The Red Era, the Opening University Speech

Chapter 8 I have a friend

After leaving the dean's office, Li Mu returned to the classroom.

Take a deep breath and walk in.

I thought I would get a lot of attention, but my classmates in the classroom were all concentrating on their studies.

"As expected of a top student from a key university in the 1960s!" Li Mu sighed.

The college students at that time studied very hard for the sake of national construction, which was completely different from the college students in later generations who just idled away their time.

Looking around, Li Mu quickly found the only empty seat in the front row and sat down.

Take out the letter paper from the white envelope with "To classmate Li Mu" written on it.

Dear Li Mu:

[I learned that you participated in the Mechanical Design Competition for College Students at Kyoto Institute of Technology...]

……

[I hope you will keep exercising while studying hard. Only with a good body can you make greater contributions and continue to shine for the construction of the motherland! ]

[I wish you good health and academic happiness - He Baiyi]

After reading it, Li Mu felt mixed emotions.

A hero who was busy with all kinds of affairs wrote a letter to himself. Apart from mentioning the design competition at the beginning, the whole letter was about caring about his health and imparting life experience.

And he never thought about how to struggle and seize the opportunity of time travel to contribute to the rise of the motherland.

In the end, the three views that have long been formed overwhelm all impulses.

"Cultivate oneself, manage the family, govern the country and bring peace to the world!"

"The ancients have already said it, why am I still struggling with it?"

"There's still a lot of life ahead of me, so let's first solve the problem of being exposed during the time travel!" Li Mu thought and decided to go according to the plan. No complications can happen!
Not long after, the teacher walked into the classroom.

The teacher, wearing round-frame glasses, came in and said, "Class is starting," and then began to explain the content of today's class:
"Today we will talk about the chemical composition of alloy structural steels commonly used in machine tool manufacturing..."

Li Mu's eyes went blank when the teacher said the fifth word.

The classmates listened with great interest and he was sweating profusely.

Li Mu could only try hard to imitate the classmate next to him, straighten his posture, and listen to the whole morning class with clear eyes.

During the period, I was almost called upon by the teacher to answer a question. Fortunately, I was a psychology major, so facial emotion management was basic knowledge for me. I put on an expression that said, "This question is too boring and I'm too lazy to answer it," and the teacher successfully diverted the attention.

After finally making it to the end of school, Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang.

Just as he was about to run, Zhang Kai came over.

Zhang Kai whispered, "Li Mu, our experiment is in trouble!"

He had originally planned to tell Li Mu about this in the morning.

But Li Mu was taken away by Professor Wang in the morning, and the class started as soon as he came back. Zhang Kai felt that he should not disturb Li Mu, so he said it now.

"What exactly is it?" Li Mu's face was calm, but he was confused.

Zhang Kai sighed and said, "Alas, Li Jian wanted to try to change the circuit, but it was a waste of effort. After two days of modification, it's still the same!"

"I know you were sick, so I didn't feel comfortable looking for you a few days ago, but the deadline for submitting results for the team competition is..."

Zhang Kai's voice faded away.

"It's okay, let's find a solution together!" Li Mu was panicking inside, but he had to pretend to be confident that he had nothing to be afraid of as long as I was around.

Zhang Kai was overjoyed: "Okay, let's go directly to the experimental teaching building. Li Jian is close to the canteen, so I asked him to bring us food!"

The two left the classroom.

On the way, Li Mu asked tentatively: "Do you have any ideas?"

"I should be the one asking you this. We've been at a loss since you left. Without your direction, we don't know where to conduct the experiment." Zhang Kai sighed after hearing this.

After listening to this, Li Mu guessed that he should be the core person in the team who grasps the general direction.

"The reason for the lack of results is me. There is something wrong with the direction I gave." Li Mu followed Zhang Kai's words.

Zhang Kai waved his hand: "How can this be your fault? It was me who insisted on choosing the improvement of incandescent lamps as the topic, and even dragged you into the group."

"I should have thought of it earlier. Incandescent lamps have been popular in foreign countries for so long and have not been improved. How could the three of us do it?"

Zhang Kai's tone was full of guilt.

If it weren't for his insistence, Li Mu would not have chosen to improve the incandescent lamp.

If we fail to produce results in the final team competition, we won’t get any honors!

With Li Mu's ability, he wouldn't be able to say for sure that he would be first in the competition, but he would at least be in the top three.

It turns out to be an improvement on the incandescent lamp!
Li Mu finally got the research topic out of him, but as a liberal arts student, he could just change the light bulbs, but to improve it...

"There is still a chance, let's try again." Li Mu comforted.

Thinking that he would be caught by the two and questioned, Li Mu began to think about what excuse he could make to run away.

After a while, the two came to a stand-alone experimental teaching building.

Li Mu followed Zhang Kai into a classroom on the first floor. Before they entered, a skinny boy with short hair came out.

"Li Mu, you're finally here. I've been looking forward to seeing you!" Li Jian grabbed Li Mu's hand with an excited look on his face.

As he spoke, Li Jian pulled Li Mu into the laboratory converted from the classroom and came to a simple laboratory table made of several tables.

On the laboratory table, there are tools of all sizes and accessories for light bulbs, as well as many powders and liquids in bottles whose materials cannot be identified.

