Chapter 55
At Shiyueju, all the members of the Zero Gravity Club are having a celebration banquet. After resting for a while, everyone looks much better, so Xu Dongyang organized a team-building activity before the final exams.
Although I've been eating takeout for several months, this is my first time visiting Shiyueju.
Manager Shi arranged a large private room for them, where everyone explored and looked around. Since there were no outsiders present, they all displayed their true colors as ordinary people, marveling at the various furnishings and assessing the cost.
Lin Lang had already taken hundreds of photos and uploaded them to the family group chat, and was currently video calling his parents. Seeing this, the others also took out their phones to take pictures as well.
Ji Zhixing followed suit and took out his phone. Seeing a new message notification in his email, he casually opened it. When he saw the rejection message, his heart sank.
He hoped his paper would go directly to the ept, and then be published in the journal *New Advances in Mathematics* the following month. However, he also knew that a paper on the Navier-Stokes equations, the Millennium Problem, would certainly face rigorous scrutiny from the editors.
He had anticipated that his paper might undergo a series of minor or major revisions before it was accepted. However, he never expected to receive a rejection without any room for negotiation!
The rejection comments stated that "the paper lacks novelty," which left Ji Zhixing even more perplexed. He dared to say that he had read all the publicly published papers and books related to the Navier-Stokes equations and absolutely did not find any derivation ideas identical to his paper.
If the rejection was due to reasons such as "incorrect analytical methods" or "insufficiently rigorous computational logic," that would be one thing, but the evaluation of "lack of novelty" is completely unacceptable to him!
The waiters at Shiyueju had already started bringing the dishes into the private room. Ji Zhixing composed himself and decided to eat first, because he needed to be full to have the energy to solve the problem!
The celebration banquet ended quite late, and Ji Zhixing didn't find Professor Yan until the next day to tell him that his paper had been rejected.
Yan Anjin hadn't expected this outcome. She took the paper back and reviewed it carefully for several more days before finally stating unequivocally, "The rejection was absolutely not due to the paper itself!"
Ji Zhixing has been thinking about the reasons for the rejection these past few days. He thinks the most likely reason is that the derivation process he described in the paper was too brief and too disjointed, so much so that the academic editor thought his logic was not rigorous enough.
Professor Yan reviewed his draft and spent several days reading the paper. Meanwhile, the academic editors of top journals are very busy and may not have time to spend much time thinking about a single paper, potentially leading to misjudgments.
Yan Anjin also thought of this point, and frowned as she added, "Besides that, there is another possibility: that they encountered academic discrimination."
Academic discrimination generally stems from arrogance, prejudice, and stereotypes. Discrimination can be based on gender, age, education level, occupation, and even nationality.
For example, the world-renowned top academic journal Angewandte Chemie once published an article that discriminated against women and ethnic minorities and disparaged the Chinese academic community.
Of course, this blatant discrimination has drawn fierce criticism from the global academic community. In fact, 16 of the journal's 44 editorial board members resigned in anger, including three Nobel laureates.
After sparking public outrage, the editor-in-chief of Angewandte Chemie immediately withdrew the paper and issued an emergency statement saying that the paper did not represent the journal's values.
However, the fact that such an article, which so openly expresses discriminatory views, was able to pass through the editorial and peer review processes of a top academic journal and be published proves that there is no doubt that covert discrimination exists in academia.
Ji Zhixing checked his email to see the submission and rejection times; only five days had passed. Subtracting the waiting time and the time spent by the technical editors quality-checking the paper's format, the academic editor who reviewed his paper was probably… quite hasty in giving their rejection comments.
The thought of this possibility pierced Ji Zhixing's heart like a sharp stab, followed by a surge of resentment that transformed into a fighting spirit! "I refuse to believe this paper can't be published!"
Just like many people who shop online, they may initially have a "neither here nor there" attitude towards a certain item, but once they find that the item is no longer available, they will suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to buy it.
Ji Zhixing's mindset at this moment was roughly the same. Originally, he had been humbly waiting for the academic editors and external reviewers to correct his work, but now, after being rejected so decisively, he was instead filled with arrogance—so what if I haven't graduated from university yet? So what if I'm from China? I'm going to make everyone admit defeat with this paper!
Yan Anjin noticed Ji Zhixing's frustration and knew that she couldn't add fuel to the fire at this time, so she comforted him, "I'll help you think of a way to avoid academic discrimination. You can also think about how to revise the paper to be more rigorous."
He was well aware that the potential "lack of rigor" in Ji Zhixing's paper was entirely due to space constraints, but this was an objective limitation that was almost unavoidable. Therefore, Ji Zhixing could only continue to refine and improve the derivation process so that academic editors could understand the value of the paper in a relatively short period of time.
However, Ji Zhixing had a new idea: "Teacher, do you think it would be feasible if I broke down the content of the paper and submitted it separately?"
