The next day. Monday.
It was just past 6 AM when the doorbell at home rang.
His parents had already returned from Tianjin with Chenchen last night. The rest of the family was still sleeping, but his mother woke up early and went to open the door.
"Who is it?" his mother asked.
Han Henian hurriedly said, "Hello, Auntie. You must be Professor Zhang's mother, right?"
His mother looked at him. "Who are you?"
Han Henian quickly said, "I'm Han Henian from Peking University's Math Department, Professor Zhang's colleague. I was appointed by the school to invite Professor Zhang over!"
"Oh, it's Teacher Han." His mother said, "Little Ye is not at home."
Han Henian quickly asked, "Where did he go? Everyone is waiting for him right now. Dean Pan is also dying of anxiety. He told me to bring Professor Zhang back today no matter what! "
His mother said, "I don't know either. He left last night and didn't tell me where he was going."
After a long time, he finally left.
His mother closed the door and knocked on the guest bedroom door. "Little Ye, your colleague came over just now, so I blocked him off."
Soon after, the back door opened and Zhang Ye walked out with a sleepy yawn. "Got it, Mom. Thanks. No matter who comes over these past few days, tell them that I'm not at home." He went straight to the bathroom.
His mother stared at the bathroom and said, "You sure have it easy. You've caused such a big mess and you're not going to do anything about it. I even have to block people off for you. When will you ever let your dad and I relax?"
Zhang Ye said helplessly, "I've already said that I won't go to America, but who knew that they wouldn't give up? What can I do? Can't they see that my cell phone is off? " With that, he sighed. "I've been in the industry for more than a year now, and I've been through a lot of things, big and small. They still don't know my temper. If I say I won't go, then I definitely won't go. Why are they still trying to persuade me?"
As he said that, his home phone rang.
His mother went to pick it up.
"Hello, who is this?"
"Hello, I'm from Peking University's Math —"
"Oh, you've called the wrong number."
"Ah? That can't be, this is the number. "
"This is a restaurant reservation number. Do you want rice or noodles?"
Zhang Ye: "…"
Mom hung up the phone and snorted.
In the morning, another three groups of people came to visit him, and another seven or eight calls were made to Zhang Ye's home phone. There were even people who managed to find Zhang Ye's mother and father's cell phone numbers and called them. It could be said that they had put in a lot of effort, but no one managed to contact Zhang Ye. After noon, the calls gradually lessened. Everyone probably knew of Zhang Ye's determination and knew that they could not change his mind.
…
Meanwhile.
The Abel Foundation in America suddenly made an announcement!
First, the Abel Foundation had issued an announcement to remove Johannes from his position as a director of the Abel Foundation.
When the citizens of China saw this, they all applauded and cheered.
"Beautiful!"
"Good move!"
"Still making things difficult for Professor Zhang? Who are you going to evacuate if not you? "
"This kind of person who uses his connections to intimidate others is a vermin in academia!"
However, the second announcement issued by the Abel Foundation was not the clarification letter or apology that many of the Chinese citizens had expected. It did not even provide any written explanation for the Abel Prize's staff making things difficult for the award winners, not even a single sentence. Instead, it was a statement condemning Zhang Ye!
The original translation was as follows:
Abel Foundation: Regarding the matter of the Chinese national award winner, Zhang Ye, turning down the award, the foundation has confirmed that it is true. We express our deep regret over this and find it childish and laughable. The Abel Prize is one of the most authoritative awards in the field of mathematics in the world, so turning down the award is something that no one can understand. We do not know what kind of arrogance made Zhang Ye make such a decision, but we hereby declare that from now on, Zhang Ye will never be nominated for the Abel Prize again!
When the news came out, many people started scolding!
"What dogsh * t!"
"Rejecting Zhang Ye forever? Ptui! It was clearly Teacher Zhang who rejected you guys, so why are you guys still sticking gold on your faces! Why are you guys pretending to be fat! "
"Zhang Ye may be arrogant, but you guys are ten times, a hundred times more arrogant than him!"
"We've finally seen the true face of the Abel Prize this time! You guys gave out the award, but the award recipient has to suck up to you guys and be humble? You guys flew into a rage out of humiliation when he turned down the award? What denunciation? Never to be nominated? What kind of crappy International Mathematics Award is this! It's only so-so! "
"Teacher Zhang was right not to accept the award! This kind of crappy award is not worth accepting! "
"The entire announcement is filled with contempt and arrogance. It's making me want to curse at someone!"
"I don't think this crappy award will be held for many more years!"
The Chinese public was in an uproar. Countless Chinese people were cheering for Zhang Ye. There were even a lot of people who went to the American Abel Foundation's official website and the Mathematics Research Institute's website to scold him!
At this moment, the matter had finally reached the international community!
Due to the problems with the transmission of information both within and outside the country, as well as the low degree of integration between the Chinese mathematics world and the international mathematics world, coupled with the time difference, it was not that no one had heard of the news yesterday. But it was not until the Abel Foundation's announcement was released that the mathematics world of the various countries learned of this matter on a large scale. This even included some of the scandals regarding the Abel Foundation from the Chinese news. With this, the international mathematics world was in an uproar. The mathematicians from all over the world were all dumbfounded!
A German mathematician publicly posted: "I can't believe this!"
A female French mathematician: "Just what on earth happened? Can anyone tell me? "
A famous American mathematician: "This is the darkest day since the Abel Prize was given out! I still can't believe that someone actually gave up on receiving the award! "
An American mathematician even publicly commented: "Those arrogant and conceited Chinese mathematicians! They will eventually pay the price for their childishness! "
The international mathematics world was filled with criticism!
