Chapter 746

Why are you back so late? Did the plasma and control system integration encounter an issue?

No, just a small program bug during dynamic magnetic field adjustment—it slowed the system down, so I redid the design with a professor from the AI computing center.

Xu Qingzhou exhaled slowly, his fingertip sliding over the girl’s rounded calf.

Song Yao set down the tablet, seeing the fatigue on Xu Qingzhou’s face; she nudged his clothes with her foot and said, “Should I cook you some noodles?”

You mean eat it?

Song Yao felt she’d worried for nothing.

No need. I ate two big bowls of rice—I’m still full.

Watching Song Yao’s tightly clenched fist, Xu Qingzhou cleared his throat, stood up, and decided to take a shower.

After walking a few steps and putting a safe distance between them, Xu Qingzhou stopped, glanced at the girl’s long legs, and invited, “Want to shower together?”

“Xu Qingzhou, I already showered,” Song Yao said flatly.

Xu Qingzhou said, “Showering more is good for your health.”

Song Yao looked at his sincere expression and didn’t know how to respond.

Is that what you call showering?

Pfft, disgusting!

No.

Though she was tempted, her tsundere nature made her reflexively refuse.

Okay.

Xu Qingzhou could only shake his head—he’d nearly been sleeping on the lab floor lately, exhausted, and decided to go upstairs for a shower first; everything else could wait.

Watching Xu Qingzhou’s back, Song Yao pursed her lips, thinking: this guy actually gave up so quickly today? At a time like this, shouldn’t he come over and yank me up hard?

Just thinking about it was thrilling.

Song Yao’s mind involuntarily conjured up some strange, bizarre images.

Huh~

Too messy.

It’s all Xu Qingzhou’s fault—he’s corrupted me, making me think of such things so easily.

Song Yao slapped her burning cheeks, quickly banishing those unclean images from her mind.

After a hot shower, half the day’s fatigue vanished; Xu Qingzhou dried his hair and curled up with Song Yao on the sofa, holding her warm, soft body, and every last trace of weariness dissolved.

“Is this stupid?” he asked, looking at the files on her tablet.

“These are the two research teams I plan to invest in.”

Xu Qingzhou scanned the content of the documents.

Professor Du Yuanhua of Peking University’s radio-frequency superconducting accelerator device research, and the superconducting quantum chip project at the University of Science and Technology of China.

“Yes, radio-frequency superconducting accelerator units can optimize plasma confinement in fusion devices and serve as a supplement to the institute; superconducting quantum chips are also a key future area—both have strong investment potential.”

Xu Qingzhou set down the tablet and asked with a smile, “Decided?”

“I’ll visit the sites next week before finalizing.”

Song Yao decided to inspect the locations in person—this involved over 200 million yuan in investment.

As she spoke, she pressed her face against his chest, the strong scent of pheromones mingling with the sound of his steady heartbeat.

“No overtime tomorrow?”

She took a deep breath and asked softly.

“I’m off this week—the first ignition is on May 15th; there’s still plenty of time.”

Installing the device within eight weeks will allow the first ignition to achieve 100 million C per thousand seconds in steady state. Conservatively speaking, their technology is at least one generation ahead of current systems.

The speed is this fast thanks to many future technologies.

Modular parallel advancement + quantum sensing—just that alone is a dimensional downgrade.

Currently, all test speeds are rapid; the core technological gap lies in quantum sensing and AI real-time closed-loop control, effectively rewriting the entire Tokamak debugging protocol.

By now, of course, there was excitement—but compared to that, there was mostly calm.

Still, Xu Qingzhou’s attention was no longer on the institute; the girl’s warm breath against his chest was tickling.

“This girl’s at it again.”

At the same time, Song Yao pressed herself even closer to Xu Qingzhou, even lightly pecking his neck.