Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Lin Yi’s nickel-based material successfully passes a third round of tests, confirming superconductivity at 0°C under ambient pressure. The team celebrates, though Lin Yi laments that he had aimed for 5°C.
• Li Dong reviews the sample’s temperature-dependent critical-current data, explaining that crossing 0°C makes the material especially vulnerable to thermal disturbances. Further gains will be much harder than earlier improvements.
• At Huaxuan Technology in Shanghai, Lin Yi presents plans for a superconducting quantum-interference probe. He cannot answer key engineering questions about operating limits, tolerances, and how temperature and magnetic field affect the device.
• Li Dong turns the difficulty into a lesson: researchers must design around a system’s mission, not simply maximize individual specifications. He assigns Lin Yi to use the data to define practical operating requirements and deliver an engineering document that night.
• In Beijing, Clara notices that Qi Shaoheng’s claim about skating on Lake Zurich conflicts with the fact that the lake last froze over completely in 1963. She alerts security.
• Security raids Shaoheng’s apartment and reveals that he is actually Nakamura Takuno, a Japanese national recruited by the CIA who murdered the real Qi Shaoheng and assumed his identity. Investigators find stolen research data and concealed cyanide and arsenic.
• A senior official receives the report and declares that China will respond in two months, on August 1.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Yi is shown to be brilliant and ambitious, but inexperienced in translating a material breakthrough into a workable device. His embarrassment gives way to determination when Li Dong sets him a concrete task.
• Li Dong acts as both mentor and strategist: he praises progress but insists that Lin Yi learn engineering systems thinking and connect scientific work to real applications.
• Clara maintains professional distance from Qi Shaoheng and, despite his persistent attempts at friendly conversation, recognizes the inconsistency in his story and reports it.
• Qi Shaoheng/Nakamura appears sociable and competent, but his impatience and contempt for Clara surface in private. His attempted destruction of files confirms his role as an infiltrator.
• Old Wu and Old Zhang respond quickly to Clara’s warning, uncovering the deception and preventing a potential threat to institute personnel.
• At Huaxuan, Lin Yi’s technical limitations become apparent through Chen Yanping’s practical questions, while Li Dong’s intervention turns a strained meeting into a lesson rather than a reprimand.

Significant themes

• Scientific breakthroughs require engineering judgment: a higher critical temperature alone does not guarantee a useful device; operating conditions, reliability, tolerances, and purpose matter.
• Mentorship and disciplined growth: Li Dong challenges Lin Yi to develop beyond experimental achievement into systems-level thinking.
• Security and vigilance: even extensive background checks can be circumvented, making careful observation and attention to small inconsistencies vital.
• Science in service of national needs: the chapter links research, industrial collaboration, strategic planning, and intelligence threats to broader national interests.

Plot points and events

• Security forces raid Old Wang’s tea shop in Hebei, using a request for rare Huoshan Yellow Tea to expose him. Old Wu reveals that the tea linked Wang to Japanese agent Nakamura Takuno, who used it to pass messages. A search uncovers a hidden room and Qi Shaoheng, gravely injured but alive. Old Wu orders him taken to hospital.
• At Huaxuan Technology in Shanghai, Lin Yi and Chen Yanping finalize the trial-production specifications for a superconducting quantum interference probe. Chen begins fabrication, expected to take several days.
• Doctors explain that Qi Shaoheng has severe liver damage, extensive skin wounds, and impaired intestinal motility after prolonged captivity. Li Dong arranges for tissue sheets to be cultured from Qi’s blood. Skin and liver cultures progress, but the intestinal tissue cannot yet contract effectively.
• Li Dong briefly panics after realizing he drank coffee prepared by the impostor, but Clara reassures him that the coffee was made openly and he is safe. She and the other researchers have also undergone renewed security screening.
• Chen Huaguang returns to work after recovering from illness. He joins the tissue-engineering team, helping refine the skin and liver cultures while the team waits for the new probe.
• Once the probe is ready, Li Dong and Chen use detailed magnetic-field readings to adjust cardiac tissue cultures. Through changes to stimulation, chemical perfusion, mechanical strain, and fluid flow, they synchronize the tissue’s contractions. The team then turns to the difficult intestinal-wall tissue.
• On July 10, surgeons begin two pioneering procedures: rebuilding Qi Shaoheng’s liver, intestinal wall, and skin using his own chemically reprogrammed tissue sheets, and implanting a cardiac tissue sheet in a 102-year-old patient. The cardiac graft conforms to the beating heart. Both surgeries are reported as successful.

