8. Nineteen
Professor Park Bosu told his mother that he wanted to have a conversation with me alone, and my mother turned away to the kitchen.
Professor Park opened his mouth.
“You have grown a lot in two years. Is school fun?”
“yes.”
“I heard a story from a reporter from a century ago.”
“… … .”
He hesitated for a moment, then continued.
“I had a conversation with your father at a broadcasting station before, and if my memory is correct… Your father never walked the threshold of college.”
In the words of Professor Park, that is.
It meant she knew that her mother lied to a century-old reporter two days ago.
As my expression hardened, he spoke in a soft voice, as if trying to reassure me.
“Of course, I didn’t say anything to the reporter of the century, and I don’t plan on talking about it in the future, so don’t worry too much.”
Prof. Park, who confirmed my reassured expression, said in a trembling voice.
“What a century journalist brought… really… Jung-ho… What did you do right?”
I nodded my head without saying a word.
“Wow, too… .”
He was silent for a moment at my answer.
He looked shocked.
He drank water from the glass to see if he was thirsty before speaking again.
“haha… I can’t feel it I have no idea how far your abilities are. Heh heh heh—. Then maybe… ?”
He narrowed his brows and continued.
“Perhaps… Prove the Riemann hypothesis… What did… Isn’t it?”
I shook my head and said.
“no. What the professor saw was just what he remembered… In fact, it cannot be said that it was an attempt to prove it.”
He thought for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“So, are you going to continue studying the Riemann hypothesis?”
“no.”
He asked my answer with a surprised expression.
“no… why?”
“Right now, I just want to go to school normally. I don’t like being noticed by people because I’m a genius. Later, when I go to university, I will go on to the mathematics department. And then I want to start right.”
“Then you’re saying you don’t hate studying math?”
“yes.”
He looked relieved at my answer.
“Then you’re just saying you don’t want other people’s attention, so you’re going to wait until you get into college?”
As I nodded, a smile spread across his face.
“Jeong-ho, how about we do this?”
Professor Park Bosu told me to continue studying the Riemann hypothesis.
And he said that he would meet once a month to help me with my studies.
He closed his mouth for a moment, then opened it again.
“I want to make it clear that I am here to help. It’s not that I’m going to teach you.”
“… ?”
“Looking at the contents of the notes brought by a reporter of the century… You are no longer at the level I can teach. So, to be honest, the reason I’m making this suggestion is… Rather, I have a little desire to learn from you.”
Professor Park Soo-Soo looked at me with a serious expression.
ah… ! This man is sincere.
The expression on his face when he said he wanted to learn to an 8-year-old wasn’t a look of pride or embarrassment.
He continued to speak.
“If I challenge the Riemann hypothesis with you… I thought maybe I could solve it.”
The last words of Professor Park’s story stuck in my ears.
‘You can solve it.’
‘You can solve it.’
‘I can solve it!’
And these words have been ringing in my ears for over a week.
What could be more exciting than telling a mathematician that the Riemann hypothesis can be solved?
I remember very vividly the moments of my past life and death.
As breathing slowed, the vital system started beeping, and Yeong-mi’s whispers, swallowing her sobbing, came through her left ear.
“Hey Jungho… When we meet again in our next life… Back then, where there were no people… We both live happily. Understand? At that time I was more… much more… I will do you well.”
Unable to speak, I grabbed Yeong-mi’s hand as hard as I could.
Then my heart stopped beating and I lost consciousness.
pounding… !
pounding… !
My heart, which had stopped in the past, seemed to start beating again at the words of Professor Park Soo-Soo.
* * *
6 months later.
For the major, a graduate student in mathematics, today is a late work day once a month.
Thanks to her, I had a drink with the seniors in the lab yesterday, and since morning, her head has exploded.
However, I couldn’t just lie in bed until I went to work.
Because I haven’t finished the assignments I have to turn in by this afternoon’s Complex Analysis graduate class.
There is only one problem given to the assignment.
The problem was to explain why a given complex function has different values of the line integral from z1 to z2 depending on the integration path at two points.
The major has been struggling with this problem for a week, but he doesn’t even know where to start, let alone solve it.
At this point, I wondered if the path independence theorem for shipments was actually false.
She ate breakfast and pulled out a complex analytic notebook from her bag.
The major, who had been writing for a long time in his notebook, finally picked up the pencil and threw it.
“Ahhh—! You can’t do this! You can’t do this! What do you say to me!”
After a while, a palm flew over the major’s back, who was lying on the table in despair.
squash!
“Ah! Who is it?!”
“Who are you! It’s your grandmother, bitch!”
“Aww–! Why are you even doing this to Grandma!”
“If you eat well, you will go to school well, why are you screaming and making people surprised!”
When the clock showed 11:45 a.m., the major packed his bag and prepared to leave.
She looked at her grandmother, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room, reading a book.
Her grandmother looked at the major’s eyes through her glasses and cut it coldly.
“Grandma no money!”
“Grandma hey—-.”
The major clung to Grandma’s side and said in a loud voice.
