336: Chapter 336 Respect? Respect my ass!

"That may be true, but the Wolf Prize foundation awarded you the prize, and you won't even go there in person. Isn't that a bit too disrespectful? Science knows no borders; they've recognized your contributions, so you should at least show some basic respect."

"There are plenty of ways to engage in academic exchange. Must I run all the way to Tel Aviv personally for it to count as respect?"

"To put it plainly, it's just a prize. Given Zhao Yang's current academic standing, does he need the Wolf Prize to prove himself? The person who proved Goldbachs Conjecture and the twin prime conjecture, the finisher of the Kakeya Conjecture, the author of a PRL cover article, and the deputy chief designer of the long march 5 rocket—any one of these titles carries more weight than the Wolf Prize."

"Agreed. He doesn't need awards to prove himself; now, it's the awards that need him to prove their worth."

[Writing this, I hope readers remember our domain, Taiwan Novel Network, super smooth, read anytime.]

"That said, why exactly is he not going to Tel Aviv? Does anyone know the inside story?"

"It's hard to say about the inside story, but safety risks are definitely the top priority. Think about it: he caught three moles at the Aerospace Center, tracked them down across the internet all the way overseas, and wiped out the spies' nest. Do you think those people don't want revenge?"

"Exactly. Plus, the things he's doing now are getting increasingly sensitive. Deputy chief designer of the long march 5 rocket, chief designer of the YC-1 engine, and he has a chip factory and new drug development in his hands. A person like him is a walking treasure in the eyes of certain foreign forces."

"So, not going is the right choice. Is your life more important, or is face?"

"For those people criticizing him for not going to accept the award, have you ever thought that if something actually happened to him in Tel Aviv, the same people criticizing him the loudest would turn around and blame him for 'going despite knowing the risks'?"

"Keyboard warriors' logic is always self-consistent. If he goes and something happens, he's an idiot; if he doesn't go, he's arrogant. It's his fault either way."

The online discourse was chaotic, but to Zhao Yang, it didn't really matter.

Back when he had just been reborn, he still had some admiration for these awards. At that time, he had just obtained the system and, to be honest, didn't have much confidence in the future; he was still in a phase where he needed to rely on winning awards to endorse his credibility.

After all, even in later times, when the people of the Dragon Kingdom were gradually becoming disenchanted with Western civilization, a Nobel laureate was still something truly remarkable. And back around the 2000s and 2010s, if a local talent won a Nobel Prize, the influence would be unimaginable. It wouldn't just be immensely beneficial for their own future development, but it would also greatly boost national self-confidence.

But now, Zhao Yang didn't really need these awards anymore because his influence was already sufficiently immense, and it would only continue to grow. To him, things like awards were optional. In any case, he wasn't planning to go to the ceremony to accept the award, though if they were willing to force it on him, he might reconsider.

Zhao Yang browsed online comments for a while, rested his brain, and prepared to continue working on his research project. After the rapid progress he made previously on the P vs NP problem, he had managed to produce some decent results, but he quickly hit a wall. Currently, progress had slowed down again.

However, his current results could be compiled into a paper.

Zhao Yang thought for a moment. Perhaps he should try to throw out a brick to attract jade. After all, the system only required him to solve a Millennium Prize Problem, but it didn't say he had to solve it entirely on his own.

Compiling a paper, posting it on arXiv, and submitting it to a journal to see if he could leverage the wisdom of others—if someone helped solve it, one way or another, the task would be completed.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yang didn't hesitate. He began writing the paper, focusing mainly on the results he had researched previously, and including some of his subsequent conjectures and thoughts on the problem.

He wrote quickly because all the derivation processes had already been repeatedly verified on draft paper; he only needed to organize them into a format that met academic standards.

In the evening, Zhao Yang went to dinner with Gu Qing. They went to that same private kitchen restaurant in the hutong. When he pushed open the wooden door, the wind chime hanging from the eaves rang once. Gu Qing was already sitting by the window with a glass of warm water in front of her, head down, flipping through an experimental notebook. When Zhao Yang sat down, she looked up and closed the notebook, setting it aside.

"Have you ordered?" Zhao Yang asked.

"Not yet, waiting for you to order. You mentioned last time that the crab tofu was good, we can order another serving."

Zhao Yang opened the menu and added a few dishes. In the interval while waiting for the food, Gu Qing suddenly mentioned the Wolf Prize.

"The internet is arguing quite fiercely. I saw some people saying you aren't going because you're afraid of death. Are you just going to let them say that?"

Gu Qing asked, looking at Zhao Yang with some curiosity.

"It is exactly that." Zhao Yang shrugged, looking at Gu Qing with a smile as he spoke.

"They aren't wrong. I'm not going because I'm afraid of death; that place, Tel Aviv, really isn't safe. Those moles I caught at the Aerospace Center were backed by an entire cross-border espionage network. I've tracked their activities on the dark web, and their reach is much deeper than one would imagine. Going to Israel to attend an award ceremony is equivalent to placing myself in an uncontrollable environment. I won't take such unnecessary risks. And to be honest, there's no need to. It's just a mere prize."

After listening, Gu Qing nodded.

She had known Zhao Yang for so long that she knew he wasn't the type to speak carelessly, especially regarding matters related to security. He wasn't even willing to go to the United States, so his attitude toward Israel was naturally even clearer.

"It's good that you're not going. For those awards, winning them is just the icing on the cake, and not winning them won't affect anything."

Zhao Yang didn't respond. He poured a cup of tea and asked Gu Qing with a smile: "Let's not talk about this anymore. Speaking of which, what does your uncle think of my paper in 'Cell'?"

Hearing Zhao Yang's words, a flash of excitement crossed Gu Qing's eyes, and she began to speak to Zhao Yang incessantly.

"My uncle speaks highly of your paper. He says your directed evolution screening method for the SOD2 mutant has almost opened up an entirely new field for Biology."

"He said that previously, everyone thought that improving antioxidant capacity could only be done by exogenous supplementation of antioxidants or by upregulating the expression of endogenous antioxidant enzymes. Both methods have their limitations: exogenous metabolism is too fast, and endogenous regulation is not precise enough. Your site-directed mutagenesis directly altered the spatial conformation of the enzyme's active center, which is equivalent to fundamentally redesigning the enzyme's function. This line of thinking isn't something no one has mentioned in structural Biology, but no one has ever actually achieved it."

"It seems Professor Gu thinks quite highly of my paper!"

Zhao Yang smiled.

"So, is your lab preparing to follow up on this direction?"

Zhao Yang asked curiously.