My IQ has been increasing year by year.

The red numbers on the big screen jumped to 02:59:59.

The temperature inside the training center seemed a bit higher than when the exams had just started.

Hundreds of people walk around, talk, and breathe in a confined space.

Although the central air conditioning vents were constantly blowing out cold air, it couldn't suppress the growing anxiety caused by the rising temperature.

A crisp snap came from a workbench on the left front.

A boy from another province slammed his screwdriver heavily onto the table.

In front of him was a stand made of thin metal rods, with four dark blue solar panels taped to it.

Two wires, one red and one black, are led out from the back of the solar panel and connected to a yellow multimeter.

On the multimeter's LCD screen, the black number remained at 0.32.

It hasn't started beating.

0.32 volts.

The boy stared at the screen, his voice a little dry.

A girl next to her leaned over to take a look, then looked up at the industrial lighting fixtures that were more than ten meters high overhead.

"We've connected all four boards in series, so why is there only this little voltage? Is the wiring not connected properly?"

She reached out and pinched the alligator clip at the connection point.

"The cable is fine."

The boy pushed the screwdriver away.

"The lighting is insufficient. The lights here look bright, but the light scatters too much, so there's not much energy hitting the table."

"What should we do then?"

"I don't know." The boy scratched his hair in frustration.

"It's less than 0.5 volts. The dead zone voltage of that light bulb is 2 volts. This amount of electricity can't even cross its threshold."

Similar conversations and noises could be heard in various corners of the venue.

The team that used a fan to blow on the wind turbine found that the rotor could only rotate half a turn occasionally in a light breeze, and the multimeter reading hovered around a few tenths of a volt.

The initial excitement of securing high-level supplies gradually wore off over the next two hours.

Instead, there was panic after discovering that common sense about physics was blocked by the environment.

The high-end goods they possessed, within this specific space and under these conditions, turned into a pile of junk that could not cross the threshold.

The sounds inside the venue became increasingly chaotic.

Some people began searching the bottom of the metal box, trying to find other alternatives.

Someone ran to the referee on patrol to ask if the equipment was malfunctioning.

It was very quiet in front of Chen Zhuo and his colleagues' workbench.

Chen Zhuo studied his plan on paper to see if there were any loopholes.

Zhou Kai moved the black pen in his hand across the draft paper.

The paper was filled with dense numbers and symbols.

He drew a closed magnetic circuit model and wrote the calculus equation for magnetic flux next to it.

The pen tip scratches across the paper, making a soft, rustling sound.

He stopped, looked at the target voltage of 2.5V required by the problem, and then looked at the semiconductor cold plate next to him. He crossed out one of the turns he had just calculated and wrote a new line of calculation below.

He Gui sat to the side of the worktable.

To get a better look at the tiny green ferrite ring in his hand, no bigger than a fingernail, he bent low, his face almost touching the table. He held two thin copper wires in his hands.

The surface of the copper wire is coated with a layer of transparent insulating varnish, which reflects a faint light under the lamp.

He needs to wrap both wires evenly around the small magnetic ring simultaneously.

There should be no overlap.

There should be no overlap.

The lines must fit together tightly.

He Gui's breathing was very slow.

Pinch the two wires with your right thumb and forefinger, thread them through the inner hole of the magnetic ring, and pull them taut.

Then, rotate the magnetic ring with your left hand and thread the wire again with your right hand.

His movements were stiff; he would pause after each cycle to confirm the direction of the line.

Wang was fiddling with the white breadboard.

It has many neatly arranged small holes.

He held in his hand a small, black component with three metal pins—an NPN transistor.

He carefully examined the flat surface of the component and confirmed the positions of the emitter, base, and collector.

Align the three pins with the small holes on the breadboard and press them down firmly.

Then, he picked up a color-coded resistor.

Brown, black, red, gold.

He silently recited the resistance value in his mind, bent both ends of the resistor, and inserted it into the hole next to the transistor.

After doing all that, he looked up and glanced at He Gui.

"Not finished yet?"

He Gui neither raised his head nor answered.

She maintained that stiff posture and slowly threaded the needle.

Miao Shi'an sat next to Wang Huashao, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and steadily pressed the red and black test leads on both ends of the resistor.

The multimeter beeped briefly every now and then. He arranged the measured components into several neat small squares on the table according to their actual resistance values.

The very edge of the worktable.

Lin Yi sat on a steel pipe folding chair.

Her back was slightly hunched, her elbows were resting on the table, and her chin was resting on the back of her hand.

With his left hand he held a piece of enameled wire, and with his right hand he held a folded piece of fine sandpaper, clamping the end of the wire between them.

Pull it outwards.

Pull again.

Fine powder settled on the natural wood-colored tabletop.

