Chapter 59
Jing University, Department of Materials Science Laboratory.
“Professor, I’ve finished the strength test on my side. The tensile strength reached 6000 MPa. It actually surpassed carbon fiber resin materials. The elastic performance is practically perfect. The yield limit is also nearly 12,500 MPa.”
After being busy for a long while, the student stretched lazily, entered the values into the computer, and reported to the professor.
He had been temporarily dragged over, but fortunately, the properties of the newly discovered material were excellent.
“Professor, I’ve completed the cold-resistance test. The limit is minus 230 degrees Celsius!” The student who spoke was so excited his voice trembled slightly.
“My god, that’s insane!” Another student could not help exclaiming. “I remember when we talked about spacesuits in class, their cold resistance was only around minus two hundred, right?”
“Yes. We’ve found something good!”
“No, the insane part I mean isn’t only the cold resistance you discovered. I’m doing the heat-resistance test here. The current result shows it can withstand a maximum temperature of around 2100 degrees Celsius. My god, what kind of concept is that?”
The student who had just exclaimed now seemed to have fallen into an extremely calm state, but if one looked at his eyes, one would know it was only pretending to be calm.
Beneath that calm gaze was an unconcealable fanaticism.
“It’s both cold-resistant and heat-resistant, and both peak values exceed the highest records of materials currently known to us.”
As for whether it had truly broken the peak values of existing materials, that was hard to say.
After all, rare materials, or materials used in special fields, might still be classified.
The professor, who had not personally performed the tests but had happened to come over to inspect and analyze the data, heard the students’ reports, and his eyes flickered too.
“What about oxidation resistance?” he asked. “If the heat resistance is good, the oxidation resistance should also be decent, right?”
Another student was testing the specific values. “Wait, Professor. Give me another ten minutes.”
Ten minutes later, the student looked at the experimental results and was stunned. “Good heavens. The oxidation resistance is ridiculously good. If this material comes out, it won’t only be applicable in military technology, aerospace, or other high-precision fields. Extracting it to make antioxidant, anti-aging beauty products would also have a huge market.”
After all, students from their materials department also had to consider employment after graduation.
They were naturally extra sensitive toward materials that could be used in people’s daily lives and make big money.
A material with both research value and financial prospects was surely something everyone loved to study, from academicians and professors at the top, all the way down to student laborers.
Sure enough, the other classmates and even the professor’s eyes lit up when they heard his experimental results.
They looked at the blue crystal mineral in front of them as if they were looking at a rare treasure.
“I’m testing corrosion resistance here. The result isn’t as stunning as what you guys got, but it is absolutely first-rate among known materials.” Another student sighed, slightly disappointed that his project result had not reached the peak.
But this was still fairly manageable.
After all, a material was not used alone. As long as it was matched well, adding different materials together could absolutely achieve an effect greater than one plus one.
“Oh-ho, the most impressive result is on my side, okay!”
“Guess what I discovered? This material seems capable of extracting oxygen from it! And the proportion is quite high. Let me do a few more sets of comparison experiments.” Suddenly, another student exclaimed.
!
A material capable of extracting oxygen?
“Isn’t this mud a little strange too? The sample mixed with soil seems to extract even more.” He guessed, “Let me do a few more sets.”
“All right.” The professor clapped his hands. At this point, it was almost noon. Suppressing his excitement, he told the students to go eat first. “Everyone, repeat the tests you have on hand several more times to prevent errors. This afternoon, form a material report and hand it to me.”
“Aiyo, I don’t even feel like eating anymore! I feel like my doctoral graduation topic is right in front of me!” One student’s eyes shone, and he refused to move even half a step away from the testing machine.
With a new material, leaving aside its future applications and the prospects after development—
For students, the most direct use placed in front of them was: papers.
After all, the first topic of successful graduation was choosing a good topic, conducting experiments, and completing thesis requirements.
Undergraduate theses were not worth mentioning. If you had hands, you could pass.
Graduate school was a bit more difficult.
As for a PhD, save him… there were already piles of people around him who had delayed graduation. He had almost thought he would be delayed too.
Finding a topic that had academic value, innovation, and the hope of being published in a top journal was truly very hard.
On top of that, his advisor was strict to death. Although his advisor had a high status in academia and was absolutely the kind of existence who could stand up to protect his students and debate the masses, the advisor himself was the biggest obstacle to students graduating.
