Chapter 286: Accident At The Fields Medal Award Ceremony
“Peace was something I always took for granted, but now I realize I was wrong.
In my homeland, the virus outbreak has become a new joke. My friends still in Kiev privately joke, ‘Do you remember those good old days of the virus outbreak?’
I want to see peace. I am proud of my country, but my compatriots have to adapt to air raid sirens, shelling, and war. My sister and my nephew entered Slovakia with the help of the Red Cross, heading to Budapest, then boarded a flight to Geneva.
But to this day, the war still has severe consequences for him, who is only 8 years old. He started sleepwalking at night, which stems from extreme pressure and extreme fear.
At least, the tyrant cannot stop us from doing mathematics. At least there are still some things they cannot take from us.”
Among the four mathematicians who won this time, there is also Marina Viazovska from Kiev. She made her acceptance speech in Ukrainian, which was translated into English in real-time for the audience present. The audience downstairs was moved, and the applause was thunderous.
However, her speech was not over yet. After the applause subsided, Marina organized her language and said: “Professor Lin, I know that you solved the famous Twin Prime Conjecture in the field of mathematics, and you are also a master-level figure in the field of aerospace. I beg you here, do not become the tyrant’s assistant, do not serve the tyrant.
I beg you here to see Ukraine’s pain, despair, and struggle. I hope you can have a humanitarian spirit and not let the rockets you research and develop become tools for one group of people trying to enslave another group.
If you have a benevolent heart, I hope that when you give your acceptance speech later, you can promise my request.”
Lin Ran was in Shanghai and was dumbfounded. Wait, what does this have to do with me? He thought he hadn’t cooperated with Russia at all, so why did it seem like he was involved in the advance on Kiev.
At this time, Li Xiaoman, sitting next to him but her face not appearing in the camera, handed him a page full of English, poked Lin Ran’s arm. Lin Ran glanced at it and then understood the whole story.
“Mathematics Master or War Criminal”
In this BBC feature report, the protagonist is naturally him. It greatly exaggerated that after the successful orbital test of Burning One Modified by Apollo Technology, the Moscow side would cooperate with them. Based on the launch capability and ultra-low launch cost of Burning One Modified, they would launch a large number of low Earth orbit satellites to build a space electronic warfare system to interfere with Starlink signals and Ukraine’s communication advantage.
In this report, Lin Ran was portrayed as a helper of the war, the role of an evil scientist was fully revealed.
In the BBC report, the whole matter was described as if it were true. It mentioned Gagarin’s daughter working at Apollo Technology, and after returning to her country, she widely promoted her experiences in China domestically, becoming a bridge between Lin Ran and the Kremlin. It also said Lin Ran was closely communicating with the Kremlin.
The two sides hit it off and proposed a system called Kalinka, aimed at countering Ukraine’s communication advantage on the battlefield by interrupting Starlink signals.
(Soldiers are operating small drones connected via Starlink)
Things that Lin Ran himself didn’t even know about were reported by BBC as if they were true.
Li Xiaoman then typed behind: “Because of Yelena, the fake news fabricated by BBC is spreading widely on the external network. Not only BBC reported it, but also Agence France-Presse, Reuters, and other media. It’s probably because of this reason that the previous award winner said that.”
Lin Ran rubbed his forehead. He felt that the British were indeed shit-stirrers.
In 1960 spacetime, it was also the England-originated “007” that portrayed him as an evil scientist. Now BBC is playing this trope again.
If he had really done it, that would be fine, but the problem is he didn’t do it at all. After Yelena returned to Russia, she didn’t even contact him.
By the time it reached BBC, it became close contact with the Kremlin. Lin Ran thought, I have contacted the Kremlin, but that was in the 1960s, and it was through Korolev as the intermediary. I even met Mikoyan directly.
As the one with the highest status among the four winners, Lin Ran spoke last, giving him a little time to buffer.
