Chapter Summaries

The research institute’s director announced its 7nm lithography achievements and outlined plans for 3nm-class chips, new chip architectures, and operating systems, prompting major companies to prepare for cooperation. Jiang Yan Hai planned to release Er Dan’s expanded subprogram while keeping its hidden global reach and destructive potential secret.

• The research institute’s external affairs director told company heads that its 7nm lithography machines could be manufactured domestically and would outlast comparable ASML machines.
• The company heads agreed to place substantial orders after hearing about the institute’s production capacity and component manufacturing plans.
• The director announced that Huawei could begin designing 3nm-class chips, a new chip architecture was in development, and a related institute would launch new operating systems.
• The company heads reacted with shock as they considered the implications of 3nm chip design and emerging materials such as Graphene.
• Jiang Yan Hai prepared to have Er Dan release an expanded subprogram that would not replicate or spread, while keeping its concealed presence in devices worldwide and its potential impact secret.

The subprogram’s phone operating system was intended to improve intelligent analysis, efficiency, privacy protection, and compatibility while giving China independence from foreign systems and making voice assistants more capable. Jiang Yan Hai explained the broader uses of the Illusion Simulation Program to the commanders, then returned to the research institute as more special operation accounts gained access.

• The subprogram’s phone operating system was described as a way to block eavesdropping, protect privacy, improve voice assistants, and free China from reliance on foreign operating systems.
• Jiang Yan Hai told the commanders that he planned to keep developing the program and could use it to simulate chips, lithography machines, nuclear reactors, weapons, and launch vehicles.
• The Old Commander offered Jiang Yan Hai any support he needed and ordered Hound and the others to remain with him and strengthen his security.
• Jiang Yan Hai and Li Ruo Bai returned to the research institute, where Jiang Yan Hai continued improving the program without being monitored.
• Thirty-three more special operation accounts connected to the Illusion Simulation Program that night.

Jiang Yan Hai learned that the Illusion Simulation Program had accelerated major advances in lithography and chip design, including new chips for civilian electronics and military equipment. Li Ruo Bai said domestic phones could use the new conventional chip within half a year, while advanced chips were also enabling missile optical targeting.

• Li Ruo Bai told Jiang Yan Hai that the 3nm lithography machine could be completed in twenty-seven days and three hours, and that her institute had designed three new chip architectures.
• Li Ruo Bai said the Illusion Simulation Program had saved her team at least three years and over eight billion dollars in research and development costs.
• Li Ruo Bai explained that one new chip would be announced for conventional electronics and could outperform comparable Qualcomm products by around fifteen percent; domestic phones could adopt it within half a year.
• Li Ruo Bai said two other chips, made with new materials for weapons and satellites, performed seven to ten times better than previous electromagnetic-interference-resistant chips.
• Li Ruo Bai told Jiang Yan Hai that missiles using the new chips might gain Optical Capture Technology to identify and home in on targets, and she predicted a Weibo trending topic the next day.

Jiang Yan Hai watched China’s announcement that it had manufactured 7nm and 3nm lithography machines ignite public excitement and a technology-industry rally. In the Netherlands, ASML president Du Mu learned that Chinese companies had suspended negotiations and called for an emergency board meeting while ordering Zhang Lun to verify the breakthrough and resume talks.

• CCTV and other official media announced that China had completed 7nm and 3nm lithography machines, prompting widespread disbelief and excitement online.
• Huawei announced plans to design next-generation CPUs using 3nm architecture, while domestic chip foundries said they would expand production capacity.
• TSMC and Samsung shares fell after the announcement, and investors anticipated trouble for ASML when its market opened.
• Zhang Lun woke Du Mu with the news and told him that Chinese companies had indefinitely suspended negotiations with ASML.
• Du Mu ordered an emergency board meeting and told Zhang Lun to investigate whether China’s breakthrough was real and accelerate negotiations with Chinese companies.

Du Mu and the chairmen of Qualcomm and Intel weighed the threat China’s new lithography machines posed to their companies as ASML and chip-related stocks fell. Jiang Yan Hai was assigned to introduce the secure Nuwa System to Chinese mobile phone companies.

• Du Mu gathered the implications of China’s lithography breakthrough to discuss at a board meeting.
• Paul Clay and Omar Ishrak recognized that Chinese chip production could threaten Qualcomm’s and Intel’s markets.
• ASML shares fell fifteen percent after the European and American markets opened, followed by Qualcomm, Intel, and other chip-related companies.
• Jiang Yan Hai received a mission to introduce the Nuwa System to companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi.
• Jiang Yan Hai learned that the Nuwa System’s security and capabilities made it vital to China’s information security.