Compressing the 379-page derivation process into just 5 pages, no matter how much refinement is made, the loss of most details is inevitable, and many of these details are even crucial. However, he could only choose to retain the more critical details.
However, just as Riemann left the statement "proof omitted" in his paper "On the number of primes less than a given value" because he believed that the proof of this property was a part that could be deleted, in fact, since his untimely death, no mathematician has been able to fully derive all the contents contained in that statement "proof omitted".
Therefore, even if he carefully considers and refines the derivation process again, he may still face logical questions from academic editors regarding the lack of details in certain parts of the paper.
To circumvent this constraint, Ji Zhixing thought he could break down the overly rich content into several papers.
Yan Anjin nodded affirmatively: "That's good too, it will also make it easier for academic editors and external reviewers to understand."
After several days of deliberation, Ji Zhixing decided to break down the thesis into seven topics:
The connection between the existence of solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations and physical reality
"Prove the smoothness of the solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations"
"A Calculation Method and Verification for the General Properties of Physical Vortex Turbulence Using the Navier-Stokes Equations"
"Instantaneous simulation of the two-dimensional case of the Navier-Stokes equations"
Construction of a three-dimensional global smooth solution for the Navier-Stokes equations
"Research on Exact Solutions and Applications of the Navier-Stokes Equations at the Microscopic Level"
"Research on the General Solution Algorithm of the Navier-Stokes Equation"
These seven topics have different focuses: some emphasize physical practice, while others emphasize mathematical thinking. You can choose to submit your work to journals specializing in physics or mathematics, respectively.
After deciding on the topic, Ji Zhixing wrote one article a day, and finished writing them all in just 7 days—which was much easier than compressing the derivation process!
After submitting the paper to Professor Yan for guidance, the teacher and student worked together to select suitable journals for submission. They finally chose "Reviews of Modern Physics" and "Physics Reports," both top journals in the field of physics with impact factors of over 20.
In addition, for mathematics, the selection naturally involves three of the four top mathematics journals, excluding *Recent Advances in Mathematics*. This is supplemented by the general non-humanities science journals *Science* and *Nature*, making a total of seven journals.
In terms of influence, *Science* and *Nature* are actually the most influential; Ji Zhixing's first paper was published in *Science*. The reason he didn't choose *Science* or *Nature* for his first submission was because he felt that papers related to the Navier-Stokes equations were more suitable for publication in specialized mathematics journals.
However, reality has shown that editors of specialized mathematics journals are not necessarily better at recognizing talent.
Yan Anjin carefully reviewed the journal list again before saying, "Let's go with these seven. Once one of the journals publishes your manuscript, you can submit the first draft to that one." This is the safest approach.
After the journals were selected, Ji Zhixing breathed a sigh of relief, but looking at the long list of English articles, he felt a heavy weight in his heart.
While China has no shortage of scientific journals, currently, researchers, universities, and research institutions all prioritize submitting their valuable papers to international journals. It's like choosing between Yenching University and Harvard; 99% of people would choose Harvard.
This is influenced by real-world factors.
Based on the existing rules and evaluation indicators, publishing papers in foreign journals does indeed have advantages in various aspects such as job applications, ratings, awards, promotions, project approvals, and funding applications, because the quality of papers is calculated through impact factors.
For example, Nature's impact factor is now 69.504, and among its 51 sub-journals, the one with the lowest impact factor is 8.089; among the four top mathematics journals, the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, which has the lowest impact factor, is 4.405.
In China, the best mathematics journal, *Chinese Science: Mathematics*, has an impact factor of only 0.956. This objective gap forces domestic researchers to seek solutions from afar, and Ji Zhixing is now doing just that.
The teacher and student remained silent for a long time. Finally, Yan Anjin patted Ji Zhixing on the shoulder and encouraged him, "Keep trying!"
Although Professor Yan didn't explicitly say what efforts to make, Ji Zhixing understood what he meant. Simply lamenting the objectively existing gap is futile; to change this bitter reality, generations must put in effort and put in practice.
Ji Zhixing slowly tidied up the papers, his gaze falling on the first draft stacked on top. This paper focused on proving the existence and smoothness of solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations and finding their general solution. If it had been successfully published in "New Advances in Mathematics," it would have caused a sensation in the entire academic community, and the influence of "New Advances in Mathematics" would have been further enhanced.
He suddenly had an idea: "Teacher, what do you think about me submitting this paper to 'Chinese Science'?"
Yan Anjin was taken aback, then his face broke into the brightest smile of his life: "Very good! Very good!"
He didn't mention impact factors or academic reputation; to bring those up with Ji Zhixing now would be an insult to his passionate heart.
Originally, the first draft was supposed to be submitted later, but now there's no need to wait. Ji Zhixing opened the websites of various journals and submitted all seven individual papers and one comprehensive paper at once.
