A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 245 I Don't Want to Spend the New Year Here

The morning mist of the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month had not yet dissipated, but the Baosteel Clean Steel Refining Plant area had already been bathed in warm colors.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Hui had been at Baosteel for almost three months, and the Chinese New Year was just around the corner.

Fortunately, they lived up to expectations and achieved a significant breakthrough.

With a thought, he summoned the control panel.

[Host: Chen Hui
Chinese Level 2 (58%)

Mathematics Level 5 (9%)

English Level 3 (81%)

Physics Level 4 (72%)

Chemistry Level 3 (24%)

Biology Level 2 (0%)

Physical Education Level 2 (0%)

Geography Level 2 (0%)

History Level 2 (0%)

Politics Level 4 (79%)

During these three months, although Chen Hui focused on solving the problem of clean steel refining process, he did not neglect to accumulate mathematical proficiency. This also allowed him to discover a little trick: whenever he made a breakthrough in a small problem, his proficiency would always increase slightly, which would often lead to an increase in proficiency, and comments would pop up.

This also meant that Chen Hui knew the conclusion was correct without even having to conduct experiments to verify it.

Besides mathematics, proficiency in Chinese, English, physics, and chemistry has also increased.

Looking at his Chinese and Biology subjects, which were still at level 2, Chen Hui secretly pondered that perhaps it was time to upgrade these two subjects to level 3 in order to gain free attribute points.

Nowadays, obtaining free attribute points is becoming increasingly difficult, so this may be the best way to improve basic mathematics.

However, this would have to wait until the Navier-Stokes equations were proven. With the date of the International Congress of Mathematicians drawing ever closer, he had no time to think about anything else.

With that thought in mind, Chen Hui and the other two had already left the research lab.

Beside the gatekeeper at Gate No. 3, two strings of large red lanterns have been hanging for half a month—this is a rule insisted upon by Old Zhou, the workshop director, who says that "the lanterns will not be turned on until the end of the year."

At this moment, the lantern tassels were lifted and fell by the north wind, sweeping over the newly pasted Spring Festival couplets on the doorposts. The second line of "Steel flowers reflect snow, a thousand furnaces are burning brightly" still had some paste on it, which shimmered slightly in the morning light.

Walking along the asphalt road towards the workshop, the snow underfoot crunched softly underfoot with my hard-soled cotton shoes. On the pipes outside the main factory building, some work group had hung a string of small colored lights, their warm yellow light filtering through the frosted glass and casting dappled shadows on the snow.

As we passed the raw material yard, the trucks carrying steel billets were moving slowly, the steel ingots in the truck beds gleaming with a cold silver light, like scattered stars—but today, driver Lao Zhang had taken a detour, saying he wanted to deliver the last batch of raw materials before the New Year holiday.

Chen Hui and his two companions entered the refining workshop with a gust of cold wind. Now that all the simulations were complete, it was time to conduct the final experiment. With the end of the year approaching, Chen Hui did not want to spend the New Year in the factory.

"Professor Chen is here to collect data again?"

Old Zhang, the worker in charge of the desulfurization unit, grinned and greeted Chen Hui. Chen Hui and his team had been here for quite some time and often came to collect data, so they had become familiar with the workers.

"Ah."

Chen Hui smiled and nodded, "Uncle Zhang, is your back feeling any better?"

Old Zhang took leave a few days ago to go home. He strained his back while holding his grandson and had to stay in the hospital for two days. After returning home, he was in so much pain for two days that he couldn't straighten his back.

He was in his forties or fifties, while Chen Hui had only recently turned eighteen, so it wouldn't be a problem for him to call him Uncle Zhang.

"much better."

Old Zhang said with a smile, "Come to my house for dumplings tonight. Xiao Lin and Xiao He will also be coming over. Authentic Northeastern cabbage dumplings, the wrappers are homemade, they're really chewy!"

"Thank you very much, Uncle Zhang."

He chuckled and agreed, but had already led Lin Hao and the other person to the control panel.

Lin Hao pointed to the KR mixer's live feed, "After the speed was increased to 110 rpm, the vibration level exceeded the standard! The bearing temperature reached 92℃."

Chen Hui entered ΔH=gω2RθkΔθ into the console, and soon the real-time calculation results popped up on the screen. Only then did Chen Hui speak, "Try 22° blade tilt compensation."

The model is still in its early stages and has not yet been fully automated; manual adjustments are still required.

Soon, the data on the screen changed: the vortex depth increased from 0.8 meters to 1.6 meters, and the magnesium utilization rate increased from 68% to 84%!

"We made it!"

