Chapter 103: The Weight on His Heart Finally Died

In youth, one competes in academia; in old age, one competes for students.

Jiao Mingwu now has no other pursuit—he simply wants to find a perfect successor. Xu Qingzhou, already at this level as a freshman, has an unimaginably bright future.

Gu Zhizhong chuckled and said, “You know what? I actually have that plan.”

“Old Gu, you already have several outstanding students. I’ve barely found such a promising talent—how can you dare to steal him?” Jiao Mingwu had no appetite for tea.

Seeing his old friend flustered, Gu Zhizhong waved his hand soothingly: “He’s only a freshman—grad school is still far off. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Besides, Xu Qingzhou’s mind isn’t settled yet—he needs to be tempered first.”

“Restless? Young people should have vigor. Should we expect them, at eighteen or nineteen, to be as dull as us old folks in our fifties or sixties?”

Some even claimed that solving the Cramér conjecture would be no less valuable than solving the Riemann hypothesis.

Read!

“What’s he researching?” Jiao Mingwu blinked, wondering if age had dulled his hearing.

At 5:20 p.m., Xu Qingzhou and Song Yao went to the Farmyard Restaurant for lunch.

“Both.” Xu Qingzhou kept looking at her, admitting it calmly.

Thus, the conjecture faded from public view.

The fifth tier consists of slightly harder math problems—there are many of them.

Xu Qingzhou whistled. Though he often saw it, he still felt a pang of awe.

The third tier includes problems like the abc conjecture, the Collatz conjecture, and the Artin conjecture—all equally irresistible to mathematicians.

On the third floor, countless boys, like him, began to have their hearts broken.

Across from him, the girl sat with her head down, writing; her long eyelashes trembled slightly, her collarbones delicate, a few fine strands of hair beside her forehead occasionally flicked behind her ear by her fingers.

Song Yao glanced at him and uttered two words: “No.”

Indeed, she was very beautiful.

The Cramér conjecture is awkward—according to his algorithm, it sits somewhere between the fourth and third tiers.

!.

But Jiao Mingwu always kept a good attitude. Sipping tea slowly, he said, “Once you pass that age, it gets better. We were the same back then. Don’t you remember? When you were in your twenties, you also wanted to solve the Collatz conjecture?”

Gu Zhizhong gave a self-deprecating smile, refilled his friend’s cup, then sighed: “Still, it’s not bad to chase boldly in youth. Let’s not rush so much.”

Xu Qingzhou didn’t refuse—he took it and poured a small half-cup into his own.

He was just about to stand up when a pale, delicate hand handed him her cup.

The Cramér conjecture… If we ranked mathematical problems by difficulty…

He’d still held a sliver of hope that they were just friends—but now they were even drinking from the same cup.

Gu Zhizhong shook his head with a smile. “If he had even a bit more fire, I wouldn’t be so worried.” He sighed. “Do you know what he’s researching lately? The Cramér conjecture.”

This despair is something many cannot accept—and it easily crushes confidence.

Far away, the tall boy sighed. The weight on his heart finally died. Though the conjecture wasn’t among the top-tier mathematical problems, it still lagged behind the Poincaré conjecture or the Riemann hypothesis in popularity, it remained a towering mountain that had troubled countless mathematicians.

Now it was Jiao Mingwu’s turn to fall silent. After sipping tea, he nodded and smiled bitterly: “That does sound a bit too youthful and impetuous.”

The second tier is undoubtedly the three great modern mathematical problems: Fermat’s Last Theorem, the Goldbach conjecture, and the Four Color Problem.

“The hot water heater on the third floor is broken—we have to get water from another floor.” Song Yao spoke softly, tilting her chin to indicate he could pour into his own cup.

Outside the library, Song Yao checked her message and said, “My other roommate wants to join us—you met her before, Zhang Qiong. You remember. She’s at the student union this afternoon.”

In this process, truth sometimes seems within reach, but after enduring countless hardships, just as you’re about to unveil it, you realize you’ve walked into a dead end.

The fourth tier includes problems like the Honeycomb conjecture and the Perfect Number conjecture—whose proofs are relatively “simpler.”

He stared at her for so long that Song Yao finally couldn’t bear it. She looked up, annoyed: “Are you here to read or to stare at me?”

In the past century, no one has solved it. Countless researchers have rushed forward, trying to prove or disprove it—but all have failed, with no hope in sight.

“Spit out what you just drank before saying those two words.”

After resting, Xu Qingzhou planned to drink some water and continue. He took out his cup from his bag—only to find it empty.

Library, third floor.

Song Yao ignored him, thinking: When did this guy get so thick-skinned?

Mathematicians are like treasure hunters, deeply drawn to this mathematical puzzle, endlessly analyzing, reasoning, and experimenting, trying to uncover its hidden secrets.

Her pink cup held goji berries and red dates—unlike Xu Qingzhou’s plain cold boiled water, it was refined, faintly sweet, invigorating and refreshing.

Research on gaps between consecutive primes has always been a major focus for number theorists, and the Cramér conjecture specifically studies this problem—its importance is self-evident.

The first tier includes the Hodge conjecture, the Poincaré conjecture, the Riemann hypothesis, the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap—these seven world-class problems are known as the “Millennium Prize Problems,” each carrying a $1 million reward and currently the hottest topics in mathematics.

Xu Qingzhou sat for about half an hour, put down his pen, and rubbed his wrist to rest.

Jiao Mingwu and Gu Zhizhong held different views.

Gu Zhizhong nodded helplessly: “Yes, this kid is currently working on the Cramér conjecture.”

“It’s been decades—why bring that up now?” Gu Zhizhong coughed lightly, gazing out the window as if recalling the past, murmuring: “Only after being trapped in a blind alley did I truly understand this pain.”

“Stingy.”

Xu Qingzhou nodded, lowering his voice: “Good tea. Share some with me?”

Every new clue, every problem solved, is a victory on the treasure hunt—bringing mathematicians closer to the hidden treasure: mathematical truth.

Remember? How could I not remember?

Xu Qingzhou squinted. This girl had scolded him to his face that morning—now she was insisting on joining them for lunch, probably afraid he’d “deceive” Song Yao and came to spy.

The two quickly reached the entrance of the Farmyard cafeteria.

A moment later, Zhang Qiong arrived in a rush, her white backpack slung over her shoulder. She glared fiercely at Xu Qingzhou the moment she arrived, a clear warning in her eyes.

(End of chapter)