Having completed a major task, Ji Zhixing felt a weight lifted from his shoulders. He bid farewell to Professor Yan and planned to return to his dormitory to rest, as writing seven papers in a row these past few days had indeed taken a toll on his mental energy.
After watching Ji Zhixing leave, Yan Anjin picked up her phone, opened her contacts, hesitated for a long time among several names, and finally chose a number to dial.
When Gao Xiao saw the caller ID on his phone, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He quickly grabbed a student, pointed at the phone, and asked, "How do you pronounce these two characters?"
The student looked at it, puzzled, and read aloud, "King Yama?"
Gao Xiao exclaimed, "My God! I really didn't see that wrong!"
He tossed the student aside after finishing his task and quickly answered the phone: "My God! It's raining blood! The sun has risen in the west! You actually called me on your own initiative one day!"
Since Lao Yan left Beijing, it has been all been him who took the initiative to contact me. Even during the Chinese New Year, he never sent a New Year's greeting or anything like that.
Yan Anjin held the phone far away from his ear. If Gao Xiao had been this noisy on the phone normally, he would have hung up long ago. But now that he needed Gao Xiao's help, he had no choice but to endure it for a moment.
Seeing that the phone was still connected further confirmed Gao Xiao's suspicions. Knowing Lao Yan as he did, Lao Yan's call wasn't a sudden pang of conscience or a sign that he'd deeply neglected his close friend. There must be some serious problem he needed help with, hence this unusual behavior. Therefore, his loud and boisterous outburst was simply to avoid embarrassing Lao Yan.
He expressed his astonishment at length before patting his chest and saying, "Tell me what you need! Tell me and I'll do it!"
Yan Anjin had never asked anyone for a favor in her life. She opened her mouth, but it took her a while to find her tongue: "I... I would like to ask you to write a letter of recommendation."
He remembered that Gao Xiao had a personal relationship with the editor-in-chief of the "Annals of Mathematics". However, he asked Gao Xiao to write a letter of recommendation not to ask the journal editor to relax the review standards, but simply to hope that Ji Zhixing's paper would receive more attention and not encounter any more inexplicable academic discrimination.
Gao Xiao grabbed the notebook a student next to him was taking notes in, and snatched the pen: "Tell me! I'll write it down right now!"
Gao Xiao's straightforwardness relieved Yan Anjin, and she spoke more smoothly afterward: "My student, Ji Zhixing, solved the Navier-Stokes equation. When he submitted his paper to 'New Advances in Mathematics,' he most likely encountered an irresponsible editor and it was rejected outright."
Upon hearing this, Gao Xiao almost dropped his pen. Even if he sincerely wanted to help, this wasn't something he could easily agree to. It wasn't that he didn't trust Lao Yan, but what were the chances of a student—he remembered he was only a junior—solving the two-hundred-year-old Millennium Problem, the Navier-Stokes equation?
"Old Yan, have you... have you read his paper? Are you really sure he solved the Navier-Stokes equations?"
"I'm sure!" Yan Anjin answered decisively. "I vouch for his paper with my academic reputation!"
Gao Xiao was speechless for a moment. To some people, risking their academic reputation might just be a joke, but to Lao Yan, it was a serious matter.
Old Yan's academic ethics were almost obsessive. Back then, for the sake of his academic reputation, he even gave up all the fame and fortune that were within his grasp in Beijing and moved to Guangling, where he remained unknown for more than ten years.
If he dares to vouch for his academic reputation, then the story of Ji Zhixing, a junior, solving the Navier-Stokes equations is virtually impossible, unless even Old Yan himself misjudged it. But given his expertise in Navier-Stokes equations, this is almost certainly impossible!
"My God! The academic world is about to be shaken up!" Gao Xiao muttered to himself, then asked, "Which journal does Ji Zhixing want to submit his manuscript to?"
Yan Anjin explained in detail Ji Zhixing's arrangements for the papers, which made Gao Xiao very happy. In his opinion, the seven papers were like seven Calabash Brothers, and the first draft, which was the culmination of all the papers, was like the grandfather.
"Hehehe, this kid's interesting. He's trying to say, 'I'm the ancestor,' right?"
"..." Yan Anjin was speechless for a moment. "That's not what I meant." Ji Zhixing was purely motivated by enthusiasm and wanted to take this opportunity to enhance the academic influence of Chinese journals in the world.
Gao Xiaocai didn't believe it: "Hey, you old fogey! You have no idea what young people are thinking. That's definitely what you mean!"
Yan Anjin didn't intend to get entangled in these trivial matters with him, and after urging him to finish writing the recommendation letter as soon as possible, she hung up the phone.
Gao Xiao quickly called out, "Hey, hey, wait! Are you planning to get someone else to write recommendation letters for the editors-in-chief of other journals later?"
