Super God-Level Top Student

The Capital, deep into the night.

Zhang Qige tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

He had been listed among the experts scheduled to visit Xilin for an inspection tomorrow, not entirely by merit of votes. Some favors were exchanged, ones that would need to be repaid.

Although he was set to depart tomorrow, and the technical theoretical verification and simulation details were soon to be witnessed, which logically should have allowed him to sleep soundly and recharge, he was too excited to sleep due to this very reason.

It felt like being back in elementary school, knowing there was a spring outing the next day, feeling anxious yet eager at the prospect of a fun-filled day, but also fearing a sudden downpour that might lead to its cancellation.

If the contents of the report he had seen were true, it meant that the collider he had anticipated for decades would finally be officially launched in Huaxia.

Yet, he always felt the parameters given in the report were too outrageous, genuinely fearing that upon arrival at Xilin, he might uncover evidence of a fraud, leaving him elated over nothing.

In fact, Zhang Qige wasn't the only one feeling sleepless tonight. For high-energy physicists rooted in Huaxia, having their own high-energy collider was something they could smile about, even in their dreams.

Especially in recent years, there had been a sense of frustration.

Many research institutions, including CERN, had always been wary of Huaxia's scientists. Their applications submitted to CERN were hard to get approved, and even accessing data often faced numerous obstacles.

That Yang Xuanqing could still achieve results at CERN was partly due to Edward Witten's influence; and partly because he had been stationed long-term at CERN. After all, the world operates on relationships, even if the general environment wasn't particularly favorable to Huaxia.

There's no alternative; as everyone knows, high energy physics is fundamentally about studying microscopic particles. If one wants to know the internal structure of something, like the inside of a watermelon, and what it's composed of, the most direct way is to slice it, break it, and then see.

But what if there are no tools?

Yes, the significance of a high-energy collider is to collide particles from both sides, smash them, and then analyze their internal structure until everything is fully dissected.

The smallest particles currently recognized by physicists are quarks. Humankind's ability to observe quarks comes through tools like large hadron colliders, which are types of particle accelerators that indirectly provide evidence for quarks' existence.

According to the standard model, quarks are indivisible, but in string theory, quarks are composed of one-dimensional objects called strings. This is perhaps why Edward Witten has been promoting M-theory around the world.

With humanity's most advanced technological methods, even CERN's large hadron collider cannot explore beneath quarks to ascertain if one-dimensional strings exist as an internal structure.

Sadly, Huaxia still lacks the tools to indirectly study quarks. Most of the research on high-energy physics has relied on relatively outdated positron-electron colliders.

Without tools, coming up with significant achievements is naturally impossible. There's no way to specialize research on C quarks, B quarks, Z particles, W particles...

Now, the report from Xilin Physics Institute shines like a ray of light into the high-energy field. How can one not feel excited and thrilled?

Thus, when the expert group gathered the next day, it was no surprise that over a dozen middle-aged individuals in their forties and fifties wore heavy dark circles under their eyes.

Once on board, Zhang Qige unhesitatingly sat next to Yang Xuanqing.

Indeed, in Zhang Qige's opinion, if anyone among them had any connection with the Xi Lin Institute, it was probably only Yang Xuanqing.

No matter what, he was a Nobel laureate, and he had won the Nobel with Qiao Ze and Edward Witten.

Even if Yang Xuanqing had no relation to Qiao Ze, at least he had collaboratively worked with Edward Witten at CERN. The report from Xilin University of Technology Physics College was jointly signed by Qiao Ze and Edward Witten.

So if anyone among these people knew some inside information, it was probably this Nobel laureate.

It's worth mentioning that the seat next to Yang Xuanqing wasn't easy to secure, but Zhang Qige, leveraging his seniority, thick-skinnedly exchanged places with another professor from Huaqing University with just a few words.

This trip booked them first-class seats on a high-speed rail, with seating just right for two people on this side.

After exchanging a few casual remarks, as soon as the vehicle started moving, Zhang Qige tentatively asked, "Professor Yang, did this accelerator project at Xilin University of Technology even inform you beforehand?"

Yang Xuanqing chuckled wryly before replying, "Academician Zhang, you might be giving me too much credit. Let's not bring up that Nobel anymore. Everyone in the industry knows how luckily I got that Nobel. If you keep asking like this, I'll take it as an insult!"

"Hehe." Zhang Qige let out an awkward chuckle, the conversation almost falling flat.

"Ah, Xuanqing, please don't blame me for speaking openly. To be honest, I've been uneasy inside, and I didn't sleep well last night. I'm just hoping this technology can truly be realized, so you won't have to stay in Europe for extended periods anymore. Not to mention, we're not really used to their food, right? I actually just want to ask, they never contacted you over there?"

Zhang Qige sighed, seemingly asking offhandedly.

The helpless tone was something that anyone could empathize with.