Chapter 2 Chapter One
Equations are sorted according to the highest power (exponent value) of their unknowns.If the exponent is one, it is a linear equation.If it is two, it is a quadratic equation, and so on.For unknowns in equations of more than one degree, there may be more than one value, and these values are called roots.
Linear Equation (Linear Equation)
3x-9=0 (root: x=3)
Liz Salander pulled her sunglasses up to her nose and peered through the slit under the brim of her visor.She saw the female tenant in Room 32 come out from the side door of the hotel, walking towards a white and green striped lounge chair by the pool, staring at the ground, her walking pace seemed a little unsteady.
Salander had only seen her from a distance.She guessed the woman was about thirty-five years old, but she looked like she might be somewhere between twenty-five and fifty, with shoulder-length brown hair, an oval face, and a figure that looked more like a model in a mail-order underwear catalog. .She was wearing a black bikini, sandals, sunglasses with purple lenses and spoke with a South American accent.She tossed her yellow sun hat beside the chaise longue and gestured to the bartender at Ella Carmichael's bar.
Salander put the book down on her lap, took a sip of her iced coffee, and reached for a pack of cigarettes.She didn't turn her head, but moved her eyes to the horizon, but she could only see a corner of the Caribbean Sea through a group of palm trees and the rhododendron in front of the hotel.There was a yacht sailing north to St. Lucia or the Dominica.Farther in the distance, a gray freighter was looming, heading south toward Guyana.A light breeze was blowing, making the morning heat bearable, but she felt a drop of sweat trickling down her brow.Salander didn't like basking in the sun, and these days she always tried to hide in the shade as much as possible. Even at this time, she was sitting under the awning on the terrace, but she was still as dark as a walnut.She was wearing khaki shorts and a black top.
She listened to the strange steel drum music coming from the speakers in the bar. Although she couldn't tell the difference, the steel drum just fascinated her.It's incredible enough to be able to play with an oil drum, but to be able to produce music that is unparalleled in the world is simply unbelievable.She felt that those voices seemed to have magic.
She became inexplicably irritable, and looked at the woman again. She was taking a glass of orange drink from the waiter.
This had nothing to do with Salander, but she really didn't understand why the woman didn't leave.Since the couple came, for four consecutive nights, Salander heard a muffled horror movie playing in the next room, with crying, low, excited voices, and occasionally obvious applause.The beating man—Salander guessed it was her husband—had straight dark hair, parted in the middle, and seemed to be in Grenada on business.As for the business, Salander didn't know anything about it, except that he would show up at the hotel bar every morning wearing a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase, and hail a taxi outside after drinking coffee.
In the evening, he would go back to the hotel and go for a swim or sit by the pool with his wife.The two had dinner together, seemingly calm and loving on the surface.The woman may have had a few drinks, but she is not annoying when she is drunk.
Every night, just as Salander went to bed with a book on the mysteries of mathematics, the commotion in the next room began.That didn't sound like serious violence. From what Salander could hear through the wall, their quarrel was repetitive and dull.The night before, she couldn't help being curious and ran to the balcony to listen to what the man and woman were arguing through the open French windows next door.The man paced up and down the room for over an hour, babbling that he was worthless and unworthy of her, and emphasizing that she must think he was a liar.No, she'd reply, she didn't think so, and try to reassure him.He became more agitated and seemed to grab her and shake her.In the end she had to say the answer he wanted... Yes, you are a liar.As soon as he heard it, he immediately used it as an excuse to scold her, calling her a stinky bitch.If someone scolded Salander with this word, she would definitely take countermeasures.Although the target was not her, she also thought for a long time, wondering if she should take some action.
Salander listened in amazement to the vicious quarrel, but it ended abruptly with what sounded like a slap.At that time, she was about to go to the corridor of the hotel to kick the door of the next room, but the room suddenly fell silent.
Now that she was watching the woman by the pool carefully, she could see a slight bruise on her shoulder and a scrape on her buttocks, but nothing else.
A few months ago, Salander picked up a copy of "Popular Science" magazine at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport. An article in it made her inexplicably fascinated by the obscure subject of spherical astronomy, and even impulsively went to the university bookstore in Rome. , Bought several important books related to it.However, in order to be able to understand spherical astronomy, she had to bury her head in the deeper mathematical mysteries.During her travels in recent months, she has also visited other university bookstores to find more books.
Her research was disorganized and without any definite purpose, at least until she wandered into the University of Miami bookstore and bought Dr. Pano's Dimensions of Mathematics (Harvard University Press, 1999) so it is.Then she immediately went south to the Florida Keys and began to tour the Caribbean islands.
She went to Guadeloupe (two extremely depressing nights), Dominica (five nights lighthearted), Barbados (one night in an American hotel, feeling unwelcome) and St. Lucia (nine nights) .Wanting to stay a few more days, she fell in love with a stupid hoodlum who haunted the bar of her secluded hotel, and finally she couldn't take it anymore, took a brick and hit him on the head, paid the bill and left the hotel, hitchhiking Ferries head to Grenada's capital, St. George's.Before buying the boat ticket, she had never heard of this country.
