Study Monster Cultivation System
Chapter 277 - 276 Dr. Li and Engineer Lin

When Li Zheng took the elevator to the 16th floor and entered Mother Lin’s house, he finally got to put down his suitcase, ending his journey as a porter.

The only feeling this Sea View Residence gave him was "empty".

The living room was probably three times the size of his own, and apart from a sofa, a dining table, and a television, there was only a dehumidifier set against the white floor tiles and white walls, giving him the distinct feeling that Jiang Qinghua ought to be meditating here.

"Phew," Lin Yujing rolled onto the sofa, stretching her arms, "We’re finally here, that totally wore me out."

"And you have the nerve to say that, someone like you should be even fatter than Zhang Xiaoke," Li Zheng teased as he set down his backpack and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows. His gaze crossed over several kilometers of forest and fixed on the towering steel framework.

Li Zheng became lost in thought and opened the glass door to step onto the balcony.

Even though it was sunset, the launch pad was still clearly visible.

He imagined that in a few days, that spot would be the brightest on the island.

Perhaps it would even be the brightest place on Earth.

In that dazzling light, the Yellow River-2 would soar into the sky, subsequently adjusting its angle as it accelerated into deep space above the Pacific Ocean, detaching in phases until it had completed its mission of delivering the "Jianxing-6" experimental technology satellite into geosynchronous orbit.

Even though none of this had happened yet, and even though Li Zheng was just standing there on a whim,

he couldn’t control his tear-filled eyes.

Just when his emotions were at their peak, a muffled sob came from beside him.

Li Zheng quickly wiped his eyes, hoping not to be seen.

He turned his head immediately.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw Lin Yujing had already dissolved into a weepy mess.

"The launch is finally happening... sob, sob, sob..." she covered her mouth, her gaze fixed on the launch pad as she choked up, "For the 14-ton satellite launch capability, it’s been ten years... a whole ten years of effort..."

"Don’t cry like that..." Li Zheng was so startled he pinched himself, "Seeing you cry is making me want to cry too."

"Stop messing around," Lin Yujing said as she wiped her eyes, "For this capacity, they abandoned previous mature technologies and developed from scratch the cryogenic liquid bundling technology, testing it more times than you’ve done exam papers."

"Well... not to argue, but I must have done at least 5,000 exam papers," he replied.

"Move over, move over!"

"Haha," Li Zheng leaned on the balcony railing, laughing, "But seriously, we already have the perfect view here. Is there really an even better spot to watch from?"

"Yep, it’s at..." Lin Yujing held back, wiping away her tears before saying with a smile, "Behave, Scum Chap, be obedient for the next couple of days and then I’ll take you there."

"Meh, boring. This spot is good enough for me."

"Hmph, from there, you can even make out the letters on the rocket body."

"You kidding me? They’d let people that close?"

"They will, and only very few people know about it."

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng really became intrigued and, rubbing his fingers, asked in a low voice.

"So... what do you want for dinner tonight...?"

"Fish!"

"What kind of fish?"

"A big fish!"

"..."

...

Since it was too late, they missed the evening market in town and couldn’t find anything fresh at the supermarket, so in the end, they settled for a Northeastern restaurant outside the community.

It’s not that they were particularly fond of the Northeast restaurants, but rather because there weren’t any other options, all there were Northeast restaurants.

They soon realized that there might be even more people from the Northeast here than in the Northeast itself.

Luckily, the owner was hospitable and the food was to their liking, so they sat at an outdoor plaza table, eating leisurely while enjoying the sea breeze.

Once they tuned into the local pace, there was a certain delightful leisure about it; there was no rush to do anything, and even daydreaming seemed great.

The old man from the library definitely had a point,, for busy people like Old Li and Ning’er, it was probably hard to find even one day as leisurely as this throughout the year.

Lin Yujing was so relaxed that she couldn’t even be bothered to talk.

She simply chewed her sweet and sour pork in bites, swaying from side to side as she looked at the coconut grove across the street.

"Mmm— Mmm— Mmm—"

And you have to say, her humming had quite the rhythm to it.

Even Li Zheng, uncharacteristically, ordered a beer to enjoy himself for once.

The people at the large table next to them chatted away noisily.

From the looks of it, there were two pairs of retired couples from the same hometown, each with their respective grandchildren, vacationing here, eating, drinking, and beginning to complain.

"Aiya... they said there’s going to be a rocket launch in a few days... and suddenly there are so many more people," a bald elder sighed while sipping his drink.

The grandpa with glasses across from him served himself some wine and laughed, "Haha, isn’t that a good thing? Let the kids see it too."

But the bald elder just shook his head, "But we’re too close to the launch site here, think about it, if there’s an accident, what if the rocket crashes down here?"

