louisehourcade Chapter 4 Home Visit
Chapter 4 Home Visit
"When you say results, do you mean competitions?"
Gu Jin's voice carried a very subtle hint of hesitation.
"certainly."
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.
Is it too early for a first-grade elementary school student to participate in a competition?
And I don't even know which competitions I should send him to.
"I need to accurately understand the child's level before I can answer you."
"Hmm..." Gu Jin was still hesitating.
"What, you're not happy about it?"
Gu Jin sighed softly, as if she were about to vent the burden in her heart:
"Su Hao, that child's name is Su Hao."
Their family seemed very harmonious.
I'm wondering if what I'm doing is causing trouble for a family that was doing well before?
If things take their natural course, he'll probably continue to live a happy life like he does now, right?
"Perhaps. But the price of letting things take their natural course might be losing a future Fields Medal or Nobel Prize winner."
Shen Yuxuan's voice was cold, carrying a sharp, worldly-wise edge.
"Honestly, you're absolutely right to think that going with the flow will bring more happiness."
Even if you're showing promise now, there's no guarantee you'll succeed in the future, is there?
How difficult and painful would life be for a mathematician without talent? Shen Yuxuan couldn't even imagine it.
Although this cruel reality should not be spoken by a deserter who had just stepped through that sacred gate and fled in panic and helplessness.
"But why do we have to have good grades?" Gu Jin was still puzzled.
"Wouldn't it be better to skip a grade and follow the regular education system? You'll have to go to university eventually anyway..."
"Like me?" Shen Yuxuan scoffed. "That would only be considered a second-best option at best."
Gu Jin was taken aback for a moment: "Um, did you have a tough childhood too?"
The air seemed to freeze at that moment.
"As soon as there is any news of a child prodigy being born, a group of people who want to treat the child as a cash cow will inevitably emerge."
Sometimes it's out of pure concern, but most of the time it's a dirty scheme to exploit the child for personal gain.
Countless greedy faces flashed through Shen Yuxuan's mind in an instant; those people were like sharks that had smelled blood.
"There will be a constant stream of doubts from the outside world, and parents will also be under tremendous pressure. During this process, the child himself will also begin to doubt himself: 'Am I really that good? Am I being overrated as everyone says?'"
"Ah... I think I understand what you mean," Gu Jin murmured softly.
"However, if there are overwhelming results, the situation is different."
Shen Yuxuan's voice became sharp again.
"Whether it's a competition or a paper, as long as you produce results that can only be produced at that level, everyone else has to shut up."
Objective indicators can help people avoid unnecessary spending.
Moreover, he will build up his own self-confidence.
For mathematicians embarking on a long and arduous journey, self-confidence is more important than anything else.
In the pitch-black abyss of academia, it was the only light that could illuminate the way forward!
"So you're willing to come over?"
"To Daji County?"
"Um."
"Are you crazy?" Shen Yuxuan's voice instantly rose eight octaves, as if he had heard some absurd joke.
Do you know how much my appearance fee is per day?!
I'm now a top-tier instructor who charges by the hour and whose gold coins drop just by walking!
"It's all about money, money, money!" Gu Jin raised her voice and yelled at him.
"You used to be so cool, but you're not cool at all now, you know?"
This seemingly casual remark struck Shen Yuxuan's heart like a heavy hammer blow.
A self-deprecating gloom crossed Shen Yuxuan's face.
I felt as if something heavy was pressing down on my heart, causing it to sink.
A feeling of shame, almost trembling, spread through my veins and throughout my body.
He knew perfectly well that the young man who had stayed up until dawn in front of the blackboard, his eyes shining, trying to solve a problem that no one else could, was dead, dead in the years that no one knew.
What was I like back then?
He remembers that every time he did a problem, the beautiful formulas in his mind would explode like dazzling fireworks.
He firmly believed that those sparks would eventually ignite the entire sky and change the world.
But now, the number he cares about most is no longer on the blackboard, but in the balance of his bank account.