If they could not produce real results, there was no way they could graduate smoothly.
And now, he felt he had seen hope.
This PhD student looked at the blue crystal mineral before him and felt that the heavy mountain pressing on his heart since the first day of school had suddenly become as light as a feather.
There was a magpie chirping away.
In the afternoon, the group worked hard again. After rigorous repeated verification, they formed a preliminary report on the blue crystal mineral.
There were still some more detailed and deeper projects, but Jing University’s equipment was not enough to test them.
There was also the exploration of the new material’s uses and its combined use with other materials, which required long-term research and development.
However, after initially obtaining results on the material’s properties, they could roughly make predictions about the main direction and major fields.
Their boss was the head of Jing University’s materials department, named Feng Chenfeng, an academician-level big shot.
His usual research projects were almost all national classified tasks.
This time, uh, this time was too.
Because after reading the material report, Feng Chenfeng casually took a stack of confidentiality agreements from his briefcase. “Come. Everyone sign.”
The students looked at one another. Good grief.
Somehow, inexplicably, they had participated in a classified project.
Especially the undergraduates who had been dragged over to assist and had no similar prior experience. Their expressions were faintly excited and also somewhat regretful.
Damn. Wasn’t this the blue crystal mineral Big Boss Shen had casually mentioned when he discovered the ancient tomb in Being Human?
At the time, they had been discussing it and wanted to know what properties this kind of mineral around a tomb might have.
Good grief. Now they knew, but after going back, they could not gossip about it at all.
Of course, the research still had to continue.
Only, after this mineral, it would definitely be disguised under a new identity, and once widely applied, it would not be allowed to be linked back to its original appearance.
After everyone finished signing and handing in the agreements, Feng Chenfeng looked at the report and gave them an impromptu quiz. “Tell me, what fields do you think this new material can be applied to?”
“If you were to open a research topic, what directions could you take?”
The students in the lab looked bitter. As expected, teachers loved surprise questioning.
Fortunately, they had already expected this.
“The cold resistance and heat resistance are both top-notch, and it can even supply oxygen. I can’t think of a material more suitable for aerospace.” One student answered.
“Exactly. The temperature difference between day and night on the moon is huge, from minus 180 degrees to positive 150 degrees. This one material perfectly covers it.”
“I feel like Mars can also be considered. Mars’s temperature difference isn’t as exaggerated as the moon’s, but I remember one of the main technical difficulties is the thin atmosphere, right? This new material contains oxygen and has super-strong radiation resistance.”
“Right. It should be great for spacesuits and spacecraft startup equipment, right? Uh, I don’t understand that area. I’m just talking nonsense, analyzing only from the material properties.”
Feng Chenfeng nodded. “Anything else?”
A student proposed a new field. “Its heat resistance is too strong. I feel like it can blossom everywhere in the military industry.”
After all, in modern thermal weapons, materials were the foundation.
If the foundation was solid, the power could also climb another level.
“I think it’s very suitable for electronic equipment. Combined with electronic components, it could neutralize the radiation effect. It should… be possible, right?” This was an undergraduate, so his tone carried some uncertainty.
“Actually, its hardness, toughness, and so on are all very good. They don’t lose to steel alloys and the like. So theoretically, fields where steel alloys can be used should all work too.”
“Beauty, medical aesthetics! I thought of this first thing in the morning! With such outstanding oxidation resistance, if we extract the element carrying this oxidation-resistance property, as long as we verify it’s harmless to the human body, we can apply for a patent and use it in beauty products, cosmetics, and medical aesthetics projects. Based on this value, I suspect it will shake the industry.”
The student who spoke came from a family in the beauty business, so he spoke about these prospects in a very organized way.
His eyes were sparkling with desire for money.
“Boss, why don’t you lead us to establish a company? Can you let us founding elders take a tiny bit of original shares, or write all of us into the patent holders? If we can really develop the relevant element, that would be a money tree!”
Feng Chenfeng looked at this student speechlessly.
Everyone else was considering high-precision fields. Only this rich kid’s eyes were full of money.
Although applying for patents definitely had to be put on the agenda too.
Still, his view was shallow. Just based on the properties of this material, dozens or even hundreds of patents flashed through Feng Chenfeng’s mind in the blink of an eye.
For example, suppose the oxidation-resistance property could delay aging.
Using it in beauty and medical aesthetics would certainly be extremely profitable.
