Chapter 418: Chapter 141 Yes, That’s How It Is!_4

Plus, considering the status of these two mentors in the domestic and global mathematics community, there’s no need to mention the influence of Elder Yuan, a living Fields Medal giant, in the international math scene.

While Tian Yan Zhen has always maintained close cooperation with the Academy of Sciences, and he himself is a judge for the world-renowned Abel Prize and an editorial board member of top international mathematics journals…

Qiao Yu and Qiao Xi’s future along this path is something Tan Lu Yuan can hardly imagine.

Integrating the Yanbei and Huaqing schools and maintaining good relations with the Academy of Sciences, the future development of mathematics in Huaxia may indeed heavily depend on Beijing.

If you add to that professors like Lott Degen, Peter Schultz, Pierre Derini, who reportedly have good relationships with Qiao Yu…

Forget it, Tan Lu Yuan is too lazy to think further, but he’s already decided to try and figure out how to collaborate more with Yanbei and Huaqing in the mathematics direction when he returns.

Of course, the most important thing now, Tan Lu Yuan feels, is to make a good impression in front of this mother and son.

Therefore, after pausing for a moment, he smiled and said, “Looks like I can get a free meal this noon again.”

Although Tan Lu Yuan’s status in the mathematics community isn’t as high as Yuan Zhengxin and Tian Yan Zhen, as an Academician, he wouldn’t miss a meal.

But this remark can easily bring people closer. Yes, Tan Lu Yuan is making a compromise.

Even if the mother opposite is actually about the same age as his daughter.

“Of course, today my mom and I should treat everyone to a meal, right at Class A Restaurant! Grandpa, could you help reserve a private room? I’ll host.” Qiao Yu said generously.

Not afraid to spend money, and Huaqing’s student card can be used at Class A Restaurant…

“Yes, Qiao Yu, also send a message to your teacher inviting him to come over for a little celebration.” Yuan Zhengxin said.

“Oh, okay, Grandpa.”

…

“Hmm? Elder Yuan decided to take your mother as a student?”

“Yes, Director Tian. Elder Yuan said my mom has strong spatial imagination and abstract thinking skills, which are suitable for learning geometry. He wants her to inherit his mantle.”

“Didn’t you say yesterday that you planned to take your mom sightseeing in Beijing today? What’s up with this sudden change? Is there something I don’t know about?”

“Director Tian, it’s hard to explain over the phone, why don’t we talk it over lunch? It’s still at Class A Restaurant, the same private room as yesterday.”

“Sure, this timing is perfect, another day and I would have left for Europe again.”

“Huh? Why are you going to Europe again?”

“There’s a conference I need to attend, enough said, I’ll be right over.”

After hanging up, Qiao Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

The mentor clearly wasn’t very upset, which was good. But the mentor is off on another trip again…

Qiao Yu had only been at Yanbei University for six months, but from what he knew, his mentor had already been on at least ten trips, three of which were abroad.

Traveling all the time at over sixty years of age seemed a bit exhausting to Qiao Yu.

Of course, Qiao Yu wasn’t yet aware that Tian Yan Zhen had already minimized his travels, turning down many conference invites to ensure he could spend half a day each week overseeing Qiao Yu’s progress.

But even having hung up, Tian Yan Zhen really didn’t feel like thinking about conference matters anymore.

The whole situation just seemed absurd…

Elder Yuan suddenly taking Qiao Xi as a student? All of a sudden, he had a new junior sister?

…

And so, by noon, the three Academicians from the School of Mathematics were once again seated around the same dining table with the mother and son of the Qiao Family, only this time without Xia Keke.

From Qiao Yu, Tian Yan Zhen learned the story behind the situation, and to be honest, he was quite surprised…

From a theoretical perspective, intelligence could be hereditary. Tian Yan Zhen recalled reading an article analyzing the heritability of intelligence from genetic and behavioral cognitive perspectives.

The conclusion was that a person’s intelligence is primarily the result of both heredity and environment.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean if the parents are highly intelligent, the child will definitely be highly intelligent too.

Because Tian Yan Zhen also remembered that intelligence isn’t the result of a single gene’s effect but rather a polygenic trait.

This means there’s significant randomness in the hereditary process, involving factors like the thickness of the cerebral cortex, gray matter density, neuronal connectivity, etc.

Likewise, the external environment and education are equally crucial.

So in theory, a union of two highly intelligent individuals often implies a higher likelihood of producing intelligent offspring.

But it is just a likelihood.

Especially since studies have found that highly educated individuals tend to marry and have children later than average people, often missing the optimal childbearing period. In addition, parents with higher qualifications generally have less inclination to have multiple children.

Hence, if they only have one child and there’s any unexpected twist in the heredity process, the child’s intelligence could just be unremarkable.

That’s why despite parents being doctoral graduates from prestigious universities, the child could still underperform academically.

Cases like Qiao Xi and Qiao Yu, where both mother and son possess mathematical talent, are rare, though not unheard of.

For example, the famous Madam Curie—Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize twice, once in Chemistry and once in Physics.

Her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, probably inherited Marie Curie’s scientific talent and also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.

So during the lunch, the group quickly started discussing the hereditary nature of intelligence.

Especially Tan Lu Yuan, who was genuinely curious about how it is inherited.

“I don’t think it’s just because of heredity, perhaps we should thank my grandfather. Because both my mom and I were actually educated by my grandfather when we were young.”

Listening to the three Academicians discussing this topic, Qiao Yu immediately found the commonality.

Mathematicians are good at identifying such things, especially Qiao Yu.

“Oh? Your grandfather?”

“Yes, my grandfather’s name is Qiao Guozheng, and he was really an incredible person. Not only could he repair anything related to the railways, but he was also skilled in carpentry and painting jobs.

My grandmother used to say that all the furniture in their house was handcrafted by him after they got married. When they moved to a new house, the entire renovation was also done by my grandfather. Many of his colleagues would ask him to help with their furniture.

And he had such diverse interests, like Chinese chess, Go, Landlord, Mahjong, table tennis… and he was proficient in all of them. When I was a kid and hadn’t joined kindergarten yet, he would take me everywhere, and people would always invite him to eat wherever he went.”

Qiao Yu introduced the person he admired the most in his life to the three Academicians with great pride.

The three Academicians didn’t say anything; Yuan Zhengxin and Tian Yan Zhen had specifically learned about Qiao Yu’s background, knowing this grandfather had passed away.

Tan Lu Yuan had learned about this from Yuan Zhengxin.

He could only sigh internally.

Tian Yan Zhen felt that this made sense: if intelligence is indeed related to the environment…

This Qiao Guozheng was quite a legendary figure. After all, enabling a prodigy like Qiao Yu to genuinely respect him from the bottom of his heart is definitely no easy task.

Qiao Xi just felt melancholy…

The year she gave birth to Qiao Yu, her father had a severe illness. Afterward, he took an early retirement due to health reasons, which made it hard for Qiao Xi not to blame her father’s early death on herself…

Reflecting on the past, she realized she had been overly willful.

Until Qiao Yu kicked her lightly, bringing her back to her senses, and she heard Professor Tan speaking.

“… How about we have a drink today as well? Just one beer each. Qiao Yu definitely can’t drink. Qiao Xi, can you have one?”

Qiao Xi glanced at Qiao Yu, then smiled her gentle signature smile and softly said, “Sorry, Professor Tan, I’m allergic to alcohol.”

This statement also made Qiao Yu smile sweetly. The allergy to alcohol was a clever excuse.

Not to boast, but if it came down to drinking capacity, everyone in the room today would likely be out of the contest long before Qiao Xi even hiccuped from the alcohol…