Chapter 69 Everyone thought Xinghai had gone mad; chip manufacturing wasn't that easy.

The ridicule online was already overwhelming.

Even a young child knew that the boss of Xinghai Technology had been driven insane by the Americans, claiming he wanted to hand-craft chips.

Inside Laboratory No. 1, the air conditioning blew so cold it made one's scalp tighten.

Old Zhou gripped the mouse tightly. His knuckles were ghastly white from excessive force.

On the screen, the deep blue tri-cluster architecture diagram cascaded down like a waterfall.

"Insane... The person who wrote this blueprint is absolutely a complete lunatic!"

Old Zhou's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his voice raspy as if he had swallowed a handful of coarse sand.

Chu Xuan was peeking over from the side, amused by what he heard.

"Old Zhou, your reaction isn't right. Since the blueprint is awesome, shouldn't we just find a factory and build it?"

He swept back his center-parted hair, "The sooner we build it, the sooner we can slap the Americans in the face!"

Old Zhou whipped his head around. His bloodshot eyes glared fixedly at Chu Xuan.

"Build it? Are you going to build it with your mouth?!"

The old man was so anxious he slapped the stainless steel tabletop, making the screws jump.

"This is a conceptual architecture diagram! It's not a mold from a factory assembly line!"

He turned to look at Lu Jingming, who was leaning back in his chair, his face full of helplessness.

"Boss Lu, I admit this blueprint is a masterpiece." Old Zhou pointed at the screen, "This energy efficiency ratio, this cache scheduling—it leaves Qualcomm behind by more than two generations."

He took a rough breath, his tone filled with deep despair.

"To put it metaphorically, we now have the design blueprint for a space elevator. But we don't have the micro-blueprints for construction, nor the molds to make the bricks!"

Lu Jingming didn't rush to reply. He twirled the plastic lighter in his hand and ignited it with a "click." The deep blue flame reflected in his calm eyes.

"Missing the photomask layout?" Lu Jingming exhaled a puff of blue smoke calmly.

"Yes!" Old Zhou stomped his feet in anxiety. "The photomask layout is the mold created by shrinking this design blueprint hundreds of millions of times and engraving it onto the silicon wafer bit by bit!"

He pulled at his own hair, his voice trembling. "Without a perfect photomask layout, even if we knelt down and handed the blueprints to TSMC, they wouldn't be able to manufacture a single usable chip!"

"Not to mention, the country doesn't even have a single ultraviolet lithography machine!"

Chu Xuan gasped. "Then let's use the supercomputing center to run the data! Calculate the mold layout!"

"Supercomputer? The giants in Silicon Valley would take at least half a year to run this data!" Old Zhou laughed bitterly, pointing to the few servers in the corner of the lab. "With just these few pieces of junk, we wouldn't get a result even if we calculated until our next life!"

The laboratory fell into a dead silence. The blueprints were invincible, but the chasm of manufacturing stood like a natural moat before everyone.

"Click." The glass door was pushed open from the outside. Xia Weiliang shuffled in wearing flip-flops, yawning.

Her hair was as messy as a bird's nest, and her oversized lab coat was stained with instant noodle soup.

"Lu Jingming, you'd better have a legitimate reason," she said, rubbing her eyes, her face full of morning grumpiness.

"I had just finished the third version of the underlying optimization for my Xinghai OS, and you interrupted me."

Lu Jingming didn't waste words. He stood up and gestured with his chin toward the computer screen. "The business is on the desk. Go take a look."

Xia Weiliang dragged her feet over and cast a casual glance at the screen. That one glance was all it took.

One of her flip-flops "clattered" off, and she froze in place instantly. Her sleepy eyes suddenly widened. Her pupils reflected the complex chip circuitry, flickering with an almost manic light.

"Move!" Xia Weiliang shoved Old Zhou away from the swivel chair.

She threw herself in front of the computer, her nose almost touching the monitor. The mouse moved so fast it left an afterimage. Lines of code and architecture diagrams flew past.

"This lithography algorithm... this logic gate design..." She muttered technical terms rapidly, her breathing becoming increasingly rapid.

"Incredible! With this mask logic, we don't need an ultraviolet lithography machine at all!"

Old Zhou was stunned and leaned in with wide eyes. "Little Xia, what nonsense are you spouting! This is a micro-fabrication process!"

Xia Weiliang whipped her head around, her eyes burning with terrifying fire. "Using multi-exposure technology and algorithm compensation!"

She pointed to a line of code in the corner of the screen, her voice cracking with excitement. "As long as I can extract the data for this photomask layout, we can force the production of this chip even using old foreign lithography machines!"

