Ji Yanzhi watched Shen Mu Lan go inside, then got into the car and asked Zhang Jian, "Could you give me a copy of the surveillance footage from the police station lobby?"
Zhang Jian had no idea what he wanted it for. "Do you need it?"
"Yes."
Ji Ting had missed Team Leader Sun confessing to Shen Mu Lan. It had been such a spectacular scene that Ji Yanzhi would have to bring Ji Ear up to speed later.
Speaking of Ji Ting, he was sitting alone in the sunroom on the top floor, holding the two pots of mint Ji Yanzhi had left behind.
"Chief Engineer Ji has been sitting there all day. Can't one of you go talk to him?"
Elder Cao took off his glasses and rubbed his dry eyes with the back of his hand. "We all understand how the Chief Engineer feels. The problem with the confinement field..."
No amount of explanation would help Zhou Zhenguo understand the research, so Elder Cao put his glasses back on. "Just think of it as Little Ji taking a day off. Let him have some peace and quiet."
Inside the Materials Laboratory, Academician Fang, his eyes bloodshot, placed a thick stack of reports atop the tottering "mountain of paper" in front of everyone. "The thirty-seventh simulation failed."
Academician Tang snatched up the stack. On the striking red graph on the first page, the curve representing the material's tolerance limit had plunged off a cliff at the critical point when the simulated temperature reached 150 million degrees, becoming a glaring, irreparable chasm.
The air was thick with the dust of despair, weighing on everyone until they could barely breathe.
Academician Lin stepped forward and took the report. After studying it carefully, he said, "Since we can't overcome the materials