“I have only one granddaughter who can’t even eat today and has to starve, right? yes?”
After hearing that she was starving, Grandma sighed and took out an emergency fund from her inner pocket and handed it to the major.
“Wow! Grandma is the best!”
After leaving the house, the major headed for Namseo Elementary School, which is 10 minutes away.
From there, she takes Jeong-ho to the lab.
Jung-ho said that he was a distant relative of Professor Park Bo-soo, who was his advisor.
Jung-ho is now a 9-year-old kid, and he is also mature in speaking, so he and the Major communicated surprisingly well.
So it wasn’t bad to go to work with Jung-ho once a month.
Moreover, Professor Park Soo-Soo provided a small amount of money for transportation, so it was an errand that the Major had no reason to refuse.
One thing that bothers the major is… Every time he met Jeong-ho at the gate of Namseo Elementary School, it was a girl named Young-mi who looked at the major with a watchful eye.
The major, who was waiting in front of the school gate, saw Jung-ho coming out of the school building.
As always, Yeong-mi was next to Jeong-ho, and honey was dripping in Yeong-mi’s eyes as she looked at Jeong-ho.
The major mumbled with a long sigh.
“under—. If you feel envious of 9-year-olds, you lose… .”
* * *
For the past six months, I have been meeting Professor Park Soo-Soo, and today is the seventh day I met Professor Park.
My sister, major, who is a graduate student in Professor Park’s lab, seems to have a lot of questions about me.
It started with my relationship with Professor Park Soo-soo, what are the worries of the children in the second grade of the public school, do I like Young-mi, do I plan to marry Young-mi when I become an adult? Conversations often end when the subway arrives at Korea University Station.
But today was different.
As soon as the major sister sits in the subway seat, she takes out her notebook and studies.
Bored, I glanced at her notebook.
It was a complex function given in the form of a series, which seemed to be a problem that made us think about the properties of a continuous but non-differentiable function.
After struggling for a while, she finally shook her head violently and let out a long sigh.
Every time I met Professor Park Soo-soo, I was getting help from her, and I thought that it would be okay to be a little rude to her, who treats me kindly every time.
“Sister, what are you doing now?”
“Because this is what my sister has to do until today… . Come to think of it, Jung-ho, are you really bored?”
“It’s not boring.”
she said with a soft smile.
“okay? So, my sister is a little busy today… Let’s talk with my sister when we get home later in the evening.”
And she turned her head back to her notebook.
She developed the function expression in another way, but at first glance it wasn’t a good idea.
It can be solved simply by showing the fact that the complex function is not differentiable on the straight line with the real part a… .
Eventually I reached out and pointed to her notebook.
“There is this.”
“yes?”
“Although this function is continuous, it cannot be differentiated on a straight line where the real part x is a.”
She looked at me with a blank expression, and I continued explaining.
“However, since a is a positive real number, the integral passing through the first quadrant must be integrated by dividing the interval.”
At my explanation, she closed her eyes and looked at me, but didn’t say anything.
Were you shocked and shocked?
“sister?”
“uh… ? you… you now… What did you say?”
I said with a smile.
“it’s nothing.”
She turned her head back to her notebook, and developed the formula as I said, and the problem was easily solved.
“Oh! Really… ! What is this?”
Mumbling to herself, she asked me.
“How did you know this?”
I put my index finger on my lips and said.
“Shh! Please keep it a secret.”
“What? secret?”
“yes. You said last time that you would grant me a wish.”
“ah… ! it? I did… .”
“Please keep it a secret. This is my wish. okay?”
read at noblemtl.com
Now, Major is the third person to know my secret after my mother and Professor Park Bo-soo.
We’ve only met seven times now, but it wasn’t difficult for me to know that the major was a person I could trust.
Professor Park Soo-soo’s statement that there is no need to worry because he is a heavy-spoken student is not a lie.
At my request to keep it a secret, she covered her mouth with her hand and lowered her voice to me.
“Are you a genius? What is it?”
I also whispered in her ear in a low voice.
“I’m not quite as good as my sister yet.”
A bright smile appeared on her face at my words.
The meeting with Professor Park Soo-Soo was not very long.
I showed what I had studied over the past month, and when the professor asked about some ambiguity, all I had to do was explain.
Occasionally, Professor Park raised objections, but in most cases, he only came to the conclusion that until a new theory emerged, it would not be known.
Of course, these new theories will emerge one after another over the next 20 years.
In fact, the role of advisors in mathematics and doctoral research is not as great as you might think.
What I’m studying isn’t much different either.
Although they challenged the same Riemann hypothesis, the method based on Prof. Park’s analysis and my approach, which started from topological mathematics, did not have much in common.
In the end, there were not many in-depth discussions about each other’s proof process, and for this reason, my meeting with Professor Park usually did not exceed an hour.
Professor Park said.
“Okay, so let’s do this for today… It’s time for lecture for me too, so let’s see each other in a little while.”
“Yes, Professor.”
Professor Park left the lab with his complex analysis textbook, and I was left alone in his lab.
Finally, the time I have been waiting for for the past month has begun.