But Li Dong was mistaken.
Wang Feng had stayed up all night, but not to prepare for this interview.
It was because his girlfriend had been throwing a little tantrum recently.
The two of them had been grinding it out on a WeChat call since nine-thirty at night.
They went at it until past three in the morning, when his girlfriend finally relented with a, "Fine, whatever."
By the time Wang Feng hung up, he was half-dead from exhaustion and hadn’t even finished reading through the "Key Points on the Langlands Program" that Associate Professor Liu had hastily shoved his way.
Besides, deep down, he didn’t take this interview seriously at all.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get in.
He just felt...
That whether he got in or not, it wouldn’t make much of a difference to him.
His dad had already smoothed things over with Huaxuan Technology.
As soon as he finished his master’s degree, he could start working there directly.
No matter how impressive Li Dong’s "Langlands capstone" project was, it didn’t have a damn thing to do with Wang Feng’s future desk at Huaxuan Technology.
So when he sat down in the chair, he wore a lazy, indifferent expression.
Li Dong didn’t pay much attention to these details.
He was in a hurry, after all.
He casually posed another niche sub-problem within the Langlands program.
"Senior Wang Feng, why don’t you discuss the simplified form of the stable trace formula for base change in the cyclic case."
Wang Feng froze for a second.
He had expected Li Dong to ask about a broader concept.
He wasn’t actually prepared for such a specific question.
But this sort of thing wasn’t difficult for him.
Wang Feng had had a good memory since he was a child. It wasn’t photographic, but if he thought hard about something he had read, he could recall it with about eighty to ninety percent accuracy.
He closed his eyes for a moment and fished out the corresponding section from a textbook in his mind.
He began to answer.
"In the cyclic case, one relies on the trivial cohomology of the cyclic group to eliminate all non-trivial endoscopic terms..."
It was almost a word-for-word recitation.
After hearing the first two sentences, Li Dong’s brow twitched slightly.
A thought subconsciously surfaced in his mind.
’This kid... has a pretty good memory.’
’His Memory Attribute must be around 0.1.’
But that was precisely the problem.
It was one thing that Wang Feng had memorized this passage perfectly.
But the passage he was reciting was not the most accurate answer to the question.
For the stable trace formula for base change in the cyclic case, the standard simplification in the field is the set of formulas from Arthur and Clozel’s 1989 book.
However, Wang Feng was reciting the approximate version from Labesse’s 2004 review article.
Labesse’s review was a good paper, but it wasn’t the cleanest answer to this question.
In order to accommodate the review’s general audience, it had shoehorned in several expedient, approximate terms.
The more Li Dong listened, the tighter his brow furrowed.
He could even tell which specific example from Labesse’s review Wang Feng was quoting.
He finally waved his hand, interrupting Wang Feng.
"Senior Wang Feng."
"That’s from Labesse, isn’t it?"
Wang Feng froze for a second.
He hadn’t expected Li Dong to recognize it so quickly.
But he didn’t panic.
He looked up and smiled.
"Yes, East God."
"It’s my own interpretation of Labesse."
"...Your own interpretation?"
Li Dong repeated.
His brow furrowed even tighter.
’This kid.’
’Giving an inaccurate answer is one thing.’
’But to claim it’s his own interpretation after reciting it?’
Li Dong looked up at Wang Feng.
"Wang Feng."
He didn’t even call him ’Senior’ anymore.
"That ’own interpretation’ of yours."
"It’s from Labesse’s 2004 review article, page seventeen, paragraph two, starting from the third line, to page eighteen, paragraph one, second line."
"Word for word."
"You didn’t even miss the word ’essentially’ he used in the original text to hedge his bets."
"Are you sure this is your own interpretation?"
Hearing Li Dong’s words, Wang Feng was completely stunned.
He had never imagined it.
Not only had Li Dong recognized it was from Labesse...
...but he could even cite the page, paragraph, and line number.
Such an obscure, incredibly obscure location in the text.
He had only dared to use it because he was banking on the fact that ’no one would actually go look up the original text, and certainly no one would have it memorized to that degree’.
And yet...
He was speechless.
He opened his mouth, but in the end, nothing came out.
Li Dong sighed.
He looked down and drew an ’X’ on Wang Feng’s file.
"Wang Feng, I’m sorry, but you haven’t passed our interview."
At the other end of the table, Associate Professor Liu’s expression was grim.
He wasn’t upset with Li Dong; he was furious with his own student.
He recognized Wang Feng’s talent.
It was just that the kid’s heart wasn’t in academics at all.
At that moment, Wang Feng sat there in a daze.
It wasn’t that he absolutely had to join Li Dong’s research group, but the problem was...
He felt it was unfair.
’On what grounds did I fail?’
’Did Fu Chen’s answer sound as polished as mine?’
’Fu Chen got a checkmark.’
’I got an X.’
’How is that fair?’
It was the same before. When he and Fu Chen both applied to be Professor Wang’s graduate students, Professor Wang chose Fu Chen and rejected him.
It’s happening again now...
’So on what grounds...?’
So he spoke up.
"East God."
He tried his best to keep his tone restrained.
"Can I ask a question?"
"I doubt Student Fu Chen’s answer was any better than mine."
"Why did he pass and I didn’t?"
"Is it because..."
He paused.
"...his advisor is Professor Wang Zhigang?"
As soon as he said that,
everyone looked toward Associate Professor Liu.
Associate Professor Liu sat there, his face as black as thunder.
They had been master and disciple for some time, and he had never thought his student could be so utterly lacking in emotional intelligence.
’This kid really has some nerve.’
’That one sentence didn’t just offend Li Dong and Wang Zhigang, you’ve fucking offended me too, you know that?’
The corner of Professor Zou Yaohui’s mouth twitched, and he quickly lowered his head to look at the documents in his hand.

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