Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 289 Twin Beauties
As the news spread, more and more media outlets began to focus on the two young women who emerged in the spring of 09.

Even disregarding gender, such achievements at this age are truly remarkable and dazzling.

Even excluding the buzz surrounding their respective universities, it does not diminish the significance of their achievements.

Even if we exclude looks and beauty, she is still excellent material for the media to talk about and even for the news.

And when all of these exist at the same time, one can imagine how much attention will be paid to them.

Lu Siwen's "The Past of Dongyang" has opened the door to "serious literature" with its meticulous sense of the times, and its sales have gradually increased. The "distinguished" alumni of the Chinese Literature Department of Peking University have all spoken out and recommended it.

Lu Wei's six-page paper has become a celebrated story in the Chinese mathematics community. The Journal of Mathematics has confirmed that it will be published in the next issue, and mathematicians in many well-known universities have already discussed and verified it. The name of the nineteen-year-old girl has frequently appeared in classrooms of various universities.

What first connected the two was not professionals in their respective fields, but the media.

No, to be precise, it connects the three people together.

Hangzhou, headquarters of NetEase News.

A web journalist knocked on the door of the reviewing editor with a newly published manuscript.

The title is "The Literary Goddess of Peking University: The Little-Known Side of Lu Siwen".

They are well-versed in the three elements of media: first, lure people in for clicks.

The content was actually fairly standard, though they didn't actually conduct any interviews, not even a single phone call—that's what online journalists are like, after all.
Why not just use Baidu? At most, you can just get "Chinese-to-Chinese" translations from other websites.

The reviewing editor glanced at it, mainly focusing on the title: "This will become a hot topic in the future, remember to keep an eye on it and expand on it."

In layman's terms: Make it up a bit more.

Just as I was about to say a few more words, another reporter walked in; he was also reviewing the manuscript.

The title is "Lu Wei, a mathematical prodigy from Harbin Institute of Technology, shocks the entire mathematics community; a professor from Fudan University frankly admits that he is not as good as her."

Yeah, it's kind of bizarre. Actually, I just called an associate professor at Fudan University, and the professor said that he definitely wasn't this good as a freshman, which translates to "He bluntly said that I'm not as good as her."

But I did my best; at least I made a phone call in addition to contacting Baidu.

The reviewing editor, a man in his thirties, suddenly asked a question after reading the manuscript: "Did you two plagiarize each other's manuscripts? The content is almost identical."

The two exchanged a glance: "Huh?"

After comparing them, it was found that there were indeed many similarities.

For example, they all wrote "Lu Wei/Lu Siwen was deeply influenced by the famous writer Zhai Da"... It's actually an old trick, just using a celebrity to gain traffic.

The clues for the former come from Lu Wei and Zhai Da, both top scorers in the college entrance examination.

The latter refers to the pre-sale promotional interaction between Lu Siwen and Zhai Da on Weibo.

Those are all facts.

Zhai Da is a representative figure of the new generation of writers, sweeping numerous awards and having a strong influence both online and in the publishing industry. His popularity is much higher than that of the two newly emerging "genius girls".

But the manuscripts were not copied from each other.

Only the reviewing editor's eyes lit up: "This is a treasure trove of news right under our noses!"

"Change your names, then keep digging! Dig as hard as you can!"

A news article in one hand, a news article in the other, but just a touch!
"Oh!"

Countless news stories!
------

At the same time, thousands of miles away.

"Being a grown man is tough! But I won't complain no matter how hard it is!"

"Lie down and soothe your sorrow."

Amidst music that couldn't quite capture the atmosphere, this particular song probably played automatically. Zhai Da, dressed in overalls, was bent over drawing in his private workshop.

The Porsche Panamera, named "Mechanical Core" by the system, was lifted into the air by a lift.

On the professional drafting table, the chassis of this car is depicted on a huge blueprint.

Recently, Xiao Mutou has had a lot of things to do, and his academic pressure is relatively low, so Zhai Da has focused his energy on the long-delayed project of [Mechanical Core].

