Chapter 47
The day before summer vacation started, Xu Dongyang counted the club members who volunteered to stay on campus. Surprisingly, eight of them were willing to stay. The other two said they had to go back home first because of family matters, and they would return to school two days later to report to the Zero Gravity Club.
This result naturally made everyone very happy, and it truly gave us the feeling that we were fighting side by side and striving towards the same goal.
The summer sun was incredibly hot, but Xu Dongyang had also made logistical arrangements, adding two standing air conditioners to Activity Room 106 to ensure everyone had a cool experimental environment. Moreover, at Ji Zhixing's instruction, Shiyueju also delivered chilled plum juice, fruit platters, and other refreshing treats every day.
Therefore, the persistent high temperatures haven't affected anyone much. However, I've heard that several people at the Nano Society have suffered from heatstroke.
Because the Nano Society's activity room is located in Harmony Building 109, not far from Zero Gravity Society's 106, Ji Zhixing could hear various noises coming from 109 from time to time in 106, none of which sounded very harmonious.
Another sound of kicking tables and throwing chairs rang out. Although everyone in Class 106 was somewhat used to it, they still couldn't help but wonder what it was about this time.
Unlike Zero Gravity Club, Xue Hua believed that since everyone had received shares and, although they hadn't yet earned any actual income, they were already considered company employees. What kind of employee gets a two-month summer vacation? Therefore, at the end of the semester, everyone was notified that they must stay.
Although everyone was somewhat dissatisfied with such a tough demand, the shares were like a carrot dangling in front of the mule, forcing them to use this as a reason to comfort themselves that their current hard work was for future happiness.
However, Xue Hua's actions were truly unpopular.
Inside Activity Room 109, Xue Hua was throwing a tantrum: "You guys are hot, so am I supposed to just hide away and enjoy a life of leisure?"
"You didn't hide, but could you please not point all three fans at you and the vice presidents? Don't we even deserve to have fans blowing on us?"
"Exactly, even setting aside the air conditioning like in apartment 106, how much would it cost to buy a few more fans?"
"At least other people get free ice cream every day, but we don't even have bottled water here. In this awful weather, who wouldn't die of thirst? Are we supposed to bring water from our dorms every day?!"
Xue Hua was already jealous of the conditions of 106, and he became even angrier when he heard his fellow members using these conditions to criticize him.
"If you think 106 is good, then just go to 106! Nobody's stopping you! See if they'll accept you!"
This attitude infuriated several already dissatisfied members, and even those who had initially tried to smooth things over or remain neutral were now resentful. Wu Da stood at the very back, filled with regret, feeling as if he had entered a shady factory.
From the beginning, Xue Hua practiced nepotism, and all the vice presidents were his friends. Unlike the Zero Gravity Club, Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang were involved in the project design, had an excellent understanding of the project, and treated the members well.
The vice presidents of the Nano Society were actually not familiar with Xue Hua's project, and they loved to interfere, causing their experiments to go wrong several times, which they then blamed on. They were just vice presidents of a university club, but they acted like general managers of a listed company.
Moreover, Xue Hua showed no consideration for the club members. The Zero Gravity Club suspended activities during exam week to allow members to study for their exams. However, they had to burn the candle at both ends, with very little time to study, and several of them failed one or two subjects.
Wu Da, who is usually at a third-class scholarship level, barely passed two or three subjects this time. He regrets applying to the Nano Club; he really regrets it! But withdrawing now feels like a waste…
Little did he know, Xue Hua was also filled with regret. Only after he actually assembled a team to conduct scientific research did he realize how many trivial matters there were. His friends weren't as capable as Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang, so he had to handle almost everything himself.
Trivial matters are one thing, they're just troublesome and annoying, but there's one thing that no matter how hard you try, you can't solve it, and that's the problem of funds.
