Super God-Level Top Student

"Okay. Oh, by the way, Youwei Group also hopes to invite you to their product launch in September to explain the advances of Group Wisdom. Are you interested?"

"Not interested."

"I knew it, I've already declined for you."

"Mm."

Tan Jingrong couldn't help but look up again at Qiao Ze across from him.

I mean, it's just that he's not a genius, so he can't comprehend Qiao Ze's way of thinking.

Opportunities that so many people yearn for are bluntly rejected by him, without leaving any room for negotiation.

Anyone else might think this is just some kind of role-play!

Sigh...

It would have been fine if he had gone!

He really wanted to show his face on stage...

"My dad is fine now, but I still have a question. You said you're picking up Auntie Lu tomorrow, what should I wear that would be appropriate?"

"As long as you are dressed, it's appropriate."

"That seems to make sense."

"Cough cough cough..."

Tan Jingrong, who had been seriously listening to their conversation, choked on his saliva that he hadn't managed to swallow in time and let out a violent coughing sound. Fortunately, two glances made the discomfort in his throat fade rapidly...

"It's nothing... just an itchy throat. Um, I'll go to the bathroom first."

...

United States, "SIAM Review" editorial office.

This magazine, published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, unquestionably holds an esteemed position in the field of applied mathematics.

Even so, Thomson Carter, an editor of the journal, still feels life is quite rough.

Especially when facing the pressure from the chief editor and dealing with capricious reviewers.

The paper published by Li Jiangao and Qiao Ze in "Duke Mathematical Journal" became hugely controversial because of the heated arguments between Sumant Jair and Ackerman Konietz, as well as the exposed watermarking of the paper, triggering widespread discussion in the academic world.

After an internal search, the journal discovered that Li Jiangao and Qiao Ze also submitted a paper to them, which naturally garnered considerable attention.

For a serious academic journal, most of the hype on the internet is basically unusable, because leveraging it doesn't help.

But the buzz this time could indeed be used to their advantage.

The reason is simple...

After the worldwide mathematical community's dispute concluded with Sumant Jair's final victory, the topic didn't linger on this Turing Award-winner for long, but began to veer in another bizarre direction.

Here's what happened.

Shortly after "Pure and Applied Mathematics Communications" retracted Ackerman Konietz's paper and the University of Cologne announced that all research related to his project would be added to an open-source library, Robert Rein, a mathematical professor at Princeton University, posted a very serious question on Facebook.

"I believe not all of Ackerman Konietz's paper is plagiarized, and the research records released by the University of Cologne in the open-source library can prove it. So, how many other instances of similar watermarking do you think there are in the paper by Li Jiangao and Qiao Ze?"

This is a big shot in the mathematical world who has once won the Fields Medal.

Although this luminary was not seen in the comment section during the Facebook clash between Sumant and Ackerman, the mere fact that he suddenly raised this question shows he had been watching the entire battle closely.

Of course, the focus of interest is not here and not even whether Ackerman Konietz's paper was entirely plagiarized, but rather the second part of the question.

From a probabilistic standpoint, if Ackerman had only used parts of the content and just happened to hit the secretly placed watermark, the chances are exceedingly slim. According to a content comparison of the two papers, the probability should be less than ten percent.

Could someone be that unlucky?

So how many of these hidden watermarks are there still?

It's quite astonishing; after Robert Rein posted on Facebook, the downloads for the paper on the "Duke Mathematical Journal" electronic edition web page started to skyrocket.

Mathematicians around the world, who all seemed very busy on regular days, suddenly found themselves with synchronised free time and joined the game of finding watermarks.

The comment section on Robert Rein's Facebook also started to liven up.

Some students even complained on Facebook that their professors had assigned them the task of finding all the watermarks in the paper.

This is the kind of heat that could be hitched a ride on.

Looking for watermarks would necessitate a thorough read of the paper, right?

After reading the paper, one would surely have some impression of it, right?

So the next time someone needs to research in the same area, they would definitely remember this paper first when making citations, right?

The paper might even spark a lot of people's interest, and who knows, they might throw themselves into research in this field in the future, right?

After all, artificial intelligence is a hugely popular field right now.

So the paper Li Jiangao and Qiao Ze submitted becomes very important at this moment.

If they could publish it before the buzz dies down, everyone could also look for watermarks in this new paper.

A brand-new paper, with no hints at all, would be more challenging.

Therefore, the "SIAM Review" journal is even more eager to get this new paper published quickly than the research group at Xilin University.

But the reviewer had not yet given any feedback and even ignored the emails that urged a response.

When the pressure came back onto Thomson, the editor didn't bother to maintain any proprieties and directly picked up the phone.

"Professor Lucas, how are you doing with the review of the paper I sent you three days ago?"

"Sent three days ago? Isn't that still early?"

"You haven't checked your email at all? I sent two emails explaining the situation. This time it's a bit special, the chief editor hopes it can be published as soon as possible."

"I know, but review takes time, doesn't it? And you know what? I'm busy with something very interesting. You know about the Huaxia paper's watermarks, right? I'm hoping to be the first to find all of them in that paper. Exposing these youngsters' tricks feels quite fulfilling."

This statement made Thomson somewhat desperate...

Have all these mathematicians lost their marbles?

Gathering the seven Dragon Balls summons a dragon, but what could one possibly do by finding all the watermarks in the paper? How foolish is that?

"I... Alright, Professor Lucas, if you could promptly finish reviewing that paper and give a favorable opinion, I'll tell you a secret that's definitely more interesting than unveiling all the watermarks in that paper. After all, the location of one of the watermarks in that paper has nearly been made public."

"Oh? Thomson, this doesn't seem like your style. What kind of incredible secret could you know?"

"I can give you a hint but definitely won't spell it out. Now, if you would open up that paper and take a closer look..."

"Alright, but if you're lying to me... Hmm... download complete... let me first look at the abstract... huh, it's about the influence of Group Theory on self-supervising framework structures? They're trying to build such models and they succeeded?

My God, Thomson, don't tell me, your secret is that this is also a paper by those two from Huaxia!"

"No, Professor Lucas, I did not say anything, so could you please focus on this draft now and review it, okay?"

"Fine, fine, let's make a bet, I guess this paper also has their watermarks."

"Can I say it's those damn watermarks? Shouldn't we focus more on the academic substance?"

"Haha, alright, Thomson, I got it, I'll review it promptly. Thanks for the secret, I owe you one. Goodbye!"

After hanging up, Thomson could only feel a headache, but he emotionlessly dialed another number.

"HI..."

...