Lunar Research Base.
Physics research sector.
Inside the Lunar Hadron Collider's control room, Dr. Torik struck up a conversation with Yan Xinjue, who sat beside him at the console, to pass the dull time before the experiment.
"You people from Hua Nation are even more stubborn than I imagined."
Yan Xinjue glanced at the American scholar and asked,
"Why do you say that?"
Torik answered matter-of-factly, "Almost half the physics community thinks the characteristic peak at 750 GeV was just God playing a joke on us, but your Professor Lu still insists there must be something there... even though CERN has already run enough experiments to prove it was nothing more than an ordinary quantum fluctuation."
"I'm afraid I'll have to correct your choice of words."
"Which words?"
"It would be more accurate to replace stubbornness with dedication to the truth. Of everyone I know, he's probably the one who has taken that ideal furthest," Yan Xinjue continued with a smile. "Besides, even if half the physics community isn't optimistic about this research, doesn't that still leave the other half agreeing with his conjecture?"
Although Dr. Torik had reservations about the latter half of that statement, he was clearly more surprised by the first.
"Wait, you mean... you know him?"
"Of course. We're alumni, after all."
Yan Xinjue was too embarrassed to say he had been Lu Zhou's senior. For one thing, his own achievements fell far short, and saying so might sound like an attempt to claim a connection. For another, he didn't want to leave anyone with the impression that he had only been entrusted with such an important responsibility because of his relationship with Lu Zhou... even if that might well have been true.
His concerns, however, seemed unnecessary.
Dr. Torik's interest apparently lay somewhere entirely different