PDLP Chapter 8: Except for the nuts, everything else is male.
Chapter 8: Except for the nuts, everything else is male.
The alarm clock rang at 7:20 in the morning.
Lu Feng reached out and turned off his phone, then sat up.
On the opposite bed, Zhang Wei was curled up in a ball, wrapped in a blanket, with only half his face showing, sleeping like a baby.
We agreed last night to wake him up at 7:30.
Lu Feng glanced at him for two seconds and gave up the idea. He had to report to the lab today and didn't have time to get entangled with this guy.
I washed up quickly, brushed my teeth in my mouth for two minutes, splashed cold water on my face, and I was completely awake.
I changed into a clean white shirt and stuffed the notebook and draft paper I had tidied up last night into my backpack.
As I left, I glanced back at the dormitory. The five of them were still lying around haphazardly. Last night's game of Texas Hold'em had clearly drained them of all their energy.
The canteen at Hong Kong City University is well-known in the industry.
There are more than a dozen breakfast stalls lined up in a row. Soy milk and fried dough sticks are the staples. If you go to the right, there is congee with preserved egg and lean pork, wontons, and pan-fried buns. Further inside, there are also rice noodle roll stalls and jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes).
The innermost window even serves freshly cooked beef noodles, topped with large chunks of braised beef shank; long queues start forming before 7 a.m.
In his previous life, he ate at this cafeteria for four years, and his most frequent order was two steamed buns and a bowl of porridge.
Lu Feng carried the tray from one end to the other, and finally took a bowl of congee with preserved egg and lean pork, two pan-fried buns, a fried dough stick, and a tea egg.
When he sat down, he calculated that it totaled four yuan and fifty cents.
The prices in 2012 were truly heartbreaking.
My mind was still working while I was eating.
After talking with Ye Guodong last night, he spent more than an hour reading through the papers on the Mittag-Leffler function.
If I have time today, I need to finish the derivation of the entire third part.
Today's focus is on Room 302 of the Laboratory Building.
He had only heard about Li Hongde's research group from other people in his previous life.
It's said that the projects they work on are indeed high-quality, and several graduating classes have gone on to work for leading car companies and research institutes, with starting salaries significantly higher than those of ordinary graduates.
He had never even gotten his hands on such a resource in his previous life.
After finishing the last bite of porridge, Lu Feng returned his tray to the return table, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and left the cafeteria.
The laboratory building is located in the northeast corner of the campus, about a ten-minute walk from the cafeteria.
The gray-white six-story building has an old exterior, with fine cracks visible on the cement surface.
One of the light bulbs in the stairwell was not working. Lu Feng climbed the somewhat worn terrazzo steps to the third floor.
The door to room 302 was ajar, and voices could be heard coming from inside.
"...So, is it a man or a woman?"
"The teacher only mentioned that we were freshmen, and nothing else."
"A freshman? Really? The earliest person in our group didn't join until their junior year, right?"
"Who knows? Maybe it's some professor's child who got in through connections."
"Don't talk nonsense. You know what kind of person the teacher is. Last time, even the dean's nephew wanted to come in, but he didn't give him any face."
"That's strange. What level can a freshman have? They probably haven't even finished advanced mathematics."
"Who cares? I'm more concerned about something else."
"What?"
"Is it a man or a woman?! We've already turned into a monastery, if another man comes along, I'll go crazy."
Lu Feng stood at the door, and his lips twitched when he heard this.
He pushed open the door.
Room 302 was larger than he had imagined, about two-thirds the size of a regular classroom.
Four lab benches were placed against the wall, with several computers and some measuring instruments on them.
In the very center was a long table, on which lay several blueprints and a stack of printed papers.
The four people were sitting around the long table, and when they saw Lu Feng enter, they all stopped what they were doing.
A brief silence.
Then one of them spoke first: "Excuse me, are you Lu Feng?"
The speaker was a young man wearing black-rimmed glasses, who looked to be in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing a rather thin wrist.
"it's me."
The bespectacled man nodded and stood up.
Several people nearby also stood up, their expressions varying: some were curious, some were scrutinizing, and one was clearly trying to suppress a laugh.
