Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

by Stayrr

After suffering from a heat stroke while working under the scorching heat of summer, Lu Zhou, a hardworking but poor university student, somehow becomes the owner of an advanced technological system. With the cheat given by the system, his university life changes overnight. A Master’s degree? Easy. PhD? Not a problem. From a nobody, he quickly becomes a huge celebrity in the wor

21. 651

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651 I Have Questions

University of Oxford, lecture hall.

The venue was fully seated.

The scholars sitting in the venue either chatted with each other or flipped through the thesis print-out and report summary…

The noisy venue was like music for Brian Caro's ears. In half an hour, he would become one of the greatest mathematical physicists of this century. He would place down the last piece of the Yang-Mills equations puzzle and win a million USD in prize money… Or at least a third of the prize money.

For a scholar working in the theoretical field, this prize money was quite substantial.

Of course, his motivation for solving this problem wasn't the prize money. In his opinion, money and honor were bonuses.

So why did he try and solve this problem?

Because pushing civilization forward was a pleasant thing in and of itself.

There was still fifteen minutes until the report. Most of the participants had already arrived. The ones that still hadn't arrived, probably wouldn't end up coming. The security guard standing at the entrance of the lecture hall opened the doors and allowed some of the people, who didn't receive the invitation letters, into the venue.

Professor Brian was wearing a black suit. He stood at the venue hallway and looked at his watch. He looked at the venue entrance and seemed a little disappointed.

A waiter wearing a black suit and a bow-tie walked over.

Professor Brian looked at the waiter and immediately asked, "Is Professor Lu here?"

The waiter paused for a second and shook his head. "No."

Professor Brian was even more disappointed now.

However, it was what it was.

Even though it was unfortunate that Professor Lu couldn't come, there were a lot of other big names who were attending this report. Regardless of whether or not Professor Lu was here, his report would continue.

Fifteen minutes passed by, the report officially began.

Brian walked on stage and began to show his PowerPoint presentation. He started to talk about his main thesis ideas, as well as some of the methods he used to prove the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap.

Luo Wenxuan was in the crowd. He took a deep breath and opened his laptop that was placed on his knees.

On his laptop screen were some of the problems he discovered while researching Professor Brian's thesis. It would be great if his questions could be answered during Professor Brian's report, but if not, he would ask them during the QA session.

On the other hand, Peter Goddard and Edward Witten were sitting together.

Both of them were big names in the mathematical physics world, and their main area of expertise was string theory. When they heard that Professor Brian from the University of Oxford claimed to have solved the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap, these people immediately left CERN and took a flight to the UK.

As Goddard listened to Professor Brian's talk, he sighed.

"If only Professor Lu was here."

He was the dean of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. When he received Lu Zhou's resignation letter, he tried to convince Lu Zhou to stay. Unfortunately, he didn't succeed. Every time he thought about Lu Zhou, he would feel a little regretful.

"He has his own matters to attend to." Witten smiled and closed his laptop. He said, "Also, regardless of whether he is physically here or not, I believe that he won't miss this report."

Goddard: "What do you think about Professor Brian's thesis?"Read more chapter on v

Witten thought for a bit and said, "I need to take some time to think about it. After all, he has modified it at least a dozen times after he released the preprint. I saw the final version just a week ago. I think his proof idea is worthy of recognition, but I feel like something is wrong. If the Mathematical Physics journal wants to invite me as a reviewer, I'll express my opinions in the review process… What do you think?"

Before the report began, Professor Brian stated that his finalized thesis would be submitted to Mathematical Physics. If everything went according to plan, Mathematical Physics would organize at least five people to conduct a rigorous review of this thesis.

Witten was a top mathematical physicist who had won the Fields Medal before, so Mathematical Physics obviously wouldn't forget about him.

Of course, this was true for Peter Goddard as well.

Goddard went silent for a while. He then responded, "I feel the same way. His proof might be flawed… Also, I view this problem in a different way?"

Witten raised his eyebrows. "Oh really?"

Goddard used a pen to draw four points on his notebook as he said, "Set a four-dimensional gauge field with SU(N) or SO(N) and SP(N) as the norm group. This might be equivalent to the 1/n chord coupling constant in string theory… If this is the case, both the mass gap and the quark confinement can be perfectly explained."

Witten raised his eyebrows as he said, "From the perspective of string theory?"

Goddard nodded at him and said, "Yes."

Witten smiled and said, "Your opinion is interesting. Maybe we can go for a cup of coffee after the report finishes."

Goddard smiled and said, "Haha, only if you're paying."

In the midst of talking about a new proof idea, these two didn't realize that in the back of their minds, they had no hope for this report anymore.

Two hours passed by, the report came to an end.

After Professor Brian finished his PowerPoint presentation, the lecture hall erupted in applause. It was time for the QA session.

Professor Brian made adequate preparations beforehand and answered all of the questions that were raised by scholars.

Soon, there wasn't anyone asking questions.

Professor Brian was about to announce the end of the report when someone raised their hand.

"Wait a second."

Professor Brian looked at the lonely hand in the crowd and frowned. However, he quickly smiled cheerfully.

"Yes?"

Luo Wenxuan took a deep breath and closed his laptop. He then stood up.

Witten was sitting on the other side of the lecture hall, and he suddenly had a look of surprise on his face.

Goddard looked at him and said, "You know him?"

Witten looked at Luo Wenxuan, who was standing up, and said, "Of course, he was my student."

Even though Luo Wenxuan had attended more than two dozen reports, being stared at by so many scholars still gave him a lot of pressure.

He calmed himself down and then looked at Professor Brian.

"I have a question."

Brian: "Go ahead."

Luo Wenxuan: "On page 11, line 15, I noticed that you defined the constant amount of motion in the torus Euclidean spacetime… Is that correct?"

Brian lifted his chin and said, "Of course, we use the Euclidean spacetime to formalize the lattice point, this is crucial to the entire theorem argument."

"Like you said, this is important, but…" Luo Wenxuan took a deep breath before asking, "But how do you plan on proving that the grid step size is zero?"

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652 Solved It?

"How did you prove that the grid step size limit tends toward zero?"

The moment Professor Brian heard this question, his eyebrows furrowed.

Do you really need to ask?

The answer is obviously…

The words were at the tip of Brian's tongue. However, he froze.

His mouth was wide open, but nothing came out.

How to prove that the grid step size limit tends toward zero?

F*ck… How do I prove this!

When he was writing the twenty-page thesis, he used this as a theorem without providing any proof. However, this wasn't entirely his fault; this was such a small detail that it was almost insignificant to put the proof in the thesis.

A drop of cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

"This an interesting question… Hmm, interesting, of course I can prove it…" Brian said some meaningless words, in hopes of providing him with more time. His brain was operating at 120% as he desperately tried to find a solution.

However, the more anxious he was, the slower his thinking became.

The venue was dead silent.

This silence was terrifying to Brian.

As it turned out, delaying didn't help Brian at solving the problem.

When the crowd saw that Professor Brian couldn't answer this question, whispers were heard around the venue.

Witten was sitting on one side of the lecture hall. He closed his notebook and smiled as he said, "Looks like I won't have to worry about a reviewer invitation by Mathematical Physics."

Constant action in a torus Euclidean spacetime.

Detecting errors in a complex spacetime like this was difficult.

If Witten had to review the thesis, he wouldn't miss this detail. However, it was very difficult to find a mistake like this during the live report. After all, there were too many areas that were worthy of paying attention.

However, when Witten remembered that Luo Wenxuan was working at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, he instantly knew what was going on.

He knew that Luo Wenxuan must have talked about this stuff with Lu Zhou beforehand…

Goddard looked at Professor Brian with sympathy and nodded.

"Yeah."

As a British, he obviously wanted Professor Brian to be right.

However, it looked like Professor Brian couldn't repair this fatal loophole in his thesis. This report would have to end with a disappointing ending.

Unfortunately, their trip to the UK was a waste.

No wonder Professor Lu didn't come…

The venue went into chaos, a lot of people had even begun to leave the venue.

It wasn't like the scholars had somewhere else to be, but they knew it wouldn't be worth waiting for Brian to answer.

The reporters who were standing on both sides of the venue also noticed the chaos, and they frantically pressed their camera shutters. A lot of reporters were even prepared to run toward Professor Brian after the report and stick their microphones in his face.

Even though the University of Oxford staff members tried to maintain order, it seemed like the chaos was uncontainable.

Luo Wenxuan was still standing there, and he felt a bit nervous.

Especially since Professor Brian was staring at him with a dirty look, it even gave him the chills.

Originally, he wanted to take a vacation here for a few days.

But now, it seemed like…

He should go back home instead.

…

Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Inside the corner office.

Lu Zhou was sitting at his office desk. He was writing some stuff on a piece of draft paper.

Because Luo Wenxuan was gone, there wasn't anyone worth talking to at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. Since Lu Zhou had been absent from Jin Ling University for quite some time now, he decided to use this opportunity to work in his office at Jin Ling University.

The change of environment gave him more thinking room, and he could also help his own students with some of the problems they had encountered.

He Changwen was sitting at his desk while watching the full report. He pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and asked Lu Zhou, "Professor, did you tell Professor Luo about the loopholes in Professor Brian's thesis?"

Lu Zhou stopped writing and pondered for a second.

"I actually did mention the torus Euclid spacetime effect with him, but even if I didn't mention it, he would have spotted the mistake himself."

He Changwen adjusted his glasses. He had a poker face on the outside, but his heart was surprised.

He knew that Professor Luo was Witten's student and was in the Thousand People Initiative, but he never saw any of Professor Luo's theoretical physics achievements. He didn't expect Professor Luo to be this strong.

Not to mention, that Professor Brian wasn't just a nobody. Even though he wasn't a top-ranking scholar, he was still high up in the academic world. Not to mention, he had been researching the Yang-Mills equations for more than 20 years. Being able to find mistakes in Brian's thesis wasn't something normal people could do.

Lu Zhou looked at He Changwen's look of disbelief and said, "You think it's incredible?"

He Changwen nodded and said, "Yeah, I do."

Lu Zhou smiled and said in a relaxing manner, "It's nothing incredible, fame is just a byproduct of strength. Once someone reaches a certain level, fame and honor will naturally come."

He Changwen: "What level do you think Professor Luo is?"

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "Fields Medal is too difficult, and Nobel Prize is too dependent on luck. However, if he puts his mind into the path of mathematical physics, he can definitely win the Dannie Heineman Prize."

Dannie Heineman Prize!

He Changwen was shocked.

Even though this award wasn't well known outside of physics, anyone in the mathematical physics world knew of this award.

This award wasn't significant among CERN researchers, but when it came to Chinese researchers, having this award alone could make someone a leader in the academic society…

He Changwen paused for a second and said, "Do you think Professor Brian can fix his mistake?"

"I think it's not…"

Lu Zhou suddenly stopped.

His pen also stopped moving.

He Changwen paused for a second before asking, "Professor?"

Professor Lu sat there as motionless as a statue.

He Changwen was about to speak again, but Lu Zhou's pen suddenly moved. He muttered to himself in a quiet voice. It was so soft only he could hear it.

"I see…"

The particle of mass m was the key to solving the problem. According to Jaffe's proof idea, this was crucial for the strong interaction Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem.

However, it was almost impossible to calculate this specific value.

The mass of the particle wasn't defined in the quantum chromodynamics world. It might not even be a particle.

Even now, he didn't have a value for m.

However, he had the proof of its existence.

As long as it existed, the theorem could be proved.

He didn't have to find the mass value at all!

Lu Zhou looked a the lines of calculations on the paper, and his eyes gradually lit with excitement.

He stood up abruptly as if he had just received an electrical shock.

"I solved it!"

He Changwen: "…?"

Everyone else in the office: "???"

A long time went by.

The office was dead silent.

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653 Aging Is Sad

The report ended with a failure.

However, for world-class problems like this, the physics community was relatively tolerant. As long as he could reasonably fix the problems in his thesis, no one would immediately invalidate his thesis. However, this was a huge blow to him personally.

For theses that were new or weren't full of obvious mistakes, even the best scholars wouldn't be able to find mistakes during the report conference. Especially since most scholars weren't in the same research field.

Revision of the thesis, long discussions with the reviewers, these troublesome matters were often carried out in the review section of the journal submission.

However, this was only the report session, yet it ended in such a disastrous way.

He was feeling frustrated and humiliated at the same time.

"Goddamn it!"

Professor Brian threw the pages onto the floor, and he tightened his fist. He was about to punch the table but didn't want to hurt himself.

Everyone in the office saw how furious Professor Brian was. No one dared to speak.

Even though this old gentleman looked enlightened and wise, he wasn't always this way. Anyone who had spent a lot of time with him would know that he was quite an emotional person.

If anyone pissed him off when he was angry, that person could forget about spending a good time at the University of Oxford.

After a while, Professor Brian finally calmed down a bit.

His assistant, who was standing next to him, hesitated for a bit before speaking, "This isn't a deadly mistake. Even though we can't explain this problem, at least we were able to calculate the mass m in computer spacetime manifold simulations… There might be mistakes in our proof process, but no one can prove that we are wrong."

Professor Brian felt a little better, but he still wasn't in a good mood.

"This is meaningless… Computer simulation results aren't always convincing, especially for problems like this." Professor Brian pinched his eyebrows and thought for a long time. He said, "But you're right, no one can prove that we are wrong, we're just not perfect."

Professor Brian took a deep breath and tried to cheer himself up. He cleared his throat and said,

"Okay, guys, get ready to work… The Asian professor is correct, this mistake is important. If we can't prove that the grid step size tends toward zero, our proof won't work. It's actually a good thing we discovered this mistake now, as opposed to finding out about it later."

After everyone in the office heard Professor Brian's words, they sighed in relief and started to work again.

Professor Brian got up and walked to the coffee machine and made himself a cup of coffee.

He sat back down at his desk. Before he rectified this problem, he set his arXiv thesis status to "In Progress".

However, when he went on the arXiv website, he found a new thesis posted in his field. It was on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap; the problem he claimed to have already proved.

Professor Brian was stunned. He wondered who would do such a thing.

He then opened the thesis.

The second he saw the thesis title and author, he was stunned.

Lu Zhou?

WTF?

Without hesitating, he skipped through the abstract and went straight to the main thesis body.

The more he read, the more his eyelids began to twitch.

Especially when he saw the crucial "m=(2O(λ3))" formula. His eyes were filled with rage.

The proof process was exactly the same!

The preprint published by Lu Zhou also referenced Jaffe's thesis and gave an asymptotic expansion of mass m!

There was a "tiny" deviation in the proof process… But in Brian's opinion, this was insignificant.

For example, he used a scalar field on a spacetime manifold, which was the method used by Weinberg to establish the unified theory of electroweak interaction. However, Lu Zhou used a quantum corresponding to the Yang-Mills theory, the Quantum Yang-Mills field.

There was a thunderous roar in the office as Professor Brian stood up angrily from his chair.

"This can't be a coincidence!"

He finally understood.

He understood why Lu Zhou didn't attend his report.

Why some "nobody" from Jinling appeared instead.

And how this "nobody" was able to point out the weaknesses in his thesis.

In his opinion, this was all premeditated. They planned to destroy his report. Then, they jumped on the opportunity to steal Brian's proof while Brian was busy changing his thesis.

This kind of scenario wasn't uncommon in the physics world. Whenever an idea was invented but wasn't applied to its full potential, it would quickly be taken and used by other scholars, who would implement it in their own research and claim their research was the "first".

However, he didn't expect a scholar like Lu Zhou to do something like this!

"Professor…"

The assistant looked at Professor Brian.

The assistant was about to speak but decided not to do so in the end.

Brian was full of anger.

His eyes were filled with malevolence. There was no point in saying anything.

Professor Brian stared straight at his computer screen and said, "Contact BBC for me. I have to let everyone know how despicable this guy is!"

…

At the campus of the University of Oxford…

After the scholars from all over the world left, the campus returned to its peaceful state.

Two theoretical physicist students were holding textbooks while walking down the asphalt road next to the cafe. They just came out of the library and were about to return to their dormitory.Read more chapter on v

They began to talk about quantum chromodynamics and the latest gauge theory research.

"Have you heard? The strong interaction Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem has been proved!"

"Are you talking about Professor Brian Caro's proof? Wasn't it disproven?"

"No, not him, I'm talking about Professor Lu's thesis."

"Lu? From Jin Ling University?"

"Do you not know? Yesterday, he posted a thesis on arXiv at three o'clock in the morning. My professor even tweeted about it. I woke up in the morning and liked his tweet."

"On arXiv? Alright, see you later, I'm going back to the library!"

"…"

Next to the cafe.

Witten, who was wearing sunglasses, saw the young men walking past and smiled.

"Looks like Professor Lu won the race."

He wasn't in a rush to return to CERN. Instead, he talked about solving the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap from a string theory perspective with Goddard. However, it seemed that his past two days of discussions weren't necessary.

After all, Professor Lu, who had always been known for his rigorous proofs, had released a preprint.

Finding a mistake in Lu Zhou's mathematics thesis was more difficult than writing a thesis.

Goddard was sitting across from Witten. He took a sip of coffee. It was almost like Goddard knew this was going to happen.

"I knew it."

"There's a CERN conference the day after tomorrow." Witten looked at his watch. He then looked at Goddard as he said, "Now that the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap has been proven, do we still have to discuss our string theory idea?"

Goddard: "Even though the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap has been proven, the strong interaction and electromagnetic force unification haven't been proven yet. Aren't you interested in the Nobel Prize?"

He knew that Witten had always been angry about not being able to win the Nobel Prize even though he was one of the pioneers of string theory.

So far, it seemed like Witten wouldn't be able to win a Nobel Prize on the M theory. After all, there was no chance that this theory would be verified in this century. However, there was more to theoretical physics than just string theory, namely, the Grand Unified Theory.

However…

"Forget about it." Witten smiled and stood up as he said, "If he is correct, then there is no one in the world closer to the objective truth than him. If someone wanted to surpass him, they would have to surpass him in talent and grit. If I were twenty… or thirty years younger, I would be interested in competing with him. But now…"

Witten looked at Goddard and shrugged.

"Forget about me, are you confident in yourself?"

Goddard didn't say anything. He just reached out his hand. He grabbed his coffee cup and took a sip.

Aging was a sad thing.

Especially for people who had devoted their lives to academia.

Even though they didn't care about the extra wrinkles on their faces, their decline in fluid intelligence and critical thinking was inevitable. Both him and Witten used to be able to stay up for days while thinking about a problem. However, that wasn't possible anymore.

Their time was gone…

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654 The Path to the Milky Way.

The preprint thesis posted on arXiv swept the entire physics community like a tsunami.

Even though everyone mentally prepared themselves before reading the thesis, after they read the thesis, a lot of people were shocked by the huge amount of information in the thesis.

Both the solution to the Yang-Mills theory and the proposal of the Quantum Yang-Mills Field allowed people to look at this problem from a different perspective.

Just like always, Lu Zhou's thesis was as rigorous as possible. Unless there was a major mistake, he wouldn't make any changes to the thesis. Therefore, this was likely going to be the final version.

After he uploaded the thesis, he finally completed his mission.

Lu Zhou was sitting at his desk waiting for a cup of coffee. He leaned back in his chair and went into the system space.

He walked toward the translucent holographic panel in the pure white dimension. A line of words soon appeared in front of him.

[Congratulations, User, for completing the mission!]

[Mission completion details are as follows: Complete the Millennium Prize Problem Yang-Mills equations.]

[Final mission evaluation: S]

[Mission reward: 300,000 mathematics experience points, 300,000 physics experience points. 500 general points. One lucky draw ticket.]

[S evaluation special reward: 10% experience points bonus.]

I didn't get an S?

Lu Zhou looked surprised.

Normally speaking, S was accompanied by a bonus reward mission.

The extra rewards for an S grade were usually experience points, general points, or equipment.

Obviously, the best would be a branch award, but he had only ever received one branch award before. Which was at the CERN seminar, where he discovered the 750 GeV signal. The system considered the discovery as a completion of a hidden branch mission, which gave him a considerable amount of experience points.

Lu Zhou stared at the information screen while wondering where he could have done better.

Is it because uploading it on arXiv isn't solemn enough?

But this didn't make sense. After all, when he first proved Goldbach's conjecture, he also uploaded the preprint to arXiv before submitting the official version to Annual Mathematics later.

If he recalled correctly, he received an S evaluation.

Lu Zhou couldn't think of a reason why he didn't receive a perfect evaluation, so he set this matter aside.

Even though Lu Zhou didn't receive an S evaluation, he wasn't overly distraught. After all, after he completed this mission, he planned on using his mission card, which would activate a mission chain. If he received another reward mission, he wouldn't know what to do.

"System, open my characteristic panel!"

A gentle blue light swept across the screen, showing his characteristic panel.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 8 (774,000/3 million)

B. Physics: Level 7 (13,215/1.2 million)

C. Biochemistry: Level 5 (110,000/300,000)

D. Engineering: Level 5 (0/300,000)

E. Materials science: level 6 (13,000/600,000)

F. Energy science: Level 3 (0/100,000)

G. Information science: Level 2 (3,000/50,000)

General points: 4,335 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

Lu Zhou looked at his physics experience points and felt relieved.

Jesus Christ, thank god my mission evaluation was S, which gave me the experience points.

If it wasn't for the extra 10% experience points, which gave him an additional 30,000 physics experience points, he would have had 583.215,000 physics experience points, just on the edge of the 600,000 level 7 requirement.

Missing the cutoff by a bit would have been so annoying.

As for mathematics…

Since Lu Zhou was nowhere near leveling up, he wasn't in a hurry.

After he received his mission rewards, the next thing to do was the exciting lucky draw.

Lu Zhou navigated to the lucky draw page and clicked on the lucky draw button. He took a deep breath and watched the roulette wheel rapidly rotate. He then pressed stop.

The inertia of the wheel caused it to spin a couple dozen more times. It slowly came to a stop.

[Congratulations, User, sample received.]

Lu Zhou's heart skipped a beat.

[Received: Energy Medicine (10x)

[Energy Medicine: Developed by Future Pharmaceuticals. It can completely remove any fatigue accumulated by the nervous system and the somatic cells. Completely restore the user's cellular function and metabolic level to the optimal state.]

Lu Zhou's heartbeat returned to normal.

He stared at the reward and went silent for a while.

What does this thing even do?

Does it mean I can stay up all night, take this stuff, and recover?

Regardless, it's still better than the useless cologne.

Lu Zhou opened his inventory and saw his new prize sitting inside. He then looked at his mission card, which he had had for a long time.

[Special mission card: Able to activate before accepting a normal mission. Activation begins a special mission chain, which replaces the normal mission. Special mission chains cannot be stopped unless the user fails the mission.

