Scraps.
When that single word fell on Jiang Yubai’s ears, he froze for a full two seconds.
The several hundred people in Sunshine Hall were also completely stunned.
The generalization of local-global compatibility from GL2 to GL3 was widely recognized as one of the most central milestones in the main line of the Langlands Program in modern number theory.
There were no more than five top research groups in the world working in this direction. Anyone who could take even half a step forward on this path would be remembered by the entire mathematical community.
And he was calling *this* scraps?
Jiang Yubai’s face went from deathly pale to ashen with fury.
He had navigated the academic world for over twenty years, and his self-control had long been honed to perfection.
But today, he couldn’t take it anymore.
"Scraps?"
"Do you have any idea that the local-global compatibility of automorphic representations for GL2 is a core cornerstone of the Langlands Reciprocity Program?"
"It directly determines whether the bridge between automorphic forms and Galois representations can even be completed."
"Once this bridge is built, the unified framework for the three major fields of number theory, Algebraic Geometry, and representation theory will have its foundation!"
"And you say it’s scraps?"
Jiang Yubai’s hands were trembling slightly.
"The local-global compatibility for GL2 is the most critical verification point for the Langlands Program in the low-rank case! Without a rigorous proof for this step, the entire program will forever remain just a conjecture—a beautiful castle in the sky!"
"From Serre’s conjecture to the Sato-Tate conjecture, from the local Langlands correspondence to global Langlands functoriality, progress in all these directions is built upon the cornerstone of GL2 compatibility!"
"I have dedicated fifteen years to this direction! Fifteen years!"
He practically roared the last few words.
"And you’re telling me that extending GL2 to GL3 is scraps?"
Sunshine Hall fell so silent that only the echo of Jiang Yubai’s furious shouts could be heard.
Li Dong didn’t say a word.
He just stood on the stage, quietly watching Jiang Yubai.
He waited until he was finished shouting.
Only then did Li Dong speak.
"Professor Jiang."
"Everything you’ve said, I agree with."
"The local-global compatibility from GL2 to GL3 is indeed very important. I have never denied its significance to the Langlands Program."
Jiang Yubai stared at him, his gaze piercing.
"Then on what grounds do you call it scraps?"
Li Dong smiled.
"Because my goal isn’t GL2 to GL3."
He said this in a calm tone.
"What I intend to do is GL2 to GL(n)."
"The complete generalization."
Everyone in Sunshine Hall heard him.
But no one dared to be the first to react.
Because the weight of that statement was beyond their comprehension.
GL2 to GL3 was already a problem that had stumped the entire number theory community for more than a decade.
But GL2 to GL(n)...
That wasn’t a matter of taking one or two steps forward.
That was a complete reconstruction of the very foundations of the Langlands Program.
’If he really pulls this off...’
’It would be one of the greatest mathematical achievements of the 21st century.’
They wanted to say, ’Impossible.’
But everything that had just happened was still vivid in their minds.
This young man had spent half an hour on stage presenting the complete derivation of an Annals paper, and the rigor and agility of his thinking had left everyone in the room in awe.
Then, he had casually pushed the work on the local-global compatibility of GL2 from e_v ≤ 2 to the final stages for e_v = 3.
He had already created so many miracles; who could say for certain that he wouldn’t create another?
Li Dong looked at Jiang Yubai, his tone carrying a hint of sincerity.
"Professor Jiang, when you stand before the problem of GL2 to GL3, you see it as a great mountain."
"But if you look back from the height of GL(n)..."
"GL2 to GL3 is just a single step at the foot of that mountain."
"That’s why I called it scraps."
"Not because it’s unimportant."
"But because within my framework, it’s just a special case that will be resolved along the way to the final goal."
The audience was silent for a long time.
If a man’s ambition was to rebuild the foundation of an entire edifice, then he indeed had the right to call one of its bricks scraps.
The prerequisite was that he truly had the ability to do the rebuilding.
And everything that had happened in the past four hours had convinced everyone that this young man might just have that ability.
Qiu Chengtong was silent.
Tao Zhexuan nodded thoughtfully.
A slight smile touched the corner of Tian Gang’s mouth before he quickly suppressed it.
After a brief silence, Li Dong smiled again.
"However, Professor Jiang."
"There’s something I’ve always been curious about."
Jiang Yubai raised his head.
"You just said that extending GL2 to GL3 is a cornerstone, and that you’ve been researching it for fifteen years."
"But Professor Jiang, the best method was actually in your own paper."
"The paper you published in the Duke Mathematical Journal, titled ’On the Local-Global Compatibility of Automorphic Representations for GL2 in Cases Where the Ramification Index Does Not Exceed 2’."
