836: Chapter 831 What Does It Mean to Respect Teachers and Value the Way?

Liang Zexu couldn't help but laugh out loud.

He picked up a dinner knife next to him and pointed it at the piece of metal.

"Mr. Shen, is this your achievement?"

"The color, the oxide layer hasn't even been properly treated, has it?"

"You didn't seriously cook this on the gas stove in the back kitchen, did you?"

The surrounding investors also shook their heads one after another.

Although they didn't understand the technology, they could certainly recognize how something looked.

The sample Liang Zexu brought was polished and buffed until it was shiny enough to be used as a mirror.

Shen Yan's piece was dull gray, looking utterly unsophisticated.

"This must be Feng Quji's handiwork, right?"

Liang Zexu shook his head, wearing an expression of disappointment that iron could not be forged into steel.

"I knew it. That old good-for-nothing's brain must have rotted away from all that drinking."

"He was a joke at the institute back then, and he's even more of a joke now."

"Mr. Shen, you've been duped. If you try to sell this thing as scrap aluminum, they'll complain that the purity isn't high enough."

Shen Yan looked at Liang Zexu's gaping mouth.

He cycled through the intelligence provided by the system in his mind.

So, this was what they meant by a beast in human clothing.

"Back then?"

Shen Yan suddenly spoke, interrupting Liang Zexu's performance.

"Since you brought up 'back then,' Dr. Liang should still remember what your doctoral dissertation from fifteen years ago was called, right?"

Liang Zexu's expression changed instantly.

It was a look of terror, like having his tail stepped on, fleeting but not escaping Shen Yan's eyes.

"You... why are you bringing that up?"

"Recombination and Optimization of Microcrystalline Structure in Aluminum-Lithium Alloys."

Shen Yan stated the name precisely.

"Back then, Old Feng hadn't had his accident yet. Were the data for that paper something you generated entirely on your own?"

The banquet hall fell silent.

No one present was a fool; they could hear the gunpowder in the words.

Liang Zexu's eyes flickered with panic, but he quickly composed himself.

"Of course, I did it! I pulled three all-nighters..."

"Three all-nighters?"

Shen Yan's lips curled upward slightly; it wasn't a smile, but ridicule.

"Old Feng's experimental logs at Institute 33 recorded the crystal recombination data for a full three years."

"How did you manage to turn three years of someone else's hard work into your name in just three all-nighters?"

"Shut up!"

Liang Zexu reacted as if a painful spot had been pressed, violently smashing his wine glass onto the floor.

Shards of glass scattered everywhere.

"You are slandering me! I will sue you for defamation!"

"Did that old drunkard say something to you? He's jealous of me! He's incompetent himself, so he wants to ruin me!"

Liang Zexu's emotions were somewhat out of control. The persona he had painstakingly maintained in the industry could not tolerate the slightest blemish.

"Security! Where is security? Kick these two troublemakers out!"

Several uniformed security guards rushed over upon hearing the call.

Shen Yan remained standing in place, completely unmoved.

His aura was too strong, so strong that the security guards dared not reach out.

"Whether it's slander or not, this piece of metal will speak for itself."

Shen Yan reached out and took the sample piece from the box.

The movement was light, yet it seemed to carry immense weight.

He glanced at the piece of "imported fine product" on Liang Zexu's display stand.

"You say this is trash?"

Shen Yan gently placed the sample in his hand onto the edge of Liang Zexu's sample.

The two pieces of metal formed a cross.

"What are you doing?"

A sudden sense of foreboding surged through Liang Zexu.

"I'll teach you what it means to respect your teacher and value the Dao."

Shen Yan's wrist exerted sudden force.

Screeech—!

A grating metallic friction sound echoed throughout the entire banquet hall.

It was like fingernails scraping fiercely across a blackboard, making people's scalps tingle.

Everyone instinctively covered their ears.

Sparks even flew out.

That was the momentary high temperature generated by the metal under extreme frictional pressure.

One second.

Or even less.

Shen Yan released his hand.

He flipped the sample piece in his hand over and showed it to the crowd.

It was as good as new.

Not a single scratch on it.

But at that moment, the imported aluminum alloy on the display stand, which Liang Zexu had praised to the skies.

A gash nearly two millimeters deep had appeared on its surface.

The cut edge was curled and hideously ugly.

It looked as if it had been sliced open like butter by a sharp blade.

Deathly silence.

Everyone's eyes were wide open, as if they had seen a ghost.

Those who understood the industry began to gasp in cold air.

What the hell did this mean?

They were all aluminum alloys; why was this one so much harder?

This was like using a piece of tofu to cut another piece of tofu.

Unless...

This wasn't tofu; it was diamond.

Liang Zexu froze in place.

He stared fixedly at the cut, his eyeballs nearly popping out.

"Impossible..."

"This is impossible..."

"This is titanium alloy! You cheated! You used titanium alloy to impersonate aluminum alloy!"

Liang Zexu roared, clinging to the last straw.

If it were titanium alloy, the hardness could indeed achieve this effect.

But then the density would be wrong, and there would be nothing worth boasting about.

"Can't you tell if it's titanium just by weighing it?"

Shen Yan tossed the sample piece in his hand to Liang Zexu.

Liang Zexu instinctively caught it. The feel was light.

This was the feel of aluminum, perhaps even slightly lighter than ordinary 7-series aluminum.

If it were titanium alloy, this sample piece would weigh at least twice as much.

Liang Zexu's hands began to tremble.

He was an expert. Although his character was lacking, he still possessed professional knowledge.

This weight, this hardness...

This meant the strength was at least over 80 MPa.

How was this possible?

The current theoretical limit was only over 60.

This was directly leaping across an entire era!

"82 MPa."

Shen Yan stated the number.

It was like a heavy hammer smashing violently into Liang Zexu's chest.

Liang Zexu's legs went weak, and he almost couldn't stand steady.

He looked at the piece of metal in his hand as if holding a scorching hot potato.

"Who made this... Who made this?"

He muttered to himself, his face ashen.

"The good-for-nothing you spoke of."

"You stole the beginning he laid out fifteen years ago, but you didn't know he spent fifteen years deducing the conclusion in his mind."

Shen Yan's voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet banquet hall, every word was clearly audible.

"Liang Zexu, you can steal some things."

"But integrity, talent—some things you will never be able to steal in this lifetime."

The expressions of the surrounding investors changed.

If they had looked at Shen Yan like an idiot before, now they looked at Liang Zexu like a fraud.

Capital is pragmatic.

Whoever holds the truth is the boss.

That bald investor from earlier quietly retreated two steps, putting distance between himself and Liang Zexu.

More people began to whisper.

"My God, 82 megapascals? If this is true, then Dr. Liang's project..."

"That's just garbage; investing in it would be throwing money away."

"And Mr. Shen said the paper was stolen? This is explosive gossip!"

"I think it looks real. Look at Liang Zexu's cowardly look; his face has gone white."

Liang Zexu listened to the surrounding discussions, feeling as if he had been stripped naked and placed under a spotlight.

His pride, his halo, shattered into pieces at this moment.

He wanted to refute, wanted to curse loudly.

But the cold metal in his hand served as a cruel reminder of the facts.

This was absolute technological suppression.

In the industrial field, data is God.