Inspiration was contagious

The Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Smoke filled one of the laboratories at the Physics Research Institute.

Sheng Xianfu, who had been smoking one cigarette after another, tapped off some ash. Looking at the design sketch on the table, which had undergone countless revisions, he sighed. "What do you think got Professor Lu so suddenly interested in the Yang–Mills equations?"

Sitting beside him with a research paper in hand, Li Changxia shook his head. "No idea."

Sheng Xianfu looked worried. "So are we still working on this fusion battery or not?"

He had given up the chance to become director of the Southwestern Institute of Physics to come here and work with Professor Lu on miniaturizing controlled fusion. Yet nearly two months had passed, and their research had made no progress at all.

Now things were even worse. Never mind the lack of progress—the project's academic lead had gone off to work on something else.

"...No idea."

"Can you say something other than 'no idea'?" Sheng Xianfu demanded.

Professor Li Changxia scratched his head, looking helpless. "Theoretically, if we can establish a unified relationship between the strong interaction and the electromagnetic interaction... it should help deepen our understanding of the conditions for nuclear fusion."

Even as he spoke, his voice was full of uncertainty.

After all, he was an engineering professor through and through. If anyone was confused, he was even more confused than Sheng Xianfu.

Sheng Xianfu glanced at him.

"And then what? How long do you think it would take to turn a theoretical result like that into practical technology? Besides, even if we do gain a deeper understanding of nuclear forces, what can we do with it? Magically turn this reactor into something else?"

Li Changxia sighed. "But we don't have any other options right now, do