Xiao Ai: [Master, you have guests.(^∇^*)]

Guests?

Who would visit me at this time?

Lu Zhou was a little suspicious. He went into his closet and put on some clothes, then walked to his front door.

Director Li was standing in his driveway. He was about to ring the doorbell when the front gate opened, giving way to a path leading to the front door.

Lu Zhou was standing in front of his door, and he spoke with a smile.

“Director Li? What brings you here?”

Director Li said with a smile, “I heard you came back from Shanghai. So I’m here to see you. Come, let’s talk inside.”

Director Li casually walked inside his house.

Lu Zhou paused for a second.

Why do I feel like I’m supposed to be the one inviting you inside…

Lu Zhou went to the kitchen and brought a cup of coffee and a cup of tea into the living room. He sat on the sofa across from Director Li.

He was about to ask Director Li why he came all the way from Beijing, but Director Li spoke first.

“Every time I come here, I always want to ask about your front gate facial recognition technology, what if it makes a mistake?”

Don’t worry, Xiao Ai doesn’t make mistakes.

Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.

“The facial technology is quite advanced… Anyway, what are you here for?”

He didn’t believe that this guy came all the way to Jinling just to say hello.

Director Li smiled and said, “Are you busy at the moment?”

“Not busy… Or maybe, why?”

Actually, ever since the Zhou particle research project was finished, Lu Zhou had been taking a break. He even planned on taking a vacation in France.

However, when he saw Director Li’s suspicious smile, he had second thoughts.

He had known this old man for years, so he recognized that smile.

He knew Director Li wanted something from him.

Director Li spoke honestly.

“Fine, I’ll just give it to you straight. Here’s the thing… Remember at the end of last year, you said you had something good planned? Can you tell me what it is now?”

Lu Zhou: “…?”

Something good?

What thing?

Lu Zhou looked at Director Li and spoke.

“That happened?”

Director Li was worried, so he quickly said, “Yeah, it did! Don’t you remember? At the end of last year when I came to the ILHCRC, you told me about this. You even said it was a secret.”

Lu Zhou immediately remembered what happened, and he smiled awkwardly.

Oh right, that did happen.

But honestly, he was thinking about the 30,000 general points he would have after completing the mission. He could use these general points to buy a lot of awesome things. He mainly said that as a joke.

Last time he used the general points to exchange for the virtual reality technology, but he didn’t know what he should buy this time.

“Oh yeah, that thing. Let me think… How could I have forgotten such an important thing,” Lu Zhou said. Director Li was dumbfounded. Lu Zhou continued, “But scientific research takes a long time. I have to do some preparations, but I’ll tell you later.”

Director Li was baffled. He said, “Academician Lu, that’s a little… cruel. At least tell me what it is?”

I don’t know what it is either!

Lu Zhou obviously wouldn’t say that out loud.

“Due to various reasons, I have to keep this a secret. Just… wait patiently; I won’t make you wait too long.”

Lu Zhou immediately changed the conversation topic. He smiled and said, “Oh yeah, I plan on taking a trip to France, can you… arrange the trip for me?”

Director Li: “…”

This is the first time I’ve seen Lu Zhou ask for something so directly…

…

It was February in Paris. Even though winter was technically over, there was still a wave of chilliness in the air. Most of the pedestrians were wearing puffer jackets and scarves.

Especially in the quieter suburbs.

The quiet streets outside made it feel even colder.

However, this was the perfect environment for Molina.

She was wearing a black wool jacket and standing in front of a painting inside a rustic house.

“Almost thirty years…”

This was the only thing she said all day. She continued to speak at the painting.

“Please, tell me, what should I do next…”

She spent seven years battling Riemann’s hypothesis.

Even though she knew hard work did not guarantee success, she was prepared to spend the rest of her life on this problem. However, everything ended so abruptly.

That’s right.

Everything was over.

She didn’t know how to feel human again.

She couldn’t see a single sliver of her own results in the final proof by Lu Zhou; it was like all of her hard work was for nothing.

When Lu Zhou wrote down those calculations on the whiteboard, he looked so natural and casual. It felt like she had wasted the past seven years of her life.

After she left St. Petersburg and returned to France, she locked herself in this house. She did not return to Princeton or contacted her friends at Princeton. She asked the dean for a long vacation and disappeared from the mathematics world.

Does the mathematics world even need me?

This thought constantly lingered in her mind.

After all, the results she created were all trivial…

An old man in a nightgown standing at the top of the stairs looked at his granddaughter from behind. There was a sliver of guilt in his eyes.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally clenched his teeth and said, “… There’s been something I’ve been hiding from you.”

Without turning her head, Molina spoke with a calm voice.

“… If you’re talking about the thing between you and our neighbor Anissa, you don’t have to tell me, we all know.”

“No, not that.” The old man blushed and went silent for a long time. Finally, he said, “… Our family is not the descendant of Niels Henrik Abel.”

When Molina heard her grandfather, she had a warm look in her eyes.

“I know you’re just trying to comfort me, but I’m fine, so don’t worry about me.”

Grandfather: “… No, I’m telling the truth.”

She made eye contact with her grandfather.

Molina froze.

When she saw that the old man wasn’t joking around, she realized that he wasn’t trying to comfort her.

She gulped and spoke with a trembling voice.

“… What do you mean?”

The old man nodded and spoke without hesitating.

“I was going to take this secret to the grave. Our family has nothing to do with Mr. Abel. My grandfather and father have never been to Norway, nor have I… Actually, I planned on going there when I first retired, but in the end, I gave up.”

Molina: “But my name…”

“My last name is Abel… But don’t you know how many people in France have that last name? There were two people with the last name Abel in my middle school class. Abel only lived to his twenties, he was never married. As a mathematician, how are you unaware of this?”

Molina looked like she was going crazy. She looked back at the oil painting with her pupils expanded.

“Then this oil painting is fake? What about the notebooks in the storage room…”

The old man was full of guilt as he said, “Those things are not fake… After all, it’s not a famous artist, so it’s not worth much. The incomprehensible mathematics notebooks, I bought them from a collector when I was young. I originally planned on donating it to a museum, but in the end, I kept it for myself.”

Molina took a step back and shook her head. She looked at her grandfather with a devastating expression. “… I don’t get it, why did you lie to me?”

Why did you lie to me for so long?

“Back in the day, your father had poor math grades, so I pointed to the oil painting and told him that he’s an embarrassment to the Abel name. Then I don’t know what happened, his math grades suddenly improved. I was confused at first, but things were going well. Until one day, he asked me if our family was a descendant of Professor Abel… I didn’t want to break his heart.”

The old man looked at his granddaughter, and his eyes were full of shame. He sighed heavily and spoke.

“It turns out that there is no such thing as a white lie in this world. A lie is a lie. No matter how perfect the lie is, you will eventually have to pay the price. Sorry, I didn’t expect this to happen…

“I understand if you hate me.”

As Molina looked at the painting on the wall, it was like her heart was broken into pieces and her world was collapsing…