These mathematicians often chose a touristy attraction with pleasant scenery for their parties, some place that was fun. However, for large international academic conferences like this, a region’s mathematics strength was also one of the factors that were taken into account.
After all, everyone wanted to host this party in their hometown since it was an honor and made attending the conference much more convenient.
However, it wasn’t easy to sell your hometown to scholars around the world.
This required not only the academic influence of the region but also one’s connections in the academic community.
Thanks to Mr. Shiing Shen Chern, the International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Beijing in 2002. That was the first time the International Congress of Mathematicians was held in a non-first-world country.
That opened a door for Chinese mathematicians to connect and network with the international academic community.
When the Chinese scholars heard that the next ICM was going to be held in China, they began to feel a burning sensation of excitement in their hearts.
The applause was like a thunderstorm, flooding the venue. Scholars from other countries were shocked at the enthusiasm.
Academician Wang Shicheng was also applauding in the venue, and he nearly began to tear up.
Before this closing ceremony began, he felt a range of complex emotions. He wanted the International Mathematical Union to choose China, but he was worried it would be in Jinling.
Even though the International Mathematical Union decided on Jinling City with little suspense, somehow, this didn’t bother him at all.
Xu Chengyang was sitting nearby. He slapped his thighs and wanted to stand up, but he was worried about blocking the people behind him.
Zhang Wei clenched his fist and stared at the stage with a flash of excitement in his eyes.
What excited him wasn’t just because the next International Congress of Mathematicians was happening in Jinling, but because he began to see a trend.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t the first time Jinling would hold a mathematics event of this scale.
Starting from the report on the Yang-Mills Equations, this city had now become the center of attention for the mathematics community.
And Jin Ling University had accumulated a ton of experience hosting international mathematics conferences as a byproduct of this attention. In the blink of an eye, this university had become a center of mathematics academic exchanges.
Jin Ling University was exactly what Aurora University and Yan University wanted to become.
This was all because of one person.
How terrifying…
An American-Korean scholar looked at the Chinese scholars with envy in his eyes as he spoke to his British-American friend sitting next to him.
“How come a developing country like China gets to host this twice? I think the voting is suspicious.”
The British scholar sitting next to him spoke.
“… You really think they’re a developing country?”
According to rumors, East Asia Energy was negotiating with the Korea Electric Power Corporation on a cross-regional power grid plan. If everything went well, it wouldn’t take long for China’s power lines to cross the country border and provide electricity to the Korean people.
A developing country that had controllable fusion energy technology, exporting their electricity to other countries…
No one thought China was a developing country anymore.
Yang Yongan happened to overhear the conversation. He raised his chin toward the Korean scholar and spoke.
“We have Professor Lu, what do you guys have? Do you guys have a Fields Medal?”
This sentence hit the man exactly where it hurt.
Forget about the Fields Medal, compared to Japan, which had already established its place in the international mathematics community, Korea’s mathematics community was far behind other developed countries. People would often make jokes that Korean mathematicians only existed in K-dramas.
The Korean scholar clenched his teeth and squeezed his fists.
He immediately said angrily, “How do you know Professor Lu is yours! Us Koreans also have the surname Lu!”
Yang Yongan: “…?”
Wang Shicheng: “?”
Zhang Wei: “??”
Qin Yue: “???”
After the closing ceremony ended, the International Congress of Mathematicians finally came to an end.
The news that the next International Congress of Mathematicians would be hosted in Jinling quickly spread across WeChat, Weibo, and various university forums.
For normal citizens, this wasn’t anything special. But for people in the mathematics field, this was more exciting than when Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympics!
A new player was joining the international mathematics world, joining the likes of America and Europe.
Some people were so excited they were unable to fall asleep…
On the flight from St. Petersburg to Beijing.
Lu Zhou leaned in his seat and yawned.
Unlike those people that stayed up all night celebrating the 2026 ICM location announcement, Lu Zhou was flying kilometers up in the sky, oblivious to what was happening.
The plane landed.
Through the special airport passage, Lu Zhou went to the bathroom and drank a bottle of Energy Medicine from the system space.
He rubbed his eyes and felt energized. He put the empty bottle into his pocket and washed his face by the sink.
There weren’t many Energy Medicine bottles left. It took longer and longer to complete missions, which meant fewer rewards. He had to use his system items conservatively.
After washing his face, Lu Zhou was about to leave the bathroom, but he suddenly received a call from his father.
Lu Zhou picked up the phone and spoke while walking out of the bathroom.
“Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
“Nothing much, I just saw you on the news… When did you go to Russia? How come you didn’t tell us?”
Even though his father followed the news closely, the news station had been constantly talking about Lu Zhou the past few days, so it was hard to miss.
Lu Zhou heard his father’s complaint and didn’t know what to say.
It wasn’t like he didn’t want to call his family. It was just that before going to St. Petersburg, he had to go through a military safety exercise and prepare for his hour-long report. Then the incident at St. Petersburg happened…
“I only went for a week, just for some conference, didn’t think I needed to tell you…”
“What do you mean! You won such a large… big prize, why didn’t you tell us?”
Lu Zhou wanted to say that the prize he won was actually much less honorable than the Fields Medal.
However, he understood why his father was pissed off. After all, he didn’t even call his family once.
Lu Zhou sighed and decided to agree with his father.
“Okay then, I’ll remember to call you guys next time.”
As expected, this did the trick. Old Lu totally forgot about what happened and began talking about other things.
“Oh yeah, I heard Old Wu from work say that there’s a lot of good Vodka in Russia, make sure to buy some for me, I want to see what they taste like.”
Lu Zhou said, “… Can’t you buy vodka at the supermarket?”
Old Lu: “It’s not the same! Buying from Russia is more authentic!”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Isn’t it just alcohol with water? What difference can it make?
Lu Zhou sighed and spoke.
“I just got off the plane, I’m already back in China… Maybe I can buy something at the duty-free store.”
Old Lu: “Oh, really? I just saw you on the news, you’re already back? Never mind then, I can just buy it at the supermarket.”
Lu Zhou: “Ok…”
Old Lu: “Oh yeah, I just wanted to ask, are you okay?”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and spoke.
“… I’m good, don’t worry about me.”
Old Lu said, “I’m not worried, I know you can take care of yourself. I can’t even understand the problems you have.”
Lu Zhou awkwardly smiled.
He still decided to stay humble.
“That’s just academic problems, after all, I do work in this field, but when it comes to fishing—”
“Okay enough.”
His father spoke in an emotional tone.
“I don’t care if you want to listen to me, I have to say this. There are no perfect people in the world. Even great mathematicians have peed their pants, have made arithmetic errors—”
“Hey! Dad, what kind of example is that… What are you trying to say?”
Lu Zhou was appalled.
Thank god he wasn’t on speakerphone!
However, Old Lu didn’t seem to care.
“… I just wanted to tell you, regardless of what choice you make, other people’s opinions don’t matter. As long as you think it’s the right choice, you will have no regrets.
“What’s the point of caring about other people’s opinions?”
The phone call went silent.
After a few seconds, Lu Zhou suddenly smiled.
“Okay then.”
“Good!” Old Lu suddenly said, “Oh yeah, you really proved Riemann’s hypothesis?”
Lu Zhou said, “Even you know about this?”
Old Lu: “I heard that after you solved Riemann’s hypothesis, bank passwords aren’t safe anymore! I was talking with your mother about taking money out of the bank. I think you have some savings too, right? You should take out at least half.”
Lu Zhou: “… That might be a little difficult to do.”
F*cks sake!
Who the hell is spreading this rumor!
I’m going to find this b*stard and slap them in the face!