Chapter 1146
The Dinner Party: A Wake-Up Call!
"Come on! Have a taste!"
Qin Baichuan gestured and personally used a small spoon to scoop a type of tea leaf that resembled green pine needles with a few white downy hairs into the purple clay teapot.
"Genuine Yunwujian tea has a very limited production, exclusively supplied to a few ancient tea trees deep in the mountains. When the moisture rises, the aroma... tsk!"
He skillfully warmed the teapot, placed the tea leaves, and poured a high cup to awaken them… His movements naturally revealed a calm demeanor that had settled beneath his ruthless and decisive nature, a stark contrast to the precise operations he performed in the laboratory. Guo Xueyun was invited to the edge of the tea plantation to take over from Qin Baichuan for the subsequent brewing.
Her movements were supple and graceful, with a serene rhythm that flowed like clouds and water, clearly demonstrating her mastery of the art. The pale green, clear tea liquor was poured into a shallow celadon conical cup, and the lingering fragrance of orchids, accompanied by a subtle hint of chestnut, quietly permeated the air, soothing the soul.
“Good tea!”
Su Dingping sincerely praised it, picked up his teacup and took a small sip. The scalding tea slid down his throat, carrying a mellow and sweet aftertaste, as if washing away the tension and fatigue accumulated over the past few days.
The contemplation of the future direction that had been lingering deep within my consciousness also temporarily receded.
"Tea is just the starting point."
Qin Baichuan also picked up his teacup, his gaze moving with admiration from Guo Xueyun's supple fingers to Su Dingping, who was quietly sipping his tea beside him, his eyes gleaming with a calm light born of worldly wisdom.
"Xiao Su, you stirred up a storm in that pile of rocks at the base. The Dragon Star Ignition was a feat, but when the Dragon Tendon came out, according to inside information, it almost made the jaws of the chief engineers who were in charge of monitoring the progress of the Tenglong Power Grid drop."
His tone was sarcastic, clearly indicating he was well aware of the results that had occurred in Longxin, but that was obviously not the point.
"Being young comes with immense pressure. If you're too stressed, you're likely to break."
Qin Mingzhu obediently held a plate of freshly baked pastries and gently placed it in a corner of the tea tray. She sat down quietly to listen, her eyes occasionally glancing at her father and Su Dingping's faces.
Su Dingping put down his teacup, his expression calm.
"Uncle Qin, you flatter me. The road ahead is long, and I dare not relax for even a moment."
His fingers unconsciously touched the warm, smooth surface of the cup.
"The road is long, but there needs to be a rest stop to catch your breath, right?"
Qin Baichuan laughed heartily, changed the subject, stood up, and strode towards one side of the living room.
"Your Uncle Qin's biggest business right now is this little courtyard... and the battles on this table!"
He pointed to the wooden Go board in the corner, carved with cloud patterns and with a rich, dark color.
"I'm getting old, I can't do anything else anymore! This is all I'm still addicted to. How about it, Xiao Su? You can still handle the Candle Dragon Project, how about playing a couple of rounds with this old man?"
The chessboard was heavy and simple, and the black and white chess pieces were smooth and warm, faintly glowing under the moonlight from the window and the lamplight from the room.
Su Dingping did not refuse and got up to go over.
A unique fragrance of wood and rattan furniture, imbued with the scent of time, mingled with a faint aroma of ink wafted through the air.
He and Qin Baichuan sat down, one to the east and one to the west, across the chessboard that symbolized the battle of wits.
The warm, soft light enveloped a corner of the chessboard.
Guo Xueyun quietly prepared the second brew of tea.
Qin Mingzhu leaned against a wicker chair not far away, resting her chin on her hand and watching curiously. The sound of a piece being placed was crisp and clear.
The warm glow of the lamps flowed across the old cypress chessboard, illuminating the ebony pieces and the lustrous white pieces, while also filling the air with the soothing aroma of tea and wood. The crisp sound of pieces being placed echoed in the living room.
Su Dingping, playing black, made a small knight's move to the corner, a rather unaggressive move. Qin Baichuan responded calmly with a two-space extension, displaying a steady and strategic approach, befitting a seasoned general.
"How does this pot of aged tea from the mountains taste? Is it enough to relieve your fatigue from all the mental and physical strain?"
Qin Baichuan held a white chess piece in his hand, but his gaze lingered for a moment on Su Dingping's slightly tired yet still bright eyes outside the chessboard. His tone was that of a senior showing the kind of gentle concern that a junior would show to a junior.
Guo Xueyun gently stirred the teapot, and a new batch of light green tea was quietly poured into the celadon cup, making the aroma even richer.
