Greifswald, Germany.

Spiral Stone 7-X Labs.

Staring at the picture on the computer screen, Professor Kreber sitting at his desk held the mouse in his right hand, repeatedly dragging the progress bar of the video, and buried his head in meditation.

Showing on the screen is a video of Lu Zhou's interview on the Light of Science program.

About last night, that is, the day the show aired, someone recorded it and uploaded it with self-made subtitles to the turtle, and it received millions of views.

In the case of an ordinary popular science program, millions of views are already quite considerable, especially the video recording is quite rough. It can be seen that with the breakthrough of controllable fusion technology, this name, which originally had nothing to do with ordinary people, has also attracted widespread attention.

Upon learning the news, Kreber immediately downloaded the video.

And unlike others.

He is not concerned about Lu Zhou's idea of controlled fusion, nor is he indifferent to a series of problems surrounding the "future technology" of controlled fusion.

That's about controlled fusion itself, what he thinks!

Whether it's a little idea, or a vague idea, even if it's just inspiration!

Sadly, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find what he was looking for.

At this time, the voice of the assistant came from the side.

"Professor?"

Rubbing his sour brow, Professor Kreber looked away from the screen and looked wearily at the assistant sitting at the desk in the doorway.

"What's wrong, Price."

"You've been dragging the mouse repeatedly since an hour ago......" Seemingly startled by Professor Kreber's tired eyes, the young assistant who had intended to alert him to a new email opened his mouth and said instead, "I mean...... Do you need help? ”

"No...... No, bring me a cup of coffee. ”

"Okay."

Price immediately got up and walked briskly out the door.

Withdrawing his gaze from the doorway and looking back at the computer, he stared at the young man sitting in the studio, Professor Kreber's face full of complexity.

Kicking Huaguo out of ITER was a bad decision.

He thought so, both before and now.

However, those politicians who misjudge the situation obviously will not pay for their actions, or even honestly admit their mistakes.

If there is any one thing they have done to make up for their mistakes, it is probably to focus all their resources on the study of stellarators.

Now Huaguo has proved that this technical route is feasible, at least helping them eliminate more than 8 out of 9 options, including tokamaks, inertial constraints, anti-field pinching, etc.

In addition, from the project participants, as well as the scholars involved in the project, and so on, which seems to be useless in the eyes of the layman, and it is difficult for large-scale scientific research projects to be completely confidential, they can almost find a feasible solution.

Of course, even if we know this, even if we know this, even if there is a crazy influx of international capital and state funding, even if more and more research institutions participate, it is not easy to go through the path that China has taken again.

According to Professor Kreber's own estimates, even if the whole of Europe were to put their hopes on the Spiral Stone-7-X laboratory, it would take at least ten years to complete the demonstration reactor project.

This is still under optimistic conditions.

If the situation is not so rosy......

Maybe twenty years is not necessarily enough for them......

In order to advance the project as much as possible, Professor Kreber has almost spared no effort in collecting information about Lu Zhou, from his papers to his interview videos, watching and watching them in an attempt to share his inspirations.

To his dismay, however, he found it a waste of time.

That person knows controlled fusion better than anyone.

If he didn't want to reveal the secret of controlled fusion, most of the time no one would know it from his mouth.

Perhaps the only way out was to ask him for help.

Although he also knew that this was a very unlikely......

"I need to go to Huaguo ......," muttered to himself, he got up from his office chair, took off his coat from the hanger, draped it over his body, and walked briskly out of the lab.

It took about two or three minutes.

The office door opened again.

Price, who came back with freshly brewed coffee, looked at the empty office and was slightly stunned.

“…… Professor? ”

What about people?

I was still here just now.

……

The evening of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve.

Hospital 301 is much deserted.

Although there are nurses left behind and patients who have not yet been discharged from the hospital, they are still much quieter than usual.

Lying in the empty hospital room, Lu Zhou was staring at the ceiling in a daze, thinking about some math problems that were difficult for others to understand.

As for Xiaotong, who was sitting next to him, he was lying on the table and playing with his mobile phone.

This year's New Year's dinner was eaten at noon in advance, and probably after eating, my father and mother went to CCTV's No. 1 studio hall.

The tickets for the Spring Festival Gala were sent by Director Luo, a total of five. In addition to Lu Zhou's family, even the hygienist in charge of his health was taken into account.

It's just that only two of these five tickets were used in the end.

First, Lu Zhou doesn't particularly like crowded places, and second, he is really not interested in the Spring Festival Gala program. As for Xiaotong, he is too similar to him in this regard, so he also stayed in the hospital.

As for Yan Yan, according to her, she seemed to have been to the Spring Festival Gala a few times when she was a child, but she was not interested in it when she grew up. For these big courtyard children whose parents have some status, it doesn't seem to be a rare thing to go to the scene to watch the Spring Festival Gala with their families.

Gradually began to feel a little bored, Lu Zhou suddenly thought that he seemed to have a system lottery that he hadn't used, so he silently recited the system and sank his consciousness into a pure white system space.