But could that profit compare to the pharmaceutical industry?
If this material could extract some trace element beneficial to the human body and develop a medicine that delayed or even saved aging organs—
Then such enormous profits might be so great that even as an academician, he would not be able to swallow such a big cake.
The students were still discussing, looking at the idea of making money in a new light.
“Laughing to death. Eh, your idea really is unique. To be honest, with this insane oxidation resistance, no wonder the material was dug out of tomb soil.”
The students continued chatting noisily, putting forward many views and guesses.
Finally, they mentioned the person who had to be mentioned in relation to the discovery of this heavyweight material—Shen Jinfeng.
“But for such an awesome material, if we apply for patents in the future, shouldn’t Big Boss Shen also get a share? Big Boss Shen discovered this material first, right?”
“And I keep feeling like Big Boss Shen knows something. When he saw this blue crystal, he told Qin Ye to find a materials professor to test it after getting out. If he didn’t know something, who would randomly think of this after having nothing better to do?”
“Exactly. And that soil didn’t contain only this one mineral. Big Boss Shen dug several meters deep and dug out a lot of things, but he only mentioned this one! Amazing. Is this the intuition of a big shot?”
“Hard to say. A real big shot can read tomb-raiding novels and discover the location of a thousand-year-old ancient tomb. I’m very curious how he thought of testing this mineral. Maybe he’s seen something similar before. Maybe if we asked him, we could discover even more treasure materials hahaha.”
This student was purely joking.
But Feng Chenfeng listened silently from the side and actually took it to heart.
When he received the message from the university president yesterday, asking him to help test a material, he had not taken it seriously.
When he learned that this material had been brought out of a tomb, his face immediately darkened.
However, after he was briefed on the third season livestream variety show What Kind of Person Are You and saw that the person who wanted to test this blue crystal mineral was Shen Jinfeng—
He sighed and agreed.
And he had summoned a group of students last night to conduct experiments.
There was no other reason. He knew Shen Jinfeng.
Or more accurately, he knew Shen Jinfeng’s mother.
He and Shen Jinfeng’s mother, Su Qing, had once been classmates. After graduation, although they researched in entirely different fields, they had both served the country.
It was just that heaven was jealous of beauty. That beautiful scientist, who had once caused a stir in their circle, had unexpectedly passed away in an accident in her thirties.
In the early years, after his old friend passed away and her only child disappeared too, he had also joined a group of friends in the circle and used their networks to help search, to no avail.
Two years ago, Shen Jinfeng was found. When he heard the news, he had sighed with old friends that this child had not had it easy, and that he had finally gone home. Su Qing’s spirit in heaven could also be comforted.
He and Su Qing had been friends, but he truly had never come into contact with her only child.
Therefore, after learning Shen Jinfeng had returned to the Shen family, he had not specially gone to meet him.
But by a twist of fate, after seeing in the livestream that it was Shen Jinfeng who wanted to test the material—
Only then did Feng Chenfeng agree to the university president’s request, and he did not handle it perfunctorily.
And the facts proved that this was the completely correct decision.
The various properties of this material were ridiculously powerful!
Shen Jinfeng was worthy of being Su Qing’s child.
Moreover, his students were right.
Shen Jinfeng should already have some research into materials. Otherwise, how would he have thought to find a materials professor to test it the moment he saw this blue crystal?
His heart moved.
After taking this material report and submitting it upward, he found an old classmate and a leader at the Academy of Sciences.
Several people gathered together and were amazed by the properties of this material.
Feng Chenfeng thought, “I heard this child did not receive his graduation certificate abroad for unknown reasons. I still have an admissions spot for Jing University next year. His college entrance exam score passed the first-tier line. I want him to study under me.”
Top universities themselves offered some score concessions to the children of faculty and staff.
And he was already an academician. How many contributions had he made for the country in his life?
He only wanted to recruit one student. With his recommendation, plus Shen Jinfeng’s own decent foundation and such a great contribution, how could the university president disagree?
“All right, Old Feng. Did you need to bring up such a thing specially?” The president of the Academy of Sciences teased him from the side.
“Exactly. Are there any other requests? Say them all at once. Do you want to claim credit for this young comrade?” His old classmate had also been Su Qing’s classmate back then. His mind was lively, and he was also helping think of what benefits they could ask for Shen Jinfeng.
