Translator: Dreamscribe
Sri stopped in his tracks before entering the dormitory.
"Haah...."
A sigh escaped him.
There was a na that had refused to leave his mind all day.
'Yu Seo-ha.'
A celebrity that everyone at MIT knew.
When he recalled that the person he had been talking with for an entire month was soone like that, his chest burned hot.
But he quickly shook his head.
'No. I have to think about my family.'
Sri's hotown was Kumbakonam, nestled in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India.
A place where palm trees lined the narrow alleys in dense rows, where the morning air filled with the scent of chai mingling with the sound of bells ringing from the temples.
When rain fell, the dirt roads turned to mud in an instant, and in the sunny season, everything on the ground baked under scorching heat.
Kumbakonam was the city where Ramanujan had spent his childhood, a sacred ground of Indian mathematics.
In the Tamil Nadu region, Ramanujan held a status close to that of a saint.
His photograph hung in school hallways, temples, even grocery stores.
When exam season ca, students would clasp their hands in prayer before his picture and make wishes. Even teachers would often say to their students:
"May Ramanujan's blessing be upon you."
Ramanujan was born into a family of poverty.
He received almost no formal education, yet left an indelible mark on the history of world mathematics. This narrative carried imnsely powerful symbolism in the Kumbakonam region.
'Even if you're poor, if you're good at math, you can succeed.'
Of course, the prospect of earning the world's respect was also a powerful motivator.
His birthday (December 22nd) was designated as "National Mathematics Day of India", and teachers would share anecdotes about him in every class.
Kumbakonam was not an economically prosperous city.
But the story of Ramanujan, who overca poverty and rose to the very pinnacle of the world, had beco a deep source of comfort and pride for the local people.
That was why, in this region, when a child showed talent in mathematics, people would never put them to work no matter how dire the circumstances.
Just as Sri's parents had done.
"Sri, don't worry about anything else. Just study."
The reason they had placed their hopes on Sri was that he was a born genius.
"I heard Srinivasa placed in the top 100 on the national exam (NSTSE * National Science Talent Search Examination) again? And he's ranked first in math alone?"
The number of test-takers in India numbered in the tens of millions.
Sri stood head and shoulders above them all.
His parents took on debt to buy him books, even as they struggled to make ends et.
That was why he could not help but agonize deeply when applying to IIT (Indian Institute of Technology).
'Is it really okay for to keep studying math?'
Math was a joy.
He wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ramanujan, whom he admired beyond asure, and pursue the search for truth. But wouldn't that be a betrayal of the family who had sacrificed everything for him?
Engineering was stable.
Just graduating would be enough to lift his family out of poverty.
It was only natural that Sri was accepted into IIT Bombay, which selected a re 1,300 students from across the nation.
Though his major was not mathematics.
IIT's curriculum was notorious worldwide.
India's brightest minds gathered in one place to compete. If you fell behind in even a single subject, you were out.
In his spare ti, he attended math lectures. Even buried under engineering assignnts, his heart still yearned for mathematics, like a lingering attachnt he could not sever.
Then one day, shocking news reached his ears.
"Hey, did you hear? The Four Color Theorem's been solved! Not with computer calculations, but in a completely new way!"
"I saw that too. They said it was a thirteen-year-old kid?"
Sri imdiately tracked down the paper and read it.
"What in the world...."
A novel approach that relied on none of the existing thods.
Anyone who knew mathematics would recognize it for what it was.
'So this is what a true genius looks like.'
He himself had heard more than a few tis that he was the reincarnation of Ramanujan, on account of his na and his origins.
But what a laughable notion. He scoffed at it.
Heaven-sent talent could not possibly be sothing so trivial.
And yet now, that sa person's hands were trembling.
'An insight as if watching Ramanujan himself. Did God lend a hand, even briefly?'
The mont he saw the "Q.E.D." on the last page, he could hold back no longer and buried his face in his desk.
Hot tears stread down.
The overwhelming emotion of witnessing a perfect proof, and at the sa ti, a wretchedness surging up from deep within. A torrent of conflicting feelings raged and shook Sri to his very core.
