Apartments near the University of Bonn.

Looking at Professor Schultz, who was packing his luggage, Professor Styx, who was about to ask him out for a drink, said with a surprised face.

"What are you...... Where are you going to go for the meeting? ”

If he's not mistaken, there shouldn't have been any recent academic conferences worth attending.

"No," Schultz answered the question succinctly, picking out a jacket from the closet, stuffing it into his suitcase, and then casually replied, "This is not a meeting, it is an invitation from Professor Lu." I'm going to go to China and talk to him about some academic matters. ”

"Huaguo? Professor Lu? Stix was slightly stunned and hesitated, "But when I went to the conference of mathematicians, didn't Professor Lu say that he would not consider studying mathematical problems for the time being?" ”

"He did say that, but it doesn't matter," Schultz said with a smile as he curled the corners of his mouth, "and his exit was a loss for the math community, and now he's back to what he does best, number theory, which I think is a good start." ”

Stix asked curiously, "What question can I ask?" ”

"ABC conjecture."

"It's actually the ABC conjecture......"

With an incredulous expression on his face, Stix whispered, "But also thinking about it, mathematical problems are no longer challenging for him, and only this kind of problem that doesn't seem to seem like modern mathematics can solve it can arouse his interest." ”

Closing the suitcase, Schultz looked at him and asked.

"Do you want to go together? You are an expert in the direction of number theory. ”

Stix shook his head and said, "I'd better forget it, I don't know him very well, and he didn't invite me...... Have fun over there, and hope to hear good news from the other side of the globe. ”

Schultz said with a smile.

"That's for sure."

……

Just as Schultz had already set off for China, Shinichi Mochizuki, who was sitting in the waiting hall at Kyoto International Airport on the other side of the world, was dozing off with his chin buried in the collar of his trench coat.

At this moment, the alarm on his mobile phone suddenly rang, waking him up from his sleep.

"Is it already there?"

Rubbing his nose, Mochizuki, who was a little dazed in his sleep, was about to get up from his chair when his eyes suddenly fell on the TV screen on the ceiling of the departure hall.

On TV, the news from NHK TV is being shown.

Sitting in the studio, the hostess broadcasts the latest important news in the voice of Peugeot.

“…… Recently, the China Manned Landing Office held a press conference, at which it announced the major findings of the research projects related to the manned landing program. At the press conference, a spokesperson for the Chinese side claimed that their research team had found a detrital suspected to be formed by biological sedimentation in a 120-meter-deep underground rock formation on Mars in an accident. ”

On the TV screen, the camera cuts from the studio to the scene of the press conference.

A press spokesman in formal clothes stood in front of the camera, facing the microphones and cameras of the audience, and solemnly repeated the narration of the news anchor in the studio.

In addition to this, the spokesman also revealed.

According to carbon isotope analysis, these bioclastic rocks were formed between 20 and 2.5 billion years ago.

If this study is true, this discovery will not only be strong evidence of the existence of signs of life on Mars, but it is more likely to reveal what the ecosystem of Mars looked like during the Proterozoic period two billion years ago, when the atmosphere was not blown away by the solar wind.

Until then, there have been two very different views in the academic community on whether Mars ever had a complete ecosystem......

"Cosmic people?"

Stunned as he watched the news on the TV, Shinichi Mochizuki muttered to himself.

Sounds interesting.

But......

It doesn't seem to have anything to do with me.

Just as he was thinking this, there was a sudden sound of excitement next to him.

"Is there a creature on Mars?"

"It's amazing......"

"I don't know when our astronauts will be able to go up."

"It's so hard...... NASA has failed, let alone us. Hey, if it weren't for Professor Lu, they might not be able to send people up. ”

"Do you think they actually saw the Martians there? It's just that it's not made public. ”

"How is that possible...... Anyway, these are billions of years old. ”

It seems that it's not just me who finds it interesting.

One last glance at the time in the lower right corner of the TV, Shinichi Mochizuki indifferently picked up the suitcase placed next to the seat and walked briskly in the direction of the boarding gate......

……

Jinling University.

An office at the end of the corridor of the laboratory building of the Academy.

