This caught him off guard and left him utterly embarrassed, more so than any questioning he had ever faced!
Howard's breathing instantly became heavy, and his cheeks flushed uncontrollably.
He abruptly turned his face away, avoiding her overly clear eyes that seemed to see through everything. The lines of his profile under the brim of his hat were taut, and his jawline protruded slightly from the effort.
His hand, tucked into his pocket, gripped the few sheets of paper tightly, his knuckles cracking.
The cold edges of the paper almost cut his palm.
Mingzhao, however, seemed to have asked an ordinary question, and when he didn't receive an answer, he didn't seem to care.
She lowered her head and continued to focus on her drawings, the pen tip gliding across the paper with a regular scratching sound.
The voice, however, sounded like a silent mockery and torment to Howard.
---
The door to Chen Songnian's office was closed, cutting off the sounds from outside. He stood with his back to the door, by the window, his face terribly grim.
Wang Ai sat in the chair, her hands clenched tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms, her eyes filled with humiliation and resentment.
"Teacher! Are we just going to let this go? Let her ride roughshod over us? And that Howard, he's clearly..."
"Enough!" Chen Songnian turned around abruptly, his eyes behind his glasses sharp as an eagle's, carrying a coldness and calculation that Wang Ai had never seen before.
“That Mingzhao… is not simple. Very simple. Her knowledge and that… insight are far beyond that of an ordinary genius.” He recalled the certainty with which Mingzhao pinpointed the location of the scrap parts, and the almost inhuman efficiency with which she modified the oscilloscope.
"Then what do we do? Just listen to her? Be her errand boy?" Wang Ai growled unwillingly.
"Listen? Of course I want to listen."
Chen Songnian's lips curled into a cold smile. "Zhang Mingyuan gave her a powerful weapon, and Huo Hua is backing her up. If we confront her head-on now, we'll be the ones who suffer."
He walked to his desk, picked up a pen, and quickly wrote a few lines on a piece of stationery, his handwriting steady and powerful.
"Teacher, what's going on?" Wang Ai asked, puzzled.
Chen Songnian folded the letter and put it into an ordinary envelope without signing it.
He handed it to Wang Ai, his voice extremely low, carrying an unquestionable command:
"Xiao Wang, go there yourself, away from everyone, and deliver this to the Logistics Department of the Military Region, to Minister Wang Zhenshan. Remember, you must hand it to him personally! Say... it's an important supplementary explanation from the institute regarding the new project, involving key personnel whose backgrounds are questionable, requiring the leaders to... pay extra attention."
Wang Ai took the envelope, its weight slightly heavy. Looking into the unfathomable coldness in Chen Songnian's eyes, she instantly understood something. A chill ran up her spine, but it was quickly replaced by a twisted sense of pleasure.
She squeezed the envelope tightly: "Teacher, I understand! I'll go right now!"
Chen Songnian watched Wang Ai's hurried departure, then slowly sat back down in his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the table. He gazed out the window towards the research institute, his eyes deep and unfathomable.
Mingzhao? Howard? You think you've secured your position? You're too naive.
This pool of water runs very deep. A young girl of unknown origin and strange abilities, a border defense regiment commander who is clearly abusing his power for personal gain and whose intentions are unclear...
Playing this card is enough to cause quite a stir in the military region.
He wants to see if your seemingly robust security measures can hold up under real pressure and scrutiny!
A cold, smug smile crept onto Chen Songnian's lips.
Wang Ai clutched the list, which seemed to be covered in thorns, and rushed out. Chen Songnian also left with a grim face. Only the faint green light of the oscilloscope and the scratching sound of pen nibs across paper remained in the laboratory.
Howard stood rooted to the spot, the shadow beneath his hat concealing the complex emotions churning in his eyes. Mingzhao's words, "Was your heart racing last night?" echoed in his mind like a curse.
Why would Mingzhao ask this question?
"A little."
"Zhao Zhao, what about you?"
Mingzhao stopped what she was doing and picked up a cloth to wipe her fingers.
Seeing that Mingzhao remained silent, Howard knew what was going on.
"The military region has other matters to attend to. Zhao Zhao, can we talk about these things later tonight?"
Howard's voice was deep, as if it came from the earth, giving Mingzhao a strong sense of security and space.
We shouldn't push her too hard.
Howard turned and left.
Mingzhao appeared calm on the surface, simply continuing to pick up her pen and work diligently.
It wasn't until her stomach rumbled that Mingzhao realized she was hungry and went to the cafeteria for a meal.
It was almost closing time at the restaurant, so Mingzhao ordered two extra steamed buns to keep on hand.
After finishing the meal.
As soon as Mingzhao stepped into her empty laboratory, she found that there was another person inside.
A man in a brand-new white lab coat was standing with his back to the door, bending down to carefully examine the signal processing board that Mingzhao had cobbled together from "junk" on the table.
He was tall and straight, with broad shoulders and long legs. His profile was exceptionally handsome, with a high nose bridge, deep-set eyes, and a faint, unusual light color in his eyes visible beneath his slightly curly black hair.
She is of mixed race.
Hearing footsteps, the man straightened up and turned around. Sunlight streamed through the high window, illuminating his face and highlighting his handsome features. A perfectly timed, inquisitive smile played on his lips.
"Comrade Mingzhao? Hello."
His Chinese was impeccable, with a gentle, magnetic quality. He extended his hand proactively, "I'm Su Xuan, just returned from overseas. I heard from Dean Zhang that you're in charge of the communicator project, and your ideas are very... unique, so I applied to Dean Zhang to be your assistant. I'm here uninvited, hoping to learn from you."
His gaze was open and honest, with the clarity of an intellectual, but deep in his eyes lay a scrutinizing and undisguised curiosity.
Mingzhao's gaze lingered on his face for a second, glancing over his mixed-race features without any reaction. There was neither wariness towards a stranger nor appreciation for his handsome appearance.
She walked straight to her lab bench, put down her bag, and gave a curt "hmm" in response. There was no handshake.
Su Xuan's outstretched hand paused in mid-air for a moment, then naturally withdrew, his smile unchanged, but the probing in his eyes deepened.
"Dean Zhang is very optimistic about your three-month plan."
He walked to the table, picked up the complex circuit diagram draft that Mingzhao had only half-finished drawing last night, and pointed to one of the modules with his slender fingers. "Digital pulse coding timing synchronization... This design is very bold. However,"
He then shifted his tone, adding a touch of gentle skepticism, "The precision control and interference immunity of analog signal to digital pulse conversion is a huge challenge given the current level of components. How do you plan to address the bit error rate issues caused by quantization noise and clock jitter in AD conversion?"
The questions were highly technical, hitting the core difficulties directly. This was clearly not a learning experience, but rather a verification exercise.
Mingzhao picked up the welding torch, turned on the power to preheat it, and said without looking up, "No AD conversion is needed."
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