He Peng exclaimed in surprise, his face already showing a look of ecstasy. He could foresee that once the model was fully automated, this data would improve even further.

They not only optimized the hot metal desulfurization process and reconstructed the stirring vortex model, but also established a slag ion network model, dynamically adjusted the lime addition sequence to stabilize the endpoint [P] at 0.008%, and improved the RH circulation flow rate using the Weber number control equation We=σρv2d∈(4,6), as well as controlling the curvature of the solidification front…

He originally thought this practical exercise was just a routine verification, but he didn't expect it to be a success on the first try.

Even if the model has problems later on, their three months won't be a complete waste.

However, to his astonishment, the modeling of each subsequent process achieved an extremely high level of accuracy. It was as if Chen Hui possessed a magical power that could turn the rotten into the miraculous.

"The porosity of the pellets has been increased to 33%, and the metallization rate has reached 96.5%!"

Standing in front of the direct-reaction vertical furnace, He Peng looked at the data optimized by the fractal diffusion equation, and his voice rose eight octaves.

Cheers erupted again in the factory; the workers who had been working on the front lines for years naturally understood the significance of these figures.

Old Zhang stood under the KR process mechanical mixing device, but instead of joining the celebration, he looked worried.

……

In the director's office at Baosteel, Zheng Yuanxiu finished processing a pile of documents, rubbed his temples, and looked wearily at his secretary who had been waiting for a while. "How's Professor Chen doing?"

Among the documents he just processed, there were many requests to purchase higher-quality steel. Clearly, these domestic companies have been driven to desperation by Japan, otherwise they wouldn't be actively seeking to buy from them.

Especially after applying the inclusion trajectory model provided by Chen Hui to production, Baosteel's clean steel quality has reached a new level, already reaching the international top level, which has given hope to many companies.

"Professor Chen has not left the factory for three months. He often goes to the factory with two PhDs to collect data, but there is still no good news."

Xiao Yang's eyes held both admiration and regret.

Zheng Yuanxiu shook his head, "It's not that easy."

"They've accumulated decades of experience, and we've achieved a breakthrough in just three months. Does that mean all those Westerners are useless, and all of us are useless?"

Xiao Yang nodded, agreeing that it made sense, but who wouldn't want that day to come sooner?

"Have the cafeteria prepare something. I'll go see him this afternoon and we can have dinner together."

Zheng Yuanxiu pondered for a moment before speaking, "To be able to stay in a place like this for three months and devote oneself to research is truly admirable!"

He thought of his lofty dreams when he was in school, and he had indeed achieved many remarkable results, otherwise he would not be where he is today. Unfortunately, limited by his talent, he knew that he might be able to create greater value by turning to management, but this did not prevent him from admiring a pure scholar like Chen Hui.

He has met many scholars, and many of them may have devoted themselves to research for decades before achieving results. Once they achieve results, they inevitably become complacent and, although they still study academics, they inevitably become lazy.

Chen Hui has already achieved world-class results, yet he can still maintain this level of achievement. No wonder he has reached such heights!
"What new achievements have other universities made?"

Zheng Yuanxiu continued to ask, "They have invested a considerable amount of research funds in universities over the years."

Xiao Yang shook his head.

"How's the communication with the EU going?"

"Working together to develop new testing standards is beneficial to both of us."

Xiao Yang smiled wryly, "There's been no progress."

Zheng Yuanxiu was not surprised. Although their technology has made progress, it is still only comparable to that of Japan and Germany. They can still only produce under the other party's rules. The EU is not stupid. Why would they do something that is difficult and unrewarding?

Ultimately, when it comes to setting rules, it takes force to prevail.

"I wonder when Professor Chen will be able to make another breakthrough."

Zheng Yuanxiu sighed softly. For some reason, he had a lot of confidence in Chen Hui and believed that Chen Hui would definitely be able to make groundbreaking achievements. He was just a little unsure how long it would take.

beep beep...

Just as I was lost in thought, the shrill ring of the telephone rang.

Zheng Yuanxiu glanced at it; it was a call from the Clean Steel Refining Plant.

"Director, it's done!"

As soon as the call connected, the factory manager's cheerful voice came through, and Zheng Yuanxiu could also faintly hear cheers and celebrations from the surroundings.

"What's done?"

"Professor Chen has succeeded!"

Zheng Yuanxiu immediately understood, stood up excitedly, and asked with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation, "What data is it now?"

"The total oxygen content can be as low as 0.0005%, the total sulfur content 0.000002%, and the total phosphorus content..."

"what?"

Zheng Yuanxiu gasped in shock, listening to the data reported by the person in charge over the microphone, and remained silent for a long time.

