15: Chapter 15 Empress: Father God, this stick-shaped thing is delicious (pointing to a sausage).

"Ding-dong—" A crisp doorbell sound broke the amorous atmosphere in the living room.

Jiang Chen was holding his phone, listening to the satisfied sigh of the Empress, who had eaten too much. The feeling of "fatherly love" in his heart hadn't fully faded before he was startled by the sudden doorbell.

"Who is it? At this time of night."

The only person who could come here at this time, besides the logistics soldier delivering the special late-night snack, shouldn't be anyone else.

Jiang Chen didn't think much of it and casually flipped his phone onto the coffee table. Because he had turned the volume to the maximum to hear the Empress's "mukbang" sound effects, he hadn't had time to turn it down. Although the screen was face down, the game was still running in the background.

He shuffled in his Hermès slippers, swaying as he walked to the entryway, and pulled the door open.

"Coming, coming. What's for midnight snack today..."

His words came to an abrupt halt.

Standing outside the door wasn't the burly logistics squad leader, but a tall, beautiful woman wearing a beige trench coat and rimless glasses.

Her long hair was casually tied back, with a few stray strands hanging by her ears, making her look intellectual and capable. Especially those eyes hidden behind the lenses; they were cold, wise, and carried an aura of a scholar that kept people at a distance.

What was most fatal was that she was carrying a silver briefcase printed with the word "Top Secret".

The two stared at each other.

Jiang Chen was stunned and subconsciously tightened his bathrobe.

Who is this? A benefit from the state? This is too hardcore, right?

The beauty obviously didn't expect the person opening the door to be a young, handsome man in a bathrobe looking lazy. She pushed up her glasses, her gaze sweeping over Jiang Chen's overly young face, her tone cold:

"Hello, I am Academician Chen Shuyin, a first-class researcher from Longke Academy."

"On the orders of Dean Zhong, I am here to serve as your..."

Before she could finish saying the words "exclusive liaison officer," the phone on the living room coffee table suddenly, as if to prove its existence, burst out with an extremely clear, slightly trembling moan.

That was Jiang Wanqiu's praise from the depths of her soul after eating the ham sausage.

And it was at the speaker's maximum volume.

[Father God... this stick-shaped object... is truly delicious.]

[That feeling of fullness in my stomach... woo... Wanqiu wants more...]

Dead silence.

Absolute dead silence.

The air seemed to solidify into concrete at this moment, sealing both of them in place.

Academician Chen Shuyin's hand, which she had extended to shake hands, froze in mid-air. Her originally cold and calm pretty face was visibly stained with a layer of blush, which then quickly turned into an indescribable weirdness.

Her gaze changed.

From the scrutiny and respect just now, it instantly turned into— "This is the national scholar who can hand-craft a Lithography Machine? He plays like this?"

Jiang Chen only felt his scalp go numb, and his toes had already dug out a three-bedroom apartment on the floor.

Misunderstanding! This is a huge misunderstanding!

"No... that... listen to me explain!"

Jiang Chen scrambled back to the living room, grabbed his phone, and wanted to turn off that damn sound.

But the more anxious he was, the messier things got. His finger slipped, and he happened to tap the Empress's next voice pack.

[As long as Father God likes it, Wanqiu's body and soul will always belong only to you...]

"Slap!"

Jiang Chen pressed the lock screen button with lightning speed, and the world was finally quiet.

He turned around, holding his phone, looking at Academician Chen Shuyin, who was standing at the door with a complex expression, and gave a dry laugh:

"That... this is a game. A voice-controlled game. That just now was... that was the sound of eating."

"Right, eating! Ham sausage! Black pork!"

Academician Chen Shuyin stood there, took a deep breath, and tried to maintain her professional ethics as an academician.

She was a researcher who valued logic and evidence. Although those few sentences didn't sound like eating at all, considering that the person in front of her was a key national protection object, geniuses always had some quirks that were different from ordinary people...

This makes sense.

Probably.

"Mr. Jiang, you don't need to explain."

Academician Chen Shuyin walked into the room, closed the door, and her tone returned to its previous coldness, though she still didn't dare to look directly at Jiang Chen, "Personal privacy is protected by law. As long as it does not violate national security regulations, we have no right to interfere with your... hobbies in private life."

After speaking, she specifically added: "Even if it is some unique... two-dimensional emotional attachment, it is understandable."

Jiang Chen: "..."

Understandable my foot!

That look of yours is clearly looking at a pervert, okay!

"Forget it, let it all be destroyed."

Jiang Chen slumped on the sofa, giving up the struggle. Anyway, he is a national treasure now. As long as he doesn't kill or commit arson, this little social death scene... he can endure it.

"Academician Chen, right? Coming over so late, what can I do for you?"

Jiang Chen grabbed the cold water on the table and took a gulp, trying to cool down his hot face.

Talking about business, Academician Chen Shuyin's expression finally returned to normal.

She put the silver briefcase on the coffee table, her slender fingers inputting a complex password, and it clicked open.

Inside was a thick stack of documents, with a bright red "Top Secret" stamp on the cover.

"It's about that blueprint."

Academician Chen Shuyin took out a document and handed it to Jiang Chen, sitting upright, her slender legs crossed to the side, revealing a rigorous beauty, "Dean Zhong and several old academicians held an emergency meeting overnight. After preliminary verification, the EUV light source structure diagram you provided... is theoretically perfect."

Speaking of this, she paused, a trace of unmaskable fanaticism and worship flashing in her eyes.

No matter how strange this person's private life was, technically, he was a god.

"But?" Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

"But, our manufacturing process cannot keep up."

Academician Chen Shuyin sighed and pointed to the lines of red text on the document, "The blueprint is too advanced. The core components—the droplet generator and the dual-stage system—require machining precision at the picometer level. Currently, Longguo, and even the industrial system of the whole world, cannot produce parts with this kind of precision."

"Having the blueprint but not being able to build the actual product makes it just a piece of waste paper."

She looked at Jiang Chen with burning eyes, "So Dean Zhong sent me here to ask you... Is there any way to solve this problem? Or, can you guide us to build a prototype?"

After listening, Jiang Chen was happy inside.

Isn't this a coincidence?

I was just worrying about how to ask the state for materials, and you guys delivered it to my door.

Can't build it?

Although the Wasteland is so poor that there is only garbage left, that is relative to that era. The "industrial waste" there, if placed on Earth in 2025, is a dimension-reduction strike artifact!

Since the blueprint was given by the Empress, then the parts... can't I just ask her for them?

"Build! Of course, we must build it!"

Jiang Chen waved his hand, closed the document, and his tone was as arrogant as a construction foreman, "Isn't it just that the precision isn't enough? What a big deal."

He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked at the pitch-black night outside, and his mind was already calculating how to trick the Empress into picking up trash.

"List the missing parts for me. If the materials are not enough, I will find a way. If the equipment is not good enough, I will handle it."

Jiang Chen turned around, looking at the shocked Academician Chen Shuyin, his mouth curling into a mysterious smile:

"It just so happens that I have some friends over there... ahem, I have some friends who do import and export trade, and they might have some ready-made 'foreign leftovers' on hand."

"Beautiful Academician Chen, let's go out and take a look tomorrow."

"Some things cannot be built sitting in the laboratory; you have to go 'pick' them."