She made landfall in Grenada in a tropical storm at ten o'clock one morning in November.From the "Caribbean Traveler" magazine, she learned that Grenada, also known as the "Spice Island", is also one of the world's leading producers of nutmeg.There are 120,000 inhabitants on the island, but another 200,000 Grenadians live in the US, Canada or the UK, a hint of the job market in their homeland.The terrain is mountainous, and there is a dormant volcano in the center, named "Great Lake".
Grenada is one of many small former British colonies.In 1795, Julian Fayton, a black farmer of French origin, was inspired by the French Revolution and led the rebellion.The government sent troops, and countless mobs were either shot, hanged or maimed.What shocked the colonial government most was that even poor whites, the so-called "little white class", joined Feidon's rebellion, regardless of racial boundaries.The rebellion was suppressed, but Fei Dong was never caught. He fled into the mountains of the Great Lakes and became a legend like Robin Hood.
Some two hundred years later, in 1979, a lawyer named Maurice Bishop started a new revolution, which travel guides say was instigated by communist dictatorships in Cuba and Nicaragua.But when Salander met Philip Campbell, a teacher, librarian, and Baptist pastor, she took a different view on the matter.She stayed at Campbell's hotel in the first few days of her arrival in Grenada. The main points she heard were: Bishop was a popular leader of the masses, and what he deposed was a crazy dictator. A maniac who allocates part of the meager state budget to track flying saucers.Bishop lobbied lawmakers to support economic democracy and create a gender equality law for the country.He was later assassinated in 1983.
The massacre of more than a hundred people followed that incident, including the ministers of foreign affairs, women's affairs and several senior trade union leaders.The United States then invaded the country and established democracy.For Grenada, however, it means unemployment has risen from six percent to nearly 50 percent, and cocaine has once again become the largest source of income.After listening to the description in Salander's travel guide, Campbell shook her head in astonishment, and reminded her which people or areas she should try to avoid contacting after nightfall.
Salander usually doesn't listen to such advice, but her love of Grand Anse Beach keeps her from contact with Grenada's criminal elements.This sparsely populated beach stretches for miles just south of St. George's, and she can walk for hours without talking to or even seeing anyone.She moved to the Keys—one of the few American restaurants in Grand Anse—and spent seven weeks doing little else but walking on the beach and eating a fruit called chin lift; The fruit reminded her of Swedish gooseberries, which she found delicious.
This is the off-season, and the occupancy rate of hotels in the Key Islands is barely 30%.There was only one problem, and that was that the looming violence in the next room not only disturbed her peace, but also distracted her from her math.
※※※
Michael Blomkvist rang the bell of Salander's apartment on Lunda Road.He didn't expect her to answer the door, but was used to coming here about once a week to see if anything had changed.He lifted the lid of the mailbox, and there were still piles of junk mail inside.Since it was late and the light was too dim, it was impossible to see how much the mail volume had increased since the last time I was here.
He stood at the top of the stairs for a moment before turning away in disappointment.After unhurriedly returning to his apartment on Bellman Road, he made some coffee and flipped through the evening paper before watching the nightly news report on TV.Not knowing Salander's whereabouts made him annoyed and frustrated. He felt a wave of uneasiness in his heart, and he couldn't ask himself a thousand times: What happened?
He had invited Salander to Sandhaven Cottage for the Christmas holidays.They took long walks together, quietly discussing the fallout from the drama the two had been involved in over the past year.In retrospect, Blomkvist thinks he had an early midlife crisis.He was sentenced to two months in prison for defamation, his professional career as a journalist entered a low ebb, and the magazine he founded, Millennium, was somewhat dragged down, and he also resigned from his position as publisher.But at this moment everything took a turn for the better.He's commissioned by entrepreneur Henry Van Yeer to ghostwrite his biography, thinking it's a ridiculously well-paid form of therapy that turns into a grisly hunt for a serial killer.
During the hunt, Blomkvist met Salander.He subconsciously touched the faint scar the knot had left behind his left ear.Salander not only helped him track down the murderer, but also saved his life.
She has repeatedly demonstrated amazing special abilities, such as a photographic memory and incredible computer skills.Blomkvist considered himself almost a computer idiot, but Salander's control over the computer was like signing a contract with the devil.He discovered later that she was a world-class hacker, and that she was a legend within a specific international group dedicated to the study of computer crime at the highest level—but not just fighting crime.Netizens only know her as "Wasp".
It was precisely because she was able to easily hack into other people's computers and obtain information that the professional humiliation he suffered was transformed into the later "Winnerstrom Incident".A year later, the scoop remained the subject of an Interpol investigation into economic crime, and Blomkvist continued to be invited to appear on talk TV.
