Chapter 646: Chapter 199 Return Without Success_2

Qiao Yu enthusiastically offered a word of encouragement.

Qiao Xi rolled her eyes at Qiao Yu, then turned away to find Elder Yuan.

She was afraid that if she talked with this kid for a few more minutes, she wouldn’t be able to resist pulling his ear at the banquet.

She heard that there would be many journalists attending tonight’s banquet, and Qiao Xi didn’t want Qiao Yu to make any big news in Philadelphia again.

Qiao Yu didn’t even have time to lament Qiao Xi’s attitude; there was nothing he could do, he was too busy. Someone had been waiting nearby, and seeing Qiao Xi leave, they immediately approached.

“Congratulations on winning the Fields Medal, Qiao, you are remarkable. By the way, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Professor Luis Jose from the School of Mathematics at San Francisco Xavier Chakus University.”

“Hello, Professor Jose, is there something you need?”

“Qiao, what do you think about Pseudo-spectrum Theory?”

“Hmm… Professor Jose, have you eaten yet? Why don’t we go get something to eat first?”

…

An hour later, Qiao Yu hid in a corner, wearing a “stranger, stay away” expression.

He couldn’t help it; the mathematicians’ banquet completely overturned his understanding. Shouldn’t it be like in the movies where everyone chats politely for a couple of sentences and then leaves politely?

Why did they each insist on discussing all sorts of random research projects with him? What’s with the pseudo-spectrum application in Gauss beam propagation…

What the heck is that? How do you control the topological changes of the pseudo-spectrum set by adjusting operator perturbations?

Is there really such a niche field of research in mathematics?

There’s also the non-Hermitian spectral problems, shape optimization in inverse problems, hyper-discrete dynamical systems…

The food at the cold buffet wasn’t tasty, and an hour later, he felt more exhausted than he did receiving visiting professors back in Huaxia.

These were all topics he had no impression of whatsoever, making Qiao Yu start to suspect that these people had come to annoy him on purpose. They kept telling him all about things he didn’t understand…

But after a moment of frustration, Qiao Yu adjusted his mindset. After all, he was a Fields Medal laureate.

Qiao Yu turned his head to say hi to Zheng Xiweng, intending to stroll around, casually chat with some familiar faces, and then head back to the hotel to rest.

But a burst of fragrance wafted over, followed by a typical Western beauty in an evening gown, holding a glass of champagne, standing in front of him.

With blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, matched with light makeup, her impressive cleavage and the long legs beneath the long dress were certainly eye-catching.

“Hello, Qiao Yu, so good to see you again.”

Qiao Yu’s gaze skimmed over the low V-neck evening gown, then turned to look at Zheng Xiweng behind him, who seemed expressionless.

So Qiao Yu asked in surprise, “Hmm? Seeing me again? Have we met before?”

The beauty shrugged helplessly, “Well, at this afternoon’s press conference, I’m Grace Abigail from the New York Daily. In fact, it’s only been a hundred minutes since we last met.”

Qiao Yu suddenly realized and nodded, “I see, hello, Ms. Abigail. I really didn’t know the banquet tonight would also have journalists attending.”

“Ms.? That doesn’t seem like a term you’d use. In fact, there’s no need to be so formal; you can call me Grace, just like other friends do. It suits our age more, doesn’t it?”

“Alright then, Grace, what’s it about?” Qiao Yu shrugged, speaking offhandedly.

“Well, actually, I’m very admiring of mathematicians, especially young ones like you. I’m really curious about your daily life, so could you share a bit with me?”

Grace held her wine glass, looking at Qiao Yu with a gaze that had just the right hint of inquiry.

Qiao Yu thought for a moment and asked, “Umm… when you were in high school, did you have those geeky boys in your class? The kind who were great at grades but didn’t like sports.

They’d always have a book, reading or working on problems every day, not caring what others were doing, with hardly any friends around, coming off as very aloof, and even occasionally getting bullied…”

At that moment, Grace’s hand covered her mouth, an incredulous yet sympathetic look in her eyes as she gazed at Qiao Yu, “Oh my, don’t tell me that’s how your life was before?”

Qiao Yu nodded earnestly and continued, “Yep, just think the reverse of what I just described, and that’s my usual life.”

The twist was so sharp that Grace hadn’t quite processed it yet…

But it was clear this reporter caught the point: “Ah? So you’re saying you don’t usually like reading, you exercise often, have lots of friends, and even occasionally bully others?”

Qiao Yu believed this woman really was a reporter; at least her memory was alright, and her adaptability quite quick.

“Correct! And when I bully someone, my favorite is getting more people to bully those who are outnumbered. After all, I have lots of friends!”

“Haha, so mathematicians can be humorous too. You know, back in high school, the person I disliked the most was my math teacher. Really, he was this old stick-in-the-mud with black-rimmed glasses.

In my memory, I never saw him smile! I always thought mathematicians were like him, stern, lacking any sense of humor. Now I see that opinion was too biased.”

“Of course, mathematicians are very humorous. Just earlier, I met many humorous mathematicians. Guess what, they informed me about so many mathematical concepts I’ve never heard of, so I hid over here!”

“I see.”

Grace was laughing even more happily, boldly taking a step closer, her eyes on Qiao Yu already carrying a hint of clinginess…