[Mechanical Core] Two great treasures: one is a large amount of technology that is more than a decade ahead of the present, and the other is "equipment fusion" that can change the rules of the system.

Zhai Da originally intended to start with the latter, since "equipment fusion" was more interesting and easier to learn.

The former is too difficult.

He has a high level of mechanical expertise, but to say that he can independently study a car is still too abstract. This is something that requires collective wisdom and effort, and the participation of "π" members and even more ordinary technicians.

But an attempt the day before yesterday made him change direction 180 degrees, and he decided to study the car itself first.

The reason is simple: the failure was due to the problem of "weakened equipment".

Although the [Mechanical Core] itself will not be weakened by modification, if you want to add other [equipment] to this vehicle, you will inevitably have to modify those equipment themselves.

You can't say that sticking the equipment in the car with double-sided tape means the two are "integrated"; they have to be organically combined.

So he tentatively used the old man's TV that had been idle for a long time, wanting to disassemble the key parts and add a rear secondary screen to the car. He even devised a whole plan for this.

But the result was that the "old man's TV" was already "weakened" before it was even installed in the car.

The [Mechanical Core] also yields a weakened version of this characteristic.

The current system information has changed to the following:

"Blue Equipment [Mechanical Core]"

"Equipment Effect 1: This vehicle is like the Ship of Theseus, any real-world modifications can be perfectly integrated into the vehicle's performance."

"Equipment Effect 2: This vehicle has an extremely high threshold for [Equipment Modification]. No [Equipment Modification] will weaken its energy, and it may even be strengthened due to different parts."

"Equipment Effect 3: This vehicle's main structural strength is increased by 30%. The driver will not suffer serious injury or worse in any of the nine traffic accidents. Current remaining chances (9/9)."

"Special Effect → Mechanical Core: Based on 'Compatibility', this vehicle can be fused with other [equipment] through modification. After successful fusion, it will permanently absorb the spirit of other equipment and gain the corresponding effects."

"Fusing Effect 1: The content played on the rear screen of this vehicle will increase the addiction rate by 200% (weakened). (Fusing time remaining: 5 days)"

"Note: If the relevant modifications are removed before the fusion effect is fully completed, the progress will be halted. Once fully completed, the 'thought' and 'effect' will be absorbed into the main body of the [Mechanical Core] and cannot be restored." The countdown was initially 7 days.

In other words, if he dismantles it now, he can get back the weakened version of the [Old Man's TV], which originally had an addiction rate of +300%, but that would be a pure loss, so it's better to leave it in the car.

The newly added rear screen is on the back of the passenger seat. If I'm with Tang Xiaokui, I can play cartoons for her.

No one said a word.

In short, for Zhai Da at present, feeding equipment to the [Mechanical Core] is too costly and there is no urgent need for it. So he chose to turn his attention to studying the vehicle itself, which led to his current work of drawing blueprints.

Time passed by unnoticed, and Zhai Da wearily twisted his wrist.

As one of the greatest achievements of human industry, there are so many things on one vehicle.

Even just drawing the overall chassis diagram, without involving any parts, took a whole day and still wasn't finished.

Fortunately, he had a cheat code.
The Pure Gold Secret Staff was placed to the side. Zhai Da tapped it lightly, and the White Model Vision appeared in his mind.

Controlling the "viewpoint" to the desired location, in the real world, Zhai Da's right hand has already picked up a [Souvenir Polaroid].

Point it at the back of your head: "Click."

The Polaroid camera ejected a photo, which was the last part of the overall picture: the suspension system.

Zhai Da only needs to convert the content into engineering drawings; if he's unsure, he can just take another picture from a different angle.

It completely eliminated the need for disassembly, turning it into a purely intellectual task.

As a plug-in hybrid new energy vehicle from over a decade later, this Panamera may contain technologies that surpass current advancements in every aspect. Of course, the most valuable components are probably the battery, motor, chassis, and infotainment system.

Other traditional components, such as engines, transmissions, and tires, are slightly more advanced than they are now, but not by much, because the pace of progress in the traditional automotive industry has been very slow.