Su Dingping picked up the teacup in front of him, took a sip, and found the scalding hot tea comforting.
"Good tea! The aroma is invigorating and refreshing."
He paused, a rare, relaxed smile appearing on his lips.
"I just don't know if this can resolve the confusion in my mind that leaves me feeling lost."
He tapped the edge of the chess box lightly with his fingers, holding a black piece, and placed a sharp piece to test the white pieces' response, continuing his conversation along the lines of the game.
"The dragon scales are secured, the dragon tendons are complete, and the basic materials for the stellarator and the fusion energy transmission are on track. But where to go next? Develop a magnetic levitation track? Enhance the power of the electromagnetic gun? Or relentlessly pursue the miniaturization of the stellarator? My brain is about to explode, but I still have no clue what to do."
He looked up at Qin Baichuan with the candor of a junior confiding in a close elder.
"Uncle Qin, you've guided countless major projects. Now that you've put aside your responsibilities and are focusing on the bigger picture, you seem to have a broader perspective, don't you?"
Qin Baichuan laughed heartily, tapping the bright white chess piece he was holding in the air, his eyes seeming to have discerned something.
"You kid, is that just an excuse because you're not confident? Dragon scales and dragon tendons are things that can cause serious damage; how could you possibly lack direction?"
He calmly placed a piece, effortlessly blocking the black piece's attack route.
"This retired old man of mine has actually tried some other approaches to see what he could do."
Su Dingping paused slightly as he placed his piece, then looked up with a hint of curiosity.
"Uncle Qin, you... have another new idea?"
"new?"
Qin Baichuan chuckled, a hint of disdain and helplessness in his voice.
"It's an old, tired problem—it's a trivia trinket!"
He gestured with his eyes to Qin Mingzhu, who was listening quietly beside him.
"That little box that Mingzhu uses, which she fiddles with all the time, is called a cell phone!"
"cell phone?"
Su Dingping was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected that this veteran, a man of many years in the military and known for his iron will, would cherish this small object so much after retiring.
"Yes! A cell phone!"
Qin Baichuan's voice suddenly rose, tinged with resentment.
"The streets are full of them! The bases are full of them! Everywhere you look, it's all Eagle Brand, Mao Brand, and Chrysanthemum Brand!"
The white piece in his hand fell heavily, making a soft "snap" sound that shook the tea in the teacup next to him.
"The mighty Longxia can't even get a little finger in! They can't even make a decent shell themselves! They can only beg from others! Buying their chips, their screens, their shells! How pathetic!"
The smile on his face disappeared, replaced by the instinctive yearning for autonomy and strength ingrained in the bones of a soldier.
These words were like an invisible lightning bolt, instantly cleaving through the fog of thought that had enveloped Su Dingping for days, a fog of confusion surrounding the world of fusion and materials!
Countless familiar scenes burst forth before my eyes—the smooth touchscreen swiping with my fingertips, the omnipotent mobile applications, the quick sharing that connects me to the world instantly, and the microkernel powerful enough to handle complex models!
A jolt of electric shock shot through the back of Su Dingping's head, and he blurted out the words almost instinctively, speaking rapidly.
"More than just a shell, the phone of the future will be a second brain held in everyone's hand! A tiny screen can hold the universe! An ultra-thin, high-definition full-screen display with bezels as narrow as a hair! Computing power comparable to today's mainstream servers! Smooth and fluid touch controls, and can be controlled with air gestures!"
It's not just a communication tool, it's a mobile wallet! It's a personal information terminal! It's the core of learning and work! It's the key to connecting everything! Even… it will possess intelligent consciousness, like a close-up to your body and soul! Photos of the Milky Way will no longer be blurry, and its battery life will last for days without stopping! Uncle Qin, this is the future!
His eyes grew brighter as he spoke, each word brimming with concepts that had been proven in his past life but seemed like science fiction to this era!
Qin Mingzhu listened with her mouth slightly open and her eyes shining, forgetting to put down the half-eaten pastry in her hand.
Even the usually composed Guo Xueyun paused her stirring motion with the teaspoon, her clear gaze fixed on Su Dingping's radiant face.
Qin Baichuan was completely stunned!
His eyes widened, his once steady body leaned forward slightly, and the chess piece in his hand hung in the air, as if he were seeing this young man for the first time.
His initial intention was simply to create a shell for Longxia, break the foreign monopoly, and solve part of the industrial chain problem! Su Dingping's blueprint... was simply a divine artifact! Every point precisely hit the pain point, yet it was far ahead of its time!
"hiss……"
Qin Baichuan took a deep breath, his cloudy old eyes sparkling like ignited embers.
