158: Chapter 158 Reply to the News

He placed the folder, stuffed with blueprint copies and notes filled with formulas, onto the desk and let out a long sigh.

After two consecutive days of high-intensity blueprint reviews and interdisciplinary exchanges, even his brain, which had been granted powerful memory by the system, felt a hint of mental fatigue.

He needed to temporarily clear those complex structures, parameters, and formulas from his mind.

He walked to the window, looking at the sparse but bright lights of Science Island outside, and made an estimation in his heart.

Tomorrow was the day scheduled for the plasma discharge experiment.

All the preparations, optimizations, and expectations would be put to the test at that moment.

Thinking of this, he felt strangely calm inside, even a little relaxed.

He had already done everything he could to the extreme under the existing conditions from the very beginning.

Over the past two days, relying on his astonishing mathematical intuition, the hints provided by the system, and... the occasional brief data verification with enlightenment on his phone, he had indeed captured some directions for improvement from the vast sea of engineering blueprints and process documents.

From minor shape changes to the heating electrodes to local optimization suggestions for the cooling flow channels, and even subtle adjustments to the control algorithm parameters.

Each point he raised might have limited improvement individually, but when gathered together, they might bring a noticeable gain in the stability and efficiency of the entire system.

Although these would require more time to coordinate and improve, the process also made him realize more profoundly that for a massive project like EAST, the room for performance improvement was often hidden in these seemingly inconspicuous details, waiting for sharper eyes and more precise tools to unearth them.

It was this positive feedback brought by constant discovery and verification that made him feel an indescribable excitement despite his fatigue.

He shook his head and decided to stop thinking about work for now.

He walked to the bed, picked up his charging phone, and pressed the screen to light it up.

Instantly, a series of message notifications popped up, filling the screen densely.

Only then did Chen Youhua suddenly remember that since arriving in Hefei and immersing himself in the ocean of details of EAST, he had almost completely forgotten the existence of the outside world, and naturally, he had forgotten to handle these backlogged messages.

He unlocked his phone and first clicked on WeChat.

Sure enough, there were several little red dots on the contacts tab.

Most of the young ladies his mother had pushed to him had passed his friend verification and sent him messages.

He clicked on them one by one to take a look.

The first one to pass was someone named "Wang Ying", whose profile picture was a silhouette in an artistic illustration style.

The message was simple.

"Hello, I am Wang Ying."

About two hours later, another one was sent.

"Chen Youhua, right? I've seen quite a bit of news about you online."

It was followed by a teasing emoji.

Another one followed in the evening.

"Are you busy? Why aren't you replying?"

Then... there was no then.

Another profile picture was a landscape photo, looking like it was at the foot of some snow mountain, named Lydia, and the message sent was:

"Hi, Professor Chen, nice to meet you. Heard about you from Auntie."

"May I ask, besides scientific research, do you have any other hobbies, Professor Chen?"

Similarly, there was no follow-up.

There was another one with a more formal profile picture, a professional headshot, whose name was her real name, Zhang Yawen, and the message was the most concise and formal.

"Hello Mr. Chen, I am Zhang Yawen. Very happy to meet you."

There was nothing more.

Chen Youhua scanned through them roughly; most of the patterns were similar.

Polite opening lines, perhaps with a bit of curiosity and probing, but seeing that he didn't reply for a long time, they tactfully stopped bothering him.

After all, these young ladies had their own busy social circles, and no one had that much time to offer a warm face to a cold shoulder.

He smiled helplessly; it was indeed as he had expected.

This was fine, too, saving a lot of unnecessary maneuvering.

Next, he clicked on the chat window with his mother.

The messages here were much denser, with new content appearing almost every few hours.

"Youhua, where are you? Have you arrived in Hefei? Is it cold there?"

"Youhua, chat more with the girls, be nicer in your tone, be more proactive, you know? Don't just say 'mm' or 'oh' all the time."

"Youhua, are you busy? The weather is still cold, wear more clothes and don't catch a cold."

"Youhua, how is it going with the girls? Is there anyone you get along with? Auntie Wang just asked me again."

"Youhua, I heard from Auntie Wang and the others, why aren't you replying to messages? Really, even if you are busy, you should check your phone! How rude!"