[Activate? Yes/No]

Lu Zhou didn't hesitate. He reached out and clicked "Yes".

A light blue wave swept across the screen, and the updated mission panel was soon presented in front of him.

[Special Mission Chain: Take Control Of The Earth and Moon

[Mission Description: Learning how to stay warm at a cold night like this isn't enough. Fortunately, there is an undeveloped abundance of resources near the vicinity waiting for human exploration.

[Target: Complete three milestones.

[Mission reward: Final evaluation is determined by the user's performance on each stage. Rewards include but are not limited to, experience points, general points, samples, blueprints, special items…]

The entire mission chain was divided into three milestones. Only the first milestone was visible, the other two were blacked out.

This mission chain was different than the previous one. There were no various paths that he could take to complete the mission. Lu Zhou had to follow the system's plan step by step.

Until Lu Zhou completed the first stage of the mission, he wouldn't even know what the next mission stage was.

Therefore, he couldn't find any shortcuts.

However, there were also advantages.

For example, he would receive experience and rewards after each phase of the mission instead of waiting for the entire mission chain to be completed.

Lu Zhou reached out and selected the first mission milestone.

[Target 1: Implement a manned moon landing.

[Requirements: Send at least one astronaut to the moon and successfully bring them back while ensuring their personal safety.]

[

Secondary goals:

1. Collect and bring back 1kg of lunar soil. Reward: 10,000 experience points.

2. For a period of five months, deploy 10 square meters of crops on the surface of the moon. Observe and record the growth of the crops under conditions of low gravity and the absence of a magnetic field. Reward: 10,000-50,000 experience points.

3. Place ten live mice on the surface of the moon for five months. Record mice activity under low gravity and the absence of a magnetic field. Reward: 10,000-100,000 experience points.

…

]

Lu Zhou looked at the mission information screen and began to contemplate.

"So, I'll have to send someone to the moon?"

Honestly, he previously thought about sending a few communication satellites or signal stations to the moon. After that, he could maybe send equipment for some unmanned scientific research experiments. However, it seemed like the system was eager for him to send a live person.

The Yang-Mills equations had been solved, and the unified theory of the strong interaction and electromagnetic force was bound to be discovered. Controllable fusion battery technology was almost feasible, and Lu Zhou already had an idea of how to implement controllable fusion batteries.

After I complete the Hall-effect thruster and fusion battery, I guess I'll send someone to the moon.

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655 Answer Before End of the Month

After Lu Zhou confirmed his mission, he exited the system space.

Lu Zhou's consciousness returned to his study room in his mansion. He wasn't in a hurry to start working. Instead, he went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. He then opened his computer and went on his MathOverflow account.

This was the world's largest and most professional mathematics forum, many well-known scholars such as Tao Zhexuan and Schultz had their own accounts and blogs, and Lu Zhou was no exception.

Even though Lu Zhou didn't update his blog as often as Professor Tao, he still liked to communicate with scholars from all over the world.

Lu Zhou knew that his thesis on arXiv should have been downloaded a lot of times by people around the world. He opened his MathOverflow email, and he was shocked by the number of email messages he received.

The most interesting part was that it wasn't just email messages from people in the mathematics world, there were also email messages from physics PhD students, postdocs, and physics professors. They all sent him private messages.

The core content of these private email messages was the same.

They were all asking him how close he was to the electrostrong interaction theory.

Or rather, how long it would take him to solve this problem.

The Yang-Mills existence and mass gap were explained from a mathematical point of view. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the unified theory of electrostrong interaction would be discovered. After all, the most difficult part about the electrostrong interaction was that one couldn't use the "symmetry breaking" method, which was used to discover the electroweak interaction.

However, now that the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem was solved, there was no longer a bottleneck on the electrostrong interaction. It was clear that it was only a matter of time before a groundbreaking theory would be discovered.

When Lu Zhou read these email messages, he couldn't help but smirk.

Replying to all of them was way too cumbersome.

Lu Zhou used a blog function that he had never used before, and he spent ten minutes writing a post before clicking "Send".

[I'll give you guys an answer before the end of the month.]

This short blog post exploded in the physics community.

…

Lu Zhou's life had been chaotic for the past few days. However, after solving the Yang-Mills equations, he could finally climb into bed and get a good night's sleep.

He slept until six o'clock the next day, when his circadian clock woke him up. After he had some breakfast that Wang Peng brought him, he went to Jin Ling University.

He got off the black sedan and began to walk toward the mathematics building. Interestingly enough, people began to congratulate him.

"Professor Lu, congratulations!"

"I didn't think I would witness this day in my lifetime, Professor Lu, you're amazing!"

"Congratulations, congratulations. Your name will be in the physics hall of fame."

Lu Zhou maintained a stiff smile as he responded politely to everyone who greeted him.

He didn't know why, but he felt like some of the professors were waiting on campus just to congratulate him.

The number of people that he happened to bump into was suspiciously high.

Not to mention, the physics building was quite far from the mathematics building.

Lu Zhou finally arrived at his office. He sighed and was about to sit down at his desk. However, he saw someone was already on his sofa, and there was a warm cup of tea on the coffee table.

"Academician Lu?" Lu Zhou was surprised as he looked at the old man. He walked over there and asked, "Why are you here?"

Academician Lu used to be Lu Zhou's supervisor, so Lu Zhou had a lot of respect for him.

Even though they didn't spend a long time together, even now, Lu Zhou's internship experience in CERN was still valuable to him.

Academician Lu smiled and said, "What else could I be doing, I'm here to see you."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "You could have just told me. I would have gone to the physics department to visit you. You didn't have to come all the way here."Read more chapter on v

Academician Lu waved his hand and said, "There's no need for that. It's not far, and I don't have anything else to do anyway. Plus you're so busy with your research, I don't want to disturb you too much."

The old academician had aged quite a lot. Even though he wanted to attend conferences all over the world, his fragile body wouldn't let him. Ever since he retired from scientific research, he devoted most of his energy to teaching the next generation of scholars at the Jin Ling University.

Lu Zhou: "What do you mean? I still have some free time to visit you."

"Yeah, whatever." Academician Lu waved his hand and smiled. He then said, "The reason I came here today is mainly to congratulate you!"

Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly.

Even though he had been congratulated a lot on the way here, hearing his ex-supervisor congratulate him made him feel proud, something he hadn't felt in a long time.

Academician Lu looked at Lu Zhou and nodded. His heart was full of praise and admiration.

Accomplishing this much in the field of theoretical physics at such a young age was extremely rare. Academician Lu could have never imagined that convincing Lu Zhou to dive into the world of theoretical physics would change the history of physics.

He paused for a second before he continued, "The Grand Unified Theory is the holy grail of theoretical physics. The unification of the strong interaction and electromagnetic force is the second step to the Grand Unified Theory. Since you were able to solve the mass gap, I'm sure you're close to solving the electrostrong interaction. Your name will go down in history, not only as a great physicist but also as a monument of the human spirit."

"Just a while ago, I thought that you were distracted by the aerospace field, wasting your physics talents. I was wrong," Academician Lu spoke emotionally. He looked at Lu Zhou and half-jokingly said, "You're the most omnipotent physicist in the world, go do what you have to do!"

Lu Zhou solemnly nodded.

"Ok!"

He knew what Academician Lu was talking about.

He also knew what he should be doing.

After Academician Lu left, Lu Zhou sat down at his desk and pulled out a piece of paper from his drawer. He thought for a second and then started to write his electrostrong interaction thesis.

Maybe because he leveled up in physics, which improved his ability to think about these types of abstract problems, or maybe because he was used to solving peculiar problems like this, but his writing was fluent than before.

It was almost like success was imminent.

Lu Zhou skipped the abstract and finished writing the first section of the thesis. He stopped writing and looked at the paper, almost like it was a piece of art. He couldn't help but smirk.

However, the office door was suddenly pushed open. Zhao Huan, who was responsible for his schedule, quickly ran into the office.

"Professor, this is bad."

Lu Zhou looked up from the draft paper and looked at Zhao Huan.

"What's bad?"

Zhao Huan didn't say anything. She took out a newspaper and placed it on the desk.

Lu Zhou glanced at it. It was an English version of Daily Mail.

There was an article title on the second page.

[Professor Brian: This is plagiarism!]

Lu Zhou: "…"

Oh, it's this clown?

I thought it was something serious…

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656 Is This the Difference?

"This guy is literally lying!"

Zhao Huan said while watching Lu Zhou read the newspaper. She was feeling a little agitated.

She personally witnessed all the blood, sweat, and tears that Lu Zhou put into researching this problem.

But now, out of nowhere, someone was saying that Professor Lu stole the research results!

She thought this was outrageous!

However, unlike her, Lu Zhou was as cool as a cucumber. He even read the report with a look of interest in his eyes.

Lu Zhou finished reading the article and smiled. He then folded the newspaper and gave it back to her.

"Okay then."

When Zhao Huan saw how unmoved Lu Zhou was, she paused for a second and couldn't help but ask, "Do you not care at all?"

"There's nothing to care about." Lu Zhou picked up his pen and organized the draft paper on his desk. He said, "There's no way the Chinese media will run this story, so it won't bother me. As for the foreign media, I don't have to care about it, people will vouch for me."

People having similar ideas happened all the time in academia. However, saying that Lu Zhou stepped on his idea, was a bit ridiculous.

Jaffe's thesis in Annual Mathematics had been published for more than half a century. Professor Brian definitely wasn't the first person to have thought of this proof; he was just the first that almost succeeded.

Luo Wenxuan was the real person who provided Lu Zhou with this idea, so he was stoked to find his name written on Lu Zhou's thesis.

As for why Professor Brian was acting this way…

He probably knew he was being illogical, but he just didn't want to act logically.

After all, this was his chance to make a name for himself. Forget about an unknown scholar, even a Nobel Prize level scholar would be tempted by this honor.

Lu Zhou decided to forget about the Daily Mail article. He didn't want to complain about Professor Brian's slander. Instead, he focused his attention on studying the electrostrong interaction.

Even though he was closer than ever to the objective truth, he still needed a lot of time to solve this problem. Just like how the "symmetry breaking" method was first introduced in theoretical physics during the 1960s, but Weinberg took years to complete his electroweak interaction theory.

However, sometimes accidents could happen.

Even if Lu Zhou didn't actively look for a solution, a solution would find him.

Lu Zhou had been receiving some strange emails. Some emails were interview invitations from media outlets, others were just plain hate messages. Thankfully, Xiao Ai helped him filter out the "spam email".

However, Lu Zhou couldn't just stay silent like this forever.

After some contemplation, Lu Zhou decided to let his assistant arrange some interviews with various foreign media outlets.

Just like Lu Zhou had expected, the second the interview began, he was asked a controversial question.

"During Professor Brian's interviews with the BBC, the Daily Mail, and other media outlets, he insisted that you plagiarized his research… What are your thoughts?"

Lu Zhou chuckled.

"I don't have any thoughts."

The reporter said, "You… don't have an opinion?"

"Yes." Lu Zhou nodded and replied relaxingly, "If Mr. Brian can prove the Yang-Mills equations by setting a spacetime manifold, then I'll give him all the glory of solving a Millennium Prize Problem."

Lu Zhou was totally calm when he said this, like he didn't care at all.

However, the reporter next to him was shocked.

All the glory of solving a Millennium Prize Problem!

Even though the reporter had never heard of someone transferring "glory" to someone else, this so-called "glory" would make Professor Brian one of the most outstanding mathematical physicists of this century…

Maybe Lu Zhou didn't think it was convincing enough, so he looked at the reporter and said, "Of course, this is including the million-dollar prize money as offered by the Clay Institute.

"I'll even pay him in advance."

…

The interview was first broadcasted on the Columbia Broadcasting System.

Then it was reposted onto other major video sites, such as Youtube.

Because of the British media's portrayal of the situation, the public was originally on Professor Brian's side. However, after hearing some words from Lu Zhou, the public started to doubt Professor Brian.

Lu Zhou didn't care about fame or fortune at all. There was no motivation for him to do something like this.

Maybe…

There was another side to this story.

Inside an office at the University of Oxford.

Professor Brian stared angrily at his computer screen as he watched Lu Zhou's interview in its entirety. When he heard Lu Zhou say that he would give the prize money to him, he almost started to blow fire from his mouth.

There was no way Brian was going to swallow his pride.

"You better keep your word, Mr. Lu Zhou."

Professor Brian closed his laptop and pulled out some paper from his drawer.

"I'll give you the proof…

"This method is definitely feasible…

"You will pay for your own words!"

Time always flew by when one was immersed in research.

Even though Brian hadn't done intense research for a long time, with his rage and anger as fuel, it made him extra energetic. Even though being overly emotional wasn't a good thing, Brian turned it into drive and motivation.

A month passed by.

Professor Brian's beard grew like a wild forest. He didn't look like a gentleman anymore. He was almost unrecognizable.

A PhD student was sitting in the corner of the office. He looked at the professor and quietly whispered to himself, "The professor is insane…"

This PhD student used to study psychology before he went into physics.

According to his experience, this was clearly a sign of someone going crazy.

Another PhD student sitting next to him spoke as well.

"Sh, be quiet, don't let Professor Brian hear you."

The office was only so big, so Brian was bound to hear it.

However, Brian Caro didn't care anymore…

His murky pupils looked straight at the crumpled pieces of paper. Professor Brian muttered to himself the same phrase that he had been saying for the past month, "This is impossible… This is impossible…"

However, this time, there was a trace of life in his voice.

He put down his pen and looked at the ceiling. He then said with a monotonic voice, "I proved it."

The second he said those words, everyone in the office was stunned.

10 seconds of silence went by.

His assistant was the first one who dared to break this silence.

The young man in his twenties gulped and spoke in disbelief. His voice was trembling.

"You… p-proved it?!"

He proved it!

If Professor Lu was a man of his word, not only would Brian receive a million dollars, but he would also receive the honor of solving the Yang-Mills equations and become one of the greatest mathematicians of this century.

"Yes." Brian looked at the draft paper and said in a self-deprecating tone, "I spent a month proving that the scalar spacetime field manifold cannot be used to research the strong interaction… A mathematical proof."

Whether it was the invariant torus Euclidean space or the grid step size limit…

All of these mistakes were just manifestations of something deeper.

Luo Wenxuan didn't see the whole picture, and neither did Brian.

The most crucial problem in Brian's thesis was that the scalar spacetime manifold field itself couldn't be used to study strong interactions. It was as if 11 could never be equal to 3, no matter how many factorizations he did, he would never be able to overthrow the Peano axioms.

Lu Zhou must have known about this since the beginning. That's why Lu Zhou was so sure Brian couldn't do it.

Brian finally realized this.

Even though he wasn't as talented as Lu Zhou, he still proved this in a mathematical way.

Maybe he could call this the "Brian's theorem" or a "non-standard theorem"?

In the midst of his self-deprecation, Brian had an epiphany.

It was at this moment, did he finally realized what Professor Lu was talking about.

"If Mr. Brian can prove the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap by setting a scalar spacetime manifold field?… Is that what you meant?" Brian said as he logged onto Youtube. He soon found Lu Zhou's interview.

After he watched the video, he smiled bitterly.

"Is this the difference between him and me?"

Lu Zhou's mathematics intuition alone was able to defeat something that Brian spent more than a decade on. In Brian's mind, Lu Zhou was an absolute monster.

Why do I feel like…

I'm becoming more and more in denial.

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657 Electrostrong Unification!

Oxford University.

Inside the same office room.

Professor Brian cleaned himself up and sat at his desk. He looked at a piece of paper in his hand and took a deep breath. He then looked at the cameraman and nodded.

"We can start."

The cameraman didn't say anything. He only made a gesture.

Professor Brian looked at the camera and went silent for a while.

"It was extremely irresponsible of me to make such an accusation against an academic scholar. Even though there were many misunderstandings and other nuances at play, I still take full responsibility for the incident."

His eyebrows lowered as he paused for a second.

"I would like to apologize for what happened between me and Professor Lu.

"Even though I know an apology won't fix anything, I still would like to ask for your forgiveness."

Apologizing wasn't an easy thing.

Especially for egoistic and arrogant people.

However, Brian had changed.

He spent a month researching the torus Euclidean spacetime. Not only did he grow academically, but his personal character also grew.

Even though this was embarrassing…

But the fact of the matter was that Professor Lu indirectly gave Brian a physics lesson, without Brian even knowing it.

This video wasn't just an apology.

It was Brain saying goodbye to his past-self.

…

The video was very short; it was less than five minutes.

After it was uploaded on Youtube, it received a measly amount of views.

After all, it had been more than a month since Brian's Daily Mail slander. This matter was no longer controversial. Even though Daily Mail heavily advertised the article, most people were only interested in the drama. They didn't really care about the truth anyway…

Brian Caro was sitting at his desk. He had just finished uploading the video. He went silent for a while before he opened his computer and typed up an email. He sent the email to Lu Zhou's mailbox.

Two days later, Lu Zhou watched this video in his office at the mathematics department of Jin Ling University.

"Amazing… Professor, how did you do it?"

Zhao Huan was sitting at her desk watching the video, and she had a look of worship on her face. She was in disbelief.

She couldn't imagine how Lu Zhou was able to make such a "shameless" person apologize so sincerely…

Calling Brian shameless was a bit over the top.

However, in her eyes, Professor Brian was a shameless scum.

"I didn't do anything." Lu Zhou turned off the video and casually said, "He just came to terms with it himself."

If Brian couldn't come to terms with this, then his academic career would have been over.

However, now that he accepted this situation, he was able to walk out of that dead end and continue onward with his academic career.

Lu Zhou didn't explain anything to Assistant Zhao. He continued to focus on his thesis.

It had been a month since the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem was solved. However, there wasn't a conclusive evaluation for Lu Zhou's thesis. Most of the top-tier international theoretical physics research institutes were still carefully studying Lu Zhou's thesis. Lu Zhou, on the other hand, hadn't stopped working.

He said that by the end of the month, he would give everyone an answer.

He was progressing smoothly.

He was almost finished…

The entire day went by.

Lu Zhou was still sitting at his desk with a pen in his hand. He touched his stack of draft papers and felt satisfied.

His strong interaction theory…

Was finally completed!

Lu Zhou spent the whole day working, and now, he was feeling a bit hungry. He put his thesis manuscript aside and wanted to go outside to eat something.

Han Mengqi, on the other hand, was holding a stack of freshly printed computational materials thesis. She cheerfully walked to Lu Zhou's desk and said, "Sir, I finished the task you gave me!"

Lu Zhou looked at her thesis and nodded. "Okay, just put it here."

Han Mengqi put the thesis on the corner of the desk and noticed the manuscript. She asked curiously, "What are you writing?"

"Nothing." Lu Zhou stood up and smiled. He casually said, "It's just a simple summary of the work I did a while ago."

…

2020 was an exciting year for the world of theoretical physics.

In less than a year, the general solution to the Yang-Mills equations and the mass gap problem was solved. The invention of the Quantum Yang-Mills Field began a new era for the gauge theory field.

And this wasn't just it.

While everyone was thinking that ten years' worth of physics research progress was made this year, another world-shocking research project emerged.

Three days after Professor Brian posted his apology video, Lu Zhou posted his second thesis on arXiv.

The title only had three words.

[Electrostrong Interaction Theory!]

The second the thesis was published on arXiv, it was like the physics community experienced a magnitude eight earthquake.

Even though everyone had no doubt that Lu Zhou, the one who solved the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap, was the most promising person in the world to unify the strong interaction and electromagnetic force, physicists still didn't expect to see Lu Zhou's thesis on arXiv.

In just one and a half months, Lu Zhou had perfected his own theorems and unified the strong interaction and electromagnetic force!

Lu Zhou couldn't even be described as merely being a genius…

After all, geniuses were people.

Lu Zhou was a god…

Apart from some Chinese research institutes, there wasn't a single well-known international research institute that commented on this freshly published paper. Most people either avoided questions from the reporter or gave an irrelevant answer.

After all, this was too important, even the highest-tier physicists had to treat this matter with caution.

If this thesis was correct, then it would change the face of physics for the next century.

If it was incorrect, but the academic community had mistakenly accepted it, then it could setback theoretical physics research for decades…

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658 Answer Is in Your Hand

Switzerland.

CERN headquarters.

Witten was inside a coffee shop. He was sitting on a sofa with his legs crossed. He read through the thesis in his hand while drinking a cup of black coffee.

Sitting next to him was Jaffe.

The old man rested his hands on the table as he quietly waited for Witten to finish reading the thesis.

As the founder and the director of the Clay Institute, the inclusion of the Yang-Mills equations as one of the Millennium Prize Problems was decided by these two, and they were the ones who actually phrased the problem.

This problem was set to be the final physics problem of the Millennium Problems, and Jaffe thought that no one in this century would be able to solve this. He didn't expect this day to come so suddenly…

After a while, Witten finally flipped through the last page of the thesis.

Jaffe noticed this, so he asked, "You finished?"

"Almost."Read more chapter on NovelFull

"I want to know what you think."

"He's even faster than I thought." Witten put down the thesis and looked at the calendar on his phone. He smiled and said, "41 days. He's probably the only person on this planet who can do something like this."

Jaffe sighed and said, "Is there anything else you want to comment on, other than his speed?"

"Unfortunately, these are all my thoughts at the moment." Witten sighed and paused for a second. He then said, "We don't have a clear conclusion regarding his previous thesis yet."

Witten couldn't help but feel emotional.

The international physics community was still arguing over Lu Zhou's previous research results.

This was the first time Witten witnessed research results being released faster than conclusions. It was as if the entire world were trying to catch up to Lu Zhou…

"There's a meeting in the No.1 conference room in a bit, about his thesis on arXiv… I'll mention it during the meeting. But I'm sure someone else will mention it if I don't," Witten said. He looked at his watch and continued, "Also, in any case, there has to be a conclusion about the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap thesis by the end of this month."

Jaffe nodded.

"I agree."

…

While CERN was preparing another seminar regarding the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap, it was already night time at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Most people were ready to leave work and go home, but the lights were still on inside the laboratories in the Institute of Physics.

This was especially true for the laboratory at the end of the corridor.

A dozen researchers sat in the 30 square meters sized room. Everyone's desk was filled with a foot high of research documents. Everyone looked exhausted.

This was China's "largest" research center for the miniaturization of controllable fusion technology. Most of the people here had worked on the original stellarator machine, and their specialties ranged from plasma physics to physics engineering.

However, this wasn't enough.

It had been more than half a year since the project was established, yet the research project hadn't progressed at all.

As usual, Sheng Xianfu looked at the dark sky outside the window. He walked to the coffee machine and returned to his desk with a hot steaming cup of coffee.

He found some documents from the Institute of Acoustics and was about to finish the research report for today. However, someone suddenly opened the laboratory door. A person walked straight in the laboratory.

