Chapter 282 - 264: Consulting the Almanac

Chapter 282: Chapter 264: Consulting the Almanac

Li Dong nodded and walked over to the lab bench.

He first took a slow lap around the room.

There wasn’t actually much stuff.

After all, a lot of the large equipment hadn’t arrived yet.

But even as he scanned the "small items" that were already in place, Li Dong couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy.

He had helped out once before over at senior student Qi Yu’s lab.

Although her lab wasn’t as high-end as this one, the basics of some common equipment were the same.

Li Dong walked up to the first instrument.

It was a circular instrument with an autosampler, a matte black casing, and a lid on top that could be raised and lowered.

He pointed at it.

"I’ve used this one."

Zhang Yan grunted in acknowledgment but didn’t say anything.

Li Dong turned to a box-shaped instrument next to it, which had a ring of calibrated knobs on the outside.

He thought for a moment.

"This one... I remember it’s for temperature control. I’ve seen others use it a few times."

"I haven’t run the specific program by myself, but I’ve watched her do it."

"I know the general procedure."

He took two steps further in and saw a metal canister shaped like a kettle sitting on the corner of the table.

A soft tube was connected to its opening, with the other end attached to a pump.

Li Dong thought about it, then shook his head.

"I don’t know how to use this one."

"I’ve never seen it before."

He looked at another instrument against the wall.

That one looked even more complicated.

It had many knobs, a bunch of indicator lights on the front panel, and two cables running from its side into the wall.

Li Dong stared at it for a long time.

"This one..."

He hesitated.

"I have a rough idea what it’s for, but I’ve never operated it."

Finally, he pointed to the two instruments in the very back.

"These two I’ve never even seen before."

As Zhang Yan listened to him, her expression slowly started to change.

Her original plan had been, ’I’ll let this Li Dong kid poke around on his own first, then I’ll teach him everything from scratch later.’

After all, he was a math guy. No matter how much of a genius he was, he probably hadn’t used much of the equipment here in the School of Chemistry.

But as it turned out, after one lap around the room...

The kid actually recognized a few of the machines.

And even if he didn’t know how to operate them, his descriptions of their functions were pretty much on the mark.

Zhang Yan let out a soft ’Huh?’ in her mind.

’Looks like this kid isn’t a total blank slate after all.’

’I wonder where he got his chemistry exposure.’

She didn’t press the matter, just nodded.

"Alright then."

"That’ll save me a bit more trouble than I expected."

She pulled open a nearby drawer, fished out a USB drive, and handed it to Li Dong.

"This has some operation manuals and some instructional videos."

"They’re all things I saved from when I was learning."

"Take it back and look through it first."

"In three days, when our project team officially kicks off, you can try your hand at it."

"Of course, you’ll have to start with the simple stuff."

Li Dong took the USB drive and was about to nod.

Then he suddenly remembered something.

"Sister Yan."

"Didn’t you say a batch of our equipment is arriving this afternoon?"

"After it arrives... can I come over early to familiarize myself with it?"

The smile on Zhang Yan’s face stiffened slightly.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to agree.

It was just that...

Before she could speak, Su Yanqing, who was standing nearby, gave a cough and leaned toward Li Dong.

His voice was very low.

"Li Dong, uh... we can’t touch anything until three days from now."

Li Dong turned his head.

"Why not?"

Su Yanqing glanced left and right, making sure no one else was in the room.

Then, in an "I’m telling you this, but don’t you dare tell anyone else" tone, he whispered.

"Teacher Wu... he checked the calendar."

Li Dong: ???

"He checked the calendar. That day is an ’auspicious day to begin work’ according to the almanac."

Li Dong was stunned for several seconds.

He subconsciously turned his head and looked at his surroundings.

The off-white walls, the metal door, the signs with safety warnings...

He double-checked.

’I’m standing in a lab on the second basement level of Yan University’s North Chemical Building, right?’

’Not in some temple, right?’

"Brother Su, you’re not messing with me, are you?"

Su Yanqing shook his head, a pained expression on his face.

"Why would I lie to you?"

"Teacher Wu is just a bit superstitious about this stuff."

"You’ll get used to it."

"For the past few years in our group, whenever it involves moving in new lab equipment, powering it on for the first time, or running the first sample, he has to check his phone calendar and pick a day that’s ’auspicious for starting work’ or ’auspicious for breaking ground’."

"He was even more over-the-top a few years ago."

"Once, because the almanac said it was an ’inauspicious day for moving,’ he actually postponed moving a vacuum pump from the first basement level to the second basement level by a whole week."

Li Dong was speechless, but on second thought...

...he realized he wasn’t really in a position to laugh.

After all, many top scientists turned to theology in their later years.

Late in his life, Newton even started trying to calculate codes in the Bible.

And Einstein wasn’t joking when he said, "God does not play dice."

Compared to them, Teacher Wu’s little habit of "checking for an auspicious day" was practically down-to-earth.

At most, it was just for good luck.

Thinking of it that way, he was surprisingly able to accept it.

While he was coming to terms with it, Su Yanqing and Zhang Yan were already discussing the receiving procedure for the equipment arriving that evening.

The two of them checked the list for the several boxes that were due to arrive in the afternoon.

Item numbers, quantities, whether they came with temperature control, whether they needed to be signed for on-site.

Plus, they had to inventory all the accessories, cables, and consumables.

Li Dong listened for a while and found he had nothing to contribute.

A complete amateur like him would only be getting in the way here.

He tactfully spoke up to the two of them.

"Brother Su, Sister Yan, I’m going to head back and look over the materials then."

"I’ll let you get to it."

Su Yanqing nodded.

"Okay, you head back first. I’ll text you on WeChat if anything comes up on our end."

Zhang Yan also smiled at him.

"See you later, East God."

Li Dong nodded.

When he left the North Chemical Building, the sun was already high in the sky.

After spending less than an hour on the second basement level, coming out felt strangely like being pulled out of a walk-in freezer.

He glanced down at the USB drive in his hand.

’I’ve got to really dig into this when I get back,’ he thought.

’Otherwise, on the day the project group actually starts, I’ll be standing in a room full of Professor Wu Kai’s PhD students without even knowing where the power switch is on the machine they assigned me.’

’That would be so embarrassing.’

As he was passing the small road between the North Building and the School of Mathematics...

Li Dong took out his phone and called Professor Wang.

This was for his other commitment.

The mathematics research group was holding interviews in five days for all applicants.

He needed to go over the schedule and procedure with Professor Wang again.

The call connected quickly.

He confirmed the procedure with Professor Wang and then hung up.

Li Dong let out a long sigh of relief.

He had been a little worried about spreading himself too thin by running two projects in parallel.

But now it seemed...

’Bringing Professor Wang on board was definitely the right move.’

The work that he truly had to do himself hadn’t started yet.

He could use this downtime over the next few days to make some headway on the USB drive Zhang Yan gave him and the book list from E Weinan.

Li Dong picked up his pace and headed toward his dorm.