A year ago, he'd been content with the news coverage—whether it was about revenge or rebuilding his reputation.But the satisfaction soon waned.In just a few weeks, he has grown weary of repeated questions from reporters and the economic police.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t reveal the source.” When a reporter from the English-language newspaper Azerbaijan Times traveled all the way to Stockholm to ask the same question, Blomkvist couldn’t bear it anymore.He cut the number of interviews to a minimum, and in recent months he has only accommodated once. It was the female reporter of TV4's "SHE" program that persuaded him, and it was all because the investigation had clearly entered a new stage.
The reason why Blomkvist cooperates with the female reporter of TV4 is another factor.She was the first reporter to break the story, and Millennium magazine probably wouldn't have done as much if it hadn't been for a press release on her evening show.Only later did Blomkvist learn that she had gone to great lengths to persuade the editor in chief to get the story aired.There is a lot of resistance in the TV station, which prevents "the clown" of "Millennium" from having any chance to show off. Even when it is broadcast, she is still not sure that the company's legal team will let it go.Several senior colleagues disapproved, telling her that if she misjudged, her career would be over.She stuck to her guns, and the story turned out to be the best story of the year.
The first week of news was covered by herself, after all she was the only reporter who had delved into the subject in depth, but around Christmas time, Blomkvist discovered that all new developments in the news were being covered by male reporters .Around New Years, Blomkvist heard rumors that she had been sidelined, on the pretext that handling such a big story should be left to an experienced financial reporter, not just some random guy from a rural place like Gotland or Belislagen. little girl.When TV4 called again, Blomkvist confessed that he would not be interviewed unless asked by her.After a few days of silence, the men of TV4 finally surrendered.
Just as Blomkvist was losing interest in the Wennerstrom affair, Salander had just disappeared from his life.He still couldn't understand what had happened.
They broke up two days after Christmas and didn't see each other for a whole week.The day before New Year's Eve, he called her, but no one answered.
On New Year's Eve, he went to her apartment twice and rang the doorbell.For the first time, the lights were on inside the house, but she didn't answer the door.The second time there were no lights in the house.He called her again on New Year's Day, but there was still no answer. He only received a message from the phone company saying that the user could not answer.
In the next few days, he saw her twice.Unavailable on the phone, he went to her apartment in early January and sat on the steps by the front door to wait.He brought a book and waited tenaciously for four hours. She finally walked in through the door at almost eleven o'clock in the evening, holding a brown box, and stopped abruptly when she saw him.
"Hi, Liz," he greeted, closing his book.
She looked at him expressionlessly, without enthusiasm or even friendship in her eyes.Then walked past him and inserted the key into the door.
"Won't you buy me a cup of coffee?" he asked.
She turned and whispered, "Go away! I never want to see you again."
After saying that, he slammed the door shut, and he was puzzled to hear her lock it from the inside.
Three days later, he took the subway from Slussen to Grand Central, and when the train stopped in Old Town, he saw her from the window, standing on the platform not two yards away.The car door was just closing when he caught sight of her.She stared at him for five seconds, looking straight through, as if he were transparent, and when the car started to move, she turned away from his sight.
Such a hint couldn't be more obvious, she didn't want to have anything to do with him.She cut him out of her life as firmly as a file on a computer, without explanation.Mobile phone number changed and no reply to emails.
Blomkvist sighed, turned off the TV, walked to the window, and stared out at the City Hall.
Probably shouldn't be visiting her apartment so often.Blomkvist's attitude has always been: as long as the woman makes it clear that she doesn't want to be involved, he will go his own way.In his view, not respecting such information is tantamount to disrespecting the woman.
Blomkvist and Salander had had a relationship.It was she who took the initiative, and it lasted for half a year.If she decided to end it like this—as abruptly as it had begun—Blomkvist was fine with it, it was her decision anyway.If he was an ex-boyfriend, he could have easily played the role well, but Salander's rejection of him was really surprising.
He doesn't love her—they're almost two different people—but he does like her and miss her, although she does irritate at times.He had thought they were fond of each other.In short, he felt like a fool.
He stood by the window for a long time.
Finally made up my mind.Since Salander despised him so much that she wouldn't even say hello when they met at the subway station, their friendship was obviously over and the damage was irreparable.He won't try to contact her again.
※※※
Salander looked at her watch, only to realize that despite sitting quietly under the shade, she was still covered in sweat.The time is half past ten in the morning.She memorized a three-line mathematical formula, closed the "Mathematical Dimension" she was reading, and picked up the keys and cigarettes on the table.
Her room was on the fourth floor, which was also the top floor of the hotel.She undresses and goes into the shower.
A twenty-centimeter-long green lizard glared at her on the wall connecting to the ceiling, and Salander glared back, but didn't shush it away.The island is infested with lizards, crawling in through the shutters of open windows, under doors, or through bathroom vents.She likes this kind of company that is not noisy.The water was almost freezing, and she took a five-minute shower to cool herself off.