At first, Xue Hua looked down on Zero Gravity Society's approach of using software for simulation experiments. He asked his mother for 2 million yuan, which she had saved for him to buy a house. Feeling that he had plenty of money, he decided to rent a laboratory to conduct proper experiments.
Actually, renting a laboratory isn't too expensive. In Guangling, a chemistry lab with water and electricity and a fume hood costs 3.7 yuan per square meter per day. Renting a 100-square-meter lab would only cost a few hundred thousand yuan per year.
However, acquiring all the necessary instruments for developing nanoelectrode materials would cost a lot more: an electron microscope chamber plasma cleaner costs 200,000 yuan, a high-vacuum ion sputtering instrument costs 160,000 yuan, a target voltage gas closed-loop controller costs 120,000 yuan... All the instruments combined would cost at least one million yuan.
In addition, although the unit price of experimental materials is not high, if there is no direction in the initial stage, the consumption will be staggering.
After being hit hard by reality, Xue Hua became much clearer-headed. She went back to school, applied for an activity room in the office, and started using software simulations, just like the Zero Gravity Club.
At first, he was worried that the people from Zero Gravity would laugh at him, but he didn't expect that they would close the door and enjoy the air conditioning, not even bothering to look at him. This arrogant contempt made him even more resentful.
On one side was the resentful club president, and on the other side were the grumbling club members. Coupled with the high temperature making everyone irritable, the Nano Club's activity room had been filled with arguments almost every day since the summer vacation began.
She You rolled her eyes inwardly, having to step in once again to smooth things over. So tiring…
In Activity Room 106, the experiments were still proceeding smoothly. Ji Zhixing asked Lin Lang to help him modify the system on his laptop so that he could run multiple instances of the computer by himself, submitting 10 times more data in the same amount of time than other members.
With Ji Zhixing's full commitment, the software simulation progressed by leaps and bounds.
Although neither Ji Zhixing nor the two vice presidents said anything to urge them on, the members, seeing such a gap, couldn't help but join in. While they couldn't run multiple instances on one machine like Ji Zhixing, they consciously increased their typing speed and focused intently. As a result, the progress bar, which was already almost full, had been climbing rapidly these past few days.
Ten days after the start of summer vacation, Pound had synthesized hundreds of millions of possibilities according to several pre-set material directions, while E-exper had fully simulated the fit of various components. Several feasible rough solutions were found in both of these aspects.
They spent more than four months on the first phase of exploration. The second phase was supposed to be hands-on practice in the laboratory, but the laboratory was not ready yet.
In fact, after Ji Zhixing led the club members to scramble for books, Xu Dongyang began to look for a suitable laboratory.
However, finding a suitable laboratory is not an easy task.
First and foremost, rent and infrastructure are definitely the primary factors to consider. With Ji Zhixing's angel investment, the community's funds have become much more readily available, but Xu Dongyang still carefully weighs the cost-effectiveness.
Secondly, considering that school will start again in two months, and living off-campus will definitely affect everyone's normal study and life, the laboratory we find now cannot be too far from the school, so as to ensure that everyone can commute back and forth relatively conveniently after school starts. This further narrows down the options.
Xu Dongyang has been going out every day during this period, running around in the sweltering heat of 39 degrees Celsius. He gets tanned by the sun every day, and any member of the Zero Gravity Club standing next to him looks as white as snow in comparison.
With the laboratory still undecided, Ji Zhixing, unwilling to sit idly in the activity room, decided to spend time in the library instead.
The software-simulated solutions involve knowledge of physics, chemistry, materials science, ergonomics, electronic automation, and other fields.
Materials science, ergonomics, and electronic automation are among his weaknesses. Although Lin Lang will be in charge of ergonomics and electronic automation, as the club president, he also needs to have a basic grasp of these areas to coordinate the experimental activities, so he needs to catch up on his studies as soon as possible.
After working with Professor Yan for half a year, Ji Zhixing deeply realized how important it is to have a leader who can guide you in the right direction during scientific research.
