Late at night, when Li Zheng and Zhou Yi rushed back to the lab,
six sets of sample analyses had already been completed here.
Shen Yiyun was utterly devastated.
The achievements of just two hours of work would’ve taken her at least half a year to accomplish.
Were those carefully selected samples, which felt like a gamble to prepare, now trivialized by simply grinding them under an electron microscope?
It was simply…
…bullying!
Is "inspiration" supposed to bully people like this?
Zhou Yi stood in front of the workstation screen again, flipping back and forth through these several structures, and couldn’t help but descend into hysteria once more.
"This kind of stability and convenience... It’s too exaggerated... It’s really too damn exaggerated... Right now I feel... feel..." Zhou Yi clenched the mouse, trying his utmost to express his current feelings, "like I’ve found a gold mine where the more I dig, the more I find... but I have no idea where to begin..."
"Step by step, let’s first make good record of the experiments," Li Zheng, on the contrary, comforted Zhou Yi, "Based on the experimental results, then consider the wording of the paper, one step at a time."
"Yes, yes," Zhou Yi said with an embarrassed smile, "Sometimes even I’m not sure whether you are really composed, or if you simply don’t realize how significant this experiment is."
"This is just the beginning, Dean Zhou," Li Zheng looked assertively at his comrades in the inner room and then glanced at the screen operated by Chang Keqing.
On that workstation, the parameters of seven experiments had all been organized into tables according to international standards.
They had prepared for this step quite early, even the format and structure of the paper were ready, just needing the data to be filled in.
If anything, the performance of Shi Yang and Mo Nian was just routine operation for international competition champions, nothing surprising.
On the contrary, it was Chang Keqing’s consistent style, no matter the external circumstances, silently completing the most arduous tasks on her own, that was Li Zheng’s greatest gain.
Senior Sister Chang’s level of composure could well make her one among us from the Path of the Demon.
Even Zhou Yi couldn’t control his praise when he saw those tables.
"Good job, very good, not at all like the work of a sophomore student." Zhou Yi turned around and found a contrast, smiling at Shen Yiyun, "Come on, you should learn from her, you’re in your third year of research and your lab reports are still a sloppy mess, no wonder Professor Hu scolds you."
"Wuwuwu…" Shen Yiyun was on the verge of tears.
Why did you suddenly turn around and start persecuting me!
The persecution didn’t stop there. As Zhou Yi appreciated Chang Keqing’s document more and more, he said, "Yi Yun, that goes for you and Liu Tao too, aesthetic form is quite important, look at how she organized this document, the simplicity and clarity are beautiful, like a well-written exam essay, a good handwriting gives you an immediate five-point impression score, the reviewers will be delighted to see this, and it’ll be sent for re-review right away."
Zhou Yi paused, then turned back and said, "Aesthetic form, Yi Yun... look... how many days has it been since you... "
At this point, it seemed Zhou Yi saw the tears welling up in Shen Yiyun’s eyes, and he decided not to turn the conversation into a personal attack. Better to let it go...
But Chang Keqing, as usual, was indifferent and said, "Dean Zhou flatters me, this isn’t natural talent but the result of training, by analyzing top papers in chemistry and biology over the past three months, I found this suitable form."
Zhou Yi got even more excited hearing this, "No, no, trust me, this is talent. Some people could read thousands of papers and still write nothing worth reading. You picked up this format casually in a few days, that’s talent, you’re the kind of person who would succeed at anything."
"Stop that, Dean Zhou... stop that…" Li Zheng couldn’t stand it anymore, "Senior Sister Chang is a talent that Yingpei only produces once in many years; using her as the standard is too harsh…"
"Yes, yes…" Zhou Yi, unable to bear looking at Shen Yiyun any longer, turned his gaze to the others busily working in the inner room, "That tall and dark figure is also good, though the operation is still a bit unfamiliar, his hands are even steadier than Shi Yang’s… Besides, who is that child? Liu Tao, how come you let family members in too?"
Li Zheng hurriedly explained: "Dean Zhou... that’s an advanced student on a scholarship..."
"Oh, oh." Zhou Yi said as his gaze involuntarily locked onto someone sneaking around; this person wasn’t seriously observing the experiment or actually doing anything—just surreptitiously looking around.
Plus, with that arrogant hairstyle, probably something like a bike thief’s vibe...
"Who is that?"
"Our chief engineer and mechanic," Li Zheng explained, feeling somewhat uneasy, "Thanks to him setting up a simulation environment in advance and getting us the various instruments and consumables to practice with, we’ve been able to operate so smoothly."
"The issue is... how did he get them?"
"Hmm…"
"You watch him closely, Liu Tao," Zhou Yi looked back with concern, "You don’t need to worry about the others’ experimental skills, just that guy, don’t take your eyes off him."
