Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three: A Bug?

After the departure of the others, the research institute was left with only the master and his two disciples, along with the rotating shifts of guards. By then, the researchers who had fought through the night had mostly returned to rest. They had finished all the experimental results at 5:30 in the morning, and it was only after verifying the data that the work was considered complete.

The adrenaline that had kept them going dissipated the moment Cheng Huanan announced the temporary completion of the project. A wave of exhaustion hit the researchers; their eyes were heavy, and they felt an urgent desire to collapse and sleep on the spot. Still, they insisted on tidying up their instruments before heading off to rest.

"Wu Tong, it will take time to formally initiate the project, and it won't be put into experimental production right away. You should go back and get some rest!"

"Teacher, you should rest as well. We'll fight again once we've recharged for the T5 blade material!" T5 was the blade material model she had deduced overnight—a new type of nickel-iron alloy. The data she had provided would certainly be handled through proper experimental verification.

However, as the designer, Wu Tong still wanted to prepare it herself. She wanted to see if there were any flaws in the preparation process and if there was room for improvement.

Preparation required funding. The previous T4 material had been covered by her teacher’s laboratory budget. With the established success of the T4 titanium-aluminum alloy, she was now qualified to apply for national research project funding, sparing her from having to pay out of her own pocket.

Her modest scholarship was a drop in the bucket when it came to materials research. Initially, she had thought her self-designed material models might not be useful, and had only intended to pay for the experiments herself to verify her own work. But now, facts had proven that her findings were beneficial to the nation, so she no longer needed to worry about the costs.

The tail end of the "autumn tiger"—the sweltering heat of late August—had begun to burn. Yet, for Wu Tong, this was no bother. She had already reached a stage where she was largely indifferent to heat and cold; extreme temperatures had little effect on her anymore.

The scorching sun felt almost like a comfortable warm bath, washing away the lingering chill she had absorbed from spending so long in the low-temperature, air-conditioned environment of the laboratory.

Walking toward the dormitory under the midday sun, Wu Tong enjoyed this rare moment of relaxation, taking the opportunity to organize the thoughts that had been dominated by high-pressure tasks.

Before entering the lab a day and a night ago, she hadn't expected to accomplish so much.

However, Wu Tong was not arrogant. The two types of new materials she had designed were based on existing foundations, extended and optimized. She was standing on the shoulders of giants; it was not as if she had created something from nothing, which explained the speed of her progress.

Wu Tong felt that this was not something to boast about.

The more she learned, the more she realized how much remained for her to study in depth. To claim mastery of materials science was still a long road ahead.

Rather than relying solely on her intuitive sense of direction, she preferred to grasp the underlying principles of the materials, to be confident in her work, and to advance step by step, just as one would solve a difficult mathematical problem. She did not want to continue as she was now—producing results based on intuition and then reverse-engineering the process.

Of course, she would not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Abandoning the special gifts bestowed upon her by the enlightened stele just for the sake of these thoughts? She wasn't that pretentious. As a great man once said, "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice, it is a good cat."

If her abilities could accelerate the research process and save resources, it was something many would kill for. Why should she waste her gifts and abandon them?

Integrating both approaches—learning while doing and applying what she learned—was the right path she intended to pursue.

As Wu Tong wandered, lost in thought, a security detail had been shadowing her since she stepped out of the lab. Though it appeared no one was following, she remained within a security perimeter. Two guards trailed her at a distance, discreetly protecting her without infringing upon her freedom.

This was because she was still on the campus of Beijing University, which had a certain level of security. Furthermore, because Wu Tong had not yet revealed her abilities outside of mathematics, she was not under the intense, constant protection afforded to a "national treasure."

Her daily life was limited to the dormitory, the cafeteria, the library, and occasionally the classrooms of various departments. Now, the research lab was added to the mix. Assigning someone to follow her everywhere on campus would be too conspicuous, so she had no escort while on campus.

However, whenever Wu Tong chose to venture outside, she was required to have an escort, and the security personnel would appear by her side under various reasonable guises.

Having cleared her mind, Wu Tong stopped worrying, returned to her dormitory, washed up, and fell into a deep, restful sleep. When she woke, it was already late afternoon.

Feeling fully recharged and energized was a wonderful sensation. Indeed, it was only after pushing herself to the limit that she truly appreciated the value of rest!

She called home to chat and listen to the voices of her family, basking in their unconditional love and care. She still used her original phone number, though it had been screened and encrypted by the security team. Additionally, Zheng Hongming had given her a special phone for confidential purposes, which she used for internal communication.

Little did she know, while she slept, the two "bug-like" new materials she had designed and the optimizations to the WS-15 engine parameters were causing a genuine stir in the secret world of military aviation research.

When Lu Xiao left the laboratory, the handover had already begun. The documents for the T4 and T5 alloy materials and the manuscript of the optimized engine parameters were escorted by specialists and sent to the 614 Institute in Chang'an, known as the Xi'an Flight Research Institute.

Yang Wei, the chief designer of the WS-15, received the materials and immediately organized his core research staff to study and analyze the manuscripts. After inputting the material data into the simulation system and refreshing it, the results displayed by the system left Yang Wei and his team staring at the screen in disbelief.

"How could the improvement be this significant? Is the system malfunctioning? Is it a bug?" They knew that before this, they had overcome countless difficulties and worked day and night to produce China's own WS-15 turbofan engine.

Their best performance data had been a thrust-to-weight ratio of 9.7 to 10.87, with a core engine thrust of 13 to 17.5 tons. It was a breakthrough for the country, the first time an aviation engine had surpassed a ratio of 10, allowing the research staff to stand tall with pride.

Now, after running the simulation based on the provided materials and modified parameters, the engine's thrust-to-weight ratio had leaped to 12.75, and the thrust reached a staggering 20 to 24 tons, with even higher afterburner thrust. Compared to before, the engine was expected to be lighter, weighing only 1,420 kilograms. These were exactly the numbers they had only dared to dream of.

Computer experts on the team immediately stepped forward to check the system's hardware and software for any errors.