Jiang Yan Hai entered a meeting with representatives from major Chinese phone companies to discuss the Nuwa System and the importance of ordinary users’ information security. The companies were stunned when Jiang Ling was introduced as a dual academy academician and one of the system’s creators, and the chapter ended with them learning of her extraordinary achievements.

• Jiang Yan Hai explained how ordinary people’s phones could be exploited to monitor important figures, spread rumors, and gather classified information.
• Jiang Yan Hai entered a conference hall where representatives of major Chinese and overseas-focused phone companies had gathered to hear about the Nuwa System.
• The host introduced Jiang Ling as a dual academy academician, a recipient of the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, and one of the Nuwa System’s creators.
• A company head recalled that Jiang Ling had won the award as chief engineer of the Phantom Fighter Jet and chief designer of the Phantom engines.
• The phone company representatives were astonished by Jiang Ling’s youth and her accomplishments in fighter jets and operating-system architecture.

Jiang Yan Hai introduced the Nuwa operating system and proposed forming a mobile phone alliance, then demonstrated Nuwa’s abilities to the industry leaders. Nuwa argued that companies that rejected it would lose the future, and began explaining why AI assistance was inevitable.

• Jiang Yan Hai told the gathered industry leaders that the meeting aimed to establish a mobile phone alliance and introduce the Nuwa operating system.
• Jiang Yan Hai clarified that the systems on display were ordinary versions intended for future users, then called on Nuwa to speak.
• Nuwa declared that the leaders would lose the future if they rejected her after seeing her capabilities.
• CEO Lei asked Nuwa to explain her claim, and Nuwa described AI assistance as an inevitable response to increasingly complex devices.
• Nuwa explained that she was pseudo-artificial intelligence based on logical algorithms, while the leaders marveled at her precise Chinese sentence segmentation.

Jiang Yan Hai introduced the Nuwa System to phone-company CEOs, highlighting its intelligence, stability, architecture, app compatibility, and domestic supply chain. He left the attendees excited about the system’s potential and its emergency-response features.

• CEO Lei asked whether Nuwa could work just as well offline on an ordinary phone, and Nuwa said she could only promise to do her best.
• Jiang Yan Hai said the Nuwa System used the same core as military systems and separated its core from external components to combine openness with stability.
• Jiang Yan Hai said the system could run Android and iOS programs and help manufacturers build an ecosystem, while domestic firms could supply key components themselves.
• The attendees applauded enthusiastically as Jiang Yan Hai described how the system could improve manufacturers’ negotiating position.
• Jiang Yan Hai explained that Nuwa could contact emergency services or the police and notify a phone manufacturer’s customer service center when a user faced danger.

Jiang Yan Hai demonstrated Nuwa System’s security, voice controls, and compatibility to phone-company executives, then proposed using it to build a domestic operating-system alliance. The executives agreed to join and supported a sustainable licensing fee, leaving the alliance poised to develop Nuwa across phones and personal computers.

• Jiang Yan Hai explained Nuwa’s voiceprint security, custom assistant names, and ability to lock phone data using a spoken key phrase.
• Jiang Yan Hai showed that Nuwa could automatically advance his presentation by interpreting his speech, and said it could run on modestly priced phones and personal computers.
• Jiang Yan Hai claimed Nuwa’s PC version surpassed Windows in security and performance while supporting existing software, games, and file formats.
• Jiang Yan Hai described expanding Nuwa from phones to tablets and laptops to establish a domestic operating system in the personal computer market.
• Jiang Yan Hai set Nuwa’s licensing fee at one yuan per device, while Huawei’s president and other company heads offered to pay more to support the system’s continued development.

Jiang Yan Hai introduced premium apps designed to make the alliance’s app store and mobile operating system more competitive. He demonstrated Nuwa and an advanced camera app, leaving the phone executives impressed by the camera’s capabilities.

• Jiang Yan Hai negotiated a one-yuan-per-device system licensing fee and said he hoped to hold a share in the alliance’s app store.
• Jiang Yan Hai presented Nuwa as a personal assistant and explained that it could not operate on other mobile systems without access to their underlying data.
• Jiang Yan Hai chose to support the industry alliance rather than use Nuwa’s capabilities to build a dominant standalone company.
• Jiang Yan Hai introduced a camera app with professional editing tools and subtle, advanced beautification features.
• The executives watched a demonstration of the camera app, and the CEO of Transsion recognized that its image optimization surpassed his company’s.

