The origin of the sketch in Professor Abel’s notes had become a mystery.
Judging from the notebooks, it seemed like this scholar had attributed all of the dreams to God and completely abandoned his search for the meaning behind the dream.
This was quite understandable, taking into account the era he was in.
Even though Lu Zhou himself was an atheist, he still knew what Professor Abel thought.
Attributing the unknowable mystery to some kind of powerful higher existence was common in human civilization.
In fact, didn’t he do the same? Assuming that the system came from an “advanced civilization” was not necessarily better than attributing it to the “God of the universe”.
Neither of these two assumptions had reliable scientific evidence to prove their existence.
Lu Zhou didn’t know if Abel had gotten rid of the bizarre dreams or actively chose not to think about it anymore. The rest of the notes was only regarding the problem that “there is no solution in radicals to general polynomial equations of degree five or higher”.
Lu Zhou knew what happened regarding this problem, even if it weren’t written in the notebooks.
Professor Abel achieved great success in 1824. He successfully completed a series of mathematical achievements, such as the “Abel-Ruffini theorem”.
However, these achievements did not improve his life; it didn’t even attract the attention of the Paris mathematics community at that time.
Finally, in the spring of 1829, the poverty-stricken him died of illness inside his fiancee’s home. His later works were mostly published by his teacher, Professor Holm, a decade later.
The world depicted in his sketches never appeared anywhere else.
The only clue left was the oil painting.
Molina was standing in the front yard. When she saw Lu Zhou come out of the house, she said, “Where do you want to go next? I’ll stay with you all day.”
Lu Zhou: “There’s nowhere else I want to go.”
Molina raised her eyebrows.
“That’s it?”
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, I stayed up all night last night. I have a big day tomorrow, so I should get some rest.”
After Lu Zhou bid farewell to Molina, he got in Wang Peng’s car and returned to his hotel.
He immediately went to bed.
The next morning, a black limo from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stopped at the entrance of the hotel and picked up Lu Zhou.
The town “Saint-Lizier” that they were going to was located in the northern part of France, not too far from Paris. Since he planned on returning on the same day, it was better to leave early.
Before getting into the car, Lu Zhou thought that the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs would arrange a bodyguard and tour guide for himself. However, he did not expect that the person who accompanied him was actually Director Giacobino from the French Ministry of Science and Technology.
His position was roughly equivalent to being in charge of the deputy department of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
Lu Zhou didn’t know exactly what these titles meant. Even to this day, he still hadn’t figured out what being the chief designer and chief consultant of the Lunar Orbit Committee meant. But judging from what the Chinese President said, Director Giacobino was on the same level as Director Li.
So Giacobino was quite a high-level official.
Apart from making some small talk prior to getting in the car, the two didn’t talk much.
Lu Zhou had a book with him, he didn’t seem to be interested in chatting at all. He quietly flipped through the book, making it tricky for Giacobino, who wanted to form a relationship with the “titan” of the Chinese academic community.
Giacobino glanced at the time on his watch and saw that there was not much time left. He secretly signaled the driver in French to drive a little slower. He then looked at Lu Zhou, who was sitting across from him, and asked, “Harvest and Planting… Interesting name, is it poetry?”
Lu Zhou flipped through the page and casually replied, “Strictly speaking, it’s an autobiography.”
Autobiography?
Giacobino hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“And its author?”
“Professor Grothendieck, I don’t know when it was written… Do you want me to read it to you?”
Giacobino smiled and spoke kindly.
“It’s rare to get an opportunity to listen to your lecture.”
Lu Zhou smiled at Director Giacobino.
He knew what Giacobino was trying to do.
However, he obviously wouldn’t call Giacobino out on trying to form a relationship with himself. His emotional intelligence wasn’t that low.
He cleared his throat and read his favorite French paragraph in a steady tone.
