Chapter 698: We've worked under a Nobel Prize big shot

6:30 PM.

The sun was already pressing against the horizon, and the orange sunlight filtered through the glass, landing on the sofa under the window. Er Miao was dozing off in the sunlight.

Inside the house, the three had finished eating.

Song Yao handed her soup bowl to Xu Qingzhou, asking him to ladle some soup for her.

"Just soup?"

Xu Qingzhou picked up the soup ladle beside him.

Song Yao nodded.

"I need a bowl too; this soup is very good."

Xu Qingzhou also got himself a big bowl, and after finishing it, he squinted his eyes in satisfaction.

Song Lulu looked at the two people calmly drinking soup and felt this scene was a bit strange. "No. Cousin, Cousin-in-law, have you noticed that the atmosphere right now... is a bit off?"

They won a Nobel Prize! The most weighty and famous award in the world!

The internet had already exploded, yet the people involved were acting like nothing had happened... no matter how you looked at it, it was strange.

It was as if they were in a small room of twenty-some square meters, eating instant noodles and drinking beer while discussing national affairs, but they were completely the opposite right now.

"Even if you win an award, you still have to eat," Xu Qingzhou said.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't surprised.

You have to know, a call from the Nobel Committee is perhaps one of the most anticipated calls for scientists worldwide. Just as some have commented, this is the briefest yet most eternal romantic moment in the history of modern science.

But there wasn't the frenzy people had expected; instead, it was quite calm. Perhaps, as someone who had already won a Nobel Prize, one would have more feelings about it—the Nobel Prize is not the ultimate goal; it is just a stage in life.

"That seems to be the case too."

Song Lulu couldn't refute that. She added a bowl of soup for herself and said with some worship, "Cousin-in-law, you've won a Nobel Prize; you count as one of the most powerful scientists in the world now, right?"

"There are plenty of people more powerful than me. The Nobel Prize is an important symbol of academic recognition, but it is by no means the only measure of a scientist's achievements."

Xu Qingzhou smiled; he wasn't being modest.

Many big shots have never won a Nobel Prize. Just speaking of the country, there is Hu Wenxiang, hailed as the "man who lifted the spacecraft," and then there is Ye Qisun, the founder of modern physics in the Xia Nation, who measured the Planck constant, pioneered the high-pressure magnetization method, and cultivated founding fathers of the Two Bombs and One Satellite like Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao, Deng Jiaxian, and Qian Sanqiang, and was hailed as the "Grandmaster of the Xia Nation's physics community."

Abroad, figures familiar to everyone like Newton, Hawking, Alan Turing, and others were also people who influenced an era.

The Nobel Prize is not the only yardstick for measuring greatness.

Song Lulu seemed to understand but not quite, looking at the two people opposite her. "Did you two guess you would win the award a long time ago?"

"There was that probability."

Song Yao said, holding her bowl.

Xu Qingzhou's expression was also slightly complex.

He had confidence in winning the Physics Prize, but he didn't expect to win the Chemistry Prize first.

Although unexpected, it was within reason. The formation of lithium dendrites is an electrochemical deposition behavior at the electrode-electrolyte interface, and the shuttle effect involves the dissolution and migration of polysulfides; both belong to the intersection of electrochemistry and materials chemistry.

*Ding~*

At this moment, Xu Qingzhou's phone suddenly rang.

"Minister An Haofeng of the Ministry of Science and Technology."

"Oh, go take the call; we'll clean up."

Xu Qingzhou took the call, while Song Yao and Song Lulu collected the bowls.

Without surprise, news about the Nobel Prize on platforms like Weibo and WeChat sprouted up like bamboo shoots after rain.

Xu Qingzhou's phone hadn't stopped; the *People's Daily* had scheduled a special interview for the next day, and Ji Yunshi, Zhao Shengwen, Zheng Xu, and others had all called to congratulate him.

Besides acquaintances, there were also the city, the ministry, the school...

Generally, after the Nobel Prize results come out, the *People's Daily* and Xinhua News Agency would all issue a briefing first, not to mention that this time there was a Xia Nation person's name on it.

The publicity was even more vigorous.

It was truly a nationwide celebration; he was the third native scientist from the Xia Nation to win a Nobel Prize, and it was the Chemistry Prize at that. ===== CHAPTER 699 =====