She shaves very slowly.

His eyes were unfocused as he stared blankly at a dark scratch on the table.

There were sounds of arguing and walking around, and even the sound of a boy at the next table slamming his fist on the table.

To her, it was like some kind of background white noise.

This is a kind of mechanical labor that requires no brainpower.

The activity of the cerebral cortex has dropped to its lowest point.

His breathing was steady and long.

Her body entered a relaxed state similar to hibernation.

Time continued to pass.

On the large red screen, the number changed to 01:45:00.

Two and a half hours have passed.

He Gui finally stopped what he was doing.

He straightened up and let out a long breath.

Place the green magnetic ring, which is wrapped with copper wire, on the table.

The coils on top are arranged neatly, with four wire ends leading out from both ends.

He Gui rubbed his stiff neck; his fingers were trembling slightly.

Zhou Kai also put down his pen.

He pushed the top sheet of draft paper, covered with formulas, to the middle of the worktable.

"The turns ratio of the primary to the secondary winding is set at 1 to 1.5," Zhou Kai said.

"These are the parameters that I can calculate that make it easiest to start oscillation at this permeability."

Chen Zhuo walked over, picked up the magnetic ring, and glanced at it.

Then I looked at the paper that Zhou Kai had calculated.

"Let's test it," Chen Zhuo said.

Wang Huashao pushed the breadboard over.

He Gui used tweezers to hold the four wire ends on the magnetic ring. Lin Yi had already scraped off the insulating varnish from these four wire ends with sandpaper, revealing the yellow copper inside. He carefully inserted the wire ends into the corresponding holes on the breadboard according to the circuit diagram drawn by Zhou Kai.

The primary coil is connected to the collector of the triode.

The secondary coil is connected to the resistor at the base.

A very simple high-frequency self-excited oscillation boost circuit, Joule Thief, completed the peripheral assembly.

Chen Zhuo took the multimeter and set it to the continuity test mode.

The red and black probes touched a few key points.

The multimeter emitted a short beep.

"The line is working." Chen Zhuo put down his pen.

Next is the power supply.

Chen Zhuo picked up the black semiconductor cold plate from the loose parts he had just found.

It's square, like a thin ceramic biscuit.

Two relatively thick wires, one red and one black, were extended from the side.

He connected the red and black wires of the cooling plate to the input terminal of the circuit.

"The target light bulb," Chen Zhuo said.

Wang Huashao carefully tore open the transparent plastic sealed bag.

Take out the bright red LED that needs to be lit.

I glanced at the long and short pins to distinguish the positive and negative terminals.

It is plugged into the output terminal of the circuit.

All connections are now complete.

On the workbench, a rudimentary system made up of worn-out parts, thin wires, and breadboards lay there quietly.

It looks completely lacking in technological sophistication, and even appears somewhat shabby.

The time displayed on the big screen is 01:10:00.

There's a little over an hour left.

"Who will cover it?" Chen Zhuo looked at the black cooling plate.

"I'll do it," Wang said, rubbing his hands together.

He leaned forward.

Lay both palms flat on the black ceramic slab.

Press firmly.

Body heat begins to conduct to the ceramic plate.

The Seebeck effect begins to take effect.

Teams from other surrounding provinces were either desperately adjusting the angle of their solar panels or had already given up on the finished components and started rummaging through the bottom boxes.

Everyone in front of Chen Zhuo and his team held their breath.

Zhou Kai stared at the red LED light.

Miao Shi'an gripped the multimeter probes with both hands, pressing them firmly against the two leads of the LED light, and stared at the LCD screen.

The red light flashed suddenly, its brightness increasing instantly.

"It's started to vibrate." Miao Shi'an's voice trembled slightly.

"Voltage 2.64 volts, has crossed the dead zone."

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

A faint red light suddenly flashed from the originally dim red LED light.

Like a match that's about to go out.

Followed by.

A red light flashed suddenly.

The brightness increased instantly.

A dazzling red light spot lit up steadily inside the translucent resin tube.

Bright.

A look of wild joy instantly flashed across Wang's usually taciturn face.

He instinctively wanted to shout, but forced the sound down his throat, only grinning as he looked at Zhou Kai and He Gui.

He Gui let out a long breath, and his tense shoulders slumped.

Zhou Kai clenched his fist and swung it forcefully in the air.

They used a bunch of the most unassuming loose parts, with a rough, hand-wound coil.

It forcefully raised the human body temperature to 2.5 volts, overcoming that huge voltage gap.

"Hold on." Chen Zhuo looked at Wang Huashao. "The goal is ten seconds. Don't let up."

Wang nodded, continuing to press his palm firmly against the cooling plate.

Four seconds.

Five seconds.

Six seconds.

The red light was still glaring.

