Chapter 971 - I Know Who Did the Work
“Achoo!”
Lu Zhou rubbed his nose and muttered to himself, “Xiao Ai, why am I sneezing all the time, I don’t feel like I’m sick.”
He had been sneezing more and more frequently these days.
Strange thing was that he didn’t show any signs of a cold.
It felt like someone was talking about him behind his back again...
A string of bubbles appeared on the lower right corner of his computer screen.
Xiao Ai: [Master, Master, I know, someone must be talking about how handsome you are.]
Lu Zhou saw the text and awkwardly smiled.
This little thing...
Even though its intelligence hadn’t increased after the upgrade, it had gotten better at compliments.
Which was exactly what Lu Zhou liked.
Lu Zhou was about to continue working on his research project when he suddenly received a phone call.
He picked up the phone and spoke.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Academician Lu, it’s me, Old Lu, do you still remember me?”
Emm...
Old Lu?
Lu Zhou paused for a second.
Honestly, he didn’t remember who that was.
Seeing how Lu Zhou didn’t speak, the other end of the phone suddenly felt awkward.
“Um. you didn’t... forget about me, right?”
“Of course not...”
Lu Zhou frowned and thought for a while. Suddenly, a name popped up in his head, and his eyes lit up as he said, “Director Lu?”
Director Lu Kaimin from the Energy Bureau!
These two had interacted before on the controllable nuclear fusion project and the lithium-sulfur battery project.
Ever since the controllable nuclear fusion project ended, the Energy Bureau shifted their focus from renewable energy to nuclear fusion energy. Lu Zhou left the nuclear fusion field, so the two had rarely interacted in recent years.
Instead, the State Administration for National Defense took over the renewable energy industry, which resulted in Lu Zhou working more often with them.
Lu Zhou smiled and asked, “Director Lu, why are you calling me, do you need something?”
Director Lu smiled and said, “Oh, nothing, nothing, just wondering, where are you right now?”
Lu Zhou twisted the pen in his hand and said, “I’m in Jinling... at the Jin University mathematics department office, why?”
Director Lu was overjoyed, and he said, “Nothing, just wait there, I’ll be there in the afternoon! The plane is about to take off, talk to you later.”
Lu Zhou: “...”
Even though Director Lu told him he was coming, Lu Zhou still didn’t expect him to arrive this fast.
The day after the JACS paper was published, this old director came all the way to Jinling to see his friend.
Jin Ling University, mathematics department building.
The grinning old man walked into the office and spoke charismatically.
“Academician Lu, long time no see, how have you been?”
“Yeah, it’s been a while.” Lu Zhou put down his pen and said, “Did Director Li persuade you to come here?”
“What do you mean persuade? No, nothing to do with him! I just saw your JACS paper, so...” Director Li said. He wasn’t sure how to explain himself, so he said, “Forget about that... Did you guys really make a lithium-air battery?”
Lu Zhou thought for a second before saying, “Some of the technologies have been invented, and the rest is about solving the design problems.”
Once they had finished researching the materials, designing the product was easy. Not to mention that he still had Debris No.1 as a reference model, so he could easily make a copy and achieve similar energy densities.
As Director Lu sat down on the sofa, Lu Zhou looked at Assistant Zhao and spoke.
“Zhao Huan, pour Director Lu a cup of tea.”
“Okay, professor!”
Zhao Huan stood up and walked to the cupboard. She took out a teapot and poured some into a porcelain cup. She then placed the cup on the table and spoke.
“Director Lu, please enjoy.”
“Oh, thank you.”
The old director took a sip and spoke dramatically.
“This is amazing tea!”
Lu Zhou: “Want to take some home?”
Director Lu waved his hand and said, “No thanks, I know where you got this from, we have a ton at home.”
Lu Zhou: “...”
Then why did you pretend like it was your first time drinking it!
Honestly speaking, Lu Zhou couldn’t taste the difference between good tea and bad tea. Rarely did he drink tea.
Every holiday, people would give him a bunch of gifts. He would send back some of them, and as for the rest, he would try to give away.
Lu Zhou knew that Director Lu had something to say, so he looked at Assistant Zhao and spoke.
“Zhao Huan, bring this to the teaching affairs department for me.”
“Okay, professor!”
Assistant Zhao took the documents from Lu Zhou’s desk and left.
Lu Zhou looked at He Changwen, the only other person left in the office.
“He Changwen, you should—”
Before Lu Zhou could finish, the PhD student kept his laptop and stood up.
historical
“Okay, professor, I’ll go to the library.”
Lu Zhou smiled with satisfaction.
Quite a smart kid.
Saved me from having to make up an excuse.
Lu Zhou and Director Lu were the only two left in the office.
Seeing how there was no one else in the room, Director Lu relaxed and said, “I was scared to speak in front of your students.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Well, you can speak now.”
“Remember how Director Li brought back a calculator of yours? Apparently, the second he landed in Beijing, he took the calculator to Chang’an Avenue. There was quite a commotion! I was there in person, and apparently, the old academician that inspected the calculator nearly passed out.”
Lu Zhou was a little worried.
“Is everyone okay?”
“They’re fine.” Director Lu smiled and said, “There was a medical team on standby.”
Director Lu continued to speak emotionally, “Honestly, we didn’t expect you to be this crazy, you already produced a carbon processor. The lithium-air batteries have plagued the energy industry for decades, but now, you solved that as well.”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “It wasn’t solved by me alone. Whether it was the carbon processor or the lithium-air battery, it was a team effort.”
Director Lu obviously thought Lu Zhou was being too humble.
The old man waved his hand and said, “Okay, fine, stop humble bragging. I know who did the real work here.”
Lu Zhou looked confused and didn’t respond.
Director Lu took another sip of tea and spoke enthusiastically.
“So, about the lithium-air batteries, I want to know... its energy density.”
Lu Zhou contemplated for a second and gave a conservative answer.
“Energy density... it’s difficult to estimate. But theoretically, it should be at least 1.5 times that of lithium-sulfur batteries.”
Director Lu’s eyes suddenly lit up. He rested his hands on his knees and spoke solemnly.
“I have another question, Academician Lu!”
Seeing how Director Lu was so serious, Lu Zhou put on a serious face as well and spoke.
“Go ahead.”
However...
Director Lu’s question was a bit unexpected.
Or rather, Lu Zhou didn’t expect him to ask the question so directly...
“Can we use lithium-air batteries... on tanks?!”