4: A chance encounter in the lab and the top student's doubts

Excellence ultimately didn't dare to go find Su Mu. That path seemed like a shortcut, but was actually strewn with invisible thorns and glances that made his heart tremble with fear. He chose the most primitive, most clumsy, but also relatively "safest" method—waiting. Like an inexperienced hunter, with immense patience and anxiety, he lay in ambush at a location where his prey might appear, silently waiting for that fleeting opportunity.

His prey was a bucket of water, so clear it was extreme, yet so heavy it was extreme.

Thus, in the following days, the bushes near the chemistry lab building, behind the bulletin board, and even the bleachers of the distant basketball court became Excellence's temporary observation posts. Clutching a worn-out digital watch, he stared fixedly at the time, recording Uncle Zhang's pattern of leaving the duty room each time, verifying and fine-tuning the "smoking schedule" provided by the system. He could even distinguish whether Uncle Zhang was humming "The Empty City Stratagem" or "Dingjun Mountain" that day, and judge the approximate time of his return based on the leisurely nature of the tune.

This kind of waiting was excruciating. Every sound of footsteps made his heart stop. Every time he saw other students or teachers approaching the lab building, he felt as if facing a formidable enemy. He felt like a clumsy spy, conducting a reconnaissance mission with no chance of success.

Finally, as another dusk descended and the setting sun stretched the building's shadows long, opportunity favored him once more. Just like usual, Uncle Zhang, right on schedule, with cigarettes and a lighter in his pocket, ambled towards the restroom at the west end of the corridor, humming a cheerful "The Drunken Concubine."

With the terrifying experience from last time, Excellence's actions this time carried a bit more caution and... a sense of grim determination. Once again, he slipped into the lab building like an arrow released from its bowstring. His heart was beating even more violently than last time, because he could no longer bear the cost of failure. Relying on the system's navigation, he easily found his way to that ultrapure water dispenser.

This time, he brought a smaller, more portable 1-liter brown reagent bottle (also "borrowed"). His movements were swift yet noticeably steadier. Unscrewing the cap, aligning it with the outlet, turning on the tap—a series of actions performed in one smooth motion. He stared fixedly at the rising water level in the bottle, but his ears were pricked up like radar, capturing the slightest rustle in the corridor.

Time ticked by second by second, each second feeling like a hammer blow to his nerves. When the reagent bottle was finally filled with that priceless ultrapure water, Excellence was nearly spent. He quickly shut the tap tight, screwed the cap on securely, clutched the bottle tightly to his chest as if holding a newborn baby, and then without looking back, dashed out of the lab building with the fastest speed he could muster in his life.

Only after running several hundred meters away from the lab building into a small grove of trees did he dare to stop. Leaning on his knees, he gasped for breath, his back already soaked with cold sweat. The reagent bottle in his arms was icy cold, yet it gave him an unprecedented feeling of warmth and reassurance.

Success! Finally succeeded!

[Ultrapure Water Acquisition Task Completed.] The system's cold notification tone now sounded like heavenly music.

[All initial resources have been collected. Host is advised to begin device assembly as soon as possible. Remaining time: 31 hours, 55 minutes.]

All the materials were finally, fucking, gathered!

Holding that hard-won bottle of ultrapure water, Excellence sneaked back to his dormitory like a thief, yet his heart was filled with an unprecedented sense of accomplishment. He carefully hid the ultrapure water and his other "treasures"—the Pinduoduo beaker, the Taobao diamond, the Alibaba palladium powder, and the oxygen-free copper wire and precision parts brought from his family's factory—in an old, locked suitcase under his bed. Like a squirrel hoarding food for winter, he would frequently glance down to confirm they were safe and sound.

His roommate, Li Hao, happened to have just finished a game. Taking off his headphones, he saw Excellence's furtive movements and curiously leaned over. "Old Zhuo, you've been all mysterious these past couple of days. What are you tinkering with? What treasure are you hiding under the bed? Just saw you come back holding a brown bottle, like you scored a bottle of '82 Lafite. And those metal lumps and shiny stones before... Don't tell me you've switched to collecting scrap? Starting a business?"

Excellence's heart tightened, but he forced a calm expression on his face, brushing it off with a laugh. "Ah... yeah, yeah, right. Just doing some social practice, experiencing life, researching the scrap metal recycling market... Yeah, that's it!" He felt his ability to fabricate stories was truly improving day by day under the system's pressure.

Li Hao gave him a skeptical look, clearly not buying it, but didn't press further. Muttering "weird," he put his headphones back on and immersed himself in his gaming world. Excellence breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like he'd narrowly avoided exposure once again.

Late at night, after the dorm lights went out, the real challenge was just beginning.

As his roommates' snores and teeth-grinding gradually rose, forming a natural noise barrier, Excellence quietly climbed down from his bed. Turning on his phone's flashlight, he blocked the light with a thick textbook and began his "great" project in the cramped space he'd cleared under the bed.

