Inside the laboratory.
Upon hearing that there was a problem with the nucleophilic substitution reaction, Xu Yun didn't even furrow his brows and calmly asked, "Xiao Zhao, there are many possibilities for the failure of the substitution reaction. What exactly is the situation? Is the substance not reacting?"
"The reaction is there..."
Xiao Zhao scratched his head in confusion, his eyes filled with bewilderment. "According to the balanced equation, there shouldn't be any problem, but there is no product being generated. Um, not even a crude product..."
"How much pyridine did you use?"
"3eq%."
"I understand, just wait for a moment."
Upon hearing this, Xu Yun immediately picked up a pen and paper and started calculating on the table, his expression calm and composed.
At this moment, he wasn't deliberately trying to appear deep, but he genuinely felt that this matter wasn't a big deal. In his previous life, he had participated in numerous large-scale physics research projects, where a single mistake could cost millions of dollars (including equipment loss) in just a few seconds.
The funding for this project was less than a million, with only fifty thousand yuan in cash flow provided in the first batch. It would be strange if he felt nervous about it.
After a moment, Xu Yun lightly threw the pen and looked at Xiao Zhao. "CuI 4eq%, add pyridine 4eq%, reflux at 170 degrees... no, 180 degrees for 3 hours."
Xu Yun and his team had made sufficient preparations for light avoidance before the experiment, so they didn't need to consider the possibility of the decomposition of the iodine substitute. Therefore, the lack of product generation in the substitution reaction was most likely due to the ring.
After dealing with Xiao Zhao's problem, another female student in the research group, Zhou Peiyao, raised her hand and said, "Senior, there is also a problem with the epoxy ring opening!"
"Don't worry, tell me the details..."
In this way, for the first half of the experiment, Xu Yun was mainly dealing with team coordination and compound balancing issues.
After all, except for Qiu Sheng, the other five members of the team were all below the third year of graduate school.
For example, Xiao Zhao mentioned earlier was a second-year graduate student, Li Yi and Zhou Peiyao, as well as another male student, were first-year graduate students, and Tang Yiqiu was only a senior in college.
They could easily solve problems on paper, but when it came to practical experience...
It was almost zero.
Therefore, Xu Yun guided and corrected them while time passed by second by second.
"Phew—"
A few hours later, Xu Yun let out a sigh of relief, looked at his watch, and saw that it was half past eleven in the morning.
The pre-reaction steps he had set up this time consisted of 22 steps. After a morning, the progress of the research group had reached the step of nickel acetate/borohydride catalyzed hydrogenation, with a completion rate of about 36%.
At this rate, they might be able to reach about 60% progress today.
If they were lucky tomorrow, they might be able to complete all the pre-work.
The laboratory had a usage period of two weeks, which meant that Xu Yun had about 12 days to focus on the synthesis.
This was even faster than he expected—after all, the task reward was the formula for the fifth generation of pyrrolidine. Besides the ring formation, Xu Yun had to rely on his own efforts for almost every step of the fourth generation he was currently working on.
After confirming the person on duty, the group changed into their regular clothes according to the experimental rules and followed Xu Yun to the food court at the university.
The so-called "Mei Guang" referred to the abbreviation of the food court, which was also a very famous food gathering place near the university.
In Xu Yun's previous life, when he was studying for his undergraduate degree, there was a classmate whose uncle owned a barbecue restaurant near Mei Guang. Her boyfriend was studying animals and plants, so every week, they would sneak out a few rabbits from the laboratory and go to the barbecue restaurant with their girlfriends and their roommates to enjoy the fire and seasonings. In the end, out of the eight people in two dormitories, six of them became couples...
This tradition continued until after Xu Yun graduated. It was said that one time, someone accidentally brought out a rabbit that had taken medicine, and as a result, everyone ended up with diarrhea and had to go to the hospital. Since then, the laboratory at the university became much stricter...
The group of people chatted and laughed along the way and finally arrived at a grilled fish restaurant.I don't know when it started, but many grilled fish restaurants for single diners have appeared in our hometown. The average cost per person is less than thirty yuan, which is quite friendly for office workers or those with social anxiety.
After entering the restaurant, Xu Yun and his five companions each ordered their preferred flavors and then took their seats...
They started scrolling through their phones.
There was no other way, this was the standard social mode for contemporary young people. They simply couldn't survive without their phones.
Tang Yiqiu and Zhou Peiyao were typical gossip enthusiasts. As soon as they opened Weibo, their eyes were immediately drawn to the trending topics:
"Huh? The poster for 'Three Blind Mice' has caused a stir. I quite like their snacks..."
"The comments below say it's a poster from 2019, now it's being dug up to stir up controversy."
"What, so they've been causing trouble since 2019?"
"Well, when you put it that way, it seems you're right..."
"Look at this, the new book by the web novelist 'Novice Fisherman' on Qidian has flopped. He's so poor he fainted from hunger at home. Isn't that pitiful?"
Watching his chattering juniors, a smile crept onto Xu Yun's face.
He actually quite liked the atmosphere of a group of people chattering away. Unfortunately, after graduation, various pressures and real-life problems came one after another, causing gatherings among colleagues to lose this flavor.
He missed those days without any scheming...
Just then, Li Ying, who was sitting next to him, suddenly let out a long 'hmm?'
"Everyone, look at the eighth trending topic. Isn't this a joke?"
Li Ying's words immediately attracted the attention of everyone at the table. Seeing that a few people hadn't downloaded Weibo, Li Ying directly flipped his phone to show the content page:
"Look at this."
The closest to him, Xiao Zhao, leaned in to read and repeat:
"#Newton Portrait, Anta#? What's this trending topic?"
Li Ying chuckled at his words:
"A famous collector in England just passed away. Before his death, he donated all his collections to the British Museum. Today, the museum held an admission ceremony and invited a bunch of media to visit.
Among them was a portrait of Newton, said to be painted in 1701. But on the table behind the portrait, someone saw a pair of sneakers."
"Sneakers?"
Li Ying nodded vigorously, his mouth opening even wider:
"Yes, they look like Anta's winter style for this year. Now some are saying that Newton was a time traveler from China, and others are accusing Anta of malicious marketing—but the thing is, Anta just withdrew from BCI during the Pillar State Cotton incident, and the broadcaster of the admission ceremony was BXC. It's impossible for them to collaborate on something like this."
A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.
Zhou Peiyao thought for a moment and asked:
"Could it be possible that it's fake news made up by domestic marketing accounts?"
Li Ying shook his head:
"No way. Some of our juniors studying abroad have talked about this. I heard that foreign media are going crazy. No matter how this ends, John Bull has lost face. Don't you think so, Xu?"
In response to Li Ying's question, Xu Yun mechanically hummed in agreement, but inside his mind, a thousand thoughts were jumping around:
The sneakers in the portrait, could this be the Easter egg from the reward?
The events in the instance...
Were actually reflected in reality?!