Chapter 111 How is this possible?
"Professor Qi, why are you bothering to come here in person? I think I can just take a taxi."

Xu Yuan arrived safely at Luyang Station in the provincial capital by train. Seeing that the person who came to pick him up was Professor Qi Tongxiang, he quickly walked up to him and greeted him.

"I invited you to be a judge for the preliminary review, so I must pick you up in person." Qi Tongxiang patted Xu Yuan's shoulder and smiled: "Okay, I'll take you to the hotel arranged by the school."

In addition to selecting judges from the competition area, the regional organizing committee will also have people from the Mathematics Council.

As the organizer of the defense, HKUST naturally made arrangements for the judges' food and accommodation.

Of course Xu Yuan had no objection to this. He nodded and followed Qi Tongxiang towards the parking space.

The formal group defense session will begin tomorrow, so there is no need to rush.

In addition, he only told his sister the news of his return to Luyang over the phone and did not specifically inform his parents.

The main reason is that he was invited here this time and will not stay in the provincial capital for long. He will leave after the defense. It is estimated that he will not have time to go to the small tobacco and alcohol supermarket at home.

So it’s better not to tell you for now.

Soon Xu Yuan got into Professor Qi Tongxiang's car, and the two drove to the area where the University of Science and Technology was located.

Qi Tongxiang drove very steadily and slowly. On the way, in addition to the matter of the preliminary judges, he also mentioned another request.

"After the defense tomorrow morning, I want you to give an open class in the department."

"It will save those students from not knowing the gap between themselves and others and really thinking that they are excellent just by learning the knowledge in the textbooks."

When Xu Yuan was sitting in the passenger seat and heard this, he immediately understood that Qi Tongxiang wanted to use him to stimulate the passion of the students in the department. It was indeed not an easy task to make Qi Tongxiang so concerned.

I originally thought that I would just be a judge and listen to the group's defense, but it turned out that I had to give lectures in the classroom.

But it should be said that Qi Tongxiang really wanted his students to work hard and recognize their own shortcomings.

Now that we have arrived in Luyang, it is really embarrassing to refuse Qi Tongxiang's request. After all, it is just an open class.

Two hours at most.

With the thought stuck here, Xu Yuan had no choice but to agree.

"Professor Qi, since you said so, there will definitely be no problem on my side."

"I know you won't refuse. Choose the content according to your own interests." Qi Tongxiang smiled even more when he heard this: "If nothing works, tell them the proof of Carmichael numbers."

Xu Yuan just nodded in response and did not immediately decide on the content of the open class.

that's it.

Not long after, Xu Yuan, under Qi Tongxiang's arrangement, temporarily moved into a hotel room near HKUST.

Waiting for the initial review and defense to begin tomorrow.

-

at the same time.

A study and discussion room at HKUST.

Deng Yanna was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and was discussing with two other boys about participating in the defense in the competition area tomorrow.

Yes.

Deng Yanna also participated in this Higher Education Press Cup.

She estimated her scores and applied to USTC last year. Although she did not choose mathematics as Xu Yuan did, she studied computer programming at USTC.

And he has always achieved excellent results in his grade.

This time, I was invited by two junior mathematics seniors to sign up for the Mathematical Modeling Competition.

As it turned out, their results were pretty good. Not only did they win the first prize in the province, they also got a place in the defense.

"If there are no problems, I will be responsible for the paper presentation. Next, we need to study the questions that the judges may ask. The answers to these questions will directly affect the judges' impression of the paper."

Maybe it’s because she was the class monitor for three years in high school, Deng Yanna always has a strong aura when she speaks.

After hearing this, the other two junior seniors expressed their approval and had no doubts.

"can."

"Then we'll follow your division of labor."

One of the boys, who was wearing a pair of black-framed glasses, thought for a moment and told someone he knew.

"I only know that Professor Qi from our department will be a judge, but I'm not sure about the other judges."

"I don't think we need to worry about the judges. As long as our thesis is excellent and our defense goes well, it will be fine." Upon hearing this, Deng Yanna looked at the other party and said confidently.

Duan Le nodded and said, "You are right, Junior Sister."

……

Xu Yuan completed the check-in procedures but did not go to HKUST immediately.

After all, the defense is tomorrow, so he went there early just to appreciate the campus environment of USTC. He originally wanted to go to the nearby University of Technology, and he could just catch up with Yang Bin by the way.

You know, he hasn't had the chance to meet Yang Bin in the past year since he graduated from high school.

However, after I made the call, the other party said that he would come directly tomorrow, and I could hear the excitement on the other end of the phone.

Xu Yuan had no choice but to wait until tomorrow to decide on this matter.

No words were spoken all night.

The next morning, Xu Yuan left the hotel and came to USTC, holding the judge's certificate given to him in advance by Qi Tongxiang. It can be said that there is no difference between being in his own school.

After meeting up with Qi Tongxiang, he finally met several other preliminary judges from the organizing committee of the competition area, most of whom were mathematics professors from Luyang University.

