Study Monster Cultivation System

Chapter 148 - 137 Is this ___ again? (Single large)

All the students paired up, and Hu Zengwu then opened the PowerPoint, starting the experimental teaching.

His style was distinctly different from Zhou Yi’s, more rigorous. He went through each step in a detailed and standard manner, unlike Zhou Yi, who would gloss over areas he deemed (only in his mind) obvious.

At the same time, it had a sort of by-the-book flavor of rote learning, without much sense of impact. You could say it wasn’t much different from self-study.

Of course, this wasn’t his fault. After all, geniuses like Zhou Chenghuan were hard to come by.

With Hu Zengwu’s pace at present, Li Zheng was naturally feeling a bit drowsy, but he still forced himself to listen attentively, mainly to correct some of the improper practices he had learned from Shi Yang.

Just like the "neutral gear coasting" when learning to drive, with a moderate speed and seeing a red light in the distance, switching to neutral and coasting through with inertia is an operation that saves fuel and effort without harm. However, in a driving test, this operation would result in points being deducted.

As an Old Driver like Shi Yang naturally had many of these clever tricks, not all of them should be emulated; some might be safe under certain circumstances, but not under others.

Being a disciple of Shimen, Li Zheng was somewhat of an unorthodox practitioner. Coming back and relearning the rigors of academia wasn’t completely fruitless.

In one hour, the basic experimental routines were explained.

After a 10-minute break, Hu Zengwu then had Shen Yiyun distribute the experimental test papers and materials.

Everyone received a test paper along with a small bag of industrial salt mud, with other required reagents having been placed on the common experiment table before class.

Confronted with actual test questions, most students were somewhat flustered. Even theoretical experts had pitifully few opportunities to practice experiments in the past.

A student with a buzz cut in front raised his hand and said, "Teacher Hu, why don’t you guide us through one first?"

On the stage, Hu Zengwu closed his notebook and shook his head with a stern face.

"All the knowledge and techniques needed for this experiment were taught to you in the last class."

"The experiment time is one and a half hours."

"I will group you based on the results, those who pass will attend my advanced experiment class tomorrow; those who don’t meet the standards will continue with Yi Yun to supplement their basics until they do."

"You all are top students, and you should be clear that we are selecting the best among the best to represent Jijing and exchange with top students from all over the country. So a one-size-fits-all approach is not suitable for the current situation."

"Let me emphasize one more time, you have already been taught all the necessary knowledge and techniques."

"If your abilities are outstanding enough, even if this is your first experiment, you can achieve results that meet the standards."

With that, he glanced at his watch, "The experiment starts now. It’s three o’clock, and you need to submit your reports before four-thirty."

Boom, boom, boom...

Students dared to make noise but dared not curse.

So, this old man was only going to teach the students he favored?

The rest were to be left to this half-baked senior?

Even more frightening was—

What exactly did we learn last class?

Some were bewildered, some were angry.

Others, however, had already rushed to the common experiment table to grab reagents.

Li Zheng and Wu Shu were the first to react, each heading for the reagents needed for the first step.

"I’ll take 50 milliliters of sulfuric acid, that should be enough for both of us," Li Zheng grabbed a bottle labeled with 25% concentration sulfuric acid.

Wu Shu smoothly picked up a small bottle with a pale yellow liquid: "Alright, do I need 40 milliliters of sodium hypochlorite?"

"25 will suffice."

As others were still reading the test paper, the two of them had already poured the salt mud into beakers.

Half a minute later, the rest hurried to the experiment table, scrambling for the reagents that the two had already taken.

Hu Zengwu’s expression unchanged, he pulled up a chair to sit down, beckoning Shen Yiyun beside him, "It’s normal for Li Zheng to react quickly. What’s Wu Shu’s rank in theory?"

Shen Yiyun quickly flipped through the materials: "Ninth, the best performance from Ren Da Fu this year."

"Is he taught by Sun Leyang?"

Shen Yiyun’s voice softened when she heard the name, not daring to say more: "This...I’m not sure."

"If he’s from Ren Da Fu, then it must be Sun Leyang," Hu Zengwu said with a sneer, "People like Sun Leyang, not good enough for the research circle, had to squeeze into the education circle.

And once in the education circle, rather than honestly teaching and educating, he focused on competitions, only knowing how to devise clever tricks and shortcuts to teach students, ultimately sending me a bunch of problem-solving machines."