"Xiao Su! How...how is your brain even structured?!"
He slapped his sturdy knee, disregarding his status.
Yes! That's how it should be!
This is what I, Qin Baichuan, truly want to do!
That's what you call real ambition!
But soon, that raging flame was extinguished by the cold reality.
With a wry smile and a deep sense of powerlessness, he slammed the suspended chess piece back into the chess basket.
"What a pity... Dingping, he has lofty ambitions but no means to climb the ladder to heaven!"
"The screen you're talking about, so bright it's like a mirror and it can be rolled up, that thing doesn't even exist yet, does it? Computing power... comparable to a server? Ha! The core, that tiny thing the size of a fingernail—the chip! Do you know who makes the best chips right now? Those behemoths from the Eagle Tribe! The most advanced 130-nanometer process! And what about us?"
He shook his head and sighed, his tone heavy with disappointment.
"This is an old debt from over twenty years ago!"
Now, their 130-nanometer technology is about to become widespread, and what about us? We're still using outdated equipment with only a few hundred nanometers of technology to produce the most basic toy chips! Money is one thing, but what if someone wants to hold us hostage…?
Qin Baichuan's voice lowered, carrying the sense of crisis unique to soldiers.
"Have you forgotten about the joint chip embargo a while back? That was a wake-up call for us! It's not just about mobile phones! The military industry, spacecraft in the sky, the Aurora Control System on the ground, and even the intelligent confidants you want to develop in the future... aren't all of them held in the grip of that tiny silicon chip?!"
Every word was like a cold, sharp alloy cone, piercing deep into Su Dingping's ear!
"130 nanometers... Self-developed project canceled... More than 20 years of gap... Being held back by technology..."
chip!
Photolithography machine!
These two incredibly heavy words from his past life now resounded like a giant alarm bell, exploding in the deepest recesses of Su Dingping's consciousness! The black and white world on the chessboard before him instantly blurred with color!
All the vague plans for the next step—hover trains, powerful magnetic weapons, miniaturized fusion engines…the core foundation of all grand blueprints, the root of all self-sufficiency, cannot bypass that magical tiny space, the size of a fingernail, yet etched with millions of transistor circuits! And the key to creating it—the lithography machine!
This was once abandoned by Longxia, but now it has been reduced to a core strategic manufacturing equipment that has to rely on others!
This isn't a problem with the phone at all!
This is the lifeline concerning the future direction of all industrial systems and technological paths in Longxia! It is a more fatal, more fundamental, and more vulnerable point than "Dragon Scale" alloy and "Dragon Tendon" superconductivity, and is also more likely to be held in the hands of the enemy!
A chill ran up Su Dingping's spine and instantly shot to the top of his head! Cold sweat soaked his back in an instant! The pride he had felt in conquering the "Dragon Star" and the joy of successfully breaking through the "Dragon Tendon" were suddenly frozen in place!
Qin Baichuan was still shaking his head and sighing.
"It's too far in the future to talk about these things now... I'm just venting like an old man..."
"No! It's not far! Uncle Qin!"
Su Dingping suddenly raised his head!
The confusion and exploration in his eyes vanished instantly! Replaced by an almost tangible flame! Sharp! Resolute! As if it could ignite the air itself!
"You're not giving me complaints!"
His voice wasn't loud, but each word was like a heavy hammer striking solid ice, penetrating the eardrums of everyone present with crystal clarity.
"You've shown me the right direction to go!"
A path forgotten by our own people for twenty years... yet crucial to the very lifeline of Longxia!
He suddenly stood up! His movement was so quick he almost knocked over the teacup beside him. Guo Xueyun reacted swiftly, catching it just as the tea sloshed violently within, mirroring the turmoil in Su Dingping's chest!
"Uncle Qin, Mingzhu, Xueyun!"
Su Dingping's face was pale with excitement, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.
"I'll owe you this meal! There's somewhere I absolutely have to go back to right now!"
"Huh?"
Qin Baichuan looked up in astonishment.
"Brother Dingping...?"
Qin Mingzhu stood up instinctively.
Guo Xueyun didn't speak, but immediately put down the tea set in her hand, her eyes fixed on Su Dingping, her body already prepared to follow him away at any time.
"Excuse me! I'll be there soon!"
Su Dingping nodded heavily to Qin Baichuan, said nothing more, and strode towards the door. His black shoes clattered on the polished floor, making a rapid, drum-like sound.
His silhouette, stretched and contracted rapidly in the warm light and shadow of the living room, transformed into a taut arrow, ready to shoot into the darkness at any moment! (End of Chapter)