"I have some stuff here." Lu Zhou gently tossed the documents in his hands onto Sheng Xianfu's desk and said, "I hope you can read it within a day… If not, try to finish reading it in less than two days."

Sheng Xianfu was muddled. He looked at Lu Zhou, then at the documents.

"What's this…"

"Some stuff that needs experiment verification. It's about the miniaturization of controllable fusion." Lu Zhou looked at the messy laboratory and said, "Also, about the question you asked me a while ago, I can finally give you a clear answer.

"High temperature isn't the only condition for achieving a fusion reaction. There are other methods. As long as we determine the relationship between the strong interaction and the electromagnetic force, we can find this method…"

Lu Zhou grabbed a marker from the table and wrote down a string of equations on the whiteboard.

As Sheng Xianfu looked at the whiteboard, his eyebrows furrowed.

"What is this?"

Lu Zhou smiled and explained, "The formula that connects the strong interaction and electromagnetic force.

"It turns out that electromagnetic force and strong interaction force can be unified under the theoretical framework of the Quantum Yang-Mills Field. One month ago, I wasn't sure of this, but now, I can prove it in mathematical terms."

Sheng Xianfu was shocked.

"You… did it?!"

If he recalled correctly, Lu Zhou just solved the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem a month ago.

Lu Zhou thought for a second and said, "Yeah, kind of."

Even though the theoretical physics community didn't accept his research on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap yet, this didn't affect his "electrostrong interaction" research.

Not to mention, the high-tech system already accepted his research and gave him an S rating. Lu Zhou was extremely confident regarding his mathematical abilities.

Lu Zhou's words echoed in Sheng Xianfu's mind. It was like he was just hit by lightning.

He gulped and said, "But… how do you plan on incorporating this theory into our research?"

Applying theoretical results to practical problems was sometimes even more difficult than discovering the theory in the first place. This was especially true for theoretical physics. The application of theoretical physics often came a century later than the discovery. Even though Lu Zhou successfully unified the strong interaction and electromagnetic force, Sheng Xianfu wasn't confident that he could apply this theory to the miniaturization of controllable fusion.

"This is why I came here." Lu Zhou tapped on the stack of documents and said, "I need your help to verify some of my conjectures."

Sheng Xianfu flipped through the stack of documents and glanced at the content.

"Is this…"

Lu Zhou nodded and said seriously, "Yes, the so-called sonoluminescence."

Lu Zhou was the director of the Institute for Advanced Study, so he obviously knew what Sheng Xianfu was researching.

Lu Zhou knew about the information Sheng Xianfu got from Professor Chen Weizhong at the Institute of Acoustics as well as the several models that Sheng Xianfu abandoned.

The physics community didn't have a clear conclusion regarding the principle of sonoluminescence. Some invented the "air implosion theory" or "chemical bond breaking theory"… However, the most attention-grabbing theory for the explanation of sonoluminescence was the "fusion reaction theory".

Lu Zhou looked at Sheng Xianfu and said, "I know you've failed many times, you might have even thought about giving up… I just want to say, your research is not useless, you just didn't find a suitable method."

Sheng Xianfu shook his head.

"I've tried every method there is, what else is there to do?"

Lu Zhou looked at the pile of documents.

"The answer to your question is in these documents."

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Chapter 659 Amazing Experimental Results

Bubbles in a liquid could be stably suspended and periodically pulsated by a certain sound field. When it reached a collapse, within picoseconds, the bubble could produce a volumetric compression ratio of one to a million and create a high temperature and high pressure environment. When the sound pressure was large enough, the energy accumulation would cause the bubbles to illuminate. This phenomenon was called sonoluminescence.

In a proper driving pressure environment, the sonoluminescence bubbles could remain spherical. The nonlinear vibration was repeated for millions or even hundreds of millions of cycles. Because of this characteristic, controllable fusion could possibly be achieved under relatively low-temperature conditions.

Inside the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

The acoustics laboratory in the Institute of Physics was temporarily taken over by a controllable fusion miniaturization team led by Lu Zhou. A transparent container with a radius of around three inches was placed on one of the tables in the laboratory.

The entire transparent container was filled with a viscous concentrated sulfuric acid. High-powered ultrasonic generators were attached to both sides of the container. Various sophisticated instruments were placed around the entire unit, and they were ready to collect experimental data.

Because the sonoluminescence phenomenon happened at the picosecond scale, it was difficult for laboratory cameras to capture all the light flash, especially at the moment when the bubble collapsed to its smallest size.

Therefore, for this experiment, Lu Zhou borrowed a set of "a phase-locked loop-based proportional-integral experimental system" from the Jin Ling University Institute of Acoustics.

Other than being used in these special acoustic experiments, this system was generally used to study anti-submarine sonar systems. If it weren't for Lu Zhou personally asking for the favor, the Institute of Acoustics director would never in a million years have lent out the equipment.

Sheng Xianfu was standing next to the experiment device, and he looked at Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou nodded.

"Let's start."

"Ok."

Sheng Xianfu took a deep breath and walked to the nearest computer. He then swiftly pressed a few buttons.

As a short mosquito-like buzzing sound was heard, the high-powered ultrasonic generator began to release ultrasonic waves into the solution, transferring large amounts of energy.

When the sound pressure in the fluid reached five times the standard atmospheric pressure, Lu Zhou ordered.

"Inject the xenon!"

"Ok!"

The xenon gas was injected, and a series of bubbles slowly floated from the bottom of the container to the center.

Immediately after, the power of the ultrasonic transmitter began to gradually increase, and the sound pressure applied to the bubble also began to increase.

The moment the sound pressure on the bubble reached 15 times the standard atmospheric pressure, the xenon bubble floating in the concentrated sulfuric acid popped with a purple-white light!

The researchers standing around the experiment had a look of joy on their faces.

Even though this was only a test of the experiment device, and they were a long way from succeeding, this was definitely a good start.

The bubbles suspended in the fluid continuously flashed 10 sets of light-rays, and the photos were captured by the phase-locked loop-based proportional-integral imaging system. Several acoustic physicists at the Institute for Advanced Study immediately began to analyze the photos and calculate the luminescence temperature and power.

After Lu Zhou looked at the experimental data, he glanced at Sheng Xianfu.

The luminous power was around 130W. Even though it was gone in a flash, it was still quite astonishing. The peak temperature of the bubble surface reached a terrifying number of 1.5 million kelvin. It was like the inside of the sun was floating in the solution!

Of course, this data could be inaccurate.

After all, the collapse of the bubble happened instantaneously. It wasn't easy to capture the temperature in the first place, much less reducing the data collection error.

"The first phase of the experiment was successful, let's enter the next stage," Lu Zhou said. He placed the experimental report on the table and said to Sheng Xianfu, "Add a neutron shielding layer to the container and prepare for a deuterium-tritium gas injection!"

Sheng Xianfu nodded seriously and said, "Ok!"

The first stage of the experiment was a test of whether or not the design of the set-up was feasible and whether or not they could provide enough sound pressure to the bubble such that the temperature could reach more than a million kelvin.

It seemed like their experiment was very successful.

The xenon floating in the fluid was compressed to a tiny point, and inside that point was energy equivalent to that of a tiny star.

Even though it was at a temperature in the millions and was still far from controllable fusion ignition, the temperature wasn't the only way to achieve fusion ignition.

Not only did the bubble reach millions of kelvin, but it was also at a terrifying density level!

And density was the other condition for fusion reaction!

The researchers in the laboratory placed a transparent container in a black box, which was made of neutron-shielding material. They turned off the phase-locked loop-based proportional-integral imaging system and began to set-up the experiment again.

However, this time, the xenon was changed to a deuterium-tritium gas mixture. The ultrasonic power also increased by a whole magnitude.

The experiment began.

Even though the black box blocked the researchers' view, it didn't really matter.

Some things didn't need to be seen by the naked eye, and experimental data was often more reliable.

The researchers took out the concentrated sulfuric acid container and began to analyze the radiation damage and neutron fluence rate.

Lu Zhou was standing next to the researchers, quietly waiting for the experimental result.

Ten minutes passed by.

The results finally came out.

"The results are here!" a researcher happily said. He handed Lu Zhou the completed experimental report and said excitedly, "Through the neutron shielding material detection, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the surface of the material was bombarded with 2.5 MeV neutrons during the experiment… The neutron fluence rate increased by 1.7%

"We have confirmation that the fusion reaction has occurred!"

Everyone in the laboratory was excited, and they nearly started to cheer.

Especially Sheng Xianfu!

He tightly clenched his fists.

This might work!

There wasn't anyone more excited than him.

However, even though the experimental results were gratifying, the neutron fluence rate wasn't optimal.

They only observed signs of fusion reactions occurring. They were still far from using this set-up for stable controllable fusion reactions.

Professor Li Changxia stared at the data in the experimental report and said, "The neutron fluence rate is way too low. If we want to achieve a stable controllable fusion reaction… this magnitude of the sound wave might not be enough."

Lu Zhou nodded seriously, and he said, "You're right, with our current set-up, it's difficult to achieve stable controllable fusion reactions. I think we have to replace the fluid."

Professor Li Changxia asked, "What kind of fluid do you plan on using?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I don't know, but I do have a rough idea."

"Idea?"

"Yes." Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Since traditional liquids can't reach the requirements under room temperature, why don't we try liquid metals? I think liquid lithium might be worth trying…"

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Chapter 660 CERN"s Vote

While the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study was conducting experiments on "sonoluminescence" and "acoustic" fusion, a seminar regarding the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap was currently being held at the CERN headquarters in Switzerland.

Not a lot of people were attending this conference. Basically, all of them were top physicists, and more than half of them had won the Nobel Prize before.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that if someone blew up this conference room, it would set back physics research by decades…

After Witten entered the conference room, he found a low-key position to sit down. He looked at another scholar sitting at the conference table.

Peter Higgs!

The godfather of subatomic particles!

Ever since Higgs returned to the UK from CERN in 2013, he rarely appeared in the public now. He was now 91 years old, so Witten didn't expect to see him here.

However, this did make sense. After all, this conference would determine the future of physics, and anyone who cared deeply about physics wouldn't miss an opportunity like this.

There was still some time before the conference would begin. Witten looked around the scholars in the room and saw that not only was Peter Higgs here, but many introverted, lonely physicists also showed up. They were sitting in this conference room, quietly waiting for the conference to begin.

"This is surprising," Jaffe said to Witten with a smile. "I didn't expect to see so many old friends here."

"Yeah." Witten nodded emotionally. He was about to say something, but he heard a microphone testing sound coming from the front of the conference room.

The chairman of CERN was standing on the stage. He cleared his throat and said, "We have spent more than enough time discussing the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap.

"The entire theoretical physics community is waiting for our conclusions. Instead of letting the debates continue, it would be better to let the physics community hear our opinions… On whether it is correct or not."

The chairman paused for a second before adding, "Therefore, I propose we vote."

There was a commotion in the conference room.

The chairman coughed and raised his voice.

"Everyone that agrees, please raise your hand."

More than 70% of the people in the conference room raised their hands.

The staff members sitting in the back counted the show of hands and sent the voting data back to the screen on the stage.

The chairman looked at the voting data and nodded. He signaled everyone to put their hands down before he continued to speak, "Everyone that disagrees, please raise your hands."

Just like before, a lot of people raised their hands.

However, only around 15% of the people raised their hands in disagreement. A lot of people seemed hesitant when raising their hands, like they weren't certain about their opinions.

The chairman looked at an old man sitting in the first row of the conference room and asked in a respectful manner, "Mr. Higgs, I noticed that you raised your hands twice, can I ask why?"

Professor Higgs, who was sitting in the front row, stood up while shivering slightly.

He looked at the chairman and said, "Mr. Chairman, the reason why I raised my hand the first time is that I can't find any problems in the thesis. I raised my hand the second time because I am against making hasty decisions."

The chairman nodded and said, "I know what you mean, but we have spent enough time discussing. It's not just me; a lot of people also think it's time for a final vote."

"I don't think we have discussed enough yet," Professor Higgs said. "First of all, as the proponent of this theory, he is responsible for explaining his theory in detail. He should answer our questions directly. However, I have been paying attention to Jin Ling University's official website, and it seems like Professor Lu has no plans for a report."

A lot of people agreed with this.

Almost half of the people who raised their hands in disagreement agreed with Higgs.

In particular, Professor Wilczek, who was another Nobel Prize laureate, nodded and complained to the chairman.

"I don't have any ridiculous demands. Even if he doesn't want to come himself, he should at least send a student or assistant!"

It wasn't an uncommon thing for scholars to send their own students or assistants to conduct academic reports. Whenever a professor was too busy with research or simply not interested in reporting, they would send their own students instead.

For example, Shinichi Mochizuki, who developed the "Inter-universal Teichmüller theory", made two of his students report on the ABC conjecture. Shinichi Mochizuki, on the other hand, was "monitoring" the report through a live video feed.

It wasn't a good idea for Professor Lu to leave China right now, and most scholars sitting here were well aware of this.

However, even though Lu Zhou couldn't leave the country, he should at least send a student to do the report for him.

When the CERN chairman heard Wilzek's words, he contemplated it for a while.

"I will relay your suggestion to Professor Lu."

"Let's not talk about the report, just the thesis content. Does anyone have any questions or doubts regarding Professor Lu's theory on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap?"

This time, not a single person raised their hand.

Not even Professor Higgs.

There was also Witten, who hadn't raised his hand for the entire conference.

The chairman looked around the room and felt relieved. He had a smile on his face.

Since all of these big names didn't have any objections, there shouldn't be any serious problems with the thesis.

"It looks like we have reached a consensus.

"History will remember this day, we just took a big step toward the Grand Unified Theory!"

He paused for a second and continued, "The discussion about the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap ends here.

"Also, a lot of professors, such as Professor Witten, proposed an experiment for the latter half of this year to the first half of next year. We will arrange an experimental plan for the m particle and conduct energy zone testing for Professor Lu's thesis…

"Regardless of whether or not we can find the particle, I believe that the experimental data obtained will help our understanding of the standard model!"

The CERN conference came to an end.

On the same day of the conference, CERN issued a public statement, announcing their approval for Lu Zhou's thesis on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap. They also published their meeting agenda for the next month, as well as changes to their experiment schedule.

One news article appeared after the other.

Because of CERN's voting results, this matter completely blew up…

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Chapter 661 Invitation From CERN

On Weibo.

The moment the announcement came out, Everyone Daily posted on Weibo regarding the announcement. The post was less than a hundred words long.

After the public found out what the CERN voting result meant for the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem, the re-post and likes blew up.

[Nutty!]

[God Lu is amazing!]

[The world of physics is going to change.]

[I guess that means the electrostrong interaction is also correct, right?]

[You can't say that, there's a difference between the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap and the electrostrong interaction. Even if Lu Zhou's thesis was written well, it has to undergo a rigorous and repeated review process by the physics community. Actually, this is much better than what Weinberg had to go through. When his electroweak interaction theory came out, no one paid attention to his research. It was more than a decade later that the physics community finally accepted his research.]

[Lu Zhou's research speed is too fast, the world can't catch up to him.]

[I can't believe this, my master's research is going nowhere. I can't take this anymore… :(]

[Goddamn it, he's smarter than me and more handsome than me! (cry.jpg)]

Someone is calling me handsome?

How embarrassing is this…

Lu Zhou was scrolling through Weibo while sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch. He couldn't help but smile as he liked the comment.

In fact, he didn't expect CERN to make a decision so quickly.

He thought that he wouldn't hear anything from them until the end of the year.

However, it seemed like he didn't have to wait that long.

Lu Zhou finished his lunch and returned the food tray. His phone suddenly vibrated and a text bubble popped up.

Xiao Ai: [Master, you have mail!]

New mail?

Lu Zhou was curious. He opened his email and clicked the unread email.

The sender's email address was CERN Secretariat. Because Lu Zhou saved this email address a long time ago, he recognized this address.

The author of this email was Kalman Soma, CERN's secretary-general. When Lu Zhou was interning at CERN, he exchanged a few words with Kalman. However, Kalman Soma was only an ordinary office director at the time, mainly responsible for reception work for other partner countries.

[Dear Professor Lu, I am the secretary-general of the CERN Council Secretariat, Kalman Soma. First of all, please allow me to pay the utmost respect to you and your research results. The unification of the four basic forces is the lifelong pursuit of all mathematicians and physicists. Without the great work from outstanding scholars like you, civilization cannot move forward.

However, many people are still confused with regard to the two theses you recently published on arXiv. We understand that you are not able to do a live report, but we hope that you can appoint a trusted student or another scholar to explain your theory and answer some of the questions raised by our scholars.]

The email was pretty short, but it was sincere.

This request was definitely reasonable.

For a world-class problem like this, it was a common convention in the academic community to explain one's theory through the form of a report. If Lu Zhou weren't busy with the miniaturization of controllable fusion, he would report this theory at the old Jin Ling University campus.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and wrote a short email.

[I will consider your proposal seriously, I will soon appoint a candidate for the report.]

Lu Zhou clicked "Send" and then called Luo Wenxuan.

When the call was connected, Luo Wenxuan immediately said, "Hello? What's up?"

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, "Are you interested in a work vacation?"

Luo Wenxuan was suddenly interested, and he immediately asked, "Tell me, where am I going to humblebrag this time?"

Lu Zhou nearly choked on his saliva. He asked seriously, "What do you mean humble brag???"

"Okay, whatever," Luo Wenxuan said. "Just tell me, where am I going?"

Lu Zhou: "Switzerland."

Luo Wenxuan: "CERN?"

Lu Zhou: "Yeah, they're inviting me to do a report there, but I can't really go. So you'll have to go on my behalf."

Luo Wenxuan: "Piece of cake, I got this… When do I need to leave?"

Lu Zhou: "Probably in the near future, it depends on when you're ready."

Luo Wenxuan had worked with Lu Zhou on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem before, and after the thesis was written, they talked in detail about the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap.

Therefore, Luo Wenxuan was the most suitable candidate to represent Lu Zhou to do the report. As long as the questions weren't too difficult, Luo Wenxuan could handle the report by himself.

After Lu Zhou told Luo Wenxuan about the report, he left this matter aside.

Lu Zhou went into his office at the mathematics department and was about to take a break.

When he opened his office door and walked to his desk, Lin Yuxiang's eyes instantly lit up. She stood up and greeted him.

"Professor, when you were eating, CTV called us."

"CTV?" Lu Zhou's eyebrows furrowed as he asked, "What do they want?"

Lin Yuxiang smiled and said, "Well, didn't you recently solve the Yang-Mills equations? They wanted to do an exclusive interview with you on this matter, and they wanted me to ask if you are available?"

Lu Zhou: "Which program?"

Lin Yuxiang smiled and said, "I think it's a special program, prepared just for you. Apparently, it's going to be broadcast at CTV's 8 pm time slot."

Even though Lu Zhou wasn't interested in the interview, he still had to give some respect to the national television.

Of course, he didn't want to waste too much time.

After all, compared to interviews, he cared a lot more about his research.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, "Do I have to go to Beijing?"

Lin Yuxiang: "No, you don't, they said they'll send a reporter here."

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Okay then, tell Assistant Zhao about this and arrange an appropriate time."

Lin Yuxiang playfully saluted.

"Yes, sir!"

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Chapter 662 CTV Interview

The interview was scheduled for a week later.

All of Lu Zhou's time was being spent on the miniaturization of controllable fusion.

In order to increase the maximum temperature peak of the bubble in the working fluid, several old professors at the Institute of Acoustics tried to help. They removed the acoustic suspension stabilizer on the ultrasonic generator, which increased the energy of the ultrasonic wave. The maximum sound pressure acting on the bubble was increased from 15 times atmospheric pressure to 30 times.

However, this all came at a cost.

Removing the acoustic suspension stabilizer meant that the bubbles couldn't remain stable in the center of the fluid container.

However, sonoluminescence didn't require the bubble to float in a certain position, so this didn't matter too much.

After the experiment equipment was updated, Lu Zhou brought Sheng Xianfu and the team to repeat the experiment. They used a gas mixture of xenon and deuterium and observed the bubble temperature and neutron recovery rate.

When the completed experimental report was handed to Lu Zhou, Sheng Xianfu felt a mixture of emotions as he spoke, "The situation isn't looking good, the peak temperature can only reach a maximum of 10 million kelvin, but the lowest is only about 500,000 kelvin."

Lu Zhou stared at the experimental report and frowned.

"Is the difference that big?"

Sheng Xianfu nodded. "The temperature change observed by blackbody radiation is quite unstable. We don't know if our observations are incorrect, or if it's something else."

If they could make the bubble peak collapse temperature reach 10 million kelvin every time, it would be possible to stabilize the fusion reaction by shrinking the volume and using fast ignition.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be an extremely difficult thing to do.

Lu Zhou asked, "What about the neutron fluence rate?"

Sheng Xianfu hesitated for a second before saying, "It has improved… But we're still a long way from stable controllable fusion."

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, "How is the new experiment container going?"

Sheng Xianfu: "The China National Nuclear Corporation already finished building it. It should arrive tomorrow."

Lu Zhou finally felt a little relieved.

He placed the experimental report on the table and said to everyone, "Today's experiment is finished, we'll check the equipment tomorrow, and use liquid lithium the day after that."

Sheng Xianfu nodded seriously.

"Ok!"

Just like Lu Zhou's calculations predicted, when the lighter liquid lithium was used as the working liquid, the sonoluminescence performance did exceed that of the concentrated sulfuric acid. Especially when the mixed gas was introduced, the sound pressure acting on the surface of the bubble was significantly improved and the maximum atmospheric pressure is 31.7 times atm[1].

However, the liquid lithium was at 700 degrees Celsius, making it extremely volatile. The experiment became several times more dangerous than using concentrated sulfuric acid.

During the third experiment, the experimenter accidentally mixed a small amount of oxygen when preparing the deuterium gas mixture electrolysis. This instantly caused the container to burst into flames.

Fortunately, the amount of oxygen was small. The researchers in the laboratory reacted quickly to the situation and rescued the laboratory. If the liquid lithium melted through the working container, the high-temperature liquid lithium would instantly be in direct contact with air. If that were to happen, they could forget about the laboratory; the entire building would be at stake.

After that, everyone in the Institute for Advanced Study viewed Sheng Xianfu's research team in a different way…

The days quickly passed by, and it was soon the day of the interview.

Lu Zhou was inside his office at the mathematics department of Jin Ling University. He met the interview team from CTV.

Coincidentally, he had met the reporter a year ago.

"Hello, Professor Lu," He Ying said. She was in a dark blue formal attire. She extended her hand and gently shook Lu Zhou's hand as she said, "We meet again."

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.