Jiang Yan Hai introduced three apps, including a photo editor and a high-precision map, and secured interest from smaller phone companies in joining the industry alliance. After answering major companies’ questions while withholding the system’s core data on national-security grounds, he left the meeting under disguise.

• Jiang Yan Hai explained that the photo-editing app could use a phone camera to create convincing personalized appearances, regardless of the phone’s brand.
• Jiang Yan Hai introduced a map app that used BeiDou for highly precise positioning and could maintain positioning even without mobile signals.
• After the meeting, several smaller companies agreed to join the industry alliance, while major companies expressed interest but sought more information about the system.
• Jiang Yan Hai answered the major companies’ technical questions and said they could build external functions around the system, but he would not provide its core data because it concerned national security.
• Hound picked up Jiang Yan Hai, who removed his disguise in a hotel room and left as an ordinary passerby while professionals controlled the hotel surveillance.

Jiang Yan Hai met with senior leaders, who explained that Jiang Ling’s public appearances could draw high-level spies into the open and help determine whether they had learned about Great Qin. They planned to have Jiang Ling receive another State Supreme Science and Technology Award, leaving Jiang Yan Hai to prepare for the operation.

• Jiang Yan Hai complained to the senior leaders that they should not send him on jobs like this again.
• The senior leaders explained that Jiang Ling’s prominence would attract hostile attention and let National Security investigate suspicious people around her.
• A senior leader told Jiang Yan Hai that foreign high-level spies might be targeting him, and that they hoped he was their target rather than something more sensitive.
• Jiang Yan Hai realized that if the spies were not targeting him or Jiang Ling, they might have discovered the secret of Great Qin.
• The senior leaders asked Jiang Yan Hai to have Jiang Ling attend the upcoming State Supreme Science and Technology Award ceremony to draw attention, and said her achievements merited the award.

Jiang Yan Hai learned that the government’s information-industry reforms were partly intended to draw out a possible high-level spy, and he agreed to cooperate while maintaining his Jiang Ling disguise. He returned to his residence and prepared to continue living as Jiang Ling under close protection.

• Jiang Yan Hai said he valued recognition from his fellow countrymen more than foreign awards such as the Nobel Prize.
• The chief confirmed that the domestic information-industry reforms served several strategic purposes and relied on Jiang Yan Hai’s exceptional abilities.
• Jiang Yan Hai agreed to help investigate the suspected spy, though the authorities had no suspects yet.
• The chief ordered Jiang Yan Hai to limit contact with Li Ruo Bai and said four female close-protection officers would arrive the next day.
• Jiang Yan Hai reflected on the hidden battles protecting the country before returning home and changing back into Jiang Ling, whose luggage now contained women’s clothes and necessities.

Jiang Yan Hai met the four Fire Phoenix Special Forces members assigned as his personal security detail while he was disguised as Academician Jiang Ling. Ye Cunxin recognized his disguise and teased him, and the chapter ended with Jiang Yan Hai preparing to respond.

• Jiang Yan Hai learned that his new personal security detail had arrived and maintained his Jiang Ling disguise.
• He recognized He Lu, Shen Lan Ni, Qu Bi'a Zhuo, and Ye Cunxin as members of the Fire Phoenix Special Forces.
• He Lu, Ye Cunxin, Shen Lan Ni, and Qu Bi'a Zhuo introduced their assignments as his secretary, personal assistant, driver, and assistant.
• After the National Security escort left, Ye Cunxin teased Jiang Yan Hai about his disguise and its prominent chest.
• Ye Cunxin explained that the disguise drew attention away from other conspicuous features, and Jiang Yan Hai began to lecture her.

Jiang Yan Hai criticized Ye Cunxin’s intelligence analysis, then prepared his team to leave on a mission. He remained at the hotel to await domestic phone manufacturers’ evaluations of the Nuwa System and its prospects in the mobile market.

• Jiang Yan Hai told Ye Cunxin that she had overlooked crucial details in her analysis and ordered her to do two hundred push-ups.
• He Lu and the others laughed as they reflected on Jiang Yan Hai’s notorious training course at Wolf Fang.
• Jiang Yan Hai stopped Ye Cunxin after one push-up and told He Lu to keep track of the rest until they returned to base.
• He Lu confirmed the team had brought disguises and that Ye Cunxin would stay in Jiang Yan Hai’s executive suite.
• Jiang Yan Hai waited at the hotel for domestic phone manufacturers to evaluate the Nuwa System, while planning to move quickly after securing their support.

