Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 239 - 110 is from the Mathematical Yearbook

Of course, Qiao Yu wasn’t afraid to answer the phone; he had just hesitated for a moment to give his mentor some face...

He couldn’t always pretend to be unaware of the conflict between his mentor and the grandmaster on the other side, or it wouldn’t be pretending—he’d be treating his mentor and grandmaster as fools.

Qiao Yu seldom acted overly clever, but he often took bold actions.

So when Tian Yanzhen said that half-jokingly, Qiao Yu answered the phone without hesitation, right in front of his mentor.

"Hello, grandpa, good morning... ah, no, good afternoon."

"No, I’m still with my mentor... yes, yes, it’s over here with Director Tian. He called me early in the morning... yes, to look at the paper... still here, he’s right next to me, do you want to talk to him?"

"Oh, okay... yes, my mom... yes, my mom, to be honest, it’s like this, Director Tian just asked me this question... yes, besides that, there’s nothing else... yes, I hadn’t told Director Tian before."

"Yes, after the paper review last night, I only sent emails to you and Director Tian. Before this, I only told my mom I was writing this paper, and didn’t talk to anyone else about it!"

"... I see, thank you so much, grandpa... yes, yes... I understand... I’m not being arrogant, really... by the way... are you sure you don’t want to say a few words to Director Tian... okay, fine..."

Qiao Yu took the phone from his ear, then confidently handed it to Tian Yanzhen, who sat there with a complex expression looking at him, saying, "Director Tian, grandmaster, says he wants to talk to you."

Tian Yanzhen was a bit surprised, but still took the earphones, calmed his heart, put the somewhat warm phone to his ear, and said in a deep voice, "Hello, Elder Yuan."

"I’ve always thought you are the luckiest among my students! And it seems I was right!"

Hearing the familiar voice, Tian Yanzhen felt a bit sentimental.

Ten years ago, he might have argued with the elder about that comment, but now, Tian Yanzhen indeed thought he was quite lucky.

His achievements were slightly higher than other Huaxia mathematicians of his generation, and the students he had taken on at this age were not just a little better than those of his contemporaries. They were even much better than the elder’s students.

In research, Tian Yanzhen didn’t think it was about luck, but in taking on students, luck indeed played a big part.

If it weren’t for the email Xue Song sent him, forwarding Qiao Yu’s paper, and if he hadn’t acted on impulse and went to the CMO site, and saw the study notes on Qiao Yu’s computer, if he had waited until after the IMO to act, it might really have been too late.

So transferring Xue Song to Yanbei, besides having him bring Qiao Yu along, was somewhat a way to return the favor.

But what made Tian Yanzhen not want to argue at all was that he could hear the slight sourness in the tone...

Yes, others might not catch it, but he could hear it...

So he replied warmly, "The teacher’s right, these years, indeed, I’ve been quite lucky. Especially last year, it was also a whim to go out and see, and as a result, I came across a piece of unpolished jade, and have to thank you, teacher, for helping to polish it."

The other side was silent for a moment, then said, "Although your knowledge is ultimately somewhat lacking, since my grandson is willing to apprentice under you, please put in more effort. At your age, it’s better to seek less fame and profit and focus on nurturing the students firmly, which is the proper way."

Tian Yanzhen immediately replied, "Rest assured, teacher. Here at Yanbei, we really have a dedicated plan to cultivate Qiao Yu. I believe his future achievements will surpass all of us; it’s not easy for Huaxia to produce such a gifted mathematician. Yan Zhen will spare no effort. Moreover..." freewёbnoνel.com

Coming to this point, Tian Yanzhen changed his tone and began to give examples: "Actually, educating this kid doesn’t need to be that detailed. The other day, I taught him about quantization in mathematics, and it only took him about ten minutes to grasp and apply it to instances in his paper.

This is reflected in proving Lemmas 3 and 4 regarding quantized homology category groups in this paper. You might want to take a closer look at these two lemmas to understand the significance of that ten-minute explanation."

The other side was silent again for a long time, then a sentence floated into Tian Yanzhen’s ears, "Then be on your own, I’m hanging up."

"Take care of your health, teacher."

...

When returning the phone to Qiao Yu, the other side had already hung up. Tian Yanzhen took the chance to look Qiao Yu up and down and teased, "Got yourself a grandpa?"

"Ahem..." Qiao Yu cleared his throat a couple of times and immediately replied, "Director Tian, that’s a grandmaster, oh, right, I just instinctively simplified it. I’m your student, after all; us math people have developed a biologically ingrained habit to simplify complex formulas when possible. Does this explanation seem reasonable to you?"

It did indeed sound quite reasonable.

But Tian Yanzhen only quietly stared at Qiao Yu until the young man became a bit self-conscious, and Tian Yanzhen couldn’t help but gradually smile.

He simply nodded and said, "Indeed quite reasonable, so what did your grandpa say to you just now?"

Although Qiao Yu answered the phone right in front of him, Tian Yanzhen could only faintly hear the voice from the other end and had to rely on guessing for specifics.

Qiao Yu answered honestly, "It’s about what you asked, whether I had discussed it with others. Oh, by the way, grandpa said he found someone who would help me use Huaqing’s supercomputing center for some verification and mentioned that until this conclusion gets widespread recognition in the mathematics community, it can only be considered a conjecture, and I shouldn’t rush to feel proud."