Chapter 282 Christmas Eve

The impact of the breakthrough in lithium battery technology on the capital market continues to ferment.

The world's largest lithium material producers are Chile's SQM, Albemarle of the United States, and Chemetall of Germany. These three companies have almost monopolized 80% of the global production of brine lithium salt.

On the last trading day before Christmas, almost as soon as the market opened, investors of the three lithium mining giants received an amazing Christmas gift.

Perhaps the shareholders of the three companies themselves were stunned by the sudden surprise. When Nature and Science highlighted the lithium dendrite paper, there was no movement in the market at all, and no one thought of a The MRS meeting brought such an amazing effect.

However, as the industry's development of lithium battery products has fulfilled people's expectations, the capital dividend brought about by technological breakthroughs has also begun to come to an end.

After all, when the upstream of the industry chain feels the heat, it undoubtedly means that the downstream has begun to return to calm.

Lu Zhou is not interested in these things for the time being, nor has he paid any attention to how the capital market on Wall Street is changing.

One is that he has no research on financial matters, and the other is that he has not been so interested in money for a period of time.

After financial freedom, he can explore more purely in the field of science without paying too much attention to research funding, market value, and life problems.

To be honest, Lu Zhou probably now has a little understanding of David Xiao's original mood.

Although Wall Street brought him cars, beauties and luxury villas that Columbia University could not give him, it could not give him eternal satisfaction.

Perhaps the capital game with tens of millions of fluctuations is really exciting enough, but this kind of stimulation often cannot last even for the first few years, and it will be submerged in the emptiness sweeping like a tide, and in the end, only those numbers that have no aesthetic feeling are left. The numbness is like a makeshift marriage.

Especially for a large-scale parallel computing expert, he can no longer get any pleasure from this boring and monotonous number game.

Science is different, however.

The pleasure brought by science is more lasting than any money, beautiful women, luxury cars or even any material enjoyment.

Imagine that when a research result comes out, the whole world changes because of you. Most people can't even feel the rotation of the earth, but you can feel that the whole world is rotating because of you.

The emptiness after seconds?

Numbness after getting used to it?

nonexistent.

Because the universe is like a Möbius ring that never ends.

The same is true for science.

...

With the arrival of Christmas, the whole town of Princeton is filled with festive atmosphere.

In contrast, Princeton's campus is much deserted.

As early as two weeks before Christmas, the winter holidays have started here, and will continue until the second week after Christmas.

Except for some international students, almost most students choose to go on vacation at this time, or go home for "New Year's Eve".

Lu Zhou originally planned to hold a Christmas party to celebrate the housewarming, but unfortunately, none of his friends could come.

Brother Luo and his new girlfriend have returned to China, and it's not once or twice that this guy values ​​sex over friends.

David Lawrence went back to his hometown in Boston as soon as he was on vacation. Almost as soon as Lu Zhou came back from Boston, he got on the plane. Naturally, it was impossible to make a special trip back.

As for the seniors in Philadelphia, because their mentors are so busy with their projects, even though they really want to come, they really can't leave.

According to her, her mentor had just received an outsourcing project from a large client, planning the organizational structure of a company with assets worth hundreds of millions, and the deadline set by the other party was to complete it before the end of January.

The menopausal woman dumped a bunch of uncomplicated but incredibly tedious tasks on the grounds that you're not a Christian anyway, and went home to enjoy the holidays.

Although there seems to be nothing wrong with this statement, it still made the senior sister roll her eyes a few times during the video call with Lu Zhou.

He expressed sympathy for Chen Xuejie's experience, but this kind of management knowledge is beyond the scope of his ability, and he can only do nothing to help.

These three couldn't come, and Lu Zhou suddenly realized that he didn't seem to have anyone to invite.

Among his friends, these three young people are closest to Princeton.

As for the old professors of the Institute for Advanced Study, although many of them had a good relationship with him, they obviously couldn't get along with each other due to their different ages.

Fortunately, all three of Lu Zhou's students chose to stay in school, so that the party would not end alone.

Soon it was Christmas day.

A flame was burning in the fireplace, and heavy snow was falling outside the window.

Sitting on the long banquet table in front of the fireplace, Lu Zhou, the boss, opened the champagne and talked slowly to the three students sitting around the table.

"Next year is a new year."

Hardy raised his hand: "Professor, this is nonsense."

Lu Zhou: "..."

You talk a lot!

Ignoring the boy's speech, Lu Zhou continued to read his Christmas speech and expressed his outlook for the new year.

"...From the spring of next year, there will be new students enrolled. I hope that you, brothers and sisters, can take the lead."

Vera nodded seriously as always, keeping the professor's words in her heart.

Qin Yue belonged to the rather dull type, and his expression didn't change much.

Hardy bluffed as always, patted his chest and said, "Professor, don't worry, I will take the lead—"

Lu Zhou said unceremoniously: "Especially Hardy, I hope you can keep up with the progress, especially not to be surpassed by your juniors. Otherwise, when I recruit more students, I might get your name out of the way." forget."

Qin Yue, who took a sip of champagne, almost choked, and quickly coughed to cover up his laughter.

Hardy said with a sad face: "Oh, professor, please, please don't do this!"

Joyful laughter sounded in the living room, and the atmosphere gradually became active.

Seeing his student's funny appearance, Lu Zhou couldn't help but smile and joked with a smile.

"Then you have to work hard."

This is just a joke to cheer up the atmosphere. Of course, it is impossible for him to forget his student's name.

Since they chose to put their future in his hands, as long as they didn't give up, he would be responsible to the end.

Unless, some of them committed academic misconduct, which made Lu Zhou feel disappointed in his character.

Raising a glass full of champagne, Lu Zhou sent his final Christmas message to the raging fire, the snow outside the window, and his students.

"I wish you a lot of success in the new year, and wish our project a complete success. Cheers!"

Vera, Qin Yue, and Hardy also raised their glasses together: "Cheers!!!"

The sound of toasting each other kept ringing.

Although the bells of the church could not be heard here, the laughter was full of warmth.

Hardy, who brags about how much he can drink at the dinner table, ends up being drunk by Qin Yue, who doesn't seem to be drinking very much, and falls down in just a few rounds.

However, within a few rounds, Qin Yue also got down on the ground.

No one expected that in the research group of the Hail Conjecture, the most drinkable person turned out to be Vera, who seemed the weakest.

The empty bottles on the table have been laid out in a row, but there is only a little red glow on the fair cheeks, making it hard to figure out where all the wine is packed.

In the past, Lu Zhou didn't believe in the drinking capacity of the Slavs. Until he was a mathematician, he couldn't remember which drink it was.

Staring at the dimly lit fireplace with slightly drunk eyes, Lu Zhou could not help but think in his heart after barely drinking a glass.

Will a Santa Claus suddenly crawl out of the crackling fire?

If so, would the fire have cooked his sleigh-drawing elk?

As he thought about it, his consciousness became erratic and gradually became foggy.

During this festival in a foreign country, Lu Zhou, who hadn't been drunk for a long time, got drunk again...