The red numbers on the large screen flickered to 00:45:00.
Forty-five minutes remaining.
The thermodynamic system was perfect.
An aluminum alloy base plate, plus paper towels soaked in cold water.
At room temperature, the water molecules evaporated continuously, carrying away a large amount of latent heat of vaporization.
The cold side of the Peltier cooler was pinned firmly to a temperature curve at or even below room temperature.
It was a passive water-cooling cycle with no mechanical components.
The electromagnetic system was also perfect.
The ratio of the primary and secondary coils was precise down to a single turn.
A cheap NPN transistor, with the optimal bias resistor, stood ready to perform high-frequency switching at any moment.
With just the slightest, weakest, continuous DC input, the hand-wound transformer would generate a drastic change in the magnetic field within its core, forcefully jacking up the voltage tenfold.
The two systems were already connected, their wires interlocking.
Only one thing was missing between them.
A stable heat source.
Chen Zhuo stood directly in front of the workbench.
He wasn’t looking at the dim LED, nor at the ever-decreasing numbers on the large screen.
His gaze fell upon the few connection wires on the tabletop.
The red wire leading from the semiconductor cooler was connected to the breadboard’s power rail.
The wire’s copper core was exposed to the air.
Just now, while Wang Huashao had been repeatedly pressing down on the cooler, the cold sweat from his hands had gotten onto some of the exposed copper wire.
Under the overhead lights, the segment of wire that was originally reddish-brown now showed a faint, dark layer of oxidation on its surface.
The voltage was only a few tenths of a volt to begin with.
Any increase in contact resistance, no matter how small, would be fatal to this delicate system.
Chen Zhuo turned around.
He walked to the far right corner of the workbench.
Lin Yi was sitting at the edge of the large, rectangular table.
The steel-tube folding chair was a bit low. Her legs were stretched out casually in front of her, her heels resting on the floor.
Her body was tilted slightly forward, her elbows propped on the raw wood surface of the table.
She had maintained this same posture since the morning.
The index finger and thumb of her left hand pinched a length of enameled wire.
Pulling it outward.
Release, retract.
Pinch again, pull outward.
The movement was slow.
The range of motion was small.
There was no hesitation, no impatience.
With the friction of the sandpaper, the layer of insulating varnish on the enameled wire’s surface was stripped away bit by bit.
Revealing the bright yellow copper core within.
Lin Yi’s eyes were half-closed.
Chen Zhuo walked over to her side.
He didn’t say anything to interrupt her.
His gaze fell on the row of spare wires on the table, which had already been stripped and cut to a fixed length.
Chen Zhuo reached out.
His fingertips pinched one of the stripped copper wires, preparing to take it.
The instant he picked up the copper wire,
the back of Chen Zhuo’s hand unavoidably brushed against Lin Yi’s left hand, which was resting on the table as she held the wire.
The contact lasted less than a tenth of a second.
Chen Zhuo’s hand froze instantly.
He felt a certain warmth.
On the back of his own hand, on skin that was ice-cold, even frigid,
from the area of that fleeting touch came a dry, deep, and steady heat.
It was a normal body temperature.
No.
In this environment, it was an *abnormal* body temperature.
Chen Zhuo slowly turned his head to look at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi didn’t react.
She hadn’t even felt the slight brush just now.
Her right hand still held the sandpaper against the enameled wire, pulling it gently.
Chen Zhuo looked at her hands.
Because she hadn’t exerted any force for a long time, her fingers were in a naturally, slightly curved state.
There was no reflection on the surface of her skin.
No sweat.
Her fingertips had a normal, healthy color.
In an instant, two images appeared in Chen Zhuo’s mind.
One was the image of Wang Huashao’s hands—glistening under the lights, bone-chillingly cold.
The other was the pair of slowly moving hands before him now.
Chen Zhuo’s gaze moved from Lin Yi’s hands to her profile.
Her mouth was slightly parted, her breathing even.
There were no signs of a stress response.
Over the course of more than three tedious hours of stripping wire, the activity in her cerebral cortex had dropped to an extremely low point.
Her heart rate had likely remained around sixty beats per minute.
With no interference from adrenaline, her peripheral blood vessels remained completely dilated.
Warm blood from her arteries flowed unimpeded to her extremities, locking the temperature of her hands firmly at the standard human core temperature.
’A perfect, constant-temperature source.’
The time on the large screen: 00:38:00.
Chen Zhuo offered no explanation.
Nor did he call out to anyone else.
He simply reached out and pulled the piece of fine-grit sandpaper from Lin Yi’s right hand.
Then he took the spool of enameled wire she was holding in her left hand and placed it at the very edge of the table.
The resistance in Lin Yi’s hands suddenly vanished.
She stopped moving and turned her head.
Her eyes held a trace of confusion from having been interrupted.
She looked at Chen Zhuo, then at the tools that had been taken away.
"Are we done?"
Lin Yi’s voice was a little hoarse, dry from not having spoken for a long time.
She flexed her slightly stiff wrists and prepared to stand up.
"Not yet," Chen Zhuo said.
Lin Yi froze.
She looked at Chen Zhuo.
She didn’t ask why, just waited for him to continue.
Chen Zhuo pointed to the center of the workbench.
The breadboard, bristling with wires, and the aluminum base resting on wet paper towels sat there.
"Switch places," Chen Zhuo said.
"Bring your chair."
Lin Yi let out a quiet sigh.
She stood up and lifted the back of the steel-tube folding chair with one hand.
She walked to the middle of the workbench, to the spot where Chen Zhuo had just been standing, and set the chair down.
Zhou Kai looked up.
He Gui also got up from the floor.
Wang Huashao was wiping his hands with a towel.

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