28: Chapter 28 Is this even human?!

So this is Lin Yuan?

This thought flashed through the minds of all the leading authorities present at the same time.

Most of them had previously only seen that young face compressed into a one-inch ID photo frame on the internal website of the Xia Academy of Sciences.

Now, the person himself was standing right in front of them.

He was tall and slender, with shoulders and back as straight as a pine tree.

He wore a simple white shirt, buttoned to the very top, with the cuffs rolled up slightly, revealing clean and sharp forearm lines.

His face was well-defined, his skin very fair, completely devoid of the haggardness and fatigue one would expect from someone who had spent a long time immersed in a laboratory.

He walked steadily, chin slightly tucked, his eyes meeting the dozens of scrutinizing, probing, and even questioning gazes in the conference room with calm composure, without the slightest hint of evasion.

This aura was completely inconsistent with his age.

But that was all there was to it.

In the scientific research circle, there is an unwritten consensus—

A person who truly dedicates their life to the laboratory will inevitably bear "medals" on their body.

Those are receding hairlines, deep dark circles under the eyes, collars that are forever wrinkled, and the meticulous rigidity developed from years of living with data and instruments.

But Lin Yuan, standing before them, was too "polished."

So polished that he looked like a celebrity who had walked onto the wrong set.

Scientific research relies on brains, not faces.

Silent doubt quickly took root in the hearts of these giants of the scientific world.

Of course, no one sitting in this conference room was a fool.

They suppressed the thoughts in their hearts and kept their mouths shut.

Technology is the only truth.

Whether it's a mule or a horse, you'll know once you take it out for a walk.

Facing the scrutiny from the room full of people, Lin Yuan wore a smile, his steps unhurried, not a hint of awkwardness to be found anywhere on him.

This composure actually made a few sharp-eyed old guys raise their eyebrows slightly.

Wei Jiancheng scanned the seating layout of the conference room and quickly locked onto the area belonging to the Third Research Institute.

He turned his head, pursed his lips at Lin Yuan, and pointed in a direction.

"Our institute's seats are over there; go sit with Old Zhou and the others."

After saying this, he strode towards the seat in the front row where his nameplate was placed.

Deputy Director Zhou Guoping was a steady man in his early fifties; he smiled gently at Lin Yuan, greeted him in a low voice, and led the group from the Third Research Institute toward the reserved area on the right side of the conference table.

Lin Yuan followed in the middle of the group and sat down unhurriedly.

The entire Third Research Institute team was waiting quietly for the meeting to start, forming a sharp contrast with the faint buzzing sound all around.

Lin Yuan's gaze swept across the room without any change in expression.

On the other side of the circular conference table were the people from the Institute of Precision Instruments.

Leading them was an elderly man with graying hair and gold-rimmed glasses, sitting upright, with an old-fashioned leather briefcase placed beside his hand.

A middle-aged key member beside him let his gaze drift inadvertently over the top of his document, pausing on Lin Yuan for a moment before quickly retracting it, as if it were just an unintentional glance.

Further away was the team from the Automation Control Institute.

A lean middle-aged man had his arms crossed on the table, his head tilted slightly, whispering into the ear of the person next to him.

The whispering that permeated the venue, though deliberately suppressed, converged to form a background noise representing a certain emotion.

Lin Yuan took all of this in, his face calm and unruffled.

He knew that any one of these people, if taken out, would be a pillar of the industry capable of making the relevant domestic sectors tremble with just a stomp of their foot.

And today, they would formally meet him here for the first time.

And for the first time, they would face the "storm" he brought.

Thinking of this, a surge of secret excitement welled up in Lin Yuan's heart, which he immediately suppressed.

Nine o'clock sharp.

The heavy double wooden doors of the conference room were pushed open again.

The buzzing background noise that existed a moment ago fell completely silent within three seconds.

Chen Jingshan walked in.

He was wearing a dark jacket, his gait steady.

He was followed by several vice presidents and staff from the Academy office, who filed in and took their respective places.