"Long time no see, Ms. Ying… Should we start now?"

He Ying smiled and said, "Let's start then."

She knew Lu Zhou was busy with research, so she didn't waste time on small talk.

After He Ying sat down on the sofa, she adjusted her posture and signaled the cameraman next to her. She put on a professional smile and said, "I am honored to have this opportunity to interview you. Before the interview begins, I want to ask you a few questions on behalf of the audience at home."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Ask away, I'll try my best to answer."

He Ying smiled and said, "Don't worry, they are easy questions."

She said, "We all know that the Yang-Mills equations problem is solved and the unification of the strong interaction and the electromagnetic force will completely change the world of physics. However, most people are puzzled by these concepts, what do you think about the future of physics?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "You're gonna start off with such a hard question?"

He Ying smirked and said, "It might be hard for most people, but it should be easy for you, right?"

"As a scholar, what do I think about the future of physics… This question isn't easy to answer. After all, no one knows when a revolutionary set of theory is going to be discovered. " Lu Zhou contemplated for a bit and said, "The long-term goal of theoretical physicists is the Grand Unified Theory. Now that the strong interaction and the electromagnetic force have been successfully unified, the only thing left is gravity. Of course, even though we have spent a century researching this theory, we haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg."

He Ying then asked seriously, "Is there a reason why gravitational force is so difficult to unify?"

Lu Zhou: "Of course! Gravity is the most mysterious field of physics, even though we are more intuitive regarding gravitational force than the other three fundamental forces. Actually, both string theory and the quantum gravitational theory explain gravity in two diametrically opposite ways. No one knows which is correct."

He Ying said, "What's a more realistic goal then?"

Lu Zhou leaned back against the sofa and said, "A more realistic, or short-term goal, is to verify and explore the standard model. Even though the standard model is magnificent, we can always find things that exist outside of the standard model. Whether through experiments or theoretical research."

Lu Zhou paused for a second and jokingly said, "Like the m particle, even though I don't know what it looks like, I can prove its existence using mathematical methods. If someone can find the particle, then another piece of the standard model puzzle would be solved."

He Ying: "This sounds very exciting."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Yeah, exploration of the unknown is exciting."

He Ying: "However, theoretical physics is still a very distant concept for most of us. Can you explain how theoretical physics influences society?"

Lu Zhou thought for a long time.

He Ying began to wonder if Lu Zhou was allowed to answer this question. She was about to ask the cameraman to pause the interview when Lu Zhou suddenly spoke.

"This is a very abstract question. It is very difficult for me to tell you about a theoretical physics discovery that people can see with their own eyes. Just like the Higgs particle, gravitational waves, etc. The things we find in the universe are generally useless for most people.

"This includes the m particle that I talked about earlier. Even if we unify the electroweak interaction, electrostrong interaction, and gravitational force, and create a theory of everything, the universe will still remain the same. Perhaps we should use theoretical physics funding for charity work, it will make people's lives better."

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he added seriously, "However, if no one researches these seemingly 'useless' things, we won't have a future."

[1] Atmospheric pressure

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Chapter 663 Xiao Ai"s Colorful Bubbles?

After that, He Ying asked a question about the m particle and the strong interaction force, as well as some things about the moon landing project. Lu Zhou answered all the questions to the best he could.

The hour-long interview was finally finished.

After the interview, Lu Zhou requested the cameraman to show him some of the footage.

Lu Zhou was quite satisfied with how he looked during the interview.

After the CTV interview finished, Lu Zhou invited the interview team to dinner. After that, he went back home.

He poured himself a hot glass of milk and went into his study room. He was going to look at his computer, then go to sleep. However, he suddenly received a call from Chen Yushan.

"Hello?"

"It's me, I call you in the afternoon, but your phone was off."

Lu Zhou could hear echoes coming from Chen Yushan's side as well as sounds of water splashing around.

Is she taking a bath?

Lu Zhou didn't think much of it, and he replied, "In the afternoon? It's probably during the CTV interview, I think I turned off my phone."

Chen Yushan pouted while sulking.

"Why didn't you call me back then?"

Lu Zhou: "Oh, I didn't see your call."

Chen Yushan brushed her wet hair and sat in a more comfortable position. Her head was the only part of her body above the water.

"Whatever, it's your loss anyway. The reason I called was that I wanted to tell you that the space shuttle manufacturing center is already built."

Lu Zhou looked surprised.

"Already?"

Chen Yushan answered with a smug voice, "Yeah, the first phase of the project is just a few factories, so it didn't take a lot of time to build. How about you go check it out when you have time?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go there when I have some free time."

The conversation suddenly stopped.

Now that the business talk was finished, they didn't have anything else to talk about.

Time quickly passed by.

Chen Yushan could sense the atmosphere becoming somewhat awkward. She wrapped her hands around her knees. The hot bath made her a little dizzy. She was about to say something, but Lu Zhou spoke first.

"Hello? Are you… okay?"

When Chen Yushan heard Lu Zhou's voice through her Bluetooth headset, she suddenly blurted out, "Oh, I'm good… I'm taking a bath."

She blushed and wanted to bury her face in the bathtub.

F*ck, why did I say that?

Is he going to think…

She didn't have to worry at all because Lu Zhou didn't think anything of it.

"I know, just don't pass out in there."

Chen Yushan: "???"

You know?

How do you know?

Her face instantly turned bright red.

She went silent again. Lu Zhou didn't know if he said something wrong, so he quickly tried to explain.

"Wait, I meant that… I guessed that you were in the bath. After all, there were all kinds of sounds, I analyzed the sounds…"Read more chapter on NovelFull

Beep.

Before he could explain himself, the call was terminated.

Lu Zhou paused for a second and looked at his phone.

She hung up on me?

Screw it, who cares.

As long as she doesn't pass out in the hot bath.

Lu Zhou put his phone aside and finished his glass of milk. He looked at his computer and said,

"Xiao Ai, put some hot water in my bathtub, around 40 degrees, halfway full."

He was originally going to brush his teeth and head to bed, but he felt like taking a bath now.

He heard that baths were good for relieving fatigue.

Since he was so tired, he decided to let himself relax.

After Xiao Ai heard its master's voice, a text bubble popped out in the lower right corner of the computer.

Xiao Ai: [Do you need Xiao Ai to put some colorful bubbles in the bathtub?]

Lu Zhou: "Uh… Forget about the colorful part, normal bubbles are fine."

Xiao Ai: [Ok! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و]

…

Lu Zhou had to admit, that a hot bath was one of life's great pleasures.

He went out of the bathroom, covered only by a bathrobe. Every pore in his body felt relaxed. It was an indescribable feeling of comfort.

He went into his bedroom and fell asleep until six o'clock the next day.

After he got out of bed, he went on his morning run and came back. He ate some soup buns and sat in his black sedan. He didn't go directly to the institute or the university. Instead, he asked Wang Peng to go to the space shuttle construction site.

Concrete was poured onto the entire piece of land, and there were two three-story-high buildings. Lu Zhou could see the steel-reinforced concrete columns inside the buildings.

There was another five-story-high concrete building next to it. It was mainly for staff members, and it was also where the server was placed.

Just like Chen Yushan had said, the first phase of the project had been completed. They could start moving their equipment in.

Lu Zhou couldn't help but smirk.

With Xiao Ai's help, the most advanced five-axis machine tool, and a complete set of automated industrial equipment… Forget about the space shuttle, he was confident he could build a real-life Transformer robot.

It would just take time.

Lu Zhou suddenly thought of a serious problem.

He had to remind Xiao Ai not to place the pieces of equipment in random locations. After all, this wasn't his underground laboratory. The processing capabilities of this machine tool was far inferior to those automated industrial robots.

Lu Zhou stood outside the assembly center for a while. After that, he returned to his car.

"Let's go. Jin Ling University."

Wang Peng started the engine and looked surprised.

"Are you not going inside?"

"No need." Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head. He looked at the empty factory and said, "The things haven't been moved in yet, so there's no point going inside. Oh yeah, how many of your friends in the army are retired?"

"Some… Are you interested?"

"I want to hire a few security consultants. A salary of 10,000-20,000 RMB per month, food and accommodation included. Can you help me find anyone who's interested?"

Lu Zhou thought of this idea just a second ago.

If he wanted to get a license for a military-civilian project, he had to pass a confidentiality review. Not only was there a comprehensive qualification process, but this involved the production of aerospace technology, which was considered a sensitive technology. Security was a top priority.

Thankfully, Wang Peng had a military background, and he had a lot of connections to people in the army. Finding a few retired veterans for this job would be much better than outsourcing to a security company.

Not to mention, they could also train some security guards.

After all, this assembly center was considered private property. It would be unreasonable to use government resources.

When Wang Peng heard the RMB20,000 salary, he said, "This salary is making me a bit tempted."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Forget about it, you weren't' in the security logistics department, so you're not a good fit."

Wang Peng smiled and didn't disagree.

"Okay then, I'll ask around for you… When do you need them?"

Lu Zhou said, "As soon as possible."

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Chapter 664: I'll Read, You Write

Translator:Henyee Translations

Editor:Henyee Translations

On the other side of the planet, in Switzerland, the No.1 lecture hall at CERN headquarters was packed with people.

Luo Wenxuan was dressed in a suit, and he was standing on the aisle next to the podium as he carefully read the thesis in his hand. He took deep breaths, in hopes of lowering his heart rate.

Even though this wasn't his first time coming here, there was a difference between sitting in the audience and standing near the podium.

This was the temple of the international physics community.

In half an hour, he would be scrutinized by the world's top physics scholars.

Luo Wenxuan was nervous as he made his final preparations. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice from the side.

"Your tie is too tight, it'll affect your breathing."

Luo Wenxuan looked over and was immediately surprised by who he saw.

"Professor?"

"You shouldn't be this surprised, you do know that I always spend half of the year at CERN," Witten joked. He smiled and said, "Not to mention, I'm here to attend an important report."

Luo Wenxuan smiled awkwardly as he scratched his head.

"I'll thank the lord if I don't mess up this report."

"Since Professor Lu chose you to do this report on his behalf, it means that he believes in you. If I were you, I wouldn't be this nervous, just pretend like it's an ordinary report."

No sh*t… You're a Fields Medal winner, of course you wouldn't be nervous. I haven't won a Fields Medal before.

Luo Wenxuan didn't say anything.

Witten paused for a second and said, "Speaking of which, how is Professor Lu doing?"

Luo Wenxuan: "He's doing pretty good, but his research is as busy as ever."

"Oh really? That totally sounds like him." Witten smiled and said, "Actually, I don't think he needs to be in such a hurry. He's achieved a few lifetimes worth of success in just a few short years, and he still has decades to go… My suggestion is that he should switch to a healthier lifestyle and find some time to travel or something."

Luo Wenxuan: "I'll tell him your suggestions."

"Not suggestions, just some personal thoughts." Witten looked at Luo Wenxuan, who was still nervous, and said, "Also you, relax a little. If I recall correctly, it's not your first time being here."

Luo Wenxuan replied nervously, "But I've always been in the audience."

Witten smiled and said, "Well, not this time. I look forward to your report, don't disappoint me."

Witten patted his ex-student's shoulder and walked away.

…

After Luo Wenxuan chatted with his former supervisor, he felt a lot calmer.

Soon, it was time for the report to begin.

Luo Wenxuan walked on stage and took out his phone. He dialed a number before placing it next to the microphone on the multimedia desk.

The venue gradually quieted down. He looked at everyone, cleared his throat, and said, "Due to various reasons, Professor Lu is not able to join us today. I will be conducting this report instead. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them now."

Someone immediately put up their hand.

Luo Wenxuan made an inviting gesture and spoke politely.

"Professor, please go ahead."

The old man with a wrinkled face and a crooked nose stood up while trembling. He stared straight at Luo Wenxuan and asked, "I just want to ask one question, what role did you personally play in the solution of the Yang-Mills equations?"

Luo Wenxuan looked at the audience. It seemed like a lot of people were curious about this question.

He adjusted his breathing and tried to speak fluently.

"I… mainly provided a possible idea proof. I also discussed with him how to solve the problem. Of course, as stated in the paper, the main argument was done by him alone."

The old man then asked, "Then does that mean your viewpoint is the same as his viewpoint?"

Didn't you say you only had one question?

Luo Wenxuan complained in his mind. He then explained, "Of course you can this so… unless Professor Lu has explicitly stated another opinion."

He pointed at his phone on the multimedia table and said, "He will be listening to this entire report. He will make contributions when necessary… He has the final say in this report."

The old man nodded and sat back down.

Luo Wenxuan sighed in relief.

"Then, please turn your papers to the abstract section, we'll start from the top…"

Even though Luo Wenxuan was nervous, once the report began, he quickly went into the zone.

He actually had previous experience reporting at CERN. When he was still a student under Witten, he had a lot of opportunities to report on CERN stages. However, those weren't particularly important reports, and there were no big-name attendees.

Time quickly passed by.

An hour had already gone by.

Finally, Luo Wenxuan looked at the last PowerPoint page and sighed in relief. However, he didn't feel relaxed at all.

Even though the PowerPoint presentation was finished, the report wasn't finished at all.

Next up was the QA session, the most important part of the report!

"That's basically it… If you guys have any questions, you can ask me."

The second he announced that the report had entered the QA stage, hands immediately went up.

Luo Wenxuan looked at the same old man who raised his hand before and nodded.

"Please go ahead."

The old man with the crooked nose trembled while standing up. He then asked in a steady voice, "On page 9, line 23, for the generalized polynomial interactions on R2 such as λR(φ) φ2, there is a lower bound on R(φ), and 0λλ_0 1. How did you determine the isolated single-particle spectrum?"

Luo Wenxuan sighed in relief when he heard this question.

This was a normal difficult question, but nothing too hard.

He cleared his throat and walked to the whiteboard. He then picked up a marker and began to explain while writing, "For the two-dimensional small coupling constant R(φ), the presence or absence of a bounded state depends on the specific case of R(φ). A field with a bounded state will have a mass operator M, which has an excitation spectrum. The mass gap (0, m) and upper gap (m, mb)… This is how we prove its existence."

"As for the single-particle spectrum…" Luo Wenxuan suddenly stopped writing and speaking at the same time.

It was like there was something stuck in his throat, not a single word came out of his mouth.

The single-particle spectrum.

F*ck sake!

How should I answer this?

A single drop of cold sweat rolled off his forehead.

His brain was turning a hundred miles an hour, and all of his brain cells were used on solving this problem.

However, it was to no avail.

There were whispering sounds in the venue, and Luo Wenxuan saw a glimpse of disappointment from some of the professors who were sitting in the front row.

He gulped and felt his limbs going limp.

What should I do…

He couldn't imagine what would happen if he screwed this up.

Even if Lu Zhou didn't care, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

However, a sound came from the phone sitting on the desk, almost like an act of god. The four words gave Luo Wenxuan hope.

Lu Zhou was on the other end of the phone, and he spoke confidently.

"I'll read, you write."

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Chapter 665 Done by Him Alone

The problem regarding R(φ) two-dimensional small coupling constant wasn't a particularly difficult problem. It only required a little abstract thinking… At least that was what Lu Zhou thought.

However, even though the problem itself wasn't difficult, not everyone could ask a question like this. After all, most people wouldn't notice this problem in the first place.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and spoke.

"The existence of the isolated eigenvalue m of M, together with the Wightman axiom, provides a theoretical basis for the two standard forms of scattering theory, which are the wave operator method and scattering matrix elements. By applying these two scattering methods, we can conclude that there is a progressive state with an arbitrary number of particles…"

Luo Wenxuan immediately picked up the marker and began writing on the whiteboard.

Lines and lines of equations were neatly written, filling up the whiteboard.

The problem was slowly derived. Witten's frown went away, and he smiled. The old man with the crooked nose nodded his head.

The whispers in the venue were gone.

Luo Wenxuan took a deep breath and stopped writing.

"That's the answer to the single-particle spectrum particle… Are there any other questions?"

The old man smiled.

"Nope, no more questions."

When the people in the audience began to applaud, Luo Wenxuan could feel the praise and encouragement in the atmosphere.

Luo Wenxuan placed the marker on the multimedia table and sighed in relief. He smiled and his brain started working again.

He listened to the subsiding applause in the venue and couldn't help but feel emotional.

Professor Lu really is nutty.

Thank god for him saving me.

But…

He's the one that gets to do all the bragging.

After that, the scholars in the venue asked a lot of questions, which Luo Wenxuan answered one by one. Whenever Luo Wenxuan had some hiccups, Lu Zhou would give his own input.

After a final round of applause, the report came to an end.

When Luo Wenxuan walked off stage, the old man with the crooked nose walked over to him while carrying a cane.

"What a wonderful report."

The old man looked at Luo Wenxuan and smiled kindly, which gave him even more wrinkles on his face.

However, Luo Wenxuan wasn't too happy. Instead, he scratched his head awkwardly. After all, Lu Zhou was the one who answered this old man's question.

"Yeah, it was okay."

"Okay? No, it was great." The old man smiled and said, "Also, when you see Professor Lu again, give him my thanks. I didn't expect the unification of the forces would happen before I go to heaven. Originally, I felt a little worried about the theoretical physics industry… But now, it seems that my worries were superfluous."

Luo Wenxuan replied politely, "I'll give him your thanks… May I ask who you are?"

The old man put on his hat.

"Peter Higgs."

He smiled at Luo Wenxuan, turned around, and left.

Higgs!

Luo Wenxuan stared at Higgs walking away, and it took him a while to process this.

He thought this old man looked familiar, but he didn't expect it to be Higgs!

However, this was expected. The old man disappeared from the physics community in 2013, and all of the photos of him were from years ago. Luo Wenxuan first went to CERN in 2014…

"I should have asked for a signature, "Luo Wenxuan muttered to himself.

However, Higgs was long gone…

…

The thunderous applause in the CERN lecture theater spread throughout the entire physics community. Previously, the international physics community was still debating about the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem. However, all of the debates had now ended.

Three days after the CERN report, the Clay Mathematics Institute immediately issued a statement. The director of the Clay Institute, Professor Jaffe, announced that he accepted CERN's judgment and said that the Scientific Advisory Board was looking for a suitable time to present Lu Zhou with the Millennium Prize Problem award and prize money.

Also, Lu Zhou's phone call during the interview became a talking point in the physics community…

Three days after the report ended, 8 pm Switzerland time.

In China, it was already afternoon.

Luo Wenxuan was sitting on a hotel sofa near CERN. He was on a call with Lu Zhou.

"I might come back a bit later."

"Why?"

"Uh… I plan on going to France, try to get some inspiration." Luo Wenxuan said awkwardly, "Oh yeah, I'm running out of money, can you transfer me some, and I'll pay you back later?"

Lu Zhou could hear water flowing in the background. He smiled and shook his head.

"Forget about lending. Professor Carlson, the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, has been emailing me all day. If you go to France, help me get the million-dollar prize money at the Institut de France, and I'll split half of it with you."

Luo Wenxuan nearly fell off the sofa.

"What do you mean! Half is…"

Lu Zhou said nonchalantly, "It's fine. Besides, you helped me a lot. I should share the prize money with you."

Honestly, given that Lu Zhou had received hundreds of millions in scientific research funding, a million was nothing to him. He was only interested in the certificate issued by the Clay Institute.

After all, there was no such thing as too much honor. Only seven of these certificates existed, so it had a collection value.

However, Luo Wenxuan didn't agree. Instead, he argued with Lu Zhou.

"The Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem is the final problem of the Millennium Prize Problems, and I did less than 10 percent of the work. This prize money doesn't belong to me, I don't want it!" Luo Wenxuan seemed to be hesitant. He paused for a second before saying, "I can go to the award ceremony for you, but I'm not taking the money."

Lu Zhou: "…"

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Chapter 666 Miniaturization Breakthrough!

In the end, Luo Wenxuan still didn't accept Lu Zhou's proposal. He said he would bring the Clay Institute cheque back and hand it straight to Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou thought about it carefully and felt like his proposal was indeed a bit ill-judged. Therefore, he went to the finance office of the Institute for Advanced Study and gave Luo Wenxuan US$100,000 in travel expenses. He also wished Luo Wenxuan a good time at the red-light districts.

Luo Wenxuan didn't refuse this money. He even took a month-long holiday.

Looks like Luo Wenxuan plans on spending all of the money…

However, Lu Zhou didn't really care.

Many people had congratulated him over the past few days.

Some were from his students and colleagues at Princeton, and some were from people he met from academic conferences, as well as close friends.

Like Tao Zhexuan.

Lu Zhou worked closely with Tao Zhexuan when he was still researching the Goldbach's conjecture. They had always remained in contact. Both of them were the type of mathematician that was fluent in many fields, so they had a lot to talk about.

During their phone call, Tao Zhexuan said, "Congratulations, another Millennium Prize Problems solved by you. Clay Institute should update their list of problems. By the way, can you tell me what problem you're working on next?"

Lu Zhou: "I probably won't research pure mathematics for a while. I'll probably focus more on applied mathematics."

Tao Zhexuan: "Like the moon landing?"

Lu Zhou: "That's one of them!"

Tao Zhexuan: "This sounds very exciting. My wife works at NASA. She always tells me about her work, which is very different from my field of study. If you succeed someday, remember to save me a seat, I haven't been to the moon yet."

Lu Zhou jokingly said, "If that really happens, I'll host an academic report on the moon."

After the call ended, Lu Zhou got up from his office chair and was about to go to the cafeteria for some lunch. However, the second he put his phone in his pocket, it started ringing again.

Lu Zhou looked at his phone and saw Sheng Xianfu was calling, so he immediately picked up the call.

"Hello?"

"Professor…"

Sheng Xianfu sounded a little off, so Lu Zhou immediately asked, "It exploded again? Did anyone get hurt? The equipment I borrowed is fine, right?"

Sheng Xianfu gasped and said, "What do you mean exploded again! We're not making bombs in here, do you really have to say that?"

Lu Zhou: "…"

I mean, fusion energy is scarier than bombs, right?

But…

At least they're safe.

Lu Zhou was speechless. He said, "Then why are you being so mysterious?"

Sheng Xianfu touched his nose and said, "I'm excited."

Lu Zhou: "Excited?"

"Yeah…" Sheng Xianfu nodded while holding his phone. He said in a trembling voice, "I think… we did it."

The phone went silent for two seconds.

Lu Zhou composed himself and took a deep breath.

"I'll come over right away, we'll talk in person."

Lu Zhou ended the call and called Wang Peng.

"Pick me up at the mathematics department."

Wang Peng only responded with one word.

"Ok."

After a twenty-minute drive, a black car with a red flag parked at the entrance of the research institute.

After Lu Zhou got out of the car, he passed the security check and walked straight toward a corner of the building.

