“This guy is simply the devil…”
Jin Ling University library.
The door slammed open as Shinichi Mochizuki walked out of the room with a stack of papers. His eyes were bloodshot as he muttered to himself like a crazy person.
“No… He’s hell itself.”
It had been a week since Schultz said he wanted to “try it out”.
Perelman did not participate, but he and Schultz confidently entered the room next to Lu Zhou. The door was closed for several days.
Before the retreat began, the three people made an agreement. They would stick to it if they could. But as long as they hadn’t given up, they had to follow Lu Zhou’s instructions.
In the beginning, Shinichi Mochizuki didn’t take it too seriously. He didn’t even think about the situation that he would be unable to withstand the workload. After all, in his opinion, anything that could be overcome with perseverance was not a big problem.
However, he soon realized how naive he was…
They ordered take-out for all three meals a day. This was not a big problem for him, who was accustomed to staying in the library all day. However, he did not expect that even sleeping would become a rare luxury.
According to Lu Zhou, if he was sleepy, lying on the table for a bit was enough. When the fatigue exceeded a limit, he entered an unprecedented realm.
This is no longer perseverance, this is pure self-abuse!
At first, the retreat was a little useful. The burst of inspiration made him feel more comfortable than ever before. However, after maintaining this kind of life for about five days, he began to lose his mind.
First, his mind started to wander, then his body issued a warning.
Finally, on the seventh day, that was, today, he felt that if he didn’t come outside, he would die in the library.
Schultz, who was sitting behind the desk, saw Shinichi Mochizuki coming out of the room. He had a look of approval on his face.
“You’re finally out? I knew you couldn’t hold on anymore… How can a normal person not sleep for 24 hours? I have never heard of such a thing.”
Unlike Mochizuki, he only held on for three days before being completely defeated. But he didn’t think this was anything shameful. After all, even the best research method might not be suitable for everyone. He didn’t feel the feeling of an explosion of inspiration as described by Lu Zhou. Instead, he still preferred to dive into these interesting mathematical problems in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Perelman was at his desk not far away. He twisted the ballpoint pen in his hand and looked up at the two; a hint of surprise was written on his expressionless face.
“Is it that bad?”
Schultz and Mochizuki looked at each other; a wry smile appeared on their faces at the same time.
“It is…”
“No one can stick to his pace of research… Except for himself.”
At this moment, the door suddenly opened again.
The devil they were talking about happened to walk out with a stack of A4 papers.
“When do I not sleep for 24 hours? I’m still a normal person, I still sleep okay?”
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but yawn. He then threw the stack of A4 papers in his hand on the table closest to him.
“I finished my part, what about you guys?”
Schultz’s eyes lit up at the pile of papers on the table.
However, he obviously didn’t have the time to research these new findings. He hadn’t even finished his own part yet. He didn’t want to be the one that dragged the whole team down.
Schultz: “I’m close.”
Shinichi Mochizuki immediately said, “Me too.”
Perelman thought for a while and said, “I’m almost there… Will probably be done in the afternoon.”
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Then we’ll meet this afternoon. Let’s summarize the results of our research. If everything goes well, this should be the last discussion meeting before we finish this research project.”
“Wait a minute.” Schultz raised his hand and said embarrassedly, “What about tomorrow afternoon? I have some things… I have to think about it first.”
Shinichi Mochizuki also nodded.
Although he didn’t want to admit it, he was the same… He probably wouldn’t be done until tomorrow.
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and looked at him with interest.
“Have you hit a bottleneck?”
Schultz coughed slightly.
“Sort of.”
“That’s normal.” Lu Zhou continued, “The part you are responsible for is relatively difficult. I’ve finished my part. If you don’t have any good ideas, you can tell me your problem and let me think about it for you.”
Schultz picked up the marker and walked to the whiteboard. He scribbled down a line of calculations on it.
[D
Schultz handed the marker to Lu Zhou and spoke.
“This is the result I refined according to Baker’s theorem. Using the idea you provided, I tried to gradually advance it to the ABC conjecture, but… it doesn’t seem to be easy to solve.”
“Interesting… I’ll take a look.”
An expression of interest appeared on Lu Zhou’s face. He took the marker from Schultz’s hand and stared at the calculation on the whiteboard quietly as he twisted the pen.
He suddenly seemed to have thought of something. With a dazed expression on his face, he reached out his hand, crossed out the line of calculation on the whiteboard, and wrote the corrected result.
[D
Lu Zhou took a half step back from the whiteboard.
“I tried to check the calculation, it should be provable… It is more accurate than the original conclusion. You can try to derive it. The specific proof process should not require my help.”
Schultz stared at the calculation on the whiteboard, he was baffled.
After about 10 seconds, he finally recovered and looked at Lu Zhou like he had just seen a ghost.
“WTF?! How did you do it?! Wait… Did you already figure out the answer?!”
Because he was so surprised, he couldn’t help but swear.
“Haha, of course not.” Lu Zhou returned the marker in his hand to Schultz. He smiled modestly and said, “I just happened to think of it. It’s just intuition, I believe you feel the same sometimes.”
Schultz: “No, I don’t. This is the first time I have ever heard about such accurate intuition.”
Shinichi Mochizuki, who was standing next to him, nodded deeply and couldn’t help but ask.
“What exactly is your brain made of?”
Lu Zhou jokingly responded.
“I don’t know, but definitely the same material as you guys.”
Lu Zhou cleared his throat and looked at Schultz.
“Now that the problem has been solved, are you sure that the rest will be done by tomorrow evening?”
Schultz smiled confidently and nodded.
“No problem, it should be done by tonight!”
“Really? That’s great.” Lu Zhou smiled, nodded, and said, “I’ll wait for your good news.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you down!”