After leaving the system space, Lu Zhou stood up from the sofa. He was about to call Professor Carlson from the Clay Institute, but a text bubble popped up on his phone.
Xiao Ai: [Master, we have a guest.?? (^?? ^ *)]
Guest?
Who would be visiting him at this time?
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows in confusion, but he didn't ask. He got up and went back to the cloakroom to change his clothes. He then walked to the entrance.
Director Li was about to press the doorbell when the iron gate in front of him opened on its own, giving way to the path to the main entrance.
The door was pushed open, and Lu Zhou, who was standing at the door, smiled and said hello.
"Director Li? What brings you here? "
Director Li took his hand away from the doorbell and spoke with a smile.
"I heard you came back to Jinling from Shanghai, I'm here to see you. Come on, let's talk inside, don't stand outside. "
Director Li walked around him and went into the house. Lu Zhou paused for a second.
Even though there was nothing wrong with what Director Li said, he felt like his lines were stolen …
After returning to the living room, Lu Zhou went to the kitchen and brought a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. He placed them on the coffee table and sat across from Director Li.
He was about to ask the old man why he came to Jinling on a business trip from Beijing, but Director Li smiled and talked to him first.
"Every time I come here, I want to ask, your courtyard is quite high-tech, aren't you afraid of opening the wrong door?"
Don't worry, even if you recognize the wrong person, Xiao Ai would never recognize the wrong person.
Lu Zhou smiled and said in his heart.
"Facial recognition technology is quite advanced … What's up?"
He didn't believe that this guy came to Jinling just to see him.
Director Li smiled and said, "Are you busy right now?"
"Not busy … or busy, does it matter?"
In fact, after completing the Z particle project, Lu Zhou was basically idle. Not only was he not busy, but he even planned on going to France.
However, halfway through his words, he noticed the kind smile on Director Li's face, so he immediately changed his words.
After fighting with this old man for so many years, he was all too familiar with this smile.
As long as he met them, there was an 80% chance that they had some troublesome matter that required his help.
After two failed attempts, Director Li made a helpless expression and spoke frankly.
"Alright, then I'll be straightforward. Here's the thing … Didn't you say at the end of last year that you were going to come up with something good after you were done with your work? Can you tell me what it is now? "
Lu Zhou: "…?"
Something good?
What good stuff?
Lu Zhou looked at Director Li. He hesitated for a second and spoke.
"Is that so?"
Seeing that Lu Zhou didn't want to admit it, Director Li immediately panicked.
"Of course! Did you forget? When I came to talk to you about the ILHCRC at the end of last year, you told me to keep it a secret for the time being. Don't lie to me. "
When Lu Zhou heard that Director Li told him about the ILHCRC at the end of last year, he immediately remembered and smiled embarrassedly.
It seems like that really happened.
But to be honest, at the time, he was thinking that he would have 30,000 general points, which he could use to exchange for a lot of good stuff. Therefore, he casually said that to get rid of Director Li.
He hadn't completely digested the virtual reality technology he made last time, so he didn't know what to exchange for this time.
"Oh, that thing, I remember … No, how could I forget such an important thing?" Lu Zhou coughed and looked at Director Li, who was dumbfounded. He said, "But scientific research isn't that fast, I still have to prepare for a while. I'll tell you when I have news."
Director Li said, "Academician Lu, you're a bit … a bit too much, at least tell me what it is, right?"
If I knew what it was, why would I keep you in suspense?
Of course, Lu Zhou wouldn't say that.
"For various reasons, please allow me to keep this matter a secret for the time being. Anyway … Just wait for a while, I won't make you wait too long."
Without giving Director Li a chance to speak, Lu Zhou immediately changed the topic and spoke with an embarrassed smile.
"By the way, I just thought of something. I plan to go to France soon. Can you see if you can … find a way to help me arrange it?"
Director Li: "…"
He had been in this position for so many years, but this was the first time he had seen such a shameless person …
…
It was February in Paris. Although the winter was coming to an end, the chill in the air had not yet dissipated. Most of the pedestrians on the street were wearing down jackets or scarves, wrapping themselves tightly.
Especially in this rural area where no one lives.
Because the street outside the window was too quiet, it made the air even colder.
However, to Molina, this quiet environment couldn't be better.
In the old house, she wore a black goose down coat and stood in front of the oil painting hanging on the wall, looking at it like a statue.
