Professor Wang swallowed.
He slowly walked back to the edge of the crowd.
He opened the A4 paper in his hand.
He fumbled in his pocket for a pen.
The moment the tip of the pen touched the paper, the clarity of the "three splitting positions" in his mind rose to another level...
It wasn’t that what Li Dong said had become clearer.
It was that his own idea had become clearer.
Professor Wang closed his eyes for a moment, suppressing the excitement in his heart.
Then he wrote the first line on the paper.
He was also renaming the "details pending" section on his old draft paper:
[The splitting of H_v in the neighborhood of the accumulation point corresponds to the local curvature of the second moment of F_π(α).]
The discussion at the front of the room went on for two or three more rounds.
In the end, it was Li Dong who brought the conversation to a close.
"Teacher E."
"If we push this part any further, we’ll get into the weighted estimation of the cross-layer coupling from Appendix B of the paper."
"There are too many details in that section. I’m afraid we don’t have enough time today."
E Weinan nodded.
"Alright, let’s stop here for today."
"We can continue this conversation next time."
He glanced at his watch, then looked up at the students crowded around.
"You few, go back and review the line of reasoning Li Dong presented today."
"We’ll see if you can follow it or not in our next small-group session."
The PhD students around the U-shaped table all gave wry smiles and replied, "Okay."
The undergrads looked even more hopeless. They backed away while putting away the phones they had been using to record.
Just then, Li Dong stretched and looked out.
And then he saw someone he didn’t recognize standing at the edge of the crowd.
Li Dong: ???
E Weinan followed his gaze.
Then he smiled.
"Old Wang?"
"When did you get here?"
Professor Wang was still trying to jot down his fleeting inspiration. Hearing E Weinan’s voice, he looked up and gave him an awkward smile.
"Heh, Academician E."
"I’ve been here for a little while."
"You all seemed so engrossed in your discussion, so I listened in for a bit."
E Weinan let out a surprised "Hoh!"
"Want to add a few words then?"
Professor Wang quickly waved his hands.
"No, no, Academician E."
"I’m just here to catch the tail end of things."
"...Actually, I came here today mainly to have a word with student Li Dong."
Only then did Li Dong realize this professor had come for him.
He quickly took a step forward and said politely.
"Hello, Professor Wang."
Li Dong genuinely didn’t know Professor Wang.
It wasn’t that Professor Wang wasn’t famous.
Professor Wang’s course, "Introduction to Automorphic Forms," was actually very highly regarded in Yuanpei College and the School of Mathematics, and it was a sought-after class every year.
But in his entire freshman year, Li Dong could count the number of classes he had properly attended on two hands.
So this was the first time he had met Wang Zhigang.
But on Professor Wang’s side...
Hearing that "Hello, Professor Wang."
In that instant, the first thought that popped into his head was actually...
"Ah, hello, hello, hello East God."
The next second, he startled himself.
’Wang Zhigang, have you lost your mind?’
’How old are you?’
’An old professor from the School of Mathematics, almost at retirement age, calling a freshman kid "East God"?’
He quickly swallowed those words, put on a perfectly normal smile, and nodded at Li Dong.
"Student Li Dong."
"I have something I’d like to discuss with you."
"Is now a good time?"
Li Dong thought for a moment.
He had actually wanted to ask Academician E Weinan for some book recommendations.
But seeing how anxious Professor Wang seemed, he turned to E Weinan and said.
"Teacher E, I’ll come see you tomorrow then."
E Weinan smiled and waved his hand dismissively.
"Go on, you two."
Li Dong thanked him again and walked out of the classroom with Professor Wang.
When they reached the door, he asked casually.
"Professor Wang, shall we go to your office to talk?"
Professor Wang shook his head very quickly.
"Not my office."
"Don’t you have seminar rooms in the basement of your dorm building?"
"Let’s go sit there for a bit."
Li Dong didn’t understand.
Most professors, when they wanted to talk to a student, would do it on their own turf to make it more formal.
Why was this Professor Wang doing the opposite?
But he didn’t overthink it and nodded.
"Alright."
Professor Wang grunted in acknowledgment, secretly sighing in relief.
’Are you kidding me?’
’I just told Zhang Lanjin I was taking leave to go buy medicine. If I were to wander back to the office now, that big mouth of Old Zhang would definitely not keep it a secret.’
