windy city rainy season

After taking a sip of the local beer brought by Chen Li, Tao Yu put the bottle on the table, shook the mouse to restore the laptop from hibernation, opened a document on the desktop and said: "I checked the manufacturer of the deodorizing technology for you, There is MSDS on their website, but the patented ingredients are kept secret. I found a technical description in the database of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, and some chemical formulas may be useful to you." (MSDS: Material Safety Data Sheet Material Safety Data Sheet)

Seeing the "Confidential" mark on the front page of the document, Chen Li smiled and said, "Confidential business information is so easily downloaded, the Environmental Protection Agency's confidentiality work is not in place."

Tao Yu was not surprised and said: "The manufacturer must not disclose the information when it is provided, but those who manage the files are sloppy. I have a friend who is in the information business, and he hired a person to find such 'leaked nets' in the federal and state databases. fish', and then resell it to domestic manufacturers."

Chen Li raised his eyebrows, he had never heard of such a way of making money.He took the mouse from Tao Yu's hand and scrolled down, explaining that the parts involving patented ingredients were replaced with characters, which can play a certain role in keeping the public secret. However, professionals can make a rough guess only by looking at how other compounds participate in the reaction. The main structure of the patented components is presented.

"The principle is very simple." Chen Li said while watching, "Separate the hydrogen bond and oxidize the negative divalent sulfur that produces the odor. The key lies in the reaction speed. This series of steps must be completed in a short contact time. A single chemical It’s very difficult to do this with enzymes.”

"Can you figure out their patented ingredients?" Tao Yu asked.

Chen Lizhi stood up and leaned against the window and said: "From the perspective of the reaction formula, their sulfur final product is not harmless, but forms acid radical ions. Although it has no smell, the diffusion in the air may aggravate the impact of acid rain. I have some The preliminary idea needs to be verified by experiments, and you can submit this when applying for the fund next year, and it happens that Teacher Fang has a Ph. D. dissertation in March."

Tao Yu heard old Andrew say that Chen Li had a strong background in chemical engineering, and he changed his career to engage in environmental work halfway.The subject of the environment itself has no advanced theory, it is an interdisciplinary subject based on the foundation of biochemistry and physics, and most of the people who can achieve results in processing technology are those with a good background in biochemistry.

Tao Yu sent the article to the other party's mailbox, closed his notebook and asked, "Why don't you leave some topics for your students to do?"

Chen Li explained: "Teacher Fang and I are in the same supervisor group. I am only a master supervisor now, and I don't have a doctorate. It's a little bit reluctant to do a master's thesis. I'm afraid I won't be able to complete it before graduation. Now the length of the master's degree has been shortened."

"Is there a high demand for a doctoral supervisor in China?" Tao Yu asked, "According to the papers you have published and the students you have supervised, are you not qualified to lead a doctorate?"

"There are many people in the department, and the number of places is limited every year. We give priority to those returning from the 'Jieqing' and the 'Thousand Talents Program'."

"You didn't have the 'Thousand Talents Program' when you came back." Tao Yu complained for him, "And you came back in a hurry on 911/[-], how could you have the opportunity to apply for the 'Jieqing' fund? You have to ask others every year, when will you be able to apply for it? It's your turn!"

Chen Li smiled helplessly: "I won't be too old if I wait a few more years..."

"Senior brother, you might not like to hear something." Tao Yu picked up the bottle and stood by the window, "You are single now, and you have nothing to worry about. Have you ever thought about going out again? It seems that you are not good at dealing with personnel affairs. , if you are a scholar, the atmosphere over there may be more suitable for you."

Chen Li rubbed the label of the wine bottle with his fingers, and said, "It's because I'm alone everywhere, so I don't bother to change places. No matter how many articles I publish when I become a doctoral supervisor or a full professor, they are all for others to read. When I go home, I will be alone." Drinking and celebrating against the wall, I feel that there is no point in arguing about these things."

During this period, the two drank a few times, but they rarely talked about their lives. Hearing the negative meaning in each other's words, Tao Yu asked hesitantly, "Brother, you are only 37, so you never thought about finding another one? "

Chen Li looked out of the window. At night, the lakeside was covered with smoke and fog, the street lights were dense, and the air carried the unique softness of the south.

"...thought about it."

"no suitable ones?"

Chen Li drank the rest of the wine slowly, put the bottle on the window sill, and looked sideways at Tao Yu.The eyes of the two met, and Tao Yu felt a certain emotion in the other's eyes. He was stunned for a few seconds. He lowered his head in embarrassment and picked up the wine bottle. The ring on his hand touched the glass with a soft sound.

"Unlucky, I didn't meet..." Chen Li looked away, said "rest early", turned and left the room.

Tao Yu looked at the place where the other party was standing just now, and the empty wine bottle on the window sill was taken away, like some unspoken words without leaving a trace.

Returning to Shanghai the next day, after a short closing ceremony and lunch, the American party will leave for the airport.Chen Li said goodbye to old Andrew, the old man took him to mutter for a while, Chen Li nodded and said: "I'll think about it." (Translation: I will think about it.)

Then he turned to Tao Yu, and the two shook hands and said goodbye as if nothing had happened.The phrase "Keep in touch" lingered in his mouth, but Tao Yu finally didn't say it, but simply said "Goodbye".

Chen Li smiled and patted his shoulder.