"We have tried many times to use various materials to replace tungsten filaments, but there is no way to reduce the loss and increase the service life of incandescent lamps." Zhang Kai saw Li Mu glanced at the table and thought he was looking at the progress of their experiment.

Li Mu crossed his chest with one hand and held his chin with the other. On the surface, he was pondering the experimental problem, but in his heart, he was frantically sending messages to Ask for help:
"Are you there?"

"Ask, help me look up the history of the development of incandescent lamps, as well as the different manufacturing principles of various light bulbs." "By the way, if possible, please clearly indicate when the research was successful and when it was applied."

Having learned from the last lesson, Li Mu asked Ask to help mark the time this time.

"Li, what do you want these for?" Ask replied quickly.

The history of the development of incandescent lamps can be found everywhere on the Internet, but Li Mu asked him this question?
"I have a friend who likes collecting and handicrafts. He wants to make a few different types of light bulbs for fun."

"I'll send you the history of the development of incandescent lamps first. There's a lot of content on light bulbs, so I'll sort it out."

Ask acted quickly and sent the document over after ten minutes.

Dozens of example pictures are also attached to clearly explain the principles and production process of incandescent lamps.

"Thanks. I'll take you to play games later." After Li Mu replied, he began to check the information.

Li Mu found information from around 1960 and discovered that Emperor M had already developed the halogen lamp in 1959.

The experimental prototype of Zhang Kai and Li Jian is the incandescent lamp, the predecessor of the halogen lamp.

"Fortunately, this won't attract too much attention." Li Mu said secretly.

He doesn't dare to touch the technology which is too cutting-edge now.

After reading the information, Li Mu had a clear idea in his mind:

"I think we went in the wrong direction before." Li Mu pretended to frown for a long time, and finally spoke slowly under the expectant eyes of Zhang Kai and Li Jian.

It seems like this was said, but it also seems like it wasn't said.

Both of them looked a little confused.

"I've thought about it carefully. Tungsten filament can be used as the filament material of incandescent lamps. The tests it has undergone are not something that we three students can find a substitute for after tinkering with it for a while." Li Mu continued.

Zhang Kai and Li Jian came back to their senses and also felt that it made sense.

Emperor M has money, people, and a powerful big brother. It's a joke that the three of them could come up with something that the two big village leaders couldn't come up with just by casually trying!

But even though they knew it, they were still a little discouraged after hearing what Li Mu said.

"Of course, there is a solution to this problem." Li Mu said again.

"Okay, you're just teasing us here." Zhang Kai was stunned, then smiled and hit Li Mu's shoulder.

"Don't be impatient, just eat while talking. I've been smelling the meat buns for quite some time."

Li Mu touched his stomach and found that he had completely digested what he had eaten at home in the morning.

The aroma of meat buns wafting out of three aluminum lunch boxes on another empty table made Li Mu swallow his saliva.

"Eat. If it's not enough, I'll go to the cafeteria to buy more." Li Jian slid and picked up a lunch box, opened it and stuffed it into Li Mu's hand.

"I think... if we want to extend the life of incandescent lamps, the problem is still a change in thinking... but we should not think about how to replace them... we should think about how to... reduce the loss."

Li Mu ate buns while speaking out the information from the document intermittently.

"Oh, Brother Mu, my brother, hurry up and finish eating first."

Li Kai was so anxious about Li Mu's slow words that he scratched his ears and cheeks.

"It's actually very simple. The tungsten filament will produce losses when it is powered on and heated to light up. We want to find a way to reduce this loss and increase the service life of the filament."

"Wouldn't that be a useful improvement?"

"Then our project is of course a success!"

Li Mu finished the meat buns in one lunch box in a few bites, and then set his eyes on the other lunch box.

Zhang Kai silently took it from the side and handed it to Li Mu.

"Reduce losses? How?"

Li Jian was stunned. He was a little confused for a moment.

"Let me ask you, what materials can tungsten react with to undergo recycling?" Li Mu bit into a meat bun, the gravy overflowed, and the aroma filled his nose.

I have never thought that meat buns are so delicious!

Or, take two back for my sisters?

Li Mu suddenly thought of his two little sisters at home.

Looking at him, Li Jian and Zhang Kai were still frowning in thought because of his words, muttering:

"Recycling, recycling reaction..."

"These buns are delicious. Can I take two back for my sister?" Li Mu said to Li Jian.

The buns were bought by Li Jian.

Li Jian was still thinking about the principle Li Mu mentioned and nodded absentmindedly.

So Li Mu took two buns and put them into the aluminum lunch box that had just been emptied.

Li Mu didn’t eat the rest. It was okay to eat a few, but it would not be good to eat them all, so he left at least one.

After eating, Li Mu continued to browse the information about halogen lamps to deepen his memory.

After a while, Li Jian suddenly slapped his thigh excitedly: "I know, it's the Halogen element!"

"Halogen elements can definitely be tested. Fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine, and tantalum are all experimental directions!"

His major just happened to involve this aspect, and he was very familiar with the chemical reactions of various elements.

Zhang Kai, standing aside, suddenly realized: "I still need you to take action. You are indeed an engineering genius!"

"Yes, I'm obviously not bad in chemistry, but it was you, Li Mu, who thought of this direction first!" Li Jian's eyes were full of admiration.

Zhang Kai laughed and said, "So you didn't put your knowledge into practice. We all need to learn from Li Mu, or we won't be able to catch up with him in the future!"

(End of this chapter)