Chapter 51

The arrest of Fan Chuanshuo caused a stir on the school forum for several days. Well-informed students even uncovered that Jian Xi had cooperated with Fan Chuanshuo as an undercover agent in the Zero Gravity Club.

Initially, Jian Xi was asked by the procuratorate to cooperate with the investigation because he had suspicious contact with Fan Chuanshuo during the investigation. Although his transaction with Fan Chuanshuo was unethical, it was unrelated to the embezzlement of research funds, so he was released that same day.

He had just returned to school when he received a call from his counselor, demanding that he go to the Student Affairs Office immediately. After hanging up, Jian Xi had a bad feeling. Sure enough, when he arrived at the Student Affairs Office, he saw Ji Zhixing with an unfriendly expression.

If it were before today, even in front of the director of the political education department and the counselor, he would have insisted that what he did in the Zero Gravity Club was completely unintentional and careless.

However, today at the prosecutor's office, in order to clear himself of suspicion of cooperating with Fan Chuanshuo in embezzling research funds, he revealed all the deals between Fan Chuanshuo and him.

Because other groups and individuals were involved, the police officer who interrogated him made a phone call to the school and Ji Zhixing to confirm the matter. Now, it's impossible for him to go back on his word.

Looking at Ji Zhixing's cold and ruthless face, Jianxi's long-accumulated tension at the procuratorate finally turned into anger.

He cried out in anguish, "We've worked together for so long, do you have to be so ruthless?!"

Fan Chuanshuo's promise is now null and void, and he can't go back to Zero Gravity Society either. He's lost out on both sides, so why won't Ji Zhixing let him go?

Ji Zhixing was speechless. Luckily, he didn't let Lin Lang come along, otherwise Lin Lang would have started fighting with Jian Xi on the spot.

"You need to get one thing straight: you were the one who attacked Zero Gravity first!"

“But…” Jianxi’s eyes darted around, “didn’t it not cause any damage?”

Ji Zhixing recalled the decompression team's repeated setbacks and triumphs, and looked at him with disgust: "Because of your deliberate sabotage, the Zero Gravity Society's research progress was once delayed, the members' enthusiasm and confidence were greatly affected, and the repeated experiments with different decompression components also caused certain economic losses."

Ji Zhixing even considered a possibility: if Fan Chuanshuo had been arrested earlier, and Jian Xi had immediately changed his stance and stopped causing trouble, they might have been kept in the dark for the rest of their lives, foolishly treating him as a good partner fighting side by side.

The mere thought of such a possibility filled Ji Zhixing with nausea.

The director of the political education department and the counselor originally intended to smooth things over, but making this matter public only adds another laughing stock to the school.

Ji Zhixing was unwilling to compromise. If he didn't teach Jianxi a lesson, anyone could treat Zero Gravity Society as a pushover and bully them at will.

When Ji Zhixing refused to forgive Jian Xi, the Political Education Department ultimately gave Jian Xi a one-year probation and revoked his bachelor's degree.

This lesson is profound.

Jian Xi desperately wanted to be admitted as Fan Chuanshuo's graduate student, solely for his future and personal gain. But now that he no longer had a bachelor's degree, even if he was capable, he couldn't take the graduate entrance exam.

Without a degree certificate, it's difficult to find a job after graduation with only a diploma. Nowadays, most employers require both a degree certificate and a diploma.

Only then did Jianxi truly feel regret from the bottom of her heart...

After the news broke, everyone on the school forum was shocked.

Some people think Fan Chuanshuo is frighteningly scheming, some think Jian Xi is morally corrupt and not worth getting close to, and some think Ji Zhixing is really unlucky to have a spy planted in his name from the very beginning of the society...

Then someone started a thread to list the victims of the Fan family in recent years.

The first one, of course, is the graduate student whose research results were misappropriated by Fan Chuanshuo and who was unfairly blamed. It is said that he will return to school to continue his graduate studies after the summer vacation.

