Chapter 171 Superficial Politeness

The morning of the second day after arriving at the base, Smith began his official tour.

The weather was excellent; the sky over the Gobi Desert was transparently blue, without a single cloud.

Sunlight spilled over the massive body of the tokamak-3, and those silver-white pipes reflected a dazzling light.

Lin Mo accompanied him personally.

Chen Xueming followed alongside, holding a stack of documents, ready to answer technical questions at any moment.

Fang Lin led several security personnel to follow at a distance, ensuring the tour process was completely secure.

Smith walked very slowly, carefully observing every step.

His gaze shifted from those massive magnet coils to the dense network of pipes, from the routing of the control cables to the layout of the Cooling System, as if he wanted to etch every detail into his mind.

"Dr. Lin," he stopped in front of the Magnet System and pointed at the massive coils, "did you build this yourselves?"

Lin Mo nodded: "One hundred percent domestically produced."

Smith was silent for a few seconds, then said: "That's not easy. For coils this large, ensuring magnetic field uniformity requires extremely high manufacturing standards."

He paused, then suddenly asked: "Has the magnetic field strength reached the design value?"

Lin Mo answered calmly: "5.3 Tesla, running stably."

Smith turned to look at him, a fleeting, elusive light flashing in his eyes:

"5.3 Tesla... In our simulations for ITER, coils of this level often experience minor fluctuations. How did you solve that?"

Lin Mo smiled: "Professor Smith, you are asking about core technology now."

Smith also laughed and spread his hands: "Occupational hazard. Whenever I see something good, I want to understand it clearly."

The two men looked at each other and both laughed.

But the meaning behind the smiles was something only they knew.

Walking to the front of the First Wall, Smith stopped again.

He stared at those dense tungsten-copper modules for a long time.

Then he reached out and gently touched the surface of one of them.

"This surface treatment... what process was used?"

Lin Mo did not answer directly, but instead said: "We performed thirty thousand thermal load simulations before finally selecting the optimal plan."

Smith nodded, withdrew his hand, and suddenly said:

"Dr. Lin, to be honest—I have read your paper on the fatigue life of the First Wall three times."

Lin Mo looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

Smith's tone was very flat, but every word carried weight:

"The data is beautiful. So beautiful that... it makes me a little hesitant to believe it."

Chen Xueming frowned, about to speak, but Lin Mo raised his hand to stop him.

He looked at Smith, still maintaining a smile:

"Professor Smith, since you have come in person, you can verify it with your own eyes."

Smith also looked at him; neither of them spoke.

The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds.

Then Smith suddenly laughed, the laughter very light but very sincere:

"Dr. Lin, you are right. Verifying it personally is more important than anything else."

When they walked to the Divertor, Smith's questions became even trickier.

He circled around that massive component and suddenly asked:

"The diameter of the cooling channels is 0.8 millimeters, and the aspect ratio exceeds 20, right?"

Lin Mo nodded.

Smith continued: "For micro-hole machining with this kind of aspect ratio, there are no more than five companies worldwide that can do it. Which one did you find?"

Lin Mo did not answer, just smiled.

Smith waited a few seconds, and seeing that he would not speak, changed to another question:

"Then let me ask it another way—what is the thermal load capacity of your Divertor?"

Lin Mo still smiled: "The design value is 12 megawatts per square meter."

Smith stared at him, his eyes sharp:

"I am asking about the actual achieved value."

Lin Mo looked back at him calmly:

"The actual achieved value is consistent with the design value."

Smith was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly laughed:

"Dr. Lin, you are very good with words."

Lin Mo also laughed:

"Professor Smith, you are very good at asking questions."

The two men stared at each other, while Chen Xueming and Fang Lin on the side were both breaking into a cold sweat.

But a few seconds later, Smith was the first to look away.

He looked at the massive Divertor and sighed softly:

"If this is true... you are indeed ahead."

The last stop of the tour was the plasma control laboratory.

Chen Xueming gave the explanation himself.

