Rebirth: Controlled Nuclear Fusion

Part 121：Congratulations, You Got It Right

Kyoto's Research Institute No. 3!

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Hahaha..."
In the chief engineer's office for chip research, Old Master Qiao was so excited that he paced back and forth, his arms flailing, unable to contain his joy. He was at a loss for how to express his inner excitement.
Meanwhile, Jiang Fan sat calmly on the office sofa, thoughtfully considering the allocation of personnel.
Early that morning, he had brought Xu Guangyuan, Xia Xiaoyu, and Niu Xu to Research Institute No. 3, entrusting them to Qiao Yifei to get acquainted with the environment. He, on the other hand, had taken the lithography machine technical blueprints he had worked tirelessly on the previous night to Old Master Qiao.
After reviewing the designs, Old Master Qiao had become utterly ecstatic, unable to control himself.
"7-nanometer lithography machine! Hahaha..."
"This is a 7-nanometer lithography machine, heh heh..."
Old Master Qiao kept muttering, his excitement bordering on madness. If an outsider had seen him, they might have thought he was losing his mind.
"A genius! Jiang Fan, you're truly a genius! Hahaha..."
"I was so wise to have brought you over from Long Lao's place, heh heh..."
Seeing the burning gaze Old Master Qiao was directing at him, Jiang Fan felt a bit uneasy and swiftly changed the subject.
"Uncle Qiao, this is just a design blueprint for the lithography machine. After all, we haven't succeeded in developing it yet."
"Right! Right, we haven't succeeded yet, hahaha..."
"However, Jiang Fan, with this detailed blueprint for the lithography machine, I believe it's only a matter of time before we can design it!"
"By the way, Jiang Fan, you're now in full charge of the lithography machine research division. Do you think you can finish the research within a month?"
Jiang Fan thought for a moment before responding, "The number of research personnel is not an issue, but it depends on the funding."
"How much funding do you estimate you'll need?" Old Master Qiao asked.
"About 500 million should be enough."
"Only 500 million? No problem. The government allocated 2 billion for chip research just a few days ago!" Old Master Qiao replied confidently.
"Then a month should be no problem," Jiang Fan said, though he had actually calculated the time carefully the night before and estimated that, with around 10 to 15 days of intense work, they could complete the task.
"Great! Hahaha..."
Old Master Qiao was now as happy as a child. The chip research institute had been established for seven years, and he had been responsible for the chip technology research for five years, yet there had been few significant breakthroughs.
Who could have imagined that Jiang Fan would directly develop the most advanced 7-nanometer lithography machine technology on Blue Star?
How could he not be thrilled?
He was burning with curiosity, wondering how Jiang Fan had come up with this. If Jiang Fan had told him he had glanced at the blueprint last night and created the lithography machine design today, Old Master Qiao would never have believed it!
"Jiang Fan, how exactly did you come up with the 7-nanometer lithography technology?"
Old Master Qiao couldn't resist his curiosity any longer and asked.
"Uncle Qiao, I had researched lithography machines before, but it wasn't successful. Last night, after talking with you, I suddenly had an inspiration!"
Jiang Fan quickly concocted a simple excuse. He couldn't very well tell him that he had a technological system in his mind!
If others found out about the system in his head, he would probably be taken for study himself!
"Really?"
"Yes."
Old Master Qiao was somewhat skeptical. Jiang Fan's explanation was hard to believe. After all, it was difficult to imagine that a conversation lasting just over an hour could lead to the development of 7-nanometer lithography technology.
The 100 research personnel at the chip research institute had been working for seven years with no major breakthroughs!
Old Master Qiao understood the difficulty of the task better than anyone. To hear Jiang Fan talk about it as if solving a simple math problem was almost absurd!
But Old Master Qiao decided not to dwell on how Jiang Fan had achieved it. The most important thing now was to make the lithography machine a reality!
"Jiang Fan, what are your next steps?"
"I've already listed the materials we need. It would be great if you could help purchase or customize them as soon as possible," Jiang Fan said.
"Materials are no problem. Leave it to me!" Old Master Qiao answered.
"As for personnel, I remember you said there are 75 researchers in the lithography machine division. With Xu Guangyuan, Xia Xiaoyu, and Niu Xu added, that makes 79 researchers. Since the lithography machine has 10 system components, I plan to divide the personnel into 10 groups..."
Jiang Fan quickly explained his plan for personnel allocation, and Old Master Qiao fully agreed.
Old Master Qiao then pulled out the original personnel grouping and, after discussing it with Jiang Fan, they made a new, revised plan.
Once they were done, Old Master Qiao suggested gathering all the lithography machine division's researchers in the conference room so that Jiang Fan could give them a briefing on the design blueprint for the lithography machine.
Conference Room of the Research Institute:
All the researchers from the lithography machine division had gathered.
Jiang Fan and Old Master Qiao had yet to arrive.
The researchers noticed three unfamiliar young faces sitting in the corner.
Whispers began to spread throughout the room.
"Who are these three?"
"What else could they be? By the looks of them, they're probably just interns who don't know anything."
"Really, Old Master Qiao, with our research schedule so tight, how could he have time to bring in these interns?"
"Yeah, training an intern takes up a lot of time and effort. Our group does 300 experiments a day. We can't even afford to take a break at noon. We can't afford to have them in our group, or it will definitely slow down our progress..."
Xia Xiaoyu and her two companions, sitting in the corner of the conference room, felt a bit uneasy. These were the top researchers of Long Country, carefully selected from among the best.
As for the three of them, still undergraduates, they couldn't help but feel a bit inferior when compared to these researchers.
A researcher sitting next to Xia Xiaoyu leaned over and asked,
"Little miss, which university are you from?"
Xia Xiaoyu, feeling awkward, replied, "Long Ke University, fourth-year, still haven't graduated."
"Ah, Long Ke University is not bad. Keep up the good work!" the researcher encouraged.
Then Xia Xiaoyu hesitantly asked, "Senior, which university did you graduate from?"
"Harvard, in the States, with a PhD," the researcher replied casually, a slight pride evident on his face.
Xia Xiaoyu, Xu Guangyuan, and Niu Xu looked at him with envy.
"You don't have to look at me with such admiration. There are plenty of master's and PhD holders here!"
At that moment, Old Master Qiao and Jiang Fan walked in.
Old Master Qiao stepped up to the front and addressed the room.
"Everyone, please quiet down. The reason I've gathered you here today is to share some good news with you!"
At the mention of good news, the room of researchers fell silent, all eagerly anticipating what was to come.
"Chief Engineer Qiao, have we finally developed the 17-nanometer lithography machine technology?"
A researcher jokingly asked, and many others chuckled along.
For them, there was nothing more exciting than a breakthrough in lithography machine technology.
However, achieving 17-nanometers in lithography was an immense challenge!
Old Master Qiao glanced at the researcher and smiled.
"Congratulations, you guessed it!"