I am devoted to scientific research, but you want to trick me into having a love relationship?

Chapter 738 The Research Institute's External Aid Has Arrived

Dusk was falling.

The LCD TV was playing a recording of Hunan TV's gala, which was a way to pass the time.

Xu Qingzhou peeled an orange, looking at the dancers inside, "Look, this is what dancing is all about, fluid movements, heroic posture. Yours is just rehabilitation training."

"Professor Xu, may I ask you to say it again?"

Song Yao's hands had already wrapped around Xu Qingzhou's waist.

Xu Qingzhou winked at Wang Xiaping, who had already won the game.

Wang Xiaping pretended not to see: "Are your eyes twitching?"

"."

I said you dance beautifully.

Xu Qingzhou popped a peeled orange into Song Yao's mouth and praised her.

Song Yao raised an eyebrow, deciding to let the guy go; her parents were nearby, and it wasn't appropriate to take action.

"Snowing."

Song Yao glanced out the window, her face suddenly lighting up with delight. She nudged Xu Qingzhou and pulled him to the balcony.

"You two put your clothes on," Zhang Junli's voice came.

"We'll just take a look and be right back."

Snowflakes drifted in the sky like willow catkins, scattered like stars. Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, one could see the rolling urban clusters in the distance.

The two stood on the balcony.

The snow in Chengdu is rather subtle; it's a rare and precious sight. Everyone gets excited when it snows, and it can even trend on social media.

"Time flies so fast, it's already 2021." Song Yao reached out and caught a falling snowflake.

Xu Qingzhou looked at the puffs of warm breath coming out of the girl's mouth, moved closer and put his arm around her.

At this moment, I truly feel a sense of the fleeting nature of time.

Behind me, I could occasionally hear the laughter of Lao Xu and Lao Song playing mahjong, which gave me a strange sense of peace.

"What are you grinning about?" Song Yao tilted her head back and pinched Xu Qingzhou's cheek a few times.

Xu Qingzhou ruffled the girl's hair and said, "I just feel that my life is great right now."

"It's good to know."

Song Yao slapped the guy's paw away and looked into the distance.

The modern city has lit up with thousands of lights, whether in mansions with their bright lights or humble dwellings with their dim glow, all representing the joyous life of the New Year.

"Let's go back."

"Won't you take another look?"

"You can stay here and look around, I'm going back." Song Yao tidied her hair that had been blown across her forehead and turned to go back.

"Don't you like romance?" Xu Qingzhou followed him back into the house.

Song Yao scoffed, "Going out in the cold wind at night, that's stupid."

"Someone once said that doing silly things between couples is romantic."

"Shut up, you!"

"If you can't win an argument, you resort to violence."

"Xu Qingzhou, do you want to fight?!"

On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, both families stayed in Chengdu. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, they started visiting relatives.

The two young people first went to the village where Xu Qingzhou's grandparents lived, and then went to Song Yao's hometown on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

Although we were quite busy, it was still better than last year. We just had a meal together as a family and didn't invite any of our extended family members.

2 month 19 day.

After spending the New Year in Chengdu, Xu Qingzhou and his companion returned to Beijing, leaving their newly purchased large apartment vacant.

Old Song and his wife only bought their house eight years ago in a new neighborhood, and they have no plans to move. As for Old Xu and his wife, they don't have any such plans either; they're used to living in Wutong Neighborhood and know all the neighbors.

Previously, there might have been thoughts of moving to a different house, as the old neighborhood was ultimately a bit inconvenient. However, after Xu Qingzhou won the Nobel Prize, the province specially sent experts to inspect the neighborhood. They repaired what needed repairing and made necessary adjustments, and the basic design was excellent.

Although it's an older neighborhood, the quality of life there is in no way inferior to that of brand-new neighborhoods.

Even the four middle-aged people were somewhat disgusted, unanimously agreeing that this place was more suitable for vacations, lacking any sense of everyday life.

So, Xu Qingzhou and Song Yao's house is temporarily vacant, and Old Xu and the others just go over to clean it every now and then.

Kyoto.

After they returned, the two of them didn't even have a break and began a non-stop work schedule.

Xu Qingzhou gathered everyone together and distributed the plans they had come up with during the Spring Festival period, pooling their wisdom and efforts to promote them simultaneously.

The spherical tokamak with negative triangular plasma still needs to achieve world-class performance in its first ignition, and there are simply too many challenges to overcome.

It also involves a number of technologies outside of Qingzhou's knowledge domain.

Fortunately, the researchers at the institute were very helpful and could help him with most of the miscellaneous tasks.

For example, in AI design, he can handle one or two key models, build the underlying theory, and transform the mathematical model into runnable code/systems. But that still requires professionals.

At the end of February, an acquaintance came to Xu Qingzhou's office.

"Principal Du, please have a seat." Xu Qingzhou poured tea for the middle-aged man.

Du Changdao didn't stand on ceremony. After sitting down, he looked around Xu Qingzhou's office. Everywhere he could put something, there were stacks of documents piled up.

"I've been quite busy lately, and the office is rather messy."

"I think it's great; it makes me feel at ease."

Du Changdao smiled gently, took a sip of tea, and said with a sigh, "It's been a while since I've been here, and your research institute is different again."

"Oh, what's the difference?"

"The atmosphere is becoming more and more academic."

Du Changdao said.

The academic atmosphere of a research institution cannot be formed in a short period of time, but it will accumulate over time.

"There is still a long way to go before we can compare with the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the research institutes at Oxford University."

Xu Qingzhou's goal is to create an academic mecca, but this is not something that can be achieved overnight.

"We started late, so we can't rush this."

Du Changdao paused for a moment, then asked with a smile, "I heard you guys are very busy right now, working overtime almost every day. Is the project going smoothly?"

"It took some twists and turns."

Xu Qingzhou said helplessly, "After all, we are a new research institute, and we have to start everything from scratch. It is indeed quite difficult."

"The field of controlled nuclear fusion is currently very active, with many countries increasing their investments. If you have any needs, please feel free to ask, and we will do our best to support you."

Du Changdao said in a deep voice.

The research institute is like a human link for Peking University; helping Xu Qingzhou is helping themselves.

"Even if you hadn't come, I probably would have had to visit you in person. I really have some things I'd like to ask for your help with."

Xu Qingzhou was surprised. He had originally planned to go to Peking University to find some outside help, but he didn't expect Principal Du to arrive first. It was like a pillow being delivered to someone who was sleepy.

"Tell me."

"Although tokamak is a physical engineering discipline, it still involves many core chemical aspects, such as plasma-material interface reaction control and fuel cycle chemical engineering. We currently lack experts in these areas."

The extended divertor region with a negative triangular configuration requires optimization of the boron/lithium injection chemistry ratio to reduce local impurity concentration, which has been a tough challenge for the research institute.

The institute has many physics experts, but it is short-handed in chemistry.

Du Changdao pondered for a moment: "That's easy. We can gather a group of professors from the School of Chemistry and form an expert team to come and help."

"Alright, then I'll leave it to Principal Du."

"You're too kind. We should thank you for bringing us the project."

(Moving tomorrow, got a day off)
(End of this chapter)