Genius is just the threshold for me!

As summer vacation approaches, students in the residential community begin to return to their hometowns one after another. The July sun grows stronger day by day, but the atmosphere in the community becomes quieter day by day.

"Son, Mom has made arrangements for my day off tomorrow. I'll be staying with your grandparents for a while, and you can visit your maternal grandparents' house when you have time..."

Before leaving, Zhang Xiali gave instructions to Lin Dong, who had slept in until after 10 a.m.

"understood."

Lin Dong responded, yawned, brushed his teeth, rinsed his mouth, and washed his face. He then took out a plate of wontons with chili oil and began to eat his breakfast.

Every summer vacation, they would go to their grandparents' or maternal grandparents' house for a period of time. This was a fixed arrangement for them, who grew up with their parents in the residential community, from childhood to adulthood.

However, compared to Xu Qingling's hometown being in the province of a thousand lakes, Xia Ran's hometown being in the Northeast, Li Tao's maternal grandmother's family being in the Hakka region of northern Guangdong, Zhang Yihao's maternal grandmother's family being in Zhejiang, Su Yue's maternal grandmother's family being in Fujian Province, and Zhang Zihua's hometown being in the Central Plains Province.

Of all his friends, only he and Huang Qingyao had parents in the Sichuan region, so it was relatively easy for them to go back.

"Hmm, 177...it seems like he'll grow to 185 centimeters without any problem."

After finishing breakfast and washing the dishes, Lin Dong took off his shoes, walked to the height chart, compared his height to the height, and nodded with some satisfaction.

Since the end of last summer vacation, his height has entered a period of rapid growth.

She grew 10 centimeters in a year, completely shattering Hsu Ching-ling's declaration that she would maintain her height advantage until the Lunar New Year.

If this trend continues, once his height stabilizes in a few years, he will easily grow another 8 centimeters to reach the standard of 185 cm.

"Go to bed early and get up late, it's good for your health."

Lin Dong hummed a tune leisurely, twirled the key on his finger, and went downstairs to head to the laboratory.

Just as he reached the entrance of the residential area, Xia Ran happened to be coming out on the other side. She paused for a moment when she saw Lin Dong, then smiled and called out to him.

"Lin Dong!"

Ok?

Lin Dong turned around upon hearing the voice and, seeing Xia Ran, asked curiously, "You haven't gone back to your hometown yet?"

"The flight is tomorrow morning."

Xia Ran smiled and said, "Want to go get some milk tea together? I'll pay. Yao Yao, Qing Ling, and Yue Yue have all gone home. There's no one to keep me company in the neighborhood."

"Okay... then."

Lin Dong nodded and walked towards the milk tea shop opposite the entrance of the residential area.

"Your middle school entrance exam results are out, right? How did you do?" Lin Dong asked Xia Ran, keeping a meter's distance, as if he had just thought of something.

"It's alright, but I'm not very skilled at writing essays."

Xia Ran followed Lin Dong's steps and chuckled, "Fourth in the city."

"You skipped a grade to get into the third year of junior high, and ranked fourth in the city. You call that 'not bad'?"

Lin Dong's eyes widened, and he immediately gave a thumbs-up, praising, "Your standards for geniuses are different from ours for ordinary people."

Hearing this, Xia Ran glanced at Lin Dong, smiled slightly but didn't reply. She walked into the milk tea shop and said to the clerk, "One mango coconut milk sago tea and one oolong lemon tea."

As she spoke, Xia Ran took out her phone and used the QR code payment function, which had just been fully rolled out this year, to scan the code and pay. She then returned to sit down opposite Lin Dong, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

When are you going back to your hometown?

"It's tomorrow too, I'll wait for my mom to arrange my day off."

Lin Dong didn't hide anything and simply replied, "She'll stay for four or five days to make sure my grandparents are alright, then she'll come back. I'll stay for a while and then come back."

"My mom is the same."

Xia Ran smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear: "She took me home, checked that everything was alright, and then came back to work..."

"Here's your milk tea, you two."

After chatting for a while, the shop assistant brought over two cups of milk tea and politely placed them on the table.

"Thanks."