Character developments

• Li Dong is resourceful and committed, coordinating security concerns, research, and Qi’s rescue treatment. He is also willing to make unconventional experimental adjustments, though their success impresses even experienced colleagues.
• Old Wu moves from investigator to advocate for Qi, feeling guilty that the impostor was not identified sooner and placing hope in Li Dong’s work.
• Qi Shaoheng is revealed to have survived brutal captivity, but his condition is critical. His recovery becomes a central test of the new tissue technology.
• Chen Huaguang returns with renewed enthusiasm and humility. Though initially wary of Li Dong’s aggressive methods, he recognizes their success and becomes energized by the work.
• Clara remains sharp and practical, reassuring Li Dong and continuing her observations while maintaining appropriate security.
• Lin Yi and Chen Yanping help turn the probe design into a working instrument, enabling the next stage of tissue research.

Significant themes

• Scientific risk and innovation: The surgeries and experimental adjustments seem reckless by conventional standards, but careful measurement and teamwork make them possible.
• Hope amid injury: Qi’s survival and the elderly patient’s operation show how emerging science can offer a chance when ordinary treatment is insufficient.
• Responsibility and guilt: Old Wu’s regret reflects the human cost of security failures and the burden of protecting others.
• Collaboration across fields: Engineers, researchers, and medical specialists combine expertise to move from laboratory experiments to clinical treatment.
• Persistence and purpose: Researchers and clinicians push forward despite uncertainty, driven by the possibility of restoring lives.

Character interactions

• Old Wu confronts Old Wang with evidence of his espionage, then prioritizes saving Qi once he is found.
• Lin Yi and Chen Yanping work closely on the probe’s technical requirements; afterward, Li Dong jokes with his teacher before Old Zhang interrupts with a request for help.
• Li Dong reassures Old Wu and later supports Madam Zhou and her family as they wait for surgery.
• Chen Huaguang reports experimental readings while Li Dong makes real-time adjustments, building mutual respect through their work.
• Clara teases Li Dong about drinking the impostor’s coffee, then shares new observational data with him.
• In the operating-room waiting area, Li Dong comforts both Old Wu and Madam Zhou; the successful outcomes bring relief to both families.

Plot points and events

• Two days after the surgeries, Elder Zhou wakes at Beijing’s 301 Hospital. Li Dong visits and sits quietly with him; instead of asking about the breakthrough, Elder Zhou urges him to eat and sleep properly. Li Dong also checks on the still-unconscious Qi Shaoheng before returning to the Weiming Institute.
• At home, Li Dong discovers that Little Black has spent its wages but keeps the purchase secret. He gives the robot his card to buy groceries, then checks the Azure Dragon Study Group and claims a milestone reward: an Autologous Tissue Cultivation Plan, including protocols and equipment designs.
• Li Dong sends the plan to Chen Huaguang and tells him to expand clinical research collaborations beyond Gu Zhengchuan’s hospital. The guidelines should let other qualified hospitals grow and manage tissue sheets, reducing the need for Li Dong’s direct supervision.
• Five days later, 301 Hospital publishes case reports on Elder Zhou’s multi-organ reconstruction and Qi Shaoheng’s cardiac tissue-sheet transplant. Researchers abroad question whether the reported results—and the quick, minimally invasive heart procedure—are credible. Cardiac surgeon Adrian Moser challenges the implantation details, while intestinal-tissue specialist Daniel Bock suggests the results may be fabricated. International media amplify the accusations, putting the hospital and Huaxia’s medical reputation under scrutiny.
• The controversy becomes urgent for Martin Keller, a German automotive executive in Hangzhou whose old heart attack left him with scarred, weakened heart muscle. After his tissue-engineering researcher wife Anna sees that 301 Hospital has released supporting videos, she persuades him to travel to Beijing for treatment.
• 301 Hospital releases culture, surgical, and functional footage with supporting records. It shows cardiac tissue coordinating its own contractions, changing orientation and adhering to the beating heart, and intestinal contractions passing continuously from the patient’s original tissue into the implanted sheet. The evidence answers the critics’ main objections and prompts researchers to identify the Weiming Institute as the source of the tissue.
• Hospitals begin contacting 301 for visits, case discussions, training, and possible treatment for eligible patients. Bock apologizes publicly and offers a three-year training partnership with 301 Hospital. He also asks to see how the tissue is cultured, but Dean Shao directs him to the Weiming Institute.

