Chapter 570: The Third Debris
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Germany, Greifswald.
Wendelstein 7-X laboratory.
Professor Keriber was sitting at his desk. He was holding a mouse in his hand while staring at his computer screen. As his cursor repeatedly clicked through the video progress bar, he had a massive headache.
The video was Lu Zhou’s Light of Science interview.
The show aired last night. Someone recorded it, added subtitles, and uploaded it to Youtube. It received millions of views.
Millions of views for a science interview was quite impressive, especially since the video quality wasn’t the best. It was obvious that the controllable fusion field, which previously had nothing to do with the public, had received widespread attention.
After Keriber saw this video, he immediately downloaded the video.
He was different from other people.
He didn’t really care about Lu Zhou’s thoughts on controllable fusion energy, nor did he care about the “future technical problems” that came along with controllable fusion. He only cared about one thing.
Which was Lu Zhou’s opinion on the controllable fusion reactor itself!
He just wanted a little bit of inspiration, a little guidance!
Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t find the thing he was looking for.
Suddenly, he heard his assistant’s voice.
“Professor?”
While frowning, Professor Keriber looked away from the screen and stared at his assistant, who was sitting in his office.
“What now, Price?”
“You’ve been staring at that video for over an hour…” Price was shocked by how tired Professor Keriber looked. He originally wanted to remind Keriber that he had a new email, but instead, he asked, “Do you need any help?”
“No need… Wait, bring me a cup of coffee.”
“Okay.”
Price immediately stood up and walked out of the office.
Professor Keriber continued to stare at the young man in his computer screen. He had a complicated expression on his face.
Kicking China out of ITER was a mistake.
That was always his opinion.
However, those politicians who made the wrong judgment obviously wouldn’t pay for their own actions or even admit their mistakes.
The only evidence of them admitting their mistakes was their redirected focus of research resources into the stellarator projects.
Now that China had proved this technical route was feasible, they could eliminate the other technical routes, like the reversed-field pinch, inertial confinement fusion, or the tokamak.
They could also couple this with the help of the westerners who had participated in previous stellarator research projects. Not to mention, it was very difficult for large-scale scientific research projects like this to be kept completely confidential. They could find a way to reveal the secrets.
Of course, even if the state decided to increase its investment and more research institutes were involved, they knew that it wouldn’t be easy to achieve what China had done.
Professor Keriber estimated that even if the whole of Europe put their resources into the Wendelstein 7-X laboratory, it would take them at least a decade to complete the demonstration reactor project.
And that was if everything went well.
If something didn’t go well…
It could take two decades…
In order to advance this project as soon as possible, Professor Keriber had been tirelessly collecting information about Lu Zhou. From looking at his theses to watching his interviews… Everything he did was to find an ounce of inspiration.
However, the worst thing was that this was all a waste of time.
Lu Zhou knew more about controllable fusion than anyone else on this planet.
If Lu Zhou didn’t want to reveal the secrets of the controllable fusion energy, then there was no way for the world to know those secrets.
Perhaps the only way was to ask Lu Zhou for help.
But he knew that the probability of this working was slim…
“I have to go to China…” he muttered to himself. He stood up from his office chair and grabbed his coat from the coat hanger. He then walked out of the laboratory.
Two minutes passed by.
The office door opened.
Price walked in with a freshly brewed cup of coffee. When he saw the empty office, he paused for a second.
“Professor?”
Where is he?
He was here a second ago.
…
Night of Chinese New Year’s Eve.
The 301 Hospital was almost deserted.
Even though there were a lot of nurses and patients who were still here, it was quieter than usual.
Lu Zhou lay in his medical room and stared at the ceiling. He was thinking about difficult math problems to kill time.
Xiao Tong was sitting on a stool next to him, and she was playing with her phone on a small table.
They already ate their family dinner during the afternoon. After that, Lu Zhou’s parents went to the CTV station.
The tickets for the annual New Year’s Gala live show were sent by Director Luo, and there were five tickets in total. In addition to Lu Zhou’s family members, there was also a ticket for Yan Yan.
However, only two of these five tickets were used.
First of all, Lu Zhou wasn’t particularly fond of crowded and loud places. Secondly, he wasn’t interested in the New Year’s Gala. Xiao Tong felt the same way, so she stayed in the hospital with him.
As for Yan Yan, apparently she had been to the New Year’s Gala show when she was a kid, so she wasn’t interested anymore. It wasn’t uncommon for kids of higher-up state officials to attend the New Year’s Gala.