However, some of the foreign citizens raised some doubts.
Germany.
"Did you all get the problem wrong?"
"Wasn't it the American embassy who rejected the visa first?"
"If the person receiving the award gets rejected, that would be a great insult. If I were that Chinese mathematician, I wouldn't have accepted the award either!"
England.
"This is the first time I've realized that Chinese mathematicians have such a temper!"
"I like him. Hahaha, he actually dared to turn down the award!"
"There's such a big scandal about the Abel Prize, yet there isn't even an explanation? There's no explanation as to why the Chinese mathematician was rejected? I used to think that this award was very authoritative and had a lot of international prestige, but now I feel that it's nothing more than this! "
"So the Abel Prize is also tainted!"
As the foreign citizens began to question the authority of the Abel Prize, many of the international mathematicians gradually calmed down from the shock of Zhang Ye turning down the award. They began to pay attention to the cause and process of the incident!
A few mathematicians who were friends with Zhang Ye at the scene of Dale's Conjecture being solved at Summer Palace Garden came forward and publicly questioned the Abel Foundation!
The female English mathematician who had invited Zhang Ye to England as a guest said: "I'm very sorry, but I don't see any arrogance from Zhang in this matter. Instead, it's you people whose attitudes make me feel very uncomfortable!"
The German mathematician who led the German Youth Olympiad team said: "I don't know what exactly happened, but I do know that Zhang is a pretty good person!"
All of a sudden, the Abel Foundation was under a lot of pressure!
Of course, in the international mathematics world, there were also quite a number of people who scolded Zhang Ye for not knowing what was good for him!
Turning down the Abel Prize might not mean much to the foreign citizens. It was an award that was ranked sixth in the international mathematics world, and many of them would not even care about it. But to the international mathematics world, this was a big deal, a big deal that could shake the heavens!
...
In China.
Some of the international discussions and news were being published in the newspapers!
The netizens roared.
"There are so many smart people overseas!"
"Yeah, there are also quite a few foreign mathematicians who support Zhang Ye!"
"But there are also people who are scolding Teacher Zhang. Damn, how infuriating!"
"This Abel Prize is too wicked!"
"Why is the Abel Foundation filled with such a bunch of grandsons!"
But someone in the know said, "Hur hur, there's no need to scold them anymore. The Abel Foundation has already paid the price for their arrogance. Teacher Zhang's rejection of the award has not only given them a harsh slap in the face, the scandal of the visa rejection has also been exposed long ago. What everyone is seeing now is Zhang Ye getting scolded and losing the award, while the Abel Foundation can continue on as it should be. Actually, all of you are wrong. The Abel Foundation has suffered the most! "
Someone asked, "What do you mean?"
"Hurry up and tell me!"
That person said, "I just heard from a friend that the International Association of Mathematical Organizations has already sent someone to the Abel Foundation's headquarters to investigate. Although they might not be able to come up with anything, it's certain that the Abel Prize will no longer have its former glory. What's the most important thing about an international award? It was not about how many laboratories were funded, nor was it about how stringent the vetting process was, but about the authority and fairness of the award! This is the extent to which an international award is recognized by the outside world! With the loss of fairness, when everyone starts to doubt the authority of the award, it will also be time for the award to be taken off its pedestal! An award that is ranked fifth or sixth in the international mathematics field? From tomorrow onwards, this will probably be history. With the rejection of the award and the scandal being exposed, it would already be pretty good if the Abel Prize could still be ranked in the top 15 in the international mathematics field! It's even possible that they might not even be able to keep this ranking in the next few years! It can be said that the Abel Prize has almost been crippled by half! With such a serious injury, they won't be able to recover without at least a decade or even a few decades! "
This Weibo post was immediately forwarded by countless people!
"Is this for real?"
"With Teacher Zhang's rejection of the award, the Abel Foundation has been crippled?"
"Fuck, if that's true, that would be great!"
But not long after, the news of the International Association of Mathematical Organizations sending someone to investigate the Abel Foundation spread!
Everyone in the country was shocked!
The international mathematics world was shaken!
At this moment, there was no need for anyone to explain it. Everyone knew that the Abel Prize was really going to enter a slow decline from today onwards! The matter had blown up so much that even the International Mathematics Association was alarmed!
Immediately, the international mathematics field was bustling with activity once again!
More than a dozen former Abel Prize winners came forward together. Some of them started to question the logical errors in Zhang Ye's solution to Dale's Conjecture, while others started to attack Zhang Ye on moral grounds. There were even some who directly suggested to the International Mathematics Association that Zhang Ye be rejected from being nominated for any of the international mathematics awards in the future!
They were all former Abel Prize winners, and this was once their greatest asset and resume. If the decline of the Abel Prize affected who the most? Then it would undoubtedly be them! So when it came to scolding Zhang Ye, they naturally spared no effort! They were the people who did not want to see the value of the Abel Prize decline the most!
It was a chaotic battle!
Pandemonium!
Zhang Ye?
This was the first time many of the foreigners and foreign media reporters learned of Zhang Ye's name!
In China, if you grabbed anyone on the streets and asked them, they would all know who Zhang Ye was. Among the commoners who knew Zhang Ye, if you randomly grabbed ten people and asked them about Zhang Ye's reputation, nine of them would definitely tell you that Zhang Ye had a terrible reputation — beating up his leaders, fighting against his peers, beating up a Korean celebrity, scolding foreign guests. This was no longer a secret in China. Even a three-year-old child would know about it. Zhang Ye could be said to be notorious in China!
But this time, Zhang Ye's name had finally rushed out of the country. For the first time … his bad reputation had spread overseas!!!
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