Liu Tao also nodded nervously, "I’ve been keeping an eye on it, Teacher Zhou. I’ve been keeping an eye on it."
Just as he spoke, Shi Yang gave an OK signal from outside, indicating that the eighth group had finished scanning.
Then Shi Yang raised his hand and twisted it, putting on a devilishly charming smile.
Li Zheng, somewhat reluctantly, asked through the glass window, "Now? Isn’t that a bit too hasty?"
"Come on, don’t hold it in any longer," Shi Yang smiled and pursed his lips.
To others, these coded messages seemed rather terrifying.
Especially Shen Yiyun, who understood these two people very well.
"Wait a minute!!" Shen Yiyun stepped forward anxiously, "Even if you guys are really capable... and have a lot of authority... you can’t just put that kind of thing in the electron microscope!! What will others use afterwards!!"
Zhou Yi was taken aback, then shouted out loud.
He understood Shi Yang very well too.
Analyzing small molecules... wasn’t enough to satisfy him...
Was he intending to decode... that kind of... super mixed organic compound?
Sure, it could be considered a breakthrough... but the ingredients were way too complicated...
On Li Zheng’s end, after a few rounds of back-and-forth with Shi Yang, he couldn’t resist any longer and nodded reluctantly.
"Then let’s go," he said.
With a demonic grin, Shi Yang reached into his pocket.
Just when everyone thought he was about to pull out something extraordinary.
They only saw a small rectangular box.
It was White Plus Black! Cold tablets!
Shi Yang squeezed out a tablet and began giving instructions to the people around him before he and Mo Nian started to grind it.
This action, though not as shocking as pulling out the expected kind of substance, still made Zhou Yi yell out.
"You’re going to separate Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen from a mix of compounds???"
"Yes, this was Shi Yang’s idea," Li Zheng pointed to the inner room, "If the electron microscope can successfully decode progesterone powder, then there’s also a good chance it will pinpoint the small molecules in cold tablets."
"Brilliant!!" Zhou Yi’s eyes bulged with excitement, "Once this step is successful, the difficulty level of small molecule analysis will plummet from graduate students’ challenge to kindergarten level!"
"Wuu wuu wuu..." Shen Yiyun trembled once more.
This time, the experiment took a bit more time.
To find a small molecular crystal in an ordinary cold tablet powder, it still took some time.
At least four or five minutes.
After finding it, everything became easy.
With the rotating scan now, Shi Yang and Mo Nian were already well-practiced, getting a confident image in 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
After 10 minutes, the three-dimensional structure of Ibuprofen was revealed in front of Zhou Yi.
It perfectly matched the rings and bonds he had drawn during his classes.
This made Zhou Yi realize that what he saw was just the tip of the iceberg.
"If it’s this easy..." Zhou Yi gripped the mouse shakily, "Any, anything at all, as long as it can be turned into powder... can be..."
"Right! It should be!" Shi Yang had already started looking around, quickly finding the rubber mat on the corner table, pulling out his keys, and fiercely beginning to scrape, "Finally, the day has come... to do whatever I want... As long as I want, I can see all the bonds and rings clearly, long live chemistry!"
This man was fervent, unstoppable...
He might even put a piece of earwax in for analysis if he wanted...
Ultimately, including Zhou Yi, the others wrapped up their work at 1 am.
But Shi Yang simply refused to leave, his mind already queueing up various substance analyses.
It must be said, though he had conducted countless experiments before, this one thrilled him the most.
It was as if Charlie Chaplin from the era of black-and-white film suddenly received a digital camera with tens of millions of pixels.
He simply had to play it to death.
It was just that poor Liu Tao inexplicably ended up spending the night in the laboratory.
Even more pitiful was Shen Yiyun, who was not only tormented all night but was also sent by Hu Zengwu to do even more arduous experiments...
Washing hair...she simply had no time or energy to wash her hair every day!
...
The next morning, at Yingpei College dormitory, Li Zheng handed his leave request to Wu Yue before breakfast.
It was called a leave request, but it wasn’t very formal.
It roughly read like this—
[Dear teachers and counselors:]
[As Li Zheng, Chang Keqing, Tu Yikou, Mo Nian, and Lin Moming, five students, need to participate in our institute’s key scientific research project in the near future, we fear that we can’t ensure full attendance in courses this month, and thus earnestly request your approval.]
[Zhou Yi]
Wu Yue, still half asleep, asked, "Who’s Zhou Yi?"
"A chemistry teacher."
"You’ve started another project?"
"Yeah, just messing around," Li Zheng nodded and said, "Just give this to the counselor, I’ve also asked on WeChat, but he hasn’t replied yet."
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"Oh...well, you guys...keep it up."
"You too."
...
When everyone returned to the electron microscope lab.