Ever since the last security incident, the miniaturization of the controllable fusion laboratory group moved from the corner of the building to a temporary warehouse on the side of the institute. Even then, people would try to stay far away from the warehouse.

Lu Zhou walked to the laboratory entrance. Before he could open the door, he heard loud cheers coming from inside the laboratory.

"What is going on?" Lu Zhou quickly walked into the laboratory and saw how ecstatic Sheng Xianfu was. Lu Zhou immediately asked Sheng Xianfu, "What is going on?"

"The method of using liquid metal as a working solution works! According to our experimental data, when we used liquid lithium as the working solution, we were able to apply a greater sound pressure on the bubble through the ultrasonic emission device! This bubble collapse volume is also more stable!" Sheng Xianfu said in excitement. His shoulders were shaking from the adrenaline.

When Lu Zhou heard that his idea worked, he couldn't help but smile.

However, he was more concerned about how they were able to succeed.

"Why did we fail last time?"

Sheng Xianfu replied excitedly, "Last time, we tried to increase the power of the ultrasonic generator, but the neutron fluence rate didn't increase. Then we found out that the problem was the deuterium gas mixture!"

Lu Zhou: "What did you guys do then?"

"We warmed up the gas!"

Lu Zhou immediately said, "You ionized and heated the gas?"

Sheng Xianfu's face was full of joy as he said, "That's right!"

Lu Zhou nodded, like he had a rough idea of what they did.

They heated and ionized the deuterium gas mixture and injected the liquid lithium through the air inlet. Even though the ionization temperature was only a few thousand degrees, which was nothing compared to the tens of millions of degrees when the bubble collapsed, the ionized gas expanded when driven into the liquid lithium. This gave it a higher surface area, which meant the energy transmitted by the sound to the bubble became larger.

Therefore, the bubble's instantaneous collapse temperature increased, which allowed them to meet the conditions of deuterium-tritium fusion!

Professor Li Changxia was standing next to Sheng Xianfu. He said with excitement, "We just found a more stable way to achieve controllable fusion! Once again, we're leading the world in fusion technology!"

"Yeah…"

Lu Zhou was staring at the black container in the middle of the laboratory. He couldn't help but feel fascinated.

The design of the Hall-effect thruster was taken from Debris No.3. Also, the five-axis CNC machine tool was stationed at the space shuttle assembly center. Xiao Ai could handle all of the production work. Now that they solved the miniaturization of controllable fusion, there was nothing to stop Lu Zhou from achieving his plan.

Of course, this "reactor bubble" was very simple. Both its energy efficiency and power output were far less than the large scale magnetic confinement fusion Pangu reactor. Because it was non-reusable, it also had higher costs.

However, this kind of miniaturized fusion energy device wasn't used for mass-energy production, so it didn't really matter.

Because of its high energy density and various advantages over traditional fission batteries, the pros outweighed the cons.

With the Hall-effect thruster design he got from Debris No.3, he could revolutionize the space industry, much like how the gunpowder revolutionized the military industry.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the entire world would change because of their discovery…

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Chapter 667 Did It?

Haizhou.

China National Nuclear Corporation laboratory.

Academician Wang Zengguang was sitting in front of the experiment table while wearing a pair of glasses. He was meticulously staring at the blueprint in his hand while thinking intently.

The goal of the miniaturization of the controllable fusion project was to design a smaller ferrofluid electric energy source, specifically for the spacecraft. This task was now assigned to the China National Nuclear Corporation, which worked on the Pangu reactor.

Even though China National Nuclear Corporation wasn't optimistic about the miniaturization of controllable fusion, they still agreed to undergo this project.

There was only one reason.

Because, other than the fact that Lu Zhou had already brought them a victory, this was their responsibility.

The phone on the desk began to ring.

Wang Zengguang squinted his eyes. He was a bit annoyed at this phone call because it was interrupting his work. However, when he saw the name of the person calling, he immediately picked up the phone.

The call connected, and before he could speak, he heard them say, "Hello?"

"Academician Wang, is the ferrofluid electric energy generator done or what?"

Since Lu Zhou spoke in a half-serious manner, Academician Wang relaxed a bit and said, "Don't worry about us, we'll produce a prototype in a month. How about you? Is there any progress?"

The ferrofluid electric energy generator was only a small project, it wasn't anything particularly high tech. The main problem was still the reactor itself. If they couldn't build a reactor, the ferrofluid electric energy generator would be useless.

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "What do you mean if there's any progress? Does completing the project count as a type of progress?"

The other side went silent for a few seconds.

After a while, Academician Wang spoke.

"Um, I didn't hear you, what did you just say…"

Lu Zhou raised his voice and spoke clearly.

"I said, we've already solved the miniaturization of controllable fusion!"

When Lu Zhou heard a bang sound through his phone, he moved his phone away from his ear and looked at his phone screen.

Did he drop his phone?

He's not that surprised, is he?

Academician Wang quickly picked up his phone from the ground and began asking a string of questions.

"Solved? Already? Did you solve the heat dissipation problem? That thing is going to space! You didn't just build a smaller version of Pangu, did you?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "The reactor isn't using magnetic confinement fusion, but rather a combination of inertial confinement fusion and fast ignition… I can't convey it clearly through the phone, come by when you have the chance."

Academician Wang: "I'm coming over right now!"

The phone call ended.

…

The China National Nuclear Corporation's nuclear fusion research center was in Haizhou, right next to the Pangu reactor. This was so that it could provide technical support for East Asia Energy and be protected by the military troops.

Jinling was halfway across the state from Haizhou, making this trip very inconvenient.

However, the next morning, Academician Wang Zengguang still brought two of his students to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Also, Academician Wang wasn't the only person that came, Director Li also came.

"Professor Lu, long time no see!"

Director Li looked at Lu Zhou with a smile on his face as he reached out his right hand.

Lu Zhou shook his hand and smiled as he said, "It's an honor, Director Li. It hasn't been that long, right?"

When Academician Wang saw that Director Li was about to make some small talk, he was getting impatient, so he interrupted them.

"Okay, go have your small talk later, ok? Where is it? I want to see it."

Director Li smiled and said, "Uh… Mr. Wang is correct. Professor Lu, let's chat inside?"

Lu Zhou smiled and turned around.

"Come with me."

With Lu Zhou leading the way, the group arrived at a laboratory located at the corner of the institute.

Located in the middle of the laboratory was the experimental reactor, which was designed by the miniaturization of controllable fusion project team.

Academician Wang looked at the black cylinder, which had a diameter of around two meters. He looked at the chaotic wires and electrical circuits. He stood there with his mouth wide open.

After a while, he finally said, "You plan on using this thing… for nuclear fusion?"

He started to think.

Can this thing…

Even achieve nuclear fusion?

The two PhD students standing behind Academician Wang were also in disbelief.

Not only does this thing look ugly as hell…

But it seems a little small…

Because they needed to add an insulation layer and a neutron shielding layer, a two-meter diameter cylinder would only be able to accommodate a two-centimeter wide nuclear core.

When Lu Zhou saw that Academician Wang was in disbelief, he chuckled.

"It does look a little simple, but it's compact and has everything we need. After all, this is only the experimental reactor. When the time comes, we'll adjust the components."

Lu Zhou paused for a second and didn't bother explaining the principle behind it. He looked at Sheng Xianfu and said, "Can you please give Director Li and Academician Wang a demonstration?"

"Yes, sir!"

Sheng Xianfu walked up to the reactor and ordered the two researchers next to him.

"Start the heating machine!"

"Yes, sir!"

The heating machine was turned on, and the reactor began to heat up. When it reached around 180 Celsius, the lithium material inside the insulating layer gradually began to melt into a liquid.

After that, a deuterium-tritium gas mixture was injected into the ionization chamber, before turning into plasma. The liquid lithium was like a machine gun as it was shot into the nuclear core.

The second the bubble collapsed to its minimum volume, the bubble's temperature instantly increased into the hundreds of millions of degrees.

However, this wasn't the most shocking part.

Academician Wang Zengguang and his two students stared at the neutron detector value, which was increasing.

Director Li was muddled. He gulped and asked softly, "Is it… a success?"

Academician Wang nodded. His voice was trembling as he confirmed, "It is!"

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Chapter 668 How Did You Guys Do It?!

Since they didn't connect the generator yet, the heat could only be transferred through the water heat exchange system. However, the energy generated from the system far exceeded the required input energy for the system. Therefore, the neutron's proliferation rate was self-sustainable. From this standpoint alone, this fusion reactor was undoubtedly a success!

Once the ferrofluid electric energy generator was installed, the ultrasonic device would no longer require an external power supply. Only a large lithium-sulfur battery would be needed to melt the lithium, and the reactor could rely entirely on the electrical energy for operation.

When the experiment finished, Academician Wang immediately asked Lu Zhou, "How did you guys do it?"

Lu Zhou smirked and gave a simple answer.

"Sonoluminescence."

Wang Zengguang was stunned. He squinted and said, "I thought… that pathway wasn't possible?"

Because magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion fell into a bottleneck, the research on sound fusion was popular during the 1980s and 1990s. However, even to this day, this research pathway had been controversial.

Not only were there two different experimental reports, but the main reason for this controversy was because there wasn't a clear conclusion in the physics community about the origin of the natural phenomenon of sonoluminescence.

"There are two reasons why a technical pathway isn't feasible. One is because it is inherently wrong, and the other, is because the method is wrong. Twenty years ago, there were plenty of problems with it came to sound fusion research. The theoretical ground wasn't built yet. People were just doing experiments blindly and collecting empirical data to find ways to achieve fusion reaction, which is no different than trying to find a needle in a haystack."

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He picked up a marker from the desk and wrote a few lines of equations on the whiteboard.

"Only after we determine the quantitative relationship between the electromagnetic force and strong interaction, can we build a phenomenological model that balances the relationship between the two. Then, we can use this phenomenological model to find the most optimal experimental method."

Academician Wang stared at the whiteboard for a while and frowned.

"Are you talking about the electrostrong interaction?"

Even though he wasn't a theoretical physicist, he was in the nuclear physics and nuclear engineering field. He was up to date with physics research, especially ones regarding nuclear power.

Lu Zhou looked at Academician Wang and nodded.

"Correct."

On the surface, it might seem like the reason this sound fusion machine was successful was because of Sheng Xianfu and others, who added a small ionization chamber between the air inlet and the nuclear core. This was to heat the deuterium-tritium gas mixture and allow them to inject the ionized gas into the liquid lithium.

However, in fact, whether it was the use of liquid lithium or the calculation regarding a series of nuclear fusion parameters such as bubble density, surface area, and sound pressure, all of these were possible only because of the electrostrong interaction model.

This was just like how the plasma turbulence model was related to magnetic confinement fusion.

Without Lu Zhou's prior theoretical work, who would have known how long it would take for someone to build a sound fusion machine…

Director Li from the State Administration for National Defense couldn't wait any longer. "Can we put this on an aircraft carrier?"

Lu Zhou paused for a second and smiled.

"I don't know a lot about aircraft carriers. You'll have to consult with the naval nuclear engineers. However, even though the power efficiency and energy utilization are much lower than the Pangu's, they are still stronger than a traditional nuclear fission reactor… As long as it's properly implemented, we should be able to put it in an aircraft carrier or a submarine."

Director Li sighed in relief and looked solemnly at Lu Zhou.

"On behalf of the country, I'd like to say thank you!"

Lu Zhou smiled.

"You're welcome."

Lu Zhou had been thanked too many times; he didn't even react to it anymore.

However, he still felt pretty good when he heard Director Li's sincere tone.

Even though he wasn't interested in military technology, he was still happy that he could contribute to the safety of the country.

As for how to implement this into aircraft carriers or submarines, that would be the responsibility of the Navy Equipment Research Institute. The Jinling Institute for Advanced Study would provide some technical support, but most of the design work would be done by the military experts.

Of course, all of this wasn't for free.

Since the miniaturization of the controllable fusion machine was funded by the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, which was a private research institute, the intellectual property rights would be in the guaranteed form of national defense patents.

Even though the profit from licensing to the domestic navy would be far less than the profits from licensing lithium-sulfur battery patents, Lu Zhou's intention for this research project was never to make money, so he didn't care that much.

"So far, this fusion machine is mainly going to be used on spacecraft. After all, we still need to conduct more experiments." Lu Zhou looked at Academician Wang and said in a serious manner, "So, I'm assuming you'll take care of the ferrofluid electric energy generator."

Academician Wang nodded solemnly.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely give you an answer in two weeks!"

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.

"I'm happy to hear this."

After Academician Wang witnessed the experimental sound fusion machine, he left Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and went back to Haizhou with his two students.

The most critical part of the project had been completed. All they had to finish now was the ferrofluid electric energy generator.

He had to complete the ferrofluid electric energy generator design as soon as possible so that he could efficiently convert the heat energy into electrical energy!

As for Director Li, after he ate dinner with Sheng Xianfu and Lu Zhou, he left Jinling and returned to Beijing, bringing back the news of the miniaturized controllable fusion breakthrough.

This involved national security, so the fewer people who knew about it, the better.

Therefore, he had to personally report this to the senate…

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Chapter 669: For the Greater Good

Beijing.

A pale-skinned old man was sitting inside a rustic house. He meticulously read the newspaper in his hands. When he read to a certain point, he couldn't help but frown. Suddenly, he heard footsteps.

He looked up and saw Director Li walking toward him, escorted by guards. The old man looked at Director Li and smiled.

"What's up? It's so early in the morning."

"I just got here from Jinling." Director Li took a deep breath and tried to restrain the excitement in his heart.

The old man could have guessed what this was about, but he still asked.

"What is going on in Jinling?"

"The miniaturization of the fusion experimental reactor… With Professor Lu's help, it was successful!"

The old man wasn't the only one who was surprised, even the guard escorting Director Li was astonished.

The old man smiled and put away his newspaper. He then stood up from his chair.

He walked next to Director Li and looked at the big willow tree in the courtyard. After a while, he began to speak emotionally.

"It's an honor to have a scholar like Professor Lu in our country!"

"Yeah…" Director Li felt emotional too.

Director Li totally agreed with the president.

Fusion nuclear energy was now connected to the grid, strengthening the weak manufacturing industry. People's lives were made better by this source of endless energy. Lu Zhou had made a great impact on this country.

This was enough to make him remembered in history.

The old man thought for a bit before he suddenly asked, "Who knows about this?"

Director Li replied in a serious tone, "Other than the researchers, only the China National Nuclear Corporation Chief Engineer Wang and two of his students know about this… I already told Professor Lu to keep this thing quiet."

Everyone who knew about this used to be part of the STAR stellarator project, so they were all trustworthy people. Keeping a secret was no problem.

The old man nodded with approval.

"Good, keep this thing quiet."

Fusion research by the countries around the world had always been stagnated, and the negotiations for controllable fusion had nearly come to an end.

Even though the experimental reactor in California was walking the same technical path as Pangu, they still had several major unsolved problems. Even though China had temporarily relaxed its SG-1 superconducting materials exports, California's superconducting magnet test results didn't meet its expectations.

As for ITER, they were still the same. It was all talk and no walk.

Western countries had gradually begun to lose confidence in their own researchers, and they were eagerly negotiating with China. China, on the other hand, was very happy to negotiate in exchange for technology and governance.

Letting other countries know about China's sudden breakthrough in fusion miniaturization technology would undoubtedly have a negative impact on the on-going negotiations. The western countries would become greedier and start bargaining for the miniaturization technology… Also, the miniaturized fusion reactor was much more… dangerous.

When Director Li saw the old man's look of approval, he relaxed a bit. He then sighed in relief before saying, "Then what about aerospace?"

Old man: "Aerospace?"

Director Li paused for a second and decided to express his concerns.

"Yeah… if we put a fusion battery on a spacecraft, I'm worried that the news will leak out. If an accident happens, our technology might even be taken."

This was totally reasonable. After all, aerospace was a chaotic field. As long as something was in the sky, there was a chance it could fail. It would be fine if the battery were to land on China's soil, but if it were to land in the sea or foreign soil, then it would be a lot of trouble.

The president smiled and replied, "It's good to be careful, but we can't be overly cautious. Besides, the miniaturization of controllable fusion was meant for aerospace implementation in the first place, do you really think it's a good idea to pause the project because of this?"

"Uh… Yes, you're right, I was being negligent." Director Li looked down.

The old man looked at him.

"You don't have to worry about Professor Lu, just make sure you tell the Navy Equipment Research Institute about the technology. It's too early to implement the technology into aircraft carriers, but I think we can put it in a submarine!"

Director Li nodded and remembered every word spoken by the old man.

"Yes, sir!"

…

On the other hand, Lu Zhou was at the Institute for Advanced Study. He invited the researchers of the miniaturized fusion project to a conference room for a brief meeting.

"The State Administration for National Defense has contacted me. The miniaturization of controllable fusion technology is not suitable for public release. Let's keep it a secret for the time being. We won't have a big ceremony or anything, we'll just have a celebratory dinner."

Sheng Xianfu smiled and said, "We just had a big ceremony at the beginning of the year."

Professor Li Changxia nodded.

"Yeah, we don't need to celebrate. We're doing this for the greater good."

A few other researchers also nodded.

Even though it was a shame they couldn't write this accomplishment on their CV, being able to participate in a historical project like this was honorable in and of itself.

Besides, most people sitting here were still on the younger side. The oldest was only in their forties. Most people could live to see the day this secret was released, which was usually thirty years away.

Even if they couldn't see their results released to the world, it would be engraved on their tombstones.

Therefore, they had nothing to worry about…

"Also, regarding our next step."

Lu Zhou looked at Sheng Xianfu.

"The miniaturization of controllable fusion project will gradually disappear. We'll announce that the experiment was a failure and that we didn't discover any results… You can go back to the Southwestern Institute of Physics or go to the East Asia Energy company. Tell me where you want to go, and I'll write you a recommendation letter."

Sheng Xianfu spoke without hesitation.

"I'll go back to the Southwestern Institute of Physics. I was going to go back there after Pangu was completed."

Professor Li Changxia patted Sheng Xianfu's shoulder and said, "I understand, you want to show off to your old colleagues?"

Sheng Xianfu subconsciously rubbed his nose and said, "What do you mean to show off, am I that kind of person?"

"I'll write you a letter on behalf of the China National Nuclear Corporation and the Ministry of Science and Technology. You'll receive the letter within a week." Lu Zhou smiled and looked at Li Changxia. He then asked, "What about you? Do you want to return to Yuhua, East Asia Energy, or some other research institute?"

Professor Li Changxia paused for a second.

"I want to stay here."

Surprised, Lu Zhou looked at him and asked, "Stay here?"

"Yeah." Professor Li Changxia nodded and said, "I'm not suitable for a corporation, and Yuhua… The research space is limited. I want to stay here."

Lu Zhou said, "There are a lot of research institutes in China, so you don't have to stay here."

Li Changxia waved his hand and said, "What research institute in China is nuttier than you?"

"Okay then." Lu Zhou thought for a while and said, "Jin Ling University wants to open a nuclear physics institute, which is to be separated from the Institute of Physics. This is to help train the new wave of Chinese nuclear physicists. Since you worked at the STAR Stellarator Research Institute before, you should be the director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics."

Li Changxia had a sincere smile on his face.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "This is the least you deserve."

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Chapter 670: Assembly Center Completion

On the outskirts of Jin Ling City, a Volvo 18 wheeler drove on the concrete roads, creating a dust cloud behind.

Normally, a truck like this would have been stopped by traffic cops for driving on concrete roads.

This truck could drive smoothly because there were two military vehicles escorting it, one at the front and the other at the back.

Most people would walk the other way when they saw this intimidating scene.

The cars headed east and entered the eastern area of a high-tech zone. They stopped at a hundred-acre factory.

A man wearing a hard hat and work clothes walked to the truck and spoke a few words with the guy sitting in the passenger seat. Then, he began to gesture the military cars to enter the factory.

The factory company's name was erected near the gate.

"Star Sky Technology Space Shuttle Assembly Center."

The name sounded quite futuristic.

A black sedan with a red flag was parked near the factory entrance.

Wang Peng turned off the engine and glanced at the military cars. He couldn't help but wonder.

"You really plan on building a space shuttle?"

Lu Zhou: "Of course, why?"

"Nothing… I thought aerospace was just for scaring the United States."

After all, Wang Peng's family had ties to the government, and he had heard rumors before.

He heard that, on the surface, the moon landing conference was to lay out China's plan regarding controllable fusion, but in fact, it was only used to scare the United States and Europe. He even heard that the Ministry of Science and Technology planned to make Lu Zhou the chief designer, but Lu Zhou insisted on only being a consultant.

Wang Peng had to admit, scare tactics like these were useful.

After all, the idea of a "mass driver" scared people shitless. If the mass driver could really send tons of load into low-earth orbit, it could even be used for sending mail packages…

Even though China had no intention of doing this, other countries were still worried.

Especially since Lu Zhou was a chief consultant…

"No way, I could never intentionally try to scare people as a political play, I'd rather just do it legitimately." Lu Zhou smiled and said," Okay, no more joking around, I actually thought about building a spacecraft for a long time."

"I always thought you were a mathematician."

"I am a mathematician."

Lu Zhou didn't spend long in the car. After he got out, he walked straight to the assembly center.

Because of Xiao Ai, the entire assembly center could theoretically achieve a complete automated production process. Other than the technicians responsible for equipment, electronics, and maintenance, the only necessary staff members were those from the security department.

There were twice as many security members as there were normal employees.

Being able to automate a production process to this extent was rare, even in western countries.

Once the processing materials arrived, the assembly center could get to work.

Lu Zhou planned on building an independent and research department here, as well as a dedicated astronaut training center. However, he couldn't do all of this at once since it would take a long time.

Lu Zhou was inside the factory.

He looked at the rows of industrial robots and took a photo. He then sent the photo to Xiao Ai and smiled.

"What do you think, do you like your new toy?"

Xiao Ai instantly replied.

[Yeah! Super satisfied! Thank you, Master!]

Lu Zhou: "That's good… Oh yeah, don't forget what I told you. Don't make anything weird… Also, build the space shuttle according to the drawings, don't add any extra components."

Lu Zhou got the space shuttle blueprints from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The engine and fuel tank were modified, while the rest was basically an exact copy.

Even though China had never built a working space shuttle, that didn't mean they didn't have space shuttle researchers. China only stopped space shuttle research after the Soviet's failure.

There were a lot of advanced technological concepts in the 863 initiative. The reason some technical routes were abandoned wasn't that they weren't good concepts, but it was because it didn't align with the times.

If they could invent a high energy density power storing device and power source, then they could totally replace traditional chemical rockets and significantly increase the thrust.

Fortunately, Lu Zhou had already solved both of those problems.

