Chapter 281 - 263: Laboratory

Chapter 281: Chapter 263: Laboratory

「The next day.」

Following the WeChat location Su Yanqing had sent him the day before, Li Dong found his way to the North Chemical Building right on time.

The North Building was old and dusty gray, with vines clinging to its outer walls.

It was located in the northwest corner of the Yan University School of Chemistry, separated from the School of Mathematics by a small road.

In the past half-year he’d been wandering around Yan University, Li Dong had been to a fair number of places, but he had rarely visited this particular area.

Mainly because there were hardly any undergraduates here.

This was a research building.

No one came here for classes, and no one came here to study. Even the School of Chemistry’s own undergraduates usually stayed in Area A, and you could count on one hand the number of times they came to the North Building on business in a year.

As a result, there were barely any people around on the weekends.

When Li Dong arrived at the entrance to the North Building, Su Yanqing was already waiting for him.

He was wearing a white shirt under a thin lab coat, with an ID card hanging on his chest.

He looked like a typical researcher.

"East God, you’re here."

Su Yanqing smiled and waved from a distance.

Li Dong quickly picked up his pace.

"Brother Su, sorry to keep you waiting."

"Not at all, I just got here myself."

Su Yanqing waved his hand dismissively.

"Come on, let’s go in."

The two of them pushed open the glass doors of the North Building and were met with a blast of cold air.

The air conditioning in the North Building was on year-round.

Mainly for the sake of the precision instruments inside.

As Su Yanqing led Li Dong inside, he asked casually,

"East God, have you been here before?"

Li Dong answered honestly.

"Actually, no."

It had been less than a year since he’d gotten into Yan University after the college entrance exams. He hadn’t been to the School of Chemistry many times, and when he did, it was usually to see the old lady, Zhang Lufang.

An undergraduate math major like him wouldn’t normally come to a pure research building like this.

Su Yanqing smiled.

"I figured you hadn’t."

He stopped and glanced back at Li Dong.

"Don’t be fooled by its unassuming exterior."

"You’ve definitely heard of the things that have come out of this place."

Li Dong’s interest was piqued, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

Su Yanqing didn’t keep him in suspense.

"Well... let’s put it this way. For Academician Liu’s work on graphene CVD, the very first meter-scale single-crystal samples were made in this building."

"And Academician Zhang’s controllable growth of chiral carbon nanotubes—if that’s in your high school physics textbook, it came from here."

"A few years ago, the School of Chemistry published a paper in *Science* on single-molecule chemical bond imaging. You can still find the original experimental setup down on the second basement level."

"Our group is right next to that setup."

Li Dong was a little dazed listening to all this.

Single-crystal graphene, chiral carbon nanotubes, single-molecule bond imaging.

Li Dong had never truly encountered these terms before; he’d mostly seen them on the national news Broadcast or in various popular science videos.

He never imagined he would be brought to the birthplace of these discoveries in such a casual, "by-the-way" manner.

While he was still marveling at this, Su Yanqing had already led him around a corridor and pressed the down button for the elevator.

The North Building had five floors above ground.

And two floors below.

The second basement level was the core experimental area.

The entire floor beneath the lab slabs there was a floating, shock-absorbing layer, using a set of springs and rubber pads to isolate the floor above from vibrations.

This served two purposes: to isolate it from external vibrations, and to shield it from electromagnetic interference.

This kind of environment was prepared for precision instruments like STMs, AFMs, and magnetic measurement devices.

The elevator chimed with a DING and the doors opened.

Stepping out, the cold air in the corridor was even stronger.

Beside each door on both sides was a small nameplate.

Printed on them were the names of the research group, the PI, and their research direction.

Li Dong felt a little overwhelmed.

He had helped out in Qi Yu’s research group before and had visited their seminar room once.

’That place was called a "research group," but it was really not much different from the seminar rooms he usually used for math, just with a bit more equipment.’

’Compared to this place, it was a completely different world.’

’You knew just by walking in that real work was done here.’

As they walked, Su Yanqing took out his ID card.

Next to the door at the end of the hallway was a small nameplate:

[Wu Kai Research Group — Molecular Structure and Single-Atom Characterization]

Su Yanqing tapped his ID card on the card reader.

