Ever since Lu Zhou went to his physics class at school, he hadn't left his house for a week.
When he was in Princeton, he would still drive to the nearby Wal-Mart to buy groceries. But now, he had to let someone else do the grocery shopping for him.
Even though Lu Zhou was a bit embarrassed to always trouble Wang Peng to help him deal with things outside of work, he was used to it.
On the other hand, during the week that he went on a retreat, a lot of things happened in the outside world.
The most important one was probably the East Asia Power Company.
On the second day of his retreat, the East Asia Power Company reached an agreement with the State Grid Corporation of China. At the same time, the twelve ferrofluid electric energy generators at the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant had finally completed their final commissioning and were officially connected to the grid. They could deliver clean and cheap electricity to the entire province of Jiangsu at a relatively cheap and profitable price.
In the entire Su Province, apart from Haizhou, Gusu of the Su Province was probably the only place that could directly feel the changes brought about by the Pangu fusion reactor.
This industrial town in the middle of the Yangtze River Delta could be said to support half of China's high-tech industry. With a population of only a little more than 10 million people, the annual electricity consumption was almost the same as that of the neighboring city of Shanghai. A few years ago, it broke through the 150 billion kilowatt hours, and now it was approaching 200 billion kilowatt hours.
After the Pangu fusion reactor was officially connected to the grid, the industrial electricity price in the province of Jiangsu was directly cut in half.
For the manufacturers in the province of Jiangsu, this was like a godsend.
Especially for the semiconductor industry, which was a large power consumer, the production cost was dropping at a visible rate.
In the current global economic downturn, the grid connection of the fusion reactor was like a manna for the entire manufacturing industry in the province of Jiangsu.
On the surface, the reduction in energy costs only made the electricity costs of factory owners and entrepreneurs lower. But in fact, it changed the future of the entire city and even everyone in this city group.
When production costs dropped, enterprises would have money, which would give them the confidence to upgrade production technology and develop automation and electrification. If the cost of electricity was cheaper, the industrial structure of the entire city and even the province would be more inclined towards the direction of the core area of the industrial chain.
This kind of economic effect brought about by the disruptive change in the energy structure was much more effective than direct subsidies to feed a bunch of leeches.
At the same time, in addition to industrial electricity prices, residential electricity prices in Haizhou, Gusu, Jinling, and other cities have also been reduced by 10% to 20%.
However, it was currently spring, and it was not yet the peak of summer electricity consumption. Most people did not feel the impact of the electricity price reduction on their lives. At most, they were surprised when they saw the electricity bill, or they did not even look surprised.
After all, the process of a society moving forward from the past to the future was often not accomplished in one go. Instead, it was completed in a subtle manner.
However, from a macroscopic perspective, with the reduction of electricity prices, the demand for electric appliances and alternative energy vehicles had increased by a significant margin.
Perhaps after a while, there would be two or three electric buses driving past the entrance of Gusu Garden.
Perhaps in a year or two, smart devices such as cleaning robots would be unknowingly spread to every household. Wired or wireless charging stations would also be popularized from gas stations to the parking lots of shopping malls.
Three to five years later, even small express delivery and takeout would begin to be done by drones shuttling between high-rise buildings.
The pursuit of efficiency was eternal.
It was 2020, only the first year of the Pangu reactor being connected to the grid.
As for what the future would look like, only the future would know.
…
Ever since Lu Zhou reached mathematics level 8, this was the first time he focused on thinking about a pure mathematics proposition. This was also the first time he personally experienced the gap between level 8 and level 7.
This difference was not reflected in calculations.
It was reflected in the transcendence of thinking.
It was difficult to describe this feeling, but if he had to talk about his feelings, it would be that when he was fully immersed in thinking about mathematical propositions, everything in the outside world seemed to have slowed down.
When the speed of thinking was fast enough, time couldn't catch up with the pace of thinking?
This might be a bit idealistic, but it was indeed the most intuitive feeling for Lu Zhou.
Of course, even though the speed of thinking had become faster, when he was immersed in research, his sense of time was even weaker. Often, an entire day would pass by unknowingly, and he would have to rely on his stomach to remind himself.
Lu Zhou put down the pen in his hand and pinched his eyebrows. He then looked at the lower right corner of the computer screen.
"It's already ten o 'clock?"
It was clearly dark outside the window, but in the blink of an eye, it was already so bright.
Of course, compared to the time, what surprised him more was the date.
It had been a week since the last physics class, and he did not feel anything at all.
Lu Zhou reached out and opened the curtains. He looked at the corner of the table that was filled with paper, and he sighed. He then pushed away his chair and stood up.
"Sure enough, it's not that easy to solve …"
However, it was not as if he had gained nothing over the past few days.
At least, he was only one step away from proving the existence of a solution.
Objectively speaking, the mathematical difficulty of the Yang-Mills equations was not as high as the Navier – Stokes equations.
Especially after he solved the existence of a solution for the Navier – Stokes equations, the L Manifold, and the "differential topology research method for differential equations" were also very effective in solving the existence of a solution for the Yang-Mills equations. This saved him at least a month of work.
If it weren't for the fact that he had something to do today, he would have gone on a retreat.
However, it would be the tenth week from today onwards.
He still had a computational materials science class to attend.
If his PhD student was good enough, he could give this task to him.
Unfortunately, Wu Shuimu's current level of computational materials science was far from being able to take charge. At least compared to his two students at Princeton, there was still a bit of a gap. Therefore, he had to do this himself.
Lu Zhou stood in front of the study room door and thought for a bit. He then cleared his throat and spoke.
"Xiao Ai, help me clean the room … except for the things on the table."
A series of bubbles popped up on the lower right corner of the computer screen.
[Okay, Master! (́ • ́ • ́) و ́]
Not long after, a drone flew in through the open window and slowly flew out of the window with a paper basket in it. Then, the cleaning robot rushed into Lu Zhou's study room and began to clean the garbage on the floor.
The corners of Lu Zhou's mouth curled up. He looked at the busy little guys in the study room with satisfaction. After leaving Xiao Ai in charge, he turned around and walked downstairs.
He hadn't been out for a week, so he didn't just need to clean his room.
After taking a hot shower and drying his hair, Lu Zhou came out of the bathroom and changed into a set of clean clothes. He stood in front of the mirror for a while before he walked to the entrance.
However, just as he was about to put on his shoes, he heard the doorbell.
When Lu Zhou saw the person standing at the door through the security camera, he was stunned.
Yan Yan?
What is she doing here?
Even though there were some questions in his mind, Lu Zhou still pressed the button to open the door and opened the security door.
Not long after, Yan Yan, who was wearing casual clothes, walked into the house after passing through the front lawn path.
She didn't greet him; she just looked at him.
"You skipped yesterday's physical examination."
"… Err, is there such a thing? I don't remember. "
Lu Zhou vaguely remembered Wang Peng talking to him about this the day before yesterday, but he was thinking about the problem when he picked up the phone, so he couldn't remember the specifics.
Yan Yan looked at Lu Zhou's muddled expression and sighed. "I know you're busy, so I brought you the things … Oh yeah, you haven't eaten breakfast yet, right?"
"I'm about to eat …" Lu Zhou looked at the plastic cup and cotton swab she handed him. He paused for a second and said, "What is this?"
Yan Yan raised her eyebrows and said, "One is for collecting feces, the other is for collecting urine, you don't need my help, right?"
Lu Zhou: "… No, thank you."
Originally, he planned to have a meal before going to class.
Now, after being messed around by her, he no longer had any appetite.
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