Chapter 33
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!!!
I was standing amid the torrent of applause.
The sound of applause wrapped around my whole body.
My chest swelled, overflowing with joy.
‘Woooah… I’ve been waiting for this moment all along…’
It felt as if all the hardships up to now were being washed away by that single round of applause.
Before I knew it, my eyes had grown damp. Tears started to well up.
The tears I thought I’d sealed away since I was three.
In moments when emotions surge like this, they can’t help but come bursting out with a little ‘sniffle-’ sound.
At the same time.
Dopamine and endorphins came pouring out in torrents.
It felt as if my whole body had been fitted with 2,000 helium balloons, making me light enough to drift up into the sky.
The applause coming from every direction tickled every single cell in my body.
‘Aah… I’m so happy. If you were to pick the happiest person in the world, it’d be me…’
“Heeheeheeheehee…”
I couldn’t hide the corners of my mouth creeping upward.
…
Before long, the applause that had lasted for more than thirty seconds gradually died down.
“Heh!”
I came to my senses.
I tightly held Mom’s hand beside me.
Using the momentum from the two of us raising our arms high and then bringing them down at the same time,
it was like a curtain call after the stage performance.
We bowed once more.
“Heheh! Thank you for listening to my lecture! Thank you for listening!”
The applause exploded again.
✒️✒️✒️
“Then, I’ll take questions. Any questions?”
The Q&A time after the lecture began.
As if they had been waiting for it, hands shot up one after another.
‘Wow. So many.’
The sight of those hands popping up all over the place was exactly like the idiom ‘bamboo shoots after rain’—shoots springing up here and there after a shower.
‘Whacking moles with these hands would be fun…’
Suddenly, I remembered the whack-a-mole game in the arcade corner at the supermarket Mom had recently taken me to.
Five neatly punched holes and outrageously annoying-looking moles kept popping out. If you bonked them with the toy hammer, they’d go ‘ow!’ and duck back inside, and your score would go up. The impact feel was top-notch.
Whoosh-whoosh-!
Snap out of it, Yu A-yeon!
This is a super important moment right now, so I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
I pointed at one of the hands that had shot up.
The person I picked was a professor in his forties seated in the front row.
He took the microphone and said,
“Is the author Yu A-yeon of [On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis] really you?”
Just from the question, I had thought he was still doubting me.
But when I looked at his eyes, they weren’t eyes of doubt.
What was in them was awe, or perhaps fear.
The eyes of someone seeing the unknown for the first time.
The professors seated in the lecture hall didn’t seem to think I had just come here as a prank anymore.
Instead.
Their eyes held the question of how a child could possibly study modern mathematics at this level.
Well, that was fine.
I had already prepared proof that would make even the skeptics believe me in one shot.
“Yes, that’s right! I’m Yu A-yeon-!”
I said with a bright smile and continued.
“But there will probably be people who won’t believe me just from hearing that. Especially the peeps watching through the camera!”
I looked at the camera at the very front of the press section.
The camera operator, Mr. Lee Dong-hyeon, scratched his head awkwardly when our eyes met.
“I don’t know how many viewers are watching right now, but I think most people watching the broadcast won’t understand what I just presented. So! I’ll present proof that I am Yu A-yeon without any headache-inducing content! Watch live! Keep it here! If you’re watching the recording, please hit subscribe, like, and leave a comment too!”
I stretched out my arm and pointed my index finger downward. It was a gesture asking them to hit the subscribe button.
At this point, the editors would probably add subtitles to the recording themselves.
I was such a nice kid that I even gave this media channel free publicity like this.
Swoosh-.
Mom took the laptop out of the bag she had prepared in advance.
When she connected the HDMI cable, the laptop screen was mirrored onto the large screen behind the stage.
I stepped up onto the platform and touched the laptop on the podium.
Tap-tap-tap-.
I tapped the keyboard with my tiny hands.
I opened the Archive link and logged in.
The laptop screen was projected onto the large screen.
Username.
[Yu A-yeon]
My Page.
[1 published paper: On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]
Click the paper.
When I opened it as a PDF, the paper that had become a hot topic on the internet unfolded on the screen exactly as it was.
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]
[Author: Yu A-yeon, Han Seol-ae]
Not a single letter was wrong.
With this, it was proven in one shot that I was the author Yu A-yeon.
QED. Proof complete.
... But surely no one would claim this was staged too, right?
If there are, I don’t have the courage to convince them...
Then they can wear their tinfoil hats all they want, I guess.
“No way, it was real...”
“Then it really was?”
The audience looked shocked.