"Is that so…" Shen Yiyun was used to Hu Zengwu’s rants about Sun Leyang, having become accustomed to responding reflexively.

According to her senior, it seemed to be related to Hu Zengwu’s romantic troubles in his youth...

As for the specifics, nobody knew.

After all, that was an absolute taboo topic for Hu Zengwu, never to be mentioned.

"It seems that Sun Leyang has guessed the questions correctly again this year," Hu Zengwu cursed enough before shaking his head, "Yi Yun, I didn’t mean to make things difficult for his students, I’m just stating a fact. Don’t go around spreading rumors."

"Won’t say... won’t say..." Shen Yiyun dared not talk more and hurriedly took out Shi Yang’s materials, "You rarely have the time, why not take a look at Shi Yang’s past grades in advance? His father just sent them."

"Hmm." Hu Zengwu took the materials, flipping through them as he spoke, "How is Shi Yang’s situation?"

"He’s still in the hospital. Dean Zhou’s view is that even if he can’t make it, we should try to keep a spot reserved for him."

"Hmm... Don’t add to the confusion. Whether or not to reserve a spot is Zhou Yi’s decision. I will give the marks that are due here." Hu Zengwu put down the materials and said quietly, "This selection, with so many parents and people from the system watching... If Shi Yang doesn’t even show up and we just send him to the national finals, who will take responsibility if there’s an uproar?"

"Yes, but I am confident in Shi Yang’s experimental skills. He is truly exceptional, at least not inferior to Li Zheng."

"I know, I believe you," Hu Zengwu raised his hand to say, "Let’s not talk about this anymore."

Shen Yiyun’s brow furrowed slightly. If two heavyweight teachers both recommended Shi Yang, the Chemical Society would have a reason to accept their suggestion and make an exception to recruit Shi Yang for the national finals. So, she grit her teeth and said, "Teacher Hu, I could produce an assessment report for Shi Yang.

You could revise it, and then we both sign it and submit it to the Chemical Society. It should help argue Shi Yang’s case."

"Absolutely not." Hu Zengwu glared at Shen Yiyun, "You just want to avoid bringing trouble upon yourself? In this room, which student doesn’t have some family background? If it comes down to it and they investigate, your report will be the end of it. Zhou Yi could just wash his hands of the matter, but how will you explain yourself? We just need to do our part well and not cause trouble."

"Alright..." Shen Yiyun reluctantly bowed her head and dared not utter another half-word.

For Shi Yang’s matter, she had already spoken many good words in front of Zhou Yi.

But it seemed now that although Zhou Yi had the intention, having never met Shi Yang, he did not dare to be too decisive.

Hu Zengwu, on the other hand, was keen to protect his own position and forbade her from speaking further on behalf of Shi Yang.

If this continued, that chemistry prodigy who boasted of going to Prague to show the whole world his preparation of special substances... he might just end up faltering at the proctology hospital.

Shen Yiyun, being of little influence, could not say much else and merely followed Hu Zengwu quietly, inspecting the experiments together.

Li Zheng, on the other hand, had clarified his experimental thoughts in his mind while heating the solvent.

Extracting magnesium sulfate heptahydrate from salt mud.

It was less about extracting what was needed and more about filtering out unwanted impurities.

After all, in industrial salt mud, besides the target element magnesium, there are various other chemical elements like calcium, iron, aluminum, and manganese.

To extract "magnesium", the salt mud must first be acidified to form a solution. Then, unwanted substances are chlorinated and hydrolyzed into hydroxides to precipitate as solids, and filtered out sequentially.

Eventually, the remaining magnesium is used to crystallize into magnesium sulfate heptahydrate.

The process is multifold, but the principle is simple.

The core lies in one point—pH value.

In this experiment, each substance to be filtered out precipitates as a solid at different pH values.

As long as the theory is solid and you understand the precise pH value at which each substance fully precipitates, the final results should be roughly accurate.

However, if someone is new to experimenting, they would most likely follow the steps by the book, not contemplating each reaction and thus not finely adjusting the pH value.

Realizing this point, Li Zheng couldn’t help but glance at Wu Shu, worrying for her.

Wu Shu’s progress was somewhat slower, and her movements not as adept, suggesting she hadn’t studied experiments extensively.

Li Zheng then lowered his voice and said softly, "The pH for the complete precipitation of iron hydroxide is 3.2, aluminum hydroxide..."

Suddenly, Wu Shu raised her hand, not even looking at Li Zheng, and said indifferently, "I can do it myself."

