Christmas 2023 is spent in peace.

The colonists of Guanghan have successfully settled into their new homes, except for a rare earth deposit with estimated reserves of more than 30 million tons that was auctioned off by a large domestic mining company, and the news about Guanghan seems to have come to an end for the time being.

As this hot spot gradually fades from people's field of vision, and there are no new hot events to follow, life seems to briefly return to the daily track.

However, while the world has finally been able to get a moment of respite from the shock after shock, for the physics community, it is the opposite.

As if it were a gift from Santa Claus, a message from IMCRC has attracted the attention of physicists almost all over the world.

Prof. Luo, Secretary General of IMCRC, joined the Z-particle Gravitational Anomalies Research Group.

Also, the gravitational wave formula of Z particles was actually solved by Professor Wei Hong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor David of the University of Brussels?

"It's incredible......"

IMCRC's Cafe.

Almost sitting in the place where Lu Zhou had talked to Senior Brother Luo last time, looking at the paper in his hand, Professor Witten's face was full of disbelief.

"Even from a mathematician's point of view, the content of this paper is quite exciting. His understanding of algebraic geometry and topology makes one wonder ......"

Wilzek: "Did Lu Zhou help?" ”

“…… That's not true," Witten couldn't help but praise the paper in his hand, turning the page of the paper, "The gap with Lu Zhou is still not small, but for a scholar engaged in high-energy physics research, it can be said that it is quite rare to be able to master mathematics to this extent." After all, I've seen too many physics professors do calculations on image-only models and casually erase a letter from a line of formulas and pretend that nothing happened. ”

Hearing this, Professor Wilzek, who was drinking black tea, almost didn't choke on the tea, and coughed several times before he recovered.

"Luckily, it's just me...... Otherwise, your parables may offend many people. ”

"Who cares?" Witten shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, "I'm this age." ”

Over the years, there have been more and more old friends, and many people have not been in touch for a while, and then they have sent emails to the past, and there is no news.

Not to mention his old friends, even he himself began to feel that it was becoming more and more difficult to adapt to the current pace of physics research.

Aging is an eternal topic.

Neither great nor humble beings can escape this curse.

Since he can make some amazing achievements, the only thing that Witten still cares about now is probably hoping to see more new things that he has never seen popping up in his lifetime.

Perceiving the sadness of the topic, Professor Wilzek took a gentle sip of the black tea in his cup and diverted the topic without a trace.

"But the surprise you said...... Actually, I think that's to be expected. There is at least an eighty percent probability that the research that can be favored by Lu Zhou's guy, and there must be some amazing discovery behind this. ”

As if he felt that his statement was not accurate enough, Professor Wilzek thought for a moment and added.

Or to put it another way...... More than ninety percent. ”

"It wasn't the Z-particle gravitational wave formula that surprised me, and while it was ingeniously derived, it wasn't far from surprising. Don't say it's Lu Zhou, even if it's me now...... With so many trial clues in hand, a month should be enough. ”

Pushing the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose and looking at the paper in his hand, Witten's eyes showed a look of obvious interest.

"What really surprised me was what Lu Zhou was doing."

"Lu Zhou?" Wilzek gave him a strange look and asked inexplicably, "Isn't he studying this?" ”

"Of course not, if he was working on this, even if I could not see any trace of his calculus in this paper, at least I could see his name in the author's column. I'm willing to bet that even if he doesn't want to put his name on it, his collaborators will really want to put his name on it, and maybe do it without permission......"

Speaking of this, Witten seemed to remember something that had happened a long time ago, and a smile could not help but appear on his wrinkled face.

“…… There seems to be only one possibility for him to leave such an interesting subject alone. ”

"He must have found something more interesting."

The moment he heard this, Wilzek seemed to remember something, and his cloudy pupils suddenly brightened, and he muttered to himself.

“…… And, even he wasn't sure if that was the right thing. ”

Witten snapped his fingers and said with a smile.

"That's right."

Wilzek smashed his tongue and said, "Well, you have managed to arouse my curiosity!" I can't even wait to visit him in Jinling right now to see what he's studying. ”

Witten smiled and said, "You won't see him." ”

Wilzek: "Why? ”

"From what I know about him, he would lock himself up when this kind of thing happened."

