"God Huang!!"
In the auditorium, a student yelled with wild fanatical fervor.
"Fucking awesome!"
"God Huang is invincible!!"
"God Huang, I love you!"
"My god!"
"..."
The boiling cheers and applause raged on for dozens of seconds before gradually subsiding. Chen Yue, Dean of the School of Mathematics, trotted onto the stage, clasping Huang Tian's hands with intense emotion.
"Congratulations! Congratulations!" he stammered, somewhat incoherent with excitement.
"Thank you."
After holding his hands a moment longer, Chen Yue finally turned around and addressed the crowd below. "That concludes today's lecture. We will resume tomorrow morning."
Starting tomorrow would be the Q&A session. However, anyone could see that the Fields Medalists and the attending experts and scholars had essentially accepted Huang Tian's proof of the Navier-Stokes equations. This meant there were no fundamental flaws left; what followed would largely be just a formality.
Before everyone dispersed, Edward Witten proposed, "At such a historic moment, I think we ought to take a commemorative group photo."
Although Srinivasan was not particularly fond of Witten, he still nodded along. "A good proposal."
Professor Vladimir Drinfeld chimed in, "It is truly rare for the world's most brilliant mathematicians to gather in one place. We certainly ought to capture this for posterity."
As was customary at the International Congress of Mathematicians, official group photos were taken during the opening or closing ceremonies.
Prize-winning mathematicians, invited speakers, and participating scholars would all stand shoulder to shoulder, symbolizing the spirit that mathematics knew no borders.
While the number of scholars attending this lecture at Jingda was not as large as at the International Congress of Mathematicians, the caliber was second to none—a gathering of Fields Medalists, premier mathematicians, and top fluid physicists in one hall.
Chen Yue said with delight, "If you don't mind sparing a few minutes, we can take the photo right here in the auditorium."
No one refused the invitation. The scholars arranged themselves into several rows. Witten and the other Fields Medalists naturally stood in the front row, reserving the dead center for Huang Tian. "You are the keynote speaker of this historic report. Of course you belong in the very center."
Huang Tian did not politely decline too much. He stood right in the center of the first row, flanked by Witten and Gerd Faltings. Beside them stood Vladimir Drinfeld, Terence Tao, Srinivasan, Peter Scholze...
The reporter from Science and Technology Daily slapped his thigh. "Quick, take the shot! Take the shot!"
The cameraman beside him hurriedly replied, "I know, I know! Aren't I waiting for the people in the back rows to get in place? The second they're set, I'll snap it!"
Reporters and cameramen from other major media outlets were equally thrilled as they prepped their gear, while the students in the audience had long since whipped out their phones, snapping away furiously amid a chorus of excited hoots and cheers.
Li Nuo, Vice Dean of the School of Mathematics, helped Chen Yue maintain order while guiding the scholars into position. Before long, everyone had settled in. Chen Yue waved to Jingda's own university photographer, who caught his meaning in an instant and flashed a hand gesture back.
Seeing this, Chen Yue quickly grabbed Li Nuo by the arm. "Come, come, squeeze in!"
"Oh, right, right!"
As hosts and scholars of considerable academic standing in their own right, the two slipped into the second row.
The photographer raised a hand, counting down: three, two, one...
Everyone smiled at the lens.
*Click!*
*Click—*
Photographs bearing historic significance were captured one after another.
After taking more than a dozen shots in succession, the photographer nodded at the crowd, and only then did the scholars laugh and disperse.
A group ushered Huang Tian out through a side corridor. Walking beside Huang Tian, Srinivasan brought up his earlier offer again. "Huang, would you be interested in taking up a post at NYU? I..."
As usual, Witten cut him off. "Going to NYU is utterly pointless. It is hardly the premier place to pursue mathematical research."
Chen Yue smiled and smoothed things over. "Let's not be in any rush to talk about this. Having listened to lectures all afternoon, everyone must be famished. Let us go dine first, and we can talk more after dinner."
Srinivasan wanted to refute Witten's remark, but seeing Chen Yue intervene, he gave the host face and let the matter drop.
While Huang Tian and the others headed off to dinner, the students who had attended the lecture excitedly pulled out their phones to post on WeChat Moments, Ledou, Weibo, and Bihu.
Before long, a new question popped up on Bihu:
*God Huang has solved the Navier-Stokes equations. What does this mean for human civilization, and what changes will it bring to our world?*
Within just a few minutes, dozens of answers rolled in.
[Crane in the Clouds: Thanks for the invite! Currently at Jingda, having just witnessed history!