"It's been almost 30 years …"
She had been standing there since morning. After a long time, she finally uttered those words. In a voice that sounded like she was talking in her sleep, she continued to talk to the oil painting.
"Please, please tell me, what should I do next …"
For a full seven years, she had been working tirelessly on the Riemann conjecture.
Although she knew that hard work wouldn't necessarily yield results, and she was mentally prepared that she wouldn't see this problem solved for the rest of her life, she never thought that everything would end just like that.
Yes.
Everything was over.
She didn't know what kind of feelings she had at this moment.
She didn't see any of her own results during the thesis proof process. It was as if the methods she came up with didn't matter at all.
But when she wrote those equations on the whiteboard, it was so smooth and natural that she felt like she had wasted the past seven years.
After she returned to France from St. Petersburg, she locked herself in this house. She didn't go back to Princeton, nor did she contact her friends at Princeton. She only asked for a long vacation from the Dean. It was like she disappeared from the mathematics world; there was no news of her at all.
Actually, why does it matter if I'm around or not?
She had thought about this more than once.
After all, the results that she had achieved seemed to be unimportant now …
His hands that were clasped together were curled up in his sleeves. Looking at his granddaughter's back, the old man in a nightgown leaned against the handrail at the top of the stairs. His murky eyes were filled with complicated emotions and a hint of guilt.
As if he had been struggling with his thoughts for a long time, he finally made up his mind. He gritted his teeth and said the words that he had always wanted to say, but had never been able to say them.
"… There is something I've been hiding from you guys."
Molina didn't look back as she spoke in a calm voice.
"… If it's about you and Ahnessa next door, you don't have to tell us. We all know."
"No, not that." The old man blushed and coughed. He was silent for a long time before he finally said, "… Actually, our family is not a descendant of Niels Abel."
When Molina heard her grandfather's words, there was a trace of warmth in her eyes.
"I know you're comforting me. I'm fine, don't worry about me."
Grandfather: "… No, I'm telling the truth."
She looked at her grandfather's serious eyes.
This time, Molina was stunned.
Even though she didn't believe it, seeing that her grandfather wasn't joking, she gradually began to realize that he might not be lying or comforting her.
Swallowing hard, she asked with a trembling voice.
"… What do you mean?"
Since the old man had made up his mind, he no longer hesitated. He nodded vigorously.
"I planned to take this secret with me to my grave. In fact, our family has nothing to do with Mr. Abel. I have never been to Norway, and my father and grandfather have never been there … Actually, when I first retired, I planned to go, but I gave up. "
Molina: "Then my surname …"
"My surname is Abel … But there are actually a lot of people with the surname Abel in France, right? I remember when I was in middle school, there were two people with the surname Abel in our class. You and your father, why are you all so honest? Abel only lived in his twenties before he passed away. He never married. This is all written in the history of mathematics. Don't you people who study mathematics read it? "
Molina looked like she was going crazy. She looked back at the oil painting on the wall with her eyes wide open.
"Then this oil painting is also fake? And the notes in the collection room … "
The old man had a guilty look on his face as he whispered, "Those things aren't fake … After all, they're not famous works, so they're not worth much. Including the mathematical notes he made when he was young and the difficult things he wrote, I bought them from a collector when I was young. I originally planned on donating them to the museum, but there were all kinds of accidents, so I shelved it. "
Molina took half a step back and shook her head. She looked at her grandfather and said, "… I don't understand, why did you lie?"
Why did you lie to me for so long?
"Back then, your father didn't do well in mathematics, so I pointed at the oil painting and said, 'You're a disgrace to our family name.' Then, for some reason, his mathematics scores suddenly jumped up. I was puzzled at first, but no matter what, it was a good thing, so I didn't think too much about it. Until one day, he suddenly came to me and asked me if we were descendants of Professor Abel. I … I couldn't control my mouth. "
The old man seemed to be ashamed of his own lies. He looked at his granddaughter and lowered his eyes as he sighed heavily.
"It turns out that there are no white lies in this world. A lie is a lie, and a lie has to be made up for by countless lies. No matter how perfect it is, no matter how flawless it is, there will always be a price to pay. Sorry, I really just said it casually. I didn't expect things to develop like this …
"If you want to hate someone, hate me."
Molina looked at the mural on the wall. It was as if something in her heart was broken, and her entire person instantly collapsed …
Lamp pen
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