When she got back to her room, she stared naked at the mirror hanging on the wardrobe door and examined her body in astonishment.She was still only forty-two kilograms and one hundred and fifty-four centimeters tall, and there was nothing she could do about it.The limbs are as thin as a doll, the palms are small, and the buttocks are almost fleshless.
But now she has boobs.
She grew so big, her breasts were always flat, as if she hadn't developed.She thought she looked ridiculous and always felt awkward when she was naked.
Now, in the blink of an eye, she suddenly has breasts.Certainly not a pair of huge breasts - which is not what she wanted, otherwise it would be ridiculous to have such breasts on her thin body - but two medium-sized, round and firm breasts.Breast augmentation was successful and her proportions were right, but her appearance and confidence made a world of difference.
She spent five weeks at a clinic on the outskirts of Genoa for breast augmentation surgery to create new breasts.That clinic and its doctors are definitely the most famous in Europe.Her physician, Alessandra Perini, was a woman of charming calm reason; she told Salander that her underdeveloped breasts were so unusual that breast augmentation could be considered a medical practice.
The recovery after the surgery was painful, but the breasts look and feel very natural, and the scars are hardly visible until now.She never regretted her decision for a moment, and was even satisfied.Even after six months, whenever she walks shirtless in front of a mirror, she can't help but stop and feel grateful for the improvement in her life.
During her stay at the Genoa clinic, she also had one of nine tattoos removed, the 2.5cm-long wasp on the right side of her neck.She likes her tattoos, especially the dragon on the spleen bone on her right shoulder.But the wasp was so conspicuous that it was easy to remember or identify her.Salander did not wish to be remembered or identified.The tattoo was removed by laser, and now I can feel a slight bulge when I touch my neck with my index finger.A closer look reveals that the original tattoo is slightly paler than the rest of the tanned skin, but a quick glance reveals nothing.She spent a total of one hundred and ninety thousand in Genoa.
She can afford it.
She puts on her panties, puts on her bra, and stops daydreaming in the mirror.Two days after leaving the clinic in Genoa, she walked into the lingerie store, buying underwear for the first time in twenty-five years because she had never needed it before.Since then, she has turned twenty-six, and she is really content to wear a bra now.
She put on jeans and a black T-shirt with a slogan that said: "This is a fair warning." After finding sandals and a sun hat, she slung a black bag over her shoulders.
As she passed the hall, she heard a murmur of voices, and it turned out that a small group of lodgers had gathered at the counter.So she slowed down and pricked up her ears.
"How dangerous is it?" a black woman asked loudly with a European accent.Salander recognized her as a member of a London accommodation group that had arrived ten days earlier.
Freddie McBain looked worried.He was the counter manager, his hair was graying, and he always smiled kindly when he saw Salander.He told them that all tenants would receive instructions and as long as they were followed exactly, there was nothing to worry about.Then he went on to deal with a series of questioning.
Frowning, Salander walked to the bar and saw Ella Carmichael standing behind the bar.
"What's that about?" She pointed her thumb at the lobby counter.
"I'm afraid Matilda will come."
"Matilda?"
"It's the hurricane that formed off the coast of Brazil a few weeks ago, and it swept directly past Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, yesterday. No one is sure where she's headed next, and it's likely to head north toward the United States. But if it continues along If the coast goes west, then Trinidad and Grenada will suffer. So it might be a little bit windy."
"I thought hurricane season was over."
"That's right, it's usually September and October. But it's hard to say now because of climate change, the greenhouse effect, etc., it's troublesome."
"Okay. But when will Matilda come?"
"Soon."
"Should I do something?"
"Liz, hurricanes are no joke. There was a hurricane that wreaked havoc in Grenada in the seventies. I was eleven years old and I lived in a town in the Great Lakes Mountains on the way to Greenville, and I'll never forget that night. .”
"Ok."
"But you don't have to worry. Stay near the hotel on Saturday. Pack the things you don't want to lose, like that computer you always have with you, so you can take it with you right away if you're instructed to hide in the storm cellar Let's go. That's it."
"it is good."
"Would you like something to drink?"
"No thanks."
Salander left without saying goodbye.Ella smiled and didn't care.It took her a few weeks to finally get used to the weird girl's eccentricity, and to understand that she wasn't arrogant, just different.But she never talked about paying for drinks, was usually quite sober, socially insensible, and never got into trouble.
The imaginatively painted minibuses are the main means of transportation in Grenada, but there is no fixed timetable or other rules to follow.The shuttle bus only runs during the day, and at night, if you don't have your own car, you can hardly move.
Salander waited only a few minutes on the road to St. George's before a bus pulled up.The driver is, and the stereo in the car is playing "Woman, Don't Cry" loudly.She turned a deaf ear, paid, and squeezed herself in between a gray-haired, bulky woman and two boys in school uniforms.
