Genius Club

Chapter 49: Chapter 49 Hibernation Pod

“What method?” Lin Xian asked curiously.

“Forceful destruction.”

An employee of the safe company explained to Lin Xian:

“One of our previous clients was in a similar situation where their finance manager had a car accident, and the company urgently needed the official seal inside the safe, so they took the whole safe to a scrapyard and cut it open with an oxy-acetylene cutting torch.”

“This safe is made of solid steel formed by stamping, and ordinary cutting machines or crowbars can’t open it – even explosives won’t work. The only way to cut through it is with an oxy-acetylene cutting torch; it’s the last resort.”

Hmm?

An idea flashed through Lin Xian’s mind:

“What kind of gun did you just mention?”

“An oxy-acetylene cutting torch, it’s a type of sprayer that burns high-pressure acetylene. It can produce a flame with temperatures over 3000 degrees Celsius to melt steel for cutting. It’s commonly used in industrial settings.”

Having said that.

The two employees picked up the paperwork, had Lin Xian sign it, left him a manual of precautions and a contact number, and then departed.

“Oxy-acetylene cutting torch…”

Lin Xian noted the name.

The steel safe in his dream that had his name on it… much of its paint had peeled off and it was rusting, without a doubt made of steel.

In front of a 3000-degree cutting torch…

It would surely be as vulnerable as tofu!

…

Lin Xian had thought he would quickly enter the dream and cut open that safe with his name on it.

But things did not go as he wished.

He had been too busy these past few days.

As the product launch was nearing, every day’s tasks were very heavy. Lin Xian and his team members stayed late into the night at work before going home. He hadn’t even had the chance to dream, not having dreamt for several days now.

It wasn’t just him.

Everyone in the company was working furiously, all departments were working overtime to meet deadlines, staying up late or even pulling all-nighters was the norm. Even the usually meticulous Zhao Yingjun… inevitably began showing faint dark circles under her eyes.

That afternoon.@@novelbin@@

Lin Xian had just finished a task he was working on.

Dingling ling dingling ling dingling ling dingling ling—

His phone rang.

Lin Xian looked at the caller ID…

“Professor Xu Yun?”

They hadn’t been in touch for several days, could there be some news?

Lin Xian picked up the phone.

He answered the call—

“Lin Xian! Do you have time right now?”

On the other end, Professor Xu Yun’s voice was unusually excited and agitated:

“I’d like to invite you to witness a historic moment!”

Witness a historic moment?

Could it be…

Had Professor Xu Yun completely mastered the Hibernation Pod Filling Liquid?

Lin Xian checked the time, it was almost two in the afternoon.

Truth be told, while he was happy for Professor Xu Yun, he wasn’t too interested in witnessing scientific achievements.

However… it would be rude to turn down such an enthusiastic invitation, and he didn’t want to dampen Professor Xu Yun’s spirits:

“Sure, Teacher Xu, please wait for me. I’ll head to East Sea University to find you right away.”

After hanging up the phone.

Lin Xian delegated his remaining work to a few subordinates and then left to take a taxi to East Sea University.

…

Upon arriving at Professor Xu Yun’s lab.

The professor excitedly pulled Lin Xian over to a sealed chamber:

“Look quickly, see this white mouse here? The entire system has been stabilized at -60 degrees Celsius for 40 hours now.”

“For these 40 hours, this white mouse has been in a deep sleep state; don’t be fooled by its stillness, the absence of eating and excretion, its vital signs have no problems at all! It’s incredibly stable!”

Lin Xian approached the sealed chamber.

The chamber wall was extremely cold, emitting a gentle chill. Lin Xian deliberately stood back a bit and leaned his head forward.

He saw that the sealed chamber was filled with a pale blue liquid, and in the middle of the liquid, a white mouse was curled up, covered with various monitoring electrodes and tubes.

This white mouse was extraordinarily quiet… it looked no different from being dead.

But after carefully observing for about fifteen seconds,

he noticed the abdomen sometimes exhibited very faint movements.

This meant it wasn’t dead.