When I presented irrefutable proof in their faces,
they had no choice but to believe the unbelievable reality.
The people sitting here were authorities in theory, not in any other field.
Even if something looks like an intuitively absurd paradox, if it isn’t logically wrong, then it has to be the right answer.
It’s like being able to split one ball into two balls of exactly the same size.
(*Banach-Tarski paradox: A single sphere in three-dimensional space can be cut into a finite number of pieces and, using only suitable rotations and translations, turned into two spheres of exactly the same size. This proposition is true, but because it is difficult to accept intuitively, it is called a paradox.)
“Next question! Another question?”
Hands shot up one after another, and I picked the next person.
“May I ask how old author Yu A-yeon is?”
“I’m currently 5 years old!”
I spread out my right hand wide, emphasizing five.
If someone played scissors here, I’d be utterly defeated...
Murmur-murmur-.
The lecture hall grew even noisier.
Someone probably thought I had a growth disorder and was actually much older.
‘Muu-. I’m really five, exactly as I look.’
I puffed out my cheeks a little.
Next question.
“If that’s true... how were you able to study such a deep level of modern mathematics at that age?”
To that question, I answered with a beaming smile.
“Heh. This is a secret they don’t really teach anywhere.”
I paused a moment.
“Actually, I’m a genius with an IQ of 160! Of course, on the Wechsler scale! I’m super smart!”
Peace-peace-.
I made a V sign with my hand, held it up to my face, and winked.
Hahaha-.
Laughter broke out from the audience.
So they had finally lost control of the corners of their mouths to my deadly cuteness.
That’s right—cuteness rules the world!
“I’m a genius, so everything goes into my head after one look. Nihihee. For the record, I’ve been studying math ever since I first understood letters!”
I gave a short self-introduction in seven languages to show a bit of genius.
Of course, reciting a self-introduction in seven languages is something you can do by memorizing the script over and over, so it isn’t exactly proof that you’re super genius-level smart.
Still, it was an effective performance.
As I spoke in each language, the people from overseas looked astonished.
‘Heh. Looks like everyone is gradually starting to accept it—that the tiny, cute, lovable kid in front of them is actually an absolute IQ genius!’
Next question.
“How did you come up with the key idea for proving the Riemann hypothesis?”
At that question, I looked at Mom beside me.
Nod-nod-.
I handed the microphone to Mom.
“Have you perhaps heard of Professor Shin I-jun?”
A murmur rose from the audience.
A voice floated up from somewhere.
“Shin I-jun... wasn’t he that ill-fated professor who died tragically young? He also declared that he would prove the Riemann hypothesis.”
“That’s right. In fact, during Professor Shin I-jun’s two-year tenure as a professor, the only student under him was me, Han Seol-ae. And after Professor Shin I-jun died, there was no one to take over his research notes, so I did. I still keep Professor Shin I-jun’s research notes in my study at home.”
“Uh... don’t tell me?”
Then the audience looked as though they’d realized something.
They must have found the connection.
I took the microphone back from Mom.
“That’s right-!”
I brought the microphone close and spoke loudly.
“I grew up reading Professor Shin I-jun’s research notes on the Riemann hypothesis! I kept reading them for years, and after being able to interpret the professor’s research, I found the way to construct the ‘operator H’ shown in the paper according to that approach!”
The auditorium fell silent.
Shin I-jun.
That name drifted through people’s minds.
Those who had known Shin I-jun in the past.
seemed to feel something at the fact that his research, his final work, had been carried on in this way.
“Ah-ah.”
I cleared my throat and lowered my voice a little into a more serious tone.
“If it hadn’t been for Professor Shin I-jun, I wouldn’t have found the idea to prove the Riemann hypothesis.”
Shin I-jun was dead.
But his ghost still remained inside Yu A-yeon.
Not as his personality in life, but as his memories while alive.
“So, borrowing this moment, I’d like to express my gratitude to the late Professor Shin I-jun, who passed away six years ago. Everyone, I’d be grateful if you could each offer him your thanks once.”
This is a memorial service where I send off my former self with my own hands.
Since I couldn’t even attend my own funeral, I guess it’s fine to at least do this much as condolence money?
At the very least, here.
Here, in a place where authoritative mathematicians have gathered.
And here, where countless viewers are watching.
Let’s bestow honor upon Shin I-jun.
‘Goodbye. Professor Shin I-jun.’
Shin I-jun was dead.
But his name would write one line in the history of mathematics.
The research he left behind.
Had given later-generation mathematician Yu A-yeon the direction to solve the Riemann hypothesis.
For some reason, I felt as though my shoulders had become much lighter.