Zhang Han’s discovery indeed gave them a sense of finding hope in desperation.

But science isn’t about immediately utilizing a discovery; what followed required repeated experiments and modifications.

They failed time and again, and time and again they went back to the drawing board.

But because they rarely worked together so intensively, progress was very rapid.

Even when they failed, they could quickly discard previous approaches and formulate new plans.

Senior Zhang Han would be going abroad for a period during the winter break, so this seclusion could be said to be the last time she would devote herself to this project shortly.

Xue Jiao was from the mathematics department. Her physics knowledge had improved considerably over the past year, but her focus was on mathematics, and her physics abilities could hardly be compared to the other experts.

She was more involved in modeling and derivation, with the main direction controlled by the others.

Xue Jiao didn’t feel uncomfortable about this—it wasn’t her area of expertise, so why compare?

Her strength was mathematics, and her importance in the team was to leverage her mathematical abilities. There was no need to quibble over physics aspects.

People need to know when to push forward and when to take a step back.

Their seclusion didn’t mean they never went home. On the first day, Xue Jiao returned home at one in the morning, quickly washed up, and hurried to bed, then went back early the next day to continue helping.

Zhang Han and the others did the same, even returning later than Xue Jiao.

Sometimes they would just sleep wrapped in their coats in the adjacent office, then wake up and continue, making use of every minute.

Under such high-intensity work, Xue Jiao not only couldn’t date Lin Zhihua, but she hadn’t even sent him a message.

Lin Zhihua had thought about finding her, but he knew this was Xue Jiao’s busiest time.

If he appeared and disturbed her, she wouldn’t be angry, but she definitely wouldn’t be happy to see him either.

Lin Zhihua reached out and touched the photo on his desk, his eyes filled with longing.

“It’s been two days, little girl, once you’re done being busy, you must make it up to me!”

Lin Zhihua had already decided that when the time came, he wouldn’t let her schedule too many other things during the winter break—she must spend the New Year with him!

By the fifth day, they had made a breakthrough in their simulation, and dawn was in sight.

Xue Jiao no longer returned home. Her phone had shut down due to low battery, but no one paid attention.

Meals were delivered to the lab by Zhang Han’s assistant, and they had also taken over the adjacent large laboratory. It was currently finals period, so not many students needed the lab, and those who did were redirected by Professor Jin to other labs.

This day was the last class of a certain specialized course, and the professor took attendance.

When Gu Xue Jiao’s name was called, no one answered, and his face darkened as he made a note in his book.

“When you go back, tell Gu Xue Jiao to come to my office tomorrow to see me!”

Mai Jiajia immediately showed a worried expression, but all the professors knew Xue Jiao, so they couldn’t answer her.

After class, she called Xue Jiao several times but couldn’t get through.

After some thought, Mai Jiajia headed towards the physics lab with two cups of hot drinks.

The small lab that Chu Sheng had borrowed was where Xue Jiao and the others had spent much of the past year, and she had been there before.

When she arrived at the lab, Mai Jiajia stood holding the drinks, not daring to enter.

The small lab where they usually stayed had its door tightly closed, while the adjacent large lab’s door was open.

A young man with stubble was sleeping, and a senior male and female student were eating.

She hesitated for a moment, then the small door opened, and a somewhat haggard-looking man with stubble but eyes full of light came out. He passed by her as if he hadn’t seen her and went straight into the large lab.

Mai Jiajia: “…”

Although she didn’t come often, she had met Chu Sheng multiple times, and in the past, they would at least exchange greetings when they met on the road.

This time she was standing right there, and Chu Sheng passed by her as if he hadn’t seen her…

“Let’s get to work,” Chu Sheng’s voice was a bit hoarse.

As soon as he spoke, the graduate seniors from the physics department who were helping with the research wolfed down their food, continuing to eat while picking up their computers and taking what Chu Sheng handed over.

They were all so focused that Mai Jiajia still didn’t dare to speak.

She waited for a good while longer. Chu Sheng returned to the lab, and finally Xue Jiao came out.

Upon seeing Xue Jiao, Mai Jiajia wanted to ask what was going on in the lab.

The men had stubble, and the women looked haggard, with their hair not even properly combed.