Character developments and interactions

• Elder Zhou and Li Dong: Their quiet bedside exchange shows personal warmth and mutual regard. Elder Zhou’s concern for Li Dong’s health surprises him and affects him more than a technical discussion would have.
• Li Dong: He turns a research reward into a practical way to scale treatment, entrusting Chen Huaguang with distributing the protocols and expanding partnerships. His work is framed as service to patients, not merely scientific achievement.
• Little Black: The robot’s secrecy about its purchases gives the scene comic relief and hints at its growing independence, though it still relies on Li Dong for money.
• Anna and Martin: Anna’s confidence in the evidence overcomes Martin’s skepticism and encourages him to seek treatment. Martin shifts from prioritizing the car launch to considering his health.
• Moser and Bock: Both initially speak with authority and publicly discredit the reports. Once the footage appears, Bock retracts his accusation and offers cooperation; Dean Shao accepts graciously but lightly needles him for judging before seeing the evidence.
• 301 Hospital: Dean Shao and the surgical teams move from defending themselves against suspicion to handling a flood of professional interest and requests for collaboration.

Significant themes

• Evidence over reputation: Impressive credentials and media coverage can spread doubt, but transparent footage and verifiable records ultimately address the accusations.
• Scientific humility: The chapter contrasts confident condemnation with the value of seeing evidence firsthand; Bock’s apology marks a shift from certainty to openness.
• Scaling medical breakthroughs: The cultivation plan and proposed hospital partnerships suggest that innovation matters most when other clinicians can reproduce it and more patients can benefit.
• Care amid achievement: Elder Zhou’s simple reminder to Li Dong and Martin’s decision to seek treatment balance technological progress with the human needs behind it.
• Innovation’s wider impact: Li Dong’s work affects both regenerative medicine and the automotive industry: the all-solid-state battery has enabled Geely’s forthcoming long-range, fast-charging, low-cost electric car.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• In Beijing’s 301 Hospital, Li Dong delegates the handling of visit requests and cooperation over the cultivation protocol to Academician Chen Huaguang. He reassures Chen that the Life Sciences Division will earn more than the Materials Division, though he privately doubts it.
• Li visits recovering researcher Qi Shaoheng, who had been rescued after falling through ice while skating on Lake Zurich. Li confirms Qi can still join the Weiming Institute under the offer he received through normal recruitment, gives him his private number, and asks him to make contact after discharge.
• Xue Qikun invites Li to Geely’s July 28 launch of its Sky Dome series, fitted with the first batch of mass-produced all-solid-state batteries. Though Li has usually avoided corporate events, he agrees to attend.
• At the launch venue, journalists and prominent figures from automakers, battery companies, energy firms, and government organizations gather. Many industry leaders wait outside until Li arrives, revealing how central his technology is to the event.
• Geely chairman Li Shufu opens the launch by thanking Li and the other academicians, joking that their presence feels like teachers checking his homework. The Sky Dome’s advertised specifications—up to 2,200 kilometers of range, five-minute megawatt charging from 10% to 80%, and prices starting at 89,800 yuan—leave the audience stunned.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Dong shows quiet concern for people personally affected by his work: he reassures Qi that his job offer remains valid and encourages his recovery. He also shifts from avoiding commercial appearances to attending this launch, recognizing its significance.
• Qi Shaoheng moves from uncertainty about whether he deserves a place at the institute to renewed confidence after Li confirms his position.
• Chen Huaguang jokes with Li about the Life Sciences Division’s expected earnings, revealing friendly rivalry between divisions.
• Industry leaders, including Wang Chuanfu, Wei Jianjun, Li Bin, and Zeng Yuqun, gather for the launch. Their deference toward Li—and their willingness to wait for him in the rain—underscores the influence of his research.
• Li Shufu publicly credits Li Dong, Xue Qikun, and Chen Liquan for helping bring laboratory advances into everyday products.