"Sob... sob...."
At last, he was able to cleanly let go of his lingering attachnt to mathematics.
Click.
Sri stared at the monitor screen.
An email from MIT offering a full scholarship and a research assistant position after graduating from IIT.
A master's degree was essential for engineering anyway. In that case, going to Arica would be the better choice.
Without a mont's hesitation, he sent a reply accepting the offer.
That had been two years ago.
'I was sure I had given it up....'
He looked back on the past month.
Four in the morning. Sri could not sleep. A hint soone had left behind refused to leave his mind.
After thinking for a long while, an idea suddenly struck him.
"Ah! So that's what it ant!"
A spark fired in his head.
He imdiately dashed out of the dormitory and scrawled equations across the chalkboard like a man possessed.
On the way back after filling every inch of the board, he jumped for joy like a child.
It was a happiness he had forgotten for so long, a swelling in his chest, a fullness that words could not describe.
But a letter from ho pulled him back to reality.
News that his mother was ill. He needed to bring his family to Arica, if only so she could receive treatnt.
"I never would have guessed it was Yu Seo-ha...."
The person who had given him help so generously over the course of more than a month.
Sri had assud he was one of the math departnt professors.
'He really is different.'
God had surely granted him sothing special.
Thanks to Seo-ha, Sri had been able to sever the stubborn remnants of his attachnt to mathematics.
But now, the one shaking his heart was also Seo-ha.
"Ha-hah!"
An irony that was almost like a joke.
Laughter spilled out.
Sri shook his head back and forth and began polishing the report due next week.
* * *
The Mathematics Departnt Dean's Office.
Whitman offered Seo-ha a carefully brewed cup of chamomile tea.
"Have so."
"Thank you."
A crisp aroma rose gently.
Seo-ha bowed his head politely and took the teacup with both hands.
"So, what research have you been working on lately?"
Since the colloquium, Whitman had been regularly calling Seo-ha in for conversations.
Professors, of course, held etings with students, but Seo-ha's case was different.
'I am the dean, after all. I should at least keep up with what's going on.'
In less than a year, Seo-ha had produced an astonishing body of research.
Three solo papers published in international journals alone.
Each one powerful enough to shake the landscape of the academic world in terms of significance and impact.
"Oh! Sothing fun happened recently!"
Seo-ha bead as he recounted the episode from Building 33.
Whitman listened with the gentle eyes of a grandfather hearing his grandson's story.
"And then, you know what that person did...."
Seo-ha, in high spirits, gestured animatedly as he explained everything that had happened over the past month.
"Could I take a look at those for a mont?"
"Of course!"
Seo-ha pulled a bundle of papers from his bag.
Whitman adjusted his glasses and slowly read through the equations.
After a mont, he let out a sound that was almost a lant.
"Good heavens, you've gone and tackled another unsolved problem...."
By so mystery, Seo-ha attracted unsolved problems.
It was as if he possessed so invisible, imnse gravitational pull that drew the obstacles of mathematics into one place.
"It turned out to be incredibly fun as I kept working on it. It would've been even better if I could have done it together with Sri, though. That part's a bit of a sha."
"That student, the one in the chanical engineering master's program, you said?"
"Yes."
Whitman seed to be thinking about sothing.
"That fellow has the wrong idea about sothing."
"About what?"
Seo-ha's eyes went wide.
Whitman always liked this unspoiled innocence in undergraduates.
"This research...."
When the lengthy explanation ended, Seo-ha hurried out of the office.
"Good."
Whitman sipped his tea in the empty office.
Srinivasa Krishnan.
A student whom the chanical engineering departnt had spent a long ti recruiting, and another talent the school had its eye on.
There was no shortage of students who gave up mathematics for financial reasons.
The more brilliant the student, the quicker they noticed it.
No matter how much a single math paper shook the world, it was always the applied sciences, engineering, computer science, biotech, that turned patents into money.
Whitman had been thinking that what Seo-ha had received was far too little compared to what he had achieved.
