Chapter 54: The Mystery of the Crystal Pillow

“Hmm?” Du Qiu felt something was amiss and quickly asked, “Are you going back to your country? Is Guo Yanfei going back with you?”

“Oh no, she has already broken up with me.”

Du Qiu was stunned; it seemed that this fellow’s love life had withered. He had originally come to Magic City as a visiting scholar to pursue Guo Yanfei. In just one year, he had managed to learn Chinese. Although he spoke slowly, his vocabulary was almost without fault. Now, with his love unsuccessful, he could only return to his country in dejection.

“Batty, there’s a saying in Tang Country – ‘Where doesn’t the fragrant grass grow across the vast heavens and earth?’ Take it easy; your true love will definitely come.”

“Thank you. Although I’m going back to my country, I can still act as a consultant for your company for these few months. I’m really interested in your system,” replied Rein Leinar.

“Right, I remember you have a good relationship with Director Chen from the physics department’s teaching experiment center. I have a favor to ask. Could you see if it’s possible for me to use the center’s scanning tunneling microscope today?”

“It’s Sunday today, so there should be no one using it. I’ll go ask Director Chen to give us a hand and open the door, and then I’ll call you.”

“Thank you very much.”

After hanging up the phone, Du Qiu packed the crystal pillow into a bag and put it in his backpack.

He took out his phone and launched the Alarm Network app to check the situation around him. Qin Yun had run into trouble last night, and Du Qiu had become more vigilant. Besides, he had already posted a photo of the crystal pillow online; if the people from “Wolf’s Kiss” saw it, they would naturally come knocking at his door.

He made new settings in the Alarm Network; if someone broke into his house, it would directly sound an alarm and send a message to Su Jianming.

Then he called Su Jianming to tell him about his plan to use himself as bait.

“Brother Su, I’ve set up an Alarm Network in my house. If someone breaks in, it will automatically sound an alarm and send the information to your phone. Now, my brother’s safety is in your hands.”

Su Jianming felt grateful and said, “Thanks. I’ll be wrapping up a case soon and will try to have Xu Jie and Han Xiaotong keep an eye on Qin Yun and her mother, as well as Zhang Mingliu.”

“Just the two of them? Then have both of them watch over Qin Yun and her daughter and Zhang Mingliu. Being able to react in time will suffice for my end.”

“Alright then. By the way, I can’t believe Director Tang agreed to let you do this. Aren’t you afraid of stepping into the tiger’s den?” teased Su Jianming.

“That’s why I’m depending on Brother Su, the hunter, to make a timely move.”

“Eh, why do I have the feeling I’m about to be blamed again?”

“Ha ha, only by taking good care can one achieve great deeds.”

After breakfast, Du Qiu intended to notify Yuan Minhua that he wouldn’t be going to the company today, but then he remembered it was Sunday and the company would not be working.

So, he packed his bag and went downstairs. Just as he got into his car, his phone rang.

Du Qiu saw that it was Tang Wenhai calling and quickly answered the phone.

Tang Wenhai’s voice came through, “Oh, I forgot to tell you last night. Today at 3 pm, go to the ‘Style’ coffee house on Jianghai Road and meet with Ning Shuangshuang for a date!”

“Ah?!” Du Qiu was taken aback—this was definitely the pace of a blind date.

“What ‘ah’? I’m fulfilling your wish, aren’t you happy now? Make sure to dress smartly and don’t disgrace me.”

“It’s not that, Uncle Tang, are you serious?”

“Who has the time to joke with you? Since you’re interested in her, you have got to take initiative, understand? That’s it, I’m hanging up.”

Beep beep beep…

Du Qiu patted his forehead; how did the matter turn serious?

“Going on a blind date with Officer Ning, why do I feel like I’m stepping into the tiger’s den?”

++++++++

Du Qiu arrived at Shanghai University, where he had spent seven full years, and he was very familiar with every blade of grass and tree there.

