NOVEL WEB Chapter 33: The demonstration reactor is completed.
"Screech..."
The sound of brakes interrupted Lu Hezheng's thoughts.
"Professor Lu, we've arrived!"
Du Zhen's voice came from the driver's seat.
Lu Hezheng, regaining his senses, looked out through the car window.
A makeshift factory building emerged on the gravel - covered ground in front of him.
"This... is this the temporary research institute?"
Lu Hezheng's eyes widened slightly, and he said in disbelief.
To be fair, this was definitely the shabbiest laboratory he had ever seen, without a doubt!
Du Zhen in the driver's seat reached up and scratched the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. "Professor Lu, the time was too tight. This is the best - built lab we could manage."
"Let's not talk about this. I'll take you to meet Professor Lü first."
...
Lu Hezheng followed Du Zhen to the door of a makeshift tin - shed.
"Professor Lu, Professor Lü is inside. I won't go in," Du Zhen said to Lu Hezheng with a smile, then turned and left.
Lu Hezheng looked at the extremely shabby tin - shed, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
As soon as he entered the shed, Lu Hezheng saw a young man in his twenties sitting seriously behind a desk, pen in hand, engrossed in writing and drawing on the table.
Although the young man's face was rather youthful, Lu Hezheng sensed an oddly imposing presence from him.
This kind of presence, he'd only witnessed in top - notch scientists hailed as national treasures!
Although he'd never met Lü Yongchang before, at this moment, Lu Hezheng was certain that the young man before him was Professor Lü Yongchang, the one who had single - handedly advanced the development of nuclear fusion!
Perhaps hearing some noise, Lü Yongchang, who was focused on his work, slowly looked up.
The moment he saw Lu Hezheng, Lü Yongchang's eyes lit up slightly. He quickly put down his pen, stood up, and greeted, "Professor Lu, please have a seat!"
Lu Hezheng was slightly taken aback. "Professor Lü... you know me?"
Lü Yongchang waved his hand with a smile. "Don't call me that. I haven't graduated yet!"
Lu Hezheng: "..."
Seeing Lu Hezheng's stunned expression, Lü Yongchang grinned even wider. "Just kidding."
"Professor Lu, I've read your profile. You were in charge of the temperature control of the Tokamak device at Beijing University of Science and Technology, right?"
A flicker of surprise crossed Lu Hezheng's eyes.
He hadn't expected that Lü Yongchang, the chief engineer of the nuclear - fusion demonstration reactor, could remember his details so clearly!
Meeting Lü Yongchang's gaze, Lu Hezheng quickly nodded. "That's right!"
"How about you taking charge of the same research aspect for the demonstration reactor?"
Hearing Lü Yongchang's proposal, a hint of hesitation crossed Lu Hezheng's face. "Professor Lü, I've mainly studied the Tokamak device before. I'm not very familiar with stellarator research. Is this... really okay?"
On the way here, Lu Hezheng had truly realized how much the Xia Kingdom valued the fusion demonstration reactor.
So, a tinge of fear crept into his heart.
If his personal mistake led to serious problems with the fusion demonstration reactor, the consequences for him...
Lü Yongchang shook his head with a smile, and his tone softened a bit more. "Professor Lu, I don't think you need to worry about that."
"The design difficulty of the temperature - control module on the stellarator is definitely lower than that of the Tokamak device."
"Moreover, apart from you, 95% of the researchers in the temporary research institute used to study the Tokamak device."
Lü Yongchang's words put Lu Hezheng at ease.
After all, if everyone was researching the Tokamak, there wouldn't be much difference!
"Then it's settled. Regarding the salary, we can offer you the highest standard. But there's one condition!"
As he said this, Lü Yongchang's expression suddenly turned much more serious.
Lu Hezheng looked at Lü Yongchang nervously and asked softly, "What... what are the requirements? As long as they're not too extreme, I can accept them!"
Facing the person who had single - handedly pushed forward nuclear - fusion development, Lu Hezheng humbled himself.
Lü Yongchang was slightly startled, then waved his hand with a smile. "It's not an extreme requirement."
"During the research period, you need to cut off all communication with the outside world."
"Until the demonstration reactor is truly completed."
Lu Hezheng let out a small sigh of relief.
So it was just this requirement.
Since he'd seen so many patrolling soldiers on the way here, he'd already mentally prepared for this!
He nodded repeatedly. "That's reasonable. Professor Lü, don't worry. I'll definitely cooperate."
Lü Yongchang nodded in satisfaction. "In that case, go and rest. We'll start the research mission tomorrow."
...
Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, three months had passed.
As the hype died down, the number of viewers in the official Douyin live - streaming room of Xia News decreased by 90%.
Just when everyone had forgotten about this, the Weibo account of Xia News quietly pushed a piece of news.
"Congratulations on the Completion of the Canghai Bay Fusion Demonstration Reactor Project in the Xia Kingdom!"
Boom!
With the release of this news, the whole of the Xia Kingdom was in an uproar!
"Damn, damn, damn!?"
"I'd completely forgotten about this... Is there anyone who can calculate the time to see if it's been three months?"
"I just did the math. It's exactly 90 days. If you count the two months with 31 days... the construction was even completed two days ahead of schedule!"
"I can't believe it... Can such a huge project really be completed in 90 days? Won't there be any quality issues?"
"I don't know what the person above is complaining about. Xia News' Douyin has been live - streaming the construction process 24/7 for the past three months. How can you still not believe it?"
This comment immediately reminded the onlookers on Weibo!
In just a few minutes, hundreds of thousands of viewers flooded into the Douyin live - streaming room of Xia News!
In the live - streaming footage, four huge hemispherical buildings glistened silver - white in the sunlight!
After a brief silence, countless bullet - comments scrolled across the screen!
"Damn! So cool!"
"What can you see from this far away? Can you move the camera closer?"
"??? I suggest thoroughly investigating the guy above. I suspect he's a hidden spy!"
"By the way, is this fusion reactor called the Canghai Bay Fusion Reactor? Shouldn't it have a more meaningful name?"
"Right! Strongly suggest a nationwide name - collection for the fusion reactor!"
"Name - collection +1!"
"..."
In an instant, the direction of the bullet - comments in the live - streaming room was diverted.
Seeing the full - screen proposals for naming the fusion demonstration reactor, the person in charge of the official Weibo account of Xia News, after getting approval from above, posted a Weibo.
"Nation - wide Name - collection Activity for the Canghai Bay Fusion Demonstration Reactor in the Xia Kingdom!"
Perhaps because Weibo underestimated the enthusiasm of the people in the Xia Kingdom, within just a few minutes, Weibo even experienced a brief outage!
When the Weibo server resumed normal operation, countless strange names appeared in the comment section of the name - collection Weibo.
Houyi, Phoenix...
These names were relatively normal.
SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star...
Not surprisingly, these odd names got the most likes.