When it was his turn, Lin Ran confirmed the connection was good, then turned on his mic and first thanked in Chinese, “First of all, thank you for awarding me the Fields Medal. I want to thank my parents for raising me. I also want to thank Professor Seagull of the University of Göttingen. Although he has passed away, during my study of number theory, I read many papers he wrote. Those papers provided me with a lot of nourishment. To me, he was not a mentor but better than one.
Finally, I want to thank Jiaotong University and Stony Brook University. Both gave me a good, free learning environment, allowing me to do what I wanted to do. Of course, maybe there was the virus outbreak in between.”
Originally, Lin Ran only wanted to say this much. After all, the Fields Medal was not his first time, and he was already used to it.
Marina, as a mathematician, was so easily swayed by BBC, and then put such a big hat on him at the award ceremony. Don’t mathematicians have IQ? Believe BBC?
Then Lin Ran seamlessly switched to Russian: “Now I want to respond to Madam Marina’s accusations against me. I estimate her accusations stem from BBC’s report. I want to say that BBC’s report is entirely built on falsehoods, conjectures, and fantasies. Because obviously, if I really wanted to communicate with the Kremlin, I wouldn’t need Yelena to act as a translator in the middle as the report says. I think my Russian should be proficient enough to be indistinguishable from Russians.”
At the scene in Helsinki, Finland, Russian is not a minor language. In Finland, many of the older generation know some Russian, including Marina herself. She grew up during the Soviet Union period, so she knows Russian even better. She could clearly discern that the other party’s Russian was extremely standard.
And in the BBC report, it explicitly mentioned Yelena acting as a bridge and translator.
“Secondly, I want to say that knowing Russian doesn’t mean having a favorable impression of Russia or wanting to cooperate with Russia. It’s simply because my university’s course schedule had Russian as a professional course. I think I learned it quite well. To avoid low-quality media like BBC later pinning non-existent crimes on me because of this, let me explain.”
Then Lin Ran switched to German: “If from the perspective of interest, from Professor Carl Seagull, I learned about the Göttingen School. The Twin Prime Conjecture is also one of the problems in Hilbert’s questions of the century from the Göttingen School. Plus the existence of Gauss, I might be more interested in Germany. From a spiritual perspective, I should be a successor of Göttingen.
This sentence, BBC, you can report it well.”
He made his acceptance speech in Chinese, Russian, and German simultaneously. More people could understand the final German. Finally, thunderous applause erupted from the audience, led by experts who understood all three languages, and the applause almost lifted the ceiling of Helsinki City Hall.
Marina, with a face ashen, walked to the podium. The organizers originally wanted to stop her, but then thought better of it and didn’t.
“Professor Lin, can you promise that you will never cooperate with Russia?” Marina asked in Russian.
Lin Ran shook his head: “I will never say forever.”
Marina then asked: “Then during the duration of the war?”
Lin Ran shook his head again: “I can only promise not to help Russia research and develop weapons for war. But if Russia asks me to launch satellites, sorry, I won’t refuse. If you want me to refuse, you have to first get America to lift the sanctions on Apollo Technology.”
Lin Ran ignored her and directly ended the video call, disappearing from the screen.
The scene was in an uproar. How can you equate Russia and America? The former is an evil country, the latter is the lighthouse of our free world.
Some people already regretted applauding Lin Ran.
Marina concluded: “See, Professor Lin is no different from the evil scientists of NAZI Germany. He has no morality in his heart, no distinction between good and evil, no understanding of universal human values. I am ashamed to share this Fields Medal with him!”
At this Mathematicians Conference, besides the award ceremony, Lin Ran was originally supposed to give a one-hour lecture on his work. But because of his speech at the award ceremony, where he clearly expressed he would not refuse to launch satellites for Russia, it caused a large number of mathematicians to boycott, and the organizers temporarily notified him to cancel.
Lin Ran deeply felt that in this era, going against the America worldview is heresy.
