Chapter 159: Building the Tower

The rising and falling commotions of the outside world fell entirely beyond Wu Tong’s scope of attention.

After witnessing the maiden flight, Wu Tong, at the invitation of Lu Xiao, visited the Institute 606 to view the retired Chinese warplanes and the martyrs' cemetery, bearing witness to the tragic and magnificent history of China's arduous rise.

While they remained unaware, while they were growing up healthily and vigorously, countless individuals had paid with the price of blood and young lives for the peace and prosperous stability of this country.

Emerging from the martyrs' cemetery, Wu Tong's heart remained unsettled for a long time.

She did not linger. Carrying a profound sense of heaviness, she returned to Peking University once again in the company of Elder Cheng. She wanted to do something—within her power, to do as much as possible.

Could doing so perhaps reduce even a fraction of unnecessary sacrifices?

Wu Tong carefully sorted through the projects currently in her hands. The turbulence model was already complete, and the research on the Navier-Stokes equations was a grand direction that could not be accomplished in a single day.

She still needed to continuously study and research various literature and materials, as well as the domain of knowledge involved in these equations, building the structure story by story.

With the successful test flight of the Mighty Dragon, the T4 and T5 materials had officially entered the completion stage, being handed over to national classified factories for production and preparation, which no longer required her personal concern.

As for the research and development of silicon oxide reduction materials, it had just found its initial starting concept; she needed to further deduce and expand its contour skeleton, fill in the contents, and slowly transform it into the material she desired.

This was also no small undertaking, and for now, it remained her primary focus in material research. In future generations, the island nation acted inhumanely by discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean, plunging people into a state of panic.

Water is the most fundamental substance upon which human life depends, and human survival cannot exist without it.

Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water sources, yet vast marine resources cannot be effectively utilized. The western regions of China suffer from perennial water shortages, while many of those heavy metals that affect human health are actually important resources.

To allow people to drink water with peace of mind, to provide abundant water resources, and to transform harmful substances in the water into useful resources while increasing national resource reserves—this was Wu Tong's most ideal state.

Toward this goal, Wu Tong studied and deduced tirelessly.

Dynamics and fundamental mechanics in physics. Mechanics of materials, molecular science in materials, and more detailed knowledge in chemistry—these various fields of knowledge that needed to be studied were all tactfully squeezed into Wu Tong's schedule. This was in preparation for the PL series, which might still require her assistance, ensuring she was fully prepared in advance.

Reviewing literature, enriching her knowledge base, and conducting experiments were Wu Tong's eternal and unchanging themes.

As time entered November, every autumn rain brought an extra layer of chill, and the air in Beijing gradually turned cool.

Her family reminded her more than once to add layers of clothing one by one and avoid catching a cold, and Wu Tong patiently agreed to every reminder. Although neither winter cold nor summer heat had much impact on her anymore, and she could comfortably wear a single thickness of clothing year-round, there is a kind of cold where your family feels that you are cold.

Therefore, Wu Tong still conformed to the public, adding clothes according to the seasonal transitions and the shifts in warmth and cold.

Her wardrobe was stuffed to the brim. When her mother and maternal aunt came over during the National Day holiday, they had simply filled her closet with new garments. The only thing Wu Tong rejoiced over was that her mother and aunt only made her try on a few pieces to check the sizes without making her try on every single outfit; otherwise, that workload was truly not something an ordinary person could endure.

Her family had arranged everything she could think of—and even things she couldn't. She only needed to swap out her regular seasonal wear in the dormitory. Even this task was taken over by An Wenshu, sparing Wu Tong any trouble at all.

Wu Tong's security detail was so considerate that, to avoid wasting resources and manpower, they had to find some value for themselves.

An Wenshu had now gradually begun to take on a portion of Wu Tong's daily management, acting as a lifestyle assistant. This could also be considered a transition from covert to overt, appearing by Wu Tong's side in a justified and legitimate manner.

In her spare time, she even deliberately took advantage of the convenience of executing missions right at Peking University to carefully audit courses in management and the like. If she was going to do it, she would do it to the best of her ability; she must absolutely never be a burden to Wu Tong!

Aside from her personal learning progress, Wu Tong also had irregular peer reviews for the four major mathematics journals, new material research, mathematical research, and a flurry of meeting invitations that arrived like snowflakes. Wu Tong truly needed an assistant who could help her manage less confidential trivial matters. Having security personnel shoulder this assistant role perfectly integrated absolute confidentiality as well.

Allowing Wu Tong to devote herself entirely to study and research without being troubled by trivial matters was also their core principle. Wasting time that Wu Tong might use at any moment to create miracles on trivial chores was practically a crime!

Inside the Dean's Office of the School of Mathematical Sciences.

"Wu Tong, taste this. How is this cup of Qimen black tea? Drinking some in late autumn warms the stomach against the cold. Have you been adapting well to life lately?" Pan Wenhua handed a cup of tea to Wu Tong, while Zhou Wenping sat quietly on the side.

It was rare to catch Wu Tong at the School of Mathematics today, so Pan Wenhua had invited her to his office for a chat. Unscheduled, spontaneous expressions of care were a heartfelt gesture from these senior mentors.

"Delicious!" Wu Tong praised. This was her most straightforward exclamation. She had no particular study of tea; concepts like color, aroma, and leaf shape were far too difficult for her, so her perception was simply a direct judgment of whether it tasted good or not.

"If it tastes good, I'll have you take two boxes with you later. You've been researching the Navier-Stokes equations recently—is that your next target for conquest?" Was Wu Tong's center of gravity about to return to mathematics? This was something the entire School of Mathematics eagerly anticipated.

They had recently thoroughly studied Wu Tong's latest achievement—nonlinear partial differential equations—which pointed very clearly in that direction. Regarding Wu Tong's choice, it wasn't as if no one thought she was being overly rash; having just resolved several number theory problems, she was already setting her sights on a Millennium Prize Problem. And it wasn't even in her area of expertise, number theory, but rather the cross-disciplinary N-S equations.

If the seven Millennium Prize Problems were truly so easy to solve, the Poincaré conjecture wouldn't be the only one conquered by Grigori Perelman up to the present day! It was just that the person choosing this topic was Wu Tong—someone who dared to say that Wu Tong definitely lacked the possibility of creating a miracle? Absolutely no one would dare.

At the very least, Pan Wenhua and Zhou Wenping were the mentors who held an attitude of support and encouragement.

They did not expect Wu Tong to knock out the N-S equations in one fell swoop. "Studying it slowly like this, choosing a direction and getting results would already be quite remarkable."

Didn't many top international magnates also work on phased results regarding the seven Millennium Prize Problems?

"I'm just doing some brick-laying and wall-building work. Whether it can ultimately put a roof on the building depends entirely on fate!" Although Wu Tong was certain that she would one day reach her goal, she could not determine the exact timeline. When inspiration struck smoothly, it happened in just that single fleeting instant.

However, before inspiration arrived, she needed to lay a solid foundation to provide the perfect conditions for that inspiration to strike; otherwise, how could an empty mind welcome the collision of sparks of thought?

In Wu Tong's view, so-called inspiration was more often the true knowledge forged from the collision of thoughts once accumulation reached a certain level.