Super God-Level Top Student

"Of course, as before, whether you join this project is entirely voluntary, but let me be clear, if you decide to join, you will definitely have to sacrifice some of your free time. However, the project does come with a cash subsidy, though not much, 2000 a month."

In the office, after Qiao Ze and Su Mucheng had left having signed the contract, Li Jiangao called his two graduate students over to ask their opinions.

Compared to those strict supervisors, Li Jiangao was the kind who respected students a lot.

The only strict requirement was that they must submit a report every week, summarizing the progress of the papers he assigned.

Other than that, as long as they attended classes on time, Li Jiangao rarely interfered with the students' daily lives.

Of course, this also had to do with the unique nature of mathematics.

At least in Li Jiangao's view, mathematical research at the graduate level mainly depended on one's own efforts.

All he could do was provide some guidance in mathematical methods and research approaches.

This time, Qiao Ze's research topic, in Li Jiangao's view, was a rare opportunity, and of course, he also wanted to look after his students. Making some living expenses was secondary; after all, he couldn't just spend Su Mucheng's money irresponsibly. The main hope was that in the process of working on the project with Qiao Ze, he could give some inspiration to his two students.

Such opportunities were indeed extremely rare.

If Qiao Ze really succeeded, the next time, even if he was just running errands, it wouldn't involve graduate students anymore; at least they would need to start with a PhD.

Zuo Jie glanced at Tan Jingrong beside him and said nothing.

He always declined the projects arranged by his supervisor.

The money wasn't much, and it would waste his time.

Fortunately, Tan Jingrong took the initiative and said, "Li, I'm interested. I've been hesitating with my thesis topic anyway."

"And you?" Li Jiangao nodded, then turned to his other student, Zuo Jie.

Zuo Jie hesitated for a moment, then said, "Hmm, does this project need so many people? I've been discussing the formalization and verification of Group Theory problems with a friend recently. I feel that if we focus on this direction, it's quite fitting, and I've got some ideas, and I'm quite busy with that. Of course, if you really want me to join the project, I have no objections."

Li Jiangao looked at Zuo Jie and shook his head, saying, "No problem, I said participation in this project is entirely voluntary. Alright, then go back, but remember, you still need to hand in your weekly report. Oh, and try to finalize your thesis topic before September."

Zuo Jie quickly nodded and said, "Okay, Li, I will do my best. I will leave now."

After speaking, as he turned around, the expression on Zuo Jie's face changed in an instant from sincere and fearful to proud, as he winked at Tan Jingrong beside him, as if to say, "See, I dodged another bullet."

Tan Jingrong gave a simple, honest smile at Zuo Jie.

It was nothing more than a personal choice.

These little maneuvers did not escape Li Jiangao's eyes, but he just sighed in his heart.

Sometimes the line between clever and foolish is really too blurred.

Especially when answering multiple-choice questions.

...

Qiao Ze went straight back to his dorm.

Su Mucheng wanted to have dinner together to celebrate the smooth start of their first collaboration.

But Qiao Ze felt that since the project had officially started, he should not waste time, so he wanted to go back to the dorm first to prepare some stuff on his laptop.

As soon as he walked into the dorm, he saw the other three people gathered around a computer discussing something.

Under normal circumstances, Qiao Ze had no intention of joining such things.

But as soon as he walked in the door, the three heads turned around to look at him.

The first to speak was still Zhang Zhou, "Qiao Ze, you're back. Today, because of you, three victims appeared. They were marked absent, and I guess their chances of passing this year's advanced mathematics are slim." Your journey continues with m v|l-e'm,p y r

Indeed, when Professor Meng realized that Qiao Ze, Su Mucheng, and Chen Yiwen—three of the famous top students in the class—had all skipped class at once, she started taking roll call immediately and ended up catching three fish that would have almost slipped through the net.

Of course, Zhang Zhou would never admit this was due to him daring to question the professor in class about whether the final exam would be ridiculously difficult.

It's human nature not to look for reasons within oneself.

Given that the whole class already knew that Su Mucheng's skipping was definitely in tandem with Qiao Ze, and the three people in the dorm also understood that Chen Yiwen's absence was purely out of demoralization, having given up on furthering his pursuit in mathematics. So, they simply blamed Qiao Ze for it all.

However, Qiao Ze's response was exactly as expected, simply nodding his head, then with an "Oh," he walked past them towards his own spot. But then Chen Yiwen stopped him.

