CHAPTER 78: CHAPTER 87: KEY FIGURES

February in Washington was blanketed in snow and ice.

Despite the bitter cold, nothing could stop Yuan Jialiu and his wife. After a year apart, they reunited in New York just before the Lantern Festival and set off on a leisurely road trip along the East Coast.

After meeting old friends in Washington, they began the drive back to New York. Though it was already February, another northern cold front had brought a heavy snowfall, and Yuan Jialiu drove carefully through the snow-covered roads.

Watching her cautious husband, Wu Jianxiong said, "So, Pierre has made quite a name for himself in physics as well?"

"Yes," Yuan replied. "When we get to New York, if we have time, we can discuss some physics topics together. He has some very novel, even groundbreaking, ideas."

Yuan then began to talk about his previous conversation with Pierre...

Some topics were quickly brought up, and the couple soon found themselves discussing Pierre’s hypotheses in the field of quantum mechanics as they drove. As scholars, the two of them quickly became engrossed in the discussion, even forgetting that they were still in the car.

"...If his hypothesis is proven, it will definitely cause a sensation throughout the academic world."

As Wu Jianxiong finished speaking, she suddenly noticed that the car had sped up at some point.

"Jialiu, the road outside is slippery. Slow down, be caref—"

Before she could finish her sentence, she felt the car suddenly spin out of control.

"Jialiu—!"

Wu Jianxiong cried out in terror, grabbing Yuan Jialiu’s arm. Before she could say anything more, she heard the screech of tires skidding. The next moment, it happened—the BMW sports car they were driving veered off the road and rolled violently down the hillside...

Several hours later, Yuan Jialiu sat blankly in the hospital, staring at the operating room’s flashing red light, filled with regret.

How could this happen? How could I have been so careless?

It had all happened so suddenly, leaving him completely unprepared. After the car left the road by more than a dozen feet, it was stopped by a large tree. There was no rolling, no fire, no explosion—these were, in a sense, small mercies.

Later, a passing car saw the accident and stopped to help, pulling the two of them from the wreckage. Yuan Jialiu was lucky; aside from some scrapes, he had only injured his ribs when they struck the steering wheel. Wu Jianxiong, however, was not so fortunate.

The impact from the fall caused multiple rib fractures and a broken arm. She was still in emergency surgery.

It wasn’t until the next morning that the doctor finally emerged from the operating room. As soon as he saw the doctor, Yuan Jialiu rushed over anxiously.

"Doctor, how is my wife? How is she?"

"Sir, the surgery was very successful. However, due to multiple fractures, it will take about four months for her to recover."

Only then did Yuan Jialiu finally breathe a sigh of relief, murmuring to himself,

"That’s good, that’s good. As long as she’s alright, that’s all that matters..."

...

When Yuan Jialiu called Pierre, Li felt the same way: as long as everyone was safe!

If anything had happened, he would have felt terribly guilty. He had lent them his car, and it had ended in such an accident. The thought sent a chill through him—not just out of concern for his friends, but also because the Chinese physics community could have lost a leading figure!

"I’m never lending out my car again. This is just too frightening—unless, maybe, I lend out the driver too."

After thinking for a moment, Pierre added,

"I’ll send someone to pick them up. With injuries like that, they’ll need at least a hundred days to recover. Maybe they should just rest up at the house in Hampton for a while."

Like many wealthy New Yorkers, Pierre owned a villa in South Hampton. It was an investment—the seaside property had cost just over ten thousand dollars at the time, but in later years would be worth tens of millions, and even then, would be hard to buy.

With that thought, Pierre picked up the phone and instructed his secretary. Soon, Ding En sent someone to drive the Yuan couple to recuperate.

A week later, outside Yuan Jialiu’s apartment in New York, two Americans in overcoats and hats knocked on the door once again, but as before, there was no response.

"Didn’t the university say that the lady had been staying here with her husband since being discharged from the hospital?" Colonel Nichols frowned in confusion.

"We’ve been here three times now, and there’s never anyone home."

The other man flipped through the mail in his hand and said,

"Colonel, take a look at these bills—they’re last month’s utilities. That means they haven’t returned to New York, or at least not to this apartment."

"We can’t just keep waiting like this, can we?"

Staring at the tightly closed door, Colonel Nichols said, "I don’t think it’s necessary to wait any longer. We’ve been here for a week. I’m sure Mr. Oppenheimer will understand."

A few hours later, Oppenheimer received a long-distance call from New York. Upon learning that Wu Jianxiong had been injured in a car accident, he anxiously inquired about her condition. Only after confirming her safety did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, as long as she’s alright. It doesn’t matter. She’s probably recuperating somewhere now. We can get in touch with her again in a while."

Although the timing was unfortunate, Oppenheimer had no other options. After hanging up, he once again pored over Fermi’s report.

"...The chain reaction from nuclear explosions cannot be sustained. The neutrons produced by collisions inexplicably disappear, causing the chain reaction to lose the driving force necessary for continuity."

The sudden disappearance of neutrons left Oppenheimer, Fermi, and the other scientists at a loss. The development of the atomic bomb was facing a major crisis and risked coming to a standstill.

"...One of the fission products—xenon-135—is most likely the culprit behind this malfunction. We believe xenon-135 is a ’neutron poison.’ But as for how to solve this, we currently have no clear answer."

Reading the report, Oppenheimer frowned deeply. If this problem couldn’t be solved, the atomic bomb could not be built—without a sustained chain reaction, there would be no atomic bomb.

Who could solve this problem?

In Oppenheimer’s view, only Wu Jianxiong—his former student—was capable of solving it. As early as 1939, she had independently completed experiments investigating the fission products of uranium nuclei, and in those experiments, she discovered that large quantities of radioactive xenon-135 were produced during uranium fission, and proposed that this isotope had a certain capacity to absorb neutrons.

It was precisely because she...

Research in this area is at the forefront of the world, which is why Oppenheimer sent people to find her, and even personally went to Washington to resolve her security clearance issues.

However, by a twist of fate, she ended up in a traffic accident.

There was nothing to be done. Having lost a key figure, Oppenheimer could only sigh helplessly.

"Well, alright. We’ll just have to wait a few months until she recovers..."