He pushed open the door and said to Li Dong,

"We’re here."

"From now on, this is where we’ll fight our battles together."

Li Dong nodded and followed him inside.

The lab wasn’t huge, probably sixty or seventy square meters.

Lab benches lined the walls on both sides. Their metal anti-static countertops held some bottles and jars, along with a few instruments.

At the far end was a thick metal door, on which was written: [Ultra-High Vacuum Chamber Area, Do Not Open Without Authorization].

On the lab bench next to the door, there were indeed a few machines.

But mostly, there were empty benchtops.

Many spots were clearly intended for instruments—the labels were already in place—but there was nothing on them.

Li Dong looked around and couldn’t help but ask,

"Brother Su, why... why are there so many empty spaces?"

Su Yanqing gave a wry smile.

"Nothing to be done."

"We didn’t use to work in this area."

"Teacher Wu’s previous work was mainly in molecular self-assembly and surface/interface science. There isn’t much overlap in the equipment needed for that and for our current project."

"Now that we’re pushing into single-atom characterization, we basically have to build everything from scratch."

"Most of the equipment is still going through the university’s procurement process."

Li Dong’s head started to spin as he listened.

He asked subconsciously,

"Brother Su, do we have to procure all this stuff ourselves?"

"Can’t we borrow some from other research groups?"

"If you have to procure new equipment for every new project, how much money does that cost?"

When he heard this, Su Yanqing burst out laughing.

"East God, you really are a mathematician."

Li Dong: "..."

’Why does that sound a little like an insult?’

After he finished laughing, Su Yanqing explained it to him seriously.

"Think about it. What’s the prerequisite for borrowing something?"

"It’s that the other person isn’t using it."

"In our field, a project isn’t something that’s over and done with in two or three months."

"If you really commit to it, it takes two or three years at a minimum, and can be as long as five or six."

"You’re going to borrow an STM from someone for two or three years?"

"What’s their own group supposed to do?"

"Besides..."

Su Yanqing paused.

"Instruments are personal."

"You use it today, tomorrow, the day after—you know the parameters inside and out."

"If one group borrows it today and another group borrows it tomorrow, everyone has a different touch. The time spent recalibrating the parameters would be longer than the time spent on the actual experiment."

"In the end, nobody is willing to lend their equipment."

"The rule in our line of work is: your own work, your own equipment."

Li Dong nodded repeatedly as he listened.

As he spoke, Su Yanqing reached out and pushed open a partition door deeper inside the lab.

"Come on, let’s take a look inside."

The inner room was a bit smaller, more like a prep room.

A woman was standing in the room.

She looked to be in her early thirties, with short hair, wearing a lab coat and latex gloves.

She was hunched over, working on a cylindrical metal canister, which was the transfer arm for a sample loading chamber.

When Su Yanqing entered, she didn’t lift her head, only glancing in their direction.

"Teacher Su."

"Xiaoyan."

Su Yanqing patted Li Dong.

"East God, let me introduce you."

"This is Zhang Yan, a Ph.D. student supervised by Teacher Wu. You can just call her Sister Yan."

Li Dong obediently greeted her.

"Hello, Sister Yan."

Only then did Zhang Yan put down the cleaning rod in her hand, tear off her gloves, and toss them into the waste bin beside her. She turned around and sized Li Dong up.

Then she said with a smile,

"Well now, if it isn’t Yan University’s own East God. You look even younger in person than in your pictures."

Li Dong was a little embarrassed.

Being called "East God" by a senior who seemed about ten years older than him felt a little strange.

"Sister Yan, you can just call me Li Dong."

Zhang Yan said, "Oh?" her eyes curving into a smile.

"Well... East God can get embarrassed, huh?"

Li Dong complained silently in his head.

’What kind of thing is that to say?’

’Makes it sound like I’m super thick-skinned.’

Zhang Yan seemed to be the type with a lively, unpredictable personality. Her gaze held a hint of teasing, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

After her laugh, she didn’t press the matter further, turning and pointing to the lab bench.

"Come over here, East God. Take a look at this."

"All this stuff in our room, which of it do you know how to use? And which do you not?"

"Take a look for yourself first."

"It’ll make it easier for us to divide up the work later."