Chapter Summaries

The joint laboratories in Minqin successfully used Dripping Glue Technology to produce defect-free patterns and complete 10-nanometer memory chips, prompting Yangtze Memory to plan a semiconductor foundry venture. Chen Nanxian and his colleagues kept the breakthrough secret, sought Hai Lu Feng Company’s investment, and prepared to approach HiSilicon for cooperation.

• Ye Jin and the research teams inspected and cut the Dripping Glue Template, then tested it on silicon wafers and confirmed that the resulting patterns had no defects.
• The laboratories completed the remaining chipmaking processes, producing their first batch of memory chips half a month later.
• Chen Nanxian, Yang Shining, and Liu Xiukun examined the chips and found that their storage density had risen fivefold while power consumption, speed, and cost had improved.
• Chen Nanxian contacted Jiang Miao, who agreed that Hai Lu Feng Company would invest 20 billion as a financial investor without entering chip manufacturing.
• Chen Nanxian and his colleagues decided to conceal the breakthrough, quietly prepare a foundry venture, and discreetly invite HiSilicon to discuss cooperation.

After Spring Festival, Goryeo tourists visited Magic City to buy cheap food and clothing, and Huang Feng-shen showed his companions how to profit by reselling Seres goods at home. The group prepared to carry back a large haul, while the price gap between the countries continued to fuel such informal trade.

• Goryeo tourists entered Hai Lu Feng Company's Warehouse Supermarket, where a clerk guided them through the fruit section using translation equipment.
• Kim Dae-mun and the others were astonished by Seres's cheap durians and fruit, then ate their purchases in the second-floor rest area.
• Huang Feng-shen led the group to the third floor and showed Kim Seung-kai and Kim Li-na inexpensive artificial silk garments they could resell in South Goryeo.
• Huang Feng-shen explained how the group could split up clothing purchases, keep their total value within customs limits, and sell the garments through online channels at a profit.
• The group bought clothing and compressed vegetables and fruit to take home, while the chapter described how price differences and cheap flights encouraged similar trade across East Asia.

Christine inspected two secret research bases in the Amazon, where Dr. Ada and Dr. Duna were trying to engineer Wolbachia to infect vertebrates and induce parthenogenesis. After the researchers pointed her toward Hai Lu Feng Company's biotechnology, Christine began plotting to obtain it, unknowingly triggering a global internet alert that Jiang Miao noticed.

• Christine visited Dr. Ada's base, learned the Wolbachia project still could not infect vertebrates, and heard that Hai Lu Feng Company's technology might help it advance.
• Christine visited Dr. Duna's base, where Duna proposed recruiting a Hai Lu Feng Company researcher and using Nobel Prize invitations to draw Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya abroad.
• Christine left the rainforest and organized an investigation into Hai Lu Feng Company's researchers to find targets for recruitment and obtain the company's biotechnology.
• Christine's searches triggered a hidden Level One alert, and Jiang Miao noticed the activity at Hai Lu Feng Company's headquarters.

Jiang Miao decided that secretly monitoring forbidden biotechnology projects was more useful than directly attacking the organizations behind them, and he proposed a Crisis Response Office to prepare for technological disasters. He left Wu Jianmin tasked with organizing the new department while drafting several advanced biological defenses, including insect-repelling technology and a Biological Exoskeleton.

• Jiang Miao explained to Shu Ya that he was monitoring forbidden biotechnology projects and proposed a national system for managing biotechnology and preparing for crises.
• Jiang Miao presented Wu Jianmin and Ke Yong with his Crisis Response Office plan, appointed Wu to lead it, and assigned him responsibility for emergency plans, facility conversions, and staff training.
• Jiang Miao told Wu Jianmin that the department would receive a substantial budget and needed to prepare for biological threats from foreign research.
• After the meeting, Jiang Miao drafted concepts for insect-repelling technology, Plant-Human, a Nano Breathing Mask, a Hibernation Pod, and a Biological Exoskeleton.

