Chapter 771

Xu Qingzhou shifted into a more comfortable position, staring at the ceiling as he continued pondering his future plans.

It was no longer the days of utter poverty; hiring once required Xu Qingzhou’s personal attention, but now the veteran researchers at the institute could handle these tasks.

“One could say that the primary resource for fusion research is talent.”

“Controlled nuclear fusion is a multidisciplinary super-project; for us, the core bottleneck isn’t a single technology, but a systemic talent crisis.”

Recruiting hundreds of fusion specialists in a short time is extremely difficult.

He and Song Yao had discussed it—they would offer top-tier compensation, matching international frontier research institutes.

“Thank goodness we solved the battery problem.”

In the energy sector, fields are mutually reinforcing; while controlled nuclear fusion is undoubtedly beneficial, if the world’s electrical energy carriers haven’t advanced, fusion would still rely on traditional cables for transmission.

“I’m back~”

Song Yao walked in carrying bags upon bags.

“Whoa~ so much stuff.” Xu Qingzhou glanced over, seeing the girl holding several large bags, and got up to greet her.

“I bought winter clothes for us.”

Song Yao handed him one of the bags. “Here, I packed you some chicken with mushrooms and guobao meat.”

“Thanks for remembering me—if you hadn’t come back, I might’ve starved to death.”

Xu Qingzhou took the bag and pinched her butt. Song Yao shed her coat, revealing a white sweater and high-waisted jeans—far more innocent and college-girl-like than her usual work attire.

“Are you disgusting?”

Song Yao glared at him.

“You’re not even shy anymore. It’s not fun at all.”

Xu Qingzhou sighed, missing the days when he’d brush her leg and she’d blush and fluster up.

“You want fun, huh? Come here, I’ll play with you slowly.”

Song Yao leaned back on the sofa and beckoned him with a finger.

Song Yao was no longer the cold, aloof girl she once was—she switched effortlessly between diva, moe, and every style in between.

“Wait till I eat, till I’ve restored my energy, hmph.”

“I’m so scared.”

Song Yao half-heartedly played along, secretly despising Xu Qingzhou’s antics—this was a world-renowned scientist? Pathetically childish. She thought for a moment, then shuffled off in her slippers to wash her feet in the bathroom.

Her feet hurt from walking all day; she’d let him play after he finished eating.

Twenty minutes passed.

Xu Qingzhou sat back on the sofa, patting his belly contentedly—full and satisfied, now to snuggle with Song Yao, and life was complete.

Song Yao tapped on her phone. “Your Weibo has twenty million followers.”

“I really want to be low-key, but my talent won’t allow it.”

Xu Qingzhou wore an expression of weary world-weariness.

“Pfft, typical.”

Song Yao shifted her butt, snuggling into Xu Qingzhou’s arms to share online news with him.

The Material Research Institute’s recent achievements and the announcement of its upcoming demonstration reactor had sent shockwaves across China’s internet.

“666+, one hour? Now that’s leading by a mile!”

“Can anyone explain what this actually means?”

“In terms of impact, in just a few years you’ll see controlled nuclear fusion deployed; in another decade, you might see nuclear-powered spaceships flying all over the sky.”

“The U.S. recently achieved a 10-second net energy gain experiment, which caused a huge stir in the scientific community. As for Germany, the W7-X stellarator has only managed six minutes of net energy gain under Lawson criterion conditions.”