Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 223 - 107: Presenting Roses, Hands Retain Fragrance_3

"Thank you, Grandpa."

Qiao Yu took the book and the card, casually putting the card in his pocket, and began to look at the book carefully.

"The Beauty of Mathematics," an old book, yet well-preserved, with the old man’s handwritten signature on the title page, looking quite stylish.

Qiao Yu solemnly placed the book into his bag.

"Let’s go, I’ll walk you downstairs to catch the car."

...

At Yanbei University, Beijing International Mathematics Research Center, Chen Zhuoyang was sitting in his office with a book spread out in front of him, but his mind was obviously not on the book. He kept looking up and peering out the window.

The spot where he sat had a clear view of the path leading to this building. He had chosen this setup initially to see if his mentor was coming over, but he hadn’t expected to use it to look out for his junior brother today.

Actually, he had been in this state for three hours. He had gone to the canteen for dinner at 5:30, and after coming back, he had specifically checked his junior brother’s room, finding the door still locked and nobody inside, so he returned to the office to wait. Now, he could see it was almost 6:30.

Did the junior brother run over to the other side and not come back?

Forget it, Chen Zhuoyang felt restless in the office and thought it better to return to his dorm to calm down and study seriously, considering the academic pressure was still substantial.

He tidied up his desk casually, picked up the book on the table, and walked out of the office. He had just stepped out a little distance from the research center entrance when he saw a black Audi driving in this direction and parking steadily at the entrance road of the research center.

Chen Zhuoyang instinctively glanced at the license plate. Hmm, not a car from the research center.

He was about to walk over when he saw Qiao Yu getting out of the car, not forgetting to politely thank the driver.

"Qiao Yu?" Chen Zhuoyang called out.

"Eh, Senior Brother Chen? You’re heading back to the dorm?" Qiao Yu turned around and naturally walked over to his senior brother’s side.

The car behind them started up and drove away from the two of them. Well, there were plenty of gates at Yanbei University; it didn’t need to turn around as there was another gate it could circle out from.

"Ah, just stepping out, did you come back from the other side? Was that Elder Yuan’s car?" Chen Zhuoyang glanced at the car that had already left and curiously asked.

"I don’t know, Grandmaster randomly arranged a car for me, right? Moreover, I must come back, senior brother; I’m a student of Yanbei University. I don’t have a dorm at Huaqing, so am I supposed to sleep in Grandmaster’s office?"

Seeing Qiao Yu as naturally as if he had just gone out for a stroll and returned home, Chen Zhuoyang felt his three views being overturned, and at the same time, his curiosity was piqued, leading him to naturally turn and follow Qiao Yu back.

"Um, what did you do this afternoon at, er, no, over at Elder Yuan’s?"

"Just reading, after finishing the book, Grandmaster quizzed me on some questions, made me do a practice sheet, then it got late, so he invited me to have a simple meal over at Huaqing. I must say, the food at Huaqing canteen is quite tasty, especially the spicy boiled lamb.

Oh, right, before I left, Grandmaster also gave me a universal card, saying that in the future, I can swipe the card to enter Huaqing and use it to eat at the canteen. Next time, if you want to dine at the Huaqing canteen, let me know, I’ll treat!"

"No, didn’t you talk about anything else with Elder Yuan?"

"We did, Grandmaster wanted me to study the Rosetta Stone problem, considering introducing me to a research team, which I declined since working with others isn’t much fun, and we’ll tackle our own projects in the future."

"What? What team?"

"It seemed to be a professor’s team from the Planck Mathematics Institute, primarily researching the Geometric Langlands Program. Huaqing University happens to have a professor in the team too. Grandmaster probably wanted me to lend a hand and gain some experience, but I didn’t think it was necessary. Right, senior brother?"

Chen Zhuoyang looked at Qiao Yu with his mouth half-open, always feeling this might be fabricated, but seemed like something one couldn’t just make up.

Such a cutting-edge mathematical research team, while many might know about it, there aren’t that many.

Of course, Elder Yuan was certainly very well-informed, yet he couldn’t figure out why Elder Yuan would specifically mention these to his junior brother without pulling Qiao Yu into the project team.

If you add to that Qiao Yu has indeed recently been researching Schulz’s paper, it becomes more likely.

It’s said that although Schulz himself did not participate in the Geometric Langlands Program research, his theory is an important premise for solving this problem, so that veteran there ever wanting to give his junior brother a big boost seems entirely possible.

Elder Yuan, you’re confused!

Yet, it’s fortunate that the junior brother is sensible and refused. Otherwise, joining such a world-class project group at fifteen would make it hard for us, the senior brothers, to survive, right?!

Of course, he couldn’t say it outright, so Chen Zhuoyang could only lie through his teeth and feign disappointment, saying: "Hey, junior brother, such a good opportunity... Like you said, you could totally go in there to train a bit, learn more from those big shots, why did you refuse it?"

Qiao Yu glanced at Senior Brother Chen, earnestly saying: "Senior Brother Chen, that’s shallow thinking! Our Mr. Tian is a big shot too, and besides, joining such a project team, when the results come out, your name’s listed last. It’s hard to even find, and who’s going to remember you in the future?

With that time, why not quickly learn more from our teacher and grandmaster, and later start our own projects? Then, if we produce results, we’re the first authors, wouldn’t that be awesome! So, why rush?"