Yang Qingtian presented Silicon Foam Brick as a cheap, lightweight material for rapidly building elevated water-conveyance bridges, prompting experts to reconsider their plans. Meanwhile, railway leaders backed adopting new materials to cut construction and operating costs, as the industrial revolution spread across China.

• Yang Qingtian introduced Silicon Foam Brick at a water-conveyance review meeting and demonstrated its strength, low density, and low cost.
• Yang Qingtian proposed using airships to install prefabricated foam bridge sections and carry desalinated water inland by gravity; Professor Lin, Professor Huang, and other experts began discussing the plan.
• Lei Wu convened China Railway Engineering Group executives, who supported using Silicon Foam materials to lower railway construction costs and sustain investment.
• China National Railway Group considered making lighter trains with Minqin Group materials and covering railway lines with solar panels to reduce operating costs and generate electricity.
• New materials began transforming industries across China, while Hai Lu Feng Company restricted foreign access to the technology, raw materials, and products.

A weakening North Atlantic Current triggered a severe cold snap and surging food prices, while Western media blamed Seres and grain companies exploited the panic. Seres’s agricultural leaders prepared to supply food to import-dependent regions through Hua yuan trade, and foreign procurement teams began heading to Shanghai.

• Pierre Jean examined data showing the North Atlantic Current weakening, while Dr. Kevin echoed a Fox TV host’s claims that Seres’s projects might worsen global climate.
• European and American media blamed Seres for the cold snap, and food companies restricted sales as panicked consumers emptied shelves and agricultural prices soared.
• Lu Weibin, He Jiakang, Wang Yafu, and other agricultural leaders reviewed Seres’s reserves and crops, then agreed to coordinate exports and promote Hua yuan settlements.
• He Jiakang reported that a Saudi trading company wanted to buy one million tons of milling wheat annually, and the group discussed selling grain in exchange for Hua yuan and energy resources.
• Ahmed, Omar, and Ali considered buying grain from Seres using Hua yuan, and Omar’s delegation boarded a flight to Shanghai as other import-dependent countries sent procurement teams.

Omar, Ali, and their interpreter Suman arrived in Modu to negotiate with COFCO and were astonished by the city’s airships and new infrastructure. While they waited for a meeting, they watched a firefighting airship extinguish a blaze in a high-rise.

• Omar asked Suman to take him and the others to their hotel after they arrived at Hongqiao Airport.
• Suman explained that Seres’s advanced technology and export restrictions had made Chinese interpreters highly sought after, while Minqin Group pursued protective measures for its desalination technology.
• Omar, Ali, and the others toured Modu and saw a Blue Whale engineering airship transporting equipment for the Hengsha Island project.
• Suman described plans for a lightweight enclosed bridge linking Hengsha Island and Pudong, along with proposals for future cross-sea bridges.
• A Modu Fire Department airship arrived above the group, sprayed water and carbon dioxide powder on a burning fifty-story building, and extinguished the fire in under twenty minutes.

Omar and his Egyptian delegation visited Hai Lu Feng Company’s Chongming Island farms, where they learned about degradable mulch and discussed Egypt’s dependence on grain imports. They left unaware that Hai Lu Feng Company had deliberately spread diseased Fairy Bean Soybean seeds abroad, while Seres prepared to expand crop production against future climate risks.

• Omar asked Suman to recommend an agricultural site, and the group traveled to Hai Lu Feng Company’s Chongming Island branch.
• Ali asked why workers were replacing intact plastic mulch, and Suman learned it was cheap, degradable Carbon Source Mulch made from inulin.
• Omar and his delegation discussed Egypt’s grain shortages and regretted that Seres would not export Fairy Bean Soybean seeds.
• Hai Lu Feng Company had secretly sold tampered Fairy Bean Soybean seeds abroad, spreading Root Rot Fungus and ruining foreign crops while disrupting seed smuggling.
• Jiang Miao had designed hidden genetic defects to thwart attempts to breed or engineer disease-resistant Fairy Bean Soybeans.
• Seres expanded cultivation of resilient crops to prepare for climate crises, while COFCO Group remained willing to trade grain with Egypt and other countries.