Where St. George stands is a U-shaped bay that forms the inner harbor of Karinegi.The harbor is surrounded by steep hills dotted with houses and old colonial buildings, with Rupert's Fort perched far atop a cliff.
St. George's is a compact and solid town with narrow streets and many alleys.Houses climbed up the side of the hill, and apart from a cricket field-cum-racing track on the northern edge of town, there was little flat land to be found.
She got off at the port and walked up a short, steep climb to the McIntyre Electric Appliances store at the top.Almost all the products sold in Grenada are imported from the United States or the United Kingdom, so the price is twice as expensive as other places, but at least the store has air conditioning.
The spare battery she ordered for her Apple Powerbook (G4 Titanium, 17-inch screen) has finally arrived.When she was in Miami, she bought a PDA handheld computer equipped with a foldable keyboard, which can be used to send and receive e-mails. It is too simple to replace the 17-inch screen.The original battery had degraded and had to be recharged in half an hour, making sitting on the poolside terrace a real hassle.Moreover, Grenada's power supply still has a lot of room for improvement. During the few weeks here, it experienced two long-term power outages.She paid with her Hornet Enterprises credit card, stuffed the battery into her backpack, and headed back out into the midday heat.
She went to Barclays, withdrew three hundred dollars, and went to the market to buy a handful of carrots, six mangoes, and a 1.5-liter bottle of mineral water.The bag was much heavier now, and she was hungry and thirsty when she got back to port.At first, she wanted to go to "Nut Bean Drops", but she saw a long queue waiting at the entrance of the restaurant, so she went on to the quieter "Turtle Shell" on the other side of the port.She sat on the terrace, ordered a plate of fried squid with French fries, and a bottle of local Caribbean beer, then picked up the newspaper "Voice of Grenada" that was left aside, and browsed for two minutes.There was only one dramatic article worth reading, which, in addition to warning of the impending hurricane Matilda, included a photo of a damaged house as a reminder of the devastation caused by the last hurricane that hit the island.
She folded up the newspaper and just took a sip of beer when she suddenly saw the man who lived in Room 32 come from the bar to the terrace, holding a brown briefcase in one hand and a large glass of Coca-Cola in the other.He glanced over her but didn't recognize her, and then sat on the bench at the other end of the terrace, gazing at the sea in the distance.
Salander found that his mind seemed to be completely out of his body. She sat motionless for seven minutes, then raised the glass and took three big gulps, then put down the glass, and continued to stare at the sea.After a while, she opened the bag and took out "Mathematical Dimensions".
All her life, Salander loved solving puzzles and guessing riddles.When she was nine years old, her mother gave her a Rubik's cube.Her abilities were tested, but it took barely forty minutes of frustration before she understood how it worked.Since then, solving the Rubik's Cube is no longer a problem for her.She also never missed the quiz in the newspaper every day-give you five weird shapes, and you have to solve the sixth shape.She can always see the answer at a glance.
After elementary school, I learned addition and subtraction, and multiplication, division and geometry are natural extensions.She can add up restaurant bills, issue invoices, and calculate the trajectory of a cannonball based on the angle and speed of its launch.very simple.But until she read the article in Popular Science, she had never been interested in mathematics, or even thought that multiplication tables were mathematics.It was just something she memorized in one afternoon at school one day, but she never understood why the teacher kept repeating it for a whole year.
Suddenly, she felt that there must be an unchangeable logic behind these theories and formulas, and this idea led her to the mathematics section of the university bookstore.But it was not until she started reading "Mathematical Dimensions" that a whole new world opened up before her eyes.Mathematics is really a logical puzzle with countless variations—a puzzle that can be solved.The trick is not in solving arithmetic problems—five multiplied by five is always twenty-five—but in understanding the combination of rules that will allow you to solve any mathematical problem.
Strictly speaking, Dimensions of Mathematics is not a textbook, but a 1,200-page tome that tells the history of mathematics, from ancient Greece to modern efforts to understand spherical astronomy.It is regarded as the "bible" of mathematics, similar to the lofty status (whether past or present) of "Arithmetic" in the eyes of serious mathematicians.When she first opened Dimensions of Mathematics on the terrace of the Grand Anse Beach Hotel, she was lured into a magical world of numbers.The author who wrote this book knows how to use some anecdotes and surprising questions to entertain and educate.From Archimedes to the mathematics of today's California Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she can understand and absorb their methods of solving problems.
The formula (x2+y2=z2) compiled by Pythagoras in the fifth century BC gave her an epiphany.At that moment, Salander realized the significance of what she had memorized in a class she had taken in middle school—one of the very few classes she had ever taken.In a right triangle, the sum of the squares of the two sides is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.In addition, Euclid's discovery around 300 BC also fascinated her: a perfect number is always equal to the product of two numbers, one of which is a power of two and the other is the next power of two The difference between the number minus one.This is more sophisticated than Pythagoras' formula, and she can see infinite combinations.