Stirring up disputes in the region and causing turmoil, the beneficiaries are not China. You can naturally talk about aircraft carriers, engines, gas turbines, etc., but that’s a transaction. China isn’t freeloading; it’s paid real money and silver.
It is precisely because of this history that Lin Ran made the promise not to help the Russians develop military weapons.
Lin Ran believed that if he helped the Russians build their electronic warfare jamming network, it would be much better than what they could do themselves.
But if he doesn’t help the Russians launch rockets, can the Burning One Modified he built take on tasks from the European Space Agency? Can the European Space Agency come to him instead of SpaceX?
Not to mention Europe, just say Ukraine, can you come to me instead of SpaceX?
Can’t, right?
Everyone has to eat, right? You can’t say just because you want to live, I can’t eat.
After the award ceremony, Lin Ran’s speech caused a strong backlash at the public opinion level.
In China domestically, it was naturally full of praise.
After all, most of China stands with the Russians. Standing with the Russians has nothing to do with the Russians or Ukraine; it’s simply reverse psychology. America supports that side, so I have to stand on the opposite side.
Plus, as China’s first Fields Medalist, Lin Ran calmly refuted the rumors while showcasing his amazing language talent: English, Russian, German, plus Chinese—that’s proficiency in four languages. This made Chinese netizens sigh that geniuses perform so genius-like in every aspect.
Especially the aerospace major students at Jiaotong University, they admired him to the ground.
“No, I suspect I went to a fake Jiaotong University. Can the general Russian we learned at university match Ran Shen’s performance?”
“I feel this is already close to the level of Russian majors, right?”
“Close my ass. I just asked the Russian department, and they said they don’t have that spoken level. Domestically, even English is dumb English, let alone Russian, which is even dumber Russian. Like Ran Shen, able to improvise on the spot and speak so fluently, that’s simultaneous interpretation level.”
“Good thing Ran Shen didn’t go to the scene. It feels like this was a setup for him. If he went, wouldn’t he be besieged?”
“What about the so-called general Russian? Turns out what I learned is simultaneous interpretation-level Russian!”
“Your top priority is to uninstall Qidian!”
In Jiaotong University’s student WeChat group, it was again a chain of “kneeling to Ran Shen” sticker packs.
University of Göttingen Central Administrative Building Meeting Room
Schellmerich is the current president of the University of Göttingen. When Lin Ran rose to fame, he was quite happy.
Because at that time, many universities sent emails to Lin Ran, but he only accepted the invitation for honorary professor from the University of Göttingen. You know, Göttingen had long declined.
Not to mention compared to the mathematical holy land before World War II, the current situation is even worse than the 1960s, a proper third-rate university in Germany.
Yet, a rising star like Lin Ran in the mathematics community actually accepted Göttingen’s invitation and politely declined top European schools like ETH Zurich, Paris Normal School, ParisTech, Munich University of Technology, etc.
This made Schellmerich feel honored, thinking this Chinese mathematician knew his stuff and recognized Göttingen’s value.
But now they encountered a problem.
“Everyone, thank you for attending this emergency meeting. We face a thorny issue: our honorary professor Randolph Lin is accused of possibly cooperating with the Moscow side. This is extremely sensitive in the current context. Berlin’s education department requires us to take action, possibly including dismissing him.
We need to discuss cautiously, weighing law, morality, and the university’s reputation.” Schellmerich’s face was full of helplessness.
Everyone was well aware of everything that happened recently at the International Congress of Mathematicians.
Their visiting professor Randolph Lin showed unprecedented recognition of Göttingen at the Fields Medal award ceremony. The high-level officials of the University of Göttingen present deeply realized why Lin Ran accepted Göttingen’s invitation—he had such feelings for Göttingen.
And obviously, there might be cooperation—hasn’t it happened yet? Before it happened, Berlin was urging them to revoke the honorary professor position.