Feng Chenfeng coughed lightly, smiled embarrassedly, and asked the Academy president, “Isn’t the Outstanding Youth selection about to begin this year? I heard you have one nomination spot in your hands.”
Outstanding Youth was an annual selection event. Every year, only fifteen people received this honor.
It was an honor with very high value.
One could tell from who presented the award.
Cough, cough. The outstanding youths who received this honor could walk into the Great Hall.
And meet the No. 1 chief.
This was practically an honor ordinary people did not even dare imagine, one that could glorify the family and ancestors.
Feng Chenfeng had his considerations for making this request.
First, Shen Jinfeng had indeed made a great contribution.
Second, Shen Jinfeng’s mother, Su Qing, had also made great contributions back then. Unfortunately, she had died early, so the awards, status, and honors she deserved had never fallen into place.
The Academy president was also a shrewd person and instantly guessed his thoughts.
It was not only those two considerations.
Feng Chenfeng usually never made requests to the organization. Since he rarely brought one up, the president also had to consider his comrade’s wishes.
He thought for a moment and replied, “All right. I’ll add him to the candidate list, but for the final selection, I only have recommendation rights, not decision-making power.”
Feng Chenfeng and his old classmate were already satisfied. “That’s enough. Thank you, President.”
The Academy president smiled helplessly. “However, I can guarantee you this: as long as you teach him well, the doors here will definitely be open to that child.”
Feng Chenfeng quickly thanked him.
He had not expected an unexpected bonus.
The Academy president waved his hand and called Yun Xueshan in front of the two of them.
He asked him to help conduct a background check.
After all, Outstanding Youth was practically a first-class honor. The recipient necessarily had to have a clean background, firm political stance, and accurate records.
This information also had to be submitted for review together.
“Strange. That side says they know Shen Jinfeng.” After hanging up, his expression was suspicious.
Feng Chenfeng also looked suspicious. “Someone else is investigating Shen Jinfeng?”
“He is Su Qing’s child. What problem could he have?”
“Eh, Old Feng, why are you so impatient? No one said he has a problem. Why are you getting anxious?” The Academy president patted his shoulder soothingly.
He thought for a moment but could not figure it out, so he did not take it to heart. “We’ll know when the results come out. I’ll ask later who else is investigating him.”
“All right. You should hurry back and continue your research.”
After Feng Chenfeng left, the Academy president called over his assistant and asked him to add the name “Shen Jinfeng” to the Outstanding Youth recommendation list.
The assistant’s pupils widened slightly.
What was going on!
How had the president noticed the big boss!
For a moment, he even forgot his usual rigorous work attitude.
“President, do you also admire Big Boss Shen?” His tone was slightly excited.
The Academy president looked at him suspiciously, somewhat surprised inwardly. “You know him?”
The assistant nodded like pounding garlic. “I know him, I know him! He’s my idol!”
The Academy president’s gaze turned confused. “Didn’t you say last time that your idol was me?”
Assistant: “Pfft… uh… both are my idols! You are my idol in my professional field. Big Boss Shen is my idol in life!”
And also in spirit.
“How so? Is this child very impressive? Tell me.” The Academy president was usually so busy he had no time to go online. His assistant would organize and tell him about any major events, so he did not know Shen Jinfeng.
Now that his interest had been stirred, he wanted to hear an introduction.
The assistant’s eyes lit up, and he worked hard to keep his tone calm as he began explaining every kind of awesomeness about his newly promoted idol.
Meanwhile, in Jing University’s materials laboratory, after the professor left, the students who were still continuing to grind through experiments had long since exploded into chatter.
“Hey, when Boss called me over to work last night, I was full of resentment. Now I want to rush back and slap my past self twice. Isn’t Big Boss Shen way too awesome in every direction?”
“Qi Xiu was right! Big Boss is a benefactor! With Big Boss around, misfortune can be turned into fortune and danger into safety! We’re only researching the material Big Boss discovered from afar, and we can still discover surprises!”
“Hehe, my graduation topic has landed.”
“Heihei, I feel like I have a chance to apply for a patent.”
“Wow, this material is so awesome. I feel like I can publish in a top journal.”
“Happy. Let Boss lead us to get rich! Boss is usually very generous. I trust this time will be the same!”
…
At dinner time, the PhD student who still refused to leave the laboratory and had asked a junior to bring him food finally found a moment of free time.
