Chapter 94

Since it was going to be a long holiday, the lab needed to be tidied up properly before leaving. Only after everyone had finished packing and left did Zhu Ren realize that the long holiday had been suddenly brought forward.

Zhu Ren approached Ji Zhixing and asked, "If we're going to have an early holiday, what about the year-end bonus? Will it be paid now or wait until after the New Year?"

"Ah, the year-end bonus, I almost forgot about it." Ji Zhixing scratched his messy hair. "Anyway, it'll be paid out sooner or later, so let's pay it out now, that way everyone will be happier."

"That quota..." Zhu Ren hesitated.

Without hesitation, Ji Zhixing said, "Let's do it the same way as last year."

"Are you sure? This year's 'performance' isn't great." Although Zhu Ren hadn't participated in the experiments, as the "general manager" of the research institute, he was very familiar with the overall situation and knew that most of the year's work had been wasted. In terms of "performance," it really wasn't worth paying so much money.

From Zhu Ren's perspective, Ji Zhixing, despite being a boss for two or three years, still retains a scholarly naiveté. Of course, it's fortunate for an employee to have such a boss. However, Zhu Ren has watched Ji Zhixing grow up since his student days, so naturally he considers things more for him.

“We don’t know when the project will make any progress. Now is the time to cut costs and increase revenue. We can actually reduce the year-end bonus,” Zhu Ren advised.

Ji Zhixing shook his head firmly: "We can't cut costs on this, especially since we've achieved results this year; we even successfully captured 'vacuum energy' once."

"That time two months ago?" Zhu Ren asked doubtfully. "Wasn't it uncertain? And that peak value hasn't been repeated since. How did you determine that it was successful?"

"Intuition!" Ji Zhixing said decisively.

Zhu Ren: ...

Seeing Zhu Ren's "you're kidding me" expression, Ji Zhixing emphasized, "Really, I'm not lying to you."

In fact, many brilliant and groundbreaking discoveries in history were first made through intuition, then through logical reasoning, and finally through experimental verification.

For example, Einstein once said, "Man should be more like a beast and rely more on intuition." This is because his most well-known achievements—the theory of general relativity and gravitational waves—originated from intuitive imagination.

For example, the theta function that Indian mathematician Ramanujan wrote intuitively before his death was proven decades later to be able to describe the behavior patterns and singularities of black holes.

Of course, scientific intuition does not stem from unfounded popular belief, but is rooted in the rich knowledge and research experience of scientists.

“My intuition tells me that peak value is vacuum energy!” Ji Zhixing said. “We may have missed some clues, but the experimental direction is definitely correct!”

He had actually said this to Yi Yan and the others, and at first, they were quite encouraged by it. However, after more than two months of fruitless efforts, they gradually lost confidence. Now, they probably all think that what he said was just a form of encouragement.

One cannot continue to climb the peak of scientific research with a wavering mind, so he decisively pressed the pause button and suspended the experiment.

But rest is for going further. At such a crucial time, we must not let everyone feel that their efforts are being denied or should be discounted.

"It's precisely because everyone is exhausted from hitting a bottleneck that we need a shot in the arm," Ji Zhixing said. "The year-end bonus is the most direct affirmation."

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Zhu Ren didn't try to persuade him any further, but he sighed inwardly, wondering how long the funding would last. He hoped that everyone's efforts would be worthy of Ji Zhixing's hard work.

Zhu Ren turned to leave, but then suddenly remembered something: "That endohedral fullerene... we probably don't need to buy it anymore, right?"

Two months ago, he had just advised Ji Zhixing to save money and return the new quantum spectrum analyzer, but Ji Zhixing not only refused to return it, but also sent him another material purchase order a few days later.

When he saw "100 mg" after the endogenous fullerene, he had a bad feeling. Such a small purchase quantity meant either that it was used very little, or that it was ridiculously expensive. But seeing the crossed-out "50" and "150" next to the "100", he knew that it must be extremely expensive for Ji Zhixing to hesitate so much.

When I asked about the price, I was almost scared to death. 100 milligrams of endogenous fullerene costs 10 million yuan. If you do the math, that means 800 million yuan per gram!

The price of something weighing roughly the same as a pill was outrageously high. He had to confirm with Ji Zhixing six times before daring to allocate funds for its purchase. Then... he made several more purchases, spending 100 million yuan on just the endogenous fullerene alone.

Although it wasn't his own money, Zhu Ren still felt a pang of pain every time he allocated funds. It was such a small thing... So, when Ji Zhixing agreed to suspend the experiment, he was genuinely relieved. Whose funds could withstand such a drain?

Faced with Zhu Ren's expectant gaze, Ji Zhixing nodded with a wry smile: "Not for now, the lab still has 50 milligrams left."

Endohedral fullerenes are cage-like structures composed of carbon atoms, whose cavities can trap special species at the microscopic scale, such as atoms and ions. Their experiments require trapping quantum clusters, and only endohedral fullerenes can achieve the desired results.

The reason he was able to make up his mind to purchase it was because he had thoroughly tested it in the system space and the effect was indeed good—it's a pity that he can't take the stuff out of the system, otherwise he would have a whole pound of it!

Zhu Ren went back to his office to instruct the finance department to prepare for the allocation of year-end bonuses, and Ji Zhixing then leaned back heavily in his chair.

"Sigh..." Ji Zhixing sighed deeply, "I'm so tired..."

As the project leader, he absolutely cannot show any weakness in front of the researchers, otherwise everyone will become even more frustrated and lose confidence.

He didn't want to think about the experiment for the time being. After his mind went blank for a while, he remembered the funding issue.

During this period, due to the need for new instruments for new experimental designs, coupled with the use of materials such as embedded fullerenes, nearly 200 million yuan has been burned through in the last two months. At this rate of expenditure, really, we have no choice but to be thrifty.

Just as he was thinking about how to be more careful with every penny he had, Zhu Ren came knocking on the door again.

He was holding a SF Express mail bag in his hand: "It was just delivered. The SF Express delivery guy said he wanted to hand it to you in person, but I didn't dare let him in. I assured him that I would definitely deliver it to you immediately before he allowed me to pass it on."

Since Jian Yi's arrest, Zhu Ren has tightened security at the research institute, rarely allowing outsiders in. The institute had received many SF Express packages before, but the SF Express deliveryman had never been this attentive, which piqued Zhu Ren's curiosity.

"What is this?" Ji Zhixing asked, puzzled. He took it and casually tore open the seal.

There were a few sheets of paper in the mailbag. When he opened it, he was so shocked that he almost couldn't breathe.

Ignoring Zhu Ren's presence, Ji Zhixing shouted in his mind:

System! What's going on?!

A note from the author: