Did the world end today?

Chapter 32 Room Temperature Superconductivity
Half an hour later, at a Xiangxi restaurant.

Jiang Xingye ate a spicy stir-fried pork dish until his face turned bright red and his lips were almost swollen, but he still didn't stop eating.

Lin Xu looked at her with amusement and said:
"I told you, if you can't handle spicy food, then don't eat it. Why torture yourself like this?"

"You do not understand."

Jiang Xingye was panting heavily when he picked up a bottle of coconut juice and took a big gulp.

"I'm not torturing myself by eating chili peppers, I'm torturing you."

"??? What kind of inappropriate language is this??"

Lin Xu was dumbfounded.

"You mean you can eat spicy food and cold food today?"

"No, I meant my mouth is very spicy."

"You're really shameless. Where did you get so many jokes from?"

Jiang Xingye let out a long breath.

"A well-known graduate who's been known for his short video content that skirts the edge of reality."

"Alright, we're full, let's get down to business."

What are your plans regarding your friend?

Seeing that Jiang Xingye was getting to the point, Lin Xu stopped hiding anything.

He asked bluntly:

"How did you handle this before? The company has so many business expenses every year, it's impossible for every single penny to actually be spent on clients, right?"

"There's no cook who doesn't steal vegetables; it seems like this is some kind of unspoken rule?"

"It's not right to call it an unspoken rule."

Jiang Xingye shook his head, pondered for a moment, and then said:
"To be honest, it's okay to joke about embezzling company funds, but if you really want to skim money from the company, the internal audit department isn't just sitting around doing nothing."

"However, your situation is rather special."

"The benefits you bring are truly immense."

"Once this is done, the benefits will be so great that no one will care about these minor details."

"Furthermore, the role you played in this matter is irreplaceable."

"Unless the internal auditors are out of their minds, they won't make things difficult for you."

"So, you can just leave this money here without worry."

"Spend what you need to spend, and get reimbursed if you want. Even if you don't actually go, as long as the matter is resolved, someone will always cover for you."

"Reasonable."

Lin Xu nodded in deep agreement.

Although he was constantly battling gunfire, he was far less adept at navigating the complexities of the workplace than Jiang Xingye.

But what was that saying again?

When you lack the ability, you have to be considerate of others and social niceties.

When you have enough strength, people will have to consider personal relationships and social niceties with you.

Lin Xu suddenly stopped worrying about how to spend the 20 yuan.

Because he realized that this was only a very small part of what he was going to get.

Once both materials are in mass production, no one will care about this small amount of money anymore.

nonsense.

From now on, the entire Sky Dome Technology company will be mine, so why the hell am I worrying about this?!
A clear and bright mind!

A satisfied smile appeared on Lin Xu's face.

"Are you full? If you are, I'll go pay the bill."

"We're finally getting to eat a business meal! How nice!"

"Wait a minute!"

Jiang Xingye stopped Lin Xu from getting up.

"They sell ice jelly here, can you pack two more boxes for me to take away?"

The meal lasted almost two hours, and by the time the two left the restaurant, the sun had completely set.

Even so, it was still very early for the two night owls.

The place where they ate was not far from the Qinhuai River, so they simply went for a walk along the river to digest their food.

Walking on the streets of Jinling City, Lin Xu couldn't help but think of the Jinling City he had seen in the bracelet world.

A massive light rail system, holographic projections everywhere, and empty streets.
It's completely different from Jinling City now. He suddenly felt something and asked:
"By the way, have you ever thought about what Jinling City will be like in twenty years?"

"I do not know."

Jiang Xingye kicked a small pebble that she had dug out of some flower bed and casually replied:

“I’m not a native of Nanjing, so I don’t have much affection for this city. As for the future, I know even less.”

"But to be honest, there have been a lot of changes in China over the past ten or twenty years."

"My hometown is a small, third-tier city. Twenty years ago, it didn't even have a decent street."

"When I went back home for Chinese New Year this year, I saw new energy vehicles everywhere, and even driverless taxis."

"If we live another twenty years, we might even have flying cars."

"Flying car?"

Lin Xu was stunned for a moment.

"Shouldn't it be large-scale public transportation? Like a maglev light rail or something?"

"Flying cars don't seem to fit into reality at all, do they?"

After Lin Xu finished speaking, Jiang Xingye couldn't help but laugh.

"Good heavens, you have the nerve to say flying cars don't conform to the laws of reality? Does that mean maglev light rail does?"

"Although this technology doesn't seem very complex, it actually has extremely high construction costs and is a typical example of a technology with a low return on investment."

"Otherwise, why doesn't our country vigorously develop high-speed rail, but instead settles for ordinary high-speed rail?"

“Look at that maglev line in Pudong, that’s the real maglev system in its entirety.”

"High speed, quiet operation, and stable performance."

"But the problem is, it uses low-temperature superconducting magnetic levitation."

"This one technology alone has sealed off the cost."

"To truly achieve large-scale deployment of magnetic levitation, we'll probably have to wait until room-temperature superconducting materials are developed."

"so."

Lin Xu nodded thoughtfully.

He felt that Jiang Xingye's words made a lot of sense.

After all, light rail is really too impractical as a form of urban transportation.

It's too noisy and not very fast.

Theoretically speaking, this is a technology that will absolutely never be widely adopted.

Instead of building a multi-level light rail system, it would be better to put more effort into building a subway.
-
but.

Twenty years later, in Nanjing, light rail is indeed the main mode of urban transportation.

Even as it approached midnight, I could still see a large number of light rail lines running in the air, and the trains were full of passengers.

More importantly, just as Jiang Xingye said, those elevated light rails are very quiet.

Room temperature superconductivity
Could it be that 20 years from now, humanity has solved the mystery of room temperature superconductivity?

This material can be said to be the most dazzling jewel in the crown of materials science. Although some people have claimed to have taken it down over the past ten or twenty years, in reality, no one has ever gotten even a step closer to it.

And twenty years later
Can humans really do that?

Lin Xu could hardly believe it.

After a brief silence, he asked again:
"So, if humans were to actually develop room-temperature superconducting materials, how long do you think it would take?"

"Who knows?"

Jiang Xingye shrugged.

"You should ask your friend about that, after all, he is the expert in materials science."

"However, if you asked me to answer, I do have something to say."

Have you seen the news?

"There was a report not long ago that the Zhurong Mars probe discovered a special substance on Mars, which was said to be hydrogen in a semi-metallic state."

"This thing is not far from real metallic hydrogen—and it was found under normal atmospheric pressure on Mars."

"If we ever really succeed and build a Mars landing ship with sufficient carrying capacity, we might be able to send a few scientists and some equipment to Mars."

"If we could synthesize truly stable metallic hydrogen from the semi-metallic hydrogen on Mars, wouldn't room-temperature superconductivity be a piece of cake?"

Mars.

Lin Xu took a deep breath.

Mars again!!
(End of this chapter)