A missed call request.

"Youhua, what on earth are you busy with in Hefei? You don't even have time to reply to a message?"

Looking at this series of messages, Chen Youhua could almost imagine his mother holding the phone on the other end, her psychological state shifting from expectation to confusion and then to a little bit of resentment.

He couldn't help but scratch his hair; it was a headache.

He quickly organized his language to reply to his mother first, his fingers tapping rapidly on the screen.

"Mom, I've arrived, everything is fine. It is a bit cold here in Hefei, but I spend most of my time indoors, so it's fine."

"Work here is indeed very busy. I am participating in an important joint experimental project that involves confidential content, so I can't check my phone for a lot of the time. I just saw the messages after returning to the hotel."

"I have added those girls and replied briefly. But the experiment has reached a critical stage recently, so I really don't have much time for small talk. Let's talk after I finish this stage of work here."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. You and Dad take care of your health at home."

The message was sent, and it was almost an instant reply.

His mother was obviously not asleep yet.

"Oh, you're working, then that can't be helped. Remember to eat and sleep no matter how busy you are!"

"It's good that you added them, that's good! Then you busy yourself with work first, the country's affairs are important! Chat slowly when you're not busy, no rush, no rush!"

"Everything is fine at home, don't worry. You take care of your own safety!"

After dealing with his mother, Chen Youhua breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, he clicked on the few newly added friends in his contacts and uniformly copied and pasted a polite and slightly distant reply.

"Hello, I am very sorry that I have been participating in a closed project for the past few days and it was inconvenient to use communication tools. My reply is late, please forgive me.

Very happy to meet you. Work is busy recently, I fear it will be difficult to chat in depth, hope you understand. Best wishes."

He didn't expect the other party to reply; it was purely to complete a polite process.

Finally, he clicked on the chat window with his cousin Chen Xinran.

Xinran's messages were not many, but they looked like they were sent in several batches.

"Cousin! Cousin! We started school early, wuwuwu. Even though this year is the Grade 12 seniors' college entrance exam, we were dragged back to class! It's too intense, wuwuwu!"

She attached a crying cat emoji, and the sending time was the night before last.

"Physics class taught magnetic fields and electromagnetic induction today, and the teacher mentioned you again! Said you are a living role model!"

Then there were a few photos of test questions that were a bit blurry.

"Cousin, sorry to bother you~ I can't solve this comprehensive mechanics problem no matter what. After the force analysis, I listed the equations, but I can't solve it [aggrieved]. Can you help me take a look? Just one look! If you can't, then forget it!"

Looking at the message from his cousin, which was a bit cautious yet full of expectation, a smile unconsciously appeared on Chen Youhua's face.

Compared to those blind dates, communicating with this little cousin who purely admired him actually made him feel relaxed.

He clicked on those question photos; they were two typical high school physics problems of final-exam difficulty. One was particle motion in a composite field, and the other was a momentum and energy comprehensive problem of a multi-block spring system.

For Chen Youhua, it was naturally effortless.

He picked up paper and pen and wrote down the detailed solution steps, key force analysis diagrams, equation formulations, and simplification techniques for both problems. Especially for the step where Xinran got stuck, he used two different ways of thinking to explain it, ensuring she could understand.

After writing it down, he took a picture with his phone, making it look more casual.

Then he replied to Xinran.

"Just finished.

I looked at the problems, they are indeed a bit difficult. I wrote the key steps on paper, take a look.

The first method is more conventional, the second method is more skillful but the calculation is simpler, you can learn about both.

Ask me whenever you have questions in the future, but I might not reply immediately.

The second year of high school is critical, keep it up."

The message was sent, and unexpectedly, Xinran was not asleep yet, and she replied almost immediately.

"Cousin, you finally replied to me!!"

"My god! You actually wrote it for me! Thank you so much!!" A crying-with-excitement emoji.

"Cousin, are you still busy? Pay attention to rest! I won't bother you! Thank you, Cousin!!"

Chen Youhua looked at the screen, smiled, replied "Mm, sleep early," and put down his phone.

After processing all these backlogged messages, he went to take a simple hot shower, letting his tense nerves completely relax.

Lying on the bed, the lights of Science Island outside the window were still twinkling like stars.