Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 135 - 86: The First Paper Is Finally Published (Part 2)

Chapter 135: Chapter 86: The First Paper Is Finally Published (Part 2)

Yes, Yu Wei and Yu Yongjun also participated in this year’s National High School Mathematics Competition.

The two of them even chatted about the exam in the group; based on previous years, barring any surprises, they should be able to represent their respective regions in the national competition.

Qiao Yu wasn’t surprised by this.

Having achieved something in the Little Alibaba Mathematics Competition at least proved that both of them had enough spare capacity to proactively learn Advanced Mathematics, which typically wouldn’t be encountered until university, and they didn’t lack training in competition skills either. If they couldn’t even rank in the provincial competition, that would be surprising instead.

Though Qiao Yu had been working very hard recently, a mathematics paper is not something that can be written well just by hard work alone. Especially under Old Xue’s influence, Qiao Yu even planned to submit it to a mathematics journal ranked in the top 10% in terms of international influence.

Yet Qiao Yu, through his own efforts, actually managed to complete the paper according to plan two days before National Day, writing a grand total of eighteen pages.

After finishing, Qiao Yu spent another entire day meticulously reading through the paper repeatedly, revising any areas where issues might exist, including the paper’s format, word choice, every image, and the details of every lemma and theorem proof.

Only after he carefully read it three times and found no mistakes did he send the paper straight to Old Xue’s special email address.

Actually, Qiao Yu thought sending the document via WeChat would be more convenient, but Old Xue insisted that newly completed papers must be submitted via email, and he repeatedly emphasized this.

In matters he was unfamiliar with, Qiao Yu mainly focused on taking advice.

Email it is then, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

After sending the paper to Old Xue, Qiao Yu made a phone call directly according to Old Xue’s instructions.

Big professors sure have many rules.

But considering the fact that Old Xue had been providing him with all sorts of high-quality resources for free, Qiao Yu was still willing to follow Old Xue’s rules.

In this world, people who sincerely extend kindness without expecting anything in return are really rare. Qiao Yu felt that every time he met one, he needed to cherish them especially. Good guys like that, and Professor Xue too, plus half of Principal Zhang.

This is not to look down on Principal Zhang, suffice it to say that Qiao Yu believed that as a child whose morals were already far above the societal average, he didn’t even consider himself a strictly traditional good person, and in the future, it might be difficult to become such a good person too.

It’s not for any particular reason, merely because Qiao Yu doesn’t like being at a disadvantage.

The call was quickly connected, and Qiao Yu directly shared the good news with Xue Song: "Professor Xue, I’ve finished my paper and sent it to your email."

"Hmm? So fast? It’s only September? Are you sure you’ve met all the requirements I mentioned before?"

The tone from the other end sounded a bit unhappy, even unusually stern, but Qiao Yu still calmly replied, "I revised it very carefully, and I really couldn’t find any issues before sending it to you."

"Phew... alright, I hope you can meet my expectations. You certainly can’t imagine what it feels like to have just finished reading a paper that should have been directly shredded.

If it were just insufficiently rigorous, that would be one thing, but the paper is filled with grammatical errors, vague statements, and even inappropriate term usage!

Unfortunately, I just read such a paper. Even more unfortunately, the author of this paper happens to be a student I personally mentored.

Aside from the research method used, the paper is utterly worthless. The sad part is, I was the one who provided him with the direction for this method.

Although I’d like to calm down immediately now, if your paper also makes me feel hurt, I might question whether holding a teaching position is a waste of time.

So are you sure you don’t want to withdraw the paper you sent me and revise it again?"

Alright, mystery solved, Qiao Yu understood why Old Xue, typically a professor with a good temper, suddenly had such gripes.

"Uh... I don’t think my paper is that bad at least, right? How about you send that paper over and let me take a look, just as a negative example?"

"Alright, keep an eye on your email. Bye."

Then came the busy signal "beep beep".

From the speed of hanging up, Qiao Yu could tell that Professor Xue’s emotions were indeed very unstable at the moment.

Of course, this couldn’t be blamed on him; at this moment, Qiao Yu was genuinely curious about what this paper that could infuriate such a good-natured person like Old Xue was about.

It didn’t take long before the computer made a "ding" sound.

Opening the email, sure enough, Old Xue had already sent the paper over.

Qiao Yu immediately downloaded it and began reading with a very respectful attitude.

This was a paper on the algebraic structure of point lattices and grid graphs and their applications in number theory.

It largely explored the algebraic structure of grid graphs when the points serve as vertices and how graph-theoretic tools could be used to analyze the distribution of points within geometric shapes such as ellipses, circles, or higher-dimensional spheres. It also studied the solutions of Diophantine equations through the structure of these grid graphs and the distribution of points.

Qiao Yu found it quite interesting.

Especially as it employed some mathematical tools such as Diophantine approximation, automorphism groups, the Prime Number Theorem, modular arithmetic, and congruences, which Qiao Yu’s own paper also covered.

Of course, there were also some aspects that Qiao Yu found rather novel. For instance, in constructing grid graphs, the paper used group operations descriptions, which involved applications of group theory.

However, Qiao Yu quickly understood why Xue Song felt angry.

How to put it...

Qiao Yu couldn’t fathom how such a good topic was written in such a mess.

What he found most uncomfortable was the lack of coherence in the narrative, the issues with logical and symbolic jumps.

Just when a lemma piqued his interest and he began to think deeply, a bunch of complex mathematical symbols and formulas suddenly appeared. Although there were explanations, Qiao Yu couldn’t understand what the paper’s author was trying to convey.

Most critically, Qiao Yu spotted two cases where the same symbol was defined differently within just five pages.

For example, he saw the paper use an L to represent a lattice point set, but after flipping two pages, the same L started to represent a Laplace matrix!

This made it quite clear why Old Xue was so furious during the call.

Even by casually browsing through five pages, he had already felt similarly. He just wanted to read a paper properly, why make him look at this kind of thing?

This shouldn’t be! Old Xue’s writing guide contained virtually all the essentials of math paper writing, couldn’t be that he treated Qiao Yu too well and gave the sect’s secret teachings only to him, not even his own students?

If that were the case, Qiao Yu would be at a loss on how to repay Xue Song. After all, they had no formal title, while the paper’s author was a legitimate student with official recognition.

If it really were the case, Qiao Yu truly wouldn’t know how to repay Old Xue.

However, clearly, it’s not his burden to bear, so after skimming these five pages, Qiao Yu simply deleted the paper and didn’t worry about it anymore.

Even if his first paper might not be perfect, he still had the confidence that it was much better compared to this one.

After all, he was benchmarking against the papers that Old Xue had sent him for research. Not only the logical argumentation but he also deliberated intensely over the wording in crucial parts.

In fact, after reading the paper, Qiao Yu even felt a faint sense of pleasure.

Old Xue having just read this paper and then comparing it with his should make the contrast rather apparent. Even if he didn’t meet Old Xue’s exacting standards, when it came to criticism, it would likely be much gentler.

After all... it’s certainly much better than his bona fide student, isn’t it? Let alone he was guided remotely by Old Xue, while the other student had in-person teachings.

Thinking of this, Qiao Yu even felt somewhat grateful to this senior brother named Qin Jingru. Although they had never met, his sacrifice was indeed beneficial for Qiao Yu’s progress.

Indeed, he’s been lucky to have help from benefactors all along the way!