149: Chapter 149 of the paper has been passed! Gained 300,000 Math Experience!

On an international mathematics Q&A community, a post was instantly pushed to the front page:

[Discussion] Regarding the preprint Zhao Yang just uploaded proving the twin prime conjecture

The number of replies surpassed three hundred in just two short hours.

"128 pages? I bet he made a mistake by page 10."

"I read the first three chapters; the logic is very clear. It doesn't look like the work of a crackpot."

"Rumor has it that Terence Tao has already canceled today's lecture and is in seclusion verifying this paper."

"Thanks for the invite. I'm in the lab, just got off the plane. When I saw this paper, I was writing the third chapter of my doctoral thesis, titled 'A New Attempt at the Lower Bound of Prime Gaps'."

Now? Now I'm preparing to go to the rooftop to clear my head. Can anyone tell me, if the main argument has been proven by someone else—and it's the kind that completely ends the matter—can I still graduate?"

"My condolences to the brother upstairs. I just spent three hours reading through the first half of the paper. Although I hate to admit it, this person named Zhao Yang has logic as rigorous as a machine. He used a variant of the Sieve Method I've never seen before, directly bypassing the parity problem. If nothing goes wrong, your thesis... is basically scrap paper."

"Terence Tao has already updated his blog! He said he verified the core lemma and believes it's correct! Brothers, it's the grand finale! The twin prime conjecture that has plagued the number theory world for over a hundred years has come to an end today!"

Meanwhile, on the domestic Doctor's Home forum and the SMTH BBS of Tsinghua University, the discussion was equally heated, but the tone carried a strange air of skepticism.

"Is this for real? Beijing Forestry University? Did I read that right? Isn't this school for planting trees? Since when did they get so good at number theory?"

"I bet it's just someone with the same name. Or maybe some big shot from Peking University or Tsinghua University is using their affiliation?"

"Stop being salty, upstairs. I've checked the author's info; it's that freshman who published in TIP before. This is a cross-disciplinary strike. For those of us specializing in math, our faces are getting swollen from the slapping."

"Tragic! Truly tragic! Even delaying graduation won't solve this! I suggest that PhD student who hit the same topic change directions immediately, or pray that Zhao Yang's paper has a fatal flaw. But looking at the momentum, it's unlikely!"

Zhao Yang did not see any of these discussions.

For the past two days, he had been living an extremely disciplined life, just as before.

Waking up at six in the morning, practicing Five Animal Frolics in a corner of the sports field, eating breakfast, attending classes, going to the Library, and returning to the dormitory to sleep at night.

During this period, he still hadn't gone to the lab much.

It wasn't just because of the number theory problem; most importantly, he hadn't decided how to develop in the next stage.

At the very least, he had to wait for this mission's reward settlement to see!

Forty-eight hours had passed since the paper was uploaded.

Inside an office in the School of Mathematics building at Peking University.

Around a long table sat four or five elderly professors with graying hair. They were the pillars of the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University and authorities in the domestic field of number theory.

In front of each of these professors lay a thick stack of papers.

"Old Wang, what do you think?"

A professor wearing thick-lensed glasses broke the silence and looked at Professor Wang Wenyuan, who sat in the main seat.

Professor Wang Wenyuan was an academician of the Dragon Country Academy of Sciences and a titan of domestic Analytic Number Theory. At this moment, he was taking off his glasses and rubbing his reddened eyes—a mark left by staying up all night to review the manuscript.

"I've read it three times."

Professor Wang Wenyuan's voice was slightly hoarse, but his tone was exceptionally certain.

"The logic is a closed loop, and the derivations are seamless. Especially from page 42 to 50, that construction regarding the weight function... it's beautiful. He's played the Sieve Method into an art form. Some of those applications—even if I racked my brain, I never would have thought it could reach this stage!"

"Young people's brains really do work well!"

Professor Wang Wenyuan let out a long sigh. "The twin prime conjecture has been proven. And it was actually proven by a first-year undergraduate!"

Silence fell over the conference room once again.

Everyone there was a top mathematics professor. Naturally, if Professor Wang Wenyuan could see it, the others could too.

It was just that they hadn't dared to believe it before, but with Professor Wang Wenyuan's words...

Everyone's heart was filled with emotion.

A conjecture of this level had actually been proven by an undergraduate. For them, most had spent half their lives researching without producing a project of the same caliber!

This was practically rubbing their old faces into the dirt!

"This Zhao Yang..."

An associate dean couldn't help but speak up.

"I checked his files. His College Entrance Examination math score was 128, which is decent among ordinary people."

But he never did the Math Olympiad, let alone participated in any math competitions. How did he suddenly pop out of nowhere?"

"That's not the point."

Professor Wang Wenyuan's expression wasn't great.

"The point is, why is such a genius at the place next door?"

"Next door?"

The Professor Lin beside him was slightly stunned.

"Are you talking about Tsinghua University?"

"No, it's the Forestry University on the next street over."

The associate dean who had checked Zhao Yang's files said with a rather unsightly expression.

Professor Wang Wenyuan said with deep regret.

"A mathematical genius who can solve a century-old problem actually went to study Biology? And at a Forestry University? What the hell is our Peking University admissions office doing? How could they miss a talent like this?!"

"This..."

The professors present looked at each other, speechless.

This was indeed a massive irony.

"I looked at his file... his score was only five hundred and forty-something. His English was very poor... but in his paper on arXiv, his English usage is very sophisticated."

It was likely that something went wrong during the English portion of the College Entrance Examination, and he bombed it."

The associate dean felt a bit helpless.

"Otherwise, his score should have been enough to..."

The associate dean paused.

He was going to say that he could have scraped the Peking University cutoff line, but on second thought, even if Zhao Yang's score had reached it...

There was a high probability Zhao Yang wouldn't have come to Peking University, and even if he did, he would have had to accept a major reallocation and wouldn't have made it into the School of Mathematics at all!

"No."

Professor Wang Wenyuan suddenly stood up.

"I need to go to the Forestry University. Even if this kind of genius only comes to our place as a visiting professor, we must tie him to our School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University! Otherwise, when word gets out in the future, where will we hide our old faces?"

"Old Wang, calm down." Someone beside him pulled him back. "It's no use going now. Those people abroad are probably moving even faster than us. We need to think of a more reliable way..."

Following a unanimous discussion between Professor Deligne and several top experts in number theory, Zhao Yang's paper passed the review.

Yanjing time, Friday Morning.

Zhao Yang was reading in his dormitory. Li Tianqi and the others had gone to class, and the dorm was rarely quiet.

A new email notification popped up in the bottom right corner of the computer screen.

Zhao Yang put down the book in his hand and clicked the mouse.

"Dear Mr. Zhao, we are pleased to inform you that your paper 'On the Boundedness of Prime Gaps' has been accepted by the Annals of Mathematics..."

There were no suggestions for revision.

No major or minor revisions.

Direct acceptance.

This meant the reviewers believed the paper was flawless and required no changes whatsoever.

"Ding! Detected that the User has published a paper in the Annals of Mathematics! Gained 300,000 Mathematics EXP! Gained 3 random lucky draws!"