Chapter 105: A Restless Night

In the evening, 9:50.

Just before the dormitory building was about to close its doors, a figure hurried in, she clattered up the stairs and pushed open the door to her dormitory.

"Wow! Miaomiao is back!"

"Miaomiao, I heard today……"

Inside the dormitory, a few girls chattered, their eyes revealing a blazing fire of gossip.

Chu Miaomiao's face instantly turned red.

Wang Fang and Chu Miaomiao were closest; she stepped over a few steps, grabbed Chu Miaomiao's arm, her voice full of excitement: "Miaomiao, when did you and Qin Miao get married?"

When school started, they definitely didn't know each other; could the turning point of fate be…… that they went out together during National Day, didn't return after the holiday, and even took extra leave—could it be then that they got married?

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

"Miaomiao, you're the first in our dorm to get married; tell us what it feels like to be married." Liu Cuiping also came over, the two stood left and right, pulling Chu Miaomiao into the dorm and closing the door.

At the doorway, at some point, the female classmates from the next dorm had gathered.

"You…… you guys had better not talk nonsense; this…… this matter is a secret."

"It's been made public, the whole school knows—what kind of secret is this? Hurry up and speak! Hey, you…… you seem to have Qin Miao's scent on you; you two just……"

"Don't talk nonsense!" Chu Miaomiao's face flushed to her neck: "Go to sleep!"

"Sigh, Qin Miao is really pitiful."

"What's wrong?"

"They're married, yet they can't even share a blanket with their wife……"

Chu Miaomiao buried her head under the covers, listening to the commotion outside, but…… she instead felt a sweet feeling in her heart—everyone knew now, so San Shui would henceforth belong to her!

Compared to the liveliness of the girls' dorm, the boys' dorm had quite a different atmosphere.

"You say, Qin Miao quietly snatched away our department's belle—this Qin Miao is impressive!"

"But these two really are a good match……"

"Hey, the lights are out, go to sleep!"

"Sigh, how enviable, to be able to hold someone……"

"Yang Zhiqiang, can't you speak less vulgarly?"

"What's up, Wanli, you seem…… off today; could it be that you…… like Chu Miaomiao? Too bad, it's too late—they're already married, you……"

Clang!

Zhao Wanli from the upper bunk jumped straight down from his bed and charged toward Yang Zhiqiang on the opposite lower bunk, fists clenched, his eyes full of ferocity.

"Hey! If you've got the guts, go fight Qin Miao to the death! What are you acting all high and mighty in the dorm for? If you don't dare hit Qin Miao, you're just taking it out on me? Come on, I'm not afraid of you!"

Yang Zhiqiang also jumped out of the blankets, his anger flared.

Others also crawled out of their blankets, trying to break up the fight—after all, we're all in the same dorm, we can't really come to blows.

Finally, the disturbance subsided, but Zhao Wanli, huddled under the covers, just couldn't fall asleep no matter what.

"Chu Miaomiao, you liar! You said at the start that college was just about studying hard, not thinking about personal matters—yet…… you actually got married!"

Zhao Wanli, sleepless all night, showed up the next day with dark circles; seeing him like that, Yang Zhiqiang couldn't resist making another sarcastic remark.

"Hey, when did our dorm get a panda?"

Smack!

A slap left him dazed; after reacting, Yang Zhiqiang lunged forward: "Zhao Wanli, I fuck your grandpa!"

In the dorm, clattering noises rang out.

In the morning, Zhao Wanli, who always came early to class, arrived just on time for the first time, and upon entering he lowered his head, afraid of being seen.

But…… as he passed Chu Miaomiao's desk, she still noticed him: "Zhao Wanli, what's wrong with you?"

"No, nothing—I just slipped when I went out."

Fighting is fighting, but we absolutely must not talk about it, let alone file a complaint—otherwise we'll be looked down upon!

"Should we go to the infirmary……"

"No need."

Looking at the guilty Zhao Wanli, Chu Miaomiao felt a bit suspicious, but then the class bell rang; she could only withdraw her curious gaze and continue the lesson.

Qin Miao yawned, walked with light steps to the Materials Department lab.

"Hey, San Shui, why do you have red eye circles?"

"It's all your fault! Yesterday you went on and on, so after returning I looked up some materials, tinkered alone with some carbon-fiber manufacturing methods—let's give it a try and see if it works……"

"Great, come on, let's try!"

Carbon fiber, as a material, can be traced back to when Edison invented the light bulb—he carbonized bamboo, which actually was carbon fiber; unfortunately, its mechanical properties were too poor back then, making industrial use impossible.

Thus, after WWII ended, countries began developing modern carbon fiber that could be mass-produced industrially; Americans first produced carbon fiber from viscose fiber, using it as rocket nozzle and nose cone ablative material.

In the 1960s, the island nation developed carbon fiber using polyacrylonitrile fiber as feedstock and pursued its industrialization.

In the 1970s, the island nation's chemical companies had built a plant producing 120 tons of pitch-based carbon fiber per year; thus, by the time the 1980s arrived, carbon fiber from three different feedstocks had entered the stage of industrial production, while the East remained blank in this field!

Later-generation ultra-high-modulus carbon fiber production remains a secret, but ordinary 3.5 GPa high-strength carbon fiber has become commonplace! This material only began industrial production in 1982, and some small-scale trial batches could reach 7 GPa.

We don't need to go overboard—just producing 3.5 GPa carbon fiber is enough!

The manufacturing process basically consists of three steps: stabilization in air at 200–400 °C, then heating in nitrogen to 1400 °C for carbonization, then heating in argon to 1800 °C for graphitization.

This process is now strictly guarded by all countries. In the East, at Ha Gong Da, Qin Miao, after a night of painstaking research and then a week of trial, succeeded in making it!

"Great, it's finally done!" Mao Jun looked at the carbon-fiber filaments churned out in the lab, his eyes shining.

"Yeah, pre-oxidation, carbonization, graphitization—we know these steps, but we can't precisely control the temperature and environment; we have to try bit by bit!"

Another old professor lifted his head from the microscope: "Now, after the correct process, linear polyacrylonitrile polymer undergoes oxidation, pyrolysis, cross‑linking, cyclization and other chemical reactions, and in this process, removing hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms to form graphite‑state carbon fiber truly opens our eyes!"

"Qin Miao, how should we further process this carbon fiber?"

This is still just fine thread, while what we truly need is… helicopter rotor blades!

"Hmm, we still need further operations next; let me go think about it. Everyone should also study how to industrialize production of this thing, and… bring over the helicopter rotor blueprints, we'll first make a sample to try."

In the following process, Qin Miao also knows that oxidizing the surface via gas-phase or liquid-phase methods, then applying sizing treatment to increase fiber affinity, then the gauze becomes unidirectional fiber tape, then woven into carbon fiber fabric, becoming a sheet-like material, then cut as needed into corresponding shapes…