It can be said that during the development of the protective gel, apart from the fact that he spent a little more time later finding a solution to integrate the three algorithms, they hardly encountered any real bottlenecks.
Whenever a problem arose, Professor Yan's guidance resolved it instantly. Ji Zhixing felt he should acquire more knowledge to cope with the various difficulties he might encounter in the future research and development process.
He searched his mind and took down four books from the various bookshelves: "Materials Thermodynamics," "General Theory of Materials Mechanical Properties," "Ergonomics," and "Design Psychology." These four books were his homework for the day.
Ji Zhixing didn't assign any tasks to the members of the Zero Gravity Club, but everyone went to the library to find books and study on their own that day.
Zhang Yunshu followed Yan Ru, carrying the selected "Introduction to Algorithms" and "TCP/IP Illustrated," while Yan Ru was still looking for books related to chemistry on the bookshelf.
"Everyone's so diligent!" Zhang Yunshu said softly. Even though the club president hadn't asked them all to come to the library to study, everyone came willingly.
Yan Ru calmly said, "If you don't participate, you'll be eliminated."
"How could this be?" Zhang Yunshu was startled. "I've never heard of eliminating people!"
“Companies can lay off employees, so what’s so strange about clubs eliminating members?” Yan Ru said, pulling out a copy of “Structural Chemistry”. “Alright, let’s find a seat.”
Zhang Yunshu followed behind her, still thinking about what had just been said even after she sat down in a chair.
She is indeed rather shallow-minded and often doesn't think things through deeply enough, but she's not stupid; as soon as she was told, she realized it.
The main reason Ji Zhixing and his team didn't immediately register a company but only established the Zero Gravity Club was due to insufficient funds. Recruiting students from the university to conduct experiments was also a reluctant choice made to save money.
Now that Ji Zhixing has a large sum of money at his disposal, and it is said that he has invested again, it can be said that the zero gravity project can now fully hire professional researchers to follow up on the experiments.
Ji Zhixing and his group didn't immediately propose adjusting the club's personnel structure, presumably because they were still considering whether they could handle the second phase of the experiment. If they couldn't, they might just have to take a small fee and leave.
After figuring it out, Zhang Yunshu quickly composed herself and started reading. She knew she couldn't currently match the professional researchers, but with persistent effort, she was confident she could gradually close the gap and eventually reach a professional level!
The ten members of the Zero Gravity Club sat in twos and threes in the library, reading and studying. Ji Zhixing saw their state and smiled with satisfaction.
Previously, Xu Dongyang was somewhat frustrated because he couldn't find a suitable laboratory, and when he returned to his dormitory, he brought up the matter of personnel adjustments.
"Do you think the club still needs to continue?" Seeing Lin Lang looking at him in surprise, Xu Dongyang added, "What I mean is, now that we've registered a company, shouldn't we hire full-time researchers to follow up on the experiments?"
The main reason he hasn't been able to find a satisfactory lab these days is that he has to balance cost-effectiveness with distance from the school. The reason he has to carefully consider the distance from the school is because the club members are all students who also have to balance their studies, and they have to commute between the school and the lab.
If they hire full-time employees, they don't need to worry about their commute at all.
Lin Lang felt a little uncomfortable with Xu Dongyang's bluntness: "Isn't this too capitalist? Use it and then throw it away..."
Xu Dongyang wiped his sweat and took a sip of water, saying, "We can give everyone a considerable sum of money as a reward for their hard work, and we promise that if they apply to the company after graduation, they will be given priority in hiring. Just like we promised in our recruitment post."
Turning his head, Xu Dongyang saw Ji Zhixing looking down, deep in thought, and asked, "What do you think, Zhixing? This is also because when the second phase of the experiment actually begins, the level of expertise and progress between professionals and non-professionals will definitely be different."
“I think…” Ji Zhixing began cautiously, “wouldn’t it be good to give everyone a chance to prove themselves?”