“… When we treat a science field not as a tool of ability and power, but as an adventure to pursue knowledge, we gain a sense of pure harmony from this field. While this harmony fluctuates with time, it’s a manifestation of the subtle and delicate themes of the world… As if this field came from a void of nothingness.”
Came from the void…
Lu Zhou felt like every time he read this sentence, he gained a deeper understanding of what it was trying to say.
What exactly is the void?
This question lingered in his mind.
However, Giacobino wasn’t touched by the writing. Instead, he was more surprised by Lu Zhou’s French.
The two had been talking in English prior to this. He had no idea Professor Lu was so fluent in French.
“… Your French is very fluent, when did you start learning? Was it during your time in CERN?”
Lu Zhou shook his head.
“I started learning it last month.”
Giacobino: “…?”
Precisely speaking, he started at the end of last month, when he decided he was coming to France.
Of course, if Lu Zhou told Giacobino that, Giacobino’s jaw would drop to the floor.
Lu Zhou looked at Director Giacobino’s surprised face and smiled. He ignored him and continued to read the autobiography book.
The driver sitting in front of them spoke.
“We’re here.”
The St. Lizier Church was located in the small town of Saint-Lizier. It was not a famous tourist attraction; it was just a small church for the locals.
The old priest stood at the church entrance. He watched Lu Zhou coming out of the car as he said, “You’re finally here.”
Lu Zhou looked at the old priest and smiled awkwardly.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Where’s the letter?”
Lu Zhou took out an old envelope from his pocket and gave it to the priest.
After the priest opened the letter and made sure that it was Professor Grothendieck’s handwriting, he returned the letter to Lu Zhou and said, “Professor Grothendieck asked me to personally give you his notes. I thought he could fulfill his wishes eight years ago.”
“… I apologize for taking so long.”
The priest snorted and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“There’s no need to apologize. If you don’t come, it’s your loss. The person that should be angry at you is six feet under the ground. You should go and apologize to him. Do you want some flowers? It’s 10 euros. He’ll forgive you no matter what.”
Lu Zhou was trying to find some money, but he could only find a credit card. Director Giacobino, who was standing next to him, quickly took out his wallet and spoke to the priest.
“I’ll buy two bundles! Professor Grothendieck was a great scholar. His passing was a huge loss to the world, plus we owe him an apology…”
Born in an era of war, Professor Grothendieck had always been a radical pacifist during his lifetime. Because of this, he and the Institute Des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Paris had serious disagreements on the issue of whether “mathematics should be used for war”. This eventually led him to live in seclusion in a small village in the south of France…
Everyone in France knew of these stories.
The old man looked at Giacobino and smiled.
“If you really think so, you wouldn’t have waited eight years to visit him.”
The priest turned around and opened the wooden door that led to the church cemetery.
“Come on in, his tombstone is the second one from the left, in the third row.”
Lu Zhou nodded and walked toward the wooden door.
However, when he was about to pass the door, the old priest suddenly pulled Lu Zhou’s arm.
“Wait a second, this is yours.”
He took out a notebook from his hand.
Lu Zhou took the brown notebook from the priest’s hand and flipped through the pages.
“Is this Professor Grothendieck’s notes?”
Honestly, Lu Zhou was surprised at how thin it was.
The priest: “There are others, but this is the most important one, so I placed it in the Church. I can’t understand the things written inside, but according to him, it’s an unsolved mathematical problem.
“He always wanted to find someone to help him. He thought Deligne and a German named Schultz were good candidates, but he hated Germans and thought Schultz was too young… For some reason, he chose you in his final days, despite never meeting you.”
Lu Zhou felt the significance of this notebook. He looked at the old priest and spoke solemnly.
“Thank you for keeping it this whole time for me.”
The old priest snorted and said casually, “You’re welcome. Aren’t you rich? If you want to thank me, donate some money to the church. The church hasn’t been renovated for over 50 years.”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and smiled.
“No problem.”
Compared to the complicated mathematical problems…
Things related to money was a piece of cake for him.