The remnants of dreams that he had personally crushed and discarded in the passage of time now seemed to have turned into the sharpest shards of glass, slowly and cruelly stirring his heart.
That was clearly a dream that extinguished on the spot after going very far, so why does it still hurt so much after so many years that it makes me want to cry?
Shen Yuxuan felt that perhaps it was some kind of destiny that was reminding him, through Gu Jin's words, that it was time to settle everything.
Gu Jin seemed unaware of Shen Yuxuan's thoughts at that moment, and continued:
"To be honest, I didn't want to say this, but with my skill level, I have no idea where Su Hao's limits are."
I can't even see what he's capable of or where he's stuck.
This feeling is absolutely awful. Have you ever experienced this feeling?
How could I not know?
Shen Yuxuan knew this all too well.
When ordinary people look up at geniuses, the feeling of powerlessness—being unable to even see the taillights of the other's car—is enough to destroy all a person's pride.
"Alright." Shen Yuxuan interrupted her, his voice a little hoarse, yet filled with an unprecedented sense of relief.
"I'll take a day to go there. You can find a place to eat first."
"Hehe, that's great, thanks! I'll cover all your expenses here."
Although the thought of how to ask for leave and reschedule classes gave her a headache, the thought of seeing Gu Jin again after so long made her feel not too bad.
......
On a weekend afternoon, the sunlight, carrying a hint of languid weariness, spilled into an old house in Daji County.
Tiny dust particles float in the air, as if time has slowed down here.
Lin Wan was busy cooking in the kitchen, while Su Hao sat by the crib, staring intently at his little sister who was fascinated by the crib mobile.
"You seem a bit different from me?"
Su Hao's small brows furrowed slightly, and a thought casually crossed his mind.
He remembered that by this time of year, he should have been able to understand what adults were saying, albeit barely.
But judging from the current reaction, it seems that the younger sister, Su Hui, is not ready yet.
Seeing him lean closer, Su Hui opened her toothless little mouth, as if she wanted to say something.
"Do you want to talk to your brother? Me too. I really hope Huihui can learn to talk soon."
Su Hui looked at her brother and giggled innocently.
She looked so adorable that Su Hao reached out and touched her chubby cheeks.
Just then, guests arrived at the house.
"Excuse me. Is this Su Hao's house?"
"Oh dear! Teacher Gu!"
Upon recognizing Gu Jin, Lin Wan didn't even bother to hang up the clothes she had just washed. She hastily wiped her hands on her apron and ran straight into the yard.
Su Zhe, who was preparing formula inside the house, also leaned out and hurriedly came out to greet them.
"Hello, Su Hao's mother! I am Su Hao's homeroom teacher."
"We heard you were coming and we've been waiting for you. Please come in."
Lin Wan greeted them warmly, but her gaze involuntarily fell behind Gu Jin.
"But who is this?"
The man behind him was tall and slender.
Although he was wearing an extremely expensive and meticulously tailored handmade suit, he seemed a bit out of place standing in the old courtyard full of local flavor.
"My name is Shen Yuxuan. Teacher Gu Jin said a student wanted me to take a look at him, so I came along."
Shen Yuxuan's greeting was very stiff, even carrying a hint of arrogance.
Gu Jin nudged him awkwardly with her elbow, then quickly tried to smooth things over with a smile.
"Oh, let me introduce you. This is a graduate of the mathematics department at Princeton University."
He is now a renowned teacher.
I figured he would be more helpful than me in assessing Su Hao's abilities, so I invited him to come along.
"Ah? About Su Hao... Please come inside."
Although Lin Wan was somewhat confused, she quickly welcomed the two into the house.
Upon entering the house, Shen Yuxuan didn't even take a sip of tea and went straight to the point:
"May I see the child's room first?"
Faced with Shen Yuxuan's abrupt request, which was completely contrary to worldly etiquette, Gu Jin frowned in pain and rubbed her temples hard.
She realized once again just how utterly terrible this former genius, now a renowned teacher, was at social skills.
"Oh? Okay! Please go ahead."