Significant themes

• Research becoming practical technology: The launch presents a major transition from solid-state batteries as a research promise to a mass-produced commercial product.
• Scientific influence and responsibility: Li’s work has reshaped the automotive and energy industries, while his interaction with Qi shows its human consequences as well.
• Industry transformation and competition: The presence of rival automakers and energy companies suggests that the new battery could change market dynamics and reshape the future of electric vehicles.
• Recognition and humility: Despite his importance, Li remains understated, while Geely’s leader frames the achievement as something enabled by scientists’ foundational work.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Geely unveils three Sky Dome electric vehicles equipped with mass-produced all-solid-state batteries, including a model priced at 89,800 yuan. The range and low prices immediately stir excitement among consumers and automotive reporters.
• Academician Li Dong credits the batteries’ development to work at the Weiming Institute, explaining that research advances are already entering ordinary life—often so quietly that even he fails to notice them. Viewers connect the institute’s materials to improvements in refrigerators, water purifiers, laptops, phone screens, and household fixtures.
• State television reports that Huaxia has prepared for technological disruption by helping businesses retrain and reassign workers and by offering transitional support. The news then reveals that foreign operatives tried to infiltrate a research institute and plot the murder of researchers. In response, Huaxia places eighteen American companies on its Unreliable Entity List, restricting their access to advanced materials, technology, and research cooperation.
• The United States denies the allegations, but a leaked video appears to show physicist Edward Witten and other researchers unable to leave a facility associated with DARPA without permission. The footage triggers protests from universities and research institutions worldwide, while prominent scholars withdraw from U.S. defense research projects. More than thirty universities and fifty research institutions issue statements.
• At the White House, President David Vance angrily orders crisis communications and plans to expand U.S. military deployments near Huaxia, hoping to pressure it over the sanctions. He remains uncertain how to contain the backlash from the scientific community.
• Li Dong returns to the Weiming Institute and receives a formal invitation to attend a ceremony on August 1.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Dong presents himself as a modest, reflective scientist rather than a showman. He is pleased that his work is reaching the public, but stresses that progress should become an ordinary, unobtrusive part of life. His exchange with a reviewer—who insists the cars are “more than pretty good”—adds humor and warmth to the launch.
• The public moves from excitement over the cars to broader recognition of the institute’s contributions. Many viewers also feel reassured when they learn that the government has planned for workers affected by industrial change.
• Researchers and academic institutions respond collectively to the leaked footage. Witten’s former institutions, colleagues, and students demand access to him and other researchers; scholars including Kamran Vafa, Juan Maldacena, Peter Shor, and others sever or reject defense-related collaborations. Shor makes clear that work cannot continue normally until Witten’s freedom is confirmed.
• Vance and his advisers clash over the crisis. Vance blames Huaxia and lashes out at officials, while the secretary of defense hesitates because of the previous secret exercise. Vance ultimately orders a different approach: seek new bases and deployments rather than hold another exercise.

Significant themes

• Science as everyday improvement: Revolutionary materials matter most when they quietly make daily life better.
• Public value and social responsibility: The chapter connects technological progress not only to consumer benefits but also to support for workers facing economic change.
• Protection of researchers and academic freedom: The attempted attack and alleged confinement of scientists provoke international condemnation and a wave of refusals to cooperate with defense agencies.
• Scientific progress and geopolitical power: Huaxia’s material advances become both an industrial advantage and a source of diplomatic conflict, while the United States responds with pressure and military maneuvering.
• Collective accountability: Researchers and institutions act together, using public statements and withdrawal of cooperation to demand that scientists’ rights be respected.

Plot points and events

• In Manila, U.S. defense official Evan Blake reports that the Philippines has agreed to expanded American access to its bases, including more facilities, rotating personnel, and prepositioned equipment. The result is welcome after Thailand refuses to commit to new permanent U.S. bases, choosing to wait for Huaxia’s August 1 military parade.
• At a Huaxia test base, aerodynamic chief designer Qi Zhenhai and thermal-protection engineer Shen Jingyi finish checking and signing off on the Soaring aircraft’s parade data. Their unmanned aircraft has flown at Mach 8.7, reached space, and returned, but its designers suspect the engine can do far more than their current platform reveals.
• On August 1, Huaxia’s parade draws enormous domestic and international audiences. Its new equipment impresses viewers: Type 32 electromagnetic tanks fire at six kilometers per second, artillery reaches 600 kilometers, laser air defense reaches two megawatts, and the Long Wind fighter can cruise at Mach 5.4 while carrying six tonnes of weapons and presenting an exceptionally small radar signature.
• The parade’s climax is the appearance of three Soaring unmanned combat aircraft. The commentator reveals they can fly at Mach 8.7, carry twelve tonnes internally, travel from an airfield into space and back, and land autonomously. The aircraft climb almost vertically until they reach space again.
• Watching the display, Philippine officials reconsider their recent agreement with the United States, with one half-jokingly suggesting that the Philippines become Huaxia’s twenty-fourth province.