Chen Jingshan walked straight to the chairman's seat at the very front of the conference table, not rushing to sit down, but standing there first, scanning the entire conference room.

From left to right, from the front row to the back row.

His gaze swept across every seat, lingering for an extra beat on the area of the Third Research Institute.

Then, he sat down.

"Everyone is here."

Chen Jingshan's voice was not loud, but through the amplification system, it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"Then let's not waste everyone's time and start directly."

He didn't make any unnecessary preamble and went straight to the point.

"Today's meeting is the first plenary meeting of the 'Lithography Core Technology Breakthrough Task Force'."

"Inviting everyone here from your respective research institutes has only one purpose, and that is—"

Chen Jingshan's palm pressed lightly on the unopened folder.

"Photolithography Machine."

Just these three words made the atmosphere in the entire conference room suddenly become a bit heavier.

Every person present had turned their hair white and exhausted their life's efforts for these three words.

"I don't need to explain to everyone present what a Photolithography Machine means to the chip industry."

"Without an autonomous and controllable Photolithography Machine, our chip industry is just a castle in the air built on someone else's foundation. Whenever they want to pull out the foundation, we won't even have room to fight back."

"You know better than I do how much manpower and resources we have invested in this field over the past few years."

"And what was the result? The gap in core technology not only didn't shrink, but instead got wider and wider."

Chen Jingshan scanned the crowd, his tone flat but powerful.

"However, I am not here today to settle old scores with you all."

"I don't intend to feed you chicken soup, nor do I intend to shout slogans with you."

"I just want to tell you that the establishment of this task force is different from any previous breakthrough effort."

Chen Jingshan extended a finger and tapped on the table.

"Where is it different?"

"It is different because—we have seen true dawn for the first time."

Once this sentence was spoken, the atmosphere in the conference room changed abruptly.

Dawn?

The weight of these two words coming from Chen Jingshan's mouth was not ordinary.

Everyone present knew this director's working style—he didn't make empty promises or draw big pies.

Since he said he saw dawn, then he really saw it.

Chen Jingshan didn't keep them in suspense; he directly opened the folder and took out a document.

"Just a few days ago, I received a theoretical verification report from the Third Research Institute."

"The content is about a brand-new light source technology for a Photolithography Machine."

At this point, he paused for a beat.

"This theory has already undergone comprehensive verification."

"The conclusion is—the theoretical model is completely valid and possesses the conditions for engineering transformation."

A subtle commotion sounded in the conference room.

"Not only that."

Chen Jingshan's voice sounded again, suppressing the ripples that had just arisen.

"The researcher who proposed this theory has not only made a major breakthrough in the light source system."

His gaze swept toward the direction of the Third Research Institute.

This glance was extremely brief.

But everyone present caught it.

Dozens of gazes followed reflexively, landing on the area of the Third Research Institute.

Then, those gazes found the same person unanimously.

Lin Yuan.

"On the other two core components of the Photolithography Machine—the objective lens system and the dual-stage system."

"He also has in-depth theoretical research results."

The second after this sentence landed, the subtle commotion in the conference room stopped completely.

Research on all three major components?

One person?

The middle-aged researcher who was muttering privately just now, "Does he have that ability?", now had an expression on his face that could no longer be described as complex.

If Chen Jingshan's statement is true...

Then is this even human?

Then what do they, who have been rooted in their respective fields for half a lifetime, count for?

But thinking about it again, they had to admit—

If this were not a fact, Chen Jingshan would never have said it publicly on such an occasion.

The director's mouth is the face of the Xia Academy of Sciences.

Words released at a meeting of this level must be held accountable for every single one.

Just when everyone hadn't yet recovered from the shock, Chen Jingshan's voice sounded again.

"It is precisely because of this that the country attaches such high importance to it, and that is why this task force exists!"

"Therefore, for today's meeting—"

"I would like to first invite someone to give a brief introductory report to all the comrades present."

His arm raised, fingers slightly spread, pointing steadily at that young figure sitting quietly from beginning to end in the area of the Third Research Institute.

"Comrade Lin Yuan."

"Welcome."