A thin layer of sweat had appeared on his forehead at some point.
’Thank god.’
’Thank god I didn’t reject it!’
According to the editorial department’s procedure, a rejection email would be automatically sent to the corresponding author’s inbox.
In other words...
Li Dong would receive an email from *Compositio Mathematica*.
The email would read:
"[Due to citation 43 not specifying the exact subsection number, this manuscript has not passed the initial review.]"
And then what?
What kind of expression would the genius Ph.D. who had just argued Torres, the deputy editor-in-chief of *Inverse Problems*, into taking medical leave make after reading such an email?
’I can’t even imagine.’
’I really can’t.’
The colleagues in the office, still laughing about the news of the public submission invitation, had no idea that the man beside them had just narrowly dodged a bullet.
If he had really, at a critical time like this, rejected a manuscript with Li Dong as the corresponding author...
No matter how justified the reason for rejection, the senior editor would have had to call him into the office for a "chat."
And if word of this got out...
It hadn’t even been a week since *Inverse Problems* was forced to retract a paper.
Fan Derbo wiped the sweat from his brow and deleted the note "citation 43 does not specify subsection number" from the [Reason for Rejection] field.
Then, he clicked [Submit for Senior Editor’s Review].
’A formatting issue?’
’For a formatting issue, I’ll just add a note: "Suggest adding subsection number." That’ll do.’
As for the manuscript itself, that was a headache for the senior editor.
「Meanwhile...」
The "corresponding author" who had nearly caused Fan Derbo to step on a landmine in the middle of the afternoon had no idea he had just quietly saved some editor’s KPI for the next six months.
He was in a small seminar room on the second floor of the Yan University School of Mathematics, facing rows of symbols on a whiteboard...
And he was completely in his element.
"Senior Fu Chen."
"After you submit this paper, there’s more than one direction for your next extension."
Li Dong pointed to a line on the whiteboard...
[The Cohen-Macaulay Property of R□(ρ?,τ)].
"Your paper handles the two-dimensional case where l is not equal to p, splitting the local deformation ring by inertial type, then matching the special fiber of each component with the Jordan-H?lder composition of some irreducible representation mod l of GL2(O_F)."
"But don’t be satisfied with just two dimensions."
"The biggest opening for extension is actually in n-dimensions."
Fu Chen looked up.
"N-dimensions..."
"That’s right," Li Dong said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Two dimensions is the comfort zone for this approach. The relation φσφ?1=σ^q, plus the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, suppresses the high-tier terms to second-order or less."
"But in n-dimensions, Cayley-Hamilton only gives you up to n-th order. This system of explicit equations immediately blows up. You have to switch tools."
Fu Chen nodded.
"So for your next step, you can either take Helm’s global route and equate the n-dimensional Bley-Mezaar to some global automorphic statement. Or..."
A spark of excitement flashed in Li Dong’s eyes.
"Or you can take the path I mentioned to you a couple of days ago and upgrade this GL2 Cohen-Macaulay Property into a geometric statement that holds uniformly over all tame inertial types."
He continued without pausing for breath.
"How do you do it specifically?"
"Look, the key to the problem is actually that determinantal ring."
"This whole setup uses the ideal generated by the 2x2 minors of a 2xk matrix..."
(Omitted)
"The Cohen-Macaulay Property of that family was proven in that old paper by Hochster-Egan, but its relationship with the Gorenstein Property is completely different."
Fu Chen: ...
"You have to go back to the algebraic geometry side and re-count using the grade formula."
"I was flipping through Aisenbad’s eighteenth Chapter a couple of days ago and reread it. The way they handle it can actually be modified to fit your case."
"You just have to replace the minimal polynomial of σ with its n-th order irreducible factor decomposition."
Fu Chen: ...
"Then perform the induced splitting of the irreducible representation of P?_F for that tame reduction in n-dimensions."
...Omitted
"The algorithm is the same. It’s a bit more work, but the thinking is identical."
Li Dong grew more and more animated as he spoke, his marker SCRIBBLING furiously across the whiteboard.
Halfway through, he seemed to feel he hadn’t explained a section clearly enough, so he went back, erased a line of formulas, and replaced it with a different derivation.
He was completely immersed in his own explanation...
So much so that he didn’t even notice Fu Chen, sitting in the chair opposite him, staring blankly with his mouth slightly agape.