“Jiaojiao…”

“Eh? Jiajia?” Xue Jiao had almost walked past her when she suddenly came to her senses upon hearing the familiar voice.

Mai Jiajia: “…”

She felt somewhat helpless: “You guys almost made me think I’d learned to become invisible, to the point where you couldn’t see me.”

Xue Jiao scratched her head, her voice somewhat urgent: “Well, Jiajia, we’ve been very busy lately. Is there something you need?”

“Nothing much, there was attendance taken today, and Professor Zhen wants you to see him tomorrow,” Mai Jiajia said as she handed the hot drink to Xue Jiao.

Xue Jiao took it and replied: “Oh, okay.”

Mai Jiajia: “…” She could tell from Xue Jiao’s tone that she wouldn’t go.

“Then I’ll go tomorrow and tell him on your behalf, saying you couldn’t get away. It’s better than not going at all.”

“Alright.” Xue Jiao gratefully hugged her.

“Now go back to your work, but take care of yourself. It’s only been a few days since I last saw you, how did you get so thin?” Mai Jiajia was somewhat concerned.

Xue Jiao gave her a smile: “It’s nothing, I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

With that, she was about to leave.

Mai Jiajia held her back: “Wait, don’t forget that exams are in a few days, you absolutely can’t miss them. You should still study a bit…”

“Yes, don’t worry, we’ve given all our exam times to Senior Hu, and she’ll notify us when the time comes.”

Mai Jiajia: “…” So they weren’t planning to study…

She said weakly: “Alright, go ahead with your work.”

“Bye Jiajia, I’ll find you when I’m done!” Xue Jiao said, hurrying away.

Mai Jiajia watched her retreating figure helplessly, then looked at the others who were completely absorbed in their work.

They were all a bunch of research maniacs!

But they were such lovable maniacs.

——

By the eighth day, they still hadn’t succeeded.

But the sense of urgency, with victory in sight, meant they didn’t end their seclusion as originally planned.

In the afternoon, Xue Jiao went to take an exam and then returned to continue helping.

Zhang Han had also canceled her originally scheduled flight, postponing it by a week.

Coincidentally, this week was exam week, so they had to go take exams from time to time, then return to work, which somewhat delayed things, but there was no way around it.

By the tenth day, Professor Jin was visiting more frequently. He didn’t disturb them much, just watched from the side, occasionally nodding.

Yang Zhan had left first; his exams were concentrated on these two days, unlike Xue Jiao and the others who could conveniently return after their exams.

On the thirteenth day, Yang Zhan returned.

On this day, they needed to establish a new model, and the original program couldn’t support the model they needed.

They requested Professor Jin’s help to contact Professor Tang from the computer science department, who brought Cheng Mingze to help modify the software that day.

That night, they ran the model overnight.

At eight o’clock the next morning, Zhang Han, Yang Zhan, Chu Sheng, Zheng Jiakun, and Xue Jiao had their heads extended in front of the computer, eagerly watching two computers.

At 8:10 AM.

The simulation fully loaded on the computer, and a small icon representing a 5kg small car floated up…

“Is this… success?”

“Little Junior!! What was your previous calculation??” Chu Sheng grabbed Xue Jiao. He knew the data, but at this moment, he was doubtful.

Xue Jiao’s heart skipped a beat. She took a deep breath and said: “50,178kg, the current highest value.”

“Ah—” Chu Sheng threw all the materials in his hands into the air, papers flying everywhere.

Yang Zhan picked up Zhang Han, his voice excited: “We succeeded! We succeeded!!”

Zhang Han was also excited, her face slightly red, but instinctively hit Yang Zhan hard: “Put me down!!”

Xue Jiao watched their excited expressions, her heartwarming. She knew her expression was the same as theirs.

It had been a year; this project had taken a year.

Chu Sheng’s eyes were red: “Thank you all thank you.”

His dream of a flying car since childhood, though not yet realized, had taken its first step on the ladder.

This is how science works: first step, second step, and then countless interested people continue to push forward.

This is scientific progress, and also human progress.

Currently, they can only achieve 5kg; the future might be even more challenging, but with the first step taken, there would be a second step.

