Chapter 31
Today was the long-awaited day of the lecture!
Mom and I went to a famous, ridiculously expensive makeup shop in Gangnam that we'd reserved in advance that morning.
Unlike the outfit and hair, makeup had to be done on the day itself.
Ding-ding—
As we opened the door and stepped inside, the makeup artist we'd booked came out to greet us.
"Hello. Are you Yua-yeon, the customer with today's reservation?"
"Yesss—! Hellooo—!"
The artist praised my appearance.
"Oh my. You really went all out. Do you have something important today?"
"That's right—! Something this important!"
I spread both arms wide to emphasize how big "this much" was.
"It's the day she'll be standing on a stage in front of a lot of people. Her skin is good, so keep the base thin and dewy, and since the stage lights are strong, set the forehead and nose with powder so they'll stay soft and matte."
Mom gave her a polished explanation from the side.
I had no idea what it meant, but I knew Mom was amazing.
The artist smiled and sat me in the chair.
"Understood. Since it's an important day, I'd better show what I can do. Since you're a child, I'll keep it from being overdone and bring out your natural charm."
The artist's hands began moving deftly toward my face.
Delicate, meticulous movements.
She spread the base thinly, dabbed a bit of brightness under my eyes, and colored my lips a natural shade.
When the final touch was done, the artist turned the chair toward the mirror.
I looked at Yua-yeon in the mirror.
My eyeliner was sharper, my lips glistened, and my skin looked brighter.
"Hee-heh-heh."
Cuteness limit broken!
With this, Yua-yeon wasn't just fully confident—she was recharged to 3,000%!
"Do you like it?"
"Yesss—! I love it sooo much! Thank youuu—!"
I bowed my head to thank the artist.
There really was a reason people paid big money to have professionals do their makeup.
Even when I secretly poked around in Mom's vanity mirror by myself, I ended up covered in white powder like a rice cake.
There was so much powder that if you got some in your mouth by accident, you'd start coughing.
Click! Click!
Mom was also extremely excited, snapping photos of me from every angle.
"Oh my, our A-yeon is seriously adorable. What am I going to do?"
"Heh-heh. Right? Right? I'm cute, aren't I?"
Peace, peace—
I made a V sign and posed in front of the camera.
The black sailor uniform, the wave perm, the makeup!
With that, I had become the master of the outfit-hair-makeup holy trinity.
Who am I?
A genius with an IQ of 160, a former iPhone owner, the first author of the paper proving the Riemann Hypothesis, and the master of the outfit-hair-makeup trinity.
I'm the trinity master~ I'm the trinity master~
For me, this is the real Triforce!
Power, courage, wisdom?
Outfit, hair, and makeup are stronger than that!
✒️✒️✒️
Seoul National University Cultural Center Grand Auditorium.
Our family had arrived early, an hour before the lecture started.
As the lecture start time drew near, professors and graduate students began gathering in large numbers in front of the building.
They clustered in small groups chatting, or looked through printouts of the paper I'd written.
It was the first time I'd seen anyone other than my family and Professor Park Mu-yeol looking over my paper, and it felt good.
"Heh-heh."
Dad gently took my hand.
"A-yeon, you'll be okay?"
"Yep, I'm totally okay! The current Yua-yeon is 3,000%-confidence Yua-yeon!"
"Yeah, Dad believes in our daughter. A-yeon is a genius, after all."
Dad was about to mess up my hair with his rough hand... but changed it to a light pat on the shoulder.
Because he knew very well it would take thirty minutes to fix my hair again.
Rustle-rustle—
I took out the golden ball I'd put in my pocket.
The Ferrero Rocher chocolate I'd received yesterday from Eun-chae unni at chess club.
I'd realized chocolate had pretty good calming effects, so I brought it to munch on before the lecture and ease my nerves.
Nham—
Munch-munch—
"Hwaa... so yummy."
We entered behind the stage.
A staff member stopped us when all four of us suddenly showed up, but after Professor Park Mu-yeol inside said it was fine, they let us in.
And just like that, we successfully got into the prep room behind the stage.
"Professor Park Mu-yeol! Hello! Thank you for giving me the chance to give this lecture!"
Professor Park greeted us with a kindly smile.
"Hoho. Not at all. I just wanted to see in detail the proof process for the Riemann Hypothesis that A-yeon came up with. A-yeon, show everyone."
Professor Park bent down to my eye level and held out his hand.
"Nihi-hee. Please watch me—!"
Whoosh-whoosh—
I took his hand and shook it up and down.
"Unni, are you okay? Aren't you scared?"
Arin asked quietly from the side.
