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Blue light is stable.

The tip of the welding torch pressed against the bonding surface of the superconducting coil, the arc burning softly, the temperature precise to plus or minus 0.5 degrees Celsius. Li Yichen's breathing slowed, the entire world shrinking to this tiny, millimeter-square welding point before him.

On the first day, he didn't leave the experimental area.

The superconducting magnetic confinement coils require twelve sets of windings, each with 1,400 turns. The tolerance range is zero. The coil material is yttrium barium copper oxide high-temperature superconducting tape, four millimeters wide, thin enough to transmit light. If the tension is uneven during winding, the microcrystalline lattice inside the tape will break, rendering the entire set unusable.

Ling'er controlled the servo motor of the winding machine, locking the speed at twelve revolutions per minute. Li Yichen's job was to monitor the parameters, adjust the tension, and perform welding.

At 3 a.m., the first set of coils was wound.

Li Yichen clamped it onto the test bench and cooled it with liquid nitrogen. When the temperature dropped to 77 Kelvin, the superconducting state was activated, and the resistance returned to zero.

"First group, passed."

He stood up, his neck cracking twice, and lay down on the cot in the corner for forty minutes. When the alarm rang, he rolled over, got up, and continued.

Two days later.

On the worktable in the center of the experimental area, the main frame of the reactor has already taken shape.

The silvery-white cylinder lies on the support, with a diameter of 1.2 meters and a height of 0.8 meters. The outer shell is a three-layer composite structure—the outermost layer is a tungsten-copper alloy panel, the middle layer is a boron carbide neutron absorption layer, and the innermost layer is a tungsten-based plasma surface material for the first wall.

Ling'er ran a test on the airtightness of the core cavity. The results popped up on the data panel.

"Brother, helium mass spectrometry leak detection complete. Leakage rate—less than 10 to the power of -11 Pascals per second."

Li Yichen wiped the sweat from his forehead with a rag and glanced at the data.

"How many?"

"Ten to the power of -eleven. The design requirement is ten to the power of -9. You've exceeded the limit by two orders of magnitude." Ling'er's tone was filled with barely suppressed pride. "Brother, your skills are just too insane."

"It's just that we chose good sealing components." Li Yichen threw the rag into the bucket. "Next step, the energy conversion module."

The third day, the fourth day.

The energy conversion module is the most sophisticated part of the entire reactor. High-energy neutrons generated by the plasma bombard the lithium target, releasing heat, which is then converted into electrical energy through a supercritical carbon dioxide circulation system. The heat exchanger tubes of this circulation system have a wall thickness of only 0.3 millimeters, and the welds are required to be free of porosity and cracks.

Li Yichen switched to a finer welding torch and proceeded inch by inch under a five-times magnifying glass.

After welding for eight hours, he pushed the magnifying glass away and blinked his sore eyes. The boxed lunch on the table was already cold; Ji Yanran had brought it up at noon, but he had forgotten to eat it.

"Brother, your heart rate is 97, and your blood sugar is low," Ling'er jumped in. "Let's eat."

"Wait until this section is welded."

"If you don't eat, I'll turn off your welding torch."

Li Yichen glanced at her.

Ling'er put her hands on her hips, with a "you try it" expression on her face.

He put down the welding torch and ate a few bites of the cold boxed lunch. The rice was hard and the dishes were tasteless, but at least it filled his stomach.

Late on the fourth day, all twelve sets of superconducting coils were wound and passed the low-temperature superconducting state verification one by one.

Li Yichen installed the last set of coils into the slots of the magnetic confinement cavity and tightened the fixing bolts. The moment the entire magnetic confinement system was assembled, he took two steps back and looked it over from top to bottom.

The silvery-white cylinder lay still under the cool white light, its exterior showing nothing special. But inside this shell, twelve sets of superconducting coils could generate a magnetic field strength of more than fifteen Tesla—enough to confine plasma in a space smaller than a fist, heating it to over one hundred million degrees Celsius.

"System-wide integration testing, then initial ignition." Ling'er projected the process checklist onto the screen. "Brother, do you want to sleep for two hours first?"

"No need. Bring me coffee."

Day .

The system-wide joint debugging began at 4:00 AM.

The six subsystems—deuterium supply system, vacuum pumping system, magnetic confinement system, plasma heating system, energy conversion system, and cooling circulation system—were powered on one by one, underwent self-testing, and were linked for testing.

Ling'er's data panel covered half a wall, with hundreds of parameters jumping around simultaneously.

The first five systems were successfully integrated and tested, and all data was in the green zone.

When it came to the sixth test—the coupling test of the cooling cycle system and the energy conversion module—Ling'er's voice suddenly rose by half an octave.

"elder brother."

Li Yichen was squatting on the ground inspecting a pipe joint when he heard this tone, and he stopped what he was doing.

"The heat exchanger outlet temperature is 0.7 degrees Celsius higher than normal."

0.7 degrees Celsius.