"The core construct of the p-adic integral path deformation within it."
"If you just follow that path, extending e_v from 2 to 3, and then from 3 to even higher... the direction is clear."
"Teacher Yang already demonstrated it on stage. The layer-by-layer recursive filtered embedding is the most natural extension of that construct."
Li Dong paused.
"But you didn’t follow it."
"For fifteen years, you haven’t taken a single step forward using the method from your own paper."
"Why is that?"
Sunshine Hall fell silent once more.
Li Dong didn’t explicitly say, ’Because you weren’t the one who came up with that method.’
After all, so many years had passed. Who could say for sure?
There was no hard evidence.
Jiang Yubai and Zhou Shenzhi could easily claim it was the result of internal group discussions, a collective effort, or that the student participated but made limited contributions... Such things happened all too often in academia. When it was one person’s word against another’s, outsiders could never judge.
But none of that mattered.
Because everyone present, and even those watching the live stream, knew the truth in their hearts.
What Yang Shengguo had just written on stage and the core construct in Jiang Yubai’s paper were practically identical.
The logical thought process of a single individual cannot be hidden.
And the fact that Jiang Yubai and Zhou Shenzhi had been stuck at e_v = 3 for over a decade, unable to make progress, was the best proof of all.
’If you were the one who came up with the method, how could you not know where it was supposed to go?’
’If you truly understood its underlying logic, how could you fail to see an extension as natural as the "layer-by-layer recursive filtered embedding"?’
Unless...
’It wasn’t yours.’
Jiang Yubai stood there, unable to utter a single word.
He had plenty of excuses.
For instance, ’As a master’s student, Yang Shengguo’s work was completed under my guidance. The solution he proposed would have been impossible without the three years of groundwork I laid beforehand.’
It was a statement that could hold up in the gray areas of academic ethics.
But it was meaningless now.
The die was cast.
Li Dong’s seminar today had accomplished two things.
First, in just half an hour, he had fully reproduced the entire derivation process for Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association, answering all thirteen critical comments on arXiv and cementing his academic reputation, making it unassailable.
A nineteen-year-old freshman, with his indisputable mathematical prowess, had officially joined the ranks of the foremost researchers in contemporary analytic number theory.
In Tian Gang’s private words, this young man no longer needed anyone’s approval, because he himself was the standard.
The second thing...
He brought Yang Shengguo onto the stage.
He allowed a genius who had been buried for fifteen years to personally display his talent in front of mathematicians from all over the world.
And the direction that talent pointed to was precisely the academic territory Jiang Yubai took the most pride in.
The effect of these two things combined was...
As of today, Jiang Yubai’s credibility in the academic world had been reduced to zero.
And...
Jiang Yubai took a deep look at Tian Gang.
Tian Gang was Li Dong’s mentor, and he knew Tian Gang.
’He was in deep trouble...’
Soon, a large number of scholars would come forward to accuse him of academic misconduct. An investigative committee might even get involved.
Even if he had been discreet back then and had been lucky enough to get away with it.
From this day forward, in the circles of analytic number theory and the Langlands Program, whenever someone mentioned the name "Jiang Yubai," it would always be followed by an addendum:
"You know, *that* guy... yeah, you know."
No one would cite his papers anymore.
No one would invite him to give academic reports anymore.
No students would want to apply to be his graduate students.
No funding committees would approve his projects anymore.
He would effectively cease to exist in the field...
Unless...
He could produce an even more groundbreaking academic achievement.
An achievement significant enough to make everyone forget what happened today.
Only then would people re-evaluate him, would they give him a second chance.
But Jiang Yubai knew in his heart.
He couldn’t do it.
Because the field he excelled in most no longer belonged to him.
Jiang Yubai slowly sat back down.
He said nothing more, just lowered his head and stared at his own hands.
They were the hands of a scholar.
But at this moment, they were trembling.
On stage, Li Dong didn’t stop.
He looked at the silent Jiang Yubai, his eyes devoid of sympathy.
"Professor Jiang."
Jiang Yubai didn’t look up.
"Are you willing to join our team?"
"I’ll list you as the third author."
This was a blatant insult.
A freshman inviting a senior professor with over twenty years of research experience to join his team, only to offer him third authorship, ranked behind a high school math teacher.
At any other time, this would be a public humiliation of a senior academic.
But in Sunshine Hall, not a single person felt it was inappropriate.
Jiang Yubai still didn’t look up.
He closed his eyes.
By now, all the overhead lights in Sunshine Hall had been turned on.
Outside the window, the sky had completely darkened at some point, and the last ray of the sunset’s afterglow had vanished behind the western hills.
The day had made its exit.
A bright moon was slowly rising from the eastern horizon.

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