I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

“Young lady, beg him and let him tell you how to choose. This guy is tough as nails, but he can’t resist a woman’s pleas. If you beg him, it will definitely work.”

Mei Han listened attentively and nodded, then turned to look at Chen Ya, but hesitated.

If, as the other person claims, he didn't even finish junior high school, then what's the point of asking him?

Mei Han looked at the boy who wasn't much younger than her and didn't know how to start a conversation.

Chen Ya seemed to sense her embarrassment, smiled, stroked the face of his watch, and said:

"Let me give you two questions first to see how good your basic skills are, okay?"

Upon hearing that she could do the questions, Mei Han became serious and nodded.

Fang Bai blinked.

The quality of a person's exam questions can also reflect their academic level.

She was a little curious about what kind of question the renowned Bai Yujing would ask.

As soon as Xia Zhijian heard that there would be physics questions, he knew that it had nothing to do with him, and he looked a little gloomy.

Yang Changshuo, on the other hand, had his eyes lowered, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Chen Ya lay comfortably on the sofa and said:

"We hypothesize that the sun is about to experience a helium flash and will soon be destroyed, rendering the solar system uninhabitable for humans. Humanity must immediately begin its self-rescue efforts..."

The moment the first word was uttered, the expressions on everyone's faces became quite interesting.

Xia Zhijian, in particular, who was originally planning to slip away, immediately perked up.

"Humanity's self-rescue plan is called 'The Wandering Earth,' which involves installing engines on the Earth's surface to propel the Earth out of the solar system and towards Proxima Centauri, a star 4.22 light-years from the Sun."

"If you were in charge of the 'Wandering Earth' project, please develop a plan."

Mei Han's expression was strange when she first heard the question.

But she endured it. After all, some physics competition problems have strange backgrounds.

Her face only stiffened completely after she heard the entire question.

Fang Bai spoke up, "Mr. Bai Yujing, is this question really a physics question?"

She felt that Bai Yujing was deliberately making things difficult for her by setting such a question.

“This is a physics problem,” Chen Ya said with a smile. “You can use your phone to search for known physical quantities, such as the Earth’s mass, distance from the Sun, and so on. But quantities that need to be calculated, such as the third cosmic velocity, require you to do the calculations by hand.”

Fang Bai raised his eyebrows.

He was actually serious.

A helium flash is a brief thermal runaway phenomenon in nuclear fusion. As hydrogen is gradually depleted inside a star, the remaining helium is compressed into degenerate matter. The characteristic of this degenerate matter is that its volume does not increase with increasing temperature, until the thermal pressure becomes so high that it exceeds the degeneracy pressure, at which point helium fusion occurs.

Helium fusion occurs inside the core of a star, drastically increasing the core temperature and producing an extremely intense helium fusion flash that can release energy equivalent to the entire Milky Way galaxy in a few minutes.

After a helium flash, the Earth's surface will become uninhabitable for humans.

The idea of ​​using an "engine" to propel Earth through space is utterly absurd. What level of energy would be needed to get Earth to escape velocity? And how many years would it take to reach Proxima Centauri?

This is just the background to the topic Bai Yujing mentioned.

Describing this background alone would require exhausting the entire high school physics curriculum. And the challenge of Bai Yujing's question goes far beyond that.

Mei Han stood there, stunned, for a minute.

Because this topic is too imaginative and too grand, I'll just briefly outline it.

A minute later, she suddenly realized that the question was not nonsensical.

The implicit condition of the "Wandering Earth" plan is to preserve as much of humanity's potential as possible and to "drive" the planet to its destination as quickly as possible.

What Bai Yujing just told her about the basic physical quantities that could be searched was actually a hint, such as data on the equatorial circumference and the third cosmic velocity.

She gradually began to get a sense of how to make a plan.

Yang Changshuo silently took a thick stack of white paper from his desk and placed it in front of Mei Han along with a fountain pen.

Mei Han remained silent and began to calculate on the white paper.

Chen Ya looked at his Patek Philippe watch with the Milky Way on the dial; the hour hand had just passed two marks.

Xia Zhijian finally couldn't hold back and asked, "Mr. Bai Yujing, according to what you said, if we drive the Earth away like a car, what will happen to the people on Earth?"

Chen Ya said, "We will dig underground cities and all of humanity will move to live underground."

Xia Zhijian asked in astonishment, "Wouldn't that throw the entire country, society, and even the international community into chaos?"

Chen Ya said, "Yes, this is also a test of ethics, international politics, and social order. Perhaps you can also try to formulate a plan to maintain a relatively stable order."

Xia Zhijian said in despair, "Mr. Bai Yujing, you're making things too difficult for me."

After saying that, he couldn't help but start thinking in his mind about what kind of framework should be adopted to maintain order in human society in the event of the apocalypse.

...Mei Han lay on the coffee table, her head spinning and her face flushed.

The more she calculated, the more difficult the problem seemed.

She has used all her knowledge.

This problem encompasses not only astronomy, but also mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, nuclear physics, and more...

There was no data in the question, but after making the initial plan, Mei Han's calculations filled the entire sheet of paper.

Fang Bai took a blank sheet of paper and began to calculate on his own paper.

The more she thought about it, the more interesting the question became. Feeling a bit itchy to try it herself, she decided to start calculating it.

She would occasionally whisper a few words to Principal Yang, but Mei Han was so engrossed in solving the problem that she didn't notice at all.

Chen Ya looked at his watch, and when the hour hand had completed exactly one mark, he said:

"stop."