Too excited—my little heart is still pounding even now.
As for this question, let me share my personal take.
First, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This entire field will face a massive disruption. Approaches like RANS, LES, and DNS will largely become obsolete; people can simply take the transient solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations directly. That said, CFD will still have its uses, since data still needs to be discretized.
Second, some wind tunnels will likely be shut down. Hypersonic wind tunnels will still survive, however, because hypersonic flow involves real-gas effects.
Accordingly, combustion science won't die off either, as it involves fairly complex chemical kinetics. Of course, with the flow problem solved, researchers in that field can now focus entirely on the chemical kinetics.
Beyond that, fluid mechanics will only retain a few branches that the classical N-S equations cannot fully govern, such as rarefied gas dynamics, non-Newtonian fluids, and magnetohydrodynamics.
Meanwhile, practical applications will see a tremendous breakthrough. From aircraft and rockets down to our computer heat sinks, everything will benefit. It will also provide immense help to atmospheric and oceanographic research.
The most tangible change is that weather forecasting will become vastly more accurate. But let me clarify: this doesn't mean we'll be able to predict the weather far into the future.
Let me break it down for everyone: fluid systems are chaotic and extremely sensitive to initial conditions. In real-world fluid flow, you cannot supply perfectly exact initial values, and minute disturbances are unavoidable. These will be magnified to produce unpredictable outcomes.
It's just like the butterfly effect—a butterfly flapping its wings might introduce a variable to the initial values, triggering a thunderstorm thousands of miles away.
Unless we can obtain all precise initial values, predicting everything like a god or deity remains impossible. Even so, accuracy will improve by leaps and bounds.
That's roughly the gist of it. Other wider impacts won't be fully apparent right away. After all, reality isn't a video game where everything is hardcoded; it is changing every second of every day.]
[White Horse Galloping Current: Exactly right. Relying on the NS equations to whip up weather predictions for a year, ten years, or a century out is basically impossible. After all, if someone conducts cloud seeding in some location, wouldn't your whole model go up in smoke? (Laughs)]
[Mortal Crawler: It mostly boils down to the limits of human computing power. If someone could truly observe and calculate every single initial value with absolute precision, then perhaps predicting the future might actually be possible.]
[Firecracker in the Latrine Spattering My Face: It means our mastery over fluids—well, I won't say absolute mastery, but we'll be able to wield it just as freely as we currently handle electrical currents.
It was precisely on the basis of understanding Maxwell's equations that we learned to transmit and utilize electrical energy efficiently via the power grid, and transmit information at lightning speed via radio waves. The NS equations possess comparable utility...]
[...]
Whether on Bihu, Ledou, Weibo, or WeChat official accounts, the internet was completely blanketed that day by news of Huang Tian proving the Navier-Stokes equations, alongside that photograph where he firmly occupied center stage.
Only because the seminar had not yet fully concluded did the major media outlets show any modicum of restraint; otherwise, the stir would have been even greater.
Even so, several regional media outlets had already begun trumpeting loudly: *"Xia's First Native Fields Medalist Is About to Be Born!"*
In an instant, everyone became aware of the sheer weight carried by the Fields Medal, evoking a shock comparable to when Xia produced its first Nobel laureate.
That night, Huang Tian's phone vibrated ceaselessly.
Vice President Yang Dong, Dean Xu Kaizhi, and Professor Feng Zechun of Changda all sent messages of congratulations. Feng Zechun even called him to discuss appointing him as an honorary professor at Changda.
Xu Kaizhi and the others no longer harbored any illusions that Huang Tian might stay and teach at Changda—that was too unrealistic. But basking in a bit of reflected glory was something they naturally wished for.
An honorary professor, true to its name, was purely honorary: no salary, and no routine teaching or research duties. In short, it was just lending his name to their roster. Of course, while there was no regular wage, Changda would still provide some consulting stipends.
Huang Tian did not care about the money, but he readily accepted the title of honorary professor. It was his alma mater after all, and Yang Dong, Xu Kaizhi, and the others had treated him well. Lending his name did no harm.
Shortly after, Zong Wenjun also initiated a video call with him. The two chatted and laughed for quite a while before hanging up. Then his parents and several relatives called and messaged him.
Some congratulated him, some fished for clues about where he would work in the future, and some asked whether solving a Millennium Prize Problem meant he could pocket a million dollars...
It was not until around ten in the evening that things finally quieted down.
Sitting on the soft white sofa in his room at the Shaoyuan Hotel, Huang Tian mentally activated his switch. This time, the number of voice lines was dozens—nay, hundreds of times greater than before!
