182: Is Chapter 182 and beyond far away?

After the black business car drove out of the gate of the Institute of Atomic Energy, it sped all the way to the northwest.

The scenery outside the window gradually transitioned from the bustling, noisy city to rolling, quiet mountains.

The road became narrower and narrower, and the buildings along the way changed from skyscrapers with glass curtain walls to low, solemn, and oppressive gray concrete structures.

Pine and cypress trees stood in rows, silent as iron.

The air was filled with a biting, "stay away" atmosphere.

The vehicle passed through several checkpoints one after another, each with armed sentries stepping forward to check identification, their eyes sweeping coldly inside the car.

Lin Yuan leaned back in the rear seat, one hand resting on the lower edge of the car window, his fingertips occasionally tapping unconsciously.

His gaze swept over the armed guards outside the window without lingering.

Although he had never been to this place, he was no stranger to this kind of atmosphere.

Ever since he first walked into Elder Long's office, he had become completely accustomed to this feeling that "even the air feels official."

It could even be said that he himself was now a part of this country's highest secrets.

The vehicle finally stopped in front of the side door of a gray building.

Qin Meng was the first to push open the car door, moving deftly to the back to open the door on Lin Yuan's side.

Lin Yuan bent down to exit, stood still, and unhurriedly adjusted his sleeves, his posture straight and tall.

Below the steps, a young officer was already waiting there.

The moment he saw Lin Yuan, the officer stepped forward, raised his hand in a salute, his movements crisp.

"Academician Lin."

His tone was extremely respectful, and in the eyes looking at Lin Yuan, there was even a hint of undisguised fanaticism and reverence.

"Elder Yang is already waiting for you in the office, please follow me."

Lin Yuan smiled and nodded, without any unnecessary pleasantries.

The young officer turned to lead the way, his pace restrained and steady, while Qin Meng followed silently behind Lin Yuan, maintaining a distance of half a step, neither too far nor too close.

The corridor grew deeper and deeper.

The overhead lights turned on section by section with the sensors, and dimmed one by one after they passed, stretching the shadows of the group, making them flicker long and short.

Lin Yuan's pace was always steady, his back straight, and his expression calm.

It was as if he wasn't coming to meet a big figure who sat in command at West Mountain, but just attending a routine meeting that had already been written into his schedule.

A few minutes later, the officer stopped in front of a gray metal door and knocked three times.

"Come in."

From inside the door came a low, short response.

Just one word, not loud or heavy, but carrying an authority that could fill the entire space without needing to raise the volume.

The officer pushed the door open and respectfully stepped aside to make way.

Lin Yuan stepped inside.

Behind him, the door was gently closed, a crisp "click" sound, and all sounds in the corridor were cleanly shut out.

The office was not very large.

The furnishings were simple and heavy, with documents stacked neatly on a dark solid wood table, a white porcelain teacup placed beside them, and a faint tea fragrance permeating the room.

Yang Tongan was sitting on a single sofa in the reception area.

His figure was still as thin as ever, his back straight, and his graying short hair was shaved very short, not a single strand out of place.

It had been almost three months since the last time they met in Elder Long's office.

But that biting atmosphere, which had been deliberately reined in, had not diminished by half.

Instead, because of the recent treacherous international situation, it seemed even deeper.

Lin Yuan stopped, nodded slightly, his tone steady and natural.

"Elder Yang."

Yang Tongan looked up at the sound.

His half-closed eyelids slowly lifted, his gaze lingered on Lin Yuan for a few seconds, sweeping from top to bottom unhurriedly.

Then, he nodded.

"Sit."

Lin Yuan sat down on the opposite sofa as instructed, his back straight, his posture calm.

Yang Tongan did not rush to speak.

He just looked at the young man in front of him unhurriedly.

After a while, he spoke slowly, his voice a bit hoarse.

"It's been a few months, and you really haven't been idle."

He stretched out a hand covered in calluses, his fingers counting one by one in mid-air.

"Photolithography Machine, Fifth-generation Communication, Artificial Intelligence, Room-temperature Superconductivity, Controlled Nuclear Fusion..."

With every word his finger pointed to, his voice sank a little.

"One after another, the whole world hasn't been able to sleep peacefully for the past few months because of you."

His tone was flat, without deliberate exaggeration or unnecessary embellishment.

But the weight of these words was clearly understood by Lin Yuan, who was sitting opposite him.

Who was Yang Tongan?

The "world not sleeping peacefully" he spoke of was by no means a general sentiment gathered from the news; it was solid intelligence compilation and security situation assessment.

A deep smile appeared on Lin Yuan's face.

He was certainly not unaware of how crazy things were outside in the past few months.

After the announcement of the Photolithography Machine results, global intelligence systems swarmed towards the Xia Kingdom one wave after another.

With the landing of Fifth-generation Communication, the technology blockade list The Other Side of the Ocean seemed to change three times a day.

After the news of Room-temperature Superconductivity and Controlled Nuclear Fusion was released one after another, the frequency of their emergency meetings in the middle of the night was probably more frequent than his own experiments.

And this excitement on the surface was just the tip of the iceberg.

In these few months, how many pairs of eyes had been fixed on him, how many hands had reached out from the shadows, and how many times had probes, infiltrations, and dirtier things been blocked by Yang Tongan's people...

Yang Tongan didn't mention these things, but Lin Yuan knew them all by heart.

The corners of his mouth curved slightly, he leaned forward slightly, and his tone was as relaxed as if he were chatting about daily life.

"Then my tossing and turning these past few months shouldn't have disappointed Elder Yang, right?"

Yang Tongan was visibly stunned for a moment when he heard this.

Immediately, he stretched out a finger and pointed it at Lin Yuan from afar, a smile finally appearing in his eyes.

"You kid."

These three words were snorted heavily from his nose, carrying an indescribable, complex meaning.

Subsequently, the lines at the corners of his eyes relaxed, turning into a rare smile.

"Forget it, let's not talk about that!"

He leaned back on the sofa, his originally tense shoulder line relaxed a bit, and his speaking speed slowed down by a beat.

"When I saw you at Zhenguo's place before, you said 'the good show has just begun' and also said 'it won't be too far away'."

"I thought at the time that for something with the scale of the south heaven gate, no matter how 'not far' it was, it would at least take a few years to start, right?"

"After all, you said it yourself that it's not on the same level as the Photolithography Machine."

At this point, Yang Tongan paused, couldn't help but shake his head repeatedly, as if he still couldn't believe it.

"And what happened? How many months have passed since then?"

"This speed of advancement..."

"It really is worthy of being an existence that defies common sense."

Defying common sense.

Yang Tongan said these four words lightly.

But Lin Yuan instantly decoded the true meaning behind this sentence in his mind.

He smiled, didn't delve into this topic, slightly adjusted his sitting posture, leaned forward half an inch, and naturally steered the rhythm of the conversation back on track.

"Elder Yang, you are exaggerating a bit."

"You know better than anyone what kind of strategic system the south heaven gate is."

"Although we are ready to start the south heaven gate project now, it is far from a comprehensive advancement."

As he spoke, he stretched out a slender index finger and drew a line in the air, neither lightly nor heavily.

"You have to eat one bite at a time, and walk one step at a time."

"Right now, it's just picking one item from this huge system and focusing on making a breakthrough at a single point."

Hearing this, Yang Tongan was silent for a second, then suddenly laughed in a low voice.

"You kid, playing humble with me here, right?"

"Since the first task of the south heaven gate project has already started..."

He stared at Lin Yuan with burning eyes, his voice suppressing endless anticipation.

"Then is the rest still far away?"