Lu Jingming stubbed out his cigarette, a smile curling the corner of his mouth. "Can you calculate it?"

Xia Weiliang didn't look at him; she just bent down, unplugged the mouse cable, and swapped it for her own familiar mechanical keyboard.

"Dazhuang!" She shouted toward the door without turning her head.

Niu Dazhuang poked his head in, looking confused. "I'm here, Chief Engineer Xia!"

"Go to the cafeteria and bring me three cases of Red Bull. Make sure they're iced."

Xia Weiliang hovered her hands over the keyboard, her knuckles cracking. "Except for the Red Bull, everyone else get out of the lab."

Chu Xuan swallowed dryly, feeling worried. "Girl, this is a massive amount of data. Can your brain handle it alone?"

"Don't waste my time." Xia Weiliang slammed her ten fingers down, and the keyboard erupted in a storm of clicking. "Touching these blueprints, I'm afraid I won't even want to waste time going to the bathroom. Get out!"

Lu Jingming gestured. Old Zhou and Chu Xuan were ushered out, and the glass door clicked shut and locked.

In the hallway, Dazhuang carried three cases of Red Bull, standing guard at the door like a door god.

Old Zhou peered through the gap in the glass door, sighing with worry. "This girl is crazy." Old Zhou shook his head. "That amount of data could burn out a person's brain stem. She's risking her life to push through this!"

Day one. The laboratory was filled only with the sound of rapid keyboard clicking. Xia Weiliang hadn't even changed her posture, and a pile of empty Red Bull cans had accumulated at her feet.

Day two. The blinds were pulled shut. Suppressed growls came from inside, as if she were wrestling with a pile of dead code. Chu Xuan was anxious and wanted to knock, but Dazhuang held him back.

Late on the third night. The lights in the hallway were dim. Inside the lab, Xia Weiliang slumped in the swivel chair, her face as pale as if covered in a layer of flour.

Her eyes were covered in terrifying bloodshot veins, looking like a demon that had just crawled out of hell. On the computer screen, the data progress bar for the photomask layout was stuck at ninety percent.

She bit her bloodless lips and touched the keyboard again. Just as she typed two characters, a strong, metallic, sweet taste surged up in her throat.

"Cough..." Xia Weiliang covered her mouth and coughed violently. She loosened her hand. Her palm was stained with saliva mixed with glaring streaks of blood.

She gasped for air, her chest heaving violently. It felt like an electric drill was boring into her brain, hurting so much that her vision was blacking out.

She couldn't finish the calculation. Xia Weiliang stared fixedly at the final lithography algorithm on the screen. The logical deadlock of this algorithm exceeded the computing power of a single brain. She alone could not overcome this hurdle.

If she kept pushing herself like this, she would die of exhaustion in this chair before the blueprints were finished.

Xia Weiliang wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. She grabbed the edge of the table, stood up shakily, and walked to the secure landline in the corner.

She picked up the red receiver. With trembling fingers, she dialed a Yanjing number she knew by heart.

"Beep... Beep..." The phone rang for a full half minute before it was finally answered. Aged yet resonant roaring came from the other end.

"Calling to take my life in the middle of the night! Which little brat is calling my secure line!"

Xia Weiliang leaned against the wall, a weak smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. "Old man, it's me." Her voice was terribly hoarse, "Stop sleeping."

The other end of the line was silent for two seconds. Then, an even louder roar of anger erupted. "Xia Weiliang! You rebellious wild girl! It's one thing to go work at a private factory, but how dare you wake me up!"

The leading authority of the Institute of Microelectronics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the founding father of domestic semiconductors, was so angry he slapped the table. "Speak up or get lost! I have a meeting tomorrow!"

Xia Weiliang slid down the wall to the floor. She tilted her head back, looking at the incandescent light on the ceiling, her eyes flashing with a frantic obsession.

"Help me, old man, I've hit a dead end." She took a breath, smiling like a madwoman. "The final lithography interference algorithm—I'm halfway through and can't finish it."

The scolding on the other end stopped. The old academician heard the weakness in her voice, and his tone instantly deepened. "What dangerous experiment are you running that needs saving? Did you blow up the laboratory?"

"Didn't blow it up." Xia Weiliang stared at the computer screen in the distance. "I'm just working on a photomask layout here."

She licked her blood-stained lips, her voice soft but filled with a ruthlessness capable of overturning the entire semiconductor industry. "A chip architecture layout that can snap the Americans' necks."

Xia Weiliang gripped the receiver tightly. "We're just one step away. Are you going to take this job or not?"