"My name is Zhou Mingyuan, I'm a second-year graduate student, and I'm the one who's been in the group the longest, apart from a few third-year graduate students who are doing internships outside." The bespectacled man offered his hand.
Lu Feng shook hands: "Hello, Senior Zhou."
After shaking hands, Zhou Mingyuan didn't let go. He pulled Lu Feng inside, pointing to the people at the table and introducing them one by one.
"This is Zhao Pengfei, a senior, who is mainly responsible for simulation calculations."
The person pointed to was a boy with a buzz cut and a rather muscular build. He nodded politely to Lu Feng.
"This is Sun Hao, a junior, who does experimental data processing."
Sun Hao was a bit thinner than Zhao Pengfei, and with a smile on his face, he waved to Lu Feng in a generous manner: "Hello, junior."
"The last one is Wang Bowen, a third-year student majoring in materials analysis."
Wang Bowen adjusted his glasses and exchanged a few polite words with Lu Feng.
After the introduction, Zhou Mingyuan released Lu Feng's hand, took a step back, and looked him up and down.
Then he lowered his head, held his forehead with his hand, and made a heartbroken expression.
"Sigh~"
He sighed, the sound lingering.
Zhao Pengfei couldn't help but ask first, "What's wrong with you now?"
Zhou Mingyuan raised his head, his face displaying a complex expression of sadness and relief, as if he had lost his family.
"It's nothing. I was just thinking that the teacher said a new student was coming, and I was hoping it would be a female student."
He shrugged, glanced around at the male faces filling the laboratory, and spoke with a heavy heart.
"As expected, in our mechanical engineering major, everything is male except for the nut, which is female."
There was silence for about two seconds.
Then Sun Hao burst out laughing first, followed by Zhao Pengfei, and even Wang Bowen, who had been expressionless, twitched the corner of his mouth.
Lu Feng: "..."
Then I go?
However, this was within Lu Feng's expectations. There were 50 students in the class, only 5 of whom were girls, and two of them were forced to be assigned to other majors. Mechanical engineering is known for being a "monk" major.
Zhou Mingyuan probably just wanted to vent his frustration, but after laughing, his whole demeanor suddenly changed.
He dropped his playful grin, pulled up a chair for Lu Feng to sit down, and then sat down opposite him.
"Alright, enough of that, let's get down to business."
His tone became much more serious, completely different from before.
"Lu Feng, you're a freshman. The fact that the professor is willing to make an exception and bring you in is a first in our group's history."
Lu Feng nodded without saying anything more.
Zhou Mingyuan continued, "Let me give you a heads-up: the intensity in this group is really high."
"The deadline for the provincial project that Teacher Li is working on is next March, and it has only progressed less than 20% so far."
"Aside from attending classes, I basically have to spend all my time in the lab."
"Last year we found a sophomore, I guess you've heard about it, but he couldn't last more than two days, so you have to have perseverance."
"You have a lot of classes in your first year, and I guess you haven't mastered many of the fundamentals of your major yet."
"If you don't understand anything, just ask. Don't hold it in. The teachers are usually busy, so come and ask us. We'll explain it to you." He pointed to himself and then to a few people next to him.
"As a second-year graduate student, I really hope that a genius will come to my group so that I can rely on both senior students and junior students to do all the work so that I can graduate."
Zhao Pengfei, standing nearby, suddenly remarked, "You wish!"
Zhou Mingyuan ignored him and looked at Lu Feng: "So, are you mentally prepared?"
Lu Feng glanced at the spread-out blueprints on the lab table.
The top drawing is a simplified structural diagram of a multi-stage gear transmission system, somewhat similar to the one Li Hongde drew on the blackboard yesterday, but much more complex.
Attached to the side was a stack of handwritten calculations, the handwriting messy, probably Zhao Pengfei's. Several key parameters were circled in red and marked with question marks.
"Yes," Lu Feng replied crisply, withdrawing his gaze.
Zhou Mingyuan stared at him for two seconds.
This freshman has maintained a calm expression since he entered the room.
Hopefully, he's not the type to give up easily. Freshmen who haven't experienced much reflection often give up completely after just one setback.