Chapter 447: The Professor’s Magic
As Nixon’s voice fell, the signal spread across the world.
In an office in Taipei, a deathly silence fell.
Shen Changhuan’s face turned pale, thinking: “He, he didn’t persuade him, but instead became the special envoy?”
In the meeting room, the tea table bumped into the cane, the porcelain cup shattered on the floor, tea splashed everywhere, breaking the silence.
“Bastard! Nixon the traitor!” A roar followed: “Betray us? Trade us for their peace? Lin Ran this Chinese descent lackey, we gave him Yan Zhenqing’s authentic work, yet he became their running dog! Americans think we are pawns? Tell them, we will not yield!”
The staff fell silent as if frozen, someone whispered: “Calm down.”
“Calm down? Twenty years of ally, just thrown away like that? From now on, strengthen vigilance! Contact Congress’s hawks, we will make Nixon pay the price!”
“Also, do we have any way to assassinate Lin Ran? What professor, he is the biggest obstacle between us and Washington, I see him as a thorough FD element!
Help me formulate a plan, a plan that can kill with one strike!”
The staff exchanged uneasy glances, feeling he had gone mad.
Outside the room, the guard heard the roar and felt equally uneasy.
No one knew that this would be the beginning of their isolation, the start of the title Asian orphan.
Nice, France, this historically obscure small city.
Perhaps it is not a small city as the fifth-ranked city in France, but on a global scale, it is undoubtedly a small city.
The only advantage is its location along the Mediterranean coast, with pleasant scenery.
The sea breeze carrying the salty taste of the Mediterranean blew over the palm trees on both sides of the seaside.
When Lin Ran arrived at Nice airport via a connecting flight from Paris, it was already the next day.
Because the connecting flight itinerary in Paris was far more complicated than expected.
Lin Ran’s special plane took off from Washington D.C., originally planned to make a one-hour stop at De Gaulle Airport, then transfer to a domestic flight to Nice.
However, as soon as he got off the plane, he sensed something was wrong.
Outside the airport VIP passage, a team of French diplomats and security personnel were waiting, led by a secretary from the French Foreign Ministry.
“Professor, welcome to Paris.
Mr. President hopes to see you.”
Lin Ran asked puzzled: “I’m just transiting.”
The secretary shrugged: “French political circles have long admired your mathematical achievements.
President Pompidou personally invites you, it won’t take too long.”
You have been to Ten Downing Street, to West Berlin, visited Göttingen before the Göttingen miracle, been to West Berlin, but never to Paris.
Paris’s political circles have been waiting for a long time.
The first stop was the Élysée Palace, the residence of then-President George Pompidou.
Lin Ran was taken away in a Citroën, passing through the traffic peak along the Seine River unimpeded under temporary traffic control.
Upon arrival, the palace garden was dappled with sunlight.
Pompidou personally greeted him in the study.
His handshake was firm: “Professor, mathematics is too complex, I don’t understand it, but I deeply agree with your exposition of the theory of systemic oppression.
If America allowed senior officials to accept medals from overseas, I would have eagerly awarded you the French Legion of Honor here.”
The pleasantries soon ended, Pompidou mentioned the legacy of French mathematician Poincaré, Lin Ran responded politely, thinking the proof of the Poincaré Conjecture I haven’t brought out yet.
But soon, the topic turned to diplomacy: “America and China, this is a very difficult equation that requires a balanced solution.
If it were President Nixon, I don’t think he could smoothly solve this equation.
But with you it’s different, you as a world-renowned Chinese descent figure can play a key role.”
Lin Ran nodded, but knew full well: Pompidou was probing the wind direction of the negotiations, as Europe’s neutral party, France naturally hoped to profit from it.
A market of 1 billion people, not only coveted by America, but also by France.
In the past, France and China had trade, but limited by some clauses, this couldn’t be sold, that couldn’t be sold, this couldn’t be bought, that couldn’t be bought.
Take computers as an example, France wanted to buy the Crimson computer, America applied all kinds of pressure.
In the end, America itself bought them in large quantities.
The meeting was supposed to be half an hour, but dragged to one hour, Pompidou insisted on sharing a glass of champagne.