It should be noted that even Japan, with its most advanced clean steel technology, can only produce clean steel with a total oxygen content as low as 0.002%. Chen Hui's improvement has increased this figure by several times.

The difficulty of taking another step forward from a hundred-foot pole is already extremely astonishing, but Chen Hui's approach is simply taking another hundred steps forward from a hundred-foot pole!

Moreover, the content of impurities such as total sulfur, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen has also increased by nearly an order of magnitude, and the critical size of inclusions has decreased to 0.1 μm, with the total amount decreasing to 0.0003%!

Zheng Yuanxiu's lips turned white, and he was sweating profusely.

Even in his dreams, he never imagined that Baosteel could achieve this figure in his lifetime.

"Moreover, after the process improvement, the consumption of desulfurizing agent will be reduced by 35 tons/day, and the consumption of magnesium powder will be reduced by 30 kg/day..."

The factory manager's voice continued through the microphone, "The cost per ton of steel will decrease by about 10% in the future."

pat.

Zheng Yuanxiu hung up the phone immediately and said impatiently to Xiao Yang, "Arrange a car, let's go to the factory."

"What happened?"

"Could there have been an accident at the factory?"

Xiao Yang scratched his head in frustration. He had seen Zheng Yuanxiu's reaction, but he couldn't figure out what could have made Zheng Yuanxiu lose his composure like this.

"Go quickly."

Zheng Yuanxiu did not answer.

Xiao Yang understood the seriousness of the matter and dared not delay any longer. However, he was thinking that he would have to cancel the meeting with the president of the American Iron and Steel Institute that afternoon.

……

7 PM, Baosteel factory employee dormitory area,

Old Zhang and his wife, Wang Po, cooked a big pot of dumplings together. While Old Zhang was cooking the dumplings, Wang Po was holding several bowls and preparing dipping sauces for Chen Hui and the others.

Chen Hui declined Zheng Yuanxiu's invitation and went to meet Old Zhang instead.

After mixing minced garlic and scallions, adding chili powder and white sesame seeds, Granny Wang scooped up some preheated peanut oil and poured it into several dipping sauce bowls. Turning back to Chen Hui and the other two, she smiled and said, "The essence of this dipping sauce lies in this spoonful of hot oil, which brings out the aroma. I wouldn't trade it for dragon liver or phoenix gall!"

As she spoke, she deftly poured soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil into the dipping sauce bowl, stirred it well, and then placed it on the simple square table in front of Chen Hui and the other two.

Just then, Old Zhang finished cooking the dumplings and served each of them a bowl. "Eat them while they're hot, or you can have more!"

Without any hesitation, he filled another 20,000 taels of silver and, together with Granny Wang, stood by the counter and began to eat the delicious food.

This square table is only 60 centimeters square, which is usually enough for the elderly couple, but now that Chen Hui and three other big men are sitting on it, it is a bit cramped.

Chen Hui added a chive and pork dumpling, dipped it in the sauce, put it in his mouth, and took a gentle bite. Instantly, the aroma of chives and the sauce filled his mouth, and his taste buds were awakened.

Perhaps because he had been eating in the cafeteria for three months, Chen Hui found these chive and pork dumplings to be an absolute delicacy!
Lin Hao and He Peng, standing to the side, kept hissing and panting as the dumplings burned their mouths, but they couldn't resist eating one and then grabbing another.

Old Zhang and Old Wang laughed happily.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Granny Wang went to clear the dishes, while Old Zhang sat down at the table to chat with Chen Hui and the other two.

"Science and technology are advancing so fast these days!"

Old Zhang sighed, "In a few years, I'm afraid there won't be a place for us to live. I heard that the factory next door is using robots. That's really something."

"Uncle Zhang, you're mistaken."

Lin Hao was in high spirits after a satisfying meal and fruitful research. He was having a lively conversation, saying, "I believe that technological progress is of great benefit to us. Think about it, there are only so many resources to sustain all of humanity. Let's assume that everyone would need to work 8 hours a day to obtain these resources."

So, with robots, we could work only four hours a day, or even not work at all, and be supported by the robots!

Lin Hao was beaming. "Therefore, we must embrace technological progress. The leap in productivity will also bring a leap in our quality of life."

"Think beautifully!"

He Peng snorted coldly, "Why do you think that the benefits of technological progress will fall on your head? No matter how much productivity leaps forward, it is the personal property of the distributor."

"They all belong to the master!"

Lin Hao's expression changed drastically. "Are you out of your mind? How dare you say that?"

"What can't be said? Ms. Huang can make a comeback and be in the news, so what else can't be said?"

"They wouldn't care about the opinions of someone as worthless as you."

(End of this chapter)