Omar and other grain buyers learned that COFCO Group was offering nutritious Fairy Bean flour as global grain shortages worsened. Egypt had also agreed with Seres to accept Huayuan for Suez Canal fees and pursue major water and development projects in the Qattara Depression, leaving Omar weighing the costs and benefits of the country’s new partnership.

• Omar met Habib, who told him Lucia had limited its wheat export quota to ten million tons because of severe cold and uncertain harvests.
• Habib introduced Omar and the other buyers to Whole Nutrition Bean Flour made from Fairy Bean Soybeans, priced for export at 3,100 Huayuan per ton.
• Habib urged Omar to increase Egypt’s Huayuan reserves as the currency strengthened and global confidence in the US dollar weakened.
• Ali told Omar that Egypt and Seres had agreed to accept Huayuan for Suez Canal transit fees at fifty Huayuan per ton of cargo.
• Ali revealed that Global Water Group would build a phased desalination plant supplying up to 50 billion cubic meters annually, while Egypt would use Huayuan for trade and canal fees and let the company manage the plant.
• Ali added that Egypt planned the El Alamein-Nahid Canal and two hydropower stations, with financing to come from loans and the sale of operating rights.

Omar negotiated a five-year grain supply agreement with Chinese agricultural groups as Seres’s new export deals sent international grain prices plunging. In response, the ABC grain giants discussed blocking Seres’s access to Western markets and intimidating Japan and South Goryeo, while the owner of Company B planned to send Catherine to Seres as president.

• Omar negotiated prices with Li Wenmo and agreed that COFCO Group and China Grain Reserves Group would supply Egypt with 8 million tons of grain annually for five years.
• Agricultural groups from Seres signed cooperation agreements with companies from eight countries, totaling 46.28 million tons of grain orders for the year.
• International wheat prices fell nearly 35% within hours after the agreements were announced.
• The ABC grain giants rejected a plan to buy up Seres’s grain, then agreed to use dumping accusations to keep Seres’s grain out of European and American markets and protect their position in Japan and South Goryeo.
• The owner of Company B ordered his associate to make certain people quiet down without making their deaths look like suicides.
• The owner of Company B decided to arrange for Catherine to go to Seres as president in a few days.

As Fairy Silk Soybean farms expanded around Hejiajing Town, Shi Tiansheng learned that the company would provide more water and housing for the growing workforce. Minqin Mining Company also began preparations for a nearby iron mine, leaving the farm and mining operation set to become neighbors.

• Fairy Bean Soybeans sprouted across the Tengger Desert as reclamation pushed farther into its interior.
• Manager Li told Shi Tiansheng that a pipeline would bring Hejiajing Town about three million cubic meters of water and that housing would be arranged for farm employees.
• Manager Li assigned five hundred workers to Fifth Farm and told Shi Tiansheng to coordinate housing with Minqin Mining Company for its roughly three hundred employees.
• Fei Hao and Ma Xinguo visited Shi Tiansheng to discuss housing for the Hejiajing Iron Mine, and Shi agreed to allocate land in the northwest district.
• Fei Hao explained that Minqin Mining Company would conduct protective mining at the iron deposit and use airships and leased infrastructure to build a model mining site.

Fei Hao and the mining-company executives watched Minqin Group use airships to install a residential complex with specially designed foundations and prefabricated buildings. The thirty-building complex was assembled in three days, with utility work remaining before it could be used.

• Fei Hao and mining-company representatives watched airships drive thirty steel foundations into the ground near Hejiajing Town.
• Airships transported an eleven-story building over a foundation, and crews used cranes, sensors, and positioning teams to lower and secure it.
• Qin Xing showed Fei Hao and the executives the building’s public facilities, apartments, and photovoltaic-film sky garden.
• Fei Hao explained purchase and rental prices, and the mining executives decided they were more interested in ordering basic-version buildings than buying premium units.
• Minqin Group completed installation of all thirty buildings in three days, leaving only water and power facilities to be installed.