Character development and interactions

• Blake is satisfied with the Philippine agreement but recognizes that U.S. influence in Southeast Asia is under pressure, especially as countries wait to see whether Huaxia can withstand American pressure.
• Qi and Shen show the discipline and responsibility behind the aircraft’s development, carefully verifying one another’s work. They also share doubts about how much potential Li Dong’s engine still holds.
• Beneath their professional focus, the couple reveal personal pain: they miss their injured son and regret not having visited him. They agree to request leave after the assignment.
• International observers—from Russia and the United States to the Philippines—react with shock and unease as Huaxia’s capabilities surpass their expectations.

Significant themes

• Technological power and strategic influence: Huaxia’s advances reshape other countries’ calculations and weaken confidence in American leadership.
• Ambition and the unknown: The Soaring’s performance suggests that even its designers do not yet understand the full potential of their technology.
• Duty and personal sacrifice: Qi and Shen’s commitment to the parade and their work comes at the cost of time with their family.
• National pride and spectacle: The parade presents military precision and advanced weapons as a public demonstration of national strength.

Chapter summary

Plot points and events

• During the military parade, Soaring—a wingless, transatmospheric unmanned aircraft—demonstrates its ability to fly into space and return. In hospital, Qi Shaoheng watches it and recalls building a similar wooden model with his parents as a child. His father, Qi Zhenhai, had said the design would fly once it found the right “heart,” meaning a powerful enough engine. Shaoheng wonders whether Soaring has finally found one.
• Huaxia’s parade equipment draws worldwide attention. Official commentary frames the new weapons as defensive and intended to preserve peace, even as foreign governments worry about their capabilities.
• Three Soaring aircraft make high-speed overflights of Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and the United States before returning to space. Japan, Australia, and the United States protest; the Philippines’s response is notably cautious and asks only for advance coordination.
• The United States attempts to intercept the aircraft with missiles and fighter jets, but fails: the missiles cannot reach them, and the fighters never acquire them on radar. The aircraft leave for the Pacific.
• The US publicly claims it successfully repelled the aircraft, though reporters receive no evidence. Huaxia’s evening news then offers a deliberately wry apology, saying Soaring’s flight controls still need refinement and that it accidentally strayed into other countries’ airspace. Online, people read the message as a cheeky warning that future flights may be harder to detect.
• Returning to the Weiming Institute, Li Dong reflects that Soaring’s climb had small irregularities and resolves to improve its flight control. He then receives a call from Wu: Qi Shaoheng’s parents have arrived and want to meet him.

Character developments and interactions

• Qi Shaoheng is moved by Soaring because it recalls his father’s unfinished wingless-aircraft model and his childhood questions about whether it could ever fly. The memory links the aircraft’s achievement to his family and his father’s work.
• Qi Zhenhai, through Shaoheng’s recollection, appears as an encouraging, visionary father who explained the aircraft’s unconventional lift and believed it needed the right engine to fly.
• Li Dong remains focused on technical improvement even amid national celebration, noticing subtle flaws in Soaring’s climb and planning to fix them.
• Foreign leaders and officials react with alarm and frustration, especially when their defenses prove unable to stop or even reliably track Soaring. Vance’s confidence gives way to anger and helplessness after the failed interception.
• Huaxia’s public and media turn the foreign protests into a source of pride and humor, while official messaging maintains a formal commitment to peace.

Significant themes

• Vision becoming reality: Shaoheng’s father’s model and prediction are fulfilled by Soaring’s successful flight.
• Power and deterrence: The aircraft’s capabilities reshape other nations’ calculations without a direct attack.
• Public messaging and irony: Huaxia’s official apology uses restrained language that the public interprets as a pointed, playful boast.
• Innovation as ongoing work: Even a remarkable achievement has technical imperfections, and Li Dong’s attention shifts immediately to refinement.
• Peace framed through strength: The chapter contrasts stated defensive intentions with the unsettling impact of a technology capable of reaching far beyond Huaxia’s borders.