6=21x(22-1)
28=22x(23-1)
496=24x(25-1)
8,128=26x(27-1)
She could extrapolate endlessly, and couldn't find any number that would overturn the law.This kind of logic fits well with Salander's feeling about "absolute".She continued to study the theories of more than a dozen first-class mathematicians such as Archimedes, Newton, and Martin Gardner, completely indulging in pure pleasure.
Then comes the chapter on Pierre de Fermat, whose mathematical puzzle "Fermat's Last Theorem" blew her away for seven weeks.But this time is nothing, because mathematicians have been driven crazy by Fermat for nearly four hundred years, and it was not until 1993 that a British man named Andrew Wiles successfully solved answer.
Fermat's theorem is an interesting, simple subject.
Pierre de Fermat was born in Beaumont-de-Laumagne in southwestern France in 1601.He wasn't even a mathematician, just a civil servant who loved mathematics as a hobby, but is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding self-taught mathematicians of all time.Like Salander, he likes to solve various problems and riddles.What amuses him most is designing problems without providing solutions, which makes other mathematicians troubled.The philosopher Descartes gave Fermat many ugly nicknames, while his English colleague John Wallis called him "that damned Frenchman".
In 1621, a Latin translation of Diophantus' Arithmetic was published, containing a complete compilation of the number theory developed by Pythagoras, Euclid, and other ancient mathematicians.It was when Fermat was studying the formula of Pythagoras that he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and invented this immortal problem.He changed the Pythagorean equation slightly, changing the square in (x2+y2=z2) to cube (x3+y3=z3).
The problem is that the new equation doesn't seem to have any integer answers.So Fermat just played around in theory, but turned a formula with countless perfect solutions into a dead end with no way out.His theorem is exactly the same - Fermat claimed that in the infinite digital universe, no integer cube can be equal to the sum of the cubes of two integers, and as long as the power of the number is greater than two - that is, except for the Pythagorean equation Otherwise, all applicable.
Other mathematicians were quick to agree.After test and error, they could prove to themselves that no number could be found to disprove Fermat's theorem.The only problem is that even if the calculations go to the end of the world, they will never be able to test all the numbers that exist-the numbers are infinite after all-so mathematicians can't be 100% sure about the next number and can't overthrow Fermat's theorem.In the field of mathematics, any claim must be proved mathematically, expressed in a valid and precise formula.When a mathematician stands on a podium, he must be able to say, "It turns out this way because..."
Out of habit, Fermat posed a nasty test to his colleagues.The genius wrote the problem in the margins of his Arithmetic book and concluded with the following lines: "Cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet" These lines are immortalized in the history of mathematics: " I have a very incisive proof for this proposition, but the margins are too small to fit."
If his intention was to drive his peers crazy, he succeeded.Almost every self-respecting mathematician since 1637 has spent time, sometimes a lot of time, trying to figure out Fermat's proof.Generations of thinkers failed to decipher it, until finally Wiles came up with the long-awaited proof.Before that, he had been pondering this riddle for twenty-five years, and spent almost all of his time in the last ten years.
Salander felt bewildered.
In fact, she is not interested in the answer, the focus is on the process of answering.If someone puts a puzzle in front of her, she solves it.Before she understood the principles of reasoning, it took a long time to solve the puzzle of numbers, but she always got the right answer before looking at the answers.
So when she read Fermat's theorem, she took out the paper and started scribbling numbers.But no proof can be found.
She didn't bother to read the solution, so she skipped the chapter that provided Wiles' solution, and continued to read "Mathematical Dimensions", and she was sure that the other questions raised in the book were not super difficult for her.Then she re-studied Fermat's riddle day after day, and her mood became increasingly impatient, wondering what Fermat's "brilliant proof" was.She walked from one dead end to another.
When the man in Room 32 got up and walked towards the exit, she looked up.He sat there for two hours and ten minutes.
Ella puts the glass on the bar.She had long since realized that the crappy pink drink with the ridiculous parasol was not to Salander's liking.She always ordered the same drink - Rum Coke.平常她点的无非是拿铁、兰姆可乐，或是加勒比啤酒，只有一晚例外，那天她有点奇怪，喝得烂醉，艾拉只得叫服务生搀她回房。她照例坐在吧台的最右端，打开一本书，里头看上去充满密密麻麻的数字，在艾拉看来，她这种年纪的女孩会选读这种书真是有趣。
她也注意到莎兰德似乎一点也不想被人搭讪。极少数几个落单男子曾献过殷勤，却都遭到和善但坚定的拒绝，其中有一次还不是非常和善。遭到无礼打发的男人叫克利斯·麦凯伦，是当地一名流氓，很可能会对人大打出手。因此当他烦了莎兰德一整晚，最後不小心绊一跤跌进泳池时，艾拉也不太为他操心。值得赞赏的是，麦凯伦并未记恨。第二天晚上他又来了，非常清醒，并说想请莎兰德喝一杯啤酒，她略一犹豫後接受了。从那时起，每当他们在酒吧相遇，彼此总会礼貌地打招呼。
「一切都好吗？」
莎兰德点点头，端起杯子。
「玛蒂达有什麽消息吗？」
「还在往我们这边来，这个周末可能会很惨。」
「什麽时候会知道？」
「老实说，得等她过境後才会知道。她可能朝格林纳达直扑而来，却在最後一刻转向北方。」
这时她们听到一阵笑声，稍嫌大声了点，转头一看原来是三十二号房的女子，她丈夫显然说了什麽有趣的话。
"Who are they?"