A torrential rain flooded parts of Hejiajing Town and revived a seasonal lake, prompting Shi Tiansheng to call for a pause in farm construction near its historic boundaries. Meanwhile, Yangtze Memory completed a successful trial of its new Glue Injection Process, and Hua Fen Company prepared to take the communications chips back to headquarters.

• Shi Tiansheng had Hu Yudong increase emergency water storage as rain filled channels and reservoirs around Hejiajing Town.
• Shi Tiansheng inspected a newly formed lake, mapped Qingtu Lake’s historic boundaries, and planned to report that farm construction in the low-lying area should stop.
• Chen Nanxian oversaw installation of ten Glue Injection Machines and commissioning of five memory-chip lines and five logic-chip lines at Yangtze Memory.
• Yangtze Memory and HiSilicon Semiconductor assembled Glue Injection Templates to test a communications chip for Hua Fen Company.
• Li Bo delivered trial results showing the communications chips had about a ninety-percent yield and exceeded expected performance.
• Hua Fen Company’s executives took the chips and test report back to headquarters while agreeing to keep the trial confidential.

Jiang Miao visited Laboratory 109, where Li Hai Dong’s team had developed a pufferfish toxin variant with potent anesthetic effects and far lower toxicity than traditional TTX. He approved expanded animal trials and said he would help with approvals, then went to Hai Lu Feng Hospital to inspect clinical trial projects.

• Jiang Miao visited Laboratory 109 with Li Hai Dong and Huang Shao Bin and learned that the team was conducting animal trials of Mutant TTX.
• Li Hai Dong showed Jiang Miao Anesthetic Pufferfish No. 12 and explained how the team had discovered the toxin while researching non-toxic pufferfish.
• The researchers reported that Mutant TTX could anesthetize animals for about sixteen hours, with much lower toxic side effects than traditional pufferfish toxin.
• Li Hai Dong asked Jiang Miao to approve expanded animal trials and future human trials, and Jiang Miao agreed to handle the approval process.
• Jiang Miao asked the team to prepare a detailed report and then went to Hai Lu Feng Hospital to inspect medical clinical trials.

Jiang Miao reviewed Hai Lu Feng Hospital’s clinical trial results, including a gene-targeted gout treatment and a promising Alzheimer’s treatment, and ordered expanded trials for the latter. An urgent call cut the meeting short, and he left with his team for the high-speed rail station.

• He Youwei and Zhang Suqing briefed Jiang Miao on the hospital’s work, its nano-needle surgeries, and its clinical trials.
• Jiang Miao reviewed Anti-Gout Spirit’s results, side effects, and relapse cases linked to patients’ diets.
• Jiang Miao examined 124 Laboratory’s Alzheimer’s treatment, which restored brain function while sacrificing some recent memories, and ordered the clinical trials expanded.
• After receiving an urgent call, Jiang Miao ended the meeting and departed with Ke Yong, Li Zixuan, and the others for the high-speed rail station.

Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya learned that an ancient fungus released by Antarctic ice melt was devastating South American grain crops, threatening global food supplies. After studying the fungus and attending emergency meetings in Beijing, they helped shape a response as authorities began informing the public.

• He Jintang told Jiang Miao that the North Atlantic Current disruption had accelerated Antarctic melting and released an ancient fungus that was causing Leaf Blight across South America.
• Jiang Miao obtained genetic data from South American research databases and concluded that the He Huang Fungus was ancient and could threaten crops in the Gramineae family worldwide.
• Lin Shuya arrived in Beijing, and she and Jiang Miao discussed expanding non-Gramineae crops and breeding resistant varieties or developing fungicides.
• Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya attended eight internal meetings over three days and helped establish a preliminary response plan.
• Authorities began public education about the crisis, while Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya prepared to appear on programs to reassure the public amid food hoarding and panic abroad.

As Leaf Blight devastated crops abroad, Jiang Miao reassured the public that Fairy Beans could help protect the domestic food supply and promised to develop resistant crop varieties. He returned to Shanmei to lead research as people began adopting Fairy Bean 4, while international grain traders worried over rising prices.