Su Zhe didn't mind, smiled憨厚ly, and led Shen Yuxuan into Su Hao's room.
The room was small, even a bit cramped.
But the first thing he saw made Shen Yuxuan's eyes narrow slightly.
There are more books than I imagined.
He casually picked up an encyclopedia and flipped through it.
Each page showed signs of having been flipped through, with some edges even curled up, clearly indicating that it had been read carefully countless times.
Meanwhile, all the children's picture books were disdainfully relegated to the bottom of the bookshelf, where they gathered a layer of dust.
On the contrary, almost everything within easy reach is filled with... math-related books.
Shen Yuxuan's breathing became erratic.
"These are books that undergraduate students often read."
He murmured softly, his finger finally stopping on a book with a dark blue cover.
He pulled it out; it was James Munchlis's book on topology.
This thick, brick-like monograph was also the textbook he studied diligently in his ivory tower years ago.
Now, it has appeared on the bookshelf of a first-grade student, with obvious creases from being flipped through.
"He started clamoring to buy these books about a year ago."
Su Zhe scratched his head, his tone full of helplessness and confusion.
"I'm just a clerk doing odd jobs at the township government. The contents are like reading gibberish; I can't understand a single word."
But my son said he needed to study, so I had no choice but to buy it for him.
Shen Yuxuan's fingers stiffened instantly.
a year ago?
Is a kindergarten child studying topology?
Although he had already seen that shocking exam paper in Gu Jin's office before.
But before actually stepping into the room, his rationality, which had been immersed in advanced mathematical logic for many years, still dared not be sure.
Did you really get to this point through self-study?
And at such a young age?
Without any renowned teachers to guide me, without abundant academic resources to nurture me, I was confined to this old, run-down room.
A figure uncontrollably appeared in Shen Yuxuan's mind.
That was a towering mountain he once looked up to, a mountain that belonged to a monstrous genius who, before he was even eight years old, had almost completed all the university-level mathematics courses through self-study!
"Holy crap, is this the same situation as that monster?"
Shen Yuxuan asked himself this question in his heart, then immediately dismissed the idea.
wrong.
That person's parents were a top surgeon and a university mathematics professor, respectively, giving them exceptional genetic and environmental advantages.
Meanwhile...
He looked at the simple, even impoverished, family environment.
If this talent truly takes root and flourishes here, then it is probably even greater than that person's!
He forced down the turmoil in his heart, put the book back in its place, and turned his gaze to the desk.
Colored papers that had been played with were scattered haphazardly on the desk.
Red, blue, yellow, green, cut crookedly.
Shen Yuxuan smiled slightly, his tense nerves relaxing a little.
"He's still just a kid, playing with origami."
He picked up a piece of colored paper at random.
However, the moment the colored paper was moved aside, a sketchbook lying underneath unexpectedly came into his view.
There were no crayon figures, sun, or clouds on it.
What's drawn on it are some unfinished graphics, like maps.
At the very bottom of these graphics, there is a densely packed bunch of symbols that look like scribbles to the average person.
"Um? 』
Shen Yuxuan glanced at it casually.
The first second my gaze swept over it.
He was stunned.
The second after my gaze swept over it.
Shen Yuxuan gasped sharply, as if he had been hit hard in the chest with a hammer!
The desk was littered with colored papers, of only four colors: red, blue, yellow, and green.
The messy scribbles on the sketchbook weren't doodles at all, but... formulas!
"Could it be... this is fucking..."
Shen Yuxuan suddenly leaned down, his nose almost touching the paper, and carefully examined the formulas.
Just one glance, and his brain felt like it had been hit by a blunt object, buzzing.
As a Princeton graduate, he couldn't understand a first-grader's doodle at first glance!
"It's... a topological planar diagram?"
He muttered to himself, his voice starting to grow hoarse.
This is not a child's drawing; it is a topological graph theory that highly abstracts real space!
"For ∀e∈E, c(u)=c(v), are two adjacent vertices of different colors?"
The moment he read out the formula, Shen Yuxuan's fingers, which had been resting on the edge of the desk, suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably, as if in spasms.