"To be honest, I'm a liiiittle nervous. But if Arin hugs me, I think I'll feel even stronger."
"If unni says so, I'll hug you as many times as you want!"
Squeeze—
Aah... this is it. This.
The natural oxytocin I got from Arin.
With just this, I wasn't afraid of anything.
Now it was time.
"A-yeon, let's go in soon."
Mom took my hand and led me along.
Mom and I opened the front doors of the lecture hall and stepped inside.
The gazes of about a thousand people.
And the lenses of dozens of cameras.
Considering the live broadcast, maybe more than ten thousand people were watching us right now.
"Huu..."
It wasn't like I wasn't nervous.
But thanks to Eun-chae unni's Ferrero Rocher chocolate, Arin's hug, Mom and Dad's encouragement, and the boost from the outfit-hair-makeup trinity, I could naturally brush off those stares.
Everyone looked bewildered.
Their expressions seemed to ask who on earth that mother and daughter pair was.
But we paid no mind to the questioning stares and walked in confidently.
Step-step—
Pat-pat—
Mom stood at the center of the stage, took the microphone, and spoke first.
Mom's voice was absorbed by the microphone diaphragm and converted into an electrical signal.
The converted electrical signal was amplified by the speakers and boomed throughout the entire lecture hall.
"Hello. I'm Han Seol-ae, the second author of [On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]."
Then Mom passed the microphone to me.
I smiled brightly and began my self-introduction.
"Hello! I'm Yua-yeon, the first author of [On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]! Hello everyone! I'm A-yeon Yu, the first author of [A Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]!"
✒️✒️✒️
The media outlets were already streaming the lecture hall live on MeTube through broadcast cameras.
Since the news that the unidentified author of [On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis] would be giving a lecture had even been reported on the news.
About ten thousand people, including foreigners, were watching Yua-yeon's lecture as it streamed on MeTube.
Rather, it was because Yua-yeon had kept her identity hidden and maintained a mysterious air up until now.
Even people who weren't all that interested in this kind of issue had probably clicked in out of curiosity.
- All right, let's go~
- Is something huge coming? Is something huge coming? Is something huge coming? Is something huge coming? Is something huge coming?
- Fuck this bitch. Riemann Hypothesis or whatever. Give me back my coins.
- Wow, there are so many people.
- Can’t the coin freaks fuck off?
- I'm moved that a result like this came out of Korea.
- What is this broadcast? What's going on?
- Is this the rumored lecture on the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis?
- This is all thanks to our president properly supporting Korean education.
- Damn it, all you idiots who don't even know what the Riemann Hypothesis is, get lost.
- The chat is fucking trash.
- What is the Riemann Hypothesis?
- Bro, I wanna be there so bad 😭😭😭
[Major Math Gallery]
[Title: Anyone watching the broadcast right now?]
Title says it all.
- Watching now
- I'm in the lecture hall right now lol. My professor brought me here.
- Damn, jealous. Our bastard professor said there were no seats and went alone, fuck.
- lol, just watch the broadcast.
- For now, I'm most curious who this independent researcher Yua-yeon even is.
[Tweet]
Apparently a live stream of the lecture proving the Riemann Hypothesis is going on right now. If you're interested, you should check it out soon.
→ It looks like the lecture on the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis is being streamed live right now. If you're interested, you might want to check it out quickly.
[Tweet]
I'm so excited. Solving one of the seven great problems would be the first time in 22 years since the Poincaré conjecture was solved.
→ I'm really looking forward to it. It would be the first time in 22 years since the Poincaré conjecture was solved that one of the seven great problems had been resolved.
While so many people were watching with interest,
the mother and daughter pair walked into the lecture hall.
Step-step—
Pat-pat—
- Whoa, she's insanely pretty, damn.
- Cute kid.
- A child in a lecture hall?
- The sailor uniform is cute.
"Hello. I'm Han Seol-ae, the second author of [On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]."
- Oh, so she's the second author?
- Where's Yua-yeon?
- But why did she bring a child?
- Cute.
- But she's seriously pretty, damn.
- Unni, you're so pretty.
- She's so pretty 😭😭😭
- The kid looks cute too, probably because she takes after her mom.
And then.
— Hello! I'm Yua-yeon, the first author of [On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]! Hello everyone! I'm A-yeon Yu, the first author of [A Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]!
At that moment.
The thoughts of the audience and the viewers froze.
- ??
- ???
- What?
- ?????
- ??????????
- Huh?
- ?????
- ????
- Hahahahahahahahaha, what bullshit.
- ??
- WTF
- What the hell are you talking about?
- What did you say?
