Chapter 7: One Blackboard, One World-Class Mathematical Conjecture Solved!
The torrent of comments abruptly froze the moment those four words appeared.
“The Riemann Hypothesis.”
Those four characters seemed to carry an invisible power, causing the once noisy and scrolling comment section to fall into a stunned silence.
Before tens of thousands of screens, countless fingers flying over keyboards simultaneously paused mid-air.
They didn’t understand.
Most of them couldn’t even pronounce the phrase correctly, yet that did not stop them from sensing something extraordinary from the heavy prefix: “a world-class mathematical problem.”
It was a weight capable of crushing any mortal.
After a brief stillness, the barrage of comments erupted again, this time with even greater fervor.
“Holy crap! Which university is that person from? This is serious? The Riemann Hypothesis? Just hearing the name makes my brain feel like it’s burning!”
“Ha ha ha! The streamer really hit a brick wall this time! Let him pretend! Let him brag about knowing everything!”
“Already took a screenshot, waiting for the streamer to awkwardly end the broadcast. That face is totally lost tonight!”
“Alright, scatter. Don’t even bother asking him. I checked with my PhD friend in the math department—he said whoever can solve this is the next Newton.”
In the Jinning City Cyber Police Unit, inside the monitoring room.
The cold air was filled only with the low hum of servers.
Liu Jie leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on the console, watching the young man’s face on the main screen with keen interest.
He didn’t understand mathematics, but he understood human nature—and he had heard of the formidable reputation of this century-old problem.
It was a domain unreachable by ordinary people even in a lifetime, the frontier of human intellect.
He turned his head toward Xiao Wang, the technical core of the special investigation team beside him.
“Are you confident?”
A faint sneer played on Xiao Wang’s lips, his gaze radiating the absolute superiority of a professional toward an outsider.
“Captain Liu, rest assured.”
He confidently tapped the desk, the data streams on the screen reflecting on his determined face.
“Forget about this guy, a fraud who failed the college entrance exam three times. Even if you locked the world’s top mathematicians together for a hundred years, they might not move this problem an inch. He’s doomed!”
Yet before the live broadcast watched by millions, He Yu’s reaction defied all expectations.
No panic, no shock, not even a hint of hesitation.
He simply stared calmly at the comment, a faint, playful smile curling on his lips, as if seeing an intriguing toy.
“The Riemann Hypothesis?”
He murmured the four words softly, his voice low but carried clearly through the microphone across the entire network.
“Interesting.”
Before his words had fully faded, he turned around with composure.
His figure was upright and steady, without the slightest sign of being cornered by the formidable problem.
He approached the small blackboard prepared temporarily for the live stream’s effect and reached into the board’s groove to pick up a piece of white chalk.
“Since this viewer wants to see it, today I’ll give everyone a live mathematics lecture.”
His voice was steady, imbued with an unshakable confidence that instantly silenced the entire chat room.
He raised his arm lightly, the chalk tip touching the black surface.
“Tap.”
A crisp, clear sound echoed in the silent live room like a clap of thunder.
The next moment, his wrist flicked swiftly, and one line after another of smooth and elegant mathematical formulas flowed onto the board.
It was not a chaotic calculation but a rhythmic and beautiful script, each symbol, each turn, like a meticulously crafted work of art.
“To understand the nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function, we first need to start with the prime number theorem and Euler’s product formula…”
He Yu wrote while explaining.
His voice was magnetic, breaking down complex theories that would put ninety-nine percent of people to sleep instantly into simple, clear, and understandable concepts.
His thinking was no longer bound by ordinary logic.
It was a razor-sharp scalpel, ignoring all conventional paths, piercing precisely into the problem’s core, then dissecting it perfectly from an astonishing angle.
Every step was logically rigorous.
Every deduction was airtight.
In the live chat, the comments vanished.
Everyone was stunned.
It was as if an invisible hand had gripped their throats, forcing them to stare wide-eyed as the man wielded the chalk before the board like a general commanding thousands of troops.
Inside the monitoring room.
Xiao Wang’s smile had long since stiffened and shattered, finally collapsing into a twisted shock and disbelief.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his mouth involuntarily opened wider and wider, almost large enough to fit an egg.
The data streams on the console continued to scroll, but he could no longer absorb a single word.
His entire world had been utterly overturned by the calculation unfolding on the young man’s screen.
“No… impossible…”
His Adam’s apple bobbed violently as he emitted a dry, hoarse voice filled with intense trembling.
“This line of thought… how could he possibly think to approach it from the perspective of complex function theory? This model… this model…”
Xiao Wang’s voice abruptly stopped because he realized the solution path He Yu proposed was entirely new—never before published in any academic journal!
A direction even his mentor, who stood at the pinnacle of the national mathematics community, had never contemplated!
This was pioneering!
This was a miracle!
Less than half an hour passed.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely, yet it was only a moment.
He Yu had filled an entire chalkboard.
Dense formulas and symbols constructed a magnificent and rigorous mathematical palace.
He put down the chalk, now reduced to a small stub, gently placing it back in the board’s groove.
Then, he raised his hand and slowly clapped the chalk dust from his palm.
The fine white particles drifted in the light, like the last embers of a solemn ritual.
“…Therefore, from the above proof, we can conclude that all nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function lie on the line with real part one-half.”
His tone was as casual as stating “one plus one equals two.”
“Of course, this is only a simplified proof outline; a rigorous argument would require hundreds of pages.”
He turned back, smiling, and looked at the camera again.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze.
The entire live broadcast, millions of viewers, and even Liu Jie and Xiao Wang behind the monitoring screens—all were engulfed in a deathly silence.
Everyone’s minds crashed utterly in the face of this earth-shattering scene, their thoughts blank.
A network streamer.
Within thirty minutes.
With a piece of chalk and a blackboard.
Had unraveled the crown jewel of a mathematical problem that had baffled humanity for over a century.
This was no longer shock.
This was legend.
Long moments passed.
Liu Jie finally felt his throat dry to the point of burning; he swallowed with difficulty, the sensation of saliva sliding down his throat sharp and distinct.
He twisted his stiff neck to look at the petrified Xiao Wang beside him, his voice dry as two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.
“Did he… solve it?”
Xiao Wang didn’t answer.
His eyes unfocused, pupils dilated, he muttered absentmindedly over and over.
“Genius… madman… no… a demon…”
“This fraud… this fraud… what exactly is his background?”
Amid this frozen silence, a mechanical notification sound exploded in He Yu’s mind, nearly breaking his voice with excitement!
[ Ding! You have conquered all skeptics with extraordinary knowledge and performed a miracle in your professional field. Trust rating has surged explosively! Reward: 1500 reputation points! ]