The plump aunt sitting beside him frowned and said, "Look at you with your doom and gloom, tsk tsk!"

"Exactly," the grandmother with glasses chimed in, "What are the chances of something that unlucky happening? If there’s going to be an accident, it would be at the launch center that’s at risk."

"That place is meant for that, they know the risks, but what did we do to deserve this... buying apartments here," complained the bald elder as he picked up some food with his chopsticks, "My son insisted on buying here, who knew there would be such a big threat next door."

The grandpa with glasses raised his hand and said, "Hey, Old Deng, if you’re really worried, why don’t we take the kids to the city that day? There won’t be any problems in the city, I’ve never heard of a rocket flying into a city before."

"No, I’m not going!" the little boy sitting next to him suddenly shouted, "I want to see the rocket!!"

"I want to see the rocket too!!" the little girl across from him also yelled out.

"Yuanyuan, what are you making a fuss about?" the bald elder turned and patted the little girl, "Do you know why they choose to launch rockets here?"

"Why?"

"Because there are fewer people here. Look, the sea is on the other side, so if the rocket explodes, that’s how they minimize the damage."

No sooner had the bald elder finished speaking.

"Pfft!"

A young man at the next table sprayed his beer all over the ground.

Under the gaze of several people, Li Zheng hurriedly lifted his hand to cover his face in a strange expression.

"What’s the matter, young man?" The bald elder leaned over and smiled, "Can’t handle your liquor yet, eh?"

"It’s nothing, nothing..." Li Zheng covered his mouth and said, "I just choked."

The people at the table laughed it off and didn’t say much more.

But the little boy was still not satisfied, putting down his chopsticks and beginning to protest.

"Rockets go to space, not here, they won’t explode."

"Pudding, you’re too young to understand," the grandpa with glasses advised, "Those launch sites are either in the desert or deep in the mountains, precisely because they’re so dangerous. We can watch just the same on TV, can’t we?"

The boy was still unhappy: "I want to watch it here!"

"Alright, then you watch it here," the grandpa with glasses laughed, "Then when the launch pad collapses, and the rocket comes zooming towards you, we won’t accompany you."

"...Liar! The launch pad won’t collapse!" the little boy shouted.

"It won’t collapse!" the little girl echoed.

"It won’t collapse!" Lin Yujing joined in.

"..."

The scene fell into a standstill.

Even Li Zheng was at a standstill.

Even if it was annoying to listen to, there was no need to join the children’s ranks.

"Don’t worry." Lin Yujing turned to the little boy and girl, "Uncles and aunties check the launch tower every day, and it’s absolutely impossible for anything to go wrong. Even in a sudden storm or earthquake, or if ten lightning strikes hit it, nothing will go wrong."

It’s all over!

She really did join the ranks of the children.

The two children were instantly encouraged.

"Right!"

"The sister said there won’t be any problems!"

"Who is she, anyway? You just believe her?" The bald man frowned at Lin Yujing and asked, "How do you know? Who are you?"

"Ji University Physics College, Astronomy Department, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Rocket Technology Research Institute No. 1, Institute 12, Group 3, ballistics design intern graduate student, Chen Wei." Lin Yujing casually picked up her drink, took a sip, and glared, "No one knows rockets better than I do."

The scene came to a standstill once again.

Li Zheng was the one who went stiff the most.

To blurt out such a mouthful of titles without batting an eyelid or skipping a beat,

Is she that fierce?

The people at the table nearby clearly didn’t understand her titles either.

But they were successfully bamboozled.

A moment later, the bald man stammered, "Then tell us, why choose this location for the launch site?"

"To gain the maximum inertial velocity and save fuel."

"What?" The bald man’s eyes widened, "Don’t just say anything, misleading the children."

"Um…" Lin Yujing waved at Li Zheng, "Dr. Li Yi, you explain it."

"..." Li Zheng was immediately cornered.

Done for, dragged into the children’s team.

But now that it had come to this, he had no choice but to push through.

Li Zheng cleared his throat and said very politely, "Well... Uncle, the explanation you gave the children just now wasn’t quite complete, and there was some misinformation. The choice of this launch site is primarily based on considerations of physics."

Seeing that Li Zheng was speaking confidently, the bald man temporarily refrained from interjecting, and the two children were even more eagerly attentive, listening intently.

Li Zheng scanned the surroundings and quickly noticed a ball next to the boy’s stool, which he then picked up to borrow.

"I will try to explain this in a way that primary school students can understand." Li Zheng held up the ball and began to spin it in his palm, "The Earth rotates like this, you know that, right?"

The little boy and girl immediately nodded.

"Good," Li Zheng said while taking a chopstick, dipping it in the beer, and carelessly making a small dot on the "northern hemisphere" of the ball, "Let’s assume Yuanyuan is here, around this spot, which is roughly the location of Jijing."

