Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
This was completely opposite of what Zhou Chengfu expected. He waited for a week and didn’t hear anything from the STAR project team.
STAR didn’t announce any new experiment plans, nor did he see Lu Zhou respond publicly to his scientific review article.
It was like…
He was being ignored…
Zhou Chengfu felt like he was being punched out of nowhere; it made him uneasy.
Originally, he thought that after Lu Zhou saw his article, even if Lu Zhou didn’t reply with a rebuttal article, he would at least immediately begin the next controllable nuclear fusion experiment, in hopes of proving himself.
And regardless of which one Lu Zhou chose, it would be beneficial for him.
If Lu Zhou chose the former, he wouldn’t lose to him in terms of article writing abilities. If Lu Zhou chose the latter, at least he could get an understanding of the STAR machine.
After all, he didn’t know exactly what was the situation with the STAR machine. Whether it “only decided to run for one second” or “could only run for one second”, he had no idea.
Even though he didn’t feel optimistic about the WEGA machine, that was only a guess based on the fact that the Germans were willing to sell the machine for €500 million. Therefore, he didn’t want to say anything too controversial and absolute. At the very least, he had to be cautious with his words.
Zhou Chengfu was in his office, reading the latest issue of China Nuclear Industry News. As if he was talking to himself, he asked, “Why is this kid staying so silent?”
Jiang Liang was also puzzled. Logically speaking, Lu Zhou had no reason to take the loss.
His eyes turned as a thought appeared in his mind.
“Maybe… They really bought a piece of trash?”
Zhou Chengfu pondered for a while and said, “That could be possible. After all, the WEGA machine has been retired since 2013. Anything could have happened within these six years.”
Ever since the Wendelstein 7-X project was launched, the WEGA machine was forgotten and faded out of everyone’s mind. The only information about the WEGA machine was that it was still on the laboratory’s list of devices.
After all, controllable nuclear fusion wasn’t a popular field. The important research was basically centered around a few nuclear fusion devices that were still operational. No one would pay attention to a device that couldn’t produce any research results.
And if a device wasn’t able to produce theses, then no one would know what the situation of the device was.
From the very beginning, Zhou Chengfu had suspected that this equipment was defective. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make any sense for the Germans to so readily agree to a sale.
After all, from his objective opinion as an insider, the price tag of €500 million was a bit cheap…
Zhou Chengfu thought for a bit.
“Let’s see what happens in a few days.
“We’ll wait until the end of the month.”
If they really bought a 4 billion yuan piece of scrap metal, then it would be interesting…
While Zhou Chengfu was planning on how he should play the cards in his hands, there was a beautiful clear blue sky thousands of miles away in Jinling.
On this day, the staff of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study as well as the faculty of Jin Ling University finally met each other at their jointly held sports games.
Other than traditional track and field events, such as running, hurdling, high jump, long jump, and relay running, there were also a wide variety of ball sports, such as table tennis, football, and basketball. There were also events specifically designed to promote teamwork, such as table tennis ball relay and the three-legged race.
At the opening ceremony, the contestants raised the national flag. They were arranged by their faculty departments and shouted the oath of sportsmanship. After the principal’s opening speech, this sports event finally officially began.
“Old Tang, are you fine?”
Professor Lu Fangping was warming up at the start of the hundred-meter race. He’s actually been gaining quite a bit of weight over the years, but he still jokingly teased Professor Tang Zhiwei, who was standing next to him on the race track.
Old Tang heard his friend’s joke and laughed. He then said, “You don’t have to worry about me, just worry about yourself, and don’t break your back.”
Old Lu: “I’m not trying to offend you, but your posture isn’t correct at all, aren’t you going to warm up?”
Old Tang: “Warm up? It’s only a hundred meters.”
Old Lu: “Ah, don’t blame me when you trip and fall.”
When the referee next to the race track raised his gun, the two old professors shut their mouths and focused on the race track in front of them. They both planned to prove to each other who would be the real winner.
“Everyone…
“Get set…
“Run!”
The moment the gun went off with a bang, the professors sprinted like a couple of rabbits.
However, within two seconds, something embarrassing happened.
First, Old Tang’s shoe flew off his foot, landing a couple of meters away. Then, Old Lu, who was running behind him, saw the shoe fly off, and he fell onto the ground. He even nearly got a cramp from laughing too hard.
Obviously, being good at running had nothing to do with warming up beforehand.
Thankfully the running track was made from soft polyurethane, therefore the fall wasn’t too painful. Not to mention, Professor Lu’s beer belly helped him reduce the impact. With people on both sides of the race track cheering for him, he still stood up while wincing.
The teachers and students who were standing on both sides of the running track tried their best to cheer Old Lu on. But falling onto the ground would undoubtedly make him come last.
However, the two old professors still persevered. They stumbled to the finish line and received applause from the students and teachers.
Inside the gymnasium, there were two teams fighting on the basketball court, defending and chasing the ball.
This competition was between the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and Jin University chemistry department.
It was obvious the ball sports were more enjoyable to watch than track and field events.
There were many more people surrounding the basketball court.
Of course, it also could’ve just been because of Lu Zhou’s presence on the court.
Some random professors accidentally gossiped in class, which ended up causing all of the students in the maths, chemistry, and physics departments to find out that the Fields Medal and Nobel Prize winner was going to participate in this sports event. This put the number of spectators on a whole other level.
However, Lu Zhou didn’t pay attention to the spectators; his focus was on the basketball competition.
Over the past six months, he had been busy with research. He hadn’t exercised this intensely in a long time.
As for how many shots he landed…
That wasn’t important.
Playing basketball was more about having fun.
After all, everyone was bad at the game.
Besides, he knew that the reason why there were so many people watching him and cheering him on wasn’t because of his skillful basketball techniques.
What was the real reason?
Was that really a question that needed to be answered?
Obviously it was because of his handsomeness…
A couple of chemistry students stood on the edge of the basketball court while watching the game. They began to brag to each other.
“Whenever our new lecturer on computational materials talks about the Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure, his PowerPoint presentation would show a photo of him and the Nobel Prize laureate. The main thing is that he’s in the background of the photo, and you can only see half of his face. I think it might even be photoshopped.”
“Bro that’s nothing. Every class, our experiment professor will talk about how useless we are and brag about how nutty God Lu was when he was our professor’s assistant.”
“Is it Professor Li?”
“Of course!”
“He probably just wants to show off he had a Nobel Prize laureate as his assistant.”
“Sigh, what’s the point? These professors just brag to us undergrad students all day.”
Suddenly, they heard a jarring voice from the crowd behind them.
“Ah, what are you guys talking about?”
The students turned their heads and saw Li Rongen with his hands behind his back as he smiled at them.
It was like the students saw a ghost, and they turned around as they scattered away.