Chapter 38 Questions
There is no doubt that this night was extremely difficult for Liu Shang.
His stomach was turbulent, burning and uncomfortable, and he vomited for most of the night.
In the end, Liu Shang simply moved a chair and stationed himself in the corridor by the bathroom door.
In order not to worry Jiang Ruolin, he had turned off his phone early, telling her he was going to sleep.
It wasn't until the sky began to brighten that he finally felt better and was able to lie down on his bed and fall asleep.
When he woke up the next day, his roommates had all washed up and were ready to go out.
In Liu Shang's current state, it was naturally impossible for him to go to work, so after getting up and changing his clothes, he went directly to class with them.
Since he was still retching in the morning, he only drank some water and didn't dare to eat.
After learning through a text message that Liu Shang was going to class, Jiang Ruolin, who happened to have no classes that morning, brought him breakfast and some stomach-soothing medicine and went to find the classroom where he and his class were.
On the way, she happened to run into Zheng Jiao.
After her angry outburst at Tan Feng and Zhou Liang, Zheng Jiao had returned to her dorm, still fuming.
Early the next morning, she had withdrawn money from her personal savings. No matter what, she had been the one to get Liu Shang's card last night, and she felt she had to return the money to him with her own hands.
So, the two of them came to the classroom door together, waiting for the class to end.
When the two of them arrived outside, the atmosphere in Liu Shang's classroom was extremely oppressive.
Due to his continuous absenteeism, Liu Shang had already been blacklisted by several teachers.
Today, he happened to run into Li Wenzhong, the teacher who was the most dissatisfied with him, who taught Surfactant Chemistry.
After seeing him in class for a period, Li Wenzhong finally couldn't bear it any longer and decided to call on him.
"Let's start with a question. What is surfactant micellization?"
"Liu Shang! Are you here?"
Then, under the laughter of the other students in the classroom, Liu Shang slowly stood up.
At this time, Li Wenzhong on the podium looked at him and nodded.
"So you are Liu Shang? It's truly a rare occasion to see you in the flesh today!"
"I suppose you must have a major issue with me, which is why you never come to my class."
"Or does it mean that you already know all the content I've taught, and you don't find it the least bit difficult?"
"In that case, please answer this question, so that we can all see for ourselves the depth of your knowledge!"
After Li Wenzhong finished speaking, the classroom erupted in laughter. Those who had a good relationship with Liu Shang also slapped their foreheads, waiting to see him make a fool of himself.
In fact, their laughter was not malicious. Any student would feel a sense of schadenfreude seeing a classmate who always skipped class get called out by a teacher like that.
Seeing this scene and hearing Li Wenzhong's loud, angry voice, which was clearly under strained self-control, Jiang Ruolin frowned, her eyes full of worry.
Seeing her like this, Zheng Jiao at her side also sighed softly.
"Ruolin, Liu Shang hasn't come to class in a long time. To be more precise, he hasn't been going to *any* of his classes."
"I heard that many teachers now have a bad impression of him. I'm afraid he's going to be in for a world of hurt during the final exams."
"If you have the opportunity, you should persuade him. He may be excellent in his abilities, conversation, and other aspects."
"However, if you often fail your courses, fail to graduate normally, or even get suspended, the two of you can forget about having any kind of future together."
"Actually, speaking from the bottom of my heart, before yesterday, like everyone else, I thought the two of you were very mismatched, and that he was absolutely not worthy of you."
"But after last night, maybe I can understand why you chose him."
"I'm also very curious what will become of you two a few years from now, when you're about to graduate. Will you really make it to the end?"
"So, if you have a chance, you should advise him not to put the cart before the horse, to stop aiming so high and getting distracted by other things."
In fact, Zhou Liang, Tan Feng, and the others had long known about Liu Shang's frequent absenteeism and the fact that many teachers had him on their watch list.
They were just waiting until the storm was about to break before going to Jiang Ruolin to deal a fatal blow to Liu Shang.
Because of her changed impression of Liu Shang, as well as her aversion to Zhou Liang and the others' despicable behavior, Zheng Jiao was kindly giving her a warning ahead of time.
But to her surprise, after hearing her words, Jiang Ruolin just kept shaking her head. "No. Liu Shang is definitely not the kind of person who is overly ambitious and loses his way."
Seeing her firm belief in Liu Shang, Zheng Jiao shook her head, finding it unreasonable.
"Ruolin, none of us are ostriches who can just bury their heads in the sand."
"Some things, some problems, have to be faced sooner or later."
While the two of them were talking, Liu Shang, inside the classroom, showed a wry smile. Unexpectedly, he began to answer Li Wenzhong's question.
Perhaps because of the surprise, the classroom became quieter. Li Wenzhong on the podium couldn't help but frown and directly asked a second, more difficult question:
"Liu Shang, please answer this as well: what are the common surface-active hydrophobic groups on the market?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Liu Shang blurted out, "Hydrophobic groups?"
"Natural fatty acids, petroleum paraffins, alkylbenzenes, alkylaromatics, alkylphenols, polyoxypropylenes, and silicone resins."
"Well, there are also fluorocarbons, which should also be included."
Once again, beyond everyone's expectations, Liu Shang answered this question fluently and accurately.
However, the top students in the classroom frowned slightly. *What are the fluorocarbon compounds that Liu Shang mentioned? The teacher never mentioned those.*
Fluorocarbon surfactants would only be widely used in a few years, or even more than a decade from now.
They are very effective in reducing surface tension, but slightly less effective in changing the interfacial tension of oil and water.
Even the lecturer, Li Wenzhong, was not very familiar with this cutting-edge technology, so when Liu Shang mentioned it, even he was taken aback for a moment.
"Oh. I have to say, your answer this time was very good. Perhaps you read the textbook before coming to class today."
"Next, I'm going to ask you a calculation question: use the Debye-Hückel formula to calculate the activity coefficient of a surfactant solution."
Afterward, with a swipe of his pen, Li Wenzhong wrote an extremely difficult problem on the blackboard.
Forget about solving it; just looking at it was enough to make one's head ache.
To solve this question, you not only had to be very familiar with the relevant chemical formulas and theories, but you also needed an extremely high proficiency in advanced mathematics.
Seeing this test question, even the recognized top students in the classroom shook their heads helplessly.
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