He reached the experiment center, and Batty Rein Leinar was already waiting at the door.

This was a man over 30 years old with the typical features of a Germanic person—blond short hair and a well-defined face.

Standing at 1.85 meters tall, he was slightly taller than Du Qiu, with a muscular body that clearly showed he exercised regularly.

At this moment, Du Qiu noticed Rein Leinar appeared somewhat listless, his stubble not shaved and his eyes filled with red veins, obviously lacking sufficient sleep.

This did not align with Rein Leinar’s habit of early sleep and early rise, and it seemed that the heartbreak had struck him harder than expected.

“Batty, I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

Rein Leinar waved his hand, saying, “It’s okay, really. Though I’ve lost love, I’ve gained your friendship over here.”

After saying this, Rein Leinar pushed open the door to the experiment center. “Come in. Director Chen said to hurry, as someone else has booked the afternoon slot.”

“Alright, I don’t need too much time—I just need to test a material,” Du Qiu nodded.

When Du Qiu took out the crystal pillow, Rein Leinar felt it strange and asked, “Isn’t this silicon dioxide? It doesn’t look natural. What’s there to test about an industrial product?”

Du Qiu smiled and said, “I’ve been researching some new materials recently, and this is part of it, so I wanted to take a look at its atomic spectrum.”

“You go ahead, I’ll be in the next room working on a paper,” said Rein Leinar before leaving the lab.

Du Qiu quickly started operating the machine. Once the scanning tunneling microscope displayed the atomic spectrum of the crystal pillow, a smile immediately crossed Du Qiu’s lips.

“It’s indeed that crystal substance!”

He moved the lens slowly, and when he saw the hexagonal shape in the middle, he was stunned.

“This was not laser-engraved.”

Du Qiu focused on the six white spots forming the hexagon. Under the microscope, those spots had very fine lines.

He then observed at maximum magnification, and the sight astounded Du Qiu.

The tiny area housed perfectly formed lines. He had an intuition that these lines could be similar to circuits in Blue Star’s chips.

The most advanced chip technology on Blue Star currently is the 7-nanometer process, which refers to the width of the CMOS field-effect transistors on the CPU.

It’s not the chip size that people commonly believe, which should fit within a 7-nanometer range.

But how large was this white spot? If measured against Blue Star’s chip technology, this must be less than 1 nanometer, right?

Indeed, the technologies of civilizations at level four and above would be considered divine from Blue Star’s perspective.

Du Qiu thought for a moment and decided to use the microscope’s attached camera system to photograph all six white spots at maximum magnification.

These photos required careful study by Du Qiu, as they might hold the secret of the crystal pillow.

Of course, Du Qiu had a bold idea!

As long as the high-speed separator was successfully replicated, it could produce certain materials from dreams. Thus, he should be able to produce this crystal substance himself.

Then, with the patterns from these white spots, Du Qiu might be able to perform atomic engraving using the probe of the scanning tunneling microscope.

Although the result might be much larger than the original, perhaps it could still be used to connect to dreams.

In such a case, wouldn’t it solve the issue of being unable to connect to the dream if the crystal pillow were lost or damaged?

Du Qiu not only took comprehensive photos of the white spots’ patterns but also carefully photographed the rest of the crystal pillow.

After storing the photos on his storage card, Du Qiu began to shut down the equipment.

Having put away the crystal pillow, he left the lab with his backpack.

Du Qiu had lunch with Rein Leinar at a restaurant not far from the school gates and discussed the software he was developing and the current state of the company.

Rein Leinar admired the fact that Du Qiu’s software and hardware could improve the precision of the machining center.

“I’ve decided to become your fan. I truly want to go to your company right now to see it; it’s miraculous. With ordinary components, you can surpass the precision of Fa Company’s original equipment?”

“There’s no need for me to lie to you, is there?”

“Have you ever tested whether it could surpass the precision of Siemens’ original equipment?”