Qi Tongxiang was not idle at this time and took the initiative to introduce Xu Yuan to others.

"He is Xu Yuan, a student from the Department of Mathematics at Qinghua University who solved the problem of the intervals between infinite Carmichael numbers. I specially invited him to serve as a judge for the preliminary review this time. In addition, Xu Yuan will have a two-hour open class in our Department of Mathematics at HKUST this afternoon."

As a scholar in the same circle of mathematics, it is natural that he cannot be unaware of Xu Yuan.

It’s because no one has ever seen a student publish a paper in the Annals of Mathematics right after entering college.

Based on this point alone, no matter whether your research field is mathematics or not, you must read Xu Yuan's paper.

"The math genius that is talked about a lot in the country, today I finally have the chance to meet him in person."

"He is so young, but he has brought honor to Chinese mathematics. It makes us old guys feel ashamed."

"I have studied your paper for a long time. The sieve method used in the proof is really ingenious."

"Why don't you come to our school and give two classes tomorrow? There are many students in our mathematics department who are your fans."

……

Feeling the enthusiasm of the judges, Xu Yuan quickly responded, but politely declined invitations to give lectures at other schools.

Otherwise, it would take too much time to visit all the universities in the province.

Fortunately, Qi Tongxiang spoke up in time to rescue Xu Yuan.

"The defense is about to begin, let's go in first."

Faced with serious business, everyone naturally did not dare to delay, so they had to temporarily stop talking and enter the defense venue.

At this moment, in the waiting area, there are teams from other undergraduate colleges, including Deng Yanna's team, all waiting for their paper defense and answering of questions.

According to the rules of the Higher Education Press Cup Awards, the essays of the participating teams are evaluated mainly based on the rationality of the assumptions, the creativity of the modeling, the correctness of the results and the clarity of the expression.

The participating teams will select representatives to defend the paper, and after the paper is presented, the judges will ask questions about the content.

Although this was the first time that Xu Yuan served as a judge for this kind of competition, relying on his mathematical level, he was able to easily find the subtle content and problems in the papers of the participating teams.

As time passed in the morning, several participating teams soon completed their defense.

During the period, when the contestants entered the venue and saw Xu Yuan sitting on the judges' panel, they felt very confused.

After all, compared with professors like Xu Yuan and Qi Tongxiang, his obvious student look was too conspicuous.

Although I didn't dare to say much during the defense, I couldn't help but discuss it with others after leaving the venue.

The main reason is that they may have heard that Qinghua students solved the Carmichael number spacing problem, but they are not clear about the specific certifiers, and they would never have thought that they would come to HKUST to serve as preliminary review judges.

"Did you see it just now? There is actually a boy about our age among the judges this time."

"I feel very strange too. It looks like the other party is also a student."

"It's unlikely that a student can be a judge."

"He also asked me a question, and I almost forgot the answer I had prepared in advance."

Deng Yanna and her teammates who were sitting in the waiting area naturally heard the discussion, but compared to the other two teammates, she didn't pay much attention to it. All she was thinking about was the contents of the paper.

Then, as the staff called her name, Deng Yanna quickly stood up and walked into the venue.

"The next team is coming in, team leader Deng Yanna."

Deng Yanna was responsible for presenting the thesis, so she served as team leader even though she was a junior from the School of Computer Science.

But just as Deng Yanna took a deep breath, pushed the door and walked into the defense room, her eyes fell on the judges sitting in the audience, her pupils suddenly trembled and shrank, and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"Why is Xu Yuan here?"

She never expected that the judge that others were talking about just now turned out to be her high school classmate Xu Yuan.

"Student, you may begin now."

It was not until Professor Qi Tongxiang in the audience kindly reminded her that she quickly came to her senses and remembered that she was currently defending her thesis.

So I forced myself to calm down and began to explain the content of the paper.

Xu Yuan also didn't expect to meet Deng Yanna here, but in order to avoid making the other party nervous, he just smiled and didn't say much.

Soon, Deng Yanna withstood the pressure and successfully completed the defense. When she came out, there were beads of sweat on her back.

Mainly because when you suddenly see an acquaintance in such a tense situation, you will inevitably appear a little flustered and unable to recover to your original state in time.

"how is the situation?"

Duan Le, a junior mathematics student who was also a member of the group, saw Deng Yanna coming out and hurriedly asked about the situation.

"It can be considered a normal performance. We have considered the questions the judges would ask beforehand." Deng Yanna thought for a moment and answered.

When Duan Le heard that they had asked the right question, he immediately showed joy on his face and said to the two of them generously:
"I'll treat you to lunch at noon, and let's celebrate as a group."

The other boy was naturally very happy about this, but Deng Yanna chose to politely refuse after a little hesitation.

"Why don't you guys go eat first? There's a high school classmate of mine who I'm quite familiar with in the defense room. I'm going to wait for him here for a while."

After hearing these words, Duan Le immediately had a question mark in his mind.

I thought that in the defense room, besides the contestants, there were only the judges, so where would my high school classmates come from...

(End of this chapter)