「October 6th. Yanjing Daxing International Airport.」
Two tall young men stood side-by-side.
Qin Yan stared at the terminal ceiling, the will to live having completely drained from his face.
’To be honest, if I had another chance, I absolutely would’ve faked an illness to get out of coming today.’
’Because this guy standing next to me is just so damn annoying!’
"Hey, Old Qin, what’s the food at Shuimu really like? Is it as good as the spicy rabbit from Yan University’s Agricultural Garden?"
Li Dong threw an arm around Qin Yan’s neck and spoke in a sincere and earnest tone.
"Also, have you published any papers yet?"
"Let me tell you, Old Qin, don’t think you can relax just because you’re a freshman."
"In university, you have to be proactive about learning. You can’t just passively receive knowledge. You have to go on the offensive and find your own research topics, understand?"
Qin Yan couldn’t be bothered to respond.
’Oh, you’re so amazing! You’re so high and mighty! You published as first author in a top journal, *Mathematics Computing*, right at the start of your freshman year!’
’I’m just a newbie who just got into Shuimu and is still slogging through basic freshman courses. How the hell am I supposed to publish a paper?!’
’I suck, okay? Can’t I just keep my mouth shut?’
Just as Qin Yan was about to lose his temper and start a fight, a familiar figure finally emerged from the arrivals gate.
Elder Chen was pushing a small suitcase, looking around.
"Teacher Chen! Over here!"
Li Dong immediately let go of Qin Yan and rushed forward, fawningly extending both hands.
"Here, here, let me get that suitcase for you. You must be tired from your journey!"
Seeing his two former star pupils, Elder Chen’s face immediately lit up, and his smile smoothed out all the wrinkles on his face.
’Excellent! Just look at them, the soldiers I trained! One at Shuimu, one at Yan University, and they haven’t turned into ungrateful brats either. They knew to come all this way to pick up their old teacher. How gratifying!’
However, Elder Chen just smiled and waved his hand.
"Hey, that won’t do. How can I let a Salem Prize winner push my luggage for me?"
With that, Elder Chen looked at Qin Yan, who was standing beside them.
"Here, Xiaoqin, you push it."
Qin Yan: ???
Li Dong said modestly from the side,
"Teacher Chen, you shouldn’t say that. It’s not a sure thing yet. It’s all just baseless hype from those clickbait accounts online."
Li Dong sighed.
"Besides, next month I have to go to Shanghai for the ICCM conference to give a 45-minute invited talk."
"The audience will be full of big shots from all over the academic world. I have no idea how they’re going to pick me apart during the Q&A session. I’m worried sick!"
As his words fell, the air went silent.
Both Elder Chen and Qin Yan were stunned.
’ICCM?! The International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians?’
Elder Chen swallowed hard and cursed inwardly.
’I’m just a high school Ossai coach. I don’t even qualify to sit in on the International Congress of Mathematicians, and this kid is going up to give an invited talk?’
’And... this is a f*cking honor in mathematics! What the hell does it have to do with me, a physics coach?!’
Qin Yan clamped his mouth shut and silently took the suitcase from Elder Chen’s hand.
’How am I supposed to respond to that? There’s no way to respond!’
’Forget me, even among the freakish geniuses at Shuimu’s Xin Ya Academy, who knows if any of them will be this incredible in the future, but right now, you definitely couldn’t find a single monster who could compete with Li Dong!’
The group left the airport, hailed a taxi, and went straight to the Wenjin International Hotel at Shuimu University.
After dropping off their things, Li Dong followed Elder Chen and Qin Yan for a stroll onto the Shuimu University campus.
This was Li Dong’s first time properly exploring Shuimu.
Walking on campus, Li Dong looked around with great interest.
If Yan University was "One Tower, One Lake," filled with the romance of Weiming Lake’s shore and the profound scholarly atmosphere beneath the Boya Tower, then the style here at Shuimu was distinctly different.
The Second Gate, the Grand Auditorium, and the other buildings here all exuded a strong engineering-school vibe.
A few true gods were also enshrined here.
The most legendary among them was none other than Mr. Yang Zhenning.
Everyone knew that Mr. Yang had won the Nobel Prize in Physics for proposing the theory of parity non-conservation.
But in the world of theoretical physics, everyone knew the truth.
The theory that was truly awesome enough to deify Mr. Yang, cementing his place in the top ten of physics history, was the "Yang-Mills gauge theory"!
Just how badass was this thing?
It’s so badass that I can’t even explain to you, my dear readers, what the hell it is.
Let’s just say that in the Standard Model of modern physics, the strong interaction, weak interaction, and electromagnetic interaction—everything except gravity—were all unified under this theoretical framework!
At least five Nobel Prizes were awarded for derivative research that directly extended from the Yang-Mills theory!
So why didn’t this great theory itself win a Nobel Prize?
Because the Nobel Prize wasn’t worthy of it!
It’s just like how Einstein’s theory of relativity never won a Nobel Prize. It wasn’t that the theory wasn’t qualified, but that the prize itself lacked the scope to contain the greatness of such a truth!
Of course, besides Mr. Yang, Shuimu had another titan.
That would be the founder of the Qiu Prize that Li Dong was competing in: Mr. Qiu Chengtong!
As the Dean of Shuimu’s Seeking Truth College and the pioneer of geometric analysis, Mr. Qiu’s proof of the Calabi Conjecture (resulting in the Calabi-Yau Manifold) provided the most solid mathematical and geometric foundation for String Theory, the cutting edge of modern physics!
Watching the students hurrying past, Li Dong could see that their eyes, like his own, were focused and bright. It was a hunger for knowledge.
He had to admit that Shuimu University, just like Yan University, was undeniably a great institution of higher learning.
Everyone here was earnestly pursuing knowledge, constantly pushing toward the unknown frontiers of human understanding.
Of course, other universities in the country were also conducting research and educating people, but without a doubt, in the vast landscape of academia, Shuimu and Yan University would always be the two most dazzling and charismatic leading institutions.
Just as Li Dong was lost in these thoughts, Elder Chen, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and turned to look at him.
"Li Dong, you’re good for the defense tomorrow, right? You’ve been preparing properly?"
After all, that physics paper on "Hysteresis Loops and Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking" was the fruit of their labor for the better part of half a year.
Hearing this question, Li Dong put on a serious expression and assured him.
"Of course! Don’t you worry, Teacher Chen!"
"Lately, I’ve been completely focused, working tirelessly, and repeatedly studying the material for this Qiu Prize! Every detail of the derivations, every formula for the phase transition critical points—I know them all by heart! I was even reviewing it right before bed last night!"
Li Dong spoke with such heartfelt sincerity that one couldn’t help but believe he had truly poured his heart and soul into the physics Qiu Prize over the past few months.
If his roommates from dorm 404 were here right now, they would have definitely cursed Li Dong out for being so shameless.
"Bull-fucking-shit!"
"You’re Teacher Chen, right? Don’t believe him! He’s a complete and utter liar!"
"That bastard hasn’t even touched a physics book in the last month! What he was clearly reading before bed last night was a paper by Sir Atiyah on micro-decomposition!"

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