I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times

Vol 2. Chapter 152: Experimental Secrets

Hearing Tang Mu Dao say he had an idea, the other four turned their gazes toward him.

Tang Mu Dao thought for a moment and said, “Zheng Fa, I told you before—those of us in astronomy spend a lot of time collecting various cosmic signals. Whether it’s radiation, light, or even microwave signals—in the end, it’s all about observing electromagnetic waves. These observations usually span many years, and there are a lot of corresponding records.”

Zheng Fa nodded, waiting for him to continue.

“So, in theory, many observatories do have electromagnetic data recorded on the days of the solar terms—it’s just that these signals were usually treated as noise.”

“I’ll go look through the public data from a few observatories. I should be able to get the records we need.”

Hearing this, Zheng Fa couldn’t help but express his gratitude: “Then I’ll leave it to you, Professor Tang!”

Tang Mu Dao waved his hand and went off to his room, probably to look for the data.

Meanwhile, Old Bai asked, “There are so many observatories, all picking up different types of signals. How are we supposed to figure out which one is the one we’re looking for?”

Electromagnetic waves were far too common—virtually endless. Each observatory could pick up massive quantities of electromagnetic signals at any moment.

On top of that, observatories were scattered across different regions, and whether any of them had captured the kind of unique signal Zheng Fa hoped for was another issue.

Of course, the others didn’t know this, but Zheng Fa understood—

The Xuanyi Realm and the modern world were different. While both had the concept of solar terms, their underlying meanings might not be the same.

So whether this unique electromagnetic signal even existed in the modern world was the real challenge.

This thing really did feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.

“There is one method,” Zheng Fa said.

“If my hypothesis is correct, then we can draw one conclusion—on the day of a solar term, there should be a special electromagnetic signal.”

“And that kind of signal shouldn’t appear on non-solar-term days.”

“If we can find that kind of unique signal in the data, even partially, it would validate the hypothesis.”

“If we can’t find it, then the hypothesis is probably wrong.”

It was like how general relativity predicted gravitational waves. Sometimes, when you can’t directly verify a theory, the more observable predictions become a kind of proof.

“That workload though…”

Old Bai smacked his lips and sighed, “That’s a lot…”

“Then we’ll have to rely on Professor Tang.”

This kind of validation would first require a huge amount of data.

As for how to process it and identify the relevant signals—that would be the next big headache.

…

Tang Mu Dao’s connections were indeed useful—at least finding public data hadn’t been a problem.

The hard part was—how to find that one small signal among all the endless records…

Zheng Fa couldn’t help but look toward Tang Lingwu.

In this kind of situation, letting a computer handle it was always the first choice.

Tang Lingwu frowned in thought. “Technically, it’s not hard, but it’ll take time—and luck.”

This was actually simpler than when they were doing symbol diagram recognition—it was more like one big game of spot the difference.

But the problem was, the data volume was huge, and there was no specific pattern to target, so there wasn’t any special shortcut—they just had to let the computer run and compare.

Zheng Fa looked over at the others.

They all seemed stumped too, with no better ideas.

…

Half a month later, in the evening, Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu were both in the courtyard.

Inside the building, the main server was groaning. The whirring of fans had been going nonstop for about ten days now.

Tang Mu Dao had found quite a lot of data, and more kept coming in bit by bit—from both domestic and international sources.

But there had still been no exciting discoveries—only more burden on the computer. Tang Lingwu had even upgraded the machines.

Zheng Fa wasn’t quite so anxious anymore—mostly because he’d realized the nursing home now basically revolved around him.

The moment he showed the slightest sense of urgency, Old Bai and the others would feel pressured.

Especially Tang Lingwu.

This research was, in truth, mostly reliant on her.

She’d had the biggest workload these past few days, and the others couldn’t help much.

For several nights in a row, Zheng Fa had seen the light on in her room late at night.

She seemed to be pulling all-nighters.

Most importantly, there had been no progress so far.

The more that was true, the more irritable she became.

There were even a few times where she’d just zone out while eating…

So today, he set up a little movie night.

They placed a few lounge chairs in the courtyard, with a few small tables in front. The tables held fruit from the nursing home’s own garden—fresh, juicy, and just picked.

A little further away, a projector was set up, facing a screen.

He asked Tang Lingwu, who was lying on the lounge chair to his left, “What movie do you want to watch?”

At that moment, he felt a bit regretful that he hadn’t yet found materials for making spiritual talismans in the modern world—otherwise, he’d at least let everyone experience what true holographic projection looked like.

Tang Lingwu seemed to know Zheng Fa was trying to cheer her up.

She smiled at him, lying back in the chair, her legs swinging off the edge, even her round little toes looked joyful.

“Anything’s fine!”

Old Bai curled his lips, glanced at Teacher Tian beside him, then turned to look at Tang Mu Dao, who was sitting all alone.

His face instantly lit up with glee.

“Xiao Tian, what do you want to watch?”