Secondly, there are Zhao Yi and Sun Er, who were implicated by Fan Yongjie and lost the competition. Now, under Professor Yan's tutelage, they have already made a fortune once and are preparing to take off again.

The third is Ji Zhixing, who was targeted by Fan Yongjie and later had spies planted by Fan Chuanshuo. Now that the Fan family father and son have been imprisoned one after another and the spies have been eliminated, the Zero Gravity Society's scientific research experiments are said to be progressing quite smoothly.

The fourth is Xue Hua, who was framed by Fan Chuanshuo and made a scapegoat.

Although Xue Hua was induced by Fan Chuanshuo to sign various purchase contracts, he still embezzled research funds. Given the minor nature of the offense, his lack of criminal intent, and his good attitude of remorse, he was ultimately only ordered to forfeit his illegal gains and fined.

After being released from the procuratorate, Xue Hua was extremely anxious and didn't even dare to return to school. She went straight to the airport, bought a plane ticket, and went back to her hometown. It was She You who helped clean up the mess at the Nano Society.

There wasn't much to pack up. All the instruments and materials Xue Hua had purchased under Fan Chuanshuo's lab name had been confiscated and taken away. Only a few computers and three fans brought from the activity room remained in the lab.

After going around in circles, everything has returned to where it started.

If even the club president, Xue Hua, gave up, the other members were even more disheartened.

After obtaining Xue Hua's consent, She You sold everything the club could sell, paid a month's salary to the professional researchers they had previously hired, and divided the remaining money among the vice presidents and 20 members. The Nanoelectrode Materials Research Club was thus disbanded.

Wu Da dragged his heavy steps back to the dormitory and threw his severance pay on the table. He looked at the three pink bills and sighed deeply. Three or four months of hard work, and this was the result—300 yuan…

He opened the drawer, and there lay there quietly the equity incentive agreement on which he had pinned his hopes for the future. "Just a letter of intent, huh?" Wu Da chuckled self-deprecatingly, reached out, took it out, and slowly tore it to shreds.

Just as I was feeling down, Yi Deng pushed open the door and came back, immediately starting to pack his luggage.

Wu Da looked at him in surprise. Shouldn't he be in the lab at this hour? Where is he packing his bags?

"Going back to my hometown," Yi Deng replied as he stuffed his laptop into his suitcase.

Wu Da was even more surprised: "Your Zero Gravity Club has disbanded too?"

"Your Nanotech Society just disbanded!" Yi Deng retorted irritably, then looked up and saw the shredded contract on Wu Da's desk, stopping what he was doing. "Your society really disbanded?"

Wu Da sighed again before nodding: "The president was terrified and went straight back to his hometown. The equipment and materials have also been confiscated. What else can we do but disband the club?"

He then asked, "Why are you suddenly going back to your hometown? Are you abandoning the experiment?"

"Take a break, you know. We had a spy in our company, right? Everyone was pretty shaken. The company president gave everyone 3,000 yuan for travel expenses, saying that we've been busy for over a month and should take a week off to go home and rest." Yi Deng packed his luggage quickly, didn't linger, said goodbye to Wu Da, and left.

Wu Da: ...

The travel expenses alone amounted to 3,000 yuan, while their severance pay was only 300 yuan. Different people, different fates! Wu Da sighed to the heavens, and couldn't help but recall what his roommate had said before—it's really important to follow the right boss!

The members are on holiday, but the president and vice president are still busy.

Lin Lang felt guilty for not noticing Jian Xi's abnormality in time, so he stayed in the lab to figure out how to simplify the parameter input program.

Xu Dongyang hurriedly completed all the tedious procedures and documents for registering the company, so as to avoid encountering such a troublesome situation again in the future without being able to obtain legal support.