Pompidou wanted to discuss the multipolar balance in the Cold War with this White House fixture, the real power figure in America not only now but seemingly for many years in the future.
Leaving the Élysée Palace, Lin Ran wanted to rush to the airport, but received another invitation: former interim President Alain Poher hoped to have afternoon tea with him.
Poher, the transitional leader after De Gaulle’s resignation in 1969, now Senate President, waiting in a classical teahouse in the suburbs of Paris.
The sedan sped away, Lin Ran looked at the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower outside the window and sighed: “This transit is turning into a Paris tour.”
In the teahouse, Poher had prepared macarons and Earl Grey tea.
“Professor, I heard you are going to the Nice conference, the French mathematics community is proud of you.”
After the pleasantries, similar topics began again: “I want to know if America’s Asia policy is turning, if Roosevelt’s design is returning, and how you view China?”
Afternoon tea was supposed to be casual chat, but turned into Poher’s “private consulting”.
Here Roosevelt’s design refers to Roosevelt’s design for the United Nations.
Roosevelt’s earliest design for the United Nations was that each permanent member manages its own sphere of influence.
Unlike later America, meddling in everything.
This is somewhat similar to the Zhou king’s enfeoffment system, which is why Roosevelt insisted on pulling China into the Cairo Conference.
To endorse China, hand Asian affairs to China.
America only intervenes in the most core issues, like nuclear disarmament.
Actually, this is a very clever system, unfortunately Roosevelt died too early, Churchill implanted the Cold War concept, leading the world to a different development path.
Poher’s subtext was, is America going to abandon Asia.
Restoring Roosevelt’s vision would undoubtedly be good for France.
If it were Lin Ran who had just arrived in 1960, he definitely wouldn’t understand what Poher was saying.
But now, as a political veteran, Lin Ran immediately knew what the other party meant: “Sorry, I’m not clear on President Nixon’s thoughts.”
Poher shared concerns about the Vietnam War, also hinting that France could serve as a bridge between China and America.
Lin Ran politely evaded, but Poher’s enthusiasm let time slip away, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., topics from the Riemann Hypothesis to differences between China and the Soviet Union, delaying a full two hours.
The most unexpected was the last invitation: former President Charles de Gaulle hoped to invite him to the presidential residence for a sit-down.
Although De Gaulle had retired, his influence loomed like a giant shadow over French politics.
He lived in a private residence in the suburbs near Paris, a classical stone building.
Lin Ran’s sedan arrived in the sunset, De Gaulle personally greeted at the door, his tall figure wrapped in a gray coat, voice booming: “Professor, come, come! I want to witness with my own eyes how a mathematician solves the world’s puzzles!”
De Gaulle was the first Western politician to establish formal diplomatic relations with China, in 1964, not an easy time to make such a decision.
Whether respect for China’s history and culture, opposition to America’s overbearing style, or pursuit of multipolarization in the Cold War structure, all enough to make Lin Ran respect this old man in the final stage of his life.
80 years old, a flickering candle in the wind, perhaps Buzz Aldrin has something to say, at my age I can still land on the moon!
In the residence living room, De Gaulle handed over a cigar, reminiscing about World War II: “I have seen China, that was CHANG’s era.
But now, Yanjing is reality.
We France recognize it, when will you Americans catch up?”
Lin Ran intended a brief response, but was drawn in by De Gaulle’s eloquence: from World War II turbulence to Cold War strategy, the old man shared his vision and imagination of a “multipolar world”.
The meeting was supposed to be fifteen minutes, but extended to dinner, De Gaulle insisted on keeping him for the meal, discussing technological development, the technological singularity Lin Ran proposed and diplomatic uncertainty.
Lin Ran looked at the darkening sky outside the window, feeling very helpless inside: looks like I won’t make it to Nice today.
These Paris bigwigs’ meetings, like a series of unexpected variables, delayed Lin Ran a whole day.
In the guest room of De Gaulle’s villa, Lin Ran thought: the mathematics conference is a cover, sure, but are the French politicians a bit too sensitive to the China-America turning point?
Actually, it’s not them being sensitive, it’s because of the professor himself, if it were Kissinger, these French politicians absolutely wouldn’t be this enthusiastic.
