Chapter 512: Farewell to Princeton
It had been two days since he donated his ma.n.u.scripts to Firestone Library.
Lu Zhou contacted a local house cleaning company and cleaned his entire house.
On the third day, he sent an invitation to his Princeton supervisor, friends, and professors to a party in his backyard.
One reason was to say goodbye to Princeton.
The other was to congratulate his students on successfully graduating.
Other than Professor Deligne, Dean G.o.ddard, Fefferman, and Edward Witten, almost half of the Princeton mathematics and physics tenured researchers were all at this party as well.
Because Lu Zhou was pretty sociable, he had a good relations.h.i.+p with most of the people he interacted with.
Because of this, after hearing he was going to leave, a lot of people tried to persuade him to stay.
“… I still remember twenty years ago, when I heard Faltings was going back to Germany, I nearly laughed out loud in my lecture. But my friend, when I heard you were leaving, I felt sorrowful.” Peter Sarnak toasted Lu Zhou, and his words were full of pity.
He was the former editor-in-chief at Annual Mathematics as well as a big name in the number theory field. When he was still at Annual Mathematics, he was one of the reviewers for Lu Zhou’s Goldbach’s conjecture thesis.
Comparing him to Faltings, Professor Sarnak respected Lu Zhou’s humbleness the most.
Even though Sarnak had a pretty good relations.h.i.+p with Faltings, that didn’t excuse Faltings’ arrogance.
Even though there was no chance to prove it in person, but Lu Zhou believed that there was a reason behind the famous line in mathematics—”You are better at chess, but I’m a better mathematician.”
Deligne: “You plan on going back?”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah.”
Unlike other people, Deligne didn’t try to persuade Lu Zhou to stay. He paused for a second and simply said, “My supervisor… The letter Mr. Grottend.i.c.k gave you, do you still have it?”
Lu Zhou: “Of course I have it.”
Deligne nodded and said, “Don’t lose it. If you don’t need it, give it back to me.”
Lu Zhou gently coughed and said, “… How could I possibly lose it…”
It was quite unfortunate. Even though Lu Zhou was involved in many branches of mathematics, he hadn’t made any major research results in the most important branch—algebraic geometry.
Maybe one day, when Lu Zhou needed Grottend.i.c.k’s wisdom, he’d take a trip to France.
But now was not the time.
Deligne stared at Lu Zhou for a while and said, “I’ve taught many students, some are talented, some are extremely talented. If I had to rate, you’re the most talented mathematics scholar I have ever seen, but you’re also the most difficult to understand.”
“Regardless, I hope you don’t waste your talent. No matter what kind of research or work you do, I hope you can continue down the road of mathematics.”
Lu Zhou nodded happily.
“I definitely will.”
…
All good things had to come to an end.
As the sun began to set, the farewell party came to an end.
Over the next two days, Lu Zhou’s students successfully received their diplomas and degree certificates. Before returning to China, Lu Zhou took this time to help them prepare for their further path in education or future jobs.
Actually, he didn’t even need to help them; his students were all excellent.
Like he said, no matter which mathematics research inst.i.tute or university, there wasn’t a place on earth that would reject their résumés.
Finally, due to Lu Zhou’s advice, Wei Wen decided to do a PhD under Edward Witten. Witten gladly accepted this potential-filled student. Even though this supervisor’s reputation gave Wei Wen a lot of pressure, he still accepted this challenge.
As for Jerick, he didn’t stay in Princeton. Materials science wasn’t Princeton’s strong specialty, so it was very difficult for him to take his computational materials science to the next level here. Therefore, with Lu Zhou’s advice, he chose to go to MIT to study a PhD.
As for the three graduated PhDs, they all decided to stay at Princeton.
Like this, all of Lu Zhou’s worries were solved. He could finally relaxingly embark on his journey back home.
Lu Zhou spent a few hours packing up his things. He then carried his suitcase downstairs and sat in his Ford Explorer, which was parked in his driveway.
Qin Yue was in the driver’s seat.
Normally, when Lu Zhou went to the airport, Jerick was the one that drove him there.
However, this time, Qin Yue offered to drive, and Lu Zhou obviously didn’t refuse.
Qin Yue drove his Ford Explorer to the airport.
After they got off the car, Qin Yue walked to the back of the car and took out the suitcase from the trunk.
Lu Zhou took the suitcase from his former student’s hands and nodded toward him.
“Thank you.”
Qin Yue: “You’re welcome, this is the least I could do.”
Lu Zhou smiled and was about to bid farewell to his student.
However, he suddenly remembered something. He put his hands into his pocket and took out a keyring with a bunch of keys on it.
“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot something… Take this.”
Qin Yue looked at the keys that were thrown in his hand and paused for a second.
“… What is this?”
“The keys for my house.” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I probably won’t have time to come here, and I probably won’t get to live here anymore. You’re moving out of your student apartment soon, right? I’m guessing you haven’t found a place to live yet. Take care of my house please.”
Qin Yue stared at the keys in his hand for a bit and suddenly asked, “Can you tell me your bank account number?”
Lu Zhou: “What?”
Qin Yue said in a serious tone, “So I can pay the rent.”
“There’s no need for that.” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I don’t need that money anyway. Just help me clean the house. Oh yeah, try not to touch my study room and fireplace. Even though I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I still hope those two places will remain the same.”
Qin Yue nodded seriously and remembered Lu Zhou’s words.
“I understand, sir.”
Qin Yue didn’t stay at the airport for long. After he bid farewell to Lu Zhou, he got back in the car and drove out of the airport.
Lu Zhou watched as his Ford Explorer got further away, and he smiled as he waved his hand. He then turned around and walked into the airport terminal with his suitcase.
Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice nearby.
“Lu Zhou!”
Lu Zhou heard someone call his name, so he stopped walking.
When he turned around and looked, he was stunned.
Someone he never expected to see in a million years was running toward him.
It was like Vera had just finished running a marathon as she stopped in front of Lu Zhou and breathed heavily while leaning on her kneecaps. A bead of sweat fell down from her golden hair onto the ground.
Lu Zhou didn’t expect to see her here, and he looked at the little girl panting as he asked, “Why… are you here? I mean, how did you get here?”
“I… I took… I took a train here.”
Vera stuttered while panting.
Lu Zhou: “… You don’t have to bid farewell to me at the airport.”
“I’m… I’m not here… to bid you farewell. I just have to tell you something… very, very important.”
Lu Zhou looked at her panting and sighed.
“Can’t you just tell me over the phone or through email?”
Surprisingly, the usually submissive Vera suddenly became weirdly stubborn. “No, I can’t!”
Vera took a deep breath and stood up straight as she tidied her messy hair.
Jesus, this is such bad timing.
I should have put on a dress and some makeup, make myself look presentable.
But I guess it’s too late now.
I’ve been waiting too long for this…
Her thin lips opened and one word came out.
“I…”
Lu Zhou: “I…”
I can’t hesitate, I’ll never get the chance again…
Vera took a deep breath and gave herself some courage. She then closed her eyes.
She didn’t care anymore, and she finally shouted out the words that were buried in her heart.
“I like you!”