A stable current is continuously supplied into the diode under the control of the high-frequency switch.

Seven seconds.

The glaring red light suddenly flickered without warning.

The brightness visibly decreased.

"The voltage is dropping!" Miao Shi'an suddenly looked up.

"2.1 volts... 1.8 volts... It's fallen below the threshold!"

The red light fades from bright red to orange-red.

"0.6 volts...0.2 volts..." Miao Shi'an looked at the numbers on the screen, his voice completely subdued.

Wang, who was not talkative, was stunned for a moment.

"What happened?"

He thought his hand wasn't pressing firmly enough, so he quickly adjusted his posture and pressed his palm firmly onto the ceramic slab.

Eight seconds.

The red light did not return.

Instead, it quickly faded from that bright, scorching red to a dull orange-red.

It's like a battery's last struggle before it runs out of power.

Nine seconds.

The orange-red color completely disappeared.

Only a faint, almost imperceptible, dark red line remained inside the LED tube.

ten seconds.

The lights went out.

The light-emitting diode on the breadboard had turned back into a lifeless, transparent plastic shell.

Wang, who rarely spoke, froze in place.

His hand was still pressed firmly on the cooling plate.

But the light never came back on.

The air around the workbench seemed to drop to freezing point instantly.

The ecstasy of those ten-odd seconds was shattered into countless pieces by this sudden extinguishing.

"Is the wire broken?"

He Gui's voice trembled slightly. He immediately leaned over and carefully examined the copper wires on the magnetic ring and the pins on the breadboard.

"No, it's not broken, it's all inside the hole."

"Short circuit?"

Zhou Kai grabbed the multimeter, set it to the resistance setting, and quickly measured several points.

The numbers on the LCD screen were changing.

"There is no short circuit, and the resistance values ​​are all within the normal range."

He turned to look at the transistor. "Did the tube burn through?"

"The cheap tube may have too much leakage current, causing it to overheat and break down."

Wang Huashao loosened his grip and wiped his hand on his trouser leg with some annoyance.

His palms were sweaty.

Zhou Kai prepared to go to the bottom box to find another triode to replace it.

"Wait a minute, no need to change it."

Chen Zhuo's voice interrupted their actions.

He didn't look at the draft paper filled with formulas.

They didn't even check the wiring on the breadboard.

He walked to the middle of the worktable.

Extend a hand.

My finger traced the edge of the black semiconductor cold plate and went inside.

My fingertips touched the side of the cooling plate facing down, the side that was in close contact with the wooden workbench surface.

Chen Zhuo paused for two seconds.

Then he pulled his hand back.

"The ceramic slab underneath is warm."

Chen Zhuo looked at them.

Zhou Kai was stunned.

Wang, who was taciturn, didn't react either.

Chen Zhuo picked up the black cooling plate and flipped it over.

The wooden tabletop underneath still retained a slight warmth from being pressed down.

"It's not a problem with the circuit."

He put the cooling plate back on the table.

"The prerequisite for thermoelectric power generation, based on the Seebeck effect, is that there must be a temperature gradient between the hot and cold ends."

"Wang Huashao has been using his body heat to heat the ceramic piece on top."

"Heat is conducted downwards through the semiconductor material."

"The cold end underneath is pressed tightly against this wooden table."

"Wood is a poor conductor of heat."

Chen Zhuo pointed to the table.

"The heat can't dissipate; it all accumulates at the bottom."

"Within ten seconds, the temperatures on both the top and bottom surfaces of the cooling plate have reached thermal equilibrium."

"The temperature above is one temperature, and the temperature below is the same."

"Without a temperature difference, the potential difference instantly drops to zero."

"So the lights went out."

Several people stared at the black ceramic shard.

Common sense about physics was like an invisible wall standing in their way.

Thermoelectric power generation requires more than just a heat source.

What is needed is a cold source that can continuously remove heat and maintain a low temperature.

But where can you find a cooling source in an exam room with only wooden tables?

The time on the big screen changed to 01:05:00.

The venue remained noisy.

Other teams are still struggling with a 0.5-volt voltage issue.

Chen Zhuo and his group had already touched the last lock of this system.

"Create a cooling source."

Chen Zhuo did not hesitate and immediately issued the order.

He turned and walked toward the huge black metal box.

The bottom of the box is a reinforced aluminum alloy base plate, secured with several Phillips head screws.

"Wang, you're a man of few words. Get a screwdriver and remove this base plate. Aluminum has a low specific heat capacity and good thermal conductivity."

Chen Zhuo pointed to the bottom of the box.

Wang Huashao immediately picked up a screwdriver and started tightening the screws on the bottom of the box.

"Zhou Kai, go to the restroom."

"Take a roll of hand towels, wet them completely with water, but don't wring them out; let them drip. Quickly."