In his mind, the system screen displayed the detailed *Beginner's Guide to hand-crafted Energy Focusing Device.pdf* (the name sounded much more advanced than "bathtub fusion reactor," but the essence seemed unchanged). Step One: [Precisely fix the natural diamond particles into the reserved grooves of the oxygen-free copper base, ensuring the contact surface is absolutely flat to form the primary discharge electrode. Note: Diamond orientation must strictly comply with lattice indications.]

Just reading these instructions made Excellence's scalp tingle. He put on the slightly oversized latex gloves he'd pocketed from the lab, took out the portable microscope he'd also "borrowed," and with trembling tweezers, picked up the diamond that wasn't much bigger than a grain of sand.

His hand was shaking terribly. Under the weak, unstable light of the phone's flashlight, even that tiny reflection seemed to be jumping wildly. The tweezers tip slipped off the smooth diamond surface several times, nearly sending this "little stone" worth half his month's living expenses flying into some unreachable corner.

[Detected host's hand stability is excessively poor. High-frequency micro-tremors exceed permissible range. Recommend at least 40 hours of neural stability fine motor skill training before attempting such operations.] The system coldly evaluated, its tone seemingly carrying a trace of barely perceptible mockery.

"Shut up! You try it if you're so good! How about you give me a robotic arm instead!" Excellence ground his teeth, hissing the words through clenched teeth, afraid of waking his roommate. He took a deep breath, held it, and mustered all his strength to control his trembling wrist. Fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead again. After countless failures, when he was almost ready to give up, he finally, through sheer luck, successfully placed the diamond into the pitifully tiny groove of the copper base and performed a preliminary fixation using a special conductive adhesive (system formula, mixed by him using a toothpick).

With the first step completed, he was nearly spent.

The next step was an even worse nightmare: [Precisely weigh palladium powder and a special organic solvent (formula see Appendix 7.2c) at a mass ratio of 7:3. Mix and stir in an ultrapure environment until a uniform slurry is obtained. Apply via spin-coating onto the surface of the pre-treated high-purity alumina ceramic base to form a uniform catalytic layer with thickness ≤10μm...]

The dorm space was cramped, the lighting dim, and his movements were constrained. It was like performing a religious ceremony inside a snail shell. His so-called "ultrapure environment" was a small glass plate and a beaker he'd wiped down as best he could with alcohol swabs. He used Li Hao's electronic scale for weighing coffee powder; its precision was barely adequate. For stirring, he used a paperclip he'd bent himself.

Trembling with fear, treading on thin ice. Yet, accidents always happen when least expected. Just as he tried to transfer the mixed palladium slurry onto the ceramic base, his elbow accidentally bumped a small beaker beside him containing a small amount of ultrapure water, used for moistening wipes.

"Holy shit!" Excellence exclaimed softly, scrambling to steady the tipping beaker. But his movements were too abrupt, and he knocked over the neatly coiled roll of oxygen-free copper wire next to it...

"Splash..." A small amount of ultrapure water spilled, soaking a corner of a notebook. The copper wire roll unraveled, rolling deep under some unknown bed...

A complete mess.

Excellence froze in place, looking at the chaos before him, wishing he could die.

[Operational Standard Assessment: Grade F. Unnecessary material loss rate: approximately 3.7%. Ultrapure water contamination risk increased. Host is advised to focus and avoid unnecessary errors.] The system's follow-up attack arrived right on schedule, precisely hitting his sore spot.

Excellence felt like crying but had no tears. Slumping onto the cold floor, looking at the spilled water and scattered copper wire, he roared internally: "This is fucking harder than failing ten final exams!!" For the first time, he felt such intense reverence for knowledge—and an equally intense urge to smash something.

For several consecutive nights, Excellence spent his time in this state of chaos, constant anxiety, and the system's uninterrupted sarcastic commentary. His dark circles were as heavy as permanent smoky eye makeup. During daytime classes, he was even more drowsy and absent-minded, as if his soul was still lingering on that tiny workbench illuminated by a flashlight in the dead of night.

That day, during the *fundamentals of analog circuits* class, Excellence was, as usual, lost in thought. His mind was still frantically replaying why the palladium coating from last night kept producing tiny bubbles. Was the stirring speed wrong? Or was the solvent purity insufficient? (He used analytical grade acetone, but the system required chromatographic grade)...

"Student Excellence." The teacher's voice from the lectern was like a thunderclap, abruptly yanking his soul, which had wandered to the far ends of the earth, back to reality.

He jolted, raising his head in confusion, only to find the eyes of the entire class focused on him.

"Please tell us, how exactly should we calculate the quiescent operating point of this basic common-emitter amplifier circuit we just analyzed? What are the formulas for Ib, Ic, and Vce?" The teacher adjusted his glasses, looking at him through the lenses.

Excellence stood up with a blank expression. He didn't even know which page the book was open to; he hadn't heard a single word the teacher had just said. The circuit diagrams and symbols on the blackboard now looked like a foreign language.

