Chapter 245 - 184: I’m Glad You Could Be Honest

Chapter 245: Chapter 184: I’m Glad You Could Be Honest

Chen Lin’s expression was calm as he listened to Xiang Wentian’s question.

In fact, he had long expected someone would ask a similar question one day.

After all, his calculation process, boosted by Little Mathematician, was simply too fluid—unnaturally so.

And so, in a sincere and frank tone, Chen Lin slowly began to answer:

"Elder Xiang, you’re correct."

Without a hint of concealment or evasion, he looked directly into Xiang Wentian’s sharp eyes and continued,

"Before Professor Deligne invited me to perform the live derivation, the results I had prepared were limited to the content of my earlier lecture. As for the complete algorithm that followed, that was indeed derived on the spot."

"However," Chen Lin paused to organize his thoughts, "the moment I picked up the pen, I already had a clear and complete derivation path in my head. So, if I had to describe it, I was really just transcribing the process from my mind onto the whiteboard, exactly as it was."

Although the answer sounded a bit fantastical, it was the closest explanation to the truth that Chen Lin could offer.

After all, the mechanism behind the Little Mathematician title was to automatically generate a complete and flawless solution in his mind whenever he contemplated a mathematical problem.

In a way, this could indeed be understood as ’having a clear process in my head and then just writing it down’.

Xiang Wentian was visibly taken aback by Chen Lin’s surprisingly direct answer.

He hadn’t seemed to expect Chen Lin to admit it so candidly, without resorting to excuses like "a flash of inspiration" or "a genius’s intuition."

After a few seconds of silence, Xiang Wentian suddenly laughed.

His laugh held both appreciation and a touch of sentiment.

"You’re more interesting than I thought."

He nodded slowly, the smile on his face deepening. "Excellent, excellent. I’ve met many clever people in my life, but those who are both brilliant and honest are few and far between."

After speaking, Xiang Wentian took a few more breaths, as if the conversation had cost him a fair bit of energy.

Once his breathing steadied, he continued,

"Now, for my second question."

Xiang Wentian looked at Chen Lin, his smile fading slightly as his tone grew more serious.

"Before I ask, I must first apologize."

Chen Lin was slightly taken aback.

Xiang Wentian continued, "I had someone look into your background. If you find that offensive, I apologize."

Chen Lin immediately shook his head and said calmly, "It’s alright, Elder Xiang. I understand."

And he did understand.

It was only natural for a man of Xiang Wentian’s stature to vet a young stranger’s background before meeting them.

Besides, Academician Liang had already hinted on the phone that this meeting with Xiang Wentian was likely related to his application for the "Ten Thousand Talents Plan."

Under these circumstances, it was perfectly reasonable for them to conduct a background check on him.

Seeing that Chen Lin genuinely didn’t mind, Xiang Wentian nodded in satisfaction.

"Then I’ll be direct."

He looked at Chen Lin and asked slowly,

"I looked into your past math grades. On your college entrance exams, you did well in math, but you were still a fair distance from the top prodigies. Then, during your freshman and sophomore years in the Chinese Language and Literature department, you only took a single required university mathematics course, and your grade was barely passing."

At this, Xiang Wentian paused, his sharp eyes fixed intently on Chen Lin.

"So I’m very curious—when did you acquire the level of mathematical ability you have now?"

Chen Lin was also prepared for this question.

He answered naturally, without any hesitation,

"The first half of this year."

"In the first half of this year, I developed a strong interest in mathematics and began to teach myself."

In a way, this answer wasn’t really a lie.

After all, he had acquired the system in May of this very year.

And if Xiang Wentian had truly investigated him thoroughly, he should be able to verify the truth of this claim through various clues and traces.

Hearing this answer, the smile on Xiang Wentian’s face grew wider.

"Excellent," he nodded, his voice full of approval. "I’m very glad you can be so honest."

He paused, then added, "In fact, I had already deduced that timeframe through various channels before I came. I just wanted to hear it from you yourself."

"After all," Xiang Wentian’s gaze grew profound, "whether someone is willing to tell you the truth and whether the words they speak are true are two different matters."

Chen Lin felt a slight jolt.

He vaguely understood now. This meeting with Xiang Wentian wasn’t just an assessment of his abilities, but also of his character and attitude.

And honesty was clearly one of the qualities Xiang Wentian valued most.

After a brief silence, Xiang Wentian spoke again.

"One last question."

He looked at Chen Lin and asked slowly,

"Your company—aside from making money, do you have any long-term goals for it?"

Chen Lin mulled it over for a moment before beginning to answer the question seriously.

"I do."

He first briefly outlined his initial plan:

"Initially, my idea was simple: first, make money and accumulate capital through the consulting firm. Once I’ve saved enough, I’ll enter the artificial intelligence industry and train a brand-new AI model myself—one that far surpasses the performance of all current mainstream large-scale models."

Hearing this, Xiang Wentian raised his eyebrows slightly, seemingly surprised by this goal.

"So, that’s why you chose your previous direction of mathematical research?"

Chen Lin nodded.

"Exactly."

He went on,

"Furthermore, I’ve also thought about how I’d use the new model after training it."

"Its main purpose would be to help me abstract the mathematical bottlenecks from various scientific research problems into purely mathematical ones, which I can then solve with my own abilities."

At this, Chen Lin’s tone took on a hint of resignation.

"Elder Xiang, I’m well aware that I lack a background in science and engineering. For problems that aren’t purely mathematical, I simply can’t grasp their significance in terms of Physics or engineering."

"Therefore, the current scope of application for my mathematical abilities is actually quite narrow."

"Take my company’s projects, for example. The problems our clients bring us are often complex engineering issues steeped in a great deal of specialized context.

I have to rely on the few employees in my company who specialize in applied mathematics to help me abstract the problem into a purely mathematical form before I can solve it."

"That process is both time-consuming and prone to information loss."