After a while.
Xin Ya received a call and spoke a few sentences in English before returning to the office with Zhang Ye and Dean Pan. They were greeted by about a dozen foreigners of different skin and hair colors.
A middle-aged Caucasian man looked at Zhang Ye. "Zhang?"
Xin Ya introduced him in English. "This is Professor Zhang Ye."
The middle-aged Caucasian man was very friendly. "Zhang, I finally get to meet you!"
"Hello." Zhang Ye did not know who it was, but just shook hands.
A British looking man in his forties also walked over. He did not say anything else and directly asked about the calculation of Dale's Conjecture. He probably had some doubts about it.
Xin Ya and Dean Pan introduced him to Zhang Ye.
"This is Oxford's Dr. Ferris."
"This is Cambridge's Professor Baker."
"This is Tokyo University's Professor Kato."
"This is …"
Zhang Ye went through another round of pleasantries and even answered a few questions regarding Dale's Conjecture from time to time. Only two of them were mathematicians that he had met at the International Math Olympiad at Summer Palace. As for the rest, it was his first time meeting them. They were obviously very interested in Zhang Ye and asked him many questions. Cambridge's Professor Baker even invited Zhang Ye to join Cambridge University. Dean Pan and many others from Peking University looked at him unkindly. Of course, Zhang Ye did not agree. Professor Baker was very regretful and only said that Zhang Ye was welcome to visit Cambridge anytime and wanted to keep in touch with him. This was because he was very interested in Zhang Ye's method of solving Dale's Conjecture and hoped that they could work together in the future.
Only the Japanese Professor Kato asked a few questions that were not related to Dale's Conjecture.
Kato spoke in English. "Which school did you graduate from?"
Zhang Ye looked at him. "Media College."
Kato looked at him and asked again, "Which teacher taught you mathematics?"
Zhang Ye answered, "There are many. Kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, and university. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Kato still asked uncertainly, "Dale's Conjecture was really solved by you alone on the spot?"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "If it wasn't solved by me, then could it have been solved by you?"
Dean Pan frowned. What was the meaning of this?
Xin Ya glanced at him. "Professor Kato sure has a lot of questions."
Kato smiled and explained, "I'm just curious, that's all. Usually, solving a mathematical conjecture is a long process. It also requires the combined efforts of many teams of mathematicians, or even several generations. Dale's Conjecture was solved too suddenly." Several Japanese mathematicians, including him, still could not believe that a 24-year-old young man could solve a mathematical conjecture by himself. In their opinion, if it was an American, they would believe it. If it was an Englishman, they would also believe it. However, it was a Chinese. This made the Japanese mathematicians even more doubtful. Even if the truth was right in front of them, they still did not believe that a Chinese person could achieve such a feat.
Zhang Ye glanced at Kato.
When the teachers of Peking University's Math Department heard this, they did not like what they were hearing.
Xin Ya said to Zhang Ye, "When Professor Kato was verifying your solution, he pointed out a lot of areas that he thought were wrong. Yes, although they were all proven wrong in the end, Professor Kato's meticulousness in academics is something that many of us can learn from." On the surface, it was praise, but in reality, it was sarcasm. In the past few days, the Japanese, Korean, and American mathematicians had created quite a lot of work for them. One of them pointed out that something was wrong, another pointed out that there were logical errors, but in the end, no matter how hard they tried, they still could not find any problems. They had to go through a lot of detours for nothing, which also slowed down the progress of the verification work. Xin Ya and many of the Chinese mathematicians who participated in the verification were also very dissatisfied with this.
When Han Henian saw this, he had no choice but to mediate the situation. "The welcome party is about to start, so I suggest that everyone go to the auditorium to rest first. There are too many people here and the space is too small." Although Kato had come to China to participate in the verification of Dale's Conjecture, as a member of the Tokyo University, he was also a member of the Japanese university delegation to China. He was the star of today's event, so Han Henian did not want to have a bad relationship with everyone. He had to look at the bigger picture. These people were also part of the Japanese Prime Minister's delegation to China and were on a political mission.
"Let's go."
"Right, let's go to the auditorium."
"It's starting soon."
Kato did not say anything more. He and the other Japanese mathematician gave Zhang Ye a few more glances before heading downstairs with everyone else. Dean Pan led them to the auditorium.
Xin Ya whispered to Zhang Ye, "Ignore him."
Behind them, a Peking University math teacher also said, "If Teacher Zhang were an American Chinese, those Japanese would definitely not have any doubts. They're just looking down on us!"
Xin Ya said, "Let's go."
"You guys go ahead first." Zhang Ye said, "I need to find a place to memorize my script first."
Xin Ya nodded and said, "Alright, see you in a bit. Remember to sit in the front row. I'll save some space for you."
Zhang Ye's mood was not disrupted, because back in his previous world, this fellow had never had any expectations for the Japanese.
...
Downstairs.
Zhang Ye was wearing his sunglasses as he found a quiet spot by the lake and sat down. It was the start of Spring and the weather was getting warmer. He was surrounded by lush green shoots and the surface of the lake was very beautiful.
His cell phone rang.
It was his mother. "Son."
Zhang Ye said, "Mom, what's the matter?"
"What are you doing?" his mother asked.
Zhang Ye waved the script in his hand and said, "I'm reading the script. They insist that I go onstage to give a speech."
His mother sounded very excited. "My colleague said that there was a news article on the Internet saying that you've become an associate professor? Is that true or not? "
Zhang Ye said, "It's true. I was still thinking of telling you about it when we get back."
His mother said, "Heyo, my son is still the best!"
Zhang Ye flattered, "Of course. Don't you know who my mother is?"
His mother laughed. "I like what you're saying. You've really made me and your dad proud. Our Zhang family has finally produced a professor."
"This is what I call an associate professor. When Dale's Conjecture is done, I reckon that he won't be far from becoming a full professor. You might not know this, but your son is very popular now. Even the universities in England invited me to join them, but I've already turned them down." Zhang Ye was the kind of person who only reported the good news and not the bad. After saying that, he said, "Alright, Mom, let's not talk about this for now. I'll take a look at the script first and go through it briefly. It's fine if those amateurs stutter, but if a professional host like me stutters during a speech, that would be too embarrassing. That's all for now."
"Alright, go do what you need to do. We'll talk about it when we get home." His mother hung up.
Zhang Ye put away his cell phone and lowered his head to read the script that Dean Pan had given him seriously. He was not sloppy at all and was striving for perfection. Zhang Ye's expectations of himself had always been very high. If there were things that he could not do, he could not do anything about it, nor could he control it. But as long as it was something that he could do, he would demand that he do it to the best of his ability. Even if it was just a normal script that he read on stage, there was no harm in reading it a few times.
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