For ordinary equipment, this deviation is negligible. But a cold fusion reactor is not ordinary equipment. The design margin of this system is extremely narrow, and every parameter is extremely critical. A deviation of 0.7 degrees Celsius means a decrease in heat exchange efficiency of 0.4 percent. Over the long term, this will lead to localized hot spots and shorten the lifespan of the first wall.

Li Yichen stood up and walked to the data panel.

With both hands in his work pants pockets, he stared at the number.

One minute.

five minutes.

Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes.

Ling'er crouched on the watch screen, barely daring to breathe.

At the end of the fifteenth minute, Li Yichen made a move. He walked to the heat exchanger module, unscrewed the side inspection cover with one hand, reached inside, and found the adjusting bolt for the third set of guide fins by touch.

Turn it fifteen degrees to the left.

The numbers started to drop.

0.7. 0.5. 0.3. 0.1.

Zero.

Ling'er let out a long breath, then looked at Li Yichen with admiration: "Brother, you're amazing!"

"Don't flatter him."

The sixth day, the seventh day.

The remaining commissioning work proceeded step by step. The sealing valves of the fuel injection system underwent three opening and closing tests, the plasma breakdown voltage was calibrated twice, and the safety interlock mechanisms were verified one by one.

For each item completed, Ling'er would put a green checkmark on the list.

By 11 p.m. on the seventh day, only one blank space remained on the list.

"We can conduct the initial ignition test tomorrow," Li Yichen muttered to himself, looking exhausted.

He walked to the cot and lay down on it.

The fatigue from the past few days piled up, and I fell asleep in three seconds.

Eighth day.

It was exactly 10:00 AM.

Li Yichen stood in front of the silver-white device.

He changed into a clean black T-shirt, shaved off his stubble, and smoothed his hair with water. For some reason, he felt he should tidy himself up today.

The reactor stood quietly in the center of the worktable. It was 1.2 meters in diameter and 0.8 meters high. Its volume was not much larger than a household washing machine.

It looks ordinary.

Li Yichen's right hand rested on the physical start button on the edge of the control panel. The metal button was cool to the touch and felt solid.

"Ling'er".

"exist."

"Record."

"Recording in progress."

He pressed it.

There was no roar. There was no tremor. There was no dramatic sound.

The entire 66th floor fell into an unusual silence. It wasn't emptiness, but a calm that came from being filled with something—a feeling that's hard to describe, like standing next to a dam, the water surface calm and still, but you know that billions of cubic meters of energy are stored behind the dam.

The temperature sensor reading on the device's casing fluctuates slowly.

22.3 degrees. 22.8 degrees. 23.5 degrees. 24.1 degrees.

It eventually stabilized at 24.3 degrees Celsius.

It was eight degrees higher than room temperature.

That's it.

The output power reading climbs slowly from zero, but steadily.

One hundred megawatts. Five hundred megawatts. One thousand megawatts.

Two gigawatts. Three gigawatts.

The number stopped at 4,800 megawatts, fluctuated slightly, and then locked.

Ling'er's data panel illuminated the entire wall. Her holographic projection jumped out of her watch, a tiny figure standing in the center of the panel, leaning slightly forward, its eyes wide open.

"Brother," her voice was unusually soft, "the steady-state output is 4,800 megawatts. Based on a standard residential power grid load factor of 0.65, that's enough to power a city of two million people continuously for about ten years."

Li Yichen withdrew his hand from the start button. Both hands hung at his sides.

He didn't cheer. He didn't clench his fist. He didn't ask Ling'er to set off fireworks.

He stood there and let out a long breath. The tension that had been building in his chest for eight days finally eased.

"It's done."

Ling'er waited three seconds: "Brother, don't you want to say something more emotional? Like 'I changed the history of human energy' or something?"

"What's there to say? The data speaks for itself."

"Okay, tech-savvy personality, got it."

Li Yichen stared at the device for a few more seconds. The surface temperature was stable, the output power was stable, and all the subsystem status lights were green.

Then he turned around and picked up his phone.

dial.

It rang once and then connected.

"General Chen," Li Yichen said bluntly, "tell the higher-ups that cold fusion has been successfully achieved."

There was a three-second pause on the other end of the phone. Then came the dull thud of a teacup being placed on the table.

"What did you say?"

"The cold fusion reactor is complete. It weighs one ton and occupies 1.2 square meters. Its steady-state output is 4,800 megawatts, enough to power a city of two million people for ten years. It is currently operating stably, with the shell temperature less than two degrees Celsius higher than room temperature."

There was another three seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Brother Li, are you serious? You've really made it out of the village?"

"General Chen, why would I lie to you! I stayed up for eight days straight to make this thing."

There was a full five seconds of silence.

When Chen Jianjun spoke again, his voice was an octave lower and his speech was half as slow: "You rest first. I'll report to my superiors immediately."

It's over.

Li Yichen put his phone back in his pocket and sat down on the cot. His legs felt a little weak. He hadn't slept much for eight days, and as soon as his adrenaline subsided, exhaustion surged up in exponentially.

He had just closed his eyes for a moment when his phone rang again.