242: Chapter 242 Initial Hints, Chip Industry

Twenty minutes later.

The speech ended.

Thunderous applause erupted on the playground of No. 1 Middle School. Thousands of teachers and students clapped frantically, the sound echoing for a long time.

Zhao Yang did not linger on the stage. He turned around and stuffed the microphone back into the hands of the old principal, who had not yet come to his senses.

"Zhao Yang, you spoke so well. Why don't you have a simple meal at the school cafeteria at noon..."

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The principal quickly spoke up to urge him to stay.

"No thank you, Principal."

Zhao Yang declined flatly.

He glanced at the audience below. There were several thousand students, and many from the first and second years were already starting to push toward the front, wanting to come up for autographs or photos. Nearby, several local reporters carrying video cameras were rushing toward the steps of the rostrum.

He didn't want to be trapped here by this fanatical crowd.

Zhao Yang strode down the steps. Several school security guards quickly surrounded him to provide protection.

Relying on the terrifying core strength brought by his 26 points of physique, Zhao Yang didn't seem to use much force; he just casually pushed aside the few people blocking his way. However, those he touched felt as if a wall was pushing against them, and they involuntarily stepped aside to make a path.

He walked extremely fast, passing directly through the back gate on the side of the school playground and getting into a taxi that had long been waiting by the roadside, driving away.

Back home.

Zhao Yang had just entered the door, changed into slippers, and walked to the water dispenser to pour a cup of water, but he hadn't had time to drink it yet.

He heard Father Zhao's phone ringing incessantly on the coffee table in the living room.

"Hello? Oh, I'm Zhao Yang's father. What? An interview? From the Changcheng Evening News? Sorry, the child just got back and is very tired..." Father Zhao held the phone, dealing with it with a helpless expression.

Just as he hung up, not ten seconds later, the phone rang again.

"From the Education Channel? Oh, we really don't have time..."

Zhao Yang walked into the living room with his water cup and sat down on the sofa. He glanced out the window at the floor below; several vans printed with various media logos were already parked at the entrance of the residential area. A few reporters were even holding microphones and trying to get friendly with the security guards.

These local media outlets probably wouldn't give up so easily!

After all, it wasn't easy for Changcheng to produce a world-class genius like him. With such high popularity, these media outlets would definitely not be willing to give up just like that!

Zhao Yang pondered for a while.

This matter couldn't be avoided. If he didn't accept an interview, these reporters who lived off traffic would surely stake out the entrance of the complex every day, and might even harass his parents and relatives. During the Lunar New Year, no one wanted to be unable to even step out of their door.

He had to find an official media outlet that could command respect to finish the interview; things should be better afterward.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yang no longer hesitated.

"Dad, give me the phone."

Zhao Yang reached out for the phone.

Zhao Yang personally answered the next few calls. He directly rejected all municipal and county-level media and chose Jiangxi Satellite Television, which had the highest level, agreeing to an exclusive interview.

The next afternoon.

The interview team from Jiangxi Satellite Television arrived at Zhao Yang's home on time.

After some preparations and pleasantries, the interview officially began.

They first chatted about Zhao Yang's views on his hometown, and then about the topic of Zhao Yang being a genius.

The female reporter smiled and asked Zhao Yang.

"Student Zhao Yang, in the past year or so, you have successively achieved world-class breakthroughs in the fields of Mathematics, Computer Science, and even Chemistry. Many viewers are very curious, how do you allocate your time?"

"I don't allocate my time. Instead, I use all my time, except for eating and sleeping, to advance the problems I'm interested in. That's all."

Zhao Yang replied calmly.

"Then regarding Goldbachs Conjecture, which you are currently researching, can you briefly reveal the current difficulties to us?"

The female reporter followed up.

"The traditional Sieve Method has a parity obstacle and cannot distinguish the number of prime factors. I am currently trying to use high-dimensional manifold topology to bypass this. The difficulty lies in the convergence of error terms in high-dimensional space."

Zhao Yang answered truthfully.

The female reporter listened with a half-understanding and could only nod with a smile. These academic questions were not the focus today; the tasks assigned by her superiors were coming next.

As the interview deepened, the female reporter changed the subject.

"Student Zhao Yang, we all know that you recently published a paper on the new compound XH-01 in Nature. Currently, this drug is receiving extremely high attention both domestically and abroad, and is hailed as a miracle in the field of Biology."

The female reporter looked at Zhao Yang, leaning forward slightly, and threw out the question that clearly had the purpose of attracting investment.

"As an outstanding talent who came out of our Gan Province, may I ask if your Spark Biotechnology Company company has considered placing the industrial production base for this new drug in your hometown, Changcheng? Our local government very much hopes to drive the development of the hometown's pharmaceutical industry."

Hearing this question, Zhao Yang didn't even pause to think.

"Impossible."

He refused extremely directly, his tone flat, but leaving no room for negotiation.

The female reporter was stunned. She clearly hadn't expected Zhao Yang to refuse so bluntly, not even offering a polite 'I'll consider it'.

Zhao Yang looked at the camera and explained the reason: "This isn't a matter of sentiment; it's pure business logic. The industrial mass production of innovative drugs has extremely high requirements for the upstream and downstream fine chemical industry chain. It requires top-tier dust-free clean workshops, ultrapure water treatment equipment, and surrounding supporting reagent suppliers."

"Changcheng's current basic industrial conditions are far from reaching this standard. Forcing the construction of a factory here would only increase my various costs for no reason. Spark Biotechnology Company is a commercial company, and its purpose is profit."

The female reporter looked embarrassed and could only give a couple of dry laughs to try and ease the atmosphere.

But just as the atmosphere was getting a bit stiff.

Zhao Yang knew very well that if he didn't give any face at all, there would inevitably be complaints from the local authorities. There was no need to make things like that.

Zhao Yang changed his tone.

"However, while a pharmaceutical factory is not suitable here, later on, if the conditions are ripe, I will have another heavy-asset industry and might consider placing its main production base in Changcheng."

"Oh? May I ask what industry it is?"

The female reporter's eyes immediately lit up, and she followed up with a question.

Zhao Yang looked at the camera and spoke calmly.

"chips."

As soon as this word came out, not only the female reporter but even the cameraman carrying the machine nearby was stunned.

In early 2010, the domestic awareness of high-end chips was still very thin; that was a field completely dominated by Western giants. A young scholar who did mathematics and Chemistry suddenly said he wanted to make chips in his hometown?

The female reporter asked curiously: "You... you mean semiconductor chip manufacturing?"

"Yes."

Zhao Yang nodded.

"chip manufacturing, especially early wafer foundries, has a huge demand for ultrapure water, and the consumption of land area and basic electricity is an astronomical figure."

"Gan Province is located inland, with abundant water resources and low land costs. If the local government can provide sufficient preferential policies on industrial electricity prices, this place is actually very suitable as a future large-scale Silicon Wafer processing base."

Zhao Yang's words weren't just empty promises. In the future, to break the EUV Lithography Machine blockade, building a chip factory would be inevitable.

This kind of thing didn't necessarily have to be in a big city; putting it in his hometown of Changcheng was indeed a suitable place.

"Then we can really look forward to it!"

The reporter quickly reacted, gave Zhao Yang a sweet smile, and soon began to move on to another topic.

The exclusive interview soon ended.

That evening, this interview was broadcast on the Jiangxi Satellite Television News.

The content of Zhao Yang's interview directly triggered a small earthquake locally. The local government even held a meeting of relevant departments overnight to start studying the supporting facilities for the chip industry mentioned by Zhao Yang.