Failed to Crack and Chinese Paper!

In the afternoon, Dr. William Nelson, chief scientist at DuPont Group, suddenly felt a tightness in his chest. The enclosed environment of the laboratory, the humming sound of the air filter – all of it made him feel oppressed, making it difficult even to breathe.

He handed over the remaining work to his subordinates and quickly left the laboratory, heading out to the open grass outside to take deep breaths.

Not long after, his assistant, Durand, also emerged from the laboratory and sat down beside Nelson, letting out a long sigh.

"Another failure?" Nelson asked.

Durand nodded with a helpless expression. "It's ridiculous. Our chemical composition is clearly the same as Kunlun Company's, yet the results are so different. Kunlun Company's fibers are incredibly high quality, while our imitation is complete garbage!"

Nelson showed a look of "I knew it." "They seem the same, but they're not. Kunlun Company's chemical formula includes a trace amount of stabilizer. This special stabilizer protects the fiber structure from losing strength due to excessive honeycomb formation, while also greatly enhancing the fiber's toughness."

In fact, the predicament DuPont was facing was not an isolated incident. Far away on the Rhine River in Germany, and in Hakone at the foot of Mount Fuji, all companies attempting to imitate X Fiber were encountering continuous setbacks.

Gao Yuan was fully confident that X Fiber could not be replicated.

However, Gao Yuan was also happy to see the whole world trying to crack it. The more attempts there were, the more money and resources competitors would waste. Gao Yuan had always enjoyed watching competitors stumble.

Nelson rubbed his temples and sniffed. The California wildfires, which had been burning since September, had made the air on the entire West Coast less than sweet. The sky had taken on a strange orange-yellow hue, and a faint smell of burning could be detected in the air.

In 2019, wildfires in Australia that lasted for months released over 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to the annual emissions of 139 countries. North America, the global superpower, was even more formidable. Wildfires on the West Coast had become commonplace, occurring every other day.

Yet, Australia and North America then proceeded to accuse the Huaxia people of not being environmentally friendly enough, of disrupting the Earth's carbon balance, and needing to be punished.

Many Huaxia people didn't understand why they weren't fighting the fires with full force.

This question was utterly uninteresting. Firstly, whether or not we fight fires has nothing to do with us.

Secondly, if you truly want to know the reason, I suggest you visit Mohe and see the Greater Khingan Range Fire Memorial Hall. Look at the young soldiers who rushed into the flames back then, the shovels they used, their scorched clothing, and the photographs they left behind. Perhaps then you will understand that many things in the world happen for no particular reason. We are fundamentally different from them, and that's all there is to it.

Nelson said meaningfully, "People often don't attach much importance to materials science, but as the cornerstone of industry, once a new material is born, it has the potential to change the entire world. It's like when people in the Bronze Age accidentally invented iron-making technology; a revolution would inevitably follow."

Durand's eyes widened. "Do you think Kunlun Company's X series fiber has the potential to revolutionize the chemical fiber industry?"

Nelson looked up and said earnestly, "It's not that I think so; it's already happening. In just half a year, our COOLMAX, Toray's Softwarm, Asahi Kasei's Thermogea – so many companies that originally monopolized top fiber technology in the market have been overthrown by Kunlun Company. Recently, we even heard news of Toyobo going bankrupt."

"From X1 to X2, those Huaxia people have systematically taken down the best-selling chemical fiber products on the market, and they haven't met their match yet."

"What's next? Will the enhanced and derivative versions of X Fiber enter more fields? For example, the rubber industry, the tire industry, the medical industry, the military industry?"

"You only see a small fiber, but it's very likely the cornerstone that will revolutionize the world! After all, no one knows how many derivative technologies can be developed based on X Fiber."

Nelson's words shocked Durand. X Fiber itself wasn't terrifying; the key was that this super honeycomb structure fiber possessed unimaginable potential, which could shine in many more industries in the future.

Suddenly, Nelson's phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen, his brow furrowed, and said to Durand, "It's our research center in Huaxia."

To be fair, the DuPont Group's strength was not without reason. They valued R&D far more than people imagined. Not to mention their experimental facilities spread across the globe, they even had a large research center in Shanghai, Huaxia, with eight laboratories, employing hundreds of elite researchers with PhDs or higher.

Durand watched as Nelson's increasingly stern expression indicated that the matter was likely not simple.

Finally, Nelson hung up the phone and gave a tired, wry smile.

"What was I just saying?" Nelson scratched his hair and said, "Kunlun Company's X3 type fiber has already been widely released. It's an elastic fiber that directly competes with our Lycra fiber, but its performance is far superior to Lycra. Our laboratory in Huaxia's preliminary calculations estimate its comprehensive performance to be about three times that of Lycra."

Durand could hardly believe his ears. History was repeating itself. At the end of summer, Kunlun Company launched X1 Fiber, completely defeating DuPont's COOLMAX.

As winter arrived, Kunlun Company launched X3, targeting the king of elastic fibers, Lycra. DuPont once again became the target.

Was this personal revenge?

Nelson paused and added, "What's even more frightening is that in addition to calculating the performance of X3 Fiber, the Huaxia laboratory also received a piece of gossip."

"Rumor has it that Kunlun Company has developed a bulletproof fiber called Silver Frost based on X3. Its performance far surpasses our Kevlar, and even exceeds the third-generation PE bulletproof fiber. They are currently making intensive preparations for large-scale production."

"Given our current hostile relationship with Huaxia, this news has probably sent those people in the Pentagon into a furious rage."

Hoo~

Durand gasped, finally understanding why Nelson was so worried.

The prophecy was coming true step by step. X Fiber was replicating and mutating like a virus, evolving from one model to two, then from two to three, until they formed a legion, destroying the world's existing systems and rules.

After all, Kunlun Company had only been in the chemical fiber industry for half a year!

They had already forced the bankruptcy of Toyobo Group and entered the military market, becoming a supplier of winter clothing and bulletproof vests for the PLA!

Such a development speed was simply inhuman!

COOLMAX, Lycra, Kevlar – in the blink of an eye, three major players had fallen consecutively!

Even with the DuPont Group's deep pockets and its reputation as the king of chemical fibers, how many more rounds of such attacks could it withstand?

"Too ruthless... those damn Huaxia people!" Durand clenched his fists, roaring in uncontrollable anger.

Achoo!

Suddenly, Gao Yuan sneezed. He walked over to the air conditioner and touched the air outlet.

The warm air was still strong, but unfortunately, his office was a bit too large, and the sealing wasn't particularly good. The indoor temperature couldn't compare to rooms with heating in the north.

This place used to be a textile fabric factory, so the conditions were indeed a bit rudimentary.

Returning to his desk, Gao Yuan stared at the content on the screen, checking for typos with great seriousness.

After all, the paper was going to be presented to his peers nationwide, with so many eyes watching. Gao Yuan was, at least, a person with some pride and didn't want to embarrass himself in front of others.

As for why it was only for national peers and not global ones, the reason was simple: Gao Yuan's paper on X Fiber was written in Chinese. Whether foreign peers could understand it was not within his consideration.

He rubbed his dry eyes, clicked the mouse, and saved the paper. Then, after some thought, he opened the homepage of the materials forum again.

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