Chu Sheng was truly grateful to these persevering companions. Xue Jiao and Zheng Jiakun were from the mathematics department, spending a full year on physics.

Zhang Han and Yang Zhan were elites in the scientific community; a year for them was extremely valuable, yet they had spent it with him on this high-failure-rate project.

Fortunately, they had finally succeeded, otherwise the heavy burden would have continued to weigh on him.

Zheng Jiakun reached out and patted Chu Sheng, smiling: “This was a project we were all interested in, what’s there to thank? We should thank you for establishing such an interesting project.”

Xue Jiao smiled along with them. After persevering for a year, they had finally succeeded. Half a month ago, they were in despair, and today they harvested this joy.

Science doesn’t always yield results for effort; they were the lucky ones.

Just as they were rejoicing, Zhang Han’s assistant looked at the time and suddenly said: “Little Junior, you have an exam at nine o’clock, it’s your last one…”

“Ah?!” Xue Jiao was startled, then dropped everything, grabbed a pen, and rushed straight to the exam room.

“Hey… Little Junior… you haven’t changed your clothes…” Before she could finish her sentence, Xue Jiao had already disappeared.

As luck would have it, this was precisely the exam given by Professor Zhen, who had wanted Xue Jiao to come to his office, but she hadn’t gone…

He was just handing the exam papers to the proctor when he saw her rushing in frantically, and his face darkened.

Professor Zhen said in a deep voice: “Gu Xue Jiao! You have no regular grade points! In our course, regular grade points account for 30%.”

Xue Jiao’s face reddened, and she replied somewhat embarrassedly: “I’m sorry, Professor Zhen…”

With his hands behind his back, he continued in a stern voice: “You’re only a sophomore, what’s the rush to work on projects to the point of not attending classes? Building without a foundation is like a castle in the air. Without a foundation, you can’t do projects well either! No matter how well you do in projects, if you fail a course, you still lose your chance for graduate school recommendation!”

After speaking, Professor Zhen entered the classroom, and Xue Jiao hurriedly followed, embarrassed.

She didn’t argue with Professor Zhen, because different people have different ways of thinking, and classes are important—Xue Jiao knew this.

So unless there were special circumstances, she attended every class.

But this time, she had weighed the value of that class against the project and decided the project was more important.

In the final phase, it was almost all model-related, and if she left, Zheng Jiakun alone would certainly not be able to keep up with Zhang Han, Yang Zhan, and Chu Sheng, wasting everyone’s time.

So during that period, she felt the project was more important.

Moreover, for this course…

She had studied it intensively when proving Fermat’s theorem and had attended every class earlier in the semester, already mastering everything.

It wasn’t that she needed that class, but…

Xue Jiao looked at the exam paper somewhat helplessly, realizing she would need at least a 90 to ensure she didn’t fail the course…

The questions weren’t difficult for Xue Jiao, and she quickly finished and submitted the paper.

She then ran back to the lab to discuss the subsequent paper writing with them.

“I suggest everyone go back and rest now. Senior Zhang Han still has a flight to catch tonight, and everyone’s been so tired lately. Let’s all go back and get some good sleep. The paper is manageable; we can discuss it directly in the group chat,” Yang Zhan said seriously.

Chu Sheng nodded: “That works. I’ll print out copies of everything, and everyone can take one. It’s just in time for the winter break, so let’s discuss and write the paper in the group chat.”

The others nodded in agreement.

So at noon, Xue Jiao left with her backpack.

She had mentioned in the family group chat that she was done, and Lin Zhihua immediately said he would come pick her up.

Xue Jiao felt somewhat embarrassed; they had agreed on seven days, but it had turned into half a month.

In a romantic relationship, she had left him hanging for a full half month.

The familiar car soon arrived, and Xue Jiao smiled, with a pleasing smile: “Zhihua…”

Lin Zhihua’s face was expressionless as he opened the trunk and took out an electronic scale—

“Stand on it.”

Xue Jiao: “…”

She hesitated, but eventually stood on it, quite embarrassed.

42kg.

Xue Jiao: “…” She had lost eight jin (4kg).

Sure enough, looking up at Lin Zhihua, he was staring fixedly at the electronic scale, his face frighteningly dark.