Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

"wrong."

Su Zheng frowned and threw a stack of data sheets on the table.

"This Reynolds number is incorrect. At supercritical speeds, the viscosity coefficient of uranium hexafluoride gas undergoes a nonlinear abrupt change. You're still using formulas from room temperature and pressure; how can you possibly arrive at the correct result?"

The atmosphere in the fluid mechanics laboratory was oppressive and suffocating.

Three young researchers stood before Su Zheng, their faces flushed, like schoolchildren who had done something wrong. They were all top graduates from prestigious universities, one of them even a recent returnee with a master's degree. But in Su Zheng's presence, they felt their brains were completely inadequate.

"But...Advisor Su," the master's degree holder pushed up his glasses and cautiously explained, "there is currently no publicly available corrected formula for the viscosity coefficient of uranium hexafluoride in the supercritical state. The data left by Soviet experts is also blank. We...we can only derive it using empirical formulas."

"An empirical formula?"

Su Zheng sneered, "Is scientific research based on guesswork? Just because the Soviets didn't give it to us, we can't test it ourselves? Just because there's no formula, we can't derive it ourselves?"

The master's student was speechless after being rebuked, but felt somewhat unconvinced.

Push it yourself?

Is it something you can just deduce out like that? It involves extremely complex non-Newtonian fluid dynamics; just the set of partial differential equations alone can make anyone dizzy. Without the aid of a large computer, how long would it take to calculate it all by human brain alone?

Give me a pen and paper.

Su Zheng was too lazy to waste words.

He walked directly to the lab bench and spread out a blank coordinate sheet.

"Since there's no road, I'll carve one out for you."

Su Zheng picked up the pencil and took a deep breath.

[The Eye of Truth, fully activated.]

In an instant, his vision changed again.

The dust moving in the air, the glass tubes on the lab bench, and even the airflow inside the centrifuge model in the distance were all visualized in his eyes as countless colorful lines.

This is a world of fluids.

It is also a world of mathematics.

Su Zheng's pen began to move.

At first it was very fast, as if it was releasing some kind of emotion.

$frac{partial rho}{partial t}+nabla cdot (rho mathbf{u})= 0$

$rho (frac{partial mathbf{u}}{partial t}+mathbf{u}cdot nabla mathbf{u})=-nabla p +nabla cdot mathbf{T}+mathbf{f}$

This is the general form of the Navier-Stokes equations (NS equations). Anyone who studies fluid mechanics is familiar with them.

The master's student glanced at it and curled his lip. Anyone could write that.

But then, Su Zheng abruptly changed his tone and began to make extremely crazy "modifications" to these two equations.

Introducing compressibility factor... Introducing thermodynamic coupling terms... Introducing Coriolis force correction...

Unfamiliar, yet brimming with tension, formulas leap off the page.

The master's student's eyes widened.

"Is this...is this some kind of dimensionless conversion?"

"No! He's trying to decouple the pressure term and the velocity term!"

"My God... how did he come up with this transformation?"

The three researchers instinctively gathered around, holding their breath. They stared at the symbols Su Zheng had drawn, as if watching a breathtaking magic show.

But soon, Su Zheng stopped writing.

its stuck.

This transformation requires a crucial boundary condition parameter – the "turbulent dissipation rate".

This data must be measured in real time through experiments.

"I need the boundary layer thickness data for the third set of centrifuges at 10 revolutions per minute." Su Zheng stretched out his hand without turning his head. "Quickly!"

The three researchers looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Advisor Su...the third set of centrifuges hasn't been installed yet..."

"Besides, 10 revolutions per minute is too dangerous; our existing sensors simply can't detect such a thin boundary layer..."

Su Zheng frowned, his pen hovering in mid-air. The frustration of having his train of thought interrupted made him want to curse.

This is the current situation.

His theories were ahead of their time, but the hardware and assistants were far behind. It was like an F1 driver trying to drive a tractor—he had the power but couldn't use it.

"Give me five minutes, I'll go modify the sensor." Su Zheng threw down his pen and headed towards the equipment area.

Just then.

A fair, slender hand silently handed him a data record sheet that still smelled of ink.

"Boundary layer thickness 0.035 mm, turbulence intensity 4.2%, Reynolds number correction coefficient 1.08."

A cool voice sounded from the side, "This is what I measured with a laser interferometer just now. Although the centrifuge wasn't installed correctly, I simulated the airflow environment on the rotor surface."

Su Zheng suddenly turned his head.

There stood a young female researcher wearing a white lab coat and with short, ear-length hair.

She was very beautiful, but that beauty had thorns.

She had a high, straight nose, thin lips, and eyes that seemed to see right through people. She wasn't wearing makeup, and her face had a pale tinge from long hours of staying up late, but this only added to her sickly, aloof academic air.

The name tag on her chest reads three words: Ye Xinyi.

Su Zheng's gaze swept over the data sheet.

【Eye of Truth】Instant verification: 100% accuracy.

Not only was the data accurate, but... she even knew what she wanted.

