895 Things Don“t Go According to Plan
Xiao Tong wasn’t the only one surprised at the popularity of her Econometrica thesis; Lu Zhou was also surprised. He had just returned to his hometown, preparing to cut off connection with the outside world and focus on solving Riemann’s hypothesis. However, before his holidays were even over, his mailbox was filled to the brim with emails.
Some of them were sent from his old friends in Princeton, others were sent from people he didn’t know, but it seemed like they were all scholars in the fields of macroeconomics and computational economics research. Many of them were quite famous.
These emails were how Lu Zhou found out that his mathematical model was gaining attention in the economics field. Apparently, there were several economics seminars held around the world regarding his mathematical model.
The general consensus of the economists aligned with Krugman’s viewpoints, which was that they all hoped that Lu Zhou could continue researching the Lu Bewley model and bring macroeconomics and computation economics to a higher place.
Unfortunately, Lu Zhou wasn’t interested.
In the beginning, Lu Zhou politely replied to the emails. But later on, more and more emails were coming on, so he asked Xiao Ai to handle them.
After that, Lu Zhou finally had some time to continue researching his mathematical model, the “hyperelliptic curve a.n.a.lysis method”.
The day before Chinese New Year, noon time in London.
Xiao Tong was packing her bags while video calling Lu Zhou on WeChat. She told him about being invited to do a PhD under Krugman.
After Lu Zhou heard Xiao Tong’s exciting announcement, he paused for a second and said, “Xiao Tong.”
“Yeah?”
Xiao Tong was busy stuffing her clothes into her suitcase.
Lu Zhou paused for a second then continued, “Theoretically speaking, can an economics model… accurately predict the future?”
Lu Zhou nearly forgot what Krugman told him a couple of days ago, but Xiao Tong’s sudden mention of Krugman made him remember what the n.o.bel Prize laureate had said to him.
Predicting the future…
Predicting future social activities and even macroeconomic political patterns…
Is that possible?
Xiao Tong paused for a second, tilted her head, and answered in a serious manner, “It’s not impossible… But the use of economics isn’t just for predicting.”
Lu Zhou: “Then what’s it for?”
“For efficient allocation of social resources… Or, I guess, developing a better future?”
Xiao Tong sounded a little uncertain. After all, she only received her master’s a month ago. She still had a long way to go.
“Oh, I see…”
Lu Zhou nodded thoughtfully and didn’t say anything.
Xiao Tong stared at the screen. Her brother seemed to be contemplating, so she curiously asked, “Brother, aren’t you researching Riemann’s hypothesis? Why are you asking me this?”
Suddenly, she happily asked, “Are you… interested in economics?”
“No, of course not, someone just asked me an interesting question,” Lu Zhou said. He smiled and changed the subject. “Speaking of which, when are you coming back?”
Even though this could be an interesting research project, it wasn’t fascinating enough for Lu Zhou.
After all, the so-called predicting the future was nothing but a conjecture; even Professor Krugman wasn’t very confident when he mentioned it to Lu Zhou.
Of course, he would gladly use his quantum computer to try and predict future economic activities.
Of course, he wouldn’t use it to make money; it was purely to satisfy his curiosity…
Xiao Tong happily said, “I’m flying back tomorrow! I’ll land in Shanghai first, stay for two days, then take the train back home!”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“Okay, we’ll talk when you get home then… Oh yeah, do you have enough spending money?”
“Hey, I don’t need your money, I get paid handsomely for my HSBC consulting work, at least a lot higher than when you were working part-time… Oh yeah, are you back home already?”
Xiao Tong was a little immature, but she didn’t like to ask others for help, just like Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou smiled and replied, “Yeah, I got here yesterday.”
“Ah, I’m so jealous… I’m going to get some lunch, talk to you later.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
After the video call ended, Lu Zhou looked at his watch and thought that his mom was going to ask him to eat dinner soon.
But just as he was about to get up and walk into the living room, a text bubble popped up on the lower right corner of his computer screen.
Xiao Ai: [Master, Xiao Ai received a special email. Shall Xiao Ai reply? ♪ (^ ∇ ^ *)]
Lu Zhou looked at the message and paused for a second.
“What do you mean by special?”
Xiao Ai: [It came from a woman named Vera.]
Vera?
Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “I’ll reply myself.”
[Okay!]
Lu Zhou was curious about how Xiao Ai was able to cla.s.sify this email as special. The artificial r.e.t.a.r.d seemed to have gained some amount of emotional intelligence.
Just as Lu Zhou was about to open the email, he heard a knock on his door.
“Son, someone is looking for you.”
Lu Zhou remembered that he didn’t have any plans, so he asked, “Looking for me?”
“Yeah! You, apparently they’re from Jianghe University, all professors! One of them is an academician! They’re so polite; they waited outside and told me to ask you first.”
His mother’s voice was full of joy.
Not only was her son a successful scholar, but her son was being visited by other “big name” scholars. How could she, as a mother, not feel ecstatic!
Not to mention, Jianghe University was a famous university in Jiangling!
However, after hearing his mother’s words, Lu Zhou felt something was off.
He suddenly realized that it was unrealistic for him to avoid academia contact during the holidays.
“I guess things aren’t going according to plan…”
Xiao Ai: [(°ー° ??)]
Fang Mei: “Son?”
“Nothing, I’m coming.”
Lu Zhou stood up and walked toward the door.
Why do I feel like…
I’m not going to have a relaxing new year’s at all…