This is not just random scribbling at all!
This kid... he's rigorously defining the mathematical conditions for vertex coloring!
"He even figured out Kuratowski's theorem—that K₅, K₃,₃ are non-planar graphs—on his own?!"
Shen Yuxuan's breathing became more and more rapid, as if someone was choking him.
His peripheral vision swept over the colored pieces of paper on the desk again.
Red, blue, yellow, and green. That's exactly four colors.
Euler's formula: V - E + F = 2.
He gasped sharply, holding his breath completely, as if petrified.
"My God. Is he trying to prove the Four Color Theorem himself?!"
This is insane! Absolutely insane!
This is only first grade!
At an age when he probably can't even recite the multiplication tables completely, he's deriving the Four Color Theorem by hand?!
This kid is about to kick Newton's coffin lid off!
Having listened quietly for a while, Su Zhe, seeing the expert's distorted face and ghost-like discomfiture, finally couldn't help but cautiously interject:
"The Four Color Theorem? What's that? It sounds like something used for drawing?"
"For drawing?!"
Shen Yuxuan stiffly turned his head, looked at the simple and honest father in front of him, took a deep breath, and explained through gritted teeth:
"This is a theory proposed by Francis Goodry in 1852."
The core idea is that no matter how complex the map, all adjacent areas can be distinguished using only four colors.
"Is it difficult?" Su Zhe asked, looking bewildered.
"It's more than just difficult!!" Shen Yuxuan almost cracked his voice, the veins on his forehead throbbing wildly.
"For a full hundred years!"
Countless mathematicians standing at the pinnacle of human intelligence launched the challenge, but all failed miserably! A complete rout!
It wasn't until the advent of computers, with their immense computing power and exhaustive search capabilities, that the Four Color Theorem was finally proven to be correct!
He paused, his tone revealing a deep sorrow and resentment.
"But in my opinion, that's not proof at all!"
At best, it can only be considered a programming operation.
Although many old-school mathematicians could not accept such a soulless brute-force solution, the academic community eventually had no choice but to accept it reluctantly because no better pure mathematical derivation could be found.
In this day and age, it's unlikely that any mathematician would seriously delve into this thankless and arduous problem anymore!
At this point, Shen Yuxuan's voice suddenly stopped.
He looked at the sketchbook in his hand, and then at the well-worn book on topology.
Suddenly, as if struck by a sudden realization, he slapped his thigh:
"Ah! No wonder he wanted to study topology."
His goal was to transform the map into a flat surface and precisely define the properties of its boundaries and surfaces!
Just then, with a "creak," the door was gently pushed open.
Su Hao poked his head out, his originally gentle gaze turning cold the moment he saw what Shen Yuxuan was holding.
"Uncle, did you touch my colored paper?"
The frenzied atmosphere surging in the room was instantly punctured by this childish question.
Shen Yuxuan's hand holding the colored paper froze in mid-air, his expression extremely embarrassed, his face turning bright red.
As someone who was once like him, he knew all too well.
Mathematicians have a strong aversion to others touching their ongoing research results without permission.
Seeing this almost instinctive reaction of protecting food, Shen Yuxuan's sense of awe deepened.
Although this child is young, he clearly already possesses the purest and most obsessive potential of a mathematician.
"Ah... I'm sorry."
A Princeton graduate, a renowned professor at Shenyang University with an exorbitant hourly rate, was now as flustered as a schoolchild who had done something wrong.
"I'll put it back the way it was."
"No need. Just leave it there and don't move it."
Su Hao coldly tossed out a sentence and walked in.
Clearly, he was angry.
The first meeting left the worst possible first impression.
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Shen Yuxuan took a deep breath, his brain racing, and decided to start a conversation with a topic that Su Hao absolutely could not refuse and that only people from their "world" could understand.
He pointed to the draft paper, his eyes sharp: "Where are we stuck? The coloring conditions?"
This sentence is like a secret code.
"Huh?" Su Hao stopped and suddenly looked up.
