39: Midnight inspiration and the warmth of being close

The information overload from the seminar and that pervasive sense of being watched kept Excellence awake that night.

He tossed and turned on his narrow bed. In the darkness, the cutting-edge theories and technical terms he heard during the day, along with the knowledge instilled by the system, the profound thoughts from ancient texts, and fragments of the "Firefly" project, collided, merged, and recombined in his mind like boiling lava.

The city's light pollution outside the window filtered through the gaps in the blinds, casting blurred spots of light on the ceiling that moved slowly as time passed.

Excellence's mind, however, was playing out an even more spectacular light show—the entangled states of quantum bits confirmed the concept of "Yin-Yang Resonance" from ancient texts, the self-assembly principles of nanomaterials created a wondrous Resonance with the mysterious records of "gathering dew with a Fangzhu," while the rough yet inspiring bio-electric field Perception algorithms from the "Firefly" project provided a technical bridge for it all.

Suddenly, an extremely bold concept, integrating various technologies, illuminated his thoughts like lightning cutting through the night sky!

This idea was so clear, so complete, as if it had been hidden in his subconscious all along, just waiting for this moment of awakening.

He sprang up from the bed, not even bothering to turn on the lights, and rushed to his workbench, guided by the faint glow of the city's neon lights outside, fumbling to turn on his equipment.

The light from the screen illuminated his face, which was slightly twisted with excitement.

He completely forgot about the time, not caring if he might disturb others, and began to frantically calculate, simulate, and build new models.

On the workbench, the commentary on the huainan wanbi shu lay open to the "Igniting Fire with a Yangsui" chapter, with draft paper filled with formulas scattered nearby; the transmitting coil of the wireless energy transmission device quietly emitted a metallic luster; and the modified EEG cap was tossed aside like a crown—all these elements were now wondrously connected in his mind.

He conceived a brand new "composite field architecture": using the resonant electromagnetic field of his preliminary successful wireless energy transmission as the base carrier and energy supply; embedding brainwave harmonics—modulated by neural interface algorithms and carrying specific "intent information"—as a special "information encoding" into the carrier wave; and supplementing it with the highly sensitive bio-electric field Perception and feedback mechanism borrowed from the "Firefly" project, serving as the "Perception tentacles" and "controller" of this composite field...

Most importantly, these three were not a simple physical superposition, but rather an attempt to use a non-linear mathematical equation—abstracted and refined from concepts like "Yin-Yang coupling" and "Heaven-Human Resonance" in the myriad arts—to achieve deep-level integration and synergy!

He was attempting to create an "intelligent field" that was extremely weak yet capable of simultaneously carrying energy transmission, information interaction, and rudimentary environmental Perception functions!

This idea was too advanced and crazy, involving extremely high mathematical complexity.

Soon, he got stuck at a critical Node—a system of partial differential equations involving the coupling stability and energy efficiency optimization of multi-band, multi-modal signals under strong non-linear conditions; no matter how he iterated and optimized, he could not obtain a stable solution.

The numerical simulation results always diverged or converged to completely unreasonable extreme values.

He scratched his head and ears, his frustration almost becoming tangible.

Calculation papers were crumpled into balls and thrown on the floor, the keyboard was clattered loudly, and his fingers trembled slightly from excessive force.

The system's prompt sounds kept ringing, offering various mathematical optimization suggestions, but none could solve this fundamental problem.

[Suggestion: Try introducing a regularization term to constrain the solution space...]

[Warning: The current number of iterations has exceeded the safety threshold. Continuing to force calculations may cause the processor to overheat...]

[Detected abnormally increased activity in the host's prefrontal cortex. Suggest pausing for a rest...]

Excellence turned a deaf ear to all these warnings, his entire mind occupied by that stubborn equation.

Driven by extreme anxiety and an inexplicable impulse, he subconsciously grabbed his phone, ignoring the time, and sent a WeChat message to Su Mu: "Class Monitor, are you asleep? There's a... math problem... that maybe only you can handle..." followed by a panda head emoji kneeling and vomiting blood while begging for help.

Only after sending it did he realize it was past two in the morning, and he immediately regretted it, preparing to recall the message.

Disturbing someone this late was truly very rude, especially given the delicate relationship between him and Su Mu.

But just as his finger was about to touch the recall button, the prompt "Other party is typing..." popped up at the top of the WeChat chat box!

A few seconds later, Su Mu replied, concise and to the point: "What problem?" There was no complaint or dissatisfaction about being woken up.

Excellence's heart skipped a beat for no reason, and he hurriedly took a clear photo of the equation, filled with complex symbols that had tortured him for over an hour, and sent it over, his fingers trembling with excitement.

A few minutes of silence followed.

Excellence stared nervously at the screen, as if awaiting judgment.

He could hear his heart pounding, exceptionally clear in the silent night.

Then, his phone screen suddenly lit up—Su Mu had sent a video call request directly!

Excellence was so startled he almost threw his phone away. He scrambled to look around at the messy surroundings, hastily smoothed his hair, took a deep breath, and pressed the answer button with trembling fingers.

On the other side of the screen, Su Mu's figure appeared.

