Chapter 229 The National Team Has Real Experts!

Meanwhile, in the office.

Old Qian watched Li Jiajun’s flustered state and adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose. His slightly cloudy but unfathomably deep eyes seemed capable of seeing through any disguise.

"Moreover."

Old Qian didn't stop the topic just because the livestream was closed. He picked up the half-finished sentence that had been interrupted and continued in a tone so flat it was frightening: "According to our simulation deductions, the reason Curry Country failed is precisely because they perfectly replicated your design, yet didn't replicate it completely."

"Hmm... how should I put it?"

Old Qian pondered for a moment, seemingly searching for an accurate word to describe it: "They are like having obtained a perfect shell, but within this shell, half the soul is missing."

"Those critical data links, that core control logic, and even certain subtle hardware tolerances—none of them match up."

At this point, Old Qian looked up, his gaze like an X-ray, piercing straight through Li Jiajun: "Something must be missing."

"You brat, you wouldn't happen to be holding something back, would you?"

Boom!

This sentence wasn't loud.

But to Li Jiajun's ears, it was no different from a thunderclap exploding right beside him.

'Holy crap!'

Li Jiajun felt a layer of fine cold sweat suddenly break out on his back, and the shirt underneath instantly stuck to his body, making him feel terribly uncomfortable.

He had originally thought that his strategy of holding back technical details during delivery was seamless.

It was a brilliant method based on his understanding of human nature, business games, and even impromptu epiphanies.

It was a god-tier anti-scam skill he had developed in the livestream room after listening to the bitter experiences of countless Netizens and combining them with game theory.

Even with Curry Country's national effort and that curry light supercomputer, they hadn't found a single clue after an entire month.

And the result?

101 Kanshu, the ultimate book-chasing tool, 101kkks.com. Super easy to use, manual typing, error-free site.

How many minutes had this old man been in here?

He hadn't even touched the physical object; just by glancing at the data report and hearing a few of his excuses, he had directly guessed the core?

'This... this is a bit terrifying, isn't it?'

Li Jiajun subconsciously swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

He realized that the elder in front of him, wearing an ordinary jacket and looking like a retired old teacher, truly knew his stuff.

Moreover, he knew it deeply.

The kind of depth that was unfathomable.

Standing to the side, Liu Jianguo had his arms crossed, watching the scene like he was enjoying a good show.

He was all too familiar with Li Jiajun.

This kid was usually like a loach, slippery and hard to catch.

No matter how you tried to grab him, he could always find a reason to slip away and splash mud all over you in the process.

Even when facing the previous Experts, this kid could talk the dead back to life and turn black into white.

He’d call a military drone a delivery tool and an electromagnetic Arresting Cable a tripwire.

Liu Jianguo had seen that brand of arrogance and the smugness of "none of you understand me" too many times.

But now?

Looking at Li Jiajun’s rare, tightened mouth and his shifty eyes.

Liu Jianguo felt a wave of secret satisfaction in his heart.

'Hehe, so you finally have a day like this?'

'Go ahead, keep being stubborn! Keep performing your comedy routine with me!'

'You've met your nemesis, haven't you?'

Liu Jianguo suppressed the urge to laugh out loud and cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence.

"Ahem."

He ostentatiously checked his watch and then respectfully suggested to Old Qian, "Old Qian, all talk and no action is just a fake show."

"Since this kid says those are ordinary toys, there's no use in just listening to him."

"How about we go take a look at the physical objects?"

As he spoke, he specifically turned to look at Li Jiajun and raised an eyebrow: "Little Li, lead the way? Since they're ordinary toys, you shouldn't mind letting us have a look, right?"

The corner of Li Jiajun's mouth twitched.

He looked at Liu Jianguo’s expression of someone who loved watching the world burn and mentally cursed the man’s ancestors back eighteen generations.

But now that things had come to this, what else could he say?

Refuse?

Wouldn't that be admitting he had a guilty conscience?

"Fine... alright then."

Li Jiajun braced himself and forced out a smile that looked uglier than crying: "Since Uncle Liu and the Old Expert want to see them, then let's have a look."

"Anyway... they're just ordinary toy sky rockets, nothing much to see."

...

A few minutes later.

Li Family Toy Factory, finished product warehouse.

The heavy rolling shutter door was pulled open, and a faint smell of machine oil and new product packaging wafted out.

Inside the warehouse, a row of specialized shockproof boxes were neatly arranged.