Li Dong met Qi Shaoheng’s parents, Soaring designers Qi Zhenhai and Shen Jingyi, and identified a flight-control latency problem from the aircraft’s parade performance. He showed them the institute’s neuromorphic carrier boards, which could help Soaring reach its full performance, but realized that a brain-computer interface might be needed for human control.

• Li Dong met Qi Zhenhai and Shen Jingyi, who thanked him for saving their son, Qi Shaoheng, and revealed their roles in designing Soaring.
• Li Dong described the evenly spaced dips in Soaring’s pitch rate and traced them to a thirty-eight-millisecond delay in its radiation-hardened, triplex flight-control system.
• Li Dong took Qi Zhenhai and Shen Jingyi to see the Computer Science Division’s reconfigurable neuromorphic carrier boards, which could reduce control latency.
• Li Dong noticed the engine replication progress had reached 99% and wondered whether the final step involved Soaring’s autonomous flight controls.
• Qi Zhenhai proposed using the carrier board to improve Soaring’s flight controls and unlock the engine’s full performance, but Li Dong realized human judgment would still be needed and thought of a brain-computer interface.

Li Dong asked Little Black to integrate her Reconfigurable Neuromorphic Array Carrier Board into Soaring and begin work on a brain-computer interface. After leaving Gu Ming and Sarah’s wedding to study a rare four-point coronal mass ejection, Li Dong and Clara watched a red aurora appear over Beijing.

• Qi Zhenhai asked to license Li Dong’s carrier-board technology for Soaring, and Li Dong arranged for Little Black to coordinate its integration.
• Little Black went grocery shopping, signed researchers’ autographs, and agreed to work on Soaring and a brain-computer interface.
• Gu Ming told Li Dong he was marrying Sarah, and Li Dong attended their wedding with Clara.
• During the wedding banquet, Clara received word that a rare four-point alignment had captured a coronal mass ejection, so she and Li Dong left to analyze the observations.
• Li Dong and Clara tracked the plasma cloud through its arrival at Earth and watched a red aurora form above Jundu Mountain.

Li Dong completed the nonequilibrium plasma observation apparatus with Xue Qikun and prepared to accelerate the Fusion Battery project. Meanwhile, Gong Qi heard Beijing’s proposal to compete with Hecheng for Element Six’s diamond technology and agreed to contact Li Dong.

• After the aurora faded, Li Dong used the linked observations to determine the plasma energy-relaxation rate and waited for Xue Qikun’s apparatus to be completed.
• Two months later, Li Dong toured the finished apparatus with Xue Qikun, who said Element Six would deliver the final diamond plates the following week so work could speed up.
• Gong Qi reviewed funding plans and reflected on the research results enabled by the Weiming Institute’s materials breakthroughs.
• Tan Jinghe asked Gong Qi to help Beijing compete with Hecheng to acquire Element Six’s electronic-grade diamond technology for Jingjing Technology.
• Gong Qi agreed to tell Li Dong about Beijing’s proposal but made no promise about where the project would go.

Element Six CEO James Colby brought the company’s core diamond-growth technology to Huaxia after its board approved cooperation with the Weiming Institute. As Li Dong questioned Colby about the offer’s terms, the visitors entered the institute to begin discussions.

• After Huaxia’s August 1 parade shifted opinion among Element Six’s African shareholders, the board approved Colby’s proposal by one vote, despite Washington’s threats to end contracts and review licenses.
• Colby, Ian McBride, and an engineer arrived in Beijing with ultrathin single-crystal diamond sheets and marveled at Huaxia’s automated airport and maglev train.
• Deputy Mayor Tan Jinghe welcomed the Element Six delegation and took them to the Weiming Institute, hoping to establish a major diamond production line in Beijing.
• Gong Qi asked Li Dong whether he preferred Beijing or Hecheng, and Li Dong said he wanted future diamond development to include high-temperature, radiation-resistant chips and other advanced applications.
• Li Dong, Xue Qikun, and Gong Qi greeted Colby, McBride, and Tan Jinghe at the institute, where the visitors passed security checks and signed confidentiality agreements.
• Li Dong asked Colby why Element Six was offering its core growth and impurity-control technologies without any conditions beyond a chance to meet and talk.