Chapter 38: I Am Your Father

"Everyone, we have covered most of the fundamentals. Moving forward, we will begin to tackle some truly challenging material. That concludes today's lecture. Feel free to bring up any questions you may have."

Having entrusted the recording of *Views from the Wall* entirely to Meng Xiaodong—and insisting on paying her despite her repeated refusals—Lin Ran returned the next day to continue teaching his students at the University of Hong Kong.

The massive lecture hall, once full, was now down to eight students; six more had dropped out recently. Of the remaining eight, those who persisted did so either because they possessed genuine mathematical talent or because they hoped to gain something from Lin Ran. Among them were students from China, such as Chen Jingrun, as well as those representing England.

Beyond these motivations, some hoped to pursue advanced studies in mathematics. They aimed to complete the seminar over the summer, hoping that by showing perseverance, they might earn Lin Ran’s favor and be accepted into his doctoral program, or at least secure a letter of recommendation from him. In the "mathematical desert" that was Hong Kong at the time, a recommendation from Lin Ran meant the ability to apply to the world’s top universities.

Scions of Hong Kong’s elite, like Li Shaoyuan, naturally did not care for Lin Ran’s recommendation; they could easily ask Justices of the Peace or even British nobles to write them. But for students from middle-class or merely well-off families, Lin Ran was the most valuable connection they could possibly reach. Furthermore, Lin Ran’s recommendations were not limited to mathematics; they were equally potent for hot fields like economics and finance.

Perhaps only Chen Jingrun was truly interested in the mathematics itself. However, after the turmoil of the past few days, even Chen was somewhat distracted.

Late last night, while he was fast asleep in his tin-roofed shack in Sham Shui Po, a knocking sounded at the door:

"Open up! It’s your father!"

For a moment, Chen was disoriented, thinking his lack of rest had finally caused a mental breakdown. Since when did he have a father here? But seconds later, he realized the truth. Given the voice outside, the most unlikely scenario from his training had just occurred.

Chen hurried to open the door. As expected, standing there was Section Chief Zhang, who looked a decade older than he had back in Guangzhou.

"Father..." Chen’s voice was dry. "Why are you here?"

"I had no choice. I had to come to work. It’s hard to find jobs in To Kwa Wan; the factory closed down and they kicked me out of the dormitory. I walked here overnight. I’ll starve if I don’t work." Zhang signaled for them to go inside.

The transmission of *Views from the Wall* back to the mainland, combined with the news that Lin Ran would broadcast the song during an interview on Radio Television Hong Kong, had made the leadership across the border realize that persuading Lin Ran to return was nearly impossible. Consequently, their entire strategy had shifted. Section Chief Zhang’s arrival was the most direct manifestation of this change.

On the surface, they talked about finding work. "Compared to To Kwa Wan, Sham Shui Po does have many more plastic and textile factories. They’ve been hiring recently. Father, you could try your luck there..."

In reality, they were communicating with pen and paper:

"Your mission has changed. You need to see if you can remain by Lin’s side and become his student. If not, try to settle for the next best thing: get into the Columbia University mathematics department for your doctorate."

"And if that doesn’t work?"

"Then wait for further opportunities. Additionally, you must continue to crack Lin’s mathematical models. Here are some materials related to missiles; they might be helpful. Study them quickly and destroy them once you are done. From now on, you only need to hand over the materials you possess to me."

Chen Jingrun, who had expected to return home after his training in Hong Kong, found not only his mission changed but his entire life turned upside down. Having stayed up all night studying the documents and suddenly acquiring a "father," it was a testament to his endurance that he didn't collapse at his desk and could still barely keep up with Lin Ran’s lecture.

"Professor Lin, regarding how harmonic analysis relates to..."

"Professor Lin, about the more rigorous spectral conditions for the densely defined closed operators you mentioned here..."

Chen persisted until the very end, finally securing his only opportunity to speak directly to Lin Ran in private since the seminar began.

"What you’re asking about is the definition of holomorphic semigroups. This is truly cutting-edge; just recently, Langlands systematically analyzed their generation and analytic properties in his paper titled *Some Holomorphic Semi-Groups*. You can think of a holomorphic semigroup as a mapping from an open region of the complex plane into a Banach algebra, satisfying the two properties of the semigroup property and holomorphicity..." Lin Ran explained.

Given the depth of such content, it was no wonder the other students had left; they wouldn't have understood it anyway. As for the English students, it would have seemed too conspicuous for one to stay behind alone.

Near the end, seeing that Lin Ran made no move to initiate further discussion, Chen assumed their interaction would remain strictly academic. But the meeting was far from over. Lin Ran pulled a thick stack of journals from his briefcase.

"Dehui, these are the *Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics* published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in America over the last five years. Take them with you; I think they will help you understand these concepts better."

This was the real crux of the day. As Lin Ran handed over the journals, Chen felt his hands sink from the weight. Then, he heard the Professor lean in and whisper fiercely into his ear:

"Remember! By combining these three papers—56-6-12, 58-10-3, and 59-1-3—you can develop the Monte Carlo method yourselves!"

Lin Ran then returned to his normal posture, sat before the podium, and asked with a smile, "Any other questions, Dehui?"

Chen, dazed, replied, "No, none." His brain was entirely occupied with memorizing what he had just been told.

Indeed, Lin Ran had not come to Hong Kong merely to solve a problem or two. He wanted to leave a spark for China, even if it was just a tiny one. Soon, academic exchanges between China and the outside world would come to a complete standstill. This stagnation would not only affect personal exchanges but also the flow of academic journals. France would forbid overseas Chinese from shipping *Nature* or *Science* to China. In 1963 alone, Hong Kong would block over 13,000 academic journals from entering the mainland. During the first five years of the 1960s, 42 overseas Chinese would be prosecuted for transmitting technical information to the East.

That very year, the Soviet Union would stop supplying the *International Science Abstracts*, and China would lose its last systematic path to accessing cutting-edge Western scientific content. While these external factors made access difficult, internal factors were what truly caused the country to stop seeking it out. That same year, the Foreign Language Translation Bureau would be dissolved, leaving only seven people responsible for translating English scientific and technical literature.

Therefore, Lin Ran wanted to do whatever he could to leave behind at least a small spark.