Chapter 14: Director! Please Restart!

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Engineer Zhang Nong was utterly bewildered. He had no idea what Professor Li meant.

Su Dingping’s excellence was plain for all to see. Having taken on such a remarkable student, Zhang naturally knew it himself. Even if one took the most charitable view, Dingping’s abilities hardly warranted this kind of lavish praise in front of everyone.

After all, Professor Li was a renowned scholar and deputy director of the 335 Research Institute. Surely he could still tell what mattered more and what mattered less.

Zhang was talking about the castle gate, while Li was answering about someone’s hip bone. What on earth did the two have to do with each other?

He looked at Professor Li, his eyes filled with confusion.

Professor Li continued.

“Old Zhang, why don’t you think about it? At an occasion this important, why wasn’t Dingping sent to the lounge to recite the confidentiality regulations with your other students? Why was he here with the rest of us instead?”

Zhang Nong suddenly understood.

That was right. Why was Dingping here?

Professor Huang could no longer stand it. “Professor Li, stop keeping us in suspense!”

“These...” Professor Li pointed at the 956E model and the design blueprints filling the room, smiling broadly. “These were all developed by Dingping!”

As he spoke, he winked at Zhang Nong, as if saying: Now do you understand why I would rather go back and burn down your laboratory than leave without bringing you here?

“What? What did you say?”

Zhang Nong’s voice rose several decibels.

“Professor Li is telling the truth,” Colonel Zhang added.

“Dingping? These? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

Zhang Nong’s eyes widened. His gaze darted repeatedly between Su Dingping and the models and blueprints around them, before he firmly shook his head.

Professor Huang spoke as well.

“Professor Zhang, I know you can’t accept this all at once. Professor Li, Colonel Zhang, and I were exactly the same when we first heard it! But over the past hour or so, we’ve gone through the materials in broad strokes. These really were created by Dingping!”

“This is his graduation project!”

Even Professor Huang had stepped forward to vouch for it. Zhang Nong was completely dumbfounded.

His mouth hung wide open, as if he could swallow a goose egg. He stared at Su Dingping in astonishment.

“Dingping, you really made all of this?”

Su Dingping nodded somewhat awkwardly.

At any other time, he would have admitted it openly and without hesitation.

But now that the three examiners had raised expectations so high, he found himself feeling a little embarrassed.

Zhang Nong drew in a sharp breath and rubbed his temple with one hand.

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With all three examiners collectively vouching for it, there was no possibility of fraud. And Su Dingping himself had admitted it. For one brief moment, Zhang Nong felt as though his brain were about to overheat and burn out.

“Wait a moment... Let me process this!”

Not long ago, his heart had been utterly dead. He had been waiting for the 956E development project to restart, though no one knew when that might happen.

The despair and helplessness he had felt then were still vivid in his mind.

Who could have imagined that, after returning just once, he would receive such an enormous surprise?

In the span of a little over an hour, he had fallen from heaven into hell, only to rocket straight back to heaven from the depths of hell.

That alone would have been enough.

But the most important thing was that this surprise had been brought about by the student he had always believed in!

So many military-industry experts had worked on the project for seven months, only to see it end in suspension.

Yet his own student had...

Now the 956E development project could be restarted!

And there would be no need to hand over 1.8 billion dollars to the Bear Country!

“Professor Zhang, Dingping is an exceptional young man!” Professor Huang said enviously. “If only he were my student. Professor Zhang, if you’re too busy and don’t have the time...”

Before he could finish, Professor Li hurried over and nudged Zhang Nong with his elbow.

He said aloud, “I’m not busy at all. Not even a little, right, Old Zhang?” But his eyes clearly said: At a time like this, someone else is about to steal your student, and you’re still standing around acting coy?

Finally coming to his senses, Zhang Nong slapped Su Dingping on the shoulder.

“Good! Well done, Dingping! I never imagined that, at nearly fifty, I, Zhang Nong, would take in a genius!”

“Heaven truly hasn’t treated me unfairly!”

Looking at Su Dingping, he felt that every grievance he had suffered was worth it. After the succession of crushing sorrow and overwhelming joy, his nose suddenly stung, and his eyes reddened despite himself.

A moment later, he said with a laugh, “Dinner is on me tonight. No one is leaving!”

“Dingping, come on, tell me how you came up with this idea! I remember that the materials I gave you at the time contained only data on decommissioned warships. Not to mention the 956E—even the parameters of active warships are classified.”

Professor Li and the others knew the whole story, but they said nothing.

“Some time ago, you showed us photographs of the 956E. Later, I worked backward to deduce the Bear Country’s warship technology, then projected how those technologies might evolve in the future. Because the deadline was so tight, it’s still only at the modeling stage...”

Su Dingping repeated what he had previously told Professor Li and the others.

After hearing him out, Zhang Nong wore an expression of utter disbelief.

“By the most generous calculation, it took you only five months! We worked on the project for five months, and the result was...”

He had only reached that point when Professor Li interrupted him.

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“Old Zhang, why are you comparing yourself with Dingping? Have you forgotten that old saying from the mathematical world?”

“What saying?”

“A group of mathematicians may spend their entire lives working on something that Gauss can solve in a single afternoon!”

At those words, Zhang Nong immediately stopped agonizing over it.

Now that the matter had been clarified and there was hope of restarting the project, one major task still remained.

Zhang Nong hurriedly said, “You go ahead. I’ll call Director Sun!”

“Go ahead. I still have plenty of questions to discuss with Dingping!”

As he spoke, Professor Li led Su Dingping over to the 956E model and began examining its structural components.

Taking out his phone, Zhang Nong immediately called Director Sun.

“Director, are you busy?”

“Comrade Zhang, I know you’re upset, but there’s nothing I can do about this either.”

“Director, come over at once! This is of the utmost importance and involves state secrets. It isn’t convenient to discuss it over the phone! And tell the commander not to rush into handing over the 1.8 billion dollars!”

“What?”

“Director, don’t ask questions. Just come here! That’s all. Professor Li, Professor Huang, and Colonel Zhang are all here, waiting for you!”

With that, Zhang Nong hung up and joined Professor Li’s group.

Meanwhile, at the 335 Research Institute, Director Sun was entertaining several experts from the Bear Country, including Turgenev.

“Director Sun, is something urgent happening? We’ve seen everything we needed to see, so we won’t impose any longer,” Turgenev said tactfully, rising to take his leave. “We look forward to a pleasant cooperation between our two sides.”

“I’ll have someone take you around Harbin.”

After making all the necessary arrangements, Director Sun set off for Harbin Institute of Technology, his heart filled with confusion.

More than half an hour later, a knock sounded at the door, and Colonel Zhang opened it.

“Colonel Zhang.”

“Director Sun, Professor Zhang and Professor Li are busy at the moment.”

As he spoke, Colonel Zhang stepped aside.

Peering inside, Director Sun saw Zhang Nong and the others gathered around a gigantic model, arguing loudly about something.

The moment Zhang Nong saw him, he hurried over.

“Director, what happened? Did you speak with the commander? Did you manage to stop the 1.8 billion dollars from being paid?”

“Comrade Zhang, what on earth are you talking about?”

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