"Then, for the next step, once you’ve finished all this, you can naturally ask the next question."
"Can you let τ range over all inertial types and see... Omitted."
"Work on this for another year and a half, and you won’t have to worry about your doctoral thesis."
"And after that..."
The more he spoke, the more excited Li Dong became. Toward the end, he hardly needed any reaction from Fu Chen; he could carry the entire dialogue by himself.
Fu Chen nodded stiffly.
If Wang Hao were in the seminar room at that moment, he would definitely pat Fu Chen on the shoulder and say, "Buddy, I know exactly how you feel."
Li Dong was thoroughly enjoying himself. The more he explained, the clearer his own line of thought became.
And the more he explained, the more he felt that his senior, Fu Chen, had a truly promising future in this field.
He put down the marker, turned to look at Fu Chen, his eyes full of expectation.
"Do you get it?"
Fu Chen, who had been completely spaced out, was jolted back to reality by the sudden question.
He turned his head stiffly, looked at Li Dong, and nodded mechanically.
"...I get it."
Li Dong smiled, a look of gratification spreading across his face.
Just then, the phone Li Dong had placed on the table suddenly started vibrating.
Zhang Wenping.
Li Dong glanced at the caller ID and quickly swiped to answer.
"Hello, Academician Zhang."
On the other end of the line, Zhang Wenping’s voice was loud and clear.
"Li Dong."
"You got a minute now?"
Li Dong glanced at Fu Chen, who wore an expression of immense relief.
"Yes, I have time now."
"Alright, let me tell you something."
"About you being a review expert for the national mathematical modeling competition—that’s not happening anymore."
Li Dong paused for a second.
"Huh? It’s not happening?"
’And here I was, hoping to go and cheer Haozi on.’
’I guess I’m still too young. My qualifications are still a bit lacking.’
Li Dong sighed silently.
He was just about to offer a few polite words.
But Zhang Wenping continued on the other end of the line.
"You’ll be a judge."
Li Dong: "Hmm?"
"You can’t be a review expert anymore."
"You’re going to be an official judge."
Li Dong stood frozen, phone in hand.
Without waiting for him to process it, Zhang Wenping continued explaining on his own.
Previously, they had invited Li Dong to be a review expert mainly because his achievements were primarily in pure mathematics at the time.
But now, with the publication of that Comment, things had changed completely.
What Li Dong demonstrated in that Comment wasn’t just a complete mastery of Tikhonov.
Even more impressive was Li Dong’s rock-solid local analysis ability at the intersection of pure and applied mathematics.
This made him perfectly qualified to be an official judge.
When Academician Zhang Wenping heard no response from Li Dong for a long while, he asked.
"What? You don’t want to?"
"You already promised me before."
Li Dong finally snapped back to his senses and said hurriedly.
"No, no, Teacher Zhang. I just didn’t expect that I could be an official judge directly."
Zhang Wenping chuckled.
"Heh, don’t sell yourself short."
"You’re excelling in both pure and applied math now."
"See if you have time to come to Jinling next month."
"Us judges will get together for a meeting."
Li Dong thought for a moment.
Right now, aside from the matter he needed to ask Gao Wen about, all that was left was the day-to-day progress of his research group.
Wu Kai’s side had basically entered a normal phase of progress, so his presence wouldn’t make a huge difference.
The paperwork for Shuimu was also almost done, and there was still some time before the semester started.
His schedule was completely free.
"Yes, I can do that, Academician Zhang."
"Good."
"We’ll let you know in advance, then. You just come on over."
The call ended.
Li Dong put down his phone and let out a long sigh.
’I really am too brilliant.’
’They’re even having me be an official judge now.’
Then Li Dong thought of Wang Hao.
As his roommate, Haozi was so good to him, even bringing him meals from time to time.
He originally planned to cheer him on as a review expert, but now that he’d been promoted to an official judge, the rules wouldn’t allow for such casual behavior...
’Then I’ll just have to find another way.’
’I’ll have to give him some proper training.’
Li Dong’s eyes lit up.
He had already run through the entire training syllabus in his head...
The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. The more he thought, the more he felt that, as a roommate, he had truly mastered the art of "going to bat for a brother."
Dorm 404.
Wang Hao’s nose suddenly tickled, and he let out three sneezes in a row.
"ACHOO!"
"ACHOO!!"
"ACHOO!!!"

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