"Your working environment is much cleaner than mine," Schultz said in an envious tone, standing in Lu Zhou's office and looking around, "I can hardly find a place to move my feet there, and the thing my assistant complains about the most every time is that I don't know which piece of paper I need and which one I don't need...... The end result is that everything is piled up there, and no one intends to do it at all. ”

Hearing this, I don't know if it's a compliment, Lu Zhou smiled embarrassedly.

To be honest, the reason why his office is clean is not because of how good his habits are, but simply because he hasn't been here much this year, which means that he has been showing his face a little more in school recently.

Standing next to him, Perelman, who had just arrived here, glanced at Schultz with some surprise, then looked at Lu Zhou and muttered.

"I just said it casually, I didn't expect you to actually find him."

"There is such a little episode?" Schultz looked at Perelman in surprise, with a look of surprise on his face, and said with a smile, "It seems that I still have to thank you." ”

Perelman: "No, I said it, I just said it casually. ”

"Whether it's casual or not, we who are standing here are all here for the same purpose now," looking at the two old friends, Lu Zhou clapped his hands and said with a smile, "So, let's not waste time on greetings and reminiscences, there is time to eat for a while." ”

"I agree," Schultz said in a joking tone, "that I heard that Professor Lu had made a new discovery in the ABC conjecture, but I bought the most recent and most expensive flight, and flew in from North Rhine at once." ”

"I'm afraid I can't talk about new discoveries, it's just a little thought," Lu Zhou smiled embarrassedly and continued, "This has to start with Mochizuki Shinichi's paper of more than five hundred pages. ”

"Shinichi Mochizuki's paper?" Unexpectedly, Lu Zhou would use that paper as an opening sentence for the discussion, Schultz's eyebrows were slightly raised, and he said hesitantly, "With all due respect, there is nothing to discuss about that thing, and I proved it wrong with my collaborators a few years ago." ”

"I know, including your paper that refutes him, I've also read it, and it's very well written."

Clearing his throat, Lu Zhou picked up a marker from the table, walked to the whiteboard next to him, and after a pause, continued, "...... It is clear that there is a problem with his thesis, and there is no small problem, there is no doubt about it. But the day before yesterday, when I was revisiting his paper, I found something very interesting. ”

Although there was a disapproving expression on his face, Schultz, who noticed that Lu Zhou had already picked up the pen, finally did not say what he thought in his heart after thinking about it, but quietly waited for him to continue.

Perelman was the same, the expression on his face did not change, just staring intently at the pen in Lu Zhou's hand.

His intuition told him that Lu Zhou must have discovered something terrible, so he invited Scholz from Germany, thousands of miles away, to discuss it together.

Whether or not that meant proof of the ABC conjecture, it was worth his attention.

And beyond that, his instincts told him.

Once he misses a moment, it's hard to tell if he'll be able to keep up with his jaw-dropping speed of thought, even with his mathematical prowess......

"Corollary 3.12 is at the heart of the whole paper, and there is no doubt that it transforms the ABC conjecture from an abstract mathematical concept to prove a specific inequality related to elliptic curves."

"However, the root of the problem is also here-"

Just when Lu Zhou said the most critical moment, a dramatic scene suddenly happened.

The sound of vigorous footsteps came from the hallway outside.

Soon, after a knock on the door, the door that had been ajar was pushed open.

When he saw the two exaggerated nostrils that appeared at the door, Lu Zhou, who was about to write the first line of the formula on the whiteboard, was stunned.

But......

Apparently someone was more surprised than he was.

"Mochizuki?"

"Schultz?"

The two people who looked at each other were stunned on the spot.

Gradually, the atmosphere began to become a little subtle.

The expressions on their faces stiffened as they stared at each other with wide eyes.

Finally caught up with Shinichi Mochizuki and walked to the door of the office, Dean Qin, who was holding on to the door frame and gasping for breath, was about to introduce the visiting well-known scholar of Kyoto University to Lu Zhou, and then he noticed Schultz and Professor Perelman standing in the office.

Thinking of the incident that caused a stir in the mathematical world some time ago, this old man who is well versed in human feelings and sophistication smelled the smell of sparks in the air in an instant.

"Haha, no, I didn't expect you all to be here......"

Facing Lu Zhou's strange expression, Dean Qin touched the back of his head, smiled embarrassedly, and said quickly with a dry cough.

"This is Shinichi Mochizuki...... That, you talk, I won't introduce it. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the old man turned around and slipped away without looking back.