Chapter 140: Chapter 121: Storage of Energy and Materials (2)
"You’re saying..." Lin Xia’s pupils contracted. He realized that Chu Bamboo might have seen something in his dream.
He fought back the urge to press for more details. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he gave a deliberate nod. "Alright then, I’ll contact you this afternoon! Since you’ve made up your mind, go ahead and sign some contracts with Douyin... and some with music streaming platforms... We won’t bother with a record label. You can just be an independent musician!"
After watching Lin Xia leave, Chu Bamboo stood in thought for a moment before setting off again. He pulled out his phone as he walked and sent a message to Li Quanyuan. "Principal Li, are you on campus right now, sir? Would you like to have lunch? There’s something I need to discuss with you!"
Almost instantly, Li Quanyuan replied: "If I’m not at the university, where else would I be?"
"Still, this is a surprise. I was under the impression you didn’t much like hanging out with us old-timers. By the way, you’re not contacting me because you’re in some kind of trouble again, are you?"
Li Quanyuan hadn’t interacted with Chu Bamboo much, but he was old and sharp. He had already gotten a rough sense of Chu Bamboo’s fundamental character...
’He was actually quite curious himself. Just what kind of family, what kind of upbringing, could forge such a "unique" personality?’
’You couldn’t call him a bad person... but you couldn’t call him a good one, either!’
’On the surface, he seemed a bit opportunistic, but at his core, he didn’t appear to value personal gain all that much.’
’Even though he was a student, a part of society, he gave off a peculiar vibe of being detached from it all—from the school, from society itself.’
’It was as if he was only going through the motions of pursuing what normal people did... but in reality, he didn’t care about it at all.’
’What kind of person was like that?’
’Of course, that was precisely why Li Quanyuan didn’t actually dislike Chu Bamboo... If the boy were truly just an opportunist, he would have handled him by the book, chalking it all up as another administrative achievement in the end.’
"Relax, if I have business this time, it’s good business!" Chu Bamboo’s voice was steady and sincere.
"You little sly fox!" Li Quanyuan was exasperated. ’So there *is* something!’
"Come to the faculty section of Cafeteria Three. I’ll wait for you there. You know where that is, right? If not, just contact me when you get here!"
...
「Faculty Dining Area.」
"Kid, I already got our food. I made sure to pick out some things young people like! Hope you like it." As Li Quanyuan saw Chu Bamboo striding over, he pointed to the tray on the table opposite him.
A few other teachers were eating nearby. Their expressions flickered as they witnessed the scene, all of them inwardly astonished. ’Who is this student? Does he have the nerve to make the principal get his food for him? And it looks like the principal is paying?’
But none of them said anything. At most, they spared a couple of glances before lowering their heads back to their meals. As for gossiping about the situation—’Who would dare to chatter away in front of the principal? We’ll have to at least wait until he’s finished his meal and left.’
"I’m not picky!" Chu Bamboo said, sitting down directly across from Li Quanyuan. He nonchalantly pulled a stack of papers from his backpack and slid it across the table toward the principal.
"I looked you up online and just found out you’re an academician, sir! And in engineering, no less... Aerodynamics!"
"?" Li Quanyuan’s expression contorted. He stared fixedly at Chu Bamboo, opening his mouth to speak several times, but then stopping himself.
’Seriously, you’re only just finding this out?!’
’And even if you did just find out, couldn’t you at least pretend? Be a little tactful and say you’ve heard so much about me? It’s not like I would hold it against you or give you a hard time for it!’
’This kid is really something else...’
He shook his head.
"What’s this?"
Li Quanyuan casually flipped through a couple of pages, and the corner of his eye began to twitch. ’A research paper?’
And the title—
"On the Storage of Energy within Materials"
"?" Li Quanyuan was lost in thought.
Chu Bamboo, however, just started eating. What he had slid over, of course, wasn’t the technical documentation for the Alisu Lithium Battery.
It was the source material for the Alisu Lithium Battery’s technology—a paper from the *Star Sea Detailed Explanation* that dealt with Energy Batteries.
Chu Bamboo had hastily put it together just this morning.
Chu Bamboo would never dare to write out and publish the complete *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*, but he was willing to produce the scattered, individual papers from within it, one by one.
The Extraterrestrial Civilization, or Golden Dawn, didn’t make a habit of hunting down and eliminating every single scientist they came across—
Otherwise, forget about the Divine Continent’s reaction; even the White-headed Eagle likely wouldn’t stand for it!
"Seriously, you wrote a research paper... Shouldn’t you be writing about physical conditioning, like how to train to your level, or perhaps a paper on music?" Li Quanyuan closed the document. He wasn’t angry. Or rather, after interacting with Chu Bamboo a few times, he felt that if he let himself get angry every time, he’d probably lose a few years off his life.
In response, Chu Bamboo simply stated flatly, "This paper details three new methods for material synthesis. It also proposes a mathematical model for optimizing existing battery structures..."
"Even just by applying these materials to existing batteries and optimizing their structure, you could increase their energy density by one and a half times!"
The Alisu Lithium Battery was revolutionary! It directly boosted a battery’s energy density to one-sixth that of gasoline—which might not sound like much, and still far inferior to gasoline.
But the crucial point was this: the energy density of the lithium iron phosphate batteries popular on the market was only one-eighty-first that of gasoline!
More advanced and expensive ternary lithium batteries had an energy density of only one-fifty-fifth that of gasoline.
And the all-solid-state lithium battery that a certain automotive giant planned to release this year had an energy density of only one-thirty-seventh that of gasoline!
Compared to those, the Alisu Battery was, frankly, terrifyingly advanced.
Under these circumstances, during this initial probing phase with Li Quanyuan, he didn’t need to play his trump card—the Alisu Battery’s technical documentation.
A single paper was more than enough!
Li Quanyuan paused in thought for a moment. Then he narrowed his eyes, his tone unreadable.
"Son, I really don’t want to question you... but this leap into another field! Isn’t it a bit... extreme?"
Trying not to provoke Chu Bamboo, Li Quanyuan chose his words carefully and spoke with a degree of tact. "Look, why don’t you just stick to being a great musician or a rising star in sports? That can bring honor to the university, too! There’s really no need for these kinds of publicity stunts."
"I knew you wouldn’t believe me!" Chu Bamboo wasn’t the least bit angry. In fact, he would have found it strange if Principal Li had simply nodded in agreement without a hint of doubt.
After casually taking a couple of bites of his food, Chu Bamboo asked, "Principal Li, do you know Zhao Shao?"
"...I do! I was the one who approved his request for university support back in the day." Li Quanyuan’s eyelid twitched as he tried to persuade him earnestly, "Perhaps his case gave you the wrong idea, but that young man truly has talent!"
"I’ve spoken with him... He’s really not like you!"
"People are different. Your talents might not lie in scientific research... You’re already incredibly outstanding! You need to learn to accept your own strengths and weaknesses, and then play to those strengths..."
In response, Chu Bamboo simply pulled out his phone, put it on speaker, and dialed Zhao Shao’s number.