This was hardly surprising. As his fame reverberated across Xia and the wider world, more and more people would mention his name, almost granting him a form of global surveillance.
Staying within a single room, yet knowing all people and all affairs under heaven.
Scanning briefly through the voice lines, Huang Tian did not dwell on them further, turning his attention back to reading literature across various scientific fields.
He ground through papers until the following morning. Well, to him, going a night without sleep hardly counted as grinding; it was simply his regular routine. After taking a quick drink of water in his hotel room, he stepped out and headed to the Centenary Memorial Hall auditorium.
Just as on the first day, the hall was packed to the brim. This time, however, the atmosphere was free of the previous day's tension, and easy smiles graced everyone's faces.
"Good morning, friends," Huang Tian said with a soft chuckle, offering his opening greeting for the day.
The audience responded with cheerful laughter.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Huang Tian gave a brief recap of what he had covered yesterday, then gestured with an open hand, signaling that everyone could begin raising their questions.
Immediately, several scholars raised their hands. Huang Tian answered them one by one with extraordinary fluency, occasionally writing formulas on the whiteboards to his left and right to aid their understanding.
Because his answers were exceptionally swift and concise, his efficiency was remarkably high. In just one morning, he resolved more than half of the scholars' doubts, and the frequency of questions began to drop rapidly.
After lunch, during the afternoon session, even fewer people raised their hands, and the questions they posed were simpler than those in the morning. Huang Tian answered them with even greater ease.
By around four-thirty in the afternoon, when Huang Tian asked once more if anyone had further questions, not a single hand went up.
In the auditorium, the experts and professors seated in the front rows looked at one another, but no one rose to ask anything.
After a moment of silence, Gerd Faltings finally stood up. He did not ask a question; instead, he glanced around the room and spoke slowly in a tone thick with suppressed excitement. "I believe Huang has already expounded his proof with absolute clarity. Since the ladies and gentlemen present have no further doubts, then..."
He smiled. "We may begin our applause."
The audience could not help but break into laughter. A tide-like wave of applause erupted, accompanied by ceaseless cheers.
Huang Tian bowed slightly in acknowledgment, which only made the cheering and applause swell even louder.
After dozens of seconds, the auditorium gradually quieted down. Huang Tian checked the time. "There is still about half an hour before today's session concludes. You are free to ask me anything you like—it doesn't have to be restricted to the NS equations."
At these words, while the senior scholars remained composed, the young students in the audience grew ecstatic, eagerly raising their hands.
"We heard that after graduating from Changda, you worked hard at your job while diligently studying mathematics on the side. Did you feel exhausted and miserable back then?"
[Huang Tian: My answer is that everyone needs to learn how to slack off on the clock.]
"How do you view mathematics? Do you agree with the notion that mathematics is the universe?"
[Huang Tian: Mathematics is a language that describes the rules of the universe; it is not synonymous with the universe itself. We can only say that it is currently our best tool for probing cosmic truth...]
"After solving the NS equations, you will receive a one-million-dollar prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute. May I ask how you plan to spend it?"
[Huang Tian: I haven't thought about it yet. I'll answer you once I actually have the money in hand. (Laughs)]
"The roster of invited speakers for this year's 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians was already announced last July. At that time, you had no renown in academia, so your name was not on the list.
Do you think the Congress will extend a special invitation to you this year? Also, regarding this year's Fields Medal, do you think your chances of winning are high?"
[Witten raised his hand to help answer: If the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union does not include Huang, and does not award him the Fields Medal, I will kick their asses hard with my leather shoes.]
The lecture concluded amid wave after wave of laughter.
Once Jingda announced the complete, successful conclusion of the seminar, the outside world erupted into a frenzy. This signified that Huang Tian's academic achievement had been thoroughly acknowledged by the international academic community!
That night, Huang Tian's name flooded every major video app and text platform. The hashtag #HuangTianSolvesMillenniumProblem shot straight to the top of trending searches across the board.
At the same time, Huang Tian appeared for more than fifty seconds on that evening's national news broadcast. His solo portrait and group photo with the assembled scholars were displayed one after another, alongside a video clip showing nearly three thousand people in the auditorium clapping in unison.
The following day, numerous official media outlets heaped praise upon him: *"Huang Tian—A mathematical titan rising meteoric into the world, the wisdom of the East, the light of humanity!"*
Within the span of a single month, his name resounded across the globe, known to hundreds of millions—this was precisely what that meant.
Chapter 159