Professor Xu Yun pointed to the monitor next to him, explaining the numbers on it to Lin Xian:

“A normal mouse’s heartbeat is generally around 500–700 times per minute. This is also why their lifespans are short, only three to four years.”

“In the natural animal kingdom, the slower the heartbeat, the longer the lifespan. And correspondingly, the normal respiratory rate of a mouse is about 150 times per minute.”

“But look at it now.”

Professor Xu Yun pointed at the two numbers on the monitor:

Monitored heart rate: 21 beats per minute

Respiration rate: 7 times per minute

“Do you see, Lin Xian? Whether it’s the heartbeat or breathing, both have slowed down by twenty to thirty times! Its life activities have decreased in efficiency by twenty to thirty times. You can simply think of it as…”

“[Inside this cryogenic sealed pod, the mouse’s aging process has been delayed by twenty to thirty times.]”

Lin Xian nodded.

He could understand this concept.

Science fiction movies describe hibernation as sleeping in a hibernation pod, and after hundreds or thousands of years have passed, you wake up as if nothing happened.

But science fiction is, after all, fiction.

Real scientific research has to be conducted step by step.

Perhaps Professor Xu Yun’s sealed pod could be considered a rudimentary “first-generation, youth version” of a Hibernation Pod, far from reaching the true concept of hibernation, only capable of reducing life activity efficiency by twenty to thirty times.

If this set of equipment could operate stably,

then the passing of twenty to thirty years in the outside world might only increase the actual lifespan of the mouse by one year.

This would allow a mouse that would normally live only three to four years to successfully “travel” to the future world of decades later.

Of course, this was just a mouse experiment.

Actually applying it to humans, whether it could maintain for a long time or how many times it could reduce life activities, was still an unknown.

“The real challenge of hibernation technology lies not in the freezing but in the [thawing and resuscitation],”

Professor Xu Yun patiently explained to Lin Xian:

“Next is the real historic moment that I invited you to witness.”

“We’re going to awaken this mouse that has been in hibernation for 40 hours at minus 60 degrees Celsius.”

Lin Xian didn’t quite understand, so he just stood there watching Professor Xu Yun operate.

Gradually…

the temperature of the sealed pod slowly rose, taking about half an hour to slowly reach around ten degrees.

Then Professor Xu Yun performed another series of complex operations.

“Squeak, squeak…”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak!!”

The mouse inside the sealed pod started to become restless, frantically rolling around in the pale blue liquid, its nails constantly scraping against the walls of the pod!

“Don’t worry, this liquid has a very high oxygen solubility. When it enters the lungs, it can carry out normal oxygen exchange, although of course…” there will be a lot of discomfort.”

Professor Xu Yun, holding his chest, looked at Lin Xian:

“It must be very uncomfortable, but it can indeed ensure breathing without the danger of suffocation. However, I haven’t tried it myself, and for now, it’s just a guess.”

Afterward,

Professor Xu Yun drained the liquid from the sealed pod, took the scrabbling mouse out, and removed all the electrode patches from its body.

“Squeak, squeak, squeak!! Squeak, squeak, squeak!! Squeak, squeak, squeak!!!”

The mouse shook violently, flinging off the liquid from its fur, and then leaped from Professor Xu Yun’s hands. It went crazy, jumping up and down in the lab.

“Such exuberance.”

Lin Xian remarked:

“It’s hard to imagine it was in suspended animation for 40 hours, especially at a temperature of minus 60 degrees…”

Technology is truly miraculous.

To put a person into a low temperature of minus 60 degrees would probably mean death in no time, frozen stiff.

Professor Xu Yun smiled slightly:

“Even though there are still many problems to be solved, this mouse’s successful hibernation and resuscitation signify that the liquid, this Hibernation Pod Filling Liquid, is perfect. The hibernation theories involved are absolutely correct.”

You could tell Xu Yun was genuinely happy; there was finally hope for his daughter, trapped in a vegetative state.

Watching the mouse bounce around, Lin Xian asked curiously:

“Teacher Xu,”

“how many years do you estimate it will take for the true Hibernation Pod to be developed?”