- Seems like the kid's joking... If you're going to joke around in a place like this, you deserve a scolding.
- ????????
MeTube viewers began flooding the chat with question marks at a terrifying speed.
The chat was one step away from exploding.
[Major Math Gallery]
[Title: Did I hear that right?]
So you're saying that kid is the paper's author? And her mom is the second author?
- What is this, a hidden camera prank?
- The broadcast chat is blowing up too.
- What kind of bullshit is that?
- Seems like the kid was just joking? The staff is at fault for letting that brat in with them.
[Tweet]
A kid just popped up and dropped a shocking statement lol.
→ A little kid just showed up and said something shocking lol.
[Tweet]
I thought Korea was a country that could take first place in comedy, lol.
→ I thought Korea was a country that could take first place in comedy, hahaha.
✒️✒️✒️
The auditorium froze.
Nearly a thousand people all looked at the same thing at once.
The small child on the podium.
A height of 105 cm.
A black sailor uniform with a red ribbon.
Shimmering wavy hair.
A face smiling brightly in front of the microphone.
About three seconds of silence.
Everyone thought it was a prank.
The audience began to stir.
"That's... the author Yua-yeon?"
"She's that young?"
"Isn't she just joking?"
A professor in his sixties seated in the front row adjusted his glasses and whispered to the colleague beside him.
"What on earth was Park Mu-yeol thinking?"
"I don't know either. That kid is really the author?"
A graduate student in the middle rows pulled out their phone and checked the author information on the arXiv paper again.
[Author: Yu A-yeon]
There was no photo next to the name, no affiliation, nothing.
There was only the name all by itself.
"That kid is Yua-yeon...?"
The murmuring in the audience grew louder and louder.
The professors who had flown in from overseas were no different.
A foreign professor whispered to the colleague beside him.
"Is this a joke?"
"I have no idea."
The fellow professor gave a shrug.
The camera crews filming also froze.
Lee Dong-hyun stared blankly at the podium from the press seat in the front row.
'No way, that kid was the author Yua-yeon I'd been searching for all this time?'
Then a scene flashed through Dong-hyun's mind.
The child happily eating strawberry bomb cake at the café.
And the child speaking in a self-assured tone.
It was as if the voices of the child and Han Seol-ae were both echoing at once.
— Yua-yeon is going to give a big lecture later, you know? You and one foreign reporter you bring along. After the lecture, I'll let those two be the first to get an exclusive interview with Yua-yeon. It's your reward for buying the strawberry bomb cake!
— I'll do as this child says.
When he thought that far, Dong-hyun's eyes widened.
"Ah! Could it be, that time was—!"
✒️✒️✒️
I looked straight at the murmuring audience.
Suspicion.
Doubt.
Perplexity.
I could feel similar things in each of those gazes.
It was the reaction I'd expected.
It was only natural.
Thump-thump—
Pitter-patter—
It would be a lie to say I wasn't nervous.
It would be a lie to say I wasn't scared.
'But if it's the current Yua-yeon, I can do this!'
I squeezed Mom's hand beside me tightly.
Then I exhaled a long breath, huu—, and spoke clearly into the microphone.
"It's not unreasonable that no one believes me."
As soon as I said that, the murmuring subsided.
"Even I would have trouble believing that such a small child proved the Riemann Hypothesis. But this isn't a joke."
Then I said it once more, in English.
"I understand why you don't believe it. Even I wouldn't easily believe it either. But this is not a joke."
The audience began to stir again.
If the earlier murmuring had been based on bewilderment, this was something else now.
I continued.
"I found evidence showing that the Riemann Hypothesis is true, and with my mother's help, I wrote the paper and made it public. From now on, I'll explain the process in detail."
And in English.
"I found the key idea to prove that the Riemann Hypothesis is true. With my mother's help, I wrote the paper and posted it. From now on, I will explain that process in detail."
Once I finished speaking, the hall went completely silent.
Everyone probably felt that this situation was far too abnormal to dismiss as a prank.
That was actually good.
I quietly took Mom's hand beside the podium and picked up the chalk with my free hand.
Heave-ho—
I took out the step stool I'd prepared in advance under the podium, stepped on it, and matched my eye level to the blackboard.
The camera filmed my fingertips.
The letters I wrote were broadcast onto the large screen across the entire hall.
Click—
Click-click—
Small and cute, yet forceful letters were etched onto the blackboard.
[The nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) all have real part 1/2.]
[Every nontrivial zero s of ζ(s) satisfies Re(s)=1/2.]
I set down the chalk and turned to face the audience.
And then.
I said with a bright smile.
"I'm going to prove it now!"