The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 521 Fingernail Size

Sun Guangming complained, "Liu Hua, Academician Liu, that's not fair of you. I kindly invited a few senior experts to give you some guidance, and you detained them."

"Hey, you'd better watch your mouth, or I'll sue you for defamation. I didn't detain anyone. It's just that the experts didn't want to leave and wanted to stay and mentor the kids at our institute. What a precious spirit that is—passing on knowledge and skills, the spirit of passing on the torch."

"Don't give me that kind of advice," Sun Guangming said impatiently. "That's just how things are now. The research institute's academic leader isn't going back. What are they supposed to do? What am I supposed to do?"

Liu Hua could only comfort him, saying, "It's not that I'm not going back, I'm just going to do teaching work here for a while. In two or three months, I promise to send all these old experts back safely, and I promise I'll be healthy and even gain a few pounds."

Having received the assurance, Sun Guangming revealed his true intentions: "The academic leaders of that research institute are training students for your institute, you can't just leave without giving something in return, can you?"

“Alright, that’s the key point.” Liu Hua laughed heartily: “I definitely have to do something about it. I’ve already told several experts that I will donate five million to each research institute as a token of my appreciation.”

"Wow, that's quite a generous offer. Five million is enough for them to start a small project." Sun Guangming said with a smile, "In that case, I can easily report back, saving me from having those research institute leaders bothering me every day. I'm already overwhelmed."

"That's right, it's a matter of returning the favor." Liu Hua said proudly, "The role of these senior experts can't be reflected in a mere five million. At the very least, it shortened our research progress on the knock engine by a year."

"Then your tens of millions are truly excellent value for money."

Liu Hua said with a smile, "It's absolutely worth the money. You know, I spend more than 100 million yuan a year on this knock engine. This saves a lot of money. Most importantly, it saves time. More than a year. Time is priceless."

"No matter what, in the end our air force benefits," Sun Guangming said smugly. "We're waiting for your good news."

"Don't wait for my good news. You guys need to catch up with the airframe design," Liu Hua joked. "If you don't have a compatible aircraft after I finish developing the engine, then it'll be a huge joke."

Sun Guangming was speechless. That was the truth. As far as he knew, no aircraft manufacturing company had initiated a sixth-generation fighter jet project yet because the fifth-generation fighter jet was not yet fully developed.

In the past, we would design the aircraft and wait for a useful engine. Now, the engine is ready, but the aircraft design isn't complete—it's like the world has been turned upside down.

Ma Shan has been quite busy these past few days. Although he has been getting trouble from various research institutes, he has no time to deal with it because of Liu Hua's words. He is currently extremely busy.

Liu Hua had previously told him that the pigments used in the colored Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang were a nano-coating. He hadn't paid much attention to it at first, but when he went to the research institute that was working on invisible coatings, he told the chief engineer about it as a joke.

As the saying goes, what is said without intention may be taken to heart by the listener, and the chief engineer took it to heart.

Because they are currently stuck in a stalemate in their research on invisible coatings, they are thinking of exploring other materials to see if they can help with invisible coatings.

Just as he was about to launch into a long explanation, the chief engineer suddenly blurted out, "Is it really a nano-coating?"

Ma Shan was stunned for a moment, and after a few seconds he came to his senses and said, "I don't know either, but it was Academician Liu who said it, so it shouldn't be unfounded, right?"

"Comrade Ma Shan, could you get us some to study?"

"What? What? Just get some over here." "It's the nano-coating on those terracotta warriors."

Ma Shan was going crazy. The Terracotta Warriors were national treasures. He was trying to scrape off a bit of the nano-coating from them, and the color was already hard to preserve. Now he was deliberately damaging them. Ma Shan felt that his dream of becoming a general was getting further and further away from him.

He deserves credit for the successful development of the five-stage engine, and it wouldn't be difficult for it to be upgraded again this year or next. However, if the Terracotta Army is damaged, then it will probably be a long way off.

“Those are terracotta warriors, national treasures. If I were to damage a national treasure, I'd have to be crazy.”

The chief engineer smiled and said, "I know. That thing was already patchy. We can just get a little bit over there, even half the size of a fingernail. I have a strong feeling that our invisible coating might make a breakthrough."

"Just because of that nano-coating?" Ma Shan said incredulously, "Fine, who told you to be the boss? I'm just a lowly errand boy. If I don't do this kind of thing, who will?"

Although Ma Shan was a decisive and ruthless soldier, he was still very apprehensive when he arrived at the Qin Shi Huang Terracotta Warriors Research Institute.

"Hello comrade, my name is Ma Shan, and I'm from the Air Force."

The director of the Terracotta Warriors Research Institute was a bit at a loss. He had dealt with many people, but he had never dealt with the Air Force before.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

He almost blurted it out, but the words wouldn't come out. Finally, he mustered his courage and said, "Um...didn't you unearth a purple terracotta warrior?"

"There is indeed such a terracotta warrior, which can be described as a priceless treasure."

Ma Shan swallowed hard and said, "Um, could I ask you for a tiny bit of purple pigment, about the size of a fingernail, to take back and study?"

Ma Shan completely baffled the director.

"No, Comrade Ma Shan, it's like comparing apples and oranges." The director organized his thoughts: "Your Air Force Research Institute should be researching aircraft and missiles, why would you need the purple pigment from this artifact?"

Ma Shan wanted to tell the truth, but the project was highly confidential and he couldn't talk about it, so after thinking it over, he decided to be more subtle.

“The Air Force needs to research a completely new material. An academician once said that your purple raw material is a kind of nano-coating,” Ma Shan said slowly. “So, we would like to borrow a little bit of it to study and see if it can inspire our new material. After all, nano-coating is still a relatively new topic.”

"Nano coating?" the director asked, puzzled. "None of the research institutes we cooperate with have reported this so far. Which academician mentioned this nano coating?"

"It's confidential." Ma Shan shook his head: "Because of disciplinary issues, I can't tell you. We're only applying for a tiny bit, just the size of a little fingernail."

The director thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I can't make that decision."

(End of this chapter)