And even if there is cooperation, it’s just helping launch satellites. That’s purely commercial behavior. Why make us dismiss Randolph Lin? A rising star in the mathematics community, the afterglow of Göttingen’s mathematical holy land.
Visiting professor—that’s still afterglow! Don’t treat visiting professors as not professors.
Vice President Holler said with a wry smile: “Yes, I’ve received inquiries from multiple parties. We must ensure the process is legal while protecting the university’s tradition of academic freedom.
Although Lin is only a visiting professor, he still enjoys legally protected academic freedom. But if he violates the law, we need clear evidence.”
Professor Barnes is the director of the mathematics department. This meeting only has the three of them. He strongly opposed: “First, we need to confirm the facts. What exactly did Randolph do? Did he directly provide technology to the Russian army, or is it just commercial behavior? Nothing has even happened yet, and Berlin demands we dismiss him? We cannot act just on accusations.
I’ve chatted with Randolph many times. He is a very, very, very excellent young man, and he has feelings for our Göttingen. He knows Professor Seagull very well and is familiar with his anecdotes. I even suspect he has some manuscripts of Professor Seagull.
We cannot push away such a young mathematician with boundless future! Even if he is only Göttingen’s visiting professor.”
Berlin? Berlin is Washington’s dog. Because he is a former East German, what East Germany suffered after the merger of East and West Germany, and how West Germany treated East Germany—Barnes knows it all too well.
Schellmerich helplessly said: “Berlin’s education department provided a report. The report believes that Professor Lin is already in preliminary contact with Moscow and completely ignores persuasion from the justice camp.
They hope we dismiss him based on the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act and the EU’s Dual-Use Items Export Control Regulation, namely Regulation (EU) 2021/821.”
Barnes roared: “But do we have solid evidence? Berlin’s report is just a report. If we act rashly on Berlin’s report’s guesses or unverified intelligence, Göttingen’s academic freedom is infringed!”
The three were unprecedentedly unanimous in not wanting to dismiss Lin Ran.
Just in degree, Barnes > Holler > Schellmerich.
Vice President Holler said directly: “Actually, it’s easy. We need a formal investigation committee to review all evidence.”
Seeing Professor Barnes about to speak, Holler gestured to let him finish: “We need a full, complete evaluation of this matter.
As the responsible vice president, I suggest I lead the formation of an investigation committee, including the legal department, research office, and external export control experts. We need to ensure the investigation is transparent and complies with Article 5 of the German Basic Law on academic freedom.
In short, how long the investigation takes is unclear.”
Holler’s words were very clear: stall, drag the matter out.
After hearing this, Schellmerich nodded: “Good, we’ll do that. Professor Holler, please form the investigation committee as soon as possible.
I will get Dr. Müller to provide legal guidance throughout.
Professor Barnes, please prepare a statement indicating we are investigating the matter to respond to the education department’s pressure.”
Holler nodded: “I will get to it immediately. Expected to form the committee and start the investigation within a month.”
Just forming the committee takes a month. They all thought: drag it out, drag the war out, and no one will care about this anymore.
But no one expected the war to last so long.
Professor Barnes nodded: “The statement can be drafted like this: The University of Göttingen has been informed of allegations against a professor. We are conducting a thorough investigation to ensure compliance with law and university policy.”
Schellmerich concluded: “Very well, let’s keep communicating to ensure actions are transparent and fair.”
Lin Ran didn’t know that his spiritual alma mater was still working hard for his retention. But even if he was really dismissed as visiting professor, Lin Ran wouldn’t feel much, after all, an arm can’t twist a thigh.
Could Göttingen fight against the White House’s will?
Even as the mathematical holy land, no.
At this time, he was meeting guests from Russia: Yelena and Valentin, as well as a group of Russian experts.
“Professor, this is Valentin, the director of our Nikita Space Center. He came this time hoping to reach a deep cooperation agreement with our Apollo Technology.” Yelena summarized.