During the meal break, because he usually paid attention to current events and knew completely where the blue crystal mineral had come from, the PhD student opened his phone, searched Shen Jinfeng’s Weibo, and clicked follow.
After the third season of Being Human had aired for over a week, Shen Jinfeng’s original eight million followers had now risen to over thirty million, approaching forty million.
He had set a mythical record for follower growth in domestic entertainment.
It was simply unimaginable how terrifying his fanbase and traffic would become if the show continued airing, and after it ended.
After following him, the student frantically sent Shen Jinfeng private messages, writing long essays of thanks.
Then he ran to Shen Jinfeng’s latest Weibo post and went crazy blowing rainbow farts in the comments.
His fellow senior and junior classmates from the same laboratory discovered what he was doing and followed suit one after another.
They also jointly edited posts with similar content, roughly as follows:
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, Graduation Is Hopeful!#
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, Strive To Become An Academic Superior!#
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, Top Journals Are Waving At Me#
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, May Fortune Flow Flow Flow!#
…
It was worth mentioning that because their academic qualifications were high enough, the people they usually followed and interacted with were also from university circles, including many knowledge bloggers with hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers.
Once these crazy, admiring, and grateful Weibo posts were made, they immediately triggered a chain reaction.
They spoke in riddles in the comment section. Because of the confidentiality agreements, they temporarily could not respond with specific details.
But in short, because of Big Boss Shen, a little bit of luck had happened.
It was precisely this half-hidden way of speaking, combined with a tone that was unbearably devout—
Such veiled wording was the easiest to arouse curiosity and imitation.
For a time, within their mutual-follow lists, classmates, graduated seniors, and lower-year juniors all imitated them.
They joined the meme.
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, I Want The National Scholarship This Year!#
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, Bless My Experiments To Go Smoothly!#
#Repost This Big Boss Shen, Score 650 On CET-6!#
…
Probably, students as a group were naturally prone to following trends.
Probably, rumors became more and more outrageous the more they spread.
In short, somehow—
What had originally been a carnival among a few students in Jing University’s materials laboratory—
Eventually developed into a social event across university academic circles?
Later, it even hit the hot searches.
Netizens who did not understand what was happening sent out huge question marks.
[No, what’s going on? How did I wake up and see that all the learning bloggers from Hua University, Jing University, and so on whom I follow are reposting Big Boss Shen? Damn, when I click into the profiles of the bloggers reposting, every one of them has a high degree.]
[Don’t say it. The pictures attached are actually quite nice.]
[Why repost Big Boss Shen? What happened!]
[Uh, although I reposted too, I also don’t know why. Hehe. My roommate said reposting Big Boss Shen brings good luck. Apparently, after one senior reposted Big Boss Shen, he received news in the afternoon that his paper had been selected by a top journal!]
[Eh? How did I hear that a senior sister reposted Big Boss Shen, and an experiment she’d been doing for half a year suddenly succeeded?]
[That powerful! Let me absorb some European luck. I’ll repost one too!]
[I don’t understand, but I am greatly shocked! Although I haven’t entered university yet, I’m reposting one too!]
[Although I graduated many years ago, I’m reposting one too!]
Thus, #Repost This Big Boss Shen#, this inexplicable tag, actually rushed onto the hot searches.
Sun Xinping, who received the news, was full of confusion.
No, why?
On the screen, Big Boss Shen had not done anything either.
Wasn’t he peacefully making clothes today?
The guests’ atmosphere was lively, relaxed, and cheerful. No accidents had occurred. Everyone was happy and harmonious.
Although it was completely different from the survival variety show he had imagined, after experiencing so many scares, Sun Xinping felt that this was very good.
Speechless, choking with emotion. Like this, truly, this was already very good.
However, seeing this hot search—
He somehow felt afraid.
A hot search whose cause he could not find was even more frightening!
Could Shen Jinfeng be “causing trouble” again somewhere he could not see?
Little did he know, if Shen Jinfeng himself knew all of this—
He would probably be even more depressed.
At this moment, Shen Jinfeng, lying on the recliner and slowly, leisurely making leaf clothes, did not know what storms were about to happen outside.
If he knew that Feng Chenfeng actually wanted to award him some Outstanding Youth honor—
And wanted him to attend university again—
And that the Academy president had even promised to let him enter the Academy to work?
Please. Save him.
He did not want fame, did not want honors, and did not want to work again!
This was supposed to be his retirement world, hey!