Almost at the same time, footsteps could be heard in the corridor outside the ward.

Knocking lightly on the door, Chen Yushan gently pushed the door and walked in.

"Hello~"

Worried about disturbing Lu Zhou, she deliberately lowered her voice and beckoned to Xiao Tong, who was sitting at the table.

Seeing Chen Yushan who appeared at the door, Xiaotong's eyes lit up, and she stopped playing with her mobile phone, so she jumped off the chair.

"Senior sister? What are you doing here? ”

I don't know when she started, she also learned to land on the boat and called her senior sister.

Making a "shhhh ”

Looking at the dumplings in the plastic bag, Xiaotong's eyes sparkled: "Wow, it's dumplings, did you wrap them yourself?" ”

Chen Yushan said a little embarrassed: "Hmm...... Half of the credit for me, right? It was mainly taught to me by my grandmother. If only it could match your taste. ”

"It's definitely to the taste, my brother and I have never been picky eaters," said proudly, Xiao Tong suddenly thought of something, his eyes rolled slightly, and inadvertently showed a little devil's smile, "Speaking of which, Dr. Yan seems to be making dumplings too, it seems that there is no need to worry about running out of dumplings to eat during the Chinese New Year this year." ”

Chen Yushan was puzzled: "Doctor Yan? ”

Xiao Tong nodded vigorously: "Mmmm! It's the doctor sister who takes care of my brother. The dumpling-making activity was organized in the hospital in the Chinese New Year's Eve, and she had just passed. He said he was going to wrap us up for a little food...... I guess I'll be coming over in a while. ”

Chen Yushan nodded suddenly.

She had heard about the hygienist from Lu Zhou, and her father, who worked in the organization department, had also talked to her about it.

Somehow, there was something subtle in her heart.

As for what it is, she can't say clearly.

But compared to such inconsequential things, she was more worried about his health.

Putting the dumplings on the table, Chen Yushan walked to the side of the hospital bed, sat down on the stool, looked at his face, and looked at it quietly for a while.

Speaking of which, after knowing him for so long, it was the first time she had seen him asleep.

I always feel ......

It's a fresh feeling.

Perhaps it was sensing her gaze.

At this moment, the person lying on the hospital bed, his eyelashes moved slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Just in line with his gaze, Lu Zhou coughed slightly, reached out and touched his face.

"Is there anything on my face?"

With a flushed face, Chen Yushan quickly stood up from the stool.

Taking a half-step back, she cleared her throat and said.

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't do anything strange while you were sleeping."

Xiao Tong smiled evilly and raised his hand: "I can testify." ”

Looking at the energetic Xiaotong, Lu Zhou sighed and said, "I know...... I'm just closing my eyes and recuperating, haven't I slept at all? ”

He was drawing in the system just now.

Based on his previous experience, if something happened outside, he could feel it in the system space.

However, this sentence to clarify the misunderstanding seems to have the opposite effect.

Thinking of Chen Yushan, who had stared at him for a long time and learned that he hadn't slept at all, he was even more embarrassed at this time.

Clearing her throat, her face gradually turning red, she quickly and stiffly diverted the topic.

“…… Are you feeling better? ”

"Okay, it can't be better," Lu Zhou made a helpless expression, "It's better to say, I haven't been in the laboratory for so many days, and I feel like I'm about to rust." ”

I don't know why, hearing this, looking at Lu Zhou lying on the hospital bed, Chen Yushan suddenly felt a little distressed in her heart.

Although she wanted to say something of concern, she thought about it for a long time, but in the end she still didn't say it.

"My grandfather asked me to send the dumplings."

Lu Zhou: "Grandpa? ”

"Hmm...... He saw you on the news and praised you at the dinner table as a pillar of the country. Later, when he found out that we knew each other, you don't know how surprised he was. Then, he urged me to come over, and asked me to bring you some condolences, saying that I wanted me to thank you for your dedication to the scientific research of the motherland on his behalf......"

Speaking of this, Chen Yushan smiled playfully and glanced around, "Speaking of which, is there a kitchen here?" You and Xiaotong haven't eaten. Seeing that you have suffered so much, Ben Gu Liang reluctantly helped you cook the dumplings and bring them over by the way. ”

As soon as he heard that the senior sister was going to make dumplings for them to eat, Xiaotong's eyes suddenly lit up, and he volunteered to raise his hand.

"I'll lead the way!"

As he spoke, the little guy grinned and grabbed the senior sister's arm and led her out of the ward.

Looking at his greedy sister, Lu Zhou shook his head with a smile.

Resting his head on the fluffy pillow, he continued to look at the ceiling, remembering the thing he had drawn earlier.

It may be because of his painstaking efforts in the front line of scientific research during this period of time, which has helped him accumulate a lot of character in the metaphysical sense.

This lottery really made his character explode.

A third piece of wreckage, lying quietly in his inventory.

Judging by the appearance alone, he seems to have drawn something terrible.

At the same time, he always felt that he was getting closer and closer to revealing the secrets of the system itself......