Her previously indifferent face instantly changed, her eyes shining with amazing brilliance, and she excitedly bombarded her with a series of questions.
"How did you know? Uncle, do you play this game too?"
game?
game?!
Shen Yuxuan felt a rush of blood to his head and almost spat a mouthful of blood onto Su Hao's innocent face!
This is the century-old problem that has caused countless mathematical geniuses to work themselves to the bone, and has caused countless great scholars of the past hundred years to fail and suffer unbearable pain...
In your eyes, little brat, it's just a slightly more sophisticated coloring game?!
You call this a game?!
Then what are we math students?
Are you a gamer?!
But Shen Yuxuan gritted his teeth, determined not to lose the upper hand right from the start!
"When I saw the four colors of paper and the four adjacent vertex conditions you wrote down, I roughly guessed it."
Shen Yuxuan forced himself to remain calm, putting his hands behind his back and adopting an inscrutable demeanor.
"Looks like you've already figured out the planarity determination."
Su Hao hesitated for a moment, looking at the strange uncle in front of him who seemed to have some real skills.
Finally, he stepped forward and pulled out a sketchbook, as if complaining to his friend about an extremely stupid and tedious game level:
"That's when it got stuck. Adjacent vertices have to be different colors, right?"
However, after trying it out, I found that if the colors are shuffled, they won't overlap, but sometimes a third or fourth color is necessary.
Su Hao spoke quickly, his enunciation clear and firm.
"This makes me unsure whether it's possible to complete the task using only four colors. Because no matter how I adjust it, sometimes the conditions are broken when I get to the third edge."
Su Hao stretched out his fair finger and pointed to a page in the sketchbook.
The paper is densely covered with drawings depicting the gradual overlapping of four colors, so exquisite it's mind-boggling.
"Look here. If you start painting from blue, the last two vertices will become the same color, so it won't work."
So I switched to red and started again, but this time I got stuck in the middle...
Hearing this innocent complaint, Shen Yuxuan's heart was already in turmoil, but he still took a deep breath and maintained the smile of a master teacher, saying:
"This is the trap of coloring order."
Even if the flatness is guaranteed, if the coloring order is not right, it will make people feel that more colors are needed.
To avoid this trap, you need to use techniques like inductive coloring or reduction.
"Reduction?"
Su Hao tilted his head, clearly indicating that he had not yet encountered this advanced concept in his self-taught, unorthodox approach.
"Yes. It involves first removing a vertex from a large graph, coloring it, and then putting it back in, trying to find a way to satisfy the conditions."
It must be strictly limited to four colors.
Su Hao's eyes lit up:
"Ah... so that means even if I get stuck in the middle, I can just go back to the previous step and change the color?"
"That's right. But this thing is far more complicated than you think."
If you rely solely on manual calculations and trial and error like this, you'll quickly reach the limits of human computation.
Shen Yuxuan nodded, but then his tone changed and became serious.
"To fully prove the Four Color Theorem, we must exhaustively list all possibilities."
Those are thousands upon thousands of extremely complex branching scenarios. You can't draw them all.
Even if you finish drawing it, from a mathematical rigor standpoint, it cannot be considered a flawless proof.
Seemingly recognizing this cruel reality, the light on Su Hao's face quickly dimmed, his small shoulders slumped, and his expression suddenly became extremely dejected.
It's like being told your beloved toy is suddenly broken.
however!
In stark contrast to Su Hao's disdainful attitude, who thought the game was too time-consuming!
At this very moment, a devastating level 10 tsunami was raging within Shen Yuxuan's heart!
He looked at the six or seven-year-old child in front of him who had given up on the century-old problem because he "found it too troublesome," his hands clenched tightly, and his blood was boiling wildly!
terrible!
That's absolutely unbelievable!
The reasoning that this child figured out on his own in the dark
When you encounter a bottleneck or get stuck,
Even his instinctive solution...
It is exactly the same path taken by those top mathematicians who have gone down in history over the past century, who spent decades trying to solve the Four Color Theorem! Absolutely identical!!