"But you’ve already had points deducted," Li Zheng said gravely, "Hu Zengwu allocated very little time; there’s no room for mistakes."

"I know, and I can do it myself," Wu Shu responded with her head down, carefully stirring the salt mud mixture, her expression colder than usual, "If you keep it up, I’ll get angry."

Seeing her reaction, Li Zheng finally nodded and returned his focus to his own experiment.

This guy, always quick to claim Ou Xingzhuo overvalues his pride.

It’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Meanwhile, Hu Zengwu, leading Shen Yiyun, started their rounds back and forth, occasionally instructing her to jot down notes, likely adjusting operation scores.

No further guidance was provided beyond that.

It was clear that the goal was to sift through and find the top students for the advanced class.

What puzzled Li Zheng was that if this was a selection process, there should be a comprehensive assessment, yet Hu Zengwu lingered behind Wu Shu for a long while, noting down a lot, as if waiting for her to make more mistakes.

Li Zheng, in contrast, received only a glance and was quickly passed over.

Under the inspectors’ supervision, what was merely a mock experiment felt as tense as a final exam.

Due to the numerous and close steps of the experiment, it grew quieter as it progressed.

Meanwhile, people kept making errors, having to start over with new salt mud due to likely pH discrepancies.

In a formal examination, redoing an experiment would result in a 20-point deduction. Considering time constraints, a preparation problem could virtually be deemed a zero.

This tension persisted for almost an hour.

Breaking the tension was a single, "beep."

Many were familiar with the lab equipment, and there was only one source for that sound—

The electronic scale.

Hearing it meant that someone had produced a result.

Looking in the direction of the sound,

Li Zheng was placing a watch glass filled with white crystals onto the scale, watching the numbers as he filled out the experiment report.

The same thought echoed in most people’s minds.

Him again?

Damn it, Cobalt God, when will you come and deal with this guy? Can’t stand it any longer!

By the time Li Zheng finished filling out his experiment report, Shen Yiyun and Hu Zengwu had also come over.

Hu Zengwu glanced at the electronic display before picking up Li Zheng’s final report.

[Theoretical yield: 3.41g]

[Actual yield: 2.78g]

[Actual yield rate: 81.5%]

"Alright," Hu Zengwu said expressionlessly as he handed the report back to Li Zheng, "take care of your stuff and go next door to do the content determination. Everything you need is ready."

"Congratulations~" Shen Yiyun winked stealthily.

When the other students heard this, they realized,

Li Zheng had made it into the elite class.

Hu Zengwu’s elite experiment group meant meticulous cultivation, definitely grooming candidates for national gold...

If he hadn’t made it... then he would only have the unreliable upperclassmen to guide him, which pointed to an inevitable cannon fodder fate.

No choice but to knuckle down now.

Just as everyone was gearing up to compete,

From the usual spot, a female voice followed.

Wu Shu walked to the table with her watch glass, blowing the hair out of her face: "Excuse me, are you done with the scale?"

Li Zheng hadn’t expected Wu Shu to be so quick. Seeing her hands full of white crystals, he immediately felt a surge of joy and promptly moved his own product away: "Nothing more to say, All hail."

Wu Shu smiled and, without paying attention to Hu Zengwu, placed her product on the scale.

The scale showed—

[2.65g]

Seeing the result, Wu Shu breathed a sigh of relief and began to record it.

Li Zheng was shocked: "Is this your first time conducting such a complex experiment?"

"Guess so." Wu Shu quickly finished writing the report and turned to hand it to Shen Yiyun.

Shen Yiyun took the report and, since he was sure it met the standard, only briefly glanced at it before asking, "Teacher Hu... can she also..."

"Wait a bit longer." Hu Zengwu didn’t even glance at Wu Shu but simply raised his hand, "There were many deductions during the experiment procedure, go back for now."

Li Zheng’s eyes widened in disbelief: Deductions? Or too much time spent docking points just on her?

Seeing this, Wu Shu quickly tugged at Li Zheng: "Alright, wait for me over there."

Shen Yiyun, sensing the mood was off, also stepped forward to usher Li Zheng away: "There will be a final score, and Wu Shu has a good chance."

"Yiyun." Hu Zengwu frowned, "Putting words in my mouth again?"

"..."

Hu Zengwu then turned to Li Zheng: "Take care of your product and get ready."

