Shangjing.
Director's Office, Aerospace Science Group Research Institute.
Academician Yuan Huanmin, wearing reading glasses, sat beside his desk with a paint-chipped pencil in hand. He stared meticulously at the sketch on the desk, pondering it for a long while.
A thick stack of copied blueprints lay to his left, weighed down by a nearly worn-out aerospace engineering reference book. Judging from the markings on the copies, he had probably studied those blueprints inside out.
Director Li stood across from the desk, holding his breath like a student.
Since entering the office half an hour ago, he had not dared say a word, afraid of disturbing the old gentleman's thoughts.
The clock on the wall ticked away. After another ten minutes or so, the old gentleman finally let out a long breath, scribbled a line of notes onto the blueprint, and set it atop the stack beside him.
Only then did he notice Director Li standing across from the desk and hurriedly rose to his feet.
"Oh, Old Li? What brings you here? Why didn't you let me know?"
"You old man, weren't you the one who called and told me there were results? So I hurried over..." Director Li smiled, unconcerned about having waited so long. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, he got straight to the point. "Well? This blueprint? Do you think what's drawn on it is feasible?"
"The drawing is excellent... As expected of the world's greatest mathematician."
Yuan Huanmin let out a long sigh and said with feeling, "I tried verifying practically every figure. Not only were there no oversights, but every component and functional unit was linked together seamlessly, with airtight logic. It simply... doesn't look like something one person designed."
Director Li swallowed. "Then what does it look like?"
"It looks like it came