'It's always been that way. In my day, the more talent you had, the poorer you got.'
He set down his teacup and smiled.
An era in which even a mathematician could beco astronomically wealthy. The re thought of it made his heart tremble.
* * *
"Sri!"
Soone called out to him loudly.
It had never happened before, so Sri was startled.
"Seo-ha?"
A bright face, different from yesterday's.
He was walking straight toward Sri.
"Sri! Would you like to research Minimal Energy Surfaces with ?"
"What?"
His mind went blank at the sudden proposal.
But sowhere deep in his chest, there was a part of him cheering.
'Yu Seo-ha ca looking for .'
Trying to form words of refusal felt like his heart was being torn apart.
"Like I said, I'm...."
"Professor Whitman said this research could make serious money! But he said that after building the mathematical model, we'd absolutely need to file a patent on the engineering side...."
"Huh?"
It was hard to follow what he was saying.
"So wouldn't you help , Sri? He said if it works out, it could be a patent worth millions, even tens of millions of dollars a year."
Sri was montarily speechless.
Millions, even tens of millions of dollars?
Every year?
The sheer unreality of the figure left him dazed.
But if it were really true....
"Wh-what do you an by that?"
His voice trembled.
Seo-ha sat down and relayed everything Whitman had told him.
Logistics, semiconductors, energy, defense, aerospace, space....
If the Minimal Energy Surface could be realized, there would be no field in engineering where it was not used.
"What's even more amazing is that this patent doesn't need a long wait before generating revenue. The profit structure kicks in right away. So you could focus on research without worrying, couldn't you, Sri?"
"I need to talk to my advisor. I ca here on a scholarship, and I'm not sure yet whether I'm even allowed to do this."
A full scholarship and a stipend as a research assistant.
That was the contract Sri had signed when he ca to MIT. Most of his ager salary was being sent back ho.
"Then shall we go together right now?"
"What? Uh... huh?"
Swept up by Seo-ha's montum, Sri found himself walking toward the dean's office.
Knock knock.
"Co in."
Two people were already waiting inside: Thomas, the dean of chanical engineering, and Whitman.
The mont Thomas saw Sri, he grabbed his hand firmly.
"I knew I had an eye for talent!"
"Pardon?"
"Minimal Energy Surface, you say? chanical engineering can't be left out of research like this. Whatever you need, just say the word!"
It was hard to grasp how things had unfolded this way.
But one thing was certain: he was being told he could do mathematical research alongside Seo-ha, and without any worries about the future.
Sothing hot stirred inside him.
"Well then, we'll start the research right away!"
Seo-ha grabbed Sri and whooshed right out of the room.
"...."
The two n stood in silence for a while. Then Whitman shrugged.
"Didn't I tell you?"
"Is it really possible? Honestly, if it weren't Seo-ha, I would have dismissed it as bluster."
Thomas's expression turned serious.
"I don't know either. An unsolved problem isn't called unsolved for nothing. But...."
"He solved Smale's Problems."
"Seo-ha only pursues the research he wants to do. Thanks to that, the physics departnt is having the ti of their lives right now."
"To be honest, I was a bit envious.
Papers have been pouring out in Quantum Chaos Theory because of Seo-ha. The Boston Transit Authority benefited enormously too, and MIT's Departnt of Urban Planning has been building multiple models based on Seo-ha's papers and algorithms."
Seo-ha was causing a seismic shift across the university.
Yet the chanical engineering departnt had been thoroughly left out of this wave.
"Let's wait and see how it goes. And as for the patent share, as I ntioned...."
"Yes, I won't argue that for a second."
Patents generated on campus were split three ways: the university, the departnt, and the inventor.
That was the reason Thomas was grinning from ear to ear.
"It was a fine proposal. The research with Seo-ha will be a great stimulus for Sri too. He's a truly important talent for our departnt."
"Indeed!"
Whitman chuckled softly.
'If the student says he wants to co, we can hardly stop him.'
Could soone with that level of talent really go back to engineering after experiencing research with Seo-ha?
Whitman decided to keep one opening in next year's doctoral cohort.
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