’Within two days, the entire school would know that he, Wang Zhigang, had run off to have a private meeting with Li Dong.’
’Before they even figured anything out, people would have already turned it into a joke.’
He had been cautious his whole life and had never done anything to make a fool of himself.
He certainly wasn’t going to start now, especially not with Li Dong.
The two of them walked toward the Yuanpei residential area, one after the other.
Neither of them spoke a word along the way.
Li Dong genuinely didn’t know what to say.
’An unfamiliar old professor is walking with me for this long... asking if he’s eaten? That seems inappropriate. Asking how many people are in his family? That’s even more ridiculous.’
Professor Wang was in even less of a mood to chat.
His mind was completely preoccupied with one thing...
’Is that "master effect" from just now still active?’
He secretly glanced at Li Dong beside him.
Then he tried to run through that line in his head again, the one about "the splitting of H_v in the neighborhood of the accumulation point"...
Still clear.
Professor Wang’s heart skipped a beat again.
’So this effect...’
’As long as the person is nearby, it works?’
He looked up and glanced at Li Dong, his face unreadable.
The kid walked with a swagger as if he didn’t give a damn about anyone, without a trace of a master’s aura.
Professor Wang couldn’t help but sigh.
’...Well, that’s fine too.’
’This kind of thing isn’t about having an aura anyway.’
’It’s about having real substance.’
Just then, three male students from Yuanpei College walked toward them, smiling and nodding naturally...
"Hello, Teacher Wang!"
"Hey, Brother Dong."
You had to hand it to the Yuanpei College students, they were more worldly...
A professor coming back with Brother Dong?
What’s there to be surprised about?
Three academicians and a top professor from Princeton had already been here.
「The seminar room in the basement of Yuanpei Building 35.」
Li Dong, familiar with the place, pushed the door open, flipped on the light, then got a cup of warm water from the dispenser by the wall and placed it in front of Professor Wang.
Professor Wang subconsciously took it with both hands.
The moment his fingers touched the paper cup, he himself was stunned for a second...
In his entire life, he had never accepted something from a student with both hands.
He looked up at Li Dong.
Li Dong had already sat down across from him, looking at him with clear eyes, as if waiting for him to speak.
Professor Wang placed the paper cup on the table.
He cleared his throat, unsure for a moment where to begin.
In the end, he chose the most straightforward opening.
"Student Li Dong."
"Actually, I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while."
"But I knew you were writing your paper, so I didn’t want to disturb you."
"After the paper came out, you had a lot on your plate."
"So I didn’t want to just show up unannounced."
"Today, I was just... passing by and happened to see you."
"So I thought I’d have a chat."
Li Dong smiled.
"You’re too kind, Professor Wang. If you need me for something, you can find me anytime."
Professor Wang smiled and waved his hand.
"Then I won’t stand on ceremony."
"My main area of research is automorphic forms."
"The other leg of the Langlands Program, the one that extends from harmonic analysis."
"From the time I started my PhD until now, I’ve never strayed from this line of research."
He paused, as if thinking about how to phrase his next sentence.
"Before, I was actually leading a research group..."
"Working on the proof of local-global compatibility from GL2 to GL3."
He stopped there.
He didn’t continue.
Hearing this, Li Dong immediately understood.
GL2 to GL3.
That was the exact path that his own universality paper had completely overturned.
His heart sank.
Logically, he shouldn’t have responded to a comment like that.
But Professor Wang was sitting right across from him.
After a moment’s thought, he still said softly:
"Professor Wang..."
"I’m sorry."
The words had barely left his mouth when Professor Wang cut him off.
"Hey, Li Dong, don’t say that."
"That paper of yours..."
"Is a great thing for the Huaxia mathematics community."
"It’s a great thing for the entire mathematics community, too."
"When something of this magnitude drops, for those of us who have been toiling away at the periphery for decades, just being lifted up a little by it is more than enough."
"As for our little research group..."
He sighed softly.
"It’s gone, and that’s that."
"Academia was never about being the first one to finish."
Li Dong didn’t reply, but in his heart, he now categorized Professor Wang as someone who was a true scholar.
Professor Wang took another sip of water, his expression brightening a little.
"I didn’t come looking for you today to complain about anything."
"I came to find a path."

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