Chen Zhuo turned to look at He Gui.

"He Gui, could you please reorganize the wiring and lengthen the red and black wires at the input end? We need to suspend the cooling chip in the air." A moment later.

Zhou Kai ran back.

He held a wad of wet white tissue in his hands, water dripping from between his fingers and splashing on the ground.

Wang Huashao also removed the rectangular aluminum alloy base plate.

"Place it underneath," Chen Zhuo instructed.

Wang Huashao placed the aluminum alloy plate flat on the wooden tabletop.

Zhou Kai unfolded the wad of wet tissue paper that was soaked with water and laid it on the aluminum plate.

Chen Zhuo picked up the semiconductor cold chip and pressed the cold end firmly onto the wet paper towel.

"When water evaporates at room temperature, it carries away a large amount of heat of vaporization."

Chen Zhuo looked at the simple sandwich structure.

"The heat dissipation layer, composed of wet paper towels and aluminum plates, will forcibly lock the temperature of the cold end at room temperature or even lower."

"This cold source is enough to withstand a ten-second test."

The system has been redeployed.

The moisture in the wet wipe is slowly seeping in.

The aluminum plate conducts heat from the surrounding environment.

The time has come to 00:55:00.

"Try again." Chen Zhuo took a step back.

Wang rubbed his palm vigorously on his trouser leg.

He took a deep breath.

Lean forward again and place both palms flat on the hot end of the cooling plate.

Press down firmly.

Zhou Kai stared at the LED lights on the breadboard.

He Gui held his breath.

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

The light is not on.

Five seconds.

ten seconds.

The transparent plastic light tube remained lifeless.

Not even a faint red light flashed inside.

"No response." Wang's voice sounded a little panicked.

He moved his palm away, then pressed it down heavily again, trying to increase the contact area.

There was still no movement.

The multimeter reading did not even exceed 0.1 volts.

"Did the wet wipes short-circuit it?" Zhou Kai quickly checked the wiring on the edge of the cooling plate.

No water seeped in, and the insulation layer remained intact.

"Did the pipe burn out just now?" He Gui picked up the multimeter.

Chen Zhuo walked over.

He didn't look at the circuit.

Instead, he reached out and grabbed Wang Huashao's wrist.

Her fingers touched Wang Huashao's palm.

Chen Zhuo frowned slightly.

He let go.

"Your hands are too cold."

Wang, who spoke little, was stunned.

He touched the back of his hand.

A layer of cold sweat broke out.

My fingers were ice cold, as if they had been soaked in ice water.

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhou Kai.

"Come here."

Zhou Kai immediately pressed his hand on the cooling plate.

I waited for ten seconds.

The light still didn't turn on.

Chen Zhuo touched Zhou Kai's fingers.

same.

It was cold and slippery with cold sweat.

Chen Zhuo did not try to reach Gui He and Miao Shi'an's hands again.

He knew the outcome would be the same.

This is no longer a physics problem.

This is a physiological issue.

After six hours of intense individual competition yesterday.

Including the three-plus hours since the exam started this morning.

In such a noisy and competitive environment.

Zhou Kai is calculating complex mathematical equations.

And return are the fine threads that torment the nerves.

Wang talks little, constantly trying and waiting.

Their bodies were constantly in a state of high stress.

The sympathetic nervous system is absolutely dominant.

A large amount of adrenaline is secreted.

To ensure blood supply to the brain and core organs, peripheral blood vessels constrict dramatically.

Blood circulation in the extremities has dropped to its lowest point.

The more nervous you are, the more you want to win, the colder your hands get and the more cold sweat you get.

Wang Huashao and Zhou Kai's palms aren't warm enough right now.

In addition, there is the heat lost due to water evaporation.

They simply cannot provide a stable heat source.

Wet wipes do indeed lock in the cold end.

But they lost their only source of heat.

The thermodynamic system was built perfectly.

However, it failed due to the body's instinctive physiological reactions.

The time on the big screen jumped to 00:50:00.

Less than an hour.

Wang, who spoke little, paced anxiously in circles, rubbing his hands together incessantly, trying to generate heat through friction.

But the more anxious you get, the faster your heart beats, and the more cold sweat appears on your palms.

The slight warmth that was just generated by rubbing turned icy cold again a few seconds later.

Miao Shi'an took off his glasses and rubbed his dry eyes.

A sense of despair settled like a thick layer of dust on the workbench piled high with loose parts.

The system puzzle is now complete.

The last fragment shattered within himself.

Chen Zhuo stood by the table.

Looking at that dim luminescent diode.

My fingers lightly traced the wood grain along the edge of the workbench.

All around were the desperate clamor of about a hundred people.

The end time is drawing ever closer.