Meanwhile, Ji Zhixing started spending time in the library again. He had previously begun to doubt the theory behind the zero-gravity seat project, and had read through all the cutting-edge research related to the Navier-Stokes equations. It could be said that he had memorized all the publicly published books and papers on the Navier-Stokes equations in the world today.

Since it's a holiday and I'm just killing time anyway, I might as well organize the various ideas that previous researchers have used to study the Navier-Stokes equations.

After a week of rest at home, the members were comforted by the most selfless love and care, and their spirits were indeed refreshed. The gloom in the laboratory was swept away, and everyone once again devoted themselves wholeheartedly to scientific research.

However, an unavoidable factor soon emerged – the start of the school year.

School has started, and everyone has to go back to class, which will inevitably have a significant impact on the progress of experiments.

However, this time even Xu Dongyang had no objections and did not mention hiring professional researchers again.

This incident made Xu Dongyang realize how important and valuable reliable business partners are. He was a little nervous and worried that adjusting the personnel structure might inadvertently infiltrate another traitor.

Jianxi was still a student, and Ji Zhixing tricked her so easily that she gave herself away. Even so, she was allowed to remain undercover for more than half a year. If it were a professionally trained commercial spy, they would probably be completely unaware that their trade secrets had been stolen.

If it were during the operational phase, it wouldn't be so bad; even if losses were incurred, they might not be irreparable. But they are currently in the most critical research and development phase, and they cannot afford repeated setbacks.

On the other hand, the club members were actually more worried than the three founders about the impact on the experiment's progress. Seeing that the experiment had a clear direction, they were afraid that professional researchers would steal the credit, and several members said they were willing to apply for a leave of absence from their studies to devote themselves fully to the experimental activities.

Ji Zhixing felt it was unnecessary, because everyone was working very hard, and the experiment was already progressing much faster than he had anticipated. Even if the progress was a little slower now, the experiment would be successful in a few more months at most.

They have no competitors in this new product area. There's really no need to sacrifice everyone's studies just to advance the schedule by two or three months.

The lab is right on campus; I can come anytime after class. Career is career, and studies are studies; they're not mutually exclusive, so why force a choice?

The members are naturally grateful to have such a considerate president, and they make the most of their time, even walking as fast as if they were on wheels of fire.

This point was even joked about on the school forum.

"If you see someone walking hurriedly on the street, as if they're rushing to attend the United Nations General Assembly, they're most likely a member of the Zero Gravity Society."

Some envied their enthusiasm, while others wondered what spell Ji Zhixing had cast on them, making them so selflessly and wholeheartedly give their all without a single penny of salary. Even if the zero-gravity seat project had great potential, the best outcome for these members would be a formal employment contract; was it really necessary to work so hard?

All nine members had faced doubts from classmates and friends.

"Why?" Yan Ru smiled slightly. "Probably because I got the fairness I've always wanted there."

From childhood to adulthood, she had always been among the top students. However, her neighbors said that boys have more stamina and could catch up quickly, so they told her not to be arrogant or complacent. When it came time to choose her major in her second year of high school, she chose science, but her relatives said that boys have stronger logical thinking skills and that girls struggle with science, so they advised her to switch to humanities.

She doesn't accept it! It's unfair to ignore her efforts and deny her solely based on her gender!

However, this kind of unfairness has always existed, and is even ubiquitous.

After entering university, she read all sorts of social news and had a very pessimistic outlook on her employment prospects after graduation.

Perhaps, regardless of her actual life plans, HR might deem her unstable and not in the company's best interest due to her being unmarried and childless, married and expecting a child, or not having had three children yet. Even if she successfully joins the company, she might still face unfair treatment in promotions because of these absurd reasons.

And now there is such an opportunity for her to avoid the possibility of such a tragedy in the future.

Ji Zhixing is a very good leader. His goodness lies not in how well he wins people's hearts, but in the fact that he does not discriminate based on gender and naturally gives all members a fair opportunity.

