Chapter 246 Is this wine fake, or has the world gone mad?

What the hell?

Launched successfully?

And ten thousand and thirty-six of them?!

The impact of this statement caused the entire conference room to explode in chaos.

In this confidential conference room of the Dongwei Group, which represented the pinnacle of national aerospace technology, there was absolute chaos.

The top Experts, who usually walked with a swagger and sharp, wise eyes, were now crawling out from under their desks in awkward positions.

Some held their aching waists, some rubbed their knees, and others, having slid down too quickly, had their glasses skewed all the way to their ears, looking both comical and disheveled.

As they shakily climbed to their feet, they stared intently at Comrade Xiao Zhang, who stood in the center of the room with a calm expression, looking at him as if he were a madman.

Confusion.

Pure, unadulterated confusion.

Every face was etched with the bewilderment of, "Who am I? Where am I? What kind of mythical story am I listening to?"

'This isn't scientific!'

'This makes absolutely no sense!'

A white-haired satellite Expert finally managed to steady himself by holding onto a chair, his head still buzzing.

His lips trembled, and his heart felt numb.

One had to understand that Dongwei Group, as the backbone of the national team, had spent so long preparing the GW Constellation project—that magnificent national network plan—with the full strength of the nation, and the total plan was only to deploy 6,080 satellites!

And that was just a "plan"!

It was a number that existed only on blueprints, in PowerPoint presentations, and in future visions!

Right now, they hadn't even built the first batch of networking satellites.

And yet?

This young man from the Special Front just opened his mouth and said, "Ten thousand and thirty-six"?

And "launched successfully" too?

This wasn't overtaking on a curve; this was teleporting directly to the finish line and dismantling the judge's stand while he was at it!

After helping each other up, the Experts looked at one another, their eyes filled not just with shock, but more with a sense of concern, as if wondering, "Is this kid sick?"

Finally, one of the most senior Experts couldn't hold back anymore.

He turned his head and looked at General Manager Zhou Weiguo, who had also just crawled up from the floor and was questioning the meaning of life, and asked in a low but firm voice:

"Um... General Manager."

"What kind of alcohol did we serve this brother from the Special Front today?"

Zhou Weiguo was stunned: "What alcohol?"

"Fake alcohol, perhaps?" the Old Expert analyzed with a serious face. "If he hadn't been drinking fake alcohol, how could Comrade Xiao Zhang spout such shocking nonsense? Ten thousand satellites? Are they Chinese cabbages? Is he conjuring soldiers from beans? Even Musk wouldn't dare brag like that!"

...

With these words, the surrounding Experts nodded in agreement.

Even more so, an Expert in rocket propulsion actually, and quite seriously, leaned in close to Comrade Xiao Zhang.

He twitched his nose and sniffed hard in the air, trying to catch a whiff of alcohol to corroborate everyone's suspicions.

"Hiss... no smell?"

The Expert sniffed for a long time, looking puzzled. "Could it be that the new type of alcohol is colorless and odorless? Or is he so drunk that the alcohol has already evaporated?"

Watching this scene, watching the comical actions of this group of usually serious and earnest Old Experts.

Zhou Weiguo and Deputy General Manager Chen Qiming, who had just managed to sit down, felt their mouths twitching uncontrollably.

They looked at the innocent-looking Comrade Xiao Zhang, then at the group of Experts playing detective, and felt utterly speechless.

If they weren't absolutely certain that they hadn't entertained Comrade Xiao Zhang, hadn't even had the chance to pour him a cup of hot tea.

Just listening to the nonsense Comrade Xiao Zhang had just spouted, they themselves would have almost believed that he was drunk—and definitely not just a little, but at least a jin or two of Erguotou worth of drunk.

After all, what normal person would do such a thing? Who would say such things?

"Ahem!"

Zhou Weiguo coughed heavily twice, forcibly interrupting the Experts' discussion about "fake alcohol."

He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the shock in his heart.

As the General Manager of the group, he still had some composure. Although he had also slid under the table earlier, reason told him that a comrade from the Special Front, from a confidential unit of this caliber, would not joke about such things.

Even if this joke sounded a hundred times more outrageous than a fantasy.

"Comrade Xiao Zhang."

Zhou Weiguo stared intently into Comrade Xiao Zhang's eyes, his voice trembling slightly despite his best efforts to keep it steady:

"You aren't joking?"

"Are you sure it's over ten thousand? Are they all in orbit?"

Comrade Xiao Zhang nodded, his expression still calm, as if he hadn't just spoken of ten thousand satellites, but of ten thousand glass marbles:

"General Manager Zhou. I've brought the data; it's all on that tablet."

Hearing this, Zhou Weiguo's heart contracted violently.

It was real!

It was actually real!

A jolt of electricity instantly surged through his entire body, making his scalp tingle.

"Quick! Tell me quickly!"

Zhou Weiguo leaned forward and asked urgently: "What is going on here? Which unit created this? Is it the Fifth Academy of Aerospace? Or the Eighth? Or some secret base?"

In his view, to have such a grand undertaking, to be able to silently send ten thousand satellites into the sky, there was no one else to consider besides the core mainstays of the national team.

All the Experts in the conference room pricked up their ears, holding their breath, waiting for that name.

However.

Comrade Xiao Zhang just glanced at everyone calmly, then softly uttered a sentence:

"It's not a big unit."