Shi Yang...he was still there...still very passionate.
Liu Tao, however, had long since passed out.
Coming to the workbench, Li Zheng saw nearly a hundred structural analyses...
Don’t, Shi Yang, even if you can hold up, our servers can’t.
After driving away Shi Yang and cleaning up some weird data, Li Zheng took Shi Yang’s place and carried out the next series of experiments with Mo Nian.
Lin Moming and Chang Keqing were outside, sorting through Shi Yang’s strange achievements from the night and beginning the initial work on the paper.
Since the work had to be organized and written in English, Lin Moming’s proficiency in tools was once again magnified, and during this process, she was just able to enhance her understanding of scientific research, just as Chang Keqing improved her understanding of English.
As for the leader, he was nowhere to be found...
Unlike the breakthrough and shock of last night, this day began with monotonous repetitive work taking the lead.
Through the accumulation of samples, the fine-tuning of parameters, they sought the most worthy portion to record and publish, and tried to make the results comprehensive, for instance, analyzing "cold tablets" was an excellent content supplement.
On the other hand, outside.
Even though Li Zheng had been as low-key as possible, Zhou Yi had also instructed Shen Yiyun and Liu Tao not to publicize, intending to quietly make a fortune, some insubstantial rumors still spread.
Luckily, the barrier of cryo-electron microscopy was still high enough that other than the Biology Institute, those inside the campus, even if they knew the principle, had no opportunity to publish first.
Upon learning that the topic had started at the Chemical Institute, Professor Bing Qingquan, Mo Nian’s advisor, proactively kept distance, saying that Mo Nian was free to ask her questions at any time, but she would refrain from inquiring about the experiment’s progress during this period.
At Yingpei, on the contrary, there wasn’t much stir, just that everybody noticed that Li Zheng was skipping classes, not just him, but in his dormitory, only one classmate with glasses was attending.
In the morning, before lunch, Wu Yue, after much consideration, still went to the Yingpei office building, using consultation as a pretext, subtly revealed Li Zheng’s situation.
Li Zheng going to another institute for a project wasn’t in itself a problem, but the fact that it was Zhou Yi who signed the leave request made Zhang Shandong anxious.
"Zhou Yi?" Zhang Shandong furrowed his brows deep in thought for a long time, "That’s the vice dean of the Chemical Institute..."
"Yes...I found out later..." Wu Yue swallowed nervously and said, "It seems that the project has really kicked off now..."
"Wasn’t that project supposed to be with the Biology Institute?"
"Apparently, the Chemical Institute has an electron microscope too."
"Really? So, Zhou Yi really let them use the electron microscope?"
"I don’t know about that...Li Zheng didn’t reveal any details, I don’t even know if the project he’s working on now is the one previously mentioned..."
"Hmm...I understand..." Zhang Shandong thought for a moment, then began to operate his computer in the system, "Your project is formally approved, funds included, Teacher Liu will tell you how to use them. There are awards for these projects at the end of the term, perform well."
"Thank you, Teacher Zhang!" Wu Yue exhilaratedly thanked him, then couldn’t help but ask, "That...the matter with Li Zheng and them.. should we report it up?"
Zhang Shandong’s face stiffened, and he gestured with his hand, "You don’t need to worry about that, focus on your project."
"Yes...then I’ll leave first."
"Hmm, let me know about any progress," Zhang Shandong’s face shifted to a gentle smile, "Both for your project and for Li Zheng’s."
"Definitely."
With that, Wu Yue stood up, and as he was about to leave, Zhang Shandong suddenly called out to him again.
"By the way, I might approve Li Zheng’s project."
"???" Wu Yue looked at Zhang Shandong in astonishment, feeling confused.
Zhang Shandong appeared casual, "If in the future, I mean if, any leaders, teachers, or classmates ask about the inquiry meeting, remember to explain truthfully, eh."
"Yes...definitely."
"Okay, go on."
"Hmm..."
As soon as Wu Yue left the room, Zhang Shandong’s expression became grave again, and he made a phone call.
"Teacher Sun."
"It’s me, Shandong."
"Hey, we’re all busy, you’re genuinely busy, I’m just pretending."
"I just want to find out, who’s using that electron microscope at your institute?"
"Hu Zengwu? The guy working on photovoltaics?"
"But I’ve heard..."
"Hey, I also heard it through the grapevine..."
"It’s just that our students went to another institute without notifying me first, I have to find out what’s happening."
"Sure, sure, I’ll wait for your call."
...
At around one o’clock, while Li Zheng was intensely discussing where to have lunch with everyone, he suddenly received a phone call from Zhang Shandong.
No sooner had the call connected than a burst of exuberant joy exploded from the phone—
"Congratulations, Li Zheng! Several of us teachers have carefully discussed your project and decided to formally approve it!"