Xia Ran took her mango milk tea, tore open the straw, took a sip, and looked at Lin Dong, asking, "Lin Dong, what do you think about me skipping a grade and going into my senior year next semester?"

"Going to senior year of high school?"

Lin Dong was taken aback: "Going to university at sixteen?"

"It should be fine," Xia Ran smiled.

"Then don't ask me anymore."

Lin Dong took a sip of lemon tea and waved his hand: "Skipping the first and second years of high school and going straight to the third year, that kind of genius is beyond the comprehension of us mediocre students..."

"..."

Seeing Lin Dong's expression, Xia Ran bit down hard on her straw: "I'm not asking about homework, I'm asking how this arrangement is."

"Shall I ask in the group for you? We can discuss it together?" Lin Dong thought for a moment and proposed a solution.

"Fine, if you're not going to answer, then forget it."

Xia Ran said speechlessly, "If you post it in the group chat, Li Tao, that loudmouth, will make the whole neighborhood know in less than half a day."

"That's true, Brother Tao is naturally unable to keep secrets."

Lin Dong smiled, paused, and then said, "You shouldn't discuss this with us. You should discuss it with Uncle Xia and Aunt He, and discuss it with yourself."

Besides academic knowledge, the school environment and friends are also an essential part of life.

"My parents have no objections; they're quite democratic about this."

Xia Ran gently shook her head: "My own idea is to skip a grade."

"Once you've figured things out for yourself, that's good. As your friend, I'll just offer some encouragement..."

As Lin Dong spoke, he picked up his milk tea and smiled, "Keep it up, Tsinghua and Peking University are on their way."

"Thanks."

Xia Ran smiled, picked up her milk tea and clinked it with Lin Dong's. She looked at Lin Dong and said, "When I first came to Chengfei and Shishi, I thought you would all reject me and hate me."

"Why do you think that?" Lin Dong asked casually.

"Because I know my personality from before..."

Xia Ran paused for a moment: "It's quite annoying."

"really."

Lin Dong nodded in agreement: "As a genius, he's so sharp-tongued and competitive, it's hard for us ordinary people to get along with him..."

At this point, Lin Dong shook his head and said, "But as long as Huang Qingyao is around, you won't be ostracized. If she's not around, you might be isolated."

"A few years ago at a game promotion event, you suddenly rushed over after the competition ended. I thought you were going to drag Qingling out for an offline PK, and I was so scared that I told everyone to run away immediately..."

"You guys were a group of people, and I was alone. Is it really that exaggerated?"

Xia Ran looked somewhat bewildered.

She remembered rushing over to confront Xu Qingling, wanting to compete again.

But after she had only said one sentence, Lin Dong glanced at her, said something to her, and then called everyone to leave.

"Ahem, maybe I described it a bit too vividly."

Lin Dong coughed twice and said with a smile, "But compared to when you first transferred here, Xia Ran, you have indeed changed a lot in the past two years."

It seems that her sharpness and meticulousness were merely a protective shield, a disguise for her inner confusion. Aunt He's transfer to the logistics department was ultimately to heal a young girl with psychological problems.

Aside from going to and from school together, he and Xia Ran didn't actually talk much.

The one that left a deep impression on me was the year before last when Xia Ran said that when Xia Tianqiang and He Ying were young, they were very busy with work and were afraid that she would not have anything in common with her peers in the neighborhood and would become withdrawn. In the end, they took away all the knowledge books and left only the fairy tale books with a calm yet confused look in her eyes.

However, by the end of the year, He Ying was confirmed to be transferred from a core R&D position to the logistics department, which gave her more time to spend with her.

All the friends could sense that although Xia Ran still maintained a calm demeanor, she had begun to become more lively, and she was smiling more often...

"Lin Dong, you're the problem girl."

Xia Ran rolled her eyes and said irritably, "If you don't have anything to do, go play your game. I'm going to get some milk tea from my dad later. It seems like his studies have gotten even heavier these past two months. He's still studying hard today, Saturday..."

"That's great! You're a good student. It seems Uncle Xia is very hardworking; even as a minister, he doesn't forget to study."