Then, he made another dot on the equator of the ball, "This is where Wenhai is located, and Pudding is right here."

"And then, you are all smart kids, so you know that the Earth is rotating all the time." Li Zheng started spinning the ball again and used the beer-soaked chopstick method to draw the trajectories of two points rotating in a circle, which are essentially two latitudes, a pair of concentric circles.

"Now, the Earth has completed a rotation." Li Zheng showed the kids the ball, "Can you tell me, over this long period of time, whose path is longer, Yuanyuan’s or Pudding’s?"

"Pudding!" Yuanyuan raised her hand, "Pudding’s circle is bigger."

"Very good." Li Zheng nodded and smiled, "So we know that in the same amount of time, Pudding has traveled a greater distance than Yuanyuan. So, who’s moving faster?"

"Me!" Pudding excitedly raised his hand.

"That’s right, even standing still, Pudding inherently has a higher initial speed than Yuanyuan." Li Zheng pointed at the small point on the equator and continued, "Launching a rocket from Pudding’s location, you already have a great speed to start with. We can use less fuel to send the rocket into space. Isn’t that wonderful?"

"Wonderful!" The two children clapped and exclaimed in amazement.

"Hahaha!" Li Zheng, looking at the two excited kids, naturally felt happy himself, "So, this is the advantage of launching satellites from Wenhai. It can be said that South Sea Province is the most favorable place in our country for launching rockets. The main reason we chose this location is to use less fuel to send heavier satellites into space. Now that you two know this, you’ve become little physics experts and can go back and tell your classmates about it."

The little girl, with sparkling eyes, looked at Li Zheng and asked, "Brother, are you a physicist?"

"Not yet... my studies are pretty broad..."

"Did you understand, Grandpa?" The little boy asked Bald Grandpa excitedly, "It’s because of the laws of physics that we chose to launch from here."

"Go on, I understood that a long time ago..." Bald Grandpa scratched his head and then questioned, "Isn’t it faster the farther south you go? Why not put the launch site in Sanyan instead of Wenhai?"

Li Zheng immediately answered.

"The Earth rotates from west to east, and this time we’re launching a geosynchronous satellite, which keeps in place with the Earth’s rotation, so we also launch it towards the east. To the east of Wenhai lies our country’s controlled sea area, uninhabited and convenient for recovery."

"As for Sanyan, in the event of an incident, there’s a very low chance that the rocket might fall into the residential areas in the southern part of South Sea Province."

Bald Grandpa took a sip of his drink, no longer having any questions left to ask.

However, Grandpa Glasses was interested and queried further, "Then let me ask one more question, what’s the impact on speed and fuel between choosing Jijing and the South Sea?"

"That... give me a moment to calculate." Li Zheng looked up, squinting, and took almost half a second before responding, "This is just an approximation, but the linear speed in Jijing is about 370 meters per second, and in Wenhai about 460 meters. The fuel saved is around 12%, and it’s this 12% that makes Yellow River-2 our country’s most powerful carrier rocket."

"Ah." Grandpa Glasses exclaimed in admiration, "Now I completely understand, thank you, young man."

On the other side, Bald Grandpa was somewhat reluctant, but the stream of reasoning Li Zheng provided was indeed something even he could understand, and he couldn’t refute it.

"So... young man..." Bald Grandpa scratched his face and asked, "Does that mean the rocket is launched towards the sea, and even if there’s an issue, it will fall into the sea, so our community is definitely safe, right?"

"Definitely, definitely, definitely safe." Li Zheng smiled, "Wenhai Launch Site was chosen after careful consideration, and the design and construction team is the finest in our country. You might not be concerned, but for the kids, it’s not easy to witness such a great development in space exploration in their lifetime. Letting them see it is also a kind of physical enlightenment. I just don’t have kids myself, otherwise I’d bring them to watch as soon as they were old enough."

"Alright then." Bald Grandpa laughed and walked up to Li Zheng with two bottles of beer, handed Li Zheng one, and raised his hand, "We’re not leaving, we’re going to watch the rocket launch!"

The two kids immediately jumped up and down in excitement.

Grandpa Glasses also came over to drink a toast.

By the time Li Zheng returned to his seat, he was a bit tipsy.

But he noticed that Lin Yujing was covering her face, giggling foolishly, with a face even more flushed than his.

Li Zheng took a bite of his dish and smiled, "What, feeling overwhelmed now?"

"Overwhelmed about what?" Lin Yujing said softly, "You really do have patience when it comes to teaching kids..."

"Eh, I was idle anyway."

"Don’t you dislike children and don’t want any?"

"Yeah, they’d interfere with studies."

"Giggle..."

"Why are you laughing?"

"It’s nothing, it’s nothing." Lin Yujing quickly picked up her glass, "I’ll take a drink too~~"