Everyone froze and turned toward the voice-it belonged to the remarkably young-looking Asian man who had been quietly eating all this time.
The bespectacled researcher looked at Ji Ting, then shifted his gaze to the grim-faced Ji Yanzhi. "What did you say?"
Ji Yanzhi deliberately answered in French, giving them a taste of their own medicine. "If all you can do with your expertise is bully others, then you're not only pathetic, but shameful and deeply sad."
The two men who had mocked the owner in French stiffened, then stood up. "Hey, watch your tone!"
Ji Yanzhi sneered and was about to speak when Ji Ting gently squeezed his hand.
Ji Yanzhi raised an eyebrow in confirmation, and Ji Ting nodded to him.
Across from them, the researcher raised a hand. Once the other two had sat down, he walked over to Ji Ting alone. "So, you can answer my questions on the owner's behalf?"
"No."
The researcher gave a mocking chuckle and was about to speak, but Ji Ting calmly added, "Because your questions are too basic to be worth my time."
The mockery on the researcher's face froze instantly, as though an invisible hand had seized his throat. "Basic? You're calling my questions... basic?"
"Yes, basic." Ji Ting's gaze remained calm, as though he were stating the simplest of facts. "Every question you raised has already been extensively explored in cutting-edge discussions in leading academic journals and conference papers over the past three years. While the specific engineering implementations are classified in each country, anyone genuinely keeping up with developments in the field would already be familiar with the avenues for theoretical breakthroughs and the key technological bottlenecks."
"What you were doing just now was essentially stringing together terms that sound sophisticated but are actually outdated, constructing questions