100: Chapter 100 A Meaningful Smile

Lin Yuan's words landed in the quiet office, carrying a certainty that was impossible to ignore.

It was not a question, nor a projection, but a statement of something nearly self-evident.

Elder Zhang's fingers tapped lightly on the edge of the tea table, causing tiny ripples in the tea within his porcelain cup.

He did not immediately offer praise, but instead swept his gaze over Lin Yuan three times.

At barely twenty years old, it was an age that should have been characterized by restlessness and arrogance.

Yet, this young man sat there with his back straight, his posture relaxed but not sloppy, and in the depths of his eyes, there was not a trace of superficiality.

When he spoke those words, he didn't even raise his voice by a single decibel.

This was not blind arrogance; it was as if he were stating an objective fact that was already set in stone.

Elder Zhang suddenly laughed.

The laughter resonated from deep within his chest, exuding immense gratification, and even the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothed out.

"It seems you have great confidence in yourself."

Elder Zhang spoke, his words devoid of any condescending scrutiny, instead revealing the intense gratification and undisguised admiration of an elder looking at a junior.

"But then again, that makes sense."

Elder Zhang leaned back into the sofa, his hands clasped over his knees.

"Back at the press conference, you declared that you would build a Photolithography Machine within six months."

"At that time, how many people around the world thought you were daydreaming, sitting back with their legs crossed, waiting to see Xia Country make a fool of itself."

He held up two fingers and shook them emphatically at Lin Yuan.

"And what was the result?"

"Two months."

"The path that others spent decades and invested trillions to traverse, you flattened completely in two months."

Elder Zhang slowed his speech, every word carrying an irresistible weight.

"Based on this alone, you certainly have the qualifications to possess such confidence."

Lin Yuan listened to Elder Zhang's high praise but did not take the opportunity to boast.

He leaned forward slightly, his hands resting naturally on his knees, his posture remaining humble and gentle, making people feel as if they were bathed in a spring breeze.

"Elder Zhang, you are too kind."

"The Photolithography Machine could be implemented so quickly naturally because of the country's full support and the desperate efforts of all the seniors in the special task force."

"Without any single link in the chain, it would have been impossible to achieve today's results."

These words were flawless, humble, and appropriate.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Ping, who had been sitting on the side without saying much, couldn't help but shake his head and laugh out loud.

"Lin Yuan, oh Lin Yuan, you are being far too humble!"

Zhou Ping rubbed his hands together vigorously, leaned forward slightly, and stared at him with burning eyes.

"Let's speak plainly; without your complete set of technical data and your incisive guidance, how could the progress have been this fast?"

He paused for a beat, gestured vaguely toward the outside, his tone full of admiration.

"I'm not trying to flatter you here; just take the events of the last two days."

"Take just the remote guidance you provided for the material production line modification."

In Zhou Ping's mind, he couldn't help but visualize the group of white-haired masters of materials science, scratching their ears and cheeks in frustration while pulling their hair out over the technical documents.

"My old experts in the materials group had been chewing on that process plan for nearly a month, but the progress was lukewarm."

"And what happened? With just a few days of your remote guidance, without even visiting the site, you pierced through all the bottlenecks they had accumulated over the past month in one go just by looking at a screen!"

"The progress brought about by your guidance in these two days alone is worth a month or two of them struggling on their own."

Zhou Ping's tone was filled with irrepressible sighs and shock.

Elder Zhang listened to Zhou Ping's words without interrupting.

But there was something more in the way he looked at Lin Yuan.

A moment later, Elder Zhang picked up his tea cup, took a slow sip, and set it down.

His posture relaxed, he leaned back against the sofa, bringing the topic back to the main point of today's meeting.

"Lin Yuan."

Elder Zhang's tone became much more casual, carrying a hint of idle conversation and discussion.

"For the two major projects, Fifth-Generation Communication Technology and Brain-like Machine Intelligence, the special task force framework has now been built, and the nation's top talent and resources have basically been mobilized."

"As for the next step, from basic theory to engineering implementation, we old folks have no idea how big the hurdle is."

He crossed his hands over his stomach, lifted his chin slightly, and locked his gaze onto Lin Yuan's eyes.

"I want to hear your thoughts."

"According to your estimation, not counting the subsequent large-scale industrialization, just to take these two epoch-making technologies from theory on paper and turn them into verifiable, reproducible, staged physical results..."

"About how long will it take?"

As soon as this question was thrown out.

The air in the entire office seemed to thicken.

Chen Jingshan and Zhou Ping also fell silent, staring at Lin Yuan in unison.

They were also very curious: faced with this question, what kind of timeline would this young man, who had repeatedly created miracles, give?

Five years? Three years? Or one year?

Lin Yuan sat on the sofa, his posture relaxed.

Facing the gaze of the three big shots, he didn't hesitate in the slightest, nor did he even need any extra time to think.

He simply smiled slightly, his thin lips parting slightly.

"Estimated at six months."

Five words, light and steady.

Yet it hit the hearts of everyone present like a bombshell!

"Hiss—"

Zhou Ping gasped, his eyes wide open.

Chen Jingshan's hand holding the tea cup shook violently, and the warm tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he seemed completely unaware.

Even Elder Zhang, who was usually unflappable even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, had his pupils contract violently.

Six months?!

Another six months?!

At the same time, the very next moment after Lin Yuan's voice fell.

Deep in his consciousness, that familiar system light screen suddenly lit up.

A series of light blue data streams flashed rapidly across his mind.

[lie-to-truth system activated]

[Locking current lie... Lock successful!]

[Lie content: Implement Fifth-Generation Communication Technology and Brain-like Machine Intelligence technology within six months.]

[Lie level judgment: Level 3 (Involves dual-line engineering implementation of two major epoch-making frontier fields, with a clear time limit set)]

Still Level 3.

Looking at the judgment on the panel, Lin Yuan's heart stirred slightly, and a subtle interest flashed in the depths of his eyes.

He didn't expect that throwing out both technologies at the same time would still result in Level 3.

It seems the system's threshold for judging "lie level" is even higher than he imagined.

[Note: Given that this lie contains a clear time constraint (six months), the system has initiated a mandatory countdown mechanism—]

[The host must increase confidence to 100% within five months. If the target is not met by then, this lie will be declared a failure, and the locked lie progress will be cleared!]

[Current confidence: 0%]

[Please work hard, host, to make more people believe your lie!]

The system's warning message was simple and straightforward as always, and Lin Yuan just glanced over it.

Immediately after, he saw the confidence progress bar in his mind quickly begin to jump.

[Current confidence: 0.1%... 0.4%... 0.8%...]

Although it was jumping extremely slowly, creeping upward bit by bit.

But this meant that these highly influential big shots before him had already developed an irrepressible trust in this timeline deep in their hearts.

At the same time, Chen Jingshan was the first to react to this terrifying "six-month timeline."

He didn't even bother to wipe the tea off the back of his hand, suppressed his wildly beating heart, and spoke with a forced, relaxed tone, smiling as he probed.

"Lin Yuan, you're saying six months again..."

"You kid, you wouldn't be doing the same thing as before with the Photolithography Machine, saying six months on the surface but secretly getting it all done in two months, right?"

His tone was light, but deep in his eyes was an indescribable expectation for the young man in front of him.

Meeting the complex and expectant gazes of the three big shots, Lin Yuan picked up his tea cup with extreme composure and gently blew on the hot steam.

He did not deny it, nor did he nod in affirmation.

He simply left behind a meaningful smile amidst the swirling mist of the tea.