Therefore, she wasn't bewitched or blinded by empty promises; she was fighting for a fair future for herself.

Yan Ru wanted fairness, while Yi Deng sought trust.

In the first month after moving to the lab to start experiments, other groups had more or less come up with solutions worth continuing to study, but their group couldn't come up with any decent solutions.

It's not that they weren't putting in the effort, but rather that they started their research from the extreme perspective of "extreme hardness," and they couldn't find a suitable material for the time being.

The key feature of zero-gravity chairs is their ability to adjust the seat surface in real time to relieve pressure based on changes in the user's posture. This versatility dictates that the seat surface material must have a certain degree of flexibility.

Their research started from the extreme angle of "extreme hardness" in order to push towards the middle degree, so it is normal that they could not find a feasible solution at the beginning.

However, there are many bosses in society who only look at the results and not the process. If you don't achieve results, it means you have a problem with your ability, and everything else is just nonsense and excuses!

But Ji Zhixing didn't see them that way. Instead, he fully trusted their abilities and let them do the experiments they wanted. Even when they applied to purchase a fully automated magnetic bead purification instrument worth 500,000 yuan without any results, Ji Zhixing approved it without hesitation after reading the application report.

In fact, their group was quite nervous when writing the application report, fearing that Ji Zhixing would look down on them for not producing results and spending money so much. The moment Ji Zhixing signed his name on the application report without saying a word, Yi Deng felt that he would never meet a better boss than Ji Zhixing in his life.

Other members shared similar ideas with Yanru and Yideng, some felt they had grown personally in the Zero Gravity Club, and others simply enjoyed the collaborative work environment.

In short, although Ji Zhixing basically didn't know how to win people's hearts, the nine members of the Zero Gravity Club were all willing to do their best for this project!

Lin Lang, Xu Dongyang, and the other nine club members were all busy with both tasks, while Ji Zhixing was the most relaxed because he had applied for exemption from classes this semester.

However, this time he did not trouble the teachers to prepare separate exams for him. Instead, he applied for exemption from classes by submitting a first-author paper published in Science at the end of the previous semester.

Originally, Guangling University did not have this course exemption rule; this path was created by a senior student from the School of Mathematical Sciences.

That senior student published a first-author paper in number theory in the "Annals of Mathematics" during her sophomore year.

The Annals of Mathematics is a journal published by Princeton University, the world's center for mathematics, and is one of the four top journals in the field of mathematics.

Back then, the senior student applied to the university for a semester's exemption from classes, using her thesis to continue her intensive research in number theory. Although the university believed that working in isolation was not feasible, she still managed to secure the exemption through her eloquence. Later, she published two more SCI papers and continued to receive exemptions, becoming a legend envied by all students at Guangling University.

Lin Lang took this senior as his role model, but alas, he had the will but not the ability...

Although he still had to continue attending classes, Lin Lang vowed to avenge himself after the Jianxi incident. Sure enough, he led the stress relief team to make a big splash and soon achieved a breakthrough.

The pressure relief structure is divided into three parts: sensing, control, and service.

Because of Jianxi's interference, they were stuck on the sensing part. After inputting the correct parameters, the sensing component was completed before the start of the semester.

After the start of the semester, thanks to everyone's efforts, the components of the control and service section were successfully tested one after another. However, a major problem still exists.

Lin Lang invited Ji Zhixing to see their latest results. Ji Zhixing could tell from Lin Lang's sullen and dejected appearance that the results were not ideal, but after going around the partition, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"Is this... a mecha?"

Looking at the enormous structure that was nearly 2 meters tall in front of him, Ji Zhixing felt that compared to a safe and comfortable everyday chair, this pile of components looked more like a violent machine from a science fiction movie.

In the past, Lin Lang would definitely have shamelessly boasted, "Isn't that cool?" But after what happened with Jianxi, he was too embarrassed to be so irresponsible anymore.

