Siheyuan (traditional courtyard house): Starting with the Korean War, returning home to take charge

"We've lost the lead! We're about to lose the lead!"

Old Zhou's voice crackled on the walkie-talkie, the last syllable like an old cat caught in a door. Everyone in the monitoring room turned to look at He Yuzhu. Lin Jianguo's finger hovered above the emergency stop button, but he didn't press it because he saw He Yuzhu's face—a face devoid of expression, but a vein was throbbing on his forehead.

He Yuzhu pressed the button on the walkie-talkie, lowering his voice so that only the person next to him could hear: "Old Zhou, turn the liquid helium up to the maximum, and have all the backup pumps take over. Thirty seconds."

"We can't compress it—" Old Zhou's voice trembled with tears, "Dean He, the heat load is too high, the refrigeration unit is already full, any more compression and it will be—"

"Then let it spin like crazy." He Yuzhu cut off the walkie-talkie.

The temperature curve on the screen resembled a dying electrocardiogram, slowly climbing from 4.2 Kelvin to 4.7 and still rising. The magnetic field strength fluctuated violently at 19.7 Tesla, like a taut string howling.

Lin Jianguo finally spoke, his voice hoarse: "Let's reduce the current, or the coil will burn out."

"Don't lower it." He Yuzhu stared at the screen. "Continue raising the pitch."

Old Zhou shouted into the walkie-talkie again, this time in a much softer voice, as if talking to himself: "The temperature of all three coil connectors is rising, the fastest is 4.9. Dean He, you're gambling."

He Yuzhu didn't answer. He glanced at the digital clock on the wall—8:12, twelve minutes into the experiment. He was still 0.3 Tesla short of the target. He reached out, placed his hand on the edge of the control panel, and his fingers slowly tightened until his knuckles turned white.

"One tesla per second, constant speed ascent."

The researcher at the control panel took a deep breath and turned the knob. The numbers on the LCD screen began to jump—19.8, 19.9, 20.0.

The moment the magnetic field strength reached twenty Tesla, everyone in the monitoring room held their breath. On the screen of the diagnostic equipment, the green baseline representing the curvature of space was as flat as stagnant water, without any undulation.

one second.

two seconds.

Lin Jianguo swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "No signal."

He Yuzhu remained silent. He stared at the baseline without blinking. In the fifth second, a bulge appeared on the baseline—small enough to look like a dirty screen, but it was there, standing alone like a lost child raising its hand.

"I've got it." He Yuzhu's voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of scaring away the signal.

Lin Jianguo lunged at the screen, his hands gripping the control panel, his head almost touching it. "Zoom in! Widen the timeline! Redisplay!"

The operator tapped a few keys on the keyboard. A clear waveform appeared on the screen—a spike, less than 0.1 seconds wide and only one ten-thousandth the height of the baseline, but the waveform was symmetrical, with the slopes of the rising and falling edges being basically the same.

Old Zhou rushed in from the lab hall, drenched in sweat, his work clothes soaked through. He squeezed in front of the screen, glanced at it, then glanced at it again, his lips trembling slightly.

"Is this fucking noise?"

"The noise won't just appear in the fifth second." He Yuzhu took out a notebook from his pocket, tore off a piece of paper, and copied down the key parameters of the waveform—time, magnetic field strength, temperature, and disturbance amplitude. His hand was steady, and he wrote each number neatly.

Qian Zhiyuan retrieved the pre-stored theoretical waveforms from his laptop and placed them next to the diagnostic screen. The two waveforms were similar in shape, but differed in amplitude by several orders of magnitude, yet their outlines almost overlapped.

"Eighty-seven percent match." Qian Zhiyuan's voice trembled as he said this number. Not because of the cold, but because of excitement.

Lin Jianguo grabbed Lao Zhou in a tight hug. Lao Zhou, caught off guard, was jolted by the grip, his glasses nearly falling off. He muttered, "Gently!" Several young researchers stood up and applauded, the applause echoing in the monitoring room. Someone whistled. Chief Engineer Liu ran over from the experimental hall, a wrench in his hand. He stood at the door, grinning, revealing a mouthful of teeth stained yellow from smoking. He didn't say a word, just stood there smiling.

He Yuzhu remained seated. He folded the paper with the data written on it and put it in his pocket, actually transferring it to his system space. Then he looked up, glanced at the excited people in the room, and said in a low voice, "Continue the experiment. Maintain a value of twenty Tesla, record a disturbance every thirty seconds, and continue recording for ten minutes. Begin demagnetization after ten minutes."

Old Zhou's smile froze on his face. "Ten minutes? Dean He, the coil connector temperature is already 5.3 degrees Celsius. If we hold on for another ten minutes, it'll definitely burn out."

"How long can it last?"

Old Zhou glanced at the temperature display and his lips moved twice. "Three minutes at most. The insulation at the connector won't last three minutes."

"Three minutes then. Demagnetize in three minutes." He Yuzhu stood up, walked to the glass window, and looked at the three-meter ring in the experimental hall. Liquid helium pipes sent mist-like cold air to the area around the ring, and the silvery-white outer wall was faintly visible in the mist.

The operator pressed the stopwatch. The monitoring room fell silent, save for the hum of the chiller and the ticking of the stopwatch. The temperature curve continued to climb: 5.4, 5.5, 5.6. A disturbance signal appeared precisely every thirty seconds, its waveform stable and amplitude unchanged.

Two minutes in, Old Zhou couldn't help but shout, "It's 5.9!"

He Yuzhu didn't reply. He stared at the stopwatch, watching the hands tick by tick. In the last sixty seconds, the temperature curve paused at 5.95 for forty seconds, then suddenly jumped to 5.98. Old Zhou's face turned from red to white, sweat trickled down his forehead and nose, and he wiped it with his hand, which was trembling.

"Time's up. Demagnetize." As soon as He Yuzhu finished speaking, the operator turned the knob. The magnetic field strength slowly decreased from twenty Tesla, to nineteen, eighteen, and seventeen. As the magnetic field weakened, the temperature curve finally stopped rising and began to fall. Old Zhou closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and slumped back in his chair.

The demagnetization took a minute and a half. The moment the magnetic field returned to zero, a second cheer erupted in the monitoring room. Chief Engineer Liu threw the wrench on the ground, squatted down, covered his face, his shoulders heaving, it was unclear whether he was laughing or crying. Lin Jianguo walked up to He Yuzhu and extended his hand. He Yuzhu grasped it, and the two shook hands without speaking.

"Has all the data been saved?" He Yuzhu asked the operator.

"It's been saved. The raw data, processed data, waveforms, temperature records, and magnetic field records are all in triplicate."

"Give me the tape."