"Pfft... cough, cough, cough..."
The words "little gift" made Academician Tang choke on his tea. Beside him, Academician Pan laughed and patted his back.
"The way our Chief Engineer talks..." Academician Lin shook his head, torn between laughter and exasperation. "Never mind outsiders. Even we took quite a while to get used to it."
At first, they had known nothing about Ji Ting's personality. Their understanding of him had gone no further than the stock impression of a capable genius.
Once they began working together, they discovered that after Ji Ting explained something, if they failed to give him a definite response, he would look them in the eyes and ask, "Was there anything in my explanation that you found difficult to understand, or didn't understand at all?"
Initially, they thought the Chief Engineer considered them old men who were slow to absorb information and couldn't keep up. They had all felt somewhat disgruntled.
Only after spending more time with him did they realize that everything the Chief Engineer said, including his questions, meant exactly what it sounded like. There was never any mockery or sarcasm beneath it.
This time, for instance, the Chief Engineer's reasoning had to be: I really wasn't trying to pick out your mistakes, but since you brought it up yourself, I might as well point them out.
And because Huaguo already had room-temperature superconducting materials, pointing out those mistakes now couldn't even count as damage control for the United States. That was why he had called it an insignificant little gift.
Regardless, hearing it had been immensely satisfying for these old men. They wished they could reach through the screen and give Ji Ting an affectionate ruffle.
The United States had essentially come on this visit to beg Huaguo for materials. Yet they had started