647: Chapter 642 Gives You a Fresh Start

Isabella paused.

"My people tried to contact him. The first time, my assistant mentioned the name Sirius Semiconductor, and he hung up immediately."

"The second time, I called personally, promising him triple his previous salary and ten million dollars in startup funding for his projects."

"And the result?" Shen Yan asked.

"He told me to get lost and said if I called again, he'd call the police and report us for harassment." Isabella gave a bitter smile.

She had used money and the law to settle countless troubles, but these two things seemed completely ineffective against this stubborn old man.

"Where does he live now?" Shen Yan changed the subject.

"A detached house in the southern suburbs of San Jose. It looks very old. Neighbors say he's rarely gone out since he was fired, spending all day in his garage, tinkering with who-knows-what."

"Send me the address."

Shen Yan stood up and picked up his coat from the sofa.

Isabella was stunned.

"Sir, you're going there personally?"

"Someone capable of creating technology worth five hundred million dollars is worth a personal trip."

Shen Yan's tone was flat.

"Besides, he's not holding out for a better price."

"He's just completely disillusioned with capital."

Watching Shen Yan's departing figure, Isabella suddenly understood.

This young Eastern tycoon never valued just the technology itself, but the people who created it.

He wasn't going to "recruit" an Employee.

He was going to "invite" a master to return to the field.

The southern suburbs of San Jose.

The sun was just right, shining on rows of slightly aged houses.

An ordinary Ford sedan was parked by the roadside, blending into the surroundings.

Shen Yan got out of the car, dressed in simple casual clothes.

He glanced at the address on his phone and walked toward one of the most inconspicuous-looking houses.

The garage door of the house was half-open, with sounds of metal clanking and the "sizzle" of electric current coming from inside.

A scent of mixed machine oil and rosin drifted out.

Shen Yan walked over and knocked on the garage's rolling shutter door.

The noise inside stopped.

An old but firm voice came from within.

"Get out! I told you, I don't need any community service, and I'm not buying any damn insurance!"

The voice was full of impatience and wariness.

"Dr. Hoffmann, my name is Shen Yan."

Shen Yan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly inside.

"I'm not selling insurance. I'm here to invite you back."

The garage fell silent for a few seconds.

Then, the rolling shutter door was pulled open from the inside with a rattle.

An old man with white hair, stubble, and oil-stained overalls appeared at the door.

He was still holding a welding torch, his eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

He looked Shen Yan up and down.

"So you're that kid from Dragon Nation who bought Sirius?"

Word certainly traveled fast.

Shen Yan nodded.

"It's me."

"Hmph." Dr. Hoffmann let out a cold snort.

"The hyenas of Wall Street have put on an Asian face, but the stench of money is still the same."

"I don't care who you are. Take your money and get off my lawn."

With that, he turned to close the door.

"In Low-temperature plasma bonding technology, when handling the thermal stress matching of Diamond and Gallium Nitride, the optimal RF power should be 1.8 kilowatts, not the 2.0 kilowatts in your experimental data."

Shen Yan spoke unhurriedly.

Dr. Hoffmann's movement to close the door suddenly froze.

He turned around abruptly, an astonishing light erupting in his cloudy eyes.

"How do you know that?!"

That was the most core unpublished data of the icarus project! It was the critical point he had found after countless failures!

"A power of 2.0 kilowatts causes plasma energy overload. Although the bonding speed is faster, it creates microscopic lattice damage at the interface layer. Long-term stability and heat dissipation efficiency will drop by three percent."

Shen Yan continued, as if stating a simple fact.

"And that three percent gap, in high-frequency, high-power military communication modules, is the difference between 'usable' and 'perfect'."

Dr. Hoffmann was completely dumbfounded.

He looked at Shen Yan as if looking at a monster.

Every word this young man said hit precisely on the most core nodes of his research career.

This wasn't something a businessman could say.

This wasn't a language a capitalist who only looked at financial reports could understand.

This was the language of a peer.

No, he understood it even more deeply than his own assistants.

"Who... exactly are you?" Dr. Hoffmann's voice was a bit dry.

"A buyer who gave you a five hundred million dollar valuation." Shen Yan smiled faintly.

"Robert Vance of Aegis Dynamics has already paid for your 'icarus'."

Dr. Hoffmann's body swayed slightly.

"Five hundred million dollars?"

"The project Marcus had thrown away like trash?"

His life's work actually had such high value?

A huge sense of absurdity and long-overdue recognition surged into his heart at the same time.

His eyes actually reddened slightly.

"Come in."

He stepped aside and cleared the way.

The garage was even more chaotic than imagined.

Various electronic components, circuit boards, and semi-finished equipment were piled everywhere.

The air was filled with a scent unique to tech geeks.

In the center of a workbench sat a crude equipment prototype, connected by countless cables; clearly, he had never given up on his research.

"Sit, if you can find a place." Dr. Hoffmann pointed to a box piled with parts.

Shen Yan didn't sit.

He walked to the equipment prototype and looked at it carefully.

"You're trying to use Magnetic confinement to improve plasma uniformity?"

A flash of surprise once again crossed Dr. Hoffmann's eyes.

"That's right. It's feasible in theory, but my equipment's power is insufficient, and I lack Superconducting coils."

He laughed self-deprecatingly.

"Here, I'm just a crazy old man building dreams with scrap parts."

"No, you aren't."

Shen Yan turned around, looking Dr. Hoffmann straight in the eyes.

"You're a buried genius. Idiots like Marcus only see input and output; they can't see the kind of new era your technology can open up."

These words were like an electric current hitting Dr. Hoffmann's heart.

How many years had it been?

No one had ever said something like that to him.

In the eyes of those suit-wearing managers, he was just a money-burning, stubborn, uncompromising old fossil.

"Speak then, kid from Dragon Nation." Dr. Hoffmann's voice softened.

"What do you want? To have me go back and be a money-making tool for you? Sorry, I've had enough of that."

"I'm not asking you to go back."

Shen Yan shook his head.

"I'm giving you a brand new start."