War of Intelligent Machines

Chapter 6: The Genius Girl

Chapter 6: The Genius Girl

To prevent Jiang Yu’s body from deteriorating too quickly, Jiang Hui started taking her out for daily exercises when Jiang Yu was just one year old, aiming to stimulate her bones and muscles.

However, the moon’s gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth, so in most situations, the pressure on her muscles and bones was also only one-sixth of what it would be on Earth. As a result, Jiang Yu’s development was noticeably different from that of Earth children her age.

Due to the lack of sunlight, her skin was pale, almost colorless. Her height was much taller than children of the same age on Earth, roughly 20-30% taller.

Her joints and muscles were underdeveloped compared to Earth children’s, giving her a slender, fragile appearance, like a sprout—pale and thin.

Luckily, her joints were small, so her body and limbs appeared smooth and flowing, giving her an almost ethereal, delicate beauty as she walked, like willow branches swaying in the wind.

Apart from her physical development, she also exhibited an extraordinary trait from the age of two or three—exceptional intelligence.

At first, people just thought she learned to speak faster than average children. By the time she was two, she could remember all the names of the uncles and aunts at the base and could even do basic addition and subtraction.

What was even more astonishing was that by the age of three, she could read children's books.

From then on, almost all the uncles and aunts at the base eagerly volunteered to be her teachers, to the point that there was even some friendly competition among them.

By the time she was four, Jiang Yu had completed the entire elementary school curriculum.

At six, she had finished the major high school courses and started studying college-level subjects like calculus and general physics.

By the time she was eight, she suddenly became interested in helium-3 mining.

It all started when she asked her mother what the mining base was extracting, and her mother replied, "They're mining helium-3."

"What is helium-3 used for?" Jiang Yu asked.

"For generating power," her mother answered.

"Why does the base use solar panels for power and not helium-3?"

"Using helium-3 requires a fusion reactor, and the reactor is too large to be transported to the moon."

"Could we build a reactor on the moon?"

"I don't know, it seems like it would be impossible. The moon doesn’t have factories or equipment, and building a reactor requires a lot of machinery and materials."

"Could we build a small reactor on Earth and transport it to the moon?"

...

From that point on, Jiang Yu became fascinated with nuclear reactors.

She began collecting all kinds of information on nuclear fusion, and within a year, she had mastered a vast amount of theoretical knowledge about building nuclear fusion reactors. Then, a grand vision started forming in her mind: she wanted to design a small nuclear fusion reactor that could be transported from Earth to the moon.

This idea sounded a bit incredible, even unrealistic, but this genius girl quickly came up with a complete set of plans and handed them over to her mother.

Jiang Hui was stunned when she saw the plan. Although she couldn’t understand most of the content, it was absolutely mind-boggling that an eleven-year-old child could produce such a clear, comprehensive design. And to top it off, this was her own daughter.

But, as someone from a technical background, Jiang Hui knew that several generations of scientists had spent their entire careers researching controlled nuclear fusion, and only in recent years had it begun to approach practical application. How could an eleven-year-old child come up with a feasible plan?

Although Jiang Yu was a genius and her daughter, Jiang Hui couldn’t help but feel skeptical—after all, the scientists were geniuses too!

While she did praise Jiang Yu greatly, she didn’t take her daughter’s plan seriously. She thought it was just a child’s playful curiosity.

However, three days later, Jiang Yu asked her if the plan was any good, and Jiang Hui was caught off guard.

Conflicted, she instinctively felt that the plan wasn’t feasible, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. It was just a gut feeling.

If she dismissed the plan solely based on her subjective feeling, it would be too harsh.

But if she falsely agreed that it was feasible, that wouldn’t be right either. After all, she genuinely didn’t know if the plan would work. This was a serious matter, and she didn’t want to deceive her child.

Under Jiang Yu’s persistent questioning, Jiang Hui flushed red in embarrassment. She had no choice but to tell the truth.

“Xiao Yu, I don’t know if it will work... Let me ask Uncle Xu.”

The “Uncle Xu” Jiang Hui referred to was Xu Xiaofeng, the second stationmaster of the base who replaced Li Chunzhi. He was a male astronaut in his forties, with a vast knowledge base, and Jiang Hui hoped he might help evaluate Jiang Yu’s plan.

Jiang Hui took Jiang Yu’s plan to Xu Xiaofeng. After hearing Jiang Hui’s description, Xu Xiaofeng was also amazed, but since it was the mother of the child asking, and Jiang Yu was clearly no ordinary child, he agreed to take a look.

A week later, Xu Xiaofeng came to see Jiang Hui. He said that although he couldn’t understand much of the plan, many of the designs seemed to make sense. So, he decided to pass it on to one of his old classmates.

This old classmate wasn’t just anyone; he was Wu Peiyuan, a high-energy physics expert at the Academy of Sciences, an academician, and a specialist in controlled nuclear fusion.

Jiang Hui was excited. She hadn’t expected her daughter’s plan to be credible. If it weren’t at least somewhat feasible, Xu Xiaofeng wouldn’t have taken it to an academician.

A month later, Xu Xiaofeng came rushing to find Jiang Hui, saying that Wu Peiyuan had responded, and Jiang Yu’s plan might be classified as top-secret. All related documents must be kept under the highest level of secrecy.

Jiang Hui was stunned. Could her daughter’s plan really be feasible?

Xu Xiaofeng immediately arranged for a security officer responsible for confidentiality to meet with Jiang Hui. Together, they took Jiang Yu to the secure room, where Jiang Yu had to explain in detail the process of writing the plan and list everyone and every document that had any connection to the plan.

Fortunately, Jiang Yu hadn’t consulted anyone else while writing the plan. All the reference materials were publicly available online.

So, aside from Jiang Hui, Xu Xiaofeng, and Wu Peiyuan, no one else had seen the plan.

To maintain secrecy, Jiang Yu’s computer was temporarily locked away in the secure room, and both Jiang Hui and Jiang Yu underwent a week-long security training.

During this time, Jiang Yu couldn’t help but ask Jiang Hui and the security officer if the plan was feasible, but neither could answer her, afraid of revealing too much. The security officer kept reminding Jiang Yu to remain tight-lipped and not discuss the matter with anyone.

Over a month later, Xu Xiaofeng called Jiang Hui and Jiang Yu into a meeting room. He said that the higher-ups had instructed them to temporarily set up a research institute at Yadong’s base, called the H9B Research Institute, affiliated with the Academy of Sciences’ High-Energy Institute. It would be managed by the Qianxuesen Research Base for now.

For the time being, two researchers were appointed: Lead Researcher, Jiang Yu; Assistant Researcher, Jiang Hui. The base would quickly clear out a room and provide them with equipment.

Jiang Hui and Jiang Yu were both stunned. How had they suddenly become researchers at the Academy of Sciences?

It took them two days to slowly piece everything together. It seemed Jiang Yu was now officially employed, with a senior position as the lead researcher at the Academy of Sciences, and they were no longer part of Yadong Aerospace. They were now Academy of Sciences personnel.

The rapid changes felt like a dream.

Two weeks later, the Academy of Sciences sent their electronic appointment letters, and their new office was ready.

At this time, most people at the base still had no idea what had happened. Only Xu Xiaofeng and the security officer knew the whole story.