Chapter 108 Mentor's Night Talk

On the day Wang Zhenguo arrived, the Gobi Desert was hit by the strongest wind since the beginning of winter.

The car struggled through the wind and sand to enter the base. When the door opened, a figure wrapped in a thick cotton coat emerged, stumbling for two steps before steadying himself.

Lin Mo rushed forward to support him.

"Teacher Wang! Why did you come here in person?"

Wang Zhenguo took off his goggles, revealing a face reddened by the wind, yet he smiled happily.

"What, am I not welcome?"

"It's not that..." Lin Mo didn't know what to say for a moment. "You could have just called; I would have gone back to see you."

Wang Zhenguo waved his hand, looking at the apparatus in the distance that was still operating despite the wind and sand.

"I wanted to see it with my own eyes."

In the evening, the wind finally died down.

The night in the Gobi Desert was as quiet as being at the bottom of the sea, with only the distant low hum of the apparatus.

Inside Lin Mo's Prefabricated Building, Wang Zhenguo sat on a simple sofa, holding a cup of hot tea. He looked around—a bed, a table, a chair, various drawings and data pasted on the walls, and thick stacks of printed materials piled in the corner.

"It's more modest than I thought," he said.

Lin Mo smiled. "I'm used to it."

Wang Zhenguo nodded and said nothing more.

The two sat in silence for a while.

Outside the window, the moon emerged from the clouds, casting a white glow over the Gobi Desert.

"Lin Mo," Wang Zhenguo suddenly spoke.

"Yes?"

"Let me tell you a story."

Lin Mo sat up straight.

Wang Zhenguo looked at the moon outside, his gaze becoming somewhat distant.

"It was 1988. I was thirty-four, a bit older than you are now."

He paused.

"Back then, I was on a secret project working on Heavy Ion Beam applications. The Magnetic Field Separation of Isotopes you're doing now—we were actually thinking about it back then."

Lin Mo was stunned for a moment.

"Heavy Ion Beams?"

Wang Zhenguo nodded.

"Using an accelerator to fire heavy ions can change the properties of materials, treat cancer, and separate Isotopes. At the time, we felt this technology had a limitless future."

He took a sip of tea, a flash of something complex in his eyes.

"The project ran for five years. We had some results, but it was far from practical application. Later, the higher-ups said funding was tight and the project had to be cut. We wrote countless reports and sought out countless people, but in the end, it was still shut down."

Lin Mo remained silent.

Wang Zhenguo looked at him.

"Do you know why it was shut down?"

Lin Mo shook his head.

"It wasn't a lack of money. It was a lack of courage," Wang Zhenguo said. "We were too poor then, too backward. The higher-ups felt that even if we succeeded with such advanced technology, we wouldn't be able to keep up. It was better to invest the money in projects that could yield immediate results."

He sighed.

"I can't say they were wrong. In those days, just being able to eat your fill was good enough."

As Lin Mo listened, a complex emotion welled up in his heart.

Wang Zhenguo continued, "The day the project stopped, I sat in the laboratory all night. Those machines, that data—everything we had spent five years slaving over—it was all going to be sealed away."

He looked at Lin Mo.

"I thought then that maybe in this lifetime, I would never see the day Heavy Ion Beam applications became a reality."

Lin Mo opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed it back down.

Wang Zhenguo smiled; it was a bit bitter, but mostly a smile of relief.

"You know what happened later. Heavy Ion Beam cancer treatment was developed abroad. We're working on it now, too, but we're twenty years late."

He paused.

"Twenty years. Twenty years that many patients couldn't afford to wait."

The Prefabricated Building was extremely quiet.

Lin Mo suddenly understood why Wang Zhenguo had come.

It wasn't to see him, nor to see the apparatus.

It was to say these words.

"Lin Mo," Wang Zhenguo looked at him with a serious expression.

"You've come at a good time."

Lin Mo nodded.

"The country has money now and dares to invest in long-term goals. The people at the top also understand that core technology cannot be bought. This project of yours—twenty-six billion, ten years—when I was young, I wouldn't have even dared to dream of it."

He stood up and walked to the window.

The moonlight shone on his gray hair, casting a silvery light.

"So, you must seize this opportunity."

Lin Mo stood up and walked to his side.

"Teacher Wang, I will."

Wang Zhenguo turned his head and looked at him.

"I know you will," he said. "But I still had to say it. Because there are some regrets I don't want your generation to experience again."

Lin Mo looked at him, his eyes feeling a bit warm.

"Teacher Wang, that project... did anyone ever mention it again later?"

Wang Zhenguo smiled.

"Occasionally. When we old-timers get together, we still chat about it. We wonder what it would be like now if it hadn't stopped back then."

He shook his head.

"But it's useless. The past is the past."

Lin Mo was silent for a few seconds.

"Teacher Wang."

"Yes?"

"Is the data from your project still around?"

Wang Zhenguo was startled.

"Yes. It's sealed in some archive room, untouched for over thirty years."

Lin Mo looked at him.

"Can we apply to retrieve it?"

Wang Zhenguo didn't speak, just looked at him.

Lin Mo continued, "Heavy Ion Beam applications and the Magnetic Field Separation we're doing now have many things in common. That data might be useful."

Wang Zhenguo stood there frozen, not moving for a long time.

After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice a bit raspy.

"You mean..."

Lin Mo nodded.

"What you didn't finish back then, we can continue doing."

Wang Zhenguo looked at him, his eyes suddenly turning red.

He turned around, his back to Lin Mo, and looked at the moon outside the window.

He didn't speak for a very, very long time.

Lin Mo didn't speak either, just stood behind him, keeping him company.

Finally, Wang Zhenguo took a deep breath and turned around.

"Lin Mo."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Lin Mo shook his head.

"It's only right."

Wang Zhenguo patted his shoulder and said nothing more.

Early the next morning, Wang Zhenguo left.

As the car disappeared at the edge of the Gobi Desert, Chen Xueming stood beside Lin Mo.

"What did Old Man Wang say to you?"

Lin Mo looked into the distance, silent for a few seconds.

"He told me stories from when he was young."

Chen Xueming nodded and didn't ask further.

He had been young once, too. He also had projects that were halted and dreams that were left unfinished.

Some things didn't need to be explained in detail.

Lin Mo turned around and walked toward the apparatus.

"Teacher Chen, let's get to work."

Chen Xueming followed him.

The Gobi sun rose, shining on the operating apparatus and casting a dazzling light.

That light seemed to shine from the past, yet it also seemed to shine toward the future.