Chapter 196: Zhang Yan’s Moment to Shine

The next morning, Zhang Yan rushed to school, eager to share the good news with her group members.

“Yan Zi, what’s got you so happy?” a classmate asked her.

“You can tell?”

“Of course! It’s written all over your face—you’re practically glowing with joy.”

Zhang Yan giggled. “Our group’s been researching electric lamps, right? We’ve got a new idea. Isn’t that worth being excited about?”

“Huh? You already have a new idea?” The classmates nearby were all shocked and turned to look at her.

The students in Zhang Yan’s group were even more excited.

“Yan Zi, what new idea? Tell us, quick,” someone urged anxiously.

No one noticed that the teacher had already arrived outside the classroom.

Zhang Yan started chatting with her group, explaining the concept of the halogen tungsten lamp. She described injecting a recycling agent inside the glass bulb to return the evaporated tungsten back onto the filament.

The teacher outside the door was stunned by this stroke of genius.

He understood better than the students that this concept had great potential to become reality.

When the filament heats up, tungsten atoms evaporate and move toward the glass tube wall. As they near the wall, the vaporized tungsten cools to around 800°C and bonds with halogen atoms, forming tungsten halide. This compound then moves back toward the center of the glass tube and returns to the oxidized filament. Since tungsten halide is an unstable compound, it decomposes under heat into halogen gas and tungsten once more, allowing the tungsten to re-deposit on the filament and replenish what was lost to evaporation.

Through this regenerative cycle, the filament’s lifespan is greatly extended. Moreover, the filament can operate at higher temperatures, resulting in higher brightness, color temperature, and luminous efficiency.

And as a teacher, he saw even more possibilities.

“Huh? Is that even possible?” some students questioned.

If it could be realized, this idea was undoubtedly a genius-level innovation—bold and brilliant.

“I think it can work!” one of Zhang Yan’s teammates said excitedly.

They were already fairly knowledgeable about electric lamps, so they could understand the theory better.

“Let’s go to the lab!”

They needed to submit an application to use the lab. Only at their school would students even get the chance to conduct experiments like this. Ordinary universities didn’t have the facilities, materials, or budget for it.

“Ah! The teacher’s here.”

A bespectacled teacher walked in.

He approached Zhang Yan with an excited expression and asked, “Zhang Yan, this idea is excellent. You all go apply for lab access—I’ll get the approval fast-tracked. Hurry and produce some experimental data.”

Zhang Yan replied a little sheepishly, “Mr. Zeng, the idea of adding a recycling agent wasn’t mine. Someone else came up with it.”

“It wasn’t you? Then who was it?” Mr. Zeng looked at the other students in her group.

Her teammates were also stunned.

“Yan Zi, it wasn’t your idea?”

“Then who?”

Zhang Yan told them, “You remember Zhou Yimin, the one who invented the Hand pump and the solar stove?”

“Wait, you know him?” her classmates gasped.

Of course they knew of him. They’d discussed that “legendary guy” more than once, even though they had never met him in person.

Mr. Zeng looked over too, surprised that Zhang Yan personally knew such a famous grassroots inventor.

Yes, by now Zhou Yimin had already earned the title of a grassroots inventor.

Mr. Zeng knew more about Zhou Yimin than the students did—he had a relative working at the steel factory who told him that Zhou had also invented a rice cooker. He was a very impressive young man.

Zhang Yan blushed and said, “He’s my fiancé.”

That sentence shocked everyone in the room, students and teacher alike.

He’s your fiancé?

You really kept that under wraps, huh? To think she had such an incredible fiancé and never mentioned it—was she afraid someone might try to steal him away?

“Zhang Yan! When are you bringing him to our school? Let us see him with our own eyes!” someone called out.

They looked like fans desperate to meet their idol.

“Yeah! You knew Zhou Yimin and didn’t tell us? Bring him to our class already!”

Even Mr. Zeng had developed a fondness for the talented youth and hoped Zhang Yan could bring her fiancé over. He wanted to persuade him to attend classes at their school and continue his education.

That very day, the school provided Zhang Yan’s group with a lab. Even the teachers got involved in the experiment.

“It really works!” one of Zhang Yan’s group members shouted, face flushed with excitement.

They knew very well that this research was of immense significance—it could be called a true revolution in electric lighting.

Soon, Mr. Zeng received word that halogen tungsten lamps had already been invented abroad just a few months ago. In other words, if they succeeded in this project, domestic electric lamps could catch up to the world’s most advanced level.

Once the lab version of the halogen tungsten lamp was built, it even drew the attention of the school leadership.

Or more accurately, it alarmed them.

The associate dean of their department rushed over in a hurry.

“How’s it going?”

Mr. Zeng nodded to him. “My students have already built it, but we still need some time to collect the data.”

Even so, they already predicted that the performance of halogen tungsten lamps would far surpass that of regular incandescent bulbs.

Otherwise, foreign countries wouldn’t have invested so much effort into developing them.

And now, our country had them too.

“Good, good, very good!” the associate dean exclaimed.

He entered the lab and, upon seeing the glowing halogen tungsten lamp, praised Zhang Yan and her teammates one by one. He told them that once the data was ready, the school would officially recognize their contribution.

This was a point of pride for their school—it absolutely needed to be publicized.

Electric lamps are daily necessities with huge demand, so this advancement was of major significance.

Zhang Yan and the others didn’t dare claim the credit and quickly explained that the idea had come from someone else.

When the school leadership heard that it was Zhou Yimin—the inventor of the Hand pump, solar stove, and rice cooker—they, like Mr. Zeng, were moved. They all hoped Zhang Yan could “lure” her fiancé into enrolling at their school.

It would be a real pity to let such talent go to waste.

But regardless, the achievement still needed to be publicized.

Even if Zhou Yimin came up with the idea, the students at the school had done the work. The fact remained: the first domestic halogen tungsten lamp was developed right here at their university.

At that moment, Zhou Yimin was walking along a country path in Zhoujiazhuang, admiring the beautiful wheat fields.

Golden waves of wheat rippled in the wind, filling the air with the fragrance of ripening grain.

A villager plucked two stalks of wheat and rubbed them in his palms. Finally, he blew off the chaff and held the plump, greenish-yellow grains up to his eyes.

“The wheat is ready,” the villager said.

“We’ll harvest the day after tomorrow. Go inform the commune,” said the village’s old Party secretary.

They had to notify the commune, which would send people to supervise the harvest to prevent villagers from hoarding grain.

Given the tough years they’d recently lived through, with food shortages and hunger, it was wise to be cautious—some might be desperate enough to take risks.

(End of Chapter)