On the return flight, old Andrew used his mileage card to upgrade to the business class, and Tao Yu stayed alone in a window seat in the economy class.It was dark not long after take-off, and he drank two glasses of wine to try to sleep on the way, but it didn't help except to give him a splitting headache.

Chen Li's gaze was like a soft thorn in his heart. He admired each other's personality. They had similar study abroad experiences and had many professional topics to talk about. Chen Li's knowledge and way of looking at problems often inspired him, because these , he is happy to communicate with each other, and he also thinks that this kind of communication is defined within the boundaries of peers and brothers.However, after last night, he suddenly became suspicious of himself. Did he really not notice Chen Li's care in the past two weeks, or did he unknowingly cross a certain boundary, causing the other party to misunderstand?

The plane was flying smoothly at an altitude of [-] feet, but he felt as if he had encountered a turbulence in his heart, and he was uneasy. After more than ten hours of flight, he didn't get any sleep in the end.

After getting off the plane, old Andrew took the first step through the citizen passage, and Tao Yu waited in line for nearly an hour at the foreigner's entry gate before picking up his luggage and arriving at the pick-up hall.It was evening in Chicago, and Chang Zheng said that he would have an operation in the afternoon, so he might not be able to pick him up.Called the other party's mobile phone, but there was no one answering, so he reluctantly dragged his luggage to the subway station.

Passing by the coin-operated telephone that swallowed his steel coin three years ago and couldn’t get out, “Revisiting the Old Place” found that there seemed to be some graffiti on the board. He took out a pen from his bag and added a line of words on it——

"Line to nowhere..."

Someone circled him from behind and read it softly.

Tao Yu suddenly turned his head to look at the person who came, and said in surprise: "Aren't you unable to come?!"

"The patient's condition is unstable, and the operation was temporarily canceled. I was paying when you called just now, and I didn't notice." Chang Zheng smiled and handed him a McDonald's hamburger, took his luggage with him, and pushed him to the parking lot.

"Did you hear that 'linetonowhere' phone booth story?"

Tao Yu gnawed on the hamburger and shook his head: "No, a horror story?"

"It's a real story." Chang Zheng said, "The Majave Desert in southwestern California once developed a mining industry in the 60s, and a telephone booth was installed to facilitate the workers' contact with the outside world. Later, mining declined and it became a real desert. Sandy soil, but the telephone booth has been serving nobody for decades. Until 99, a California traveler found a black dot in the middle of the desert on the map, marked with Telephone. It took him a long time to find the telephone booth. Still able to get through. After returning home, he published the matter in a small magazine and released the phone number."

"I bet you dialed that number." Tao Yu said, "You are particularly concerned about those places where there are no people, such as uninhabited islands, uninhabited deserts, uninhabited phone booths..."

Chang Zheng said with a smile: "I have called, and it was connected."

"Who is going to the desert to wait for your call?"

“It was a freelancer based in Los Angeles who read the report and went to the phone booth and brought enough food and water to live there for a week and answer calls from everywhere.”

"How idle is this man!" Tao Yu commented.

"Don't you think he thought of answering calls from strangers because he was so lonely?"

"It's so lonely, so I ran to a lonelier place just to answer the phone call that I don't know if someone will call? Isn't this a pain in the ass?" After Tao Yu finished speaking, his heart suddenly moved, "Wait, you Said it was '99? Didn't you..."

"I'm in college." Chang Zheng said, "Ex just fed himself to a bear, and sometimes I have hallucinations and see him praying in his room after smoking marijuana."

"...So you also called that phone number in the desert because you were lonely?"

Chang Zheng was noncommittal: "During that time, I always had a lot of scruples about the people around me, and I was more willing to talk to strangers."

Somehow Tao Yu thought of Chen Li again. Did the other party pay more attention to him, a stranger, because he was too lonely alone, and a little affection and intimacy were also magnified several times.

He shook his head, trying to get rid of all the random thoughts in his mind, and secretly told himself that no matter what the other party thought, whether he was attracted at a certain moment, it didn't matter, and he would never meet again in the future.

Looking at the hamburger in his hand, he suddenly lost his appetite, handed it to Chang Zheng and said, "Are you hungry?"

Dr. Chang turned his head in pain when he smelled the hamburger: "I've been eating fast food for two weeks, please go home and make a meal!"

At the end of August, when the fall semester started, Tao Yu started to get busy again, and the two weeks in Shanghai had gradually been forgotten.This semester, he took an extra course. The sewage plant project was coming to an end, so he wanted to earn more credits. If the project was over and there was no funding, he would have to pay the tuition himself.

Every Wednesday afternoon is the unshakeable lecture time in the department. Sometimes it is a professor of the department, and sometimes it is an industry insider who has recently published influential articles.This afternoon, Tao Yu rushed back to school from the sewage plant. When he arrived at the lecture hall, he was already 10 minutes late. He wanted to sneak in through the back door, but he saw the department head talking on the phone outside the back door, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to the front door.

Pushing the door open for a narrow gap, Tao Yu slipped in and walked back against the wall. He found Luo Feng who was occupying a seat for him in the middle back. Looking at the person who made the report in front of him, he was drawn back before he could finish his breath.

"Chen..." He hastily stopped the name that he almost blurted out.

The other party just happened to look over, the report did not stop, but there was a smile in his eyes.