Xiao Ai: [Don't worry! Xiao Ai will take care of it! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و]

Lu Zhou saw Xiao Ai's reply and couldn't help but smirk.

Even though this thing acted a bit retarded sometimes, it was still backed by total obedience.

He heard footsteps behind him.

Lu Zhou looked over and saw Chen Yushan at the factory entrance. She was walking toward him.

Lu Zhou looked at her and put his phone away. He then smiled and asked, "Why are you here?"

Around March, the headquarters of Star Sky Technology was moved from Shanghai to Jinling. The new office was in Jinling's CBD, not the high-tech zone. It took at least an hour to drive from the city to the high-tech zone.

Chen Yushan stood next to Lu Zhou and smiled.

"Well, I'm still the CEO of Star Sky Technology, how could I not come on such an important day? What do you think? Are you happy?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I'm very happy, thanks."

"You're welcome." Chen Yushan smirked and jokingly said, "Speaking of which, I've never been to space. If you can really make this space shuttle work, maybe we can take a day-trip to the moon."

Lu Zhou: "A day trip is too short, we have to stay for at least a couple of days."

Chen Yushan said, "Then we should build a hotel on the moon."

Lu Zhou smiled as he said, "Your ambitions are… interesting."

Chen Yushan couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"What do you mean interesting, I'm a businesswoman! I'm thinking about business!"

"Sure sure, whatever."

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Chapter 671: From Nothing to Something

Lu Zhou stayed at the newly completed assembly center for the entire day. The customized server equipment was delivered to the assembly center.

Lu Zhou watched the technicians set up the server equipment. After that, he transferred Xiao Ai into the assembly center servers.

By the time everything was completed, it was already night time.

Lu Zhou booked dozens of tables at the most luxurious hotel near the Purple Mountain area. He invited the engineers and construction workers, as well as the staff from the assembly center, for a huge dinner. This was his way of showing his thanks.

After the big meal, Lu Zhou got into his car and went home. He was about to fall asleep on his bed when Xiao Ai suddenly sent him a message.

[Master, you have mail!]

Lu Zhou looked at the sender's address and saw that the email message was from the China National Nuclear Corporation. He immediately opened the email message.

The content was very short, only one sentence.

[The ferrofluid electric energy generator is done.]

Lu Zhou climbed out of bed and put on some slippers. He went into his study room and began to type on his computer.

[Encrypt the blueprint and send it to me.]

After five minutes, Academician Wang replied.

[Okay.]

Soon after, Lu Zhou received the blueprints.

Lu Zhou downloaded the large attachment and decrypted the file. He opened the folder and quickly scanned the blueprints sent by Academician Wang.

Overall, the design of this ferrofluid electric energy generator was heavily influenced by the Pangu's ferrofluid electric energy generator. Whether it was the air inlet or the superparamagnets, the design was similar to that of Pangu's.

However, even though there were many similarities, China National Nuclear Corporation had to make a lot of improvements and changes.

Especially for the ionization chamber design. Because they adopted a curved ionization chamber design, it reduced the generator size by at least 20%. However, they had to sacrifice a bit of energy conversion efficiency, but this sacrifice was acceptable for use on a space shuttle.

After Lu Zhou looked at the blueprints, he thought for a while before saying, "Xiao Ai."

Xiao Ai: [Yes? 0.0]

Lu Zhou used his mouse to draw a circle on the computer screen. He said, "This ferrofluid electric energy generator, can you build it?"

Xiao Ai: [No problem, Master, don't worry! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و]

Xiao Ai sounds confident, but can it really do it?

Lu Zhou hesitated for a bit, but in the end, he decided to place his trust in Xiao Ai.

"Okay then, I'll ask the supplier to send the materials. Try to see if you can manufacture this thing."

Xiao Ai: [I promise I can do it! (*)ゝ]

…

At the same time, in Beijing, thousands of miles away, a car slowly entered the courtyard of the Navy Equipment Research Institute.

Under the escort of several intelligence personnel, a USB containing all of the information regarding the miniaturization of controllable fusion quickly passed the guards and entered into the Navy's ship laboratory.

Unlike the ferrofluid electric energy generator, information regarding the miniaturization of controllable fusion energy could only be transferred through this primitive method. This was the most secure method, and it wouldn't leave any traces.

It was late into the night.

Academician Zhang Jianrong was sitting in a quiet laboratory with a pair of glasses on his face. As he meticulously read the freshly printed documents, his eyebrows furrowed from time to time.

After a long time, he gently put down the blueprints.

"So this is… the experimental reactor model for the fusion battery?"

"Yes," said the man who was standing next to the academician. He nodded and said, "We've already sent the package, please sign here."

Zhang Jianrong didn't say anything. He picked up a fountain pen and signed the document. After that, he gave the document back to the man.

The man nodded turned around, and he immediately began to leave the laboratory.

He was from the People's Liberation Army General Staff Department. After he left, the tense atmosphere in the laboratory disappeared.

A researcher wearing glasses was sitting at the experiment table next to him, and he couldn't help but whisper, "I can't believe it… The Pangu project collaborated with nearly a hundred nuclear physics institutes around the country. They spent an entire year to complete the project. I can't believe this pillar with a diameter of less than two meters is able to solve the problem."

"The hardest part of any technology is creating something from nothing," another researcher said. "The fusion battery is different from the real fusion reactor, whether it's power generation or energy efficiency."

"Regardless, with this technology, our battleships will see a huge improvement."

"Yeah."

The blueprints were all in Academician Zhang Jianrong's hands. The other researchers could only sit around and chat.

As usual, Mr. Zhang would only assign the researchers their jobs after the project had begun. Each person's task was different. Before that, the blueprints were strictly confidential.

Academician Zhang Jianrong stared at the blueprints for a long time. Unlike usually, he didn't give the researchers anything to do. However, he suddenly stood up from his chair.

"I'm going to Jinling tomorrow."

The researchers who were chatting looked at the academician in surprise.

"To Jinling?"

Zhang Jianrong nodded seriously.

"Yes."

"This is an entirely new technical route, and it's very different from the magnetic confinement fusion path that we've been trying to achieve."

All of the researchers in the laboratory looked astonished.

An entirely new technical route?

Prior to this, all of them just thought that Professor Lu was trying to make a smaller magnetic confinement fusion device. They didn't expect him to go on another entirely different technical pathway.

"I have to be safe. I have to talk to Professor Lu in person. I'll bring a few people over. As for everyone else, be on the lookout. I'll arrange work soon."

The researchers who were sitting at the experiment table nodded subconsciously.

"When are you leaving?"

Zhang Jianrong answered without any hesitation, "Now."

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Chapter 672: It Is Time to Show the Real Technology

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

In many cases, the reason why Chinese scientific researchers produced little to no results wasn't entirely the researchers' fault. A lot of the time, it was because of the industry. After all, having a blueprint was different from having the real thing.

Whether it was the development of science or the development of technology, they both had to move forward coherently.

Lu Zhou hoped he could focus on the theoretical research side and let other people turn his research into a real product.

However, if he only did theoretical research, it might take him decades to see his research come to life.

The next morning, outside the space shuttle assembly center.

After Wang Peng parked the car, he looked at the building before casually asking, "What do you plan on doing after the space shuttle goes into space?"

When Lu Zhou heard this question, he smiled.

"I don't know yet, probably an astronomical observatory station."

"Astronomical observatory station?" Wang Peng looked at him and said, "When did you become interested in the stars?"

"Astronomical observatory stations aren't only used for stars. There's a branch in physics called astrophysics. For theoretical physics, experimenting is one way to prove conclusions, but it isn't the only way. Especially for problems that are beyond our technical knowledge, the more economical and practical thing to do is to look for clues in space."

Actually, many great discoveries were born this way.

For example, the famous gravitational wave was the result of an astrophysics observation. The existence of gravitational waves was first observed by looking at two black holes, which were 1.3 billion light-years away, being merged into one.

Wang Peng: "Sounds like finding a needle in a haystack."

"That's just how scientific research is." Lu Zhou took off his seatbelt and asked, "Do you want to look inside with me?"

Wang Peng: "Is it appropriate for me to go inside?"

Lu Zhou smiled.

"Come if you want. It's just some metal machines, nothing inappropriate."

After Wang Peng got out of the car, he followed Lu Zhou into this mysterious space shuttle assembly center.

Looking from the outside, the assembly center was protected by high walls, barbed wire, and security guards carrying high power electric batons. However, once they went inside, the assembly center was no different from any other large machining center.

They walked all the way to the center of the factory.

A staff member wearing a hard hat walked toward the two.

"The materials from Zhongshan New Materials have arrived, this is the list of materials."

After Lu Zhou was handed the document by the staff member, he glanced at the document and confirmed that all of the necessary materials had arrived. He then picked up a pen and signed his name.

"Tell the people in the warehouse to bring the materials here."

"Okay!"

The staff member nodded and quickly walked toward the warehouse.

Lu Zhou gestured to Wang Peng, and they continued to walk around the factory.

Wang Peng looked around the factory building.

The last time he came here, everything was still inside various boxes. But now, they were neatly placed around the building.

The only thing he didn't understand was, all the things were here, but where were all the workers?

Are these machines going to work by themselves?

Wang Peng was confused. He looked around the factory before looking at Lu Zhou.

"Work is starting today?"

Lu Zhou nodded and gave a simple answer.

"Yeah, China National Nuclear Corporation sent the blueprints here yesterday, I plan on testing them."

Wang Peng couldn't help but ask.

"Then how come there aren't any workers here?"

Lu Zhou smiled and replied, "Because we don't need them."

Wang Peng paused for a second. He didn't realize what was going on.

However, soon after, he knew what Lu Zhou was talking about.

He saw a large automated logistics vehicle that was parked at the unloading point.

Then, a group of small AGV logistics vehicles moved like ants, swarming to the pile of materials. They began to grab, transport, and place the materials. It was a dazzling sight.

However, this was just the beginning.

The AGV vehicles were like red blood cells in blood vessels, sending important chemicals to the "organs".

Soon after, an alloy sheet was molded into a generator set casing. The casing was then transported to another industrial robot.

After that, a few robotic arms began to fill the interior of the metal shell with the generator set components, such as the stabilizer and heating device. They worked at an incredible speed. After that, they quietly waited for the magnetic coil robot to send over its component…

The production process was filled with neural networks, deep learning, and sensors. Every part of the production line was completely controlled by artificial intelligence, which maximized its efficiency.

The only place in the production line that needed physical workers was the loading and unloading of large logistic vehicles.

Wang Peng stood next to Lu Zhou. His facial expression didn't change much, but deep inside, he was totally astonished.

After a while, he murmured, "If these robots become mainstream, people are all going to lose their jobs."

Lu Zhou smiled.

"You're overthinking it. Even in developed countries, it would be impossible to completely popularize this kind of equipment. Also, if this becomes popularized one day, it might be a good thing."

Production technology improvements would move labor workers to a higher level. Even though this would bring a series of social problems in the short term, it would benefit the development of civilizations in the long run.

Lu Zhou was about to say something when a technician walked into the factory.

"Professor, someone outside is looking for you."

Lu Zhou looked at the technician.

"Who?"

"They said they're from the Navy Equipment Research Institute. I think the leader is Academician Zhang Jianrong."

Academician Zhang Jianrong?

Lu Zhou vaguely remembered hearing this name before, but he forgot from where.

He remembered that this old man seemed to be in battleship power research and was an alumnus of Fuyang Institute Construction Material Laboratory. He was also good friends with Li Jiangang.

Regardless, since the old man came all the way from Beijing, Lu Zhou should give him some respect.

Therefore, Lu Zhou reluctantly walked away from the factory machines and looked at the technician.

"Bring me there."

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Chapter 673: You're My Teacher

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The reception room at the assembly center…

An old man with a head of white hair sat on the sofa. Even though he was over eighty years old, he gave off a sharp and bright demeanor.

In addition to this old gentleman, there were two other young researchers sitting next to him. Even though their demeanors weren't as strong as the old man's, it was obvious they were not just ordinary scientific researchers.

Therefore, even without an introduction, Lu Zhou could immediately tell which person was Zhang Jianrong.

He suddenly remembered where he first heard about this old man.

At that time, he was chatting with Academician Wang Zengguang from the China National Nuclear Corporation after eating dinner with him. They talked about the times when the China National Nuclear Corporation cooperated with the Navy Equipment Research Institute, and Wang Zengguang told Lu Zhou about Zhang Jianrong.

Back in the day, when China's economic development was at its peak, Zhang Jianrong and 29 other experts from all over the country were assembled to research the first generation of nuclear-powered submarines. What was even more amazing was that the only references they had were two blurry photos and a children's submarine toy from the United States…

Even now, this amazing story was still widely talked about.

When Lu Zhou saw Academician Zhang stand up, he smiled and reached out his hand.

"Hello, Academician Zhang, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hello." Professor Zhang Jianrong shook Lu Zhou's hand and said, "It's my pleasure. That thing you did in Haizhou ignited the hopes of many young children. Even though I wasn't there, I could still feel the sensation through my TV screen!"

Even though this old man was an academician, there was a military vibe to him. However, he didn't seem arrogant. On the other hand, he was likable.

"You're too kind." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "May I ask why you came all the way from Beijing?"

"Yes." Academician Zhang Jianrong nodded and said, "I read the documents on the miniaturization of controllable fusion for a long time yesterday. I also discussed with my two assistants for a long time, but I still don't have a clue about the overall design… I have never heard anyone talk using ultrasonic waves for fusion ignition."

The miniaturization of the controllable fusion reactor was one of the key projects of the Navy Equipment Research Institute. The Navy Equipment Research Institute had been working with the China National Nuclear Corporation regarding the miniaturization of the Pangu reactor, in hopes of implementing it on battleships.

However, their project wasn't going well. At least for now, they hadn't made any progress.

On the other hand, Lu Zhou had developed this new sound fusion technology.

The old man paused for a second before he said in a solemn tone, "You're my teacher, I hope you can aid me in understanding this technology."

Lu Zhou was a little embarrassed at how polite the academician was.

"I'm no teacher, but I can help you with the parts you don't understand."

The old man immediately took out a notebook from his pocket and handed it over to Lu Zhou.

"These are some of the problems I found while reading the blueprint and documents. I hope you can answer some of my questions."

Lu Zhou took the notebook from the old man and began to flip through the notebook.

Time quickly passed by.

After around two minutes, Lu Zhou flipped the notebook to the final page and suddenly closed the notebook.

"How about this," Lu Zhou handed the notebook to the old man and said, "I can answer the questions, but that's all talk. How about I take you to see the real thing?"

The three people in the reception room were all stunned.

Especially the two researchers, they looked astounded.

Lu Zhou could tell a lot from their facial expressions.

Just like Lu Zhou had expected, the Navy Equipment Research Institute didn't believe he really solved the miniaturization of controllable fusion at all.

Even though Academician Zhang didn't doubt Lu Zhou, the two researchers who came with Academician Zhang were full of disbelief and doubt.

Of course, they didn't doubt Lu Zhou himself, only Lu Zhou's claims.

Even though Lu Zhou was a Nobel Prize laureate and Ling Yun medalist, the concept of sound fusion sounded a bit too unrealistic.

Especially since the reputation of cold fusion hadn't been very good, and a lot of countries failed at cold fusion in the 1980s. Therefore, people's first instinct was that cold fusion was a hoax.

The matter of fact was that it was true that the vast majority of research institutions or individuals who were researching cold fusion, were doing so just to receive research funding. However, that didn't mean cold fusion was impossible.

Presupposition in scientific research was a deadly sin.

After all, a lot of things that seemed impossible a few hundred years ago, had now become part of their world…

In some sense, sound fusion wasn't a subset of cold fusion. After all, the instantaneous temperature peak from the bubble exceeded the temperature inside the sun's core, so it was not exactly "cold". However, the nuclear core was operating at a temperature of 1000-1300 Celsius, which was much cooler than the millions of temperature nuclear core inside Pangu.

Because of this, after the Navy Equipment Research Institute researchers saw the documents, no one believed that this cold fusion thing was real.

"The fusion machine is… in here?" Surprised, Academician Zhang Jianrong looked at Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou took out his phone and smiled.

"The experimental reactor isn't here, but we have something better."

Academician Zhang Jianrong squinted.

"Something better?"

Lu Zhou nodded.

"Yeah, come with me, you'll see."

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Chapter 674: 100 MW!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The group of people followed Lu Zhou's footsteps and went into the main factory building of the assembly center.

The moment Academician Zhang Jianrong walked through the factory door, it was like he became a statue that was frozen in time.

The two researchers behind him were the same. Their mouths were wide open as they were rendered speechless.

Dozens of industrial equipment in the factory were running on high-speeds, completely unmanned. They processed raw materials into necessary components and assembled the components together. These people had seen a lot of Chinese processing sites, but this was their first time seeing a factory automated to this extent.

Lu Zhou looked at his phone and typed a few words.

[How much longer?]

Xiao Ai: [Soon! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و]

Soon after, an AGV logistics vehicle carrying a two-meter diameter cylinder slowly moved next to two ferrofluid electric energy generators, which were just assembled. The AGV waited for the robotic arm to finish the final long-awaited assembly.

Academician Zhang Jianrong finally realized what was going on, and he closed his mouth.

He then asked, "This is?"

Lu Zhou walked next to the strangely shaped equipment and knocked on the cylinder. He smiled and replied, "This is the sound fusion reactor you saw on the blueprints, and this is the ferrofluid electric energy generator. The shape is quite simplistic, but it's going to be installed inside the space shuttle, so aesthetics don't matter here."

Academician Zhang Jianrong couldn't help but ask, "So this thing was assembled just now?"

Lu Zhou gave a simple reply.

"I guess."

More precisely, it was assembled half an hour ago.

Both the ferrofluid electric energy generator and the nuclear core reactor began production at the same time. While these three components were in production, the vacuum production room next to them was also working. A high-temperature liquid metal was being poured into the nuclear core mold.

By the time Lu Zhou and the other three people got here, Xiao Ai already finished assembling the two ferrofluid electric energy generators, and it had just finished the nuclear core and the nuclear core container. As for the final assembly process, that was easy as a piece of cake.

Academician Zhang Jianrong asked, "Can you demonstrate it for us? It's a working process."

"Of course I can."

Lu Zhou gestured to the camera in the factory.

After Xiao Ai saw its master's gesture, it immediately began to operate the robotic arms, connecting electrical wires to the reactor.

The control program software was already installed, and the debugging had already been completed. After the heating and ultrasonic generating device were turned on, the entire machine went into a preheating state, in preparing for the activation of the nuclear core.

They quietly waited for a few minutes. Soon, the liquid lithium inside the nuclear core was heated to several hundred degrees, slowly flowing due to the sound driving pressure.

On the other hand, the air inlet began to discharge the deuterium-tritium gas mixture, which was then heated to a state of plasma. Bubbles began to continuously collapse under the ultrasonic sound pressure while it traveled from the bottom of the container to the top.

Right after that, the green signal lights on both sides of the reactor were lit up. A huge amount of electrical energy emerged from the ferrofluid electric energy reactor, and this power was sent to the outside of the factory through a dedicated power line…

When Academician Zhang Jianrong saw that nothing special was happening, he couldn't help but ask, "It's already activated?"

Lu Zhou nodded and replied confidently, "Yes."

The researcher next to them whispered, "I feel like nothing is happening."

Lu Zhou smiled.

"We can't see anything here, let's go outside."

Lu Zhou turned around and brought the three skeptical people outside the factory.

As they passed through the factory, a strong gust of wind blew in their faces.

Academician Wang was wondering why the wind was so strong, and he looked at the direction of the wind. He then suddenly froze.

There were several tall windmills that were spinning near the factory.

Wind turbines?

Wait… No!

Academician Zhang Jianrong was shocked, and he immediately asked, "Wait… Those are being powered by the reactor?"

Lu Zhou nodded and answered his question.

"Of course."

Lu Zhou looked at the towering windmills and said, "We have to find a way to use the electricity generated by the fusion battery. There's no lake or river nearby, so we have to use this."

Academician Zhang asked anxiously, "What's the maximum power? Of the sound fusion device!"

Lu Zhou thought for a bit. He then replied, "Theoretically, it can reach 100 MW. We just have to control the injection rate of the deuterium-tritium gas. However, it's a bit expensive to generate electricity this way, and I can't find a place to consume the excess energy, so I won't be able to demonstrate."

Lu Zhou looked casually at the academician.

10 MW could be used up by the few windmills outside the factory. If they increased the power to 100 MW, Lu Zhou would have to find a laser transmitter and convert the electrical energy into laser energy.

Zhang Jianrong and the two researchers looked astonished.

100 MW!

Even though this number wasn't very high, many thermal power plants could only reach a couple of hundred megawatts. However, this thing wasn't powered by an entire facility. It was only a "portable" controllable fusion battery!

The two A1G pressurized water reactors on the Nimitz aircraft carrier only had a combined power of 194 MW. However, that device weighed 900 tons!

Even though this fusion battery was heavy as well, it was nowhere near 900 tons.

Also, the other important thing was its volume.

One of the biggest goals in nuclear power was how to reduce the size of the power plant. This fusion reactor had huge advantages in terms of energy density and mass-energy density. This undoubtedly would be beneficial for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Also what surprised Academician Zhang Jianrong the most was that this was only the first generation of fusion batteries.

Once this technology became mature, the power output would increase!

As for the two researchers standing behind Academician Zhang Jianrong, they had a mix of emotions on their faces.

Before they came here, they didn't even believe that sound fusion could generate fusion energy.

However, the truth was right in front of their eyes, they were in a state of cognitive dissonance.

They didn't want to believe this was real, but they had to admit that Lu Zhou was right.

Controllable fusion energy was miniaturized.

Lu Zhou was able to complete this near-impossible task!

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Chapter 675: So Angry!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After the two researchers saw this with their own eyes, all of their doubts and suspicions disappeared. The two researchers from the navy equipment research institute began to look at Lu Zhou with worship.

Honestly, Lu Zhou was a little embarrassed.

After the trial run was finished, Lu Zhou asked Xiao Ai to stop the reactor and waited for the nuclear core to completely cool down before removing it. He then asked an assembly center technician to inspect the radiation damage on the reactor casing.

While they were disassembling the reactor casing, Academician Zhang Jianrong and the two other researchers were watching by the side, asking questions about the reactor components from time to time.

Even though they were well into their later years, they still had a serious and eager attitude about learning, the same as that of a young man in his twenties.

This was what Lu Zhou admired the most.

He always believed that as long as a person kept learning, that person would never grow old.

Even if their bodies weakened, their minds would remain young forever.

Academician Zhang Jianrong would probably stay for a few weeks in Jinling to learn about the relevant sound fusion knowledge as well as its technical knowledge from Lu Zhou. Because Lu Zhou was often busy and couldn't teach him every day, he arranged Professor Li Changxia to be the one responsible for teaching these three researchers.