Lu Zhou began to feel a little bored. He suddenly remembered that he still had a lucky draw ticket. Thus, he silently whispered, “System.”
His consciousness went inside the pure white system space.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard from the corridor.
Chen Yushan gently knocked on the door and walked in.
“Hello!”
She didn’t want to disturb Lu Zhou, so she spoke quietly. She waved at Xiao Tong.
Xiao Tong’s eyes lit up when she saw Chen Yushan. She immediately put down her phone and jumped out of her chair.
“Sis? Why are you here?”
Chen Yushan carefully made a “shush” gesture to Xiao Tong and pointed at Lu Zhou. She pointed at the plastic bag she was holding and said, “I came to bring you guys food.”
Xiao Tong’s eyes lit up and said, “Oh, dumplings, did you make them yourself?”
Chen Yushan said awkwardly, “Uh… I did half the work? It was mainly my grandma helping me. I hope it’s palatable for you guys.”
“It’s definitely palatable, my brother isn’t a picky eater.” Xiao Tong suddenly thought of something. She smiled mischievously and said, “Speaking of which, Doctor Yan is also making dumplings. It seems like my brother is quite popular this Chinese New Year.”
Chen Yushan asked, “Doctor Yan?”
Xiao Tong nodded and said, “Yes! The lady that has been taking care of my brother. The hospital organized a dumpling making event and she went. She said she’d give us some dumplings later… She’ll probably be back soon.”
Chen Yushan nodded.
She heard about Doctor Yan from Lu Zhou before, and her father, who was in the government, had also talked about Doctor Yan with her.
She didn’t know why, but she had a hunch in her stomach.
She felt like there was something going on between Doctor Yan and Lu Zhou.
However, compared to the insignificant relationship stuff, she cared more about Lu Zhou’s health.
Chen Yushan placed the dumplings on the table and walked next to the bed. She sat on a stool and quietly looked at Lu Zhou’s face.
Speaking of which, this was the first time she had seen Lu Zhou asleep.
Why do I feel like…
He looks quite different when he’s sleeping.
It was almost like Lu Zhou could feel someone was staring at him.
His eyelashes gently moved, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Lu Zhou looked at Chen Yushan and gently coughed.
“Why are you staring at me?”
Chen Yushan blushed and stood up from the stool.
She took half a step back and cleared her throat.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, I didn’t do anything when you were asleep.”
Xiao Tong smirked and raised her hand. “I can testify.”
Lu Zhou looked at his energetic sister and sighed. “I know… I was just resting for a bit, I didn’t fall asleep.”
He was doing the system lucky draw.
According to his past experience, he could feel any real-world movements while inside the system space.
However, Chen Yushan made the situation even more awkward when she tried to clarify it.
After realizing that Lu Zhou wasn’t asleep at all, Chen Yushan was even more embarrassed.
She blushed and quickly cleared her throat before diverting the conversation.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Better than ever before,” Lu Zhou said, “I haven’t been in the laboratory for a long time, so it feels like my brain is rusting.”
Chen Yushan didn’t know why, but looking at Lu Zhou in the hospital bed made her feel a little distressed.
Even though she wanted to say some words of comfort, she couldn’t get the words out of her mouth.
“My grandpa asked me to give you these dumplings.”
Lu Zhou: “Grandpa?”
“Yeah… He saw you in the news and praised how you are the pillar of our country. Then, when he found out that we know each other, he was shocked. He urged me to come over here and bring you some food. He also told me to thank you for your scientific research contributions to the nation…”
Chen Yushan playfully looked around and said, “Speaking of which, is there a kitchen here? You and Xiao Tong haven’t eaten yet, right? Since you’re going through such a tough time, I’ll help you cook the dumplings.”
Xiao Tong’s eyes lit up, and she raised her hand.
“I’ll show you where the kitchen is!”
She playfully grabbed Chen Yushan’s arm and walked out of the room with her.
Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.
His head was back on the soft pillow, and he continued to look at the ceiling. He began to think about the prize he just won.
Maybe it was because of the painstaking scientific research efforts that he made, he had been quite lucky.
He finally hit the jackpot on this lucky draw this time.
The third piece of debris was quietly lying in his inventory.
Just from the appearance of the debris alone, it looked like something spectacular.
At the same time, he felt like he was getting closer and closer to revealing the secrets of the system itself.