Xiaomi evaluated the Nuwa mobile operating system and its 3-nanometer chips, then agreed to join Jiang Yan Hai’s industry alliance. Jiang Yan Hai told CEO Lei that Huawei had joined first.

• Director Wang reported that Xiaomi’s tests found the Nuwa system exceptionally secure, compatible, and smooth, and warned that rejecting it would mean losing the future.
• Manager Bai reported that the 3-nanometer chips offered major performance and power-efficiency gains over existing processors.
• Xiaomi’s directors unanimously agreed to join the industry alliance, and CEO Lei went to meet Jiang Yan Hai.
• CEO Lei told Jiang Yan Hai that Xiaomi would join the alliance, and Jiang Yan Hai said Huawei had joined first.

Jiang Yan Hai urged CEO Lei to make Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship a generational leap by adopting the Nuwa System and replacing its hardware with advanced components. CEO Lei weighed the risks and production limits as Jiang Yan Hai promised to prepare the technology in time for the launch.

• CEO Lei asked whether Xiaomi could switch its flagship phones to the Nuwa System before a launch less than half a month away.
• CEO Lei said Xiaomi had produced fewer than two hundred thousand phones and was willing to write them off or rework them.
• Jiang Yan Hai proposed replacing the hardware too, offering a 3-nanometer chip, improved components, top-tier cameras, and an under-display front camera.
• CEO Lei questioned whether Xiaomi should use a 3-nanometer chip when 7-nanometer chips still had potential.
• Jiang Yan Hai told CEO Lei to gamble on an overwhelming advantage and promised to integrate the new components within three days, enabling production of roughly one hundred thousand phones before the launch.

Jiang Yan Hai persuaded CEO Lei to invest 800 million yuan in a radically upgraded Xiaomi phone, promising a three-day turnaround and the original 4,999-yuan price. She then ordered rapid expansion of 3-nanometer chip production and the chapter ended with preparations to disguise the Stargates linking Great Qin and the Song Dynasty.

• Jiang Yan Hai promised Xiaomi could produce 300,000 new phones fifteen days after the press conference and one million monthly the following month.
• CEO Lei agreed to change the phone's hardware and invest 800 million yuan after Jiang Yan Hai cited her achievements and promised a new phone in three days.
• Jiang Yan Hai told CEO Lei to keep the phone's price at around 4,999 yuan despite its advanced specifications.
• Jiang Yan Hai called Engineer Wu and ordered 3-nanometer lithography machine production to support one million chips monthly in about a month and five million two months later.
• The country began preparing to disguise the Great Qin and Song Dynasty Stargates with matching expansions and tunnels.

Jiang Yan Hai arranged production of advanced chips and cameras through Seven Colors Technology, then accompanied CEO Lei to his company’s mobile phone design laboratory to help solve its hardware problems. The group arrived at the lab, where Jiang Yan Hai was prepared to work through the designs.

• The team designed a Stargate tunnel that concealed the passage and helped hide the other world from workers in Great Qin.
• Jiang Yan Hai arranged for special military factories to produce five million chips and asked that matching advanced cameras be made through Seven Colors Technology.
• CEO Lei offered to pay Jiang Yan Hai whatever compensation he considered appropriate, and Jiang Yan Hai accepted without naming a sum.
• Jiang Yan Hai, Ye Cunxin, the other three women, and CEO Lei went to the company’s mobile phone design laboratory.
• Jiang Yan Hai arrived confident that his experience with fighter-jet blueprints, chip research, and simulations would let him handle the phone hardware designs.

Jiang Yan Hai used Huawei component data and the Data Analysis System to design a new phone at Xiaomi’s laboratory in just over four hours. After staying near the lab for the night, he entered the Illusion Simulation Program to refine the phone and test its built-in apps.

• Jiang Ling impressed Xiaomi’s hardware engineers by asking expert questions, while Jiang Yan Hai contacted Huawei for component data.
• Jiang Yan Hai fed component data into the Data Analysis System and found it could quickly optimize designs and identify flaws.
• Jiang Yan Hai completed a new phone design in about an hour and planned to test its software and hardware together.
• Jiang Yan Hai asked Xiaomi to send him its built-in apps, and CEO Lei arranged a nearby hotel with Ye Cunxin and the others handling security.
• Jiang Yan Hai used the Illusion Simulation Program overnight to redesign the phone and simulate its built-in apps hundreds of millions of times.