Chapter 358 - 294: This Is a Response 60 Years Late

Chapter 358: Chapter 294: This Is a Response 60 Years Late

Lu Mingyuan reacted quickly. He turned and waved to Guo Han, who had just finished moving the lock-in amplifier and was now approaching the main console.

"Xiaoguo."

"Come over here."

"Run it through using the method Li Dong suggested."

"I’ll copy that last segment of the calibration spectrum for you. First, measure the coefficient using the Li Criterion."

"Once the criterion coefficient checks out, apply Upper Gihonov. Sweep the regularization parameter from 1e-4 to 1e-1."

"I need a clean kernel function from you within half an hour."

Guo Han grunted in acknowledgment and headed for his workstation.

He knew the current spectrum demodulated from the lock-in amplifier like the back of his hand.

He even had a code template for Gikhmanov regularization saved on his computer, ready to go.

He’d heard Lu Mingyuan’s summons just now, clear as day.

His tone was exactly the same as when he spoke to the other students in the group.

’It’s as if I never left.’

The last shred of awkwardness finally vanished.

Guo Han pulled out his chair, sat down, and dove headfirst into the code.

Meanwhile, Lu Mingyuan stepped away from the main console and turned around.

He walked over to Li Dong and patted him on the shoulder.

"Li Dong."

"We were only able to move forward with this line of research thanks to you."

He said this with great sincerity, and Li Dong quickly replied.

"Teacher Lu, I can’t take all the credit. This was a team effort."

Li Dong wasn’t just being polite.

Take that probe needle from Huaxuan. Although Huaxuan only agreed to make it because of Li Dong, the subsequent fine-tuning came down to Lu Mingyuan making several trips back and forth to Shanghai, painstakingly hashing things out with Lin Wei.

As for the interface on the chamber, Su Yanqing had to rebuild it three times before he finally got the signal-to-noise ratio down to a level he was satisfied with.

And the section on converting the polarization representation to real numbers? That was work Zhang Yan had painstakingly figured out on her own in front of the main console.

She had gone through Li Dong’s draft derivation step by step, and for the section most prone to errors, she hadn’t gone back to her dorm for two nights straight.

And there were others...

Li Dong was well aware of all these contributions.

He smiled and said,

"I just connected the pieces."

"But no matter how strong a single thread is, it can’t bear the weight of a whole building."

Lu Mingyuan stared at him for two seconds.

He sighed internally. ’This kid... you really can’t help but like him.’

He turned his head to look at Wu Kai.

Wu Kai nodded at him, walked over, and draped an arm over Li Dong’s shoulder.

"Alright, Li Dong."

"Save the pleasantries for the victory banquet."

Seeing how confident everyone was, Li Dong finally found the right moment to ask the question that had been on his mind.

"Teacher Wu, how much longer until this project is fully realized?"

Wu Kai thought for a moment before replying.

"Barring any unexpected issues."

"We should be able to get it done before the end of the year."

Hearing this, Li Dong breathed a sigh of relief. There was plenty of time.

He nodded at Wu Kai.

"That’s good."

Just then, Guo Han pushed his chair back and called out toward the main console.

"Teacher Lu."

"It’s done."

Wu Kai and Lu Mingyuan turned around simultaneously.

Li Dong followed them over.

On the screen, the previously smeared-out shoulder of the peak had sharpened, the change visible to the naked eye.

The convolution kernel had been stripped away completely.

The peaks of Manganese’s L?-edge stood as straight and sharp as steel rulers.

The same was true for Iron’s L?-edge.

The few κ-tails that had been blurred together were now cleanly separated, as if sliced apart by a knife.

Guo Han glanced at the timer on the screen.

"Sixteen minutes total."

Wu Kai glanced at the now-clean calibration spectrum.

He suddenly laughed.

"Old Lu."

"We were stuck on this part all morning."

Lu Mingyuan shook his head.

"All morning?"

"We’ve been stuck for three days, ever since the chamber upgrade."

Wu Kai’s mouth twitched.

’That’s right.’

’For the past three days, they’d spent every morning calibrating this section, and every afternoon they’d get a batch of useless data that had to be thrown out.’

’Then Li Dong comes in, says one thing: "Apply Upper Gihonov."’

’And sixteen minutes later, it’s solved.’

Wu Kai glanced at Li Dong.

He turned to Lu Mingyuan with a wry twist of his lips.

"Old Lu."

"I’m suddenly feeling like this ’Changjiang Scholar’ title of mine..."

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Lu Mingyuan knew what he was going to say.

He chuckled and patted Wu Kai’s shoulder.

Joking aside, the real work had to continue. Lu Mingyuan walked over to his desk and pulled open a drawer.

He pulled out a sheet of A4 paper.

It was the process confirmation form Huaxuan Technology had sent back just yesterday afternoon.

Li Dong took it and went over the new process line with Lu Mingyuan one more time.

There was a small checkbox drawn after each process step on the sheet.

After putting the form back on the desk, Li Dong stayed in the North Building of the School of Chemistry for over half an hour.

「By the time he came out of the building, it was already noon.」

Li Dong stood on the steps and heaved a long sigh.

He’d been busy from morning till night for a while now.

Now, he could finally breathe a little easier.

Li Dong gave a self-deprecating laugh.

’Is this college or a nine-to-five job?’

Liu Ruochuan had told him before to get some proper rest.

He’d told him to go out, have some fun, maybe find a girlfriend, join some activities unrelated to research—to live a little, like a nineteen-year-old.

Li Dong thought about it.

’Yeah.’

’I really should give myself a break.’

"I’ll go relax right after lunch!"

He was just about to head to the cafeteria for some spicy fried chicken.

Just then, he suddenly saw two familiar figures.

Li Dong’s plans to relax were instantly tossed to the back of his mind.

"Haozi!"

Wang Hao had just been excitedly discussing the sensitivity analysis for the final part of Problem C from this year’s national modeling competition with Gu Ming.

He instinctively turned his head at the sound of his name.

Li Dong was already right in front of him.

"Haozi, Senior Gu Ming."

"How are your preparations for the national mathematical modeling competition coming along?"

"Come on, let me give you guys some tutoring."

Wang Hao, who had been excitedly chatting with Gu Ming just a moment ago, looked instantly crestfallen.

It took Gu Ming a moment to process, but then he turned to Li Dong excitedly.

"East God, you’re going to tutor us?"

’East God, personally tutoring them for the national competition.’

Gu Ming’s mind went blank with a BUZZ.

’What kind of VIP treatment is this?’

Gu Ming could barely contain his excitement.

He instinctively glanced over and saw Wang Hao’s crestfallen expression.

Gu Ming’s brows furrowed immediately.

’This guy.’

’What’s with that look on his face?’

’East God himself offered to tutor them. What an incredible stroke of luck.’

’Countless people would beg for an opportunity like this.’

’And here you are.’

’Looking like you’re on your way to the execution grounds.’

Gu Ming cursed Wang Hao out in his head.

’He really doesn’t know what’s good for him.’

’Failing to seize an opportunity like this.’