“Mm,” Yan Anjin replied.
Gao Xiao knew that with Lao Yan's personality, it would be too much trouble for him to ask each person for favors one by one, so he simply took care of it himself.
"Don't bother, I'll find someone myself, they'll definitely take care of everything for you!"
"..." Yan Anjin held her phone for a long time, speechless, before finally saying, "Thank you!"
Gao Xiao listened to the breathing coming from the receiver and chuckled, "Aren't you touched...?"
Beep—beep—beep—the call ended.
Gao Xiao roared angrily, "You old bastard, you use me and then throw me away! Just you wait, I won't rest until I've poached your precious student!"
Seeing him jumping up and down, the students jeered, "Teacher, maybe you shouldn't help him at all."
"You know nothing!" Gao Xiao put away his phone. If it weren't for Lao Yan risking his life to save him back then, he would have been dead long ago. Therefore, Lao Yan rarely asked him for help in decades, so he would help if there were conditions, and if there weren't, he would create the conditions to help!
However, this fellow is still incredibly despicable! When will Ji Zhixing finally come to his senses and join his ranks?
Editorial Department of the Yearbook of Mathematics
Herbert received a new email in his private inbox. When he opened it, he found it was a letter of recommendation from his old friend Gao Xiao.
Herbert was witty, and Gao Xiao was humorous. They hit it off at an academic conference and have been friends for over a decade.
Of course, Herbert would not show favoritism by publishing a paper that lacked sufficient academic value in the Annals of Mathematics, but his old friend's recommendation was enough to make him pay more attention to the paper mentioned in the letter.
He opened his journal email, entered the name mentioned in the recommendation letter, and started searching. Sure enough, he found a paper that had been submitted that morning.
This paper is still in the queue; even the technical editors haven't reviewed its format yet.
However, since it was a recommendation from an old friend, he decided to take a look at the contents first.
Research on the general solution algorithm of the Navier-Stokes equation
Upon seeing the paper's title, Herbert's heart skipped a beat. After a long pause, he shook his head and exclaimed, "My God! What a grand topic! This student is truly audacious."
He had always known that Chinese students were very talented in mathematics, achieving remarkable results in many international mathematics Olympiads and almost being invincible. However, the brutal selection exams seemed to have exhausted these children's interest in mathematics. As an editor, he rarely received mathematical papers from Chinese students.
However, if the content of this paper is correct, then he may have witnessed the masterpiece that made a mathematical master famous.
Herbert remained focused on nothing else all afternoon. Even after work hours, he was still engrossed in his work, repeatedly deriving the algorithm in the paper.
It wasn't until late at night that Herbert put down his pen, his eyes filled with both exhaustion and fervor: "Incredible! Incredible!"
He couldn't find any logical problems in the paper and was eager to publish it. However, according to the review process of the Annals of Mathematics, he had to send this groundbreaking work to other academic experts for review before they would finally acknowledge its value.
He decided to take the paper to Professor Lewis at Princeton University in person, as only he was qualified to serve as an external reviewer for the paper!
Lewis is a recognized genius. He published his first mathematical paper at the age of 15, graduated with a double bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics at the age of 17, completed his doctorate at the age of 20, and became a professor at Princeton University, the world's center of mathematics, at the age of 24, where he has been for 48 years.
Between the ages of 22 and 28, he won three international awards, including the Fields Medal.
Herbert felt that it was most appropriate for Lewis to witness this historic moment in the Navier-Stokes equations!
"Louis! Louis!" Herbert rang the doorbell for a long time and made several phone calls before finally knocking on the door. "Great, I knew you weren't asleep yet!"
Louis yawned and tightened his robe collar: "I forgive you, Herbert, if you do have something..."
Before Louis could finish speaking, a paper was pressed against his eye.
"A study on the general solution algorithm of the Navier-Stokes equations! I think you'll crawl back to read this paper even if you go to hell!" Herbert still couldn't hide his excitement.
Louis's eyes widened instantly. The general solution to the Navier-Stokes equations? This was the answer every mathematician had been dreaming of!
The fact that Herbert brought this paper to him proves that it had been recognized by the Annals of Mathematics.
The mystery he had been searching for for decades was right before his eyes, and Louis was momentarily incredulous: "You swear! This is not a bad joke!"
Before Herbert could even offer any assurance, he eagerly snatched the paper, ran upstairs, and slammed the study door shut with a loud bang.
Hearing the noise, his family came and knocked on the door: "What happened? Louis, why aren't you resting yet? I remember you have to attend the government awards ceremony tomorrow."
"To hell with the awards ceremony! Don't bother me until the end of the world! No! Even if the world ends, don't bother me!"
He will die with the truth!
Similar incidents have occurred in other locations where the journals are located.
A note from the author:
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