Chapter 13

But the damage is done: the audience murmurs, livestream comments flood with doubt.Whitfield presses forward. "Elijah, let me ask directly: did you write this proof yourself, or did someone help you?"The accusation hangs in the air."I wrote every word myself in six months.""During lunch periods?""Yes, sir."Whitfield turns to the panel. "I find it extraordinarily difficult to believe that a 10-year-old child with no formal training independently developed a proof that eluded professional mathematicians for nearly forty years."He doesn't say "you cheated," but everyone hears it anyway."Dr. Whitfield, are you formally challenging the authenticity of this work?" Dr. Park asks carefully."I'm suggesting we need verification. Give Elijah a related problem right now to demonstrate his process."The trap closes: refuse and look guilty; accept and fail, discrediting the proof.In Roxbury, Dr. Okonkwo whispers to the screen, "Don't do it, baby."On stage, Elijah's voice is barely audible. "Okay."Whitfield walks to the board, draws a Möbius strip. "If we represent this topologically as a graph, how many colors do we need so no adjacent regions share a color?"It's a trick question: Möbius strips break normal coloring rules.Elijah stares. Fifteen seconds pass. "Can I ask a clarifying question?""Of course.""Are you asking about a Möbius strip as a physical object, or as a graph embedded in three-dimensional space?"Whitfield blinks. "As a physical object."

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