"Hey, Qiao Ze, I didn't go to class today, I was surfing the internet in the dorm all day, and I saw someone online who claimed to have a strict proof of the conjecture, and they even posted the complete proof process. It seems pretty sound to me, why don't you take a look and see where the mistake is?"

"Yes, Qiao Ze, it's said that he submitted it to a well-known domestic journal, was directly rejected and then posted it online." Gu Zhengliang added from the side.

Qiao Ze originally couldn't be bothered, but seeing the eager looks on their faces, he still walked over.

Chen Yiwen immediately scrolled the posted proof to the top and then stepped aside.

Then the three of them watched as Qiao Ze glanced at it briefly, quickly scrolled down the screen, paused for a few seconds, and then pulled it straight to the end, before starting to scroll back up. A minute later, Qiao Ze turned to Chen Yiwen and said, "Proving the conjecture alone is too wasteful, this person could've easily proved the Riemann Hypothesis along the way as well."

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"Ah?" Chen Yiwen was startled and said somewhat sheepishly, "Actually, I also feel it's not very reliable, but I haven't found where the problem lies yet."

Qiao Ze thought for a moment, didn't say anything, but directly picked up the draft paper and pen that Chen Yiwen had carelessly tossed on the desk and began writing quickly.

Merely looking at the first line of the problem made all three of them speechless, "Please prove: 1=2."

Qiao Ze didn't look at the expressions of the three and rapidly wrote out the proof:

"Let variables, a and b, such that a=b, then a^2=ab."

"a^2-b^2=ab-b^2."

"Factorizing we get: (a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b)."

Therefore, a+b=b."

"Since a=b, it follows b+b=b."

That is, 2b=b."

"Simplifying: 2=1."

"Proof complete."

After finishing, Qiao Ze turned his head back and looked at Chen Yiwen, asking, "Do you think there's anything wrong with my proof?"

Chen Yiwen was stunned, then pointed to the lines where (a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b), so a+b=b, and said, "Er... Isn't there a problem with this process? This step involves dividing both sides by (a-b), but since a=b, a-b=0, and you can't divide by zero."

Qiao Ze nodded and immediately marked a section on the paper and said, "Then look at this, didn't he also take zero as the divisor?"

After saying this, he stood up immediately.

"F*ck... That explains it, damn, I wondered why I couldn't find the problem for so long. It had to be you, Qiao Ze," Chen Yiwen praised fiercely.

He had no choice; if he didn't compliment Qiao Ze more at this moment, he felt just like the result Qiao Ze had written earlier, 2b=b.

He was the one in front of him...

Chen Yiwen even suspected Qiao Ze did it on purpose...

Otherwise, why not use a letter other than b for the variable?

But he really was a bit 2b!

How could there possibly be so many hidden masters like Qiao Ze in this world, and he just happened to stumble upon one on the internet?

As for Zhang Zhou and Gu Zhengliang behind him, they had already started looking up at the sky.

It was a bit annoying...

Qiao Ze wrote the proof, which even middle school students could understand, in such detail that they felt ashamed.

"If we allow zero as a divisor, indeed a rigorous logic reasoning process can be written to prove any conclusion, making mathematics have no problems at all. Because at the end all numbers are unified, 1/0 can represent any number from negative infinity to positive infinity.

I thought of this conclusion right after I first learned about division when my teacher told me that the mathematical rule is zero can't be a divisor," Qiao Ze explained plainly.

Chen Yiwen's face turned red again.

Damn, what had he been doing all morning?

Looking at an absurd proof, skipping class, wasting a whole morning.

Qiao Ze also looked at Chen Yiwen and asked seriously, "Have you been very free lately?"

"Ah?" Chen Yiwen stared at Qiao Ze blankly, his thoughts drifting.

"If you're really free, I just happen to have a project on Group Theory that I want to work on, all the preparatory work is done. Come help me with it," Qiao Ze invited calmly.

Chen Yiwen was startled, pointed to himself and said, "Me? Can I really do it? But I don't understand anything about Group Theory?"

Qiao Ze shook his head, "You don't need to understand Group Theory, just being able to use a computer is fine. By the end of this project, you should have grasped a bit of Group Theory."

"Then... sure! Whatever you need me to do, just tell me, I guarantee to do it perfectly," Chen Yiwen vowed, thumping his chest firmly.

Zhang Zhou and Gu Zhengliang were stunned.

Weren't they supposed to start living the rich second-generation life of idleness?

Why change so quickly?

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