• Tang Yaxing reported that Leaf Blight had spread across Argentina and driven staple food prices sharply upward, prompting Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya to reassure viewers about domestic food reserves and Fairy Bean 4.
• Reporter Li Xiaomei showed Fairy Bean 4 fields in Su County and reported that more than forty million mu had been planted in the Huai River Basin, with an expected harvest of roughly eighteen million tons.
• Jiang Miao promised that he could develop more Fairy Bean varieties and He Huang Fungus-resistant grain crops within a few years, helping calm panic buying.
• Jiang Miao and his wife returned to Shanmei, where they and more than fifty researchers began studying imported He Huang Fungus strains as other research teams investigated resistant crops and pesticides.
• Food bloggers demonstrated recipes made with Fairy Bean 4, while households and farmers began trying the beans as food and planting them as reserves.
• Omar and his Egyptian grain-trading colleagues returned to Magic City to confirm grain purchases and ask COFCO Group and other companies about future prices as international grain prices surged.

Hai Lu Feng Company responded to South American Leaf Blight by restricting wood sugarcane expansion and promoting new cassava varieties as alternative staple crops. The chapter ended with cassava cultivation spreading across southern regions as China reorganized agriculture and used grain exports to strengthen its global position.

• Hai Lu Feng Company found that He Huang Fungus infected wood sugarcane at a low rate, but heat and rain made Bordeaux Mixture unreliable, while Gui Province's wood sugarcane acreage exceeded 12 million mu.
• Hai Lu Feng's Gui Province branch restricted further wood sugarcane planting and developed Polylactic Acid Plastic using refined sugar as a raw material.
• Zhang Wentian promoted Rice Cassava, Wheat Cassava, and Flour Cassava to farmers, who signed planting agreements after hearing about the varieties' yields and uses.
• Hai Lu Feng Company expanded cassava promotion in Gui Province, Lingnan, Qiongzhou, Fu Province, and Dian Province to prepare for possible rice shortages caused by South American Leaf Blight.
• Qiongzhou and southern Dian Province began replacing old rubber plantations with wood sugarcane, cassava, and cocoa, while South China converted some rice paddies to cassava.
• China sold or supplied grain to foreign markets under restricted agreements as global grain supplies tightened and Seres companies expanded their international mining operations.

Minqin Group’s photovoltaic airships lowered temperatures in Yu City during a monitored Sunshade Plan trial, but researchers warned that widespread deployment could disrupt the climate. As global weather extremes intensified, authorities kept the project limited to Yu City and continued studying its effects.

• Fifteen Jellyfish Airship Type 3 craft shaded Yu City, and the city’s temperatures began falling.
• He Guangming’s team measured temperature drops across the core, secondary, and peripheral zones, with nighttime temperatures eventually falling below 30 degrees Celsius.
• After a week of tests, Li Anhua reviewed the data, noted cooling in the surrounding areas and the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, and advised against expanding the airships.
• Authorities kept the Sunshade Plan from public announcement and rejected other cities’ requests for large-scale deployments because of climate risks.
• As June arrived, new typhoon embryos formed near the Mariana Trench while super hurricanes, drought, heat, melting polar ice, and rising sea levels worsened worldwide.

Wan Gaofeng and Hou Xin showed Dr. Li Hao and other Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation researchers around Sky City, a stratospheric platform built above Minqin. After inspecting the facilities and discussing the risks of launching rockets from the platform, Li Hao agreed to report its capabilities truthfully, leaving the possibility of future cooperation open.

• Wan Gaofeng, Hou Xin, and Chai Letian took Dr. Li Hao and the visiting researchers up the high-altitude elevator to Sky City.
• Wan Gaofeng explained that Sky City was still in testing and was not ready to open to the public.
• Hou Xin showed the visitors the photovoltaic-covered platform and its high-altitude telescope, then pitched its surplus payload capacity for aerospace projects.
• Li Hao questioned how a rocket could be transported, fueled, and launched safely from a platform surrounded by hydrogen airships, and Hou Xin answered his concerns.
• Li Hao said he would report Sky City's circumstances truthfully, and he and Hou Xin shook hands on the prospect of continued cooperation.