Super God-Level Top Student

```

What proper mathematician would run off to a train station to hang up a banner?

"It's not... I mean the dean, the dean of the School of Mathematics!" Liu Chenfeng's already stuttering mind suddenly didn't work very well.

"Isn't your mentor also the dean of the School of Mathematics?" Qiao Ze was even more confused.

"Boss, but that's Princeton University," Liu Chenfeng couldn't help but emphasize.

"So what?" Qiao Ze asked.

"So..." Liu Chenfeng scratched his head, suddenly feeling that his excitement indeed seemed quite unreasonable. Because he couldn't provide a reason.

But the next moment, he started getting excited again.

It seemed the important thing was not who the editor-in-chief of "Mathematics Annual" was, but that the paper was almost certainly going to be published in this top mathematics journal, and he was third author.

Wasn't this exactly what he had been longing for?

Watching the dazed Liu Chenfeng, Qiao Ze shook his head slightly and couldn't help but add, "Don't think about what others are doing. It's good to have a dean as a mentor here, even if he might not be of much help academically. But he's often idle and will certainly be able to free up a lot of time to help you with those non-academic matters. That way, you can focus solely on academic progress.

That's your advantage."

Upon hearing this, Liu Chenfeng shuddered.

He took a serious look at Qiao Ze, who didn't seem to be joking at all.

So what kind of outrageous statement was this?

Who on earth gave Qiao Ze such a terrifying misunderstanding of this world?

Having a dean as a mentor was indeed nice, but to spare a lot of time to help him with chores?

Wasn't that backwards?

When he had nothing to do, he couldn't find the mentor at all, right?

Before coming to the research group, he had to help the mentor with those clueless graduate students, right?

His worldview began to crumble in that moment.

On one side was the name on a paper about to be possibly published in a world's top journal, and on the other, the collapse of his life's logical chain.

"Cough cough... actually..."

Liu Chenfeng was about to explain to Qiao Ze that the world wasn't like this when suddenly the computer's speakers emitted a "beep beep" sound.

Qiao Ze glanced at it, and it was the video software they had installed earlier signaling an incoming call.

"The other party has connected, ten minutes ahead of time. Get ready," Qiao Ze said.

"Huh?" Liu Chenfeng, his mind in total chaos, had no idea what he was supposed to get ready for...

And Qiao Ze had already switched to the video conference software sent by the other party and clicked the "connect" button in the invitation dialogue box at the bottom left.

Soon, a video appeared with a little old man wearing round glasses.

"Hello," Qiao Ze greeted.

After about a second, the other side's voice came through, "Oh, hello, are you a team? Then, who is the first author of this paper, Qiao Ze?"

There's no helping it, transoceanic online communication has a bit of delay.

"I am Qiao Ze, and this is Liu Chenfeng from the research group, the third author of the paper," Qiao Ze said calmly, glancing at Liu Chenfeng.

There's no helping it, the guy next to him seemed to have suddenly lost the ability to speak.

After Qiao Ze finished the introduction, a moment later the old man in the video seemed somewhat surprised.

"Unbelievable, you know, Qiao, you seem very young. May I ask a somewhat personal question? How old are you this year?"

```

"18 years old."

"18 years old?" The little old man in the video pushed his glasses up and seemed to be thinking about something.

Qiao Ze began to observe the partially visible bookshelf in the video, huh, the books were arranged quite messily, he was an old man who didn't seem to like tidying up much.

That made him feel somewhat relatable.

Because he didn't really like to keep everything neat and tidy either.

However, he didn't have that many books.

Instead of buying a pile of physical textbooks, he preferred to directly search for and read the information he needed on the computer.

"Alright, I must say this is quite unexpected. So let's get started, beginning with the proof of the first lemma; let's take a look at these sourceless Yang-Mills Equations you've listed... now, please give me a reason, tell me your thought process for this step."

The old man on the other side of the screen picked up a piece of paper and held it up to the camera, so one could clearly see the formulas and the question posed.

Qiao Ze glanced at Liu Chenfeng to find him still in a clueless state, so he had to start explaining himself, "If we set E^N to be an N-dimensional Euclidean space..."

Unlike the other party, Qiao Ze didn't write down the problem on paper but began explaining while typing it out on the computer.

"{x^μ} (μ=1,2...N). Σab(a,b=1,2,...N) as generators of the O(N) Group form an NXN Constant Matrix, then the following commutation relations must be satisfied..."

Soon after Qiao Ze had written out the entire thought process, he sent it over directly.

Along with his oral explanation, Qiao Ze believed the other party would be able to understand his reasoning.

And indeed, after going over Qiao Ze's material, the little old man adjusted his glasses, and then brought up a second question.

The question-and-answer session lasted for about an hour.

Initially, Qiao Ze still hoped that Liu Chenfeng would be able to speak a few words with the other party.

But when he realized Liu Chenfeng was clearly not in the right state, in order to save time and ensure efficiency, Qiao Ze didn't bother with him anymore.

Especially since interacting with the little old man in the video was very interesting.

The questions posed by the other party were very tricky and got straight to the heart of the matter.

The occasional comments and discussions made Qiao Ze feel different. This little old man indeed had something; although they were merely discussing based on the paper itself and not much could be felt, some of the ideas were very bold and quite interesting.

Finally, after discussing why the final result of the paper couldn't be reduced to the Maxwell fields, the little old man laughed heartily.

"Alright, Qiao, I can verify that this is indeed a paper completed on your own. For me, this has been a very interesting and novel discussion, you know? It's been at least twenty years since I've had such a deep conversation with a young mathematician like you. Your mathematical thinking has been an eye-opener for me.

By the way, you also study Group Theory; is your thinking on Group Theory this profound as well?"

After thinking for a moment, Qiao Ze answered, "No, very superficial."

"Haha, you possess the characteristic modesty of Huaxia people," the little old man commented.

Qiao Ze felt the other party might have some misunderstanding and earnestly explained, "No, I'm not modest. My understanding of Group Theory is just adequate, not deep. Just like my understanding of geometry—adequate, but likewise not in-depth."

This remark caused the little old man on the other side to pause in obvious surprise, then he pushed his glasses up and said, "Really, such a statement might hurt many people."

Qiao Ze replied, "If they are hurt by that remark, then they're definitely not particularly smart."

"Hmm... Hahahaha..."

Qiao Ze's response left the old man stunned for a moment, but then he suddenly burst into unstoppable laughter.

"I like you, haha... Qiao, I really like you. By the way, the project I am currently working on is the N-body problem, a major mathematical problem that led Newton to ponder theology in his later years. If you're also interested in the N-body problem, I would be very happy to welcome you to join my team at Princeton to study this issue together.

Although I may not live to see the day when this problem is truly solved, you're still so young, there's definitely hope for you.

Just think, if you could solve this problem, we could calculate when this complex N-body system of the Solar System will disintegrate, a problem that even Newton couldn't solve in his later years, a problem with the highest level of value for the continuation of human civilization.

And please believe that my team and I have made more progress in studying this problem than anyone else, I am very confident about that point, so are you willing?"

Upon hearing this recruitment offer, the usually silent Liu Chenfeng suddenly looked at Qiao Ze in astonishment, as though jolted awake.

He was sure he hadn't misheard; this was an earnest invitation from the Dean of the Princeton Mathematics Institute.