A few low, barely suppressed chuckles came from around him. Excellence felt his cheeks and ears rapidly heat up, wishing he could find a crack in the floor to crawl into. Warnings of failing the course flashed frantically in his mind.

Just then, the familiar figure in the front row turned her head slightly. It was Su Mu. She didn't look at him, but with her professional-looking drawing pencil, she lightly tapped on a specific formula and diagram in her own clean, neatly-noted textbook. The action was so natural, as if she were merely thinking.

Excellence, as if grabbing the only lifeline in a raging flood, didn't care if it was right or not. He quickly squinted, craned his neck, and tried hard to make out the notes from that distance. Then, haltingly, he recited verbatim: "The qui... quiescent operating point... Ib = (Vcc - Vbe) / Rb... Ic = β * Ib... Vce = Vcc - Ic * Rc..." He recited without any feeling, even somewhat slurring his words.

The teacher could clearly see he was cramming at the last minute and shook his head helplessly. "You memorized the formulas alright, but understanding is key. Sit down, pay attention."

Blushing, Excellence sat down awkwardly, feeling the gazes on his back like needles. He stole a glance at Su Mu's back, his feelings a tangled mess.

The class dismissal bell rang. Excellence dawdled while packing up his books, which he had barely opened. Only when almost everyone had left the classroom did he muster the courage to shuffle over to Su Mu, who was unhurriedly organizing her backpack.

"Um... Class Monitor," his voice was a bit dry, "just now... thank you."

Su Mu zipped up her backpack, looked up, and her clear gaze settled on his face. Her tone was as flat as stating an objective fact: "No need to thank me. I just hope you can pay a little more attention in class. This course is quite difficult, and," she paused, adding, "I remember you barely passed last semester's final by a few points?"

Having the makeup exam brought up so directly made Excellence even more mortified. He could only nod awkwardly. "Yes... yes, so I need to work hard this semester..."

Before he could finish, Su Mu's gaze suddenly dropped and paused on his hand, which was resting on the desk, about to be shoved into his pocket. "What happened to your hand?"

Excellence looked down. On the fingers and back of his right hand were several small, already scabbed scratches, and one or two faint red spots—caused by splashes of the palladium solvent the night before and accidentally being scratched by burrs on the copper wire. Though not serious, they were quite noticeable upon close inspection.

"It's... it's nothing!" Excellence jerked his hand back behind him as if burned, hiding it. His tone was flustered. "Just... just been doing some small crafts recently, models and stuff, accidentally got scratched... It's fine, minor injuries!"

A flicker of faint curiosity and doubt passed through Su Mu's eyes, but she didn't press further. She merely gave a slight nod, her tone still even. "Oh. Be careful."

She slung her backpack over her shoulder, walked past him, and headed for the classroom door. After a couple of steps, she suddenly stopped. Without turning around, as if mentioning it casually, her voice came clearly: "By the way, I went to the chemistry building to submit a report a couple of days ago and ran into Uncle Zhang, the one who manages the ultrapure water dispenser."

Excellence's heart was instantly seized by an invisible hand and lifted to his throat!

Su Mu continued in that casual, conversational tone: "He seemed to be complaining that someone recently has been sneaking in to get ultrapure water, quite skillfully too, and he hasn't caught them. But..." she slightly drew out her words, "last time, that person seemed to run off in too much of a hurry and left an old bucket behind somewhere. Who do you think it could be?"

After saying this, she finally turned sideways, looked back at him, and gave him a meaningful glance. Her eyes were clear and bright, yet seemed capable of piercing through any disguise.

Then, without waiting for any reaction from Excellence, she turned and left the classroom, her steps steady and graceful.

She left Excellence alone, standing rigidly in place as if struck by an invisible lightning bolt, icy cold from head to toe, his mind a complete blank, utterly bewildered.

She knows! She must have guessed! The bucket left behind! She might have even seen me! It's over, it's over! Is social death coming early?! The Physics Department's top beauty discovered I was stealing lab ultrapure water! If this news gets out...

[Detected host's heart rate sharply increasing, adrenaline levels spiking. Recommend maintaining calm, performing deep breathing.] The system's prompt attempted physiological regulation.

[Logical analysis: Target 'Su Mu' does not possess substantive evidence. Her words are merely probing and speculation. Host's current exposure risk rate is 17.4%.]

"What do you know?! A woman's intuition is the most terrifying! 17.4%? What's the difference from 100%!" Excellence wailed internally at the system, clutching his head. He felt his university career was already seeing its end, with a smirking Su Mu and a giant disciplinary notice standing at that end.

He felt like he was walking a very high tightrope. Below him was the abyss of turning into an idiot if the system went dormant, and beside him, a clever crane named "Su Mu" was flapping its wings, ready to blow him off at any moment.

Returning to the dormitory in a daze, he looked at that crooked, crudely assembled "Beginner Energy Focusing Device" in the corner, with its exposed wiring and inexplicable metallic and ceramic glints. It felt like a time bomb, not only potentially capable of physical explosion but also liable to blow up his social circle at any moment.

The road ahead is long, and full of bumps and potholes.