FASTER

"Actually, Grand Unification isn't that important anymore; what's important is enjoying life." Witten sat down by Weiming Lake, took a deep breath of the sweet autumn air in the capital, and after breathing it in, he felt it wasn't that great; Princeton's negative ion content was much higher.

"Edward, you've changed." Shen Qi was interested in chatting with Witten about physics, but Witten's interest waned as the conversation progressed.

"This is my sixth time visiting China, and each time I've come, I've discovered new changes taking place in China."

How long are you planning to stay this time?

"A few days, a few weeks, or a few months, who knows?" Witten is quite Zen now; he prefers to travel the world leisurely and enjoy life.

Men like Shen Qi, in their twenties, or those like Faltings and Lyndon Strauss, in their thirties or forties, are at the peak of their careers. They are driven, eager to climb higher, and to dominate.

At his age, Witten no longer had the desire to be a king or a tyrant. The old man quickly learned how to scan QR codes to ride shared bikes, and rode around the campus of Shuimu University.

A few days later, Shen Qi Ou Ye went to Europe for their honeymoon, returning to China in early December.

After Shen Qi returned, the director of the Department of Mathematical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sought him out to discuss important matters.

Director Zhan majored in materials science, primarily researching material properties and microscopic mechanisms. In his youth, he was a formidable researcher, winning numerous awards. Now, though past his academic peak, he possesses a strong strategic awareness.

"Have you heard of a new materials company in the United States called Liquidmetal Company?" Director Zhan asked Shen Qi.

Shen Qi flipped through the materials Director Zhan had given him, saying as he read, "Of course, this is a publicly listed company in the United States that specializes in Amorphous Materials. It's very mysterious, and it's very famous."

Director Zhan said with some regret, "Actually, the copper-zirconium binary Amorphous Materials was first developed by our institute's Institute of Physics and reported in the American physics journal PRF, which attracted widespread attention in the industry at the time."

"The year after that article was published, physicist Johnson from Caltech successfully developed bulk amorphous materials of zirconium, titanium, copper, and nickel. Professor Johnson was the founder of Liquidmetal Company., but he later left his professorship to go into business and become a boss." Director Zhan was unconvinced. Their team provided the inspiration and ideas and completed the experimental preparation of the new material for the first time, but no one remembered the name of any of the Chinese physicists on that team. It was the American technologist and businessman Johnson who became a legend.

"Professor Johnson has done a good job in business, becoming number one in the world in this field. Of course, in high-tech fields like Amorphous Materials, there are only a few companies in the world that can compete with the American Liquidmetal Company. In this field, technology determines the market, and technology monopolizes the market." Even Shen Qi didn't know which Chinese physicists were the ones who did the original research back then, but he had heard of Johnson, who had left teaching to go into business.

Director Zhan added, "What is noteworthy is that Liquidmetal Company's stock has been purchased in large quantities by a Hong Kong company in the past few years. Their largest shareholder and behind-the-scenes boss is actually a Hong Kong businessman."

Shen Qi became interested. "The Hong Kong boss has a good eye, but the question is, does the US government allow foreigners to become the largest shareholder of such high-tech companies that rely on cutting-edge technology?"

Director Zhan shook his head helplessly. "It's not allowed. The US government has declared very strongly that Liquidmetal Company must not be acquired by a foreign company. The latest news is that the US government is now the largest shareholder of Liquidmetal Company."

"The Hong Kong boss was forcibly evicted?" Shen Qi asked.

Director Zhan said, "I don't know about that. All we know is that when that Hong Kong boss was holding a controlling stake in the American Liquidmetal Company, he set up a similar company in China. The headquarters of this company is in Zhongguancun. You should be familiar with the current boss; his surname is Kwong."

"That Chairman Kuang from Morning Star Mathematics Center, the Hong Kong businessman who made his fortune in real estate?" Shen Qi understood, but also had some minor doubts.

The gist of this story is that a physics professor at Caltech resigned from his university position to found a new materials company, Liquidmetal Company, and successfully listed it on NASDAQ.

Later, a shrewd Hong Kong businessman used capital operations to acquire shares of the American Liquidmetal Company in batches over several years, eventually becoming the largest shareholder and behind-the-scenes boss of the American company.

At the same time, this Hong Kong businessman also registered a similar new materials company in Zhongguancun, which was entirely Chinese-funded with no foreign investment.

The US government couldn't stand it any longer; they couldn't tolerate this situation. So, Liquidmetal Company returned to American ownership, and the Hong Kong businessman disappeared without a trace.

The US government has been unable to do anything about this Chinese high-tech materials company located in Zhongguancun. The current owner of the company is Chairman Kuang.

Chairman Kuang and the Hong Kong businessman who went to the US to acquire the Liquidmetal Company are not the same person.

Shen Qi's question was, "What is the relationship between Chairman Kuang and that Hong Kong businessman?"

Director Zhan: "There should be some connection, but I'm not too clear on the specifics, and that's not our focus. Our focus is on achieving a breakthrough in Amorphous Materials application technology and commercializing it through Chairman Kuang's company. We can't rely on anyone else. In the field of high-tech Amorphous Materials, there's only one company in China with the capability to mass-produce and market it; everyone else is just talking nonsense."

"Shen Qi, Professor Johnson's case has given us profound insights. We were the first to achieve a technological breakthrough in the laboratory, but now it is the Americans who are at the forefront of the world," Director Zhan said.

"Scaling up, commercialization, and marketization are very important, I admit that, and it takes businessmen to accomplish this. So, Director Zhan, after saying all this, what do you need me to do?" Shen Qi asked.

"You're now an academician in our Department of Mathematical Physics, and one of the most outstanding experts in Condensed Matter Physics, especially amorphous physics, in China. We have a project on Metallic Plastic that we'd like to ask you to help advance. It's a key national project. Are you interested?" Director Zhan handed Shen Qi a USB drive and said, "Funding isn't a problem. You can consider it when you get back."

Metallic Plastic have only been around for a little over a decade, belonging to the cutting-edge technology field. Shen Qi was somewhat interested. "Then I'll think about it."

Back in his office at Yenching University, Shen Qi carefully examined the data on the USB drive.

In 2005, a team from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported a novel metallic material in PRL. This material has the same room temperature strength as aluminum-magnesium alloys, but when the temperature is raised to the boiling point of water, it exhibits surprising processing deformation behaviors such as stretching, compression, bending, and embossing, just like plastic.

In the same year, the British journal Nature published a report on this new type of metallic material in its "Research Highlights" section, titled "Softening," and called it "Metallic Plastic."

The copper-zirconium binary Amorphous Materials was first synthesized in the laboratory by Chinese scientists and then commercialized by a US company.

In the theoretical research and application of Metallic Plastic, Chinese scientists have not been able to gain the upper hand compared to Professor Johnson of the United States or Professor Jackson of the United Kingdom. Research on Metallic Plastic worldwide has remained entirely at the laboratory stage.

No one, including Bell Labs and Liquidmetal Company, could develop a mature Metallic Plastic product and commercialize it.

Shen Qi understood that the scientific research task entrusted to him by the state was to develop a Metallic Plastic material in the laboratory. This new material could be quickly transformed into a new product, thereby commercializing and marketing it, and securing a place in the international high-end field.

The next day, Shen Qi replied to Director Zhan: "I'll take this job. I've come up with a project code name: FASTER."