Yan University campus.
Li Dong sat dejectedly on a stool, the incandescent bulb overhead attracting a few stray gnats.
Across from him sat Qi Yu, the upperclassman with glasses.
Right now, Li Dong wanted nothing more than to strangle his three roommates from dorm 404 and dump them in Weiming Lake.
The whole thing started simply enough.
Lately, Li Dong had been pestering Qi Yu on WeChat quite a bit to understand cutting-edge characterization at the single-atom scale and concepts in Quantum Chemistry.
And to her credit, the upperclassman had been a great help, explaining everything clearly for him each time.
Li Dong felt he had to repay her for all her help.
So, he asked the three animals in his dorm room.
"I was thinking of sending the upperclassman some money to thank her. How much do you guys think is appropriate?"
The moment he said that, Wang Hao, Liu Qiang, and Chen Nan went nuts.
"Brother Dong! Holy crap, did you put all your skill points into IQ and leave none for EQ?!"
"Who thanks a girl for her help by just sending her money on WeChat? What do you think she is, some ghostwriter you hired online?"
"There’s no sincerity in that at all! Listen to us, take her out to eat!"
Li Dong was baffled.
’Dammit, sending money isn’t sincere?’ he thought. ’In this world, what could be more sincere than a string of numbers with an RMB sign next to them?’
But under the relentless goading and "disdain" from his three roommates, Li Dong finally relented and, steeling himself, asked Qi Yu out.
However, once they were actually sitting face-to-face, Li Dong realized just how awkward it was.
They were both so inexperienced...
Qi Yu, sitting opposite him, also said nothing the entire time, focusing only on eating the grilled chicken cartilage in her hand.
Li Dong screamed internally.
’Come on, lady! I’m the passive type! Can’t you start a topic?!’
’How about you ask me a math problem? Or a physics problem, that’d work too!’
’Just start with anything! Ask me about sheaf cohomology, or the Hamiltonian of a gauge field! As long as you ask, I guarantee I can talk your ear off about it!’
However, Qi Yu remained focused on tackling the grilled chicken cartilage, showing no intention of speaking.
Li Dong felt that as the guy, he couldn’t just let the silence continue. He had to take the initiative and keep the atmosphere from getting too cold.
He suddenly remembered something he’d overheard at a food stall last time.
"Um... Upperclassman."
"I think I heard you mention before that you were going to participate in that Chem-E-Car competition, right? When does it start? Do you need me to come and cheer you on?"
Chem-E-Car is a national competition for university students organized by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
The competition requires students to design and build a shoebox-sized car that uses purely chemical reactions as its sole power source and control mechanism.
Not only must it carry a certain payload over a specified distance, but the most insane part is that it has to use a chemical clock reaction to achieve automatic braking with centimeter-level precision.
It’s the ultimate test of physical chemistry, kinetics, and control engineering.
Hearing this question, Qi Yu paused mid-bite.
She put down her bamboo skewer, picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth, and looked up, her pretty eyes behind her glasses calmly meeting Li Dong’s.
"It’s already over."
In that instant, the air froze.
Li Dong: "..."
’Well, this is damn awkward!’
Li Dong could only let out a dry "Oh," but he refused to be defeated.
’What’s the big deal?’ he thought. ’I’m the guy who got a 723 on the college entrance exam and can tear apart the Riemann Zeta function. Am I really going to be stumped by a simple everyday topic?’
He immediately asked with concern.
"So... how did your team do in the end?"
Qi Yu looked at him and said flatly.
"Second prize."
When Li Dong heard this, he smiled slightly.
’Nice! I know how to handle this one!’
"That’s okay, that’s okay, second prize is already amazing! Think about it, besides first prize, you guys were the best. You’ll definitely get first next time!"
Hearing this, Qi Yu finally put down everything in her hands completely.
"Junior."
"In a competition at the level of Chem-E-Car, above second prize is first prize."
"And above first prize, there is the grand prize."
"Only three teams in total win the grand prize."
Qi Yu paused for a moment before continuing slowly.
"And our Yan University... our result last time... was the grand prize."
The smile on Li Dong’s face froze completely.
For the next half hour, Li Dong demonstrated the most extreme level of Concentration he had ever shown in his life.
He lowered his head and shoveled food into his mouth, not saying another word.
Finally, the suffocating dinner came to an end.
Qi Yu stood up and gave Li Dong a polite nod.
"Junior, I’m heading back now. Thanks for the meal."
Li Dong felt as if he’d been granted amnesty.
"Okay, Upperclassman! Take care, Upperclassman! Get home safe!"
Watching Qi Yu turn and leave the barbecue stall, Li Dong let out a long sigh of relief. He felt that this meal had been more exhausting than manually calculating ten elliptic integrals.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Qi Yu walked from the south gate of Yan University back onto campus.
The gentle night breeze blew through her long hair. Once she was sure Li Dong couldn’t see her, she suddenly stopped walking. Her shoulders trembled slightly, and then, unable to hold it in any longer, she let out a "PFFT" and burst out laughing.
Her laughter was crisp and pleasant, a complete contrast to the expressionless, icy demeanor she had maintained at the barbecue stall. She was like a completely different person.
"This junior..."
"He’s pretty interesting..."

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