Putting down the teacup, Witten smiled a little nostalgically and said.

"He called it a retreat."

……

In fact, Professor Witten guessed very accurately.

Although Lu Zhou has not yet started the retreat, he is already preparing for the retreat.

Moreover, the subject he studied, as Professor Witten guessed, was not the same as that of Professor Wei Hong and Professor David Ke.

The gravitational wave formula of the Z particle is a very perfect result, but it can only be regarded as the first step to understand the cause of the gravitational disturbance of the Z particle when it falls from a higher dimension to a lower dimensional space.

If we can get to the end of this road, it will undoubtedly be a very great result, but it is not easy to dig out all the clues of this research direction in a short period of time.

At least, not in the short term.

In contrast, in this research direction, Lu Zhou found something else that interested him. And it was precisely because of this discovery that he temporarily turned his attention away from the topic of the disturbance of the gravitational field by Z-particles.

It's just that this discovery may seem a little strange to say.

Even he couldn't be sure, his own guess ...... Or is it possible to realize a brainstorm with a flash of inspiration.

However, it was this feeling of uncertainty that ignited the curiosity and the soul of science in his heart for a long time.

I can't even think about it, what's the difference between that and salted fish?

Even if there is only a one percent possibility, he has to take a magnifying glass and dig out the clues corresponding to the one percent possibility!

"I might have to stay at home for a while...... During this time, I may not be able to be contacted. ”

Video call.

Looking at the holographic image of the senior sister unfolded in front of him, Lu Zhou was silent for a while, and finally said this sentence.

In fact, he had been hesitant for a long time before making the call.

Even for someone as ignorant as him, it is somewhat clear that probably no woman can tolerate her boyfriend not replying to her messages for a long time. And even if you tell the reason, it may cause the other party to have various misunderstandings such as "I am a burden".

However, after hearing this, Chen Yushan's reaction was beyond Lu Zhou's expectations.

Seeing Wan Er smile, instead of making a little mood as he imagined, she teased him in a relaxed tone.

"Retreat?"

“…… Belch? Even you know the term? ”

"Don't underestimate your girlfriend, I also know you very well," Chen Yushan couldn't help but joke as she said, "Also, you scared me just now, do you know?" Suddenly so serious...... I thought you were going to break up with me. ”

"How so?!"

"That's not good, what if a little girl younger than me pursues you? After all, I'm not as clingy as a little girl, and I don't have that much emotion. What's more, you still have so many fans, I see that every time you send a scarf, there are people shouting to ...... with you Giving birth to baby monkeys. ”

Although she had a royal sister-like expression from the beginning, when she said the last sentence "give birth to a little monkey", her face couldn't help but feel a little hot because of shame.

As for Lu Zhou on the other end of the phone, he couldn't hold back and almost choked on this sentence.

What the hell is giving birth to baby monkeys?

Is there really such a pervert among his fans?

emmm……

All right.

Thinking that he was so handsome, Lu Zhou suddenly lost his confidence.

"Okay, okay, I'm not going to tease you."

Looking at Lu Zhou, who wanted to explain but didn't know how to speak, and was crying and laughing, Chen Yushan curled the corners of her lips a little proudly, and let go of this big boy who was not good at expressing himself.

After enjoying a moment of silence, she continued in a gentle tone.

"Remember to take care of yourself. No matter how interesting your research is, remember to eat and sleep on time. ”

Looking at his girlfriend who was so considerate and understanding, Lu Zhou was so moved that he was almost speechless for a while.

The Adam's apple moved slightly.

In the end, the unspoken thousand words were melted into one sentence.

"Well, you too!"

Hanging up the phone, Lu Zhou, who was sitting at the desk, took a deep breath, tried to calm his rippling state of mind, and focused all his attention on the scratch paper on the table.

"This should be the last hurdle......"

Reading softly in his mouth, Lu Zhou, who was gradually entering the state, reached out and picked up the ballpoint pen on the table.

“…… The last level before the physics max level. ”

The world after LV10.

Just thinking about it made his heart surge......

Lamp pen