He introduced the principles, algorithms, and real-time feedback mechanisms of plasma control one by one, while various data and curves jumped on the screen.

Smith listened very attentively, asking a few questions from time to time.

Some questions were very professional, and Chen Xueming answered them one by one.

Some questions were very tricky, and Chen Xueming would simply say, "That cannot be disclosed for the time being."

Towards the end, Smith suddenly pointed to a line of parameters on the screen and asked:

"What did you use for the setting of this boundary condition?"

Chen Xueming took a look—it was exactly that #B-1073 that had almost caused him a breakdown.

He was silent for a second, then said: "0.67."

Smith stared at that number, his brows slightly furrowed:

"0.67? Our simulations show that the optimal value for this parameter is around 0.82. 0.67 will cause nonlinear magnetic field coupling, triggering oscillations."

Chen Xueming's heart skipped a beat.

But his face remained calm, and he simply said quietly:

"Our simulation results are different."

Smith looked at him, a flash of suspicion in his eyes:

"Dr. Chen, are you sure?"

Chen Xueming met his gaze, enunciating clearly:

"I am sure."

The two men stared at each other, neither willing to back down.

Lin Mo suddenly spoke, his voice as calm as if he were discussing the weather:

"Professor Smith, theory is theory, and practice is practice. Our device has already passed a seventy-two-hour continuous operation test, and all parameters are stable within the design range."

He paused, looking at Smith:

"Would you like to see the test data?"

Smith was silent.

He knew Lin Mo was giving him a way out.

If he insisted on questioning it, he would have to produce evidence.

But he had no evidence, only simulations.

A few seconds later, he nodded:

"Fine, I will take a look."

That afternoon, Smith spent three full hours in the control room looking at the test data.

He put on his reading glasses and flipped through those dense records page by page, occasionally pausing for a long time on a certain number, then continuing to flip through.

Lin Mo and Chen Xueming sat nearby, neither speaking.

Three hours later, Smith took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

Then he stood up, walked over to Lin Mo, and extended his hand:

"Dr. Lin, your test data has no issues."

Lin Mo shook his hand: "Thank you for your acknowledgement."

Smith shook his head and gave a wry smile:

"Not acknowledgement, but admission. Admitting that you have achieved what we could not."

He paused, then suddenly asked:

"Regarding that boundary condition, how did you discover that 0.67 was the optimal value?"

Chen Xueming opened his mouth, about to speak, but Lin Mo spoke first:

"Teacher Chen performed thirty thousand simulations and figured it out bit by bit."

Smith looked at Chen Xueming, his eyes complex:

"Thirty thousand times? Dr. Chen, how much time did you spend?"

Chen Xueming was stunned for a moment, then said:

"Three days and three nights."

Smith was silent for a long time.

Then he sighed:

"Three days and three nights, thirty thousand simulations... this is the gap."

He turned around, looked at the massive device outside the window, and said softly:

"When we were holding meetings, you were working. When we were arguing, you were working. When we were questioning, you were still working."

He turned back and looked at Lin Mo:

"Dr. Lin, I have lost."

Lin Mo shook his head:

"Professor Smith, science has no winners or losers, only precedence. It is because you have conducted decades of basic research that we have today's opportunity."

Smith was taken aback, then suddenly laughed.

This time, the laugh was very relaxed.

"Dr. Lin," he said, "you are a true scientist."

That night, Smith sat alone in the guesthouse for a long time.

He looked at the tokamak-3 outside the window; under the moonlight, it stood quietly like a silent giant.

Tomorrow, it will be lit.

He suddenly remembered the afternoon thirty years ago when he first walked into a laboratory.

Back then, he was also young, had dreams, and also wanted to light the Artificial Sun.

Thirty years later, the one to light it is a Chinese person forty years younger than him.

But he felt no jealousy, only emotion.

That is how science is.

If one generation cannot finish it, it is passed on to the next generation.

He stood up, faced the massive device outside the window, and said softly:

"See you tomorrow."