Professor Li Changxia obviously accepted Lu Zhou's task.

After all, this was a good opportunity for Li Changxia to advance in the academic field.

If he could make friends with this prestigious academician from a high-ranking military institution, Li Changxia would have the hope of getting into the Changjiang Scholars Program.

Also, living in a hotel wasn't very convenient, nor was it safe. Lu Zhou talked with Jin Ling University and arranged them to live in the Jin Ling University's faculty dormitory, in the name of academic exchange groups.

At night time, Lu Zhou found a grilled fish restaurant near the university and invited the three researchers from the Navy Equipment Research Institute to dinner.

Because Academician Zhang was quite old, Lu Zhou didn't ask the waiter to bring any alcohol. However, when the grilled fish was placed on the table and the mouth-watering smell filled the entire room, Academician Zhang decided to go against his plan and asked one of the researchers to buy a bottle of Baijiu from the nearby supermarket.

It seemed like Lu Zhou's worries were superfluous.

This old man drank alcohol like it was water. He didn't seem like he was a day over 50 years old.

After some drinking, Academician Zhang Jianrong suddenly said, "Oh yeah, I suddenly remembered something."

Lu Zhou just came back from the toilet after getting rid of the metabolized alcohol from his body. He sat back in his chair and poured himself another shot.

"What's up?"

Academician Zhang: "Next year is the academician election year, right?"

Lu Zhou: "I think so?"

Academician Zhang: "I was thinking, what if you become an academician of the Academy of Engineering? Or Academy of Science?"

Lu Zhou paused for a second and smiled. He then said, "I'm a mathematician, there's no room for me at the Academy of Engineering. If I could, I'll probably be an academician at the Academy of Science."

Academician Zhang shook his head and said, "In my opinion, your achievements in the field of engineering are no inferior to your theoretical field achievements. The significance of the Pangu project is comparable to the Manhattan Project!"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Pangu wasn't my work alone."

Academician Zhang smiled and said, "That's what you said, but we all know that there are many excellent scholars and engineers, yet none of them can lead the way like you did. Do you think if Academician Wang Zengguang was the chief designer, the fusion reactor would have been made?"

Lu Zhou nearly spat the Baijiu out of his mouth.

Even though he knew they were good friends, this was still a little ruthless…

Academician Zhang suddenly had a flash in his eyes. He smiled and said, "How about you apply to the Academy of Engineering next year? We have already discussed it several times. A lot of people are willing to write recommendation letters for you. It'll be an easy ride. As for the Academy of Science, it doesn't really matter if you apply or not, they don't have a lot of funding."

Even though this sentence was somewhat bitter, the two academicians were actually around the same status, neither was better than the other. They both had backgrounds in directing research institutes and were the vice presidents of universities.

This old man definitely had drunk too much. Lu Zhou smiled and said, "We'll see what happens, who knows what can happen."

Academician Zhang Jianrong waved his hand.

"What do you mean? I'll personally write a recommendation letter for you! No one will dare to vote against me!"

Lu Zhou coughed.

"I'll think about it."

Zhang Jianrong smiled and nodded.

"You should think about it!"

The two researchers sitting next to them ate silently.

Wow…

Forget about begging for an academician spot, this academician is begging Lu Zhou!

F*ck sake, I'm so angry!

…

After they finished eating, Lu Zhou said goodbye to Academician Zhang. He sat in Wang Peng's car and went back to his Purple Mountain mansion.

On the way back, he asked Xiao Ai to fill the bath with water. He went straight into his bathroom and soaked his body into the warm bath, washing away his sweat that smelled like alcohol.

This was the best part about his increased metabolic activity. Whether it was drinking or exercising, his body recovered at an insanely fast rate. Even though Academician Zhang drank a lot with Lu Zhou, Lu Zhou's body was able to process most of the alcohol on the ride home.

In some sense, this was a convenient superpower.

Lu Zhou walked out of his bathroom and put on the pajamas, which was placed by Xiao Ai's drone. He then went into his study room.

He still had some work to do before he could sleep.

However, the moment he sat down at his desk and turned on his computer, he received a phone call…

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Chapter 676: Do You Know Who I Admire the Most?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The phone call was from Chen Yushan.

The moment the phone connected, Lu Zhou heard a pleasant voice through the phone.

"Hello, what are you up to? I called you before, but you didn't pick up."

"I was eating."

Chen Yushan curiously asked, "Eating? With a guy or a girl?"

"An academician from the Academy of Engineering, he's in his seventies." Lu Zhou coughed and said, "Forget about it, why are you calling me this late?"

Chen Yushan: "Well, the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense just called our company."

"Commission for Science?" Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows. He was curious. "What did they say?"

"They asked if Star Sky Technology is interested in the end of year bidding for the manned moon landing project. If we are interested, we should start preparing the proposal and hand it in within two months."

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, "What's the specific project details? Did they say?"

"The specific project content can be found on the Commission for Science's website. I briefly read through it. Roughly speaking, the first phase of the project requires us to provide a 50-ton low-Earth orbit launch capacity, to be completed within 5 years."

50-ton low-Earth orbit delivery capacity?

Quite ambitious.

One should know that the orbit capacity of the Long March 5 was only 25 tons. None of the Chinese aerospace companies could accomplish this task with their current technology.

As for the Long March 9, no one knew. After all, this thing was expected to be completed in 2026. However, aerospace funding had been increased by a lot. If they tried hard enough, they might be able to make the 5-year cut-off.

Lu Zhou sat in his chair and thought for a while.

"Okay then, I'll write a proposal in a few days."

"Okay, I'll wait for your news."

After Lu Zhou hung up the phone, he turned on his computer and contemplated it for a bit.

Even though at the beginning of the year he didn't consider bidding for this aerospace project, he didn't expect the sudden breakthrough in miniaturized controllable fusion technology.

Not to mention the scanner gun he won from the lucky draw, which cracked the secrets of the Hall-effect thruster. This greatly reduced his reverse-engineering time on the Debris No.3.

So far, the energy supply problem could be solved by the fusion battery. The most advanced five-axis CNC machine tools and the advanced neural network algorithm could be used to reverse engineer the Hall-effect thruster from the blueprint. It would be a pity not to participate in this project.

After all, he had seen the last moon landing seminar. The budget for this project was around two billion yuan. This kind of money-burning project would hurt his bank account quite a bit, so it would be great if someone could pay for his research.

Also, sending a 50-ton load into orbit wasn't anything too difficult for him.

Lu Zhou opened a document and placed his hands on the keyboard. He typed a title.

[The feasibility of fusion battery technology and ion thruster propulsion in aerospace.]

…

Over the past few days, Lu Zhou spent his time either at the Institute for Advanced Study or the space shuttle assembly center. He had collected the necessary data for his report, so he had very little time to spend at Jin Ling University.

However, this didn't matter too much. He didn't have a lot of classes in the second half of the semester. Only a few lectures on number theory, theoretical physics, and surface chemistry.

Even though occasionally there were a couple of students asking him questions, the PhD students who were residing in his office could deal with it.

As for the other more miscellaneous stuff, his three assistants could handle it.

Two weeks after the semester began, Lu Zhou had almost completed his entire argument report. He received a call from Luo Wenxuan, who was on a business trip in Europe.

When the call connected, a familiar voice was heard through the phone.

"It's a shame you can't come in person. The award ceremony is at the famous Institut de France. You have no idea how much preparation the Clay Institute did for this ceremony!"

"Oh really?" Lu Zhou heard how excited Luo Wenxuan was. He smiled and said, "I'm not too envious, I've already been there."

The other end of the phone went silent.

After two seconds, Lu Zhou heard a cough.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, this is the second time you won this prize…"

Jesus Christ, I totally forgot.

I totally got one-upped!

Lu Zhou didn't know what Luo Wenxuan was thinking. He smiled and said, "Remember to thank Professor Carlson, Jaffe, and Witten for me."

Luo Wenxuan was helpless. He sighed and said, "I knew you would say this. I've already said hi to them… Oh yeah, I've mailed the medal and check from the Clay Institute to you. Make sure to check your mail."

Lu Zhou said, "You mailed it? Why couldn't you bring it back yourself?"

Luo Wenxuan: "Traveling with a million-dollar check and a pure gold medal? Do you think I'm crazy?"

Lu Zhou: "Okay then, how long do you plan on staying in France?"

"Haha, uh… I haven't decided yet." Luo Wenxuan looked through his hotel window and yawned. He said, "At least until the end of month, right? I plan on taking a trip to Liechtenstein."

Lu Zhou: "…"

This guy is so unreliable.

Since Luo Wenxuan had done what he had to do, Lu Zhou didn't say much else.

Lu Zhou sighed and said, "Okay then, just come back after your trip."

"No problem! Actually, I'm not totally on holiday, I'm walking around to accumulate inspiration. Do you know who I admire the most?"

Lu Zhou: "Who?"

It's not me, right?

Please don't be me…

Luo Wenxuan: "It's Schrodinger! He discovered the great wave equations in the foothills of the Alps with his lover! I think you know what I mean, just like how you teach undergraduate students for inspiration, my way of being inspired…"

"F*ck's sake!"

Lu Zhou hung up the phone and threw his phone on the table.

He looked at his completed thesis on his computer screen and double-checked the entire thesis. He converted the thesis format and sent it to the relevant China National Space Administration department.

He was certain that after they saw where the email came from, the department would take his proposal seriously.

As for Luo Wenxuan…

There weren't any physics research projects that Lu Zhou needed Luo Wenxuan's help with, so Lu Zhou decided to just let him be.

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Chapter 677: Raise Your Hand

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

China National Space Administration.

Inside a conference room.

A title was shown on the screen.

[The feasibility of fusion battery technology and ion thruster propulsion in aerospace.]

The title of the thesis was also the subject of the conference.

Even though the title wasn't very long, it contained a lot of information. So much so that even though the conference had begun a long time ago, no one has spoken yet.

Director Sun looked at the people in the conference room and contemplated for a bit with his eyes closed. He slowly opened his eyes and broke the silence.

"This thesis was written by Professor Lu around two days ago. After we received this thesis, the leaders from the Communist Party of China told me to discuss this with you guys."

Director Sun paused for a second and made sure that he didn't forget any details.

"About this thesis… Well, the space shuttle, I want to hear your opinions."

The conference room remained silent.

After a while, a quiet voice spread through the conference room.

"The space shuttle program was dropped by Qian Xuesen for a reason… Should we do this?"

"Are we going to listen to Qian Xuesen forever? Also, that was a long time ago. If someone wanted to build a plane a hundred years ago, do you think people would have believed them?"

"I agree with Professor Yu, right now the NASP program and the Sanger program in Germany are focusing on reusable space shuttles for round-trip transportation systems. I'm sure the Americans have lost more on the space shuttle program than we have. There's a reason why they're choosing to go with the space shuttle. Therefore, we can't ignore their decision!"

Director Sun was sitting at the end of the conference table as he quietly listened to their discussion.

Even though the discussion was somewhat sloppy, he had no other choice.

After all, since Professor Lu's thesis mentioned a lot of sensitive technology, it wasn't suitable for public discussion or even closed-door expert meetings. Therefore, the information sent to the conference attendees was altered. For example, the fusion battery was described as a hypothetical unfinished technology.

Therefore, most people didn't take the fusion battery technology seriously.

Actually, similar things had happened before in this conference room. However, there weren't advanced multimedia equipment back then, and the conference attendees had obviously changed.

Deputy Director Wang looked at the chaotic conference room. He then quietly said, "Director."

"What now?"

"Is this discussion… necessary?"

Director Sun raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

Deputy Director Wang said, "The higher-ups want us to treat Professor Lu's thesis seriously. Isn't their intent obvious?"

Director Sun said with a blank expression, "We still have to discuss. Otherwise, do you want to be responsible when something goes wrong?"

The deputy director smiled and shut his mouth.

The discussion gradually became heated.

No one could convince anyone.

Director Sun looked at his watch and saw that it was about time, so he cleared his throat and raised his voice.

"In order to ensure this meeting can be held more effectively, I will disclose some private information. I want you all to make sure that you do not have any electronic devices and make sure that this stays strictly confidential."

The conference room began to quiet down.

The experts in the room looked at each other. They all had thoughtful expressions on their faces.

Of course, some people were confused as they looked at Director Sun with suspicion on their faces.

Director Sun didn't explain anything. He looked at his assistant next to him and nodded.

The assistant standing next to the multimedia desk immediately knew what was going on. The assistant placed a CD into the computer on the multimedia desk and quickly found the original thesis inside the CD. There was some sensitive data, as well as information regarding the fusion battery.

The moment the information was projected on the screen, the conference room went dead silent.

A few minutes had gone by…

Suddenly, there was an uproar in the conference room.

"100 MW! This is impossible!"

"If the output power can reach 100 MW… then it could generate thrust on the kN magnitude…"

"This is ridiculous! If they can reach 100 MW of power, then the ion thruster can provide kN magnitudes of thrust?!"

So far the world's most powerful ion thruster was NASA's NEXT system, which had a power output of 6.8KW, with only a thrust of 0.236N.

A thrust that was in the magnitude of thousands of newtons…

It would require energy in the order of MW, but no ion thruster in this world would be able to use this energy.

An old professor with glasses looked at the data on the projector.

"What kind of ion thruster can achieve this level of power…"

"They're not scamming for research funding, right?"

"Impossible, Professor Lu wrote this himself! Do you think he's lacking in research funding?"

"I think he's a fraud!"

"But what if he actually did it?"

"Quiet!"

The loud voice interrupted the chaotic conference room.

The director looked at the experts in the conference room and said, "I'm a layman, so I can't evaluate whether this is reliable or not. After all, I've been on many planes, but I've never been on a space shuttle.

"You are all aerospace experts. Over the past two decades, our country's aerospace industry has made great progress with your help. Not only have we made technological breakthroughs, but we also completed things that other countries couldn't dare to imagine.

"Therefore, I believe in your judgment."

Director Sun only used one sentence to put an end to this argument.

"Put your hands up for a vote."

The conference room went silent for a while.

The experts carefully looked at the data on the projector and began to contemplate.

Gradually, one hand went up.

Then the second…

Then a third…

After a while, Director Sun looked around the room and began to count.

Eleven of the twenty people raised their hands.

Even though some people didn't want to vote, the majority was for the proposal.

Director Sun looked around the room and nodded. He stood up and spoke in a concise manner.

"Project approved!

"Meeting finished!"

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The space shuttle had a long history behind it.

Ever since the completion of the Apollo program in the United States during the 1960s, the focus of space shuttle RD had been on easy maintenance and multiple launches. The Soviet Union followed the United States closely in this space battle. They successfully launched three space shuttles, such as the Snowstorm and the Little Bird.

Therefore, China didn't want to fall behind either, and they also made their own plans.

Like the 863-204 project. The so-called "world-wide round-trip transportation system". During the early stages of the project bidding, Chinese space experts heavily debated the space shuttle. The people supporting the space shuttle had the upper hand.

However, once the arguments were settled, the report was given to Qian Xuesen, who was near retirement.

After Qian Xuesen read the report, he only wrote one line in reply. That line completely changed the technical route of the space shuttle, and it also changed China's aerospace industry.

"This is a terrible idea."

Looking back at it now, this decision was undoubtedly correct.

Space shuttles weren't actually as glamorous as it seemed. Even the two super-nations couldn't achieve their dreams of achieving convenient space travel.

Using the United States as an example, the design life of the Space Shuttle Columbia was 20 years/100 launches, but the total number of launches across all five of the United States' space shuttles was barely a hundred times. The launch costs and maintenance costs were also copious, always exceeding their estimated budgets.

On the other hand, the Soviet Union was even worse. Their three space shuttles had only been launched once each. After the 90s, the space shuttles couldn't even be launched to space. One of them was bought by a museum in Germany.

Rather than going through all of this again, it might be better to just research how to recover the second-stage launch rockets. That would cost around the same as maturing space shuttle technology.

However, the times were always changing.

One had to look at the problem from another perspective, and any problem had a solution.

Space shuttle assembly center…

Lu Zhou was standing next to an industrial robot. With gloves on his hand, from a plastic box, he picked up a metal tube around the size of a water bottle. He then placed the metal tube near a metal port and began to carefully look at the surface.

"Why do I feel like it's too big?"

A series of texts popped up on the control screen of the machine tool.

Xiao Ai: [Sorry, Master! This is the best Xiao Ai can do…]

Lu Zhou: "It's fine, I'm not blaming you… You did a good job."

Xiao Ai: [Really? 0.0]

"Yeah."

Xiao Ai: [Happy! Φ(ω*)]

Lu Zhou: "…"

In his hand was the enlarged version of the Hall-effect thruster from the Debris No.3. This component was at the upper manufacturing limit of the CNC machine.

Lu Zhou tried to ask Xiao Ai to make this thing smaller without sacrificing performance. However, the diameter of the propulsion unit was only reduced by 1 mm, and yet the overall processing difficulty increased exponentially. This also affected the stability of the propulsion unit.

However, even though it was difficult to reverse engineer the technology behind Debris No.3, this copy was quite good.

The engine port that had a diameter of 1.32 meters could be filled with 200 Hall-propulsion units. By supercharging and rectifying the plasma xenon in the ionization chamber, the plasma plume could accelerate to one-thousandth of the speed of light and be injected backward. This would result in a maximum thrust of 200KN.

A single engine had a thrust of 200 kN, so five engines would have a total of 1,000 kN.

Even with a load of 50 tons, it would be able to achieve 1G of acceleration. Even though it was slower than traditional chemical rockets, it had the advantage of not having to carry heavy fuel.

The only problem now was that the 100 MW fusion battery had to meet the requirements of 1 X-type Hall-effect thruster.

If he wanted to have enough energy output, he had to upgrade the power of the fusion battery.

"It looks like we have to increase the power of the fusion battery to 500 MW… Ideally, 1,000 MW." Lu Zhou stared at the propulsion unit in his hand and said, "The power control system also has to be improved… Is there a way to integrate the ionization chamber with the five engines? Or get a bigger Hall-effect thruster with more propulsion units."

Lu Zhou placed the propulsion unit back into the plastic box and walked away from the factory. He went into the main office at the building next door and found the technical director of the Star Sky Technology's space shuttle assembly center, Hou Guang.

Speaking of which, this guy was also a nutty person.

This old professor had participated in the 836-204 project. Even though he was only an intern for the space shuttle design, he had a wealth of experience in the aerospace field. After that, he worked as an aerospace professor at Beihang University.

Normally speaking, it would be difficult to hire a big name like this. However, once the old professor heard that Lu Zhou was leading the team to build a space shuttle, he immediately accepted Star Sky Technology's offer. He flew to Jinling the next day.

It had been more than a month since he had worked here as a technical director.

Lu Zhou was satisfied with his work.

After all, designing the space shuttle wasn't Lu Zhou's cup of tea, and it would be better for him to let the professionals handle it.

"I've carefully researched the space shuttle design. Because of the size of the power supply components, the ion thrusters, and the propulsion units, we have to design more than 40% of the space shuttle."

Lu Zhou: "What does more than 40% mean?"

Hou Guang thought for a bit and gave a clearer answer.

"We probably have to completely redesign from the shuttle wing backward."

Lu Zhou nodded.

"Since you're a space shuttle expert, I'll do what you say. Also, based on your experience, I want you to give me a simple assessment of how much the entire project will cost?"

Hou Guang thought for a bit before replying, "A conservative estimate is a billion USD… Of course, before the new design comes out, no one knows how much it'll cost."

A billion USD…

For a space shuttle project, this price wasn't high at all. After all, the Columbia space shuttle cost the Americans more than US$2.5 billion, and that was decades ago. Being able to build this with only a billion USD was largely due to the fact that most of the design was completed in the 1990s. Since the assembly center could process most of the components, they only needed the raw materials.

However, even though Lu Zhou was prepared to spend money…

This US$1 billion price tag was out of his budget.

Lu Zhou couldn't help but start to worry about money.

Should I sell some of East Asia Energy's shares?

Even though it wasn't a public company, he could easily sell his shares. After all, everyone knew the potential of this giant fusion company. However, the work at Daya Bay had only just begun, and the Southeast Asian power grid was in its first stage. It would be a shame to sell now.

Should I borrow money from the bank?

But this is an aerospace project. The ROI will take too long, plus there are no profit forecasts. It'll be difficult to get a loan.

While Lu Zhou was worrying about it, he suddenly heard a door knock.

Lu Zhou looked at the door and said, "Come in."

When the door was pushed open, the secretary of the assembly center was at the door.

The secretary didn't expect to see Lu Zhou here. She paused for a second and looked pleasantly surprised.

"Professor Lu!"

Lu Zhou said, "What?"

She spoke with excitement, "The research funding that we applied for at the China National Space Administration was approved!"

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Funding was approved?

Already?

There was a flash of surprise in Lu Zhou's eyes, and he quickly asked.

"How much was approved?"

"500 million!"

Only half a billion?

Lu Zhou looked a little disappointed, but he quickly returned to normal.

Even though it wasn't a lot of money, it temporarily relieved their funding shortage.

After all, the country wanted to commercialize the aerospace industry, and they couldn't just give all of their subsidies to one company. If he wanted to survive in the aerospace industry, he had to rely on many departments, such as the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, China National Space Administration, and the manned mission to the moon.

If he could win the bidding and take on some research projects from the China National Space Administration, such as collecting lunar soil, then he wouldn't have to worry about funding.

Hou Guang had a similar idea. After he heard the secretary's report, he frowned and thought for a bit. He said, "500 million… Should be enough for the first couple phases of the project, we'll have to get more funding later on."

"Yeah." Lu Zhou nodded and said, "I'll find a way to get us funding, you don't have to worry about it."

Lu Zhou smiled and patted the technical director on the shoulder.

"Even if our funding really runs out, I'll sell my Purple Mountain mansion and make sure our space shuttle will fly into space!"

Hou Guang was speechless.

Selling your house to build space shuttles…

What kind of person does this?

Hou Guang asked himself if he could sacrifice materialistic things for the greater good, and he didn't think he could do it.

There's no way Lu Zhou won't be able to send the space shuttle into space!

Hou Guang stood up straight and made a solemn promise.

"I won't let you down!"

Lu Zhou didn't expect Hou Guang to get so serious. He suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Even if they needed money, he wouldn't sell his mansion…

His mansion was worth a lot less than his East Asia Energy shares or his lithium-sulfur battery patent.

Using those two as mortgages would get him a lot more money.

Lu Zhou coughed and diverted the conversation.

"In short, you only have to do your side of things, you don't have to worry about anything else. We have to try to win the big projects from the Commission for Science and the China National Space Administration. If we do, we won't have any more funding problems!"

