Enrico Bombieri froze on the spot when he heard what Li Dong said.
The rest of the people in the lecture hall, however, didn’t have much of a reaction.
A few foreign scholars in the back rows even let out soft snickers.
In their eyes, Li Dong was just bluffing.
The Mathematical Annals? How many brilliant and talented mathematicians submitted their papers there each year, only to be mercilessly rejected?
’A Huaxia undergrad like you will almost certainly end up with a rejection, too.’
But while the scholars in the audience didn’t know, Professor Bombelli did.
The deductive logic of this paper was incredibly rigorous. The Fourier optimization framework within it was so exquisite that even he, a Fields Medal laureate, found it perfect.
This paper, most likely, was the real deal!
You have to understand, in the entire hundred-plus-year history of the Mathematical Annals, nothing like this had ever happened!
Besides that eccentric genius, Perelman, who cracked the Poincaré Conjecture, casually tossed the proof onto arXiv, and then ran off to become a hermit in Russia...
Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to be favored by such a top-tier journal?
To proactively refuse to publish in the Mathematical Annals? It was simply unheard of!
"Mr. Li Dong..."
Bombelli took a deep breath and began to persuade him, albeit hesitantly.
"I hope you will reconsider your decision carefully."
In Bombelli’s view, while the iterative algorithm Li Dong had created was a miracle in the field of Computational Mathematics, it was ultimately just a verification tool.
This paper on Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association, however, was the key that could truly unlock the door to a grand unified theory!
He felt it would be a terrible shame if this paper, which was worthy of being recorded in the annals of history, was smothered simply because of an unwillingness to disclose the algorithm.
Standing on the stage, Li Dong could naturally sense the eighty-year-old man’s good intentions.
"Professor Bombelli, please don’t worry."
"Even if it isn’t published in the Mathematical Annals, I will still post this paper on arXiv."
Only after hearing this did Bombelli breathe a sigh of relief.
He had been afraid that Li Dong, in his youthful hot-headedness, would be unable to tolerate the slightest grievance and, in a fit of anger, would lock the paper away in a drawer forever. That would have been an immeasurable loss for the entire world of mathematics.
From Li Dong’s perspective, however, he wasn’t really fixated on publishing in a top-tier journal like the Mathematical Annals.
The fundamental reason he had slaved away on this paper was simply to push the theoretical boundaries of Montgomery’s conjecture and, in doing so, raise the permission level of his Cyan Dragon Study Group.
Now that the permission level had been raised, the paper had already fulfilled its mission.
’Of course, based on the principle of not letting things go to waste, it wouldn’t be too much to submit it to a top journal and earn a little bonus from the university, right?’
’But if publishing means I have to reveal the core algorithm? That’s a no-go. After all, I’m still planning to have a nice little talk with Huaxuan.’
After sitting down, Professor Bombelli also considered it for a long time. In the end, he opened his email and typed his opinion in the comment section of his reply to the Mathematical Annals editorial department.
[This paper demonstrates extremely high academic value. I recommend initiating an expedited external peer review!]
After sending it, he heaved a deep sigh.
He lamented that such a great paper could not be published in the Mathematical Annals.
However, he didn’t know that for Li Dong’s paper, that set of data wasn’t actually important.
As the Q&A session ended, the 45-minute special guest lecture, which was destined to be recorded in the annals of the ICCM, finally came to a close.
However, Li Dong’s paper, "Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association," didn’t actually cause much of a stir in the conference hall.
After all, aside from Professor Bombelli, the vast majority of people present had not yet seen the contents of the paper. No one knew exactly how it was written.
What truly sent the entire hall into a frenzy was still his iterative algorithm that had pushed the verification of nontrivial zeros to 10^23!
As soon as the conference ended, Zhou Shenzhi quickly left the hall, his face livid.
Meanwhile, the international heavyweights in the front rows, like Terence Tao and Zhang Yitang, all stood up, wanting to have a good chat with Li Dong.
However, before they could even get close,
Liu Ruochuan was already at Li Dong’s side.
"Oh, Professor Tao, Professor Zhang! I’m terribly sorry!"
"Li Dong just finished his presentation and needs to rest for a bit."
"Tomorrow! I’ll personally bring him to visit you all tomorrow morning!"
Without waiting for the heavyweights to react, Liu Ruochuan grabbed Li Dong and dragged him toward the venue’s VIP exit.
As they walked, Liu Ruochuan asked Li Dong.
"You kid, for Montgomery’s conjecture, did you really push past |α|
Li Dong smiled and nodded.
"Yes, Teacher."
Hearing this affirmative answer, Liu Ruochuan sucked in a sharp breath.
But then, he was conflicted once again.
The two of them quickly walked out of the international conference center and got into a private car heading back to the East Suburb Hotel.
In the car, Liu Ruochuan looked at Li Dong, unable to resist speaking up.
"Li Dong... have you really decided to give up on publishing in the Mathematical Annals?"
Liu Ruochuan advised him in a serious, heartfelt tone.
"How about this, you could disclose a part of that iterative algorithm?"
"The Mathematical Annals is the holy grail in the field of pure mathematics! If you can be the first author on a paper published there, your reputation will get a huge boost."
Li Dong looked at the concerned Old Liu and chuckled.
He leaned in close to Liu Ruochuan’s ear and whispered.
"Teacher, actually..."
"That pile of nontrivial zero data I cited in my paper... it’s not actually necessary to prove the error bound."
Liu Ruochuan was stunned.
"What do you mean?"
Li Dong blinked and said.
"It means that my paper is already logically self-consistent based on pure analytic number theory derivations alone."
"I only stuffed that pile of massive-sample-size data in there purely for auxiliary verification."
Liu Ruochuan thought for a moment.
’If the paper’s mathematical logic still holds without relying on that black box data...’
’That means the Mathematical Annals might be in for some real trouble this time.’
’Once Li Dong posts this self-consistent paper on arXiv and it’s verified as true by mathematicians all over the world...’
’Then the Mathematical Annals will become the biggest joke in the history of academia!’
Liu Ruochuan looked at the nineteen-year-old freshman before him, with his completely harmless-looking face, and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine for some reason.
’This kid... he plays dirty.’
But...
"Heh heh..."
Liu Ruochuan was stunned for a long moment, then a very strange smile suddenly appeared on his face.
"Well then... this is going to be fun!"
「The private car arrived at the East Suburb Hotel.」
Liu Ruochuan and Li Dong got out of the car, talking and laughing. They had just entered the corridor of the executive suite area.
Up ahead, they saw a figure standing at the corner of the hallway.
Sarah was standing in front of Li Dong’s room. Seeing him return, she immediately walked over to greet him.

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