Besides political figures, some French business people also invited Lin Ran.
Lin Ran politely declined all of them, even though he wanted to experience the enthusiasm of French beauties.
The next morning, he finally boarded the plane to Nice.
Lin Ran checked into a seaside hotel in Nice, with the blue coastline outside the room window.
He adjusted to the time difference, opened the conference schedule: from August 19 opening to August 30 closing, gathering over 2000 mathematicians from more than 50 countries.
Soviet Union’s Pontryagin, Japan’s Kunihiko Shioda, England’s Atiyah, France’s Grothendieck, and so on.
Of course including mathematicians from America and China.
Even among the stars, Lin Ran sat in the very front, arranged to sit between Jean Leray and Grothendieck.
Jean Leray is a French mathematician, organizer of this conference, and would be elected conference chairman at the start of the conference.
While Lin Ran is the honorary chairman.
After Lin Ran took his seat, Jean Leray sighed: “Professor, we are all stars, you are the sun, after you arrived in France, I saw all sizes of newspapers in Paris reporting you.
Meeting this one, meeting that one, the politicians lucky enough to meet you boast about gaining wisdom from you, those who didn’t meet you also mention you.”
Afterwards, every French politician who met Lin Ran would boast in French media about discussing many meaningful topics with the professor, we have great resonance, and so on.
Lin Ran explained: “Wasn’t I rated as the world’s wisest man?
Of course I don’t think so myself.
These politicians who met me may not think so either.
But they think the public will think so, so meeting the world’s wisest man, they too will gain the attribute of wisdom in voters’ minds.”
Jean Leray hadn’t answered yet, Grothendieck was already clapping: “Brilliant, professor, you live up to being considered the wisest man, I think so too.”
The three chatted happily.
Making the mathematicians sitting behind itch with curiosity, especially those who could see the back of these three heads, everyone wanted to know what they were talking about.
Then Pierre came over first, the circle around the three growing larger.
Because of Lin Ran’s arrival, Nice would serve as the location for China-America negotiations, this Nice conference’s security was unprecedentedly strict, strict beyond French levels.
The FBI and NASA office responsible for Lin Ran’s security arrived in Nice a week early to guide security work.
Just to avoid, in a conference with hundreds or thousands of people, someone coming from behind with a pistol and shooting Lin Ran, such things are really hard to defend against.
China-America negotiations, who knows if there are deranged people wanting to stop it all.
Jean Pierre joked: “Professor, I’ve always felt you don’t take the International Congress of Mathematicians very seriously, whether in New York or Göttingen, you produced heavyweight achievements.
Though you also showcased achievements at the International Congress of Mathematicians, papers that on other mathematicians would absolutely be career peak works.
But for you, they can only be considered mediocre perfunctory works.”
Lin Ran pointed to his brain: “Mathematics is like creation, both need inspiration, I originally prepared a paper, but felt it too ordinary, so I declined the main venue report.
Yesterday while chatting with President Pompidou, he mentioned Poincaré, which made me think of the Poincaré Conjecture, I thought about it all night yesterday and got some inspiration.
I think at the International Congress of Mathematicians four years from now, I might have found the solution.”
The room erupted in an uproar.
This was too arrogant.
What does it mean to get inspiration in one night, the Poincaré Conjecture is not some casual conjecture, it’s a century-old problem no less than the Goldbach Conjecture.
Mathematicians in the back rows surged forward, wanting to know what happened.
Word spread from one to ten, ten to hundred, soon all attending mathematicians knew what happened.
Everyone first felt shocked, then thought it was Lin Ran saying it, felt normal, compared to the Göttingen miracle, solving the Poincaré Conjecture in four years was even low-key.
Many mathematicians in related fields were already looking forward to it.
Looking forward to what new inspiration and breakthroughs Lin Ran’s proof of the Poincaré Conjecture would bring to their research.
The opening of the 1970 International Congress of Mathematicians held in Nice, France, did not begin in harmony, but in a noisy, chaotic environment like a vegetable market.
Jean Leray, the organizer head, even had to organize venue order, making everyone return to their seats.
This is the professor’s magic, from America to France, from Paris to Nice, all the same.