To be honest, the 10 members performed much better than he had anticipated in the first phase, and they all showed sustained enthusiasm for the project, genuinely putting their hearts into the experiments. In the second phase, they might very well be able to use their passion and deep learning to bridge the gap with professional researchers.
From a project perspective, they weren't working on anything as profound as aerospace or biotechnology; it was just a chair, albeit with a slightly more complex underlying principle.
Therefore, Ji Zhixing believes that if the members are willing to take the initiative to learn in depth in their respective areas of responsibility, they may be able to handle the experimental work in the second phase.
He recalled how Professor Yan had been unconventional in giving him, a sophomore, a chance to enter the lab, and even entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of the third stage of the research. At that time, he was also completely clueless about the research process and experimental methods, but didn't he quickly get the hang of it as he learned?
Putting himself in others' shoes, he really wanted to give those 10 members a chance to unleash their potential, just like he had in Professor Yan's laboratory.
Of course, starting a business isn't charity; you have to seize these opportunities yourself. If they need someone to push them to learn, then there's no point in them staying.
Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang both fell silent, their thoughts simultaneously drifting to the CUPT competition. Sometimes, many people simply lack an opportunity. If Ji Zhixing hadn't guided them, how could they have possibly participated and won first prize?
Seeing that the two didn't seem to object, Ji Zhixing continued, "As for the lab issue, if we can't find a suitable place off-campus, should we ask if we can rent a lab from the school?"
He had previously visited the experimental zone and noticed that some private laboratories were basically idle. There were many reasons for this; for example, Professor Yan's private laboratory had been idle for ten years because he was unable to secure funding for his project.
So Ji Zhixing wondered if he could rent a laboratory as a student of Guangling University.
Xu Dongyang's eyes lit up. If they could really find a laboratory at the school, it would be most advantageous for them in every way. At the very least, the school wouldn't try to deceive them like outsiders would.
These days, when he goes to the lab, some people see that he is young and inexperienced and dare to fool him to his face.
For example, some of the experimental instruments they needed to use were particularly heavy, so he specifically asked about the floor's load-bearing capacity. Some lab directors didn't even bother to ask about the tonnage of their instruments before confidently guaranteeing there wouldn't be any problems. After he inquired further and calculated the specific load-bearing capacity per square meter, he realized it simply couldn't support the weight.
If you don't pay attention to this point and are coaxed into renting a laboratory, you won't be able to get environmental impact assessments, safety assessments, or health assessments, let alone conduct experiments inside.
Xu Dongyang had been traveling around for days, encountering all sorts of people. Of course, this didn't mean he was afraid of social risks. Rather, if he could find a pure land within the ivory tower, why bother going out and getting bruised and battered?
So, the three of them checked the summer office duty roster on the school's official website and decided to wait until Monday, when it was the director's turn to be on duty, to ask him about renting the school's lab. They decided to observe everyone's attitude over the next couple of days to see if they could consciously and proactively deepen their knowledge and improve their skills.
Looking back now, everyone seems to be quite aware of things. Ji Zhixing, Lin Lang, and Xu Dongyang exchanged a smile, all feeling that things were going relatively smoothly.
Before Zero Gravity Society's laboratory was even settled, Nano Society, which had always regarded Zero Gravity Society as a formidable rival, found a laboratory first, and that laboratory was actually provided to Xue Hua by Fan Chuanshuo free of charge!
When Ji Zhixing heard this news, he felt that Fan Chuanshuo definitely had no good intentions.
Later, Yi Deng heard some news from his roommate Wu Da, and Ji Zhixing finally understood why the two of them were involved.
It is said that one day, Fan Chuanshuo suffered from heatstroke after walking for a long time on the road. He was so uncomfortable that he had to lean against a lamppost and couldn't move. There was no one on the road at noon on a hot day, and Fan Chuanshuo was in pain for a long time without anyone noticing his condition.