「Dr福布斯吗？他们是从德克萨斯州奥斯丁来的美国人。」艾拉说到「美国人」时，口气有点嫌恶。
「看得出来他们是美国人，不过他们来这里做什麽？他是医生？」
「不，不是医生，是博士。他是为了圣玛利亚基金会来的。」
「那是什麽？」
「他们为有天赋的儿童提供教育资助。他是个德高望重的人，正在和教育部商讨一个企划案，打算在圣乔治创立一所高中。」
「这个德高望重的人会打老婆。」莎兰德说。
艾拉瞄了莎兰德一眼，走到吧台另一头为几个当地顾客倒酒。
莎兰德待了十分钟，一直埋首於《数学次元》中。她早在进入发育期之前便知道自己有过目不忘的本事，也因此和同学们迥然不同。这点她从未向任何人透露——除了一时脆弱向布隆维斯特吐露之外。《数学次元》的内容她已经记得滚瓜烂熟，之所以抱着书到处跑，主要是因为它象徵着与费马的实质连结，此书彷佛成了某种护身符。
但今晚她却无法集中精神在费马或他的定理上，脑海中只看见福布斯博士在卡里内吉呆坐不动，凝望着远方海面的某一点。
她知道事情不太对劲，至於为什麽知道，她也说不上来。
最後她合上书本，回到房间，打开笔记本电脑。上网不需要花脑筋。饭店没有宽频，不过她有内建的数据机，可以连接上她的松下手机，之後便能收发电子邮件。她打了一个信息给[email protected]：
这里没宽频。需要关於圣玛利亚基金会某个福布斯博士与他妻子的资料，住在得州奥斯丁。只要有人找到资料，给五百美金。wasp
她附上自己的PGP公钥，并以「瘟疫」的PGP钥匙加密後传送出去。她看看时钟，七点半刚过。
她关闭电脑、锁上房门後，沿着海滩走了四百码，经过通往圣乔治的道路，来到「椰子」後面一间简陋小屋前，敲了敞门。乔治·布兰现年十六岁，是个学生，志愿是要当律师或医师，又或者是太空人。他和莎兰德一样乾瘦，只比她高一点。
莎兰德是在搬到格兰安西的第二天，在海滩上认识他的。当时她坐在几棵棕桐树下，看一群孩童在水边踢足球。正当她沉迷於《数学次元》时，这个男孩来到离她几码外的沙地上坐下，显然没有注意到她在那里。她静静地观察他——一个瘦削的黑人男孩，穿着凉鞋、黑色牛仔裤和白衬衫。
他也打开一本书，埋首其中。他和莎兰德一样，看的是数学书籍《基本概要－4》，并开始在一本练习簿中涂写起来。五分钟後，莎兰德轻咳一声，他吓得跳起来，连忙为自己打扰对方而道歉，就在他转身离去前，莎兰德开口问他是否正在演算复杂的公式。
是代数。不到一分钟，她便指出他计算当中的一个错误。半小时後，他们一块完成了他的作业。一小时後，就把他教科书的下一章全部看完，她还像家教老师一样向他解释算术运算背後的要诀。他看着她，眼神中充满敬畏。过了两小时，他说出母亲住在多伦多，父亲住在岛上另一头的格林维尔，而他自己则住在海滩过去一点的一间小屋。他在家里排行老么，上面有三个姐姐。
莎兰德发现有他作伴异常轻松，这种情形十分罕见。她几乎不曾为了闲聊而与陌生人攀谈，不是因为害羞，而是因为对她而言，谈话有一种简单的功能：药房要怎麽去？或是房间住一晚多少钱？谈话还有一种职业的功能。还在米尔顿安保公司替德拉根·阿曼斯基担任调查员时，若非为了探查真相，她从不想多说话。
另一方面，她不喜欢谈论私事，因为到最後总会演变成打探她视为隐私的领域。你几岁？——你猜。你喜欢小甜甜布兰妮吗？——谁？你觉得的画怎麽样？——我从来没想过。你是同性恋吗？——滚开。
这男孩有点笨拙又害羞，但很有礼貌，他试着想让谈话内容有深度，却无意与她竞争或刺探她的生活。他似乎和她一样，很孤单。对於格兰安西海滩上降临了一位数学女神，他好像毫无疑惑地便接受了，也很高兴她愿意和自己作伴。太阳沉下地平线後，他们起身，一同走向她下榻的饭店，他指了指自己那间简陋的学生宿舍，并怯怯地问能不能请她来喝杯茶。