A 24-year-old gasoline engine isn't much better than a 09 one, unless they're not even the same displacement.

Zhai Da will eventually bring these things out of the workshop to help the geniuses of "π" implement them one by one, but before that, he needs to figure out the underlying principles himself.

After finishing the last stroke, Zhai Da looked at the drawing in front of him and nodded in satisfaction.

There is still much to study, and he is constantly learning.

Looking at the time, there was still about half an hour before dinner with Xiao Mutou, so Zhai Da simply pulled out a recliner from the corner, rested for a while, and browsed his phone.

When I opened it, I found that the group chat for "π" had already been filled with hundreds of replies.

These geniuses don't usually chat much in the group, and when they do, it's never for very long. But today it was unusually lively, so Zhai Da clicked in out of curiosity.

After scrolling up for a while, I found that the person who started the conversation was Sun Ting, a chemistry genius.

Zhai Da recalled that she seemed to have accepted a bounty on a research topic in the field of batteries, and wondered how the paper was progressing.

Although he is certainly talented enough, it is still too difficult for an undergraduate to make any breakthroughs in such an important field. However, it would be much easier to guide him after he figures something out on his own.

This Panamera is a plug-in hybrid new energy vehicle, and the battery inside is from CATL, which is considered half a cutting-edge technology by today's standards.

Zhai Da, who possesses "X-ray vision," has already gained insight into a great deal of information.

"Strawberry Candy": "I was watching a drama this morning when these two news items popped up one after the other. @Writer, Chairman, you're amazing."

Zhai Da was taken aback, thinking to himself, "Is this related to me?" He opened the two screenshots.

One image: "A perfect couple! The story of a math prodigy from Harbin Institute of Technology and writer Zhai Da."

Another one is "The Golden Couple! The Literary Goddess of Peking University and the Untold Story of Writer Zhai Da".

Zhai Da:
Actually, it wasn't surprising for Zhai Da to be associated with Lu Wei and Xiao Lu; in fact, he was mentally prepared for it.

There's nothing to hide. One is my girlfriend, and the other is my high school friend and business partner. That's the truth. Do you expect me to avoid suspicion because of this?

And it's beyond our control. Is it because we're afraid of being linked together, preventing Lu Wei and Xiao Lu from shining in their respective fields?

I just dislike this headline format used by the media.

Well, it's not hard to guess, that's just how he is. Just bear with it and it will pass.

On the bright side, it could also boost the fame of the three of them.

Zhai Da continued scrolling down, and sure enough, hundreds of floors were filled with this news.

Turing: "What kind of goddess is she? How dare she be ranked alongside our 'Wooden Man' lady? She's just trying to gain fame and fortune by writing a lousy book."

Hunter: "Lu Siwen is also our good friend; we go to the same school."

Turing: "Uh, I mean, this person is also excellent. No, when will QQ add a 'recall' function? I'm even willing to help Tencent with its coding."

Airship: "I think I saw this book in a bookstore, but it was a bit expensive, so I didn't buy it."

Strawberry Candy: "Honey, do you want this book? I'll go get it right away!"

Well, besides the discussion, some busybodies also went and looked it up themselves.

Fortune teller: "Look! I found this!"

A new screenshot, also news.

"Twin beauties, emerging from nowhere!"

Zhai Daxin said the title was reasonable because the timing of the events was close, and they were from the same hometown, so it was inevitable that they would be compared, even though their fields were completely different.

Actually, he thought Little Wood was more capable.

Zhai Da replied, "This report is fairly objective."

"Fortune teller": "Chairman, would you like to take a look at the contents first?"

Zhai Da was taken aback, wondering if there was more to the story.
I clicked in to take a closer look, and sure enough, I found my name again after ten lines.

"It's worth mentioning that both of these beautiful women have a story with the well-known writer Zhai Da that must be told."

Zhai Da pursed his lips. Sure enough, he was still the same old guy. You can't have any expectations just because of the title.

Why are you mentioning me, "twin beauties"?

So I'm the "Ti" in this story?
(End of this chapter)