Some boxes were open, revealing the toy sky rockets inside, which had sci-fi designs and were entirely covered in precision dragon scale patterns.

Under the lights, those sky rockets emitted a cold and mesmerizing metallic luster.

It was the beauty of industry.

And the beauty of violence.

You might ask, why were there still toy sky rockets here?

That's right, not only did Li Jiajun hold back a trick with the toy sky rockets, but he also didn't send the full amount to the other party. In other words, what he sent wasn't even close to a thousand.

As the group walked into the warehouse, even the well-traveled accompanying personnel couldn't help but have their breath hitch at the sight.

It was too beautiful.

How did this look like a toy?

These were clearly works of art waiting to be launched.

However, Old Qian didn't start shouting and screaming like the previous Experts the moment he saw the items.

He was very calm.

That calmness was like an old craftsman stepping into his familiar workshop.

He pulled a pair of clean white cotton gloves from his pocket and put them on methodically.

Then, he took out an old-looking vernier caliper and a small flashlight.

This set of actions was smooth as flowing water and filled with a sense of ritual.

Li Jiajun stood nearby, watching the old man's posture, and felt a wave of apprehension for no reason.

'This old man... why does he look so professional?'

Old Qian walked up to a sky rocket and bent down slightly.

He didn't look at the whole thing first; instead, he reached out and lightly tapped on the outer shell.

"Thump, thump, thump."

The sound was muffled, sounding like neither metal nor plastic.

Old Qian tilted his ear, seemingly listening to the echo of that sound.

After listening, his eyebrows raised slightly, and a flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes, but it quickly returned to calmness.

Next, he turned on the flashlight, focusing the beam.

He leaned in close to the nozzle of the Pangu Engine that Li Jiajun had praised so highly.

He looked very carefully.

One could even say he was being exacting.

He used the flashlight to illuminate the combustion chamber throat inside the nozzle, observing the machining marks that were almost invisible to the naked eye.

He then used the vernier caliper to measure the dimensions of several key parts.

During the entire process, the warehouse was dead silent.

Everyone held their breath, watching the old man's movements.

Even Wang Dachui, who usually loved to make a fuss, hunched his neck and didn't dare to breathe too loudly.

Time passed second by second.

About five or six minutes had gone by.

To Li Jiajun, these five or six minutes were longer than a century.

He felt like a prisoner on trial, waiting for the judge's final gavel to fall.

Finally.

Old Qian straightened up.

He took off his gloves, lightly clapped his hands, turned around, and looked at Li Jiajun.

That wrinkled face didn't show any expression of shock or anger.

Instead, it wore a faint smile, as if he had seen through everything.

"Young man."

Old Qian spoke, his tone still unhurried: "Good craftsmanship."

"This lamination process for composite materials and the design of the combustion chamber throat are very creative."

Li Jiajun was about to say a few humble words, claiming he had just blindly tinkered with it.

However, Old Qian's next sentence immediately stuck the words in his throat.

Old Qian pointed at the seemingly perfect sky rocket and said something that made everyone present, especially Li Jiajun, feel their scalp go numb: "However..."

"This thing... is a semi-finished product, isn't it?"

"It's missing half the parts, right?"

Li Jiajun felt a massive shock in his heart, his pupils instantly constricting to the size of needlepoints.

'He... he saw through it?!'

'He really saw through it?!'

And with such certainty, such precision!

One had to know that in order to hide that missing half, he had gone to great lengths.

He had performed highly sophisticated disguises on the structure, filling the space with components that seemed useful but were actually redundant, making the entire system look like a closed loop logically.

Unless it was a master who truly understood it to the bone, it was impossible to discover the fishy business within.

But now...

Looking at Old Qian’s calm eyes that seemed to pierce through everything, Li Jiajun felt for the first time that he had met a true god.

Truly.

Previously, when he dealt with officials, whether they were Experts from the Air Force or researchers from other institutes.

To be honest, he actually felt a bit of pride and even looked down on them slightly.

Because when those Experts saw his designs, they would only be shocked and ask, "How was this done?"

He felt those Experts were all quite amateurish.

So, regarding this Old Expert today, he hadn't taken him too seriously at first, thinking he wouldn't understand much either, at most just looking a bit longer than others.

But he didn't expect...

Had he known, he wouldn't have brought this Old Expert here even if he were beaten to death.

'But damn it, nobody told me that the National Team actually had a true Expert!'