He said it loudly.

Teacher Tian rolled her eyes at him, though there was still a trace of a smile there. She thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t we each make a suggestion?”

“That’s a great idea!”

Old Bai praised.

Zheng Fa thought for a bit and said, “Something relaxing.”

He still just wanted everyone to unwind a little.

Tang Lingwu thought for a while too. “Something that doesn’t require thinking.”

It was obvious—she was really tired these days.

Old Bai said with a grin, “Something domestic! I don’t want to hear bird speech!”

Teacher Tian considered for a moment and said, “Then something related to cultivation… more immersive.”

Everyone turned to look at Tang Mu Dao. Tang Mu Dao pursed his lips and, keeping a straight face, said, “Where lovers never have happy endings…”

“……”

In the end, everyone watched a familiar scene of Uncle Nine appear on screen—and realized whatever they’d had in mind earlier probably wasn’t this.

But as they kept watching… it was actually kind of good.

Everyone’s mood had relaxed.

Zheng Fa glanced at Tang Lingwu and saw that she was fully immersed in the movie, which left him quite satisfied.

Old Bai suddenly turned to Tang Mu Dao and asked, “Mu Dao, I heard before that you’ve got some tricks when it comes to experiments… that your success rate is really high.”

Teacher Tian, sitting nearby, also nodded, looking at Tang Mu Dao with a hint of envy.

Zheng Fa perked up and looked at Tang Mu Dao too.

It wasn’t until he began researching Spirit Wood Thunder that he realized how much agricultural experiments relied on luck. If there were any techniques, he’d be happy to learn.

Tang Mu Dao was slightly taken aback, a bit of embarrassment appearing on his face.

Like there was something he couldn’t quite say.

Seeing him like that, Zheng Fa said, “Professor Tang, it’s fine if you don’t want to share.”

Tang Mu Dao shook his head and smiled. “It’s not a secret, really… just, well, a bit embarrassing to admit in front of all of you.”

“Embarrassing?”

Tang Mu Dao explained, “My trick for experiments… is him!”

He pointed at Uncle Nine on the screen.

“Huh?”

“When I first went abroad, I didn’t know anyone,” Tang Mu Dao continued, “There was a time it was really tough—I couldn’t find a job, didn’t have any resources. That’s when I heard about a professor who was really into our traditional culture. So I bought an outfit exactly like the one in this movie and told him I could do rituals! That I could boost experimental success rates.”

“Scamming people?” Old Bai suddenly understood.

Tang Mu Dao chuckled, “Not really. The professor wasn’t stupid. He just thought I was interesting and gave me a chance—took me in as a PhD student.”

“Later on, we got to know each other and joked around a lot, and that’s how the rumor started. Sometimes, to lighten the mood, I’d wear the outfit and do a little performance… just for fun.”

He summed it up, “In research, all success comes from steady grinding, drop by drop wearing away stone. There’s no rushing it, and definitely no real tricks.”

This Tang Mu Dao…

Zheng Fa glanced at Tang Lingwu, who looked as if she’d gained some new understanding. He figured Tang Mu Dao had said all that just for her.

Looks like it worked.

…

The next day.

Zheng Fa looked at Tang Lingwu curiously. She was sitting in front of her computer, covering her eyes like she didn’t dare to look at the screen.

“I looked up research tips online and tried a few methods,” Tang Lingwu said, turning her head, clearly avoiding the monitor. “Some people say you shouldn’t look at the computer, or it gets scared and won’t give you the right data.”

Wait, this is what you took away from yesterday?

“…And?”

“Oh, some people bow to the computer… I haven’t tried that yet.”

“…Let’s not.”

Even Tang Mu Dao, standing nearby, looked speechless. “Xiao Tang, we still need to be practical…”

Just then, a notification sound rang out.

Tang Lingwu whipped her head around and stared at the screen: “We’ve got a result!”

“Huh?”

“Let me see… this is the unique electromagnetic signal from Jingzhe Day,” Tang Lingwu clicked around on the computer, summarizing, “This kind of signal only appeared on Jingzhe Day, and it’s been recorded dozens of times across five observatories.”

Zheng Fa and Tang Mu Dao both froze, then leaned in to look at the screen together.

Finding a needle in a haystack was hard—but once you pulled it out and knew it was a needle, everything got easier.

“So… this is the waveform of Jingzhe Thunder?”

Tang Mu Dao asked in a daze.

“A possible waveform. If there are no other special electromagnetic signals on Jingzhe Day, then this is the most likely one!”

Tang Lingwu said with a smile.

Another alert chimed.

“What’s this?”

“Remember the Spirit Wood Thunder we researched earlier? I fed its waveform into the data to look for similar patterns—and I found one! This is the unique electromagnetic signal from Dashu Day!”

Tang Lingwu glanced at the screen again and grinned.

Zheng Fa suddenly perked up and looked at the still-running computer. A thought suddenly popped into his mind—

Maybe… he should bow to it.

…