小屋里有一张胡乱拼凑成的桌子、两张椅子、一张床和一个木头衣橱。屋内只有一盏桌灯照明，电线连到「椰子」。另外有个简单的炉子。他请她吃用塑胶盘盛的米饭配蔬菜，甚至大胆地请她抽当地的禁烟，她也接受了。
莎兰德实在无法不注意到，她的存在让他过於震撼以至於不知该如何对待她。她一时心血来潮，决定让他来引诱她，不料过程却变得拐弯抹角、拖拖拉拉，他当然明白女方的暗示，却不知道如何反应。最後她终於失去耐性，粗鲁地将他推倒在床上，脱去自己的衬衫和牛仔裤。
这是她在义大利动手术後，第一次在别人面前赤裸身体。离开诊所时，她感到恐慌，过了好长一段时间才相信没有人在盯着她看。通常，她根本不管别人怎麽看她，至於现在为什麽觉得紧张，她也不去多想。
对於她的全新自我而言，年轻的布兰可以说是最佳的开始。最後（经过几番鼓励），他好不容易解开她的胸罩，接着立刻关灯之後才开始脱自己的衣服。莎兰德看得出来他害臊，随即又将灯打开。当他开始笨手笨脚地摸她时，她很仔细地观察他的反应。过了好些时候，见他确实以为这胸部是真的，她才放松心情。但话说回来，他不太可能有太多比较的机会。
莎兰德事先并未计划在格林纳达找一个青少年情夫，这只是一时冲动，当天深夜离开时，她也没想到自己会再回来。但第二天他们在海滩上相遇，她发现有这个笨拙的男孩陪伴挺舒服的。她在格林纳达住了七个星期，布兰成为她生活中不可或缺的一部分。白天他们不会碰面，但日落前会在海滩上共度几个小时，晚上则在他的小屋里独处。
她发现他们两人走在一起，看上去就像两个青少年。甜蜜的十六岁。
男孩显然觉得生活变得有趣得多，因为遇见一个会教他数学与情慾的女人。
他打开门，露出欢喜的笑容。
「你想要有人作伴吗？」她问道。
凌晨两点刚过，莎兰德离开了小屋。她觉得身体里面暖洋洋的，因此没有走上回礁岛群饭店的路，而是沿着海滩散步。她一个人走在黑暗中，知道布兰就在身後一百码处。
他总会这麽做。她从未在他那里待上一整夜，而他则经常坚称女人家不应该独自走夜路回饭店，并坚持自己有义务陪她回去，尤其她又经常待到很晚。莎兰德会静静听着他的反对，然後以一句坚定的「不用」结束谈话。我想去哪里就去哪里，想什麽时候去就什麽时候去。不用，我不需要人护送。第一次发现他跟在自己身後时，她确实很生气。但现在却觉得他想保护她的心意很体贴，因此便假装不知道他在後面，也不知道他一见她走进饭店大门就会掉头回去。
她好奇地想：如果她遭受攻击，他会怎麽做？
她会使用放在背包外侧口袋的铁锤，这是先前在麦金泰五金电器行买的。有一把好的铁锤，应该就能应付大多数的人身攻击了，莎兰德心想。
这天是满月，天空星光灿烂。莎兰德抬起头，认出了地平线附近的狮子座a星。差不多快到饭店露台时，她忽然停下来，因为隐约瞥见饭店下方的水边有个人影。这是她头一次在入夜後看见海滩上有人。那人约在一百码外，但莎兰德立刻便知道月光下的人是谁。
正是三十二号房那位德高望重的福布斯博士。
她快走三步躲进树影中，转过头时，布兰也不见了。水边的人影缓缓地来回踱步，一面抽着香烟，偶尔会停下来弯下腰，彷佛在检视沙地。这出默剧持续了二十分钟後，他才转身快步走向临海滩一侧的饭店入口，然後消失不见。
莎兰德等了几分钟，才走下去到福布斯博士刚才所在之处。她慢慢地绕了半圈，查看沙滩，却只看到小石子和一些贝壳。数分钟後她放弃搜索，走回饭店房间。
她趴在阳台栏杆上，从隔壁房间的落地窗往里看。四下静悄悄的，晚间的争吵显然已经结束。片刻过後，她从背包里拿出几张纸，用来卷布兰给她的大麻烟，然後坐在阳台的椅子上，边抽烟边凝视加勒比海黑沉沉的海水思忖着。
她有如进入高度警戒状态的雷达。
Notes:
Notes: