Chapter 136: Chapter 97: The Ultimate Slash, Feathers Everywhere_2
So... fuck!
Feeling utterly confused, Li Jian Gao simply sent two words in the group chat: "Watermark."
Those two words immediately blew up the group.
"Watermark? What watermark?"
"Jian Gao, don't stop halfway! You're going to keep me up all night like this."
"Exactly! Hurry up and tell us what's really going on. Did Ackerman Konietz really plagiarize Qiao Ze's paper?"
...
Watching countless questions @him in the group, Li Jian Gao took a deep breath and then sent screenshots of these conversations directly to Qiao Ze, while briefly describing the showdown happening in the academic world.
He quickly received a reply: "Oh."
Seeing this "Oh," Li Jian Gao still felt a bit uncomfortable.
The entire mathematical community was about to explode, how could this kid remain so calm?
Couldn't he at least show a little more emotion?
"Qiao Ze, how do you think we should deal with this?"
"It's fine."
"What do you mean it's fine?"
"Fine to tell them about the watermark. Forget about the rest."
"This... I'll head to the studio later."
"Good!"
...
After looking at the brief exchange with Qiao Ze, Li Jian Gao couldn't be bothered to say anything more.
He simply edited what he had demonstrated to the editors of "Duke Mathematical Journal" the day before and then sent it directly to the small group.
"This is the watermark, created by Qiao Ze himself. Sumant must have decoded it using this method, too."
The group fell silent for a moment.
Then suddenly, it exploded.
"I... I'm seeing something new every day, watermarks in a paper?"
"Could a normal person even come up with this method?"
"No, how did he manage to integrate this system of equations perfectly into the proof process?"
"Jian Gao, could you please ask Qiao Ze if he's taking on new students?"
"So say it clearly, did the paper plagiarize your entire work? Or just happen to copy this process?"
"Jian Gao, don't leave, how about you drop Qiao Ze's WeChat contact in the chat!"
Li Jian Gao didn't reply to any of the messages in the small group.
He couldn't wait to go to the research team and see for himself.
...
In Huaxia, Capital, at Yanbei University, on the second floor of the small conference room of the International Mathematics Research Institute.
A few top-tier professors were so engaged that they couldn't care less about their seeds and peanuts.
Indeed, the situation was too baffling to comprehend.
No matter which logical chain one used to analyze, there was no straightforward explanation.
On one hand, Sumant's performance seemed to indicate that he truly had evidence that Ackerman had plagiarized Qiao Ze's paper, to the point where he even wished to take down the journal that published it.
However, both papers had been reviewed, and their similarity was far from reaching the level of plagiarism accusation.
What a fuss this was causing!
The spectators were all baffled!
Just then, the mobile phone that Zhang Hongcai had carelessly thrown on the table began to vibrate relentlessly.
Zhang Hongcai picked up his phone instinctively, gave it a few glances, and then became entirely absorbed. A few minutes later, Zhang Hongcai raised his head, his voice trembling slightly as he said after a blank look around at his colleagues still deep in thought, "Stop guessing, you'll never figure it out! That kid Qiao Ze actually designed a watermark in his paper!"
"Watermark?"
"What watermark?"
The other professors lifted their heads and directed their attention to Zhang Hongcai.
"Take a look for yourselves." Zhang Hongcai passed over his phone and several heads leaned in at once.
As time ticked by, when everyone looked up again, they were also perplexed.
"What are you dawdling for? Try it out! Qian, you've got Ackerman's paper on your computer, right?"
"Oh... yes, yes, hold on, I'm pulling it up."
"Hurry it up!"
"Here, it should be here."
"Quickly calculate it, the program's simple."
"I'm writing it, don't rush, it's supercomputing."
After more than ten minutes, the professors together stared blankly at the line of English text on the large screen.
"This paper was completed in collaboration with Li Jangao and Qiao Ze."
In a paper with Ackerman Konietz as the corresponding author and Kori Durant as the first author, such a line of text had been hidden...
They finally understood where Sumant Jair's insurmountable confidence came from!
"This..."
"Everyone's gone mad, totally mad!"
"Does it have to be this exciting?"
"I thought we were dealing with an international scandal, but who would have thought it'd turn domestic too!"
"How did Qiao Ze come up with this? Just publishing a paper, and he pulls off something like this?"
"So who is the real author of this paper?"
...
Right when domestic professors were starting to tear their hair out,
Sumant Jair finally couldn't be bothered to beat around the bush any longer.
After all, he had achieved his objective.
More than ten hours of sharp confrontation had drawn enough public attention to the matter.
The lively comment section beneath the messages the two had posted was testament to that.
So, he decided to land the final blow.
And it was the sharpest, simplest one of all.
All the proof process he had prepared beforehand, needing only to be uploaded to Facebook as images.
It wasn't something difficult to verify; the mathematicians following this issue could easily produce results with a computer calculation.
The final blow's copywriting was extremely straightforward.
Just one sentence.
"It's already nine in the morning; I'm tired, so let's unveil the truth, shall we? Dear Professor Ackerman Konietz, since you deny plagiarism repeatedly, how about you explain why this sentence is hidden in your paper? I'll wait for you and the 'Pure and Applied Mathematics Communications' editorial team to provide a plausible excuse."
Without a doubt, Sumant Jair knew how to fight.
Because he omitted the reference to that section from Qiao Ze's paper, and merely posted just that segment from Ackerman Konietz's paper.
The restored text was even highlighted in bright red.
Strikingly eye-catching!
Not long after this Facebook post went up, Sumant Jair's comment section completely exploded.
Various mindless exclaims were rapidly multiplying...
The only pity was that the English exclamations were too meager, too homogeneous - thumbs down!
...
In Germany, at the University of Cologne, School of Mathematics.
Ackerman Konietz, sitting in his office and staring at the computer screen, felt his brain go blank.
The final blow had come too quickly.
He had still been considering how to more firmly tie his relationship with Coran when they viciously delivered this blow.
The key issue was that he couldn't defend against this blow.
How could he explain this?
Coincidence?!
Where are there such coincidences in mathematics?
Who the hell could have thought that a sentence like this would be buried in a paper?
Really, at this moment, Ackerman was beginning to feel a sweet taste in his throat.
This paper truly was original!
At least 95% complete.
It had taken nearly two years to finish and now because of that one sentence, it had become a joke.
At this point, Ackerman Konietz wasn't even able to feel a hint of annoyance or regret.
What on earth had happened?
This trance-like state lasted until his office door was suddenly pushed open.
"Mr. Konett..."
Ackerman looked up, seeing the bewildered expression on his most promising student's face, suddenly feeling dizzy, then everything went dark...
"Bang..."
"Mr. Konett... oh my God..."
...
"Bang..."
"Clang..."
"Oh God..."
"How can this be possible?"
At 'Pure and Applied Mathematics Communications' editorial office, where the workday had just begun, there was now utter chaos.
No one had expected Sumant's last Facebook post to be so sharp.
Especially Jack, who had just taken a sip of coffee at his workstation, ready to see how this incident would finally end.
It was too fast!
So fast that he hadn't even had time to react...
As the editor responsible for both papers, Jack realized that this was no longer just Ackerman Konietz's problem.
He could even imagine how dark the expression must be on Carl's face right now.
Of course, at this moment, no one would remember that, just a month ago, on a warm afternoon, they had discussed the paper from Huaxia so casually and comfortably.