Su Zheng didn't waste any words, not even a "thank you." He grabbed the data sheet, turned around, and picked up his pen again.

"Substituting the correction coefficient... the equation is closed."

The pen tip danced across the paper once more.

This time, Ye Xinyi did not leave either.

She was like the perfect shadow, standing half a step to Su Zheng's side.

When Su Zheng was writing the thermodynamic equations, she quietly handed him an enthalpy-entropy diagram;

When Su Zheng needed to calculate the integral constant, she directly gave the result of the Laplace transform;

As Su Zheng frowned slightly, preparing to check a certain material parameter, an open "Special Alloy Handbook" was already placed beside him, on that very page.

No language is required.

No eye contact is needed.

Even their breathing rhythms seemed to be in sync.

The feeling was like two top dancers performing a breathtaking tango without any rehearsal.

The three researchers standing nearby were completely dumbfounded.

They felt like superfluous background figures, like air, like dust.

Faced with the aura of these two, they didn't even have the right to interrupt.

"This...is this Dr. Ye's ability?" The master's student swallowed hard. "She's a PhD in fluid mechanics who returned from studying in the Soviet Union. She's usually so aloof that she never says a word. How come she's like this today..."

"Don't talk! Look!" another researcher pointed to the graph paper.

Su Zheng's writing speed increased rapidly until it almost became a blur.

On that originally blank sheet of paper, a perfect, closed-loop "supercritical gas dynamics model" has already taken shape.

"The last item."

Su Zheng's voice carried a hint of hoarse excitement, "As long as we can solve this eigenvalue..."

"Square 3".

Ye Xinyi's calm voice rang out.

Su Zheng's pen suddenly stopped.

He turned his head and stared intently at Ye Xinyi.

This eigenvalue is the solution to an extremely complex cubic equation. Even an ordinary person using a slide rule would need to spend a long time calculating it.

She...does mental arithmetic?

Ye Xinyi seemed to see Su Zheng's confusion and casually pointed to a line of inconspicuous small print in the corner of the blackboard: "When you were deriving the second step, you actually implicitly included this condition. If you were mapping on the complex plane, the solution would be obvious."

Su Zheng was stunned for a full three seconds.

Then he smiled.

This was the first time he had laughed so freely and so...as if he had found a kindred spirit since he came into this world.

"Complex plane mapping... Great! What a wonderful complex plane mapping!"

With a flourish of his pen, Su Zheng wrote down the final answer on the paper.

Done.

As the last stroke was made, the entire laboratory seemed to tremble.

It wasn't an earthquake.

Rather, it is a kind of intangible, intellectual stimulation.

This model signifies that China has completely broken through the theoretical blockade in uranium enrichment centrifuge technology. It means that what the Soviet experts called "impossible" has become nothing but a piece of waste paper.

Su Zheng threw away the pencil, straightened up, and let out a long breath.

Cool!

This feeling of meeting a worthy opponent or a worthy strategist is a million times more satisfying than building a machine tool or slapping a few beasts in the face!

He turned around and looked directly at the woman standing next to him for the first time.

At this moment, Ye Xinyi was also looking at him.

The cold indifference that once kept people at arm's length in her eyes had vanished, replaced by an undisguised, ardent light.

That is recognition of the strong.

It is also a yearning for truth.

"Let's get to know each other."

Ye Xinyi extended her hand. Her fingers were long and slender, with distinct knuckles, and the tips still bore a trace of ink.

"Ye Xinyi. PhD in Fluid Mechanics, returned from overseas, Deputy Leader of the Third Project Team of Project 001."

Her voice remained cool and clear, but her tone carried an unprecedented air of solemnity.

"Su Zheng".

Su Zheng took her hand.

It was a little cool, but very powerful.

"Level 8 fitter".

Su Zheng announced his "title".

Ye Xinyi was stunned for a moment, then the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, revealing a very faint but extremely beautiful smile.

"An eighth-level fitter?"

She looked at the pile of formulas on the table—enough to drive even ministerial-level experts crazy—and shook her head.

"If you're a fitter, then we're probably not even apprentices."

She raised her head and looked directly into Su Zheng's eyes.

"Su Zheng, you are stronger than I imagined."

"Much stronger."

Su Zheng was not modest. He felt the warmth of his palm, and something long dormant within him was beginning to reawaken.

In the courtyard house, he was lonely. That loneliness stemmed from the intellectual superiority of others and the vast difference in their perspectives.

And here, in this desolate Northwest.

He seems to have... found someone who can keep up with him.

"Dr. Ye."

Su Zheng released his grip and pointed to the blueprints on the table. "Now that the model is finished, how about... joining me on a big project?"

Ye Xinyi raised an eyebrow: "How old?"

Su Zheng looked out the window at the towering centrifuge factory, a glint of fanaticism flashing in his eyes.

"Double its efficiency."

"Let that mushroom cloud rise two years ahead of schedule."

Ye Xinyi's pupils contracted slightly.

Then, she took a pen out of her pocket and neatly tied up her somewhat disheveled hair.

"I'd be happy to oblige."