Mei Han suddenly woke up with a start, only to find herself covered in sweat, and that Chen Ya had taken away her manuscript paper.

"Hmm, you've passed."

“I’ve only calculated the basic plan,” she said, swallowing hard. “First, we’ll use engines to stop the Earth’s rotation and revolution, then get it to escape velocity and fly out of the solar system.”

"It will gradually decelerate before approaching its destination, and then dock in the orbit of a new star, becoming a satellite of the new sun."

"After calculations, I found that it is very difficult to make an object with the mass of Earth reach escape velocity, so I plan to use the gravitational slingshot of other planets, such as Jupiter, to accelerate Earth."

"This requires calculating the Roche limit of Jupiter."

"But time was too tight. I only calculated up to the point where the rotation would stop before time was up."

“It’s already pretty good,” Chen Ya said. “I never intended for you to finish this question. The workload was too enormous, and it was an impossible task.”

Chen Ya continued, "Researching theoretical physics requires not only an amazing mind, but also a lifelong passion, and more importantly, a certain temperament. If you've calculated this far, you've already passed the test."

"However, if you hadn't spent that first minute thinking about the meaning of the question, the result would have been better now."

After he finished speaking, Mei Han blushed.

Fang Bai put down his pen and exclaimed, "Impossible! This is an impossible mission. Earth cannot successfully escape the solar system. Even if we turn the Earth's surface into a sea of ​​fire, it still won't be able to propel Earth out of the solar system."

She turned to Principal Yang and asked, "Teacher, you must have known this would be the outcome from the beginning, right?"

Yang Changshuo smiled but remained silent.

He quickly went through the possibilities in his mind and calculated all the possible outcomes.

But some things aren't fun once you talk about them.

Chen Ya asked, "The second question, please listen to the question."

Mei Han was on high alert, gripping her pen tightly.

"Do you want to settle down in China or go to the United States in the future?"

Upon hearing this question, Mei Han put down her pen.

Some surprises.

This question has absolutely nothing to do with physics.

Mei Han glanced at Xia Zhijian and said:

"Of course I want to stay in my motherland."

"If your research cannot be carried out in China, would you choose to go abroad?" Chen Ya pressed.

"Does this question even make sense?"

Chen Ya leaned back on the sofa and said, "This is a very real thing."

Upon hearing his words, Yang Changshuo fell into deep thought, and Xia Zhijian's expression also turned rather unpleasant.

"If your ambition is applied physics, then I would wholeheartedly recommend that you transfer to another department. But your ambition is theoretical physics. The research environment in our country will not be enough to support your dream when you graduate. Nine times out of ten, you will go abroad to study, and once you go abroad, you may not be able to come back."

"So one of my suggestions today might send a talented person to the Americans. That's what's troubling me."

Mei Han felt a strange unease after hearing this.

I was just asking a professional question, but he acted as if he could see a few years into the future and booked my plane ticket to go abroad in advance.

Xia Zhijian frowned and said, "Mr. Bai Yujing, are you really that pessimistic about the scientific research environment in our country?"

Chen Ya said slowly, "This is not pessimism, it's a realistic observation."

Yang Changshuo frowned and thought for a while, then smiled and said, "Bai Yujing, there's something behind your words. I almost didn't understand."

Chen Ya turned to him and smiled.

Fang Bai asked, "Teacher, what did you discover?"

Yang Changshuo chuckled and said to Chen Ya, "Just say it straight. If you can't develop the corresponding research environment in four years, how many years do you expect?"

Chen Ya crossed his fingers together, making a "ten" shape.

"Ten years," Chen Ya said. "In ten years, we will catch up and strive to be on par with the United States and become a new global research center."

Mei Han's eyes widened slightly.

Yang Changshuo smiled slyly: "You've got quite the nerve. So, what do you plan to do?"

Chen Ya smiled slightly.

He knew that Lao Yang was trying to trick him into revealing some information, but he didn't mind being tricked.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that if he didn't send a message to the academic community during his trip to Beijing, some people wouldn't feel any sense of crisis.

“I have prepared three strategies, and I can tell you the first one for now,” Chen Ya said. “Industry-academia-research cooperation will help us retain all those working in applied physics and prevent them from leaving the country.”

Fang Bai said, "Isn't this what some domestic companies are pushing for? Like Beichen..."

She suddenly realized something halfway through her sentence, and her eyes widened slightly.

Although she didn't know Bai Yujing's rank in Beichen, she knew from some rumors that this person definitely had some connection with Beichen.

Yang Changshuo said, "That would require a huge sum of money, you know, in terms of funding..."

“To be honest, research funding is far too little compared to projects that benefit people’s livelihoods,” Chen Ya laughed. “How much funding does a lunar exploration project require? 10 billion? 30 billion? That amount of money could be used to pave two roads or build a few shopping malls.”

"Money is no object?"

Chen Ya shrugged: "Money is no object."

Yang Changshuo leaned over and whispered, "Well, on my side, we lack jobs, projects, and funding. How much do you think your first move can solve?"

Chen Ya said, "As long as there are high-quality talents and high-quality projects, you can absorb as many as you have."

"Whatever the project?"

“No matter what the project is,” Chen Ya said. “Otherwise, do you really think I came here for your tea?”

Yang Changshuo finally smiled and clapped his hands, saying, "Good! Good!"

Hearing their conversation, Fang Bai guessed a bit of the truth.

Xia Zhijian and Mei Han were still a little confused.

What kind of deal did they make?

Yang Changshuo reached out and patted Chen Ya on the shoulder, saying:

"It is truly a gift from heaven that we Chinese have you."