"It was created by a toy factory."

Huh?

The air went instantly silent.

The Experts' jaws once again showed signs of hitting the floor.

A... a toy factory?

Before they could react, Comrade Xiao Zhang immediately reported the name that left everyone present dumbfounded once again:

"Li Family Toy Factory."

Silence.

Absolute silence.

Everyone looked at each other, wide-eyed, with question marks all over their foreheads.

Even more confused.

Completely confused.

"Li Family... Toy Factory?"

An Old Expert muttered to himself, his eyes lost, "Is this a codename? Could it be a new confidential unit? Is the codename 'Toy Factory'?"

It was no wonder they didn't know.

During this period, in order to deal with the threat of Musk's Starlink lowering its orbit, and to solve the problem of their own weak GW Constellation technology.

The entire Dongwei Group, from the General Manager to the Experts, had entered a closed-off R&D state, eating and living at the unit, handing over their mobile phones, and cutting off most entertainment contact with the outside world.

They were already overwhelmed; where would they find the time to scroll through short videos or pay attention to some internet Streamer?

Therefore, they knew absolutely nothing about the "Militia General" that was already causing a huge stir in the outside world.

Looking at this room full of "offline" researchers, Comrade Xiao Zhang also felt speechless.

'So these big shots really don't know anything at all.'

He couldn't be bothered to keep them in suspense any longer. Standing in front of the conference table, he began to calmly narrate the recent "great achievements" of Li Family Toy Factory.

"Leaders, Experts."

Comrade Xiao Zhang's voice echoed in the quiet conference room:

"This Li Family Toy Factory, although it's named a toy factory, what it does really doesn't look like a toy factory."

"A while ago, the 'Swarm Drone' that beat Ugly Country's lackey until they were crying for their daddy and mommy over in Middle East? That was made by them."

"And that 'stealth car' that made the traffic police's speed radar fail on the highway, which the Air Force initiated a project to study? That was also something they made for kids to play with."

"Oh right, and not long ago, that 'jump rope for giants' that kept our Navy guys up at night with joy, successfully solving the bottleneck problem of the aircraft carrier's Arresting Cable? That also came from the hands of this factory manager."

"As for that 'optical stealth coating' that the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group guys treat like a treasure? That was just paint they used for elderly joy at their factory."

As Comrade Xiao Zhang rattled off these familiar yet strange terms.

Swarm Drone...

Stealth car...

Aircraft carrier Arresting Cable...

Optical stealth coating...

In the conference room, sounds of gasping for air rose one after another.

"Hiss—"

"Hiss—"

These sounds merged into one, making the temperature in the conference room seem to drop a few degrees.

The expressions of the Experts changed from confusion to blankness, and finally to deep shock.

Any one of these technologies, if taken out separately, was a top-tier problem within the industry!

They knew about that "Arresting Cable"; it had caused quite a stir at the time, and it was said to have solved a major problem.

They had also heard about that "stealth coating," which was said to be a major breakthrough in materials science.

Now, hearing Comrade Xiao Zhang link them all together.

Finally, one Expert reacted!

"I remember!"

A materials Expert slapped his thigh hard, his voice changing pitch with excitement: "I remember! Our Aerospace Department had a technological breakthrough in high-temperature resistant materials, which was supposedly obtained from a private enterprise, and it seems it was called this factory! I was wondering at the time, which private enterprise was so awesome? So it was this Li Family Toy Factory?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, another Expert also jumped up from his chair, reacting dramatically:

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

This Expert pointed at Comrade Xiao Zhang, his face full of sudden realization: "That stealth technology for the new generation fighter jet! I heard about that too, but I thought it was just a rumor! I didn't expect... didn't expect it to actually be true?!"

"Holy crap! This is a toy factory?"

"This is practically a black-tech wholesale department!"

For a moment, the conference room exploded in chaos.

The originally serious confidential meeting instantly turned into a seminar on the "Legend of Li Family Toy Factory."

Everyone contributed a word or two, piecing together fragmentary information about this mysterious factory.

The topic of discussion instantly veered off course, jumping from Starlink to various military industrial fields.

Just then, a senior Expert who had been sitting in the corner and hadn't spoken at all suddenly chimed in:

"I've heard of it too."

He pushed up his glasses, his brows slightly furrowed, as if remembering something important:

"However, it seems that Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group has run into some trouble recently."

Hearing the words "Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group" and "trouble," everyone's attention was pulled back slightly.

The Expert sighed and continued:

"They are stuck on the carbon fiber material for that new generation fighter jet."

"It is said that they previously obtained a material technology called high-strength carbon fiber and ceramic composite armor from that robot dog from Li Family Toy Factory."

"That material is indeed good; the strength is very high."

"But!"

The Expert shook his head, his tone somewhat regretful:

"When used on our latest generation fighter jet's main beams and other components that require high strength, the strength seems to be lacking just a little bit."

"After all, that was used on a robot dog, and fighter jets need to perform supersonic maneuvers; the requirements for materials are simply monstrous. They currently need carbon fiber with even higher strength and better toughness."

"I heard those guys at Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group are worried sick about this; their hair has turned white from the stress."

Speaking of this, he spread his hands, looking helpless:

"I'm afraid the launch date for this new generation fighter jet will have to be postponed..."