Chapter 1259: Can You Take Me With You?

I…

Won?!

Lu Zhou was a little muddled.

Not out of excitement…

It was just that…

He did not expect this.

He did not expect this to come so suddenly.

This might sound arrogant, but in Lu Zhou’s opinion, the Nobel Prize in Physics was guaranteed. But it was too early to think about it now.

After all…

It had only been five years since he won the award last time…

Luo Wenxuan held Lu Zhou’s shoulders tightly with both hands. He spoke with excitement.

“Can I interview you? What do you feel right now?”

Lu Zhou looked at him and replied, “Actually, very normal.”

Luo Wenxuan was stunned.

“Normal?”

“Yeah.” Lu Zhou looked up and thought for a while. He then said nonchalantly, “I originally thought I would be excited, or at least would feel emotional. But… It doesn’t feel like anything.”

After all, he had already won two medals from an alien civilization.

And not long ago, he won a National Medal of Honor.

He had more medals than he could hang on his chest.

Luo Wenxuan stared at Lu Zhou and said, “Not bad… I’m convinced by your humble bragging.”

The Nobel Prize in Physics was his lifelong dream.

No, not just his.

This was the lifelong pursuit of most people with a career in physics.

Receiving this award meant being recognized by the entire physics community. It meant that there was no need to worry about scientific research funding and complicated interpersonal relationships. From then onward, this person would transform into a scholar who could think things like “money has no meaning to me”.

In fact, Lu Zhou was hailed to this high position as soon as he returned to China. The Nobel Prize was at least 60% of the reason for the existence of the controllable fusion project.

After all, talent alone was useless. In addition to having talent, one had to convince others of their ability and talent. This was so that the decision-makers could give you money and power.

Seeing how Luo Wenxuan had finally calmed down, Lu Zhou then asked, “Who won the award with me?”

“No one, you are the only winner this year… Because of the discovery of the Z particle. Damn, I also published several papers in this field, why do they ignore me…”

Lu Zhou didn’t say anything; he just nodded.

I see.

It seems that in the eyes of the Nobel Prize Committee, the Z particle is more worthy of the Nobel Prize than something that needed time to test such as the “electrostrong interaction”.

Actually, the same is true for the discovery of the Higgs particle.

The award was awarded the year after the discovery.

There were too many theories that couldn’t be proven. The Nobel Prize Committee had become more and more cautious about giving out awards.

Especially in the field of particle physics; it was almost impossible to conduct experiments. Hawking’s black hole radiation theory was not given a Nobel Prize even though, in the eyes of many of his colleagues, his theory was absolutely worthy of a Nobel Prize…

At least it seemed much more reliable than string theory and Witten’s M-theory.

But then again, because of this rigor, the Nobel Prize in Physics had become the most reliable and authoritative award among all of the Nobel Prize awards.

As for the Peace Prize and Literary Prize…

The former had become a joke, and the latter became the target of frequent scandals. Even the candidate list was leaked every year.

It seemed like the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences had given up on these awards.

“Can you take me with you when you go to Stockholm?”

“If I say no, you won’t go?”

Luo Wenxuan smiled awkwardly.

He was definitely going.

He wouldn’t get to stand on the podium, but he could attend the Nobel Prize dinner with his boss at the Blue Hall.

“Speaking of which, do you want to tell the state about this news? Traveling overseas counts as a foreign affair for you, right?”

“No need.” Lu Zhou glanced at his watch. “If even you heard about this news, in half an hour, an old man named Li will come to find me.”

…

The press conference for the announcement of the Nobel Prize and the call to notify the winners was conducted at the same time.

When Luo Wenxuan notified Lu Zhou of the news, the Nobel Committee had in fact already announced the winners an hour ago.

An hour after the news was announced, everyone in Beijing knew that Academician Lu had won the Nobel Prize.

Luo Wenxuan took the maglev train to Jinling.

After the Jinling line was put into operation at the end of the year, the speed from Shanghai to Jinling became much faster.

Lu Zhou’s half-hour estimate was an overestimation. After he invited Luo Wenxuan to the living room and finished drinking a cup of coffee, his doorbell rang again.

Just like Lu Zhou had expected, Director Li appeared at his front steps.

After he opened the door, before he even had time to say hello, Director Li spoke first.

“You won?!”

“Sort of.” Lu Zhou smiled and looked at Director Li, who was trembling with excitement. Lu Zhou said, “Look at how excited you are.”

“Of course I am excited! This is the Nobel Prize!”

“Come inside.”

Lu Zhou took out a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet and handed it to Director Li.

Director Li put on the slippers and walked to the living room with Lu Zhou. Director Li saw a middle-aged man sitting on the sofa, who smiled and greeted him.

“Hello, Director Li!”

“Hello hello…”

Director Li couldn’t remember who this was. Director Li skipped the small talk and asked Lu Zhou, “Are you going to accept the award?”

Lu Zhou: “Is this really a question?”

Director Li paused for a second and smiled.

“You’re right.”

This kind of award signified the scientific research strength of a country to a certain extent.

Even though China’s scientific research strength did not need to be proved by the number of Nobel Prizes, it was always a good thing to be recognized by the academic world. After all, scientific research came from teamwork.

Lu Zhou was going to accept this award even though it wouldn’t benefit.

“Then for the trip… We’ll arrange it for you, if that’s okay.”

Lu Zhou: “Of course, thank you.”

Director Li waved his hand quickly and said with a smile, “No need to thank us, this is a highlight of our physics community to the world! Everyone is looking forward to you bringing this medal back from Stockholm.”

Suddenly, the phone in Lu Zhou’s pocket began to ring.

Lu Zhou got up from the sofa and walked to the stairs leading to the second floor.

When he connected the call, he heard a happy voice from the other end.

Just like he expected, Chen Yushan was the one calling.

“You won?!”

“You’re the third person to say that to me today.”

“Oh… Wait, who are the other two?”

Lu Zhou was slightly taken aback by how nervous Chen Yushan sounded. He spoke with a strange tone.

“Director Li and Luo Wenxuan… Why?”

“Oh, nothing…”

For some reason, Lu Zhou felt like Chen Yushan was relieved.

He was about to ask Chen Yushan what was going on when Chen Yushan spoke first.

“Um…”

Lu Zhou asked, “What’s wrong?”

The phone went silent for a while.

For a long time.

Lu Zhou began to wonder if the call had disconnected when he finally heard her speak.

“Can you take me with you?”