"Um... let me introduce it to you." Lin Lang pointed to one part and said, "This pile is the sensing components, the ones you added the damping rack and gears to before."

Ji Zhixing stood on tiptoe and looked around. Oh, he recognized it.

Lin Lang gestured a circle about the size of a basketball and continued, "Below the sensing components are the control components, and here are the service components."

Ji Zhixing frowned; he roughly knew where the problem lay.

The largest of the three components, the sensing component, is about twice the size of a basketball. The control component is about the same size as a basketball, while the service component is the smallest, only half the size of a basketball.

The structure, which is equivalent to the volume of three and a half basketballs stacked together, ends up being two meters tall. The problem must lie in the connection and coupling.

“That’s right, the connection and coupling are too annoying. We’ve been optimizing this structure for a month, and this is already the limit,” Lin Lang said, somewhat exasperated.

Ji Zhixing thought for a moment and asked, "Have you tried the thermal coupling loop method for the full-bridge power module?"

Lin Lang nodded firmly: "I've tried it!"

Ji Zhixing then asked, "The segmented, gradual change type of coaxial coupling difference method at the beginning and end?"

Lin Lang nodded again: "We've tried it! We also considered the timing electrical parameters."

Ji Zhixing asked about several other methods, all of which Lin Lang and the others had tried, and they had indeed done their best. He looked at the other four members of the stress relief team, who all looked exhausted.

“Everyone has done a great job. Don’t be discouraged. This is quite normal. For example, the first generation of computers weighed 30 tons. Nowadays, laptops are mostly under 3 kilograms.” Ji Zhixing encouraged them, then asked, “How are the actual results?”

Lin Lang encouraged, "Why don't you go up and try it?" Although the chair seat hasn't been installed yet, you can still get a rough feel for the effect.

Ji Zhixing gestured with his hand: "How do I get up there?" This "chair" is 20 centimeters taller than him.

Lin Lang immediately pushed a telescopic folding ladder out of the warehouse: "Look! This is very sturdy."

Ji Zhixing stretched out his right foot to try stepping on the ground, then climbed up step by step. Reaching the top, he turned and tried to sit down.

Hmm, the view is great, "a panoramic view of all the mountains," and you can even touch the ceiling with your hand—who would buy this thing to sit on as a chair! Ji Zhixing thought with a wry smile.

He actually experienced the zero-gravity effect of the structure and found it quite good. His body could feel a counterforce counteracting gravity, and the effect would be even better when combined with the chair surface. However, the heavy metal beneath him made him completely unable to psychologically experience the lightness of zero gravity.

Ji Zhixing worked with the pressure relief team for a while, and it was indeed not easy. He racked his brains but could only optimize the pressure relief structure to 1.7 meters, which was far from the height a chair should have. No one would be willing to build a ladder to climb before sitting on the chair.

"So, the problem actually lies in the project theory," Ji Zhixing said, patting his tired head. "Our project theory is too complicated, resulting in a structure that is too complex."

The reason why project theory is so cumbersome lies in the various initial conditions, boundary conditions, and environmental conditions imposed when applying the Navier-Stokes equations. With so many constraints, the Navier-Stokes equations are naturally extremely complex and voluminous.

Therefore, to fundamentally simplify the pressure relief structure, we must start with the application of the Navier-Stokes equations!

Ji Zhixing has started spending time in the library again.

As the difficulty of the system learning tasks increased and progressed, Ji Zhixing felt that his abilities in all aspects had greatly improved. Therefore, he felt that he still had a chance to further study the application of the Navier-Stokes equations in the zero-gravity seat project and simplify the decompression system.

A note from the author:

Just a heads up—

The article mentions female characters such as Yan Ru and Zhang Yunshu because women are also capable of scientific research. They have absolutely no romantic entanglements with Ji Zhixing, and there will be no one-sided feelings between them; they are purely colleagues.

I'm so tired of being asked about great-great-grandchildren, so I'll address this here first—