Lin Dong responded with surprise, then picked up his lemon tea, stood up, and said goodbye, "See you after summer vacation, have a safe trip tomorrow."

See you after summer vacation.

Xia Ran smiled and waved, watching Lin Dong's departing figure as he left the milk tea shop, then suddenly bit her straw in annoyance.

"I was thinking that once we go to high school, we won't be able to go to and from school together during the week, except for Saturdays and Sundays..."

Xia Ran watched Lin Dong's figure disappear from sight, a smile appearing in her eyes. She got up and packed milk tea for Xia Tianqiang, who was studying hard at home.

Sharpness and a meticulous nature are a form of camouflage, a cover for inner confusion... Now, perhaps she no longer needs this camouflage, nor is she confused anymore.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After walking for more than ten minutes, Lin Dong arrived at Laboratory No. 78, entered the password and fingerprint to open the door and went inside.

"I received two emails today..."

Lin Dong opened his secure email account and saw two unread emails, one from Jiao You and one from Su Ruohua. He took a sip of his lemon tea and opened Jiao You's email first.

"Teacher Xiaodong, the Red Ghost's variable bypass engine is experiencing excessive changes in bypass ratio when the third bypass is turned on or off."

The gas flow inside the engine is difficult to control stably, which will cause constant pressure instability and surging, and even eddies and backflow of internal gas, leading to engine stalling...

I'm referencing scramjet engines and active control systems in pre-cooled intake engines, and I'm trying to use sensors to detect early signs of gas instability and then proactively adjust and control the engine accordingly.

However, because the variation range of the third duct is too large, the overall fluid fluctuation is extremely complex and cannot be precisely controlled and resolved...

After reading Jiao You's description of the problem, Lin Dong opened the specific fluid data in the attachment, quickly calculated it in his mind, and confirmed that it was not 624. He then typed a reply.

"Uncle Jiao, please send me your designed active stabilization control system. There's a problem with the third duct being adjusted too much, causing excessive gas fluctuations... Could you measure the specific fluid data? I can handle it."

"Fluid computing and control—this is the only problem we've encountered with the variable ducted motor that we've consulted with about the project, which has been underway for almost a year."

"It seems that after Uncle Jiao has mastered the WS-15 engine, and then further refines the pre-cooled engine and scramjet engine, his skills have improved dramatically."

Lin Dong checked the data again, confirmed that there were no problems, and sent the email reply.

Although he provided a design for the Red Ghost engine, the specific design was still completed by the 624 team. For a variable bypass engine, the process from design to specific design is an extremely complex undertaking.

In any jet engine, the angle, length, and curvature of the blades are strictly matched with the intake data.

The variable bypass engine, due to its variable bypass design, has a constantly changing intake volume, which adds numerous challenges.

For example, structurally, a ducted ejector needs to be added, one of which is placed between the low-pressure turbine and the afterburner to regulate and control the flow rate of the external duct airflow into the afterburner and adjust the range of afterburner combustion.

One is added to the compressor position, allowing the airflow to be regulated into the outer bypass duct or inner duct before mixing and combustion.

In addition, there are adjustable intake blades to achieve different intake volumes and variable geometry turbines to achieve different power drives.

It can be said that a variable bypass engine is at least three times more complex than a conventional small bypass turbofan engine...

In addition, Lin Dong is now introducing a third duct design that will be available more than a decade from now, and he will also add a technology called FLADE.

Adding an adjustable air guide structure to the tip of the second-stage fan blades allows for the opening and closing of the third duct, further increasing the overall complexity.

And this is such a massive engine design project.

It wasn't until now that Jiao You sent over a difficult problem with a fluid control model, not even a design problem, which is enough to prove that Jiao You and the entire 624 team have made a significant leap in their capabilities.

"Ascension is great! Uncle Jiao is fifty-seven this year, he can fight for at least another ten years..."

"This way, we can reduce our efforts by at least 99% when dealing with engine-related issues in future projects."

Lin Dong inwardly praised her for a moment, then moved the mouse to open Su Ruohua's email, where a discussion record popped up first.

— [Regarding a certain Qian Xuesen ballistic missile project, the aerodynamic control of the waverider, the blackout problem of the hypersonic plasma sheath...]