She seemed to have just gotten out of bed as well, wearing a simple white cotton pajama top, her long, jet-black hair slightly messy and draped over her shoulders, with a few strands clinging to her smooth forehead.

Her face still carried obvious sleepiness, her eyelids slightly drooping, but her eyes, under the screen's light, had already regained their usual clarity and calmness.

The background was her quiet study at home, with the desk lamp on, and several half-read books and notes spread out—evidently, she might have been studying earlier, or she had come straight to the study after being woken up by Excellence's message.

"This equation of yours..." Su Mu began, her voice carrying a slight huskiness from just waking up, but her tone had already entered an academic state. "The structure is very unique; it doesn't look like a standard paradigm of field theory or information theory... It's more like it's trying to describe... a strong non-linear interaction of multi-physical fields under extreme conditions? The boundary conditions are set a bit problematically."

She slightly knitted her delicate brows, her fingers tapping unconsciously on the desktop—this was her habitual action when thinking.

"Uh... I... I was just tinkering with it myself..." Excellence's face grew hot, and he stammered an explanation, not daring to look directly into Su Mu's overly clear gaze on the screen. "It's just... assuming there's a composite field that needs to simultaneously handle three functions: energy transmission, information encoding, and Perception feedback, and it needs to maintain dynamic equilibrium..." He tried to describe it in the most abstract way possible to avoid touching upon core secrets.

Su Mu did not ask any further about the origin or specific application scenario of the equation, as if she were completely captivated by the mathematical problem itself.

She reached out to grab the paper and pen by the desk and pointed her phone camera at the draft paper: "Look here, if we introduce an imaginary number term to represent the energy loss caused by phase lag, and then here... constrain this parameter..."

She began to explain patiently, her voice sounding exceptionally clear and soft in the dead of night, like a clear spring flowing through Excellence's anxious heart.

She would occasionally tap the paper gently with the tip of her pen, or trace invisible curves in the air to explain a certain concept.

The light from the other side of the screen cast long shadows on her eyelashes, making her focused expression look exceptionally moving.

Excellence listened attentively, occasionally raising his own understanding or confusion.

Separated by the cold screen, the two seemed to be sitting side by side at the same desk, completely immersed in a pure and wonderful world of mathematics and physics.

The messy components, ancient books, and equipment on the workbench became a blurred background, while the formulas and charts flowing on the screen became a silent yet highly resonant language between them.

Unknowingly, over an hour passed quietly.

The sky outside was still pitch black, but Excellence felt his heart becoming brighter and brighter.

Under Su Mu's meticulous guidance and inspiration, his blocked train of thought was cleared bit by bit, and the stubborn equation finally showed a glimmer of a solution.

"I understand! Thank you, Class Monitor! Thank you so much! Really... sorry for disturbing you so late!" Excellence looked at the final result derived on the screen, sincerely grateful, his voice filled with excitement and relief.

He looked at Su Mu's focused and intelligent eyes on the screen, as well as her slightly tired yet still gentle profile, and a strong, complex warmth surged in his heart, mixed with gratitude, admiration, and an indescribable thrill.

Su Mu put down her pen, gently rubbed her brow, and stifled a small yawn: "It's okay. I'm glad I could help."

She paused, then asked a seemingly casual question, her gaze refocusing on Excellence's face: "Is this... what you've been staying up late for recently?" Her voice was very light, carrying a hint of imperceptible inquiry.

Excellence hesitated for a moment, looking into those clear eyes on the screen, and finally nodded: "Yeah... it's... part of it."

He could not tell the whole truth, but he did not want to deceive her completely either.

A brief silence fell between the two.

In the video call connection, there was only the sound of each other's slight breathing.

A subtle atmosphere flowed through the silent electronic signals; separated by the screen, one could still feel a certain wondrous connection.

"Get some rest early," Su Mu finally said softly, her tone carrying a hint of imperceptible concern. "Don't push yourself too hard."

Her gaze lingered on Excellence's face for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, but ultimately didn't.

"You too, Class Monitor. Thank you." Excellence looked at her, his tone becoming unusually gentle unconsciously, his heart filled with gratitude and an indescribable emotion.

The video call ended.

The screen went dark, reflecting Excellence's own slightly silly reflection.

He gazed at the still-deep night outside the window, but his heart no longer felt lonely or anxious; instead, it was filled with a strange sense of tranquility and fulfillment.

The past hour or so felt like a carefully protected barrier, temporarily isolating all the pressure, danger, and conspiracies of the outside world, leaving only the collision of thoughts, the transmission of knowledge, and a certain quietly growing, indescribable emotion.

[Detected a significant increase in emotional connection strength. Host's neuroendocrine indicators are tending toward balance, with positive emotions dominant. Suggest maintaining this kind of positive interaction mode.]

The system did not dismantle him with cold data this time; it just calmly stated a fact, and even gave a rare positive suggestion.

Excellence did not refute the system this time; he just let the corners of his mouth uncontrollably lift upward, forming a silly yet incredibly genuine smile.

He sat back down at his workbench, feeling his mind had never been so clear, as if injected with new vitality.

He threw himself back into that crazy and fascinating calculation, determined to overcome the final hurdle.

The night grew deeper, but in Excellence's heart, an inextinguishable lamp seemed to have lit up, illuminating the path ahead.