At that moment, Xue Hua happened to be passing by and was stopped by Fan Chuanshuo. With Xue Hua's help, Fan Chuanshuo was able to receive timely medical treatment, preventing his condition from worsening into heatstroke.
As soon as he was discharged from the hospital, Fan Chuanshuo found Xue Hua and told him that he had heard about Xue Hua's entrepreneurial venture. In order to repay him, he was willing to lend him his unused laboratory free of charge.
That laboratory was Fan Chuanshuo's first private laboratory. Now he has a larger laboratory with more advanced equipment, so this laboratory, which is only about 80 square meters in size and has relatively basic equipment, has been idle for several years.
However, such a laboratory is sufficient for Xue Hua's project.
"It's free anyway, might as well take it!" Xue Hua boasted to the people at Nano Society.
Moreover, Fan Chuanshuo promised that Xue Hua could borrow any equipment in his laboratory free of charge, and even materials and other consumables could be taken by Xue Hua.
"Isn't this... a bit too good a deal?" Wu Da felt a little worried after hearing about it.
Xue Hua didn't care: "His life isn't worth this much? In this awful weather, how many people have died from heatstroke, as reported in the news? He's 50 years old. If I hadn't happened to be passing by and saved him, he might have died long ago."
Wu Da wanted to ask about the details of what happened, but Xue Hua pushed him away, saying, "Don't spoil the fun, hurry up and pack up, let's move!"
Most of the members were quite happy. After all, being able to move to a proper laboratory would definitely make their projects succeed faster.
There wasn't much to tidy up; the only things the Nano Club added to Room 109 were three fans and a few computers. They were divided among the 20 members, and some even came empty-handed.
Even so, while moving things, Xue Hua still made a lot of noise by banging and shouting. He would glance at 106 every now and then, hoping that the people from the Zero Gravity Society, especially Ji Zhixing, would see him in his moment of glory.
See? So what if Room 106 has air conditioning? The lab has it too, and it's free.
So what if Shiyueju delivers food? Once their experiment succeeds and the company goes public, they'll be able to eat at not only Shiyueju, but also Zhiweiguan and Dongtingyan.
"So, you can't judge a book by its cover," Xue Hua said, directing everyone as they moved things. "Whether a startup succeeds or not doesn't depend on material conditions; research conditions are the most important. I've secured such a great environment for you all, so I hope you won't let me down!"
As Xue Hua increased the volume, he led 20 members in a grand procession past Gate 106.
"How childish!" Zhang Yunshu couldn't help but complain.
“That’s right!” Gong Cheng chimed in. “It’s clearly closer to walk from the central courtyard, but they insisted on taking the long way around the corridor just to tell us.”
They gathered in the activity room today to hear Ji Zhixing explain the precautions for the second phase of the experiment, but the noise from 109 hasn't stopped since just now.
Speaking so loudly, everyone knows Xue Hua is showing off. But honestly, the commotion these past few days has made everyone in 106 realize what a difficult president Xue Hua is. With a president like that, it's hard to say whether the Nano Club can even continue its activities smoothly. What difference does moving to the lab a few days ago make?
Xue Hua and the others were almost leaving the Harmony Building, but not a single member of the Zero Gravity Club had come out. He felt a little disappointed at not getting a chance to show off, but going back would only make him look foolish. Xue Hua could only console himself that Ji Zhixing must be grinding his teeth in envy and jealousy in Room 106!
In fact, Ji Zhixing was not envious at all, let alone jealous. He always felt that the whole thing was strange from beginning to end.
What urgent matter could Fan Chuanshuo, a university professor, possibly have that would require him to walk around the campus until he suffers heatstroke in the sweltering midday heat? Frankly, given his position, wouldn't he have been able to simply call a student or colleague on such a hot day?
In any case, Ji Zhixing felt that Fan Chuanshuo's actions must have been malicious!
A note from the author:
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