Hou Guang nodded his head.

"Roger that."

…

Virginia.

CIA headquarters.

The director of the CIA was sitting at his desk. He was carefully reading a document about the ITER project, which was sent from Europe.

Suddenly, he heard knocking sounds.

He put down his pen and closed the document. He then looked at the door and muttered, "Come in."

The office door was pushed open.

An agent in his forties walked in while holding a file.

"Director, our agents in China have returned with the latest information. The Navy Equipment Research Institute is developing a more reliable power unit."

"More reliable power unit?" The director raised his eyebrows as he asked, "Can you be more specific?"

The agent took a deep breath. He then replied with a hint of uncertainty, "Apparently… it's a smaller controllable fusion machine."

"Smaller controllable fusion machine?" The director's pupils dilated, and he stood up from his office chair abruptly and slammed his hands on the table. "Is the information reliable? Is there a detailed report?"

"The information is still being verified… Of course, the report is ready."

The anonymous agent walked forward and placed the file on the table. He then took two steps backward and stood straight with his hands behind his back.

The director picked up the report and sat back down. He began to carefully read the report.

"Estimated power output of 500-1,000 MW… Technical route unknown, may be different from magnetic confinement." The director put the file down and said, "Is this the only information we have?"

The agent nodded and said, "At the moment, yes."

The office became silent.

A few seconds went by, and the director suddenly asked, "Is it Professor Lu again?"

The agent frowned.

"It is possible… but not likely. According to our agents in China, after the STAR-2 stellarator project was completed, Professor Lu resigned from his position. However, he later went on to research sound fusion but didn't achieve any significant results… The project team was even disbanded last month."

Sound fusion was one of the ideas for cold fusion, and the research on cold fusion had been labeled a "hoax" by the National Academy of Sciences and the United States Department of Energy in the 80s.

It turned out that even the all-mighty Professor Lu wasn't able to take down this mysterious dragon.

Even though the CIA had considered the fact that China could have tried to cover their experiment success, considering the fact that Lu Zhou was busy with the Yang-Mills equations some time ago, it would be impossible for him to research sound fusion at the same time.

It was very likely that the sound fusion was just a smoke bomb released by the Chinese authorities, which was used to cover their top research at the Navy Equipment Research Institute.

The director didn't say anything. He tapped his index finger on the table and began to contemplate.

A couple of seconds went by. He suddenly relaxed and leaned in his chair.

"The possibility of Professor Lu being in this is low… But I don't think we can separate this thing from him."

The agent asked, "What do you mean?"

The director looked at the report on the table and said, "At the moment, we are not certain whether this is a ploy by China or if they have actually achieved some results.

"Regardless, obtaining more intel is the most important thing.

"Increase the agents in Jinling, especially at the space shuttle assembly center! I need to know what Lu Zhou is doing. Also at the Navy Equipment Research Institute! If they're really doing research on the miniaturized controllable fusion, there have to be clues. Immediately report all information to me!"

The agent stood up straight.

"Yes, sir."

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Chapter 680: Prepare for the Future

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou wasn't able to help too much with the space shuttle design.

Even though with his current level of engineering, he could self-learn the necessary knowledge, his energy was limited. He had to invest his time and energy into things that had the highest rate of return.

These days, in order to increase the energy density of the reactor as much as possible, Lu Zhou spent his time researching on how to improve the sound fusion machine. Most of the heat generated by the Hall-effect thruster was contained in the ionization chamber, which was then expelled from the spacecraft in the form of high-energy plasma.

Fortunately, because of Xiao Ai, the difficulty of his work decreased greatly.

As long as he had a laptop, he could control the reactor with the help of Xiao Ai's robots and verify some new interesting experiment ideas, which were dozens of kilometers away.

So far, Lu Zhou had successfully increased the power of the sound fusion machine to around 200 MW. As for the sacrifices, he only had to increase the nuclear core volume by 20% and the weight by 10%. Therefore, the overall volumetric energy density and mass-energy density had improved significantly.

Even though there was still a long way to go from the minimum requirement of 500 MW, Lu Zhou believed that they weren't far from success.

In addition to improving the fusion battery, there were also the project bid documents.

The end-of-year aerospace conference would be held in less than a month. There were many aerospace enterprises that would participate in this year's conference. Not only were the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation attending, but OneSpace, Blue Arrow Aerospace, and other excellent private aerospace companies were also attending. Even some of the large tech companies were joining in on the fun.

After all, investing in the aerospace industry meant tax concessions. For big taxpayers like them, it meant that the state was basically subsidizing them to develop their aerospace technology. Not to mention they had needs for communication satellites…

The days quickly passed by, and it was soon late September.

During the last week of September, Luo Wenxuan finally came back from Europe.

When Lu Zhou saw him come into the office, he teased.

"Did you find any inspiration?"

Luo Wenxuan coughed and replied, "Inspiration… can't be hurried, it'll come naturally."

"Well, regardless, I have something for you to do."

Luo Wenxuan immediately started to focus.

"What?"

Lu Zhou didn't plan on telling him just yet.

"How long did you stay at CERN?"

Luo Wenxuan: "Probably around three years."

"Three years?" Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Do you know a lot about hadron colliders?"

Luo Wenxuan didn't know why Lu Zhou was asking this, but he still answered honestly, "I know a bit, I'm pretty close with Professor Grayer. He often took me to visit the tunnels, and I've also witnessed the overhaul of many detectors, like ATLAS and CMS."

"Grayer?" Lu Zhou looked nostalgic as he smiled and said, "He's an interesting guy."

"You know him?" Luo Wenxuan looked surprised. He patted his forehead and said, "Oh right, I forgot, you interned at CERN."

"Yeah, but I don't know a lot about CERN, especially about the Large Hadron Collider." Lu Zhou paused for a second before adding, "I plan on building a similar thing for theoretical physics research."

"Building a similar thing?" Luo Wenxuan's eyes widened, and he looked at Lu Zhou in disbelief as he said, "You plan on building a collider? Do you know how much those cost?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Tens of billions of USD? Actually, it's not that much, also… I don't plan on building it on the ground, but in space."

Luo Wenxuan was shocked speechless.

"Wouldn't that cost even more money?"

Lu Zhou: "You don't have to worry about the money, that's my responsibility. Also, we don't need money just yet, I just need you to participate in the design."

Luo Wenxuan said, "But I'm not a physics engineer."

"I know, but you're an expert in theoretical physics who had spent three years working at CERN." Lu Zhou looked at Luo Wenxuan and said, "I'll hand over the engineering to someone else, and you'll be responsible for providing theoretical support for the design. Of course, if you are not interested, I can ask someone else."

"Of course I'm interested… I'm just afraid to let you down."

"Don't worry," Lu Zhou patted Luo Wenxuan's shoulder and said with a smile, "I believe in you."

Building a Large Hadron Collider in outer space for theoretical physics research had the advantage of low-gravity and a non-magnetic field environment. Lu Zhou had thought of this idea for a long time but never had the means to realize it.

Now that he had made breakthroughs in controllable fusion technology, the advanced ion thrusters would kick off a new aerospace era. This unrealistic idea now seemed feasible.

Regardless of whether it was difficult, the design work could begin now.

Luo Wenxuan scratched his head and sighed.

"Okay then, if there's anything else I need to do, just tell me."

Lu Zhou nodded.

"Yeah, I'll send the specifics to your email. Okay, that's about it, you can leave if you want."

Luo Wenxuan joked, "You're kicking me out now? You're not even going to give me a cup of coffee?"

Lu Zhou looked up and saw Kong Jie standing near the coffee machine.

"Kong Jie, make two cups of coffee for me, an instant one and a black one, the kind with no sugar or milk."

"Okay." Kong Jie nodded at Lu Zhou and took out a bag of instant coffee and a can of coarsely ground coffee beans from the drawer. She skillfully made the two cups of coffee and brought them over on a tray.

"Here you go, enjoy!"

"Thank you."

Kong Jie smirked and twirled her hair with her thumb.

"You're welcome."

Kong Jie went back to the coffee machine and made herself a cup of coffee as well. She then returned to her desk and sat down.

Lu Zhou picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip.

Not bad.

The taste and temperature were perfect, just how he liked it.

Lu Zhou put down the cup and looked at the other cup. He then looked at Luo Wenxuan and asked, "Didn't you ask me to get you some coffee? Why aren't you drinking it?"

"I…"

Luo Wenxuan stuttered. He stayed silent for a while.

He looked behind himself, then looked at Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou knew he had something to say, but didn't know how to say it. Lu Zhou sighed.

"Say it, what's on your mind…"

Luo Wenxuan: "I suddenly want to ask you some… questions."

Lu Zhou was bored.

"Go ahead."

"Is she… your assistant?"

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He looked at Kong Jie, who was sitting at her desk sorting out documents.

"Yeah, why?"

Luo Wenxuan immediately asked, "Does she have a boyfriend?"

Lu Zhou nearly spat out his coffee. He put down his coffee cup and lowered his voice.

"I'm warning you! I don't care if you go after other people, but if you try to hurt my students or employees…"

"Am I that kind of person! I…" Luo Wenxuan looked at Kong Jie and said, "I'm being serious."

Lu Zhou was speechless.

He had heard this line many times before.

"You weren't serious the previous times?"

"I'm always serious… but this time is different. Every time is different. Lu Zhou, you get me, right? Love is so sudden, it's like the electrons outside the nucleus, you never know exactly where it is. One second it'll suddenly appear next to you."

I can't…

This is disgusting…

Lu Zhou made a fake-vomiting gesture.

Luo Wenxuan pretended like he didn't see anything. He kept looking toward Kong Jie's desk.

Lu Zhou said, "Look me in the eyes and repeat what you said."

"No, thanks, I'd rather look at her."

"F*ck sake!"

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Chapter 681: Luo Wenxuan Is Lovestruck?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Because of Kong Jie, Luo Wenxuan recently liked to visit Lu Zhou's office. He'd either come for some coffee or talk about some difficult problems with Lu Zhou.

Honestly speaking, even though Lu Zhou was too lazy to care about this guy's love life, Luo Wenxuan was the type of guy who went through 5 girlfriends in a month, and this made Lu Zhou slightly worried. If Luo Wenxuan really started dating his assistant, Lu Zhou was afraid it would end badly…

Speaking of which, Lu Zhou was quite puzzled since Luo Wenxuan mentioned before that he never dated people from his workplace.

Somehow, he changed?

Fortunately, Luo Wenxuan's pickup tricks didn't work every time. At least from Lu Zhou's perspective, Assistant Kong had no interest in Luo Wenxuan's attention-grabbing behaviors. She only concentrated on her work.

Even though Luo Wenxuan was a bit frustrated, Lu Zhou was relieved.

However, Lu Zhou was getting tired of his shenanigans.

Therefore, on the last day of September, Lu Zhou couldn't help it anymore. He put down his cup of coffee and sighed.

"Do you know what Edward Witten said about you?"

Luo Wenxuan, who was bothering Lu Zhou with a discussion about the electrostrong interaction, paused for a second.

"What… did he say?"

"He said that if you spent half of your womanizing energy on physics, physics would be your lover."

There was something else Lu Zhou didn't say.

Witten once thought that Luo Wenxuan was the best student who could take on Witten's torch and carry forward the M theory, but unfortunately, it took Luo Wenxuan a billion years just to graduate…

Of course, this would be too hurtful to say out loud, so Lu Zhou thought that it would be better to never tell him.

However…

"Witten thinks this highly of me?"

Lu Zhou: "… ???

"You think he thinks highly of you?!"

"Anyway, give me a break! I'm already in my thirties! If I give up on this opportunity, who knows how long it'll take for me to find my true love…"

"Go figure it out yourself!"

Han Mengqi peeped in their direction, but she couldn't hear what they were talking about.

Suddenly, they heard a knock outside the office door.

Lin Yuxiang, who was sitting near the door, saw Dean Qin appear at the front of the door with a smile while holding a vacuum flask in his hand.

"Oh, Professor Luo, you're here too, I'm not interrupting your discussion, am I?"

"Nope." Lu Zhou leaned back and sighed. "This guy is going a bit crazy these days, I'm enlightening him… What's up?"

Dean Qin smiled and said, "There's some stuff I have to tell you, it's regarding the faculty event in October."

Faculty event?

Lu Zhou was confused.

"What event?"

"Field trip."

"Field trip?"

"Yeah." Dean Qin nodded and sat down on the sofa. He smiled and said, "This autumn season field trip is jointly organized by our mathematics department and the foreign languages institute. Faculty members below the age of thirty are encouraged to participate. It's designed to provide a chance for the faculty members to relax and take a break from the stressful workplace… Of course, the main part is to let you young people get to know each other."

"So… it's a group date?"

Dean Qin: "You can think about it that way, but the main part is to give everyone a chance to go out. Everyone will stay at the Purple Mountain Hotel for a night. I've been there a couple of times, the environment and scenery are nice. What do you think? Are you interested?"

Actually, there was one thing the dean didn't mention. For faculty events like this, especially between departments, it was mainly hosted to help the single employees find their partners.

After all, universities and academia was a closed circle. Compared to other professions, there weren't many opportunities to contact the outside world. Especially for some of the more introverted scholars, without these faculty events, they might never find their partners.

As for Lu Zhou's relationship situation…

There had been countless people trying to find him a partner…

Lu Zhou felt a little suspicious. He felt like Dean Qin was hiding something.

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Oh well, I'm probably not going to go, you guys have fun."

Dean Qin knew Lu Zhou would say this.

"You have tons of time for research, but you can't even spend one day to socialize? Socializing is good for research!"

Lin Yuxiang was eavesdropping on the conversation, and she walked over with a cup of instant coffee and nodded. She said, "Yeah, it's much better than staying at home."

Lu Zhou said, "I'm not staying at home."

Dean Qin: "Staying at your office is the same! You're young, go out and have some fun."

Lu Zhou went silent for a while and sighed.

"Okay then… If I'm not busy, then I'll go."

He really wasn't good at rejecting people.

Especially when it came to things that weren't too troublesome for him to do.

"Yay!" Lin Yuxiang held up a victory sign and smiled at Dean Qin. She said, "Dean Qin, can assistants go as well?"

Dean Qin smiled and replied, "You can apply if you want to!"

When Luo Wenxuan heard that anyone could sign up, he quickly poked Lu Zhou's arm. He pointed at himself and looked desperate.

Lu Zhou rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Who else wants to go?"

The office went silent for a while.

Other than Lin Yuxiang, no one else held their hand up.

This made sense…

After all, this was for faculty and staff members; students didn't want to go. As for the low-level assistants, they weren't interested either.

Lu Zhou gave Luo Wenxuan a helpless expression.

Suddenly, an arm went up.

"Umm… Me."

Lu Zhou looked over and saw Han Mengqi with her hand up in the air.

Lu Zhou looked at her face and asked, "You want to go as well?"

Han Mengqi's face turned red, and she quickly nodded.

"Yeah!"

Lin Yuxiang looked at Han Mengqi's reddened face. She blinked and pretended to be dumb as she said, "But… You're not a staff member, right?"

"Well…"

Compared to Lin Yuxiang, Han Mengqi was too innocent. Even though she wanted to say something, she couldn't think of anything.

Dean Qin waved his hand and smiled as he said, "It's fine, it's fine. Graduate students can go as well. You're all young people anyway. It's healthier to go out than staying in the office all day!"

Lin Yuxiang was a little disappointed, but Han Mengqi felt relieved.

Originally, Han Mengqi didn't want to go…

It was just that she was worried about Lin Yuxiang being with Lu Zhou alone.

After all, Lu Zhou was Mengqi's future brother-in-law!

Han Mengqi picked up the pen and wrote down her name on Dean Qin's registration form.

Luo Wenxuan, who was standing next to Lu Zhou's desk, looked heartbroken.

Even though Assistant Kong wasn't interested in signing up, he still put down his name.

"I'll just go to clear my mind."

Luo Wenxuan sighed and handed the registration form to Lu Zhou. He then turned around and left.

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Autumn was the most beautiful season in Jinling.

The summer heat was still blasting through the tree branches yesterday, but in just a blink of an eye, the golden autumn leaves already covered the ground. A group of young people stepped on the golden ginkgo leaves scattered across the mountain asphalt roads.

"I'm so tired."

"Who told you to come in high heels?"

"I thought the bus would take us to the hotel, who knew we would have to walk there… Ah, this is so painful."

"Look, there's actually quite a few handsome guys from the mathematics department."

"Oh, look, Professor Lu is there…"

"…"

Lu Zhou didn't know why, but he felt like someone behind him was staring at him.

And it wasn't just one person staring.

Wang Peng was walking next to Lu Zhou. He looked at the mountains and suddenly said, "I've lived in Jinling for nearly two years now, but it's my first time coming here."

Luo Wenxuan said, "Ah, that's nothing, I was here for four years for my bachelors, and two years for my master's, and I haven't been here either."

"Two years for your master's?" Wang Peng looked surprised.

"Yeah, I received an offer from Princeton in my second year, so I went there instead."

Luo Wenxuan was quite proud of this.

Even at a top university like Jin Ling, being able to receive a PhD offer from the well-known Professor Edward Witten was an extraordinary accomplishment.

As expected, Lin Yuxiang, who was next to them, clapped her hands.

"Amazing."

Luo Wenxuan's ego was through the roof.

"Haha, yeah."

Lu Zhou couldn't help but say, "Then you took six years to graduate?"

Luo Wenxuan coughed.

"That's because Witten loves to… Ok, can we not talk about this?"

Han Mengqi was nearby. When she heard their conversation, she couldn't help but chuckle. Other professors from the mathematics department also smiled.

The atmosphere was full of joy, and Luo Wenxuan quickly changed the topic. He began to talk about the things he experienced at CERN and his internship at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Lu Zhou had to admit, this guy had a lot of experience. Lu Zhou had always wanted to go to Brookhaven National Laboratory, but the closest he got was talking with Professor Wilczek about the 750 GeV signal at a cafe near the laboratory.

After walking for about five or six kilometers, they took a break at a gazebo. After that, they walked some more. Finally, they reached their destination.

The name of the hotel was simple. It was named after the Purple Mountain. The decor was elegant. Apparently, there was also a spa, but Lu Zhou didn't know if it was manmade or natural.

After the mathematics department arrived at the hotel, they did their usual check-ins. After a while, the foreign language department also arrived at the hotel.

Lu Zhou looked around the hotel while holding his room key. Roughly speaking, the foreign language department was similar to the mathematics department. Other than some older professors who were still in good shape, most of them were young people. The only difference was that the sex ratios were the exact opposite, and they were on the younger side. There were even a couple of beautiful foreign teachers.

Because there were so many people, Lu Zhou originally didn't want to go. However, Dean Qin's invitation made it difficult for him to refuse.

Besides, he had finished most of the work for the upcoming bid. The fusion battery improvements were also in its final stage. Since he wasn't as busy with work anymore, it was time for him to get some rest.

This was what Chen Yushan told him over the phone last night.

This was just a way for him to get some rest.

Lu Zhou picked up his luggage and was about to go upstairs.

Suddenly, the hotel manager walked into the lobby and smiled at the faculty members.

"You guys are all from Jin Ling University, right? Welcome!"

Dean Qin seemed to know the manager. He went up and shook the manager's hand.

"Manager Song, you're too kind."

"This is nothing, our little hotel is honored to accommodate these scholars."

Dean Qin smiled and said, "This hotel is not little at all."

Manager Song smiled and didn't say anything. He looked at Lu Zhou, who was standing behind Dean Qin. He had a surprised expression when he said, "You are… Professor Lu?"

Lu Zhou was a little shocked. Even though he had been on the news a few times, he was rarely recognized in public.

"Yeah, nice to meet you."

Lu Zhou smiled politely.

"It's an honor," Manager Song shook Lu Zhou's hand and said, "I didn't expect you to be here."

"You know of me?"

"Of course I do, my daughter worships you. She follows and comments on your Weibo all the time."

"Dad," said a teenage girl who was hiding behind Manager Song. She pulled her dad's arm and said, "Please stop."

Lu Zhou didn't expect to meet his fans here. He smiled awkwardly.

Ah, I guess this is the downside of being famous?

Lu Zhou asked, "How old are you?"

The girl blushed and said, "I'm in middle school."

Browsing Weibo in middle school?

That's not good.

Lu Zhou began to lecture her.

"Don't spend all your time on Weibo, make sure you keep your studies up and try to get into a good high school."

"Yes."

The girl nodded.

It seemed like the girl took Lu Zhou's advice seriously.

Lu Zhou smiled and continued to ask, "By the way, what did you comment on my Weibo?"

The girl went silent.

Manager Song smiled and patted his daughter's shoulder.

"Go on, I'm curious as well, you never let me see your phone."

The girl hesitated for a long time and looked at Lu Zhou. She finally replied in a small voice, "Stuff like 'yikes'…

"They're all commenting on it, so I commented on it as well. I mean, you're actually pretty handsome, so…"

The lobby went silent for a second.

Luo Wenxuan nearly laughed out loud. Han Mengqi covered her mouth with her hands and turned around. She tried to control her laugh, which made her look as if she were in pain.

As for Lu Zhou, he was muddled.

Yikes?

The hell is yikes?

Manager Song suddenly pulled his daughter aside.

"What the hell is this?"

"Didn't you tell me to say it?" the girl said.

Dean Qin coughed and tried to diffuse the situation. He said, "She's just a kid, I'm sure Professor Lu won't take it to heart."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Lu Zhou obviously didn't care about what a kid said.

After all, he was quite confident in his looks.

However, Manager Song seemed a little unhappy.

Due to this incidence, during lunchtime, the teachers' tables were given some extra delicious steamed crabs. Even Lu Zhou, who normally didn't like seafood, ate several plates full of crabs.

"This stuff pairs well with alcohol," Old Tang said as he munched on a crab leg while drinking rice wine.

Another professor replied, "Haha, should we come back in the spring?"

"To Purple Mountain again?"

"Okay then, I'll organize our next trip, we can go Beidaihe instead."

"Beidaihe in spring? What a horrible idea."

While the mathematics professors were chatting, Lu Zhou quietly ate his crabs. He suddenly remembered something.

"Oh yeah, what are we doing in the afternoon?"

Professor Tang, who was filling his drink, said, "I think we're going on a hike."

Hiking…

Sounds so boring.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, "Can I not go?"

Professor Tang smiled and said, "Of course you can, but the evening barbecue is at the top of the mountain. Let me tell you, Old Lu went to the villages and bought several barrels of fish just for this. It would be a shame if you missed this barbecue!"

When Lu Zhou heard there would be grilled fish, he hesitated for a second.

Even though he wasn't interested in hiking, he was quite interested in eating.

Especially when it came to barbecued fish…

"Then… I guess I'll go."

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