"..." Li Zheng glanced at Hu Zengwu, made up his mind, quietly picked up his product, "If Wu Shu doesn’t make it into the elite class with her level, then I won’t either. Regular class is fine by me, no big deal."

Having said this, he returned to his seat with his product and instantly pulled out the latest volume of "Demon Slayer" provided by Xiaoke, starting to relax then and there.

It wasn’t until Li Zheng began flipping through the manga that Hu Zengwu realized what had just happened.

What do you think my class is?

Do I have the time to deal with a middle schooler like you?

Hu Zengwu’s face suddenly tensed, and he blurted out, "What do you mean?!"

Everyone in the laboratory jumped in fright, craning their necks to watch the spectacle.

What now!

Since when did Li Zheng start reading comics?

Seeing the situation turning sour, Shen Yiyun tried to mediate, "Teacher Hu, you go ahead with your work, I’ll talk to him. It’s probably about young people being loyal..."

"What loyalty are they talking about? Did I say that this girl shouldn’t go?" Hu Zengwu’s face was flushed with irritation as he glared at Li Zheng, who was reading a comic, and ranted, waving his arms, "This isn’t being loyal, it’s showing off. How old are you two, and what is your relationship anyway?"

In the midst of the sudden tirade, Shen Yiyun trembled and hardly dared to attempt calming things down anymore.

It was Wu Shu who boldly picked up her own work and approached Hu Zengwu.

"Teacher, please calm down," Wu Shu said expressionlessly, "It has nothing to do with Li Zheng. Just put the blame on me; it doesn’t matter to me whether I go to the finals or not."

After saying this, she turned and left. Under everyone’s gaze, she pulled a chair next to Li Zheng, tapped his head, and scolded with a laugh, "Are you crazy?"

"Don’t interrupt my comic reading," Li Zheng shifted his body to a different angle.

Watching Li Zheng behave like this, Wu Shu couldn’t stop laughing with her hand covering her face, "Can you not be so adorable?"

"I’m a tough guy, where’s the adorable part?"

"That line right there is even more adorable, haha."

Unbeknownst to them, their carefree chatter only further infuriated Hu Zengwu.

"Fine, good show from both of you," Hu Zengwu said with a swing of his arm, his face grave as he looked at the other students, "There are only 20 minutes left, everyone get to it."

The students were too frightened by his menacing look to utter a single word, pretending to bury themselves in their work.

In reality, they couldn’t help but steal glances at Li Zheng and Wu Shu.

Wu Shu: "Why is that woman mumbling with something in her mouth, hmm hmm hmm?"

Li Zheng: "Stop messing around, you know nothing about comics."

The people around them listened to their back and forth.

So frustrating.

Everyone felt so frustrated.

Damn it...

Compared to this, what’s even the point of being in a small group?

Li Zheng has already won this one.

Just at this moment of collective indignation,

a man stood up.

He yanked out his gray shirt and covered his belt with it.

He carried his tray to the communal experiment station.

He started measuring.

The attention of everyone finally shifted.

That group leader damn it, he actually finished too.

Hu Zengwu also looked back at the electronic screen: "2.63g, not bad, go to the next lab."

Shen Yiyun quickly picked up his notebook, "Ou Xingzhuo, right?"

"The ’xing’ of stars, the ’zhuo’ of scorching," Ou Xingzhuo replied, picking up his tray and turning to look at Hu Zengwu, pushing his glasses up, "Teacher Hu, may I remind you that Wu Shu is a gold medalist from the International Physics Olympiad, ranked second in the world. Put her anywhere on this planet, and she’s a first-class character, she probably doesn’t even need your coaching."

"???" Hu Zengwu’s entire face began to visibly purple, staring at Ou Xingzhuo, but was unable to utter a word.

"Furthermore, my own abilities are limited, I’d better leave the opportunity you so kindly provided for cultivating, to someone more outstanding," Ou Xingzhuo concluded, then turned back to his seat, pulling up a chair next to Li Zheng and Wu Shu, "Watching comics without me?"

The duo thus became a trio.

A trio that happened to be the top three students in the class.

Hu Zengwu stood stupefied on the spot for a while before, in a fit of rage, stormed towards the laboratory door.

"What kind of people are in this class? I’m done, you do it yourselves!"

"Teacher~~ don’t go, Teacher~~" As Shen Yiyun ran after him, he didn’t forget to turn his head towards Li Zheng and wink surreptitiously.

For some reason.

Thank you!