The small incident in Jiangcheng was only a matter of concern for the administrators and parents of a few local middle schools.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Shanghai.
Huaxuan Technology Research and Development Center.
Inside an optics laboratory.
"It worked! We did it!"
Zhang Mo stared at the optical simulation interference pattern on the computer screen, beside himself with excitement.
He snatched the data report from the desk and hurried toward the office of his director, Lin Wei.
"President Lin! The contrast of the interference fringes met our projections!"
he said, pointing to the data on the report.
"We rebuilt the underlying optical path model according to the simplified approach proposed by Li Dong: ’maskless dual-beam laser interference.’"
"We then used a non-polarizing beam-splitter prism to split a single high-coherence deep ultraviolet laser beam into two, and finally, we adjusted the angle of incidence, theta, using a reflector system."
"When the two coherent beams overlapped on the surface of the substrate coated with photoresist, they perfectly formed standing wave nodes!"
"Moreover, as we explored his idea further, we discovered that the absence of a complex projection objective lens assembly completely eliminated the most troublesome issue: spherical aberration! We only need to introduce a simple piezoelectric, ceramic-driven mirror for fine adjustments. This allows us to tweak the optical path difference between the two beams and achieve precise shifting of the interference fringes!"
Zhang Mo struggled to contain his elation.
"Not only does this nullify dozens of inherent aberration error sources from the projection objective lens, but it also eliminates the need for the accompanying complex, real-time aberration correction module. On top of that, for exposing specific periodic micro- and nanostructures, the resolution now approaches the theoretical limit of λ/2 in an ambient air environment!"
Lin Wei sat behind his desk, his heart beginning to race as he listened to Zhang Mo’s report.
But he was a director, after all; he couldn’t just take it at face value.
So he began to carefully leaf through the report.
"Have you run the cost analysis?"
Zhang Mo nodded.
"Based on preliminary estimates, compared to our previous plan, Li Dong’s approach will cut our costs by 17%!"
17%!
In the field of lithography, where a single piece of equipment costs tens or even hundreds of millions, this was a figure that would drive any investor wild!
Lin Wei took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
He had seen the exam paper before and thought the high schooler’s idea was brilliant, perhaps even feasible.
But he never imagined that the R&D team would get the simulation running in just a few days, let alone produce such a staggering cost reduction.
Just a few days!
In the past, tackling a single technological hurdle—even with a clear path forward—would take them months, sometimes more than half a year, of repeated trial and error.
Granted, Li Dong’s idea was merely an optimization of their existing technology.
But to close the loop in a matter of days?
What did that prove?
It proved that the solution Li Dong had written on his exam wasn’t just a high schooler’s flash of brilliance. It was an engineering framework, built on a near-perfect and exceptionally mature foundation of physical logic. He had even taken boundary conditions and industrial constraints into account!
’This kid’s intuition for physics... it’s monstrous...’
Lin Wei muttered to himself.
He opened his eyes and waved a hand at Zhang Mo.
"Great work, Zhang. Take your team out for a break. I’m fast-tracking the project for physical validation, and I’ll personally approve the funding!"
After Zhang Mo left the office, Lin Wei turned to his computer and accessed the contestant database for the Huaxuan Cup semifinals.
He pulled up the file for exam number SC-2022-001.
Jiangcheng City Seventh Middle School, Academic Dean/Physics Department Head: Zheng Hua.
Lin Wei picked up his phone and dialed the number directly...
Meanwhile, Li Dong, the eye of the storm, was completely oblivious to the events unfolding in Shanghai.
「In Jiangcheng, at Misha’s house.」
Li Dong was seated at a desk in a spacious, brightly lit study, scribbling on a piece of scratch paper.
Beside him, Misha sat bolt upright in a set of loose loungewear, so nervous she was even breathing cautiously.
"See this final problem on derivatives? With the standard high school approach, you’d need to construct an incredibly complex difference function, then differentiate it twice to determine its monotonicity, right?"
Li Dong said, pointing to a major problem on the exam paper.
Misha nodded repeatedly.
"Exactly. I can never find the right starting point to construct the function. It’s too time-consuming."
Li Dong smiled. "Since your high school fundamentals are solid, let’s think outside the high school box."
"Have you ever thought that many complex transcendental functions can be approximated locally by polynomials?"
He wrote a formula on the paper.
"This is the Maclaurin form of a Taylor expansion."
"For example, e^x. You can expand it into 1 + x + (x^2)/2! + ..."
"When you encounter a problem that requires bounding like this, you can just expand it to the second or third order. The transcendental inequality instantly becomes a simple quadratic inequality."
"And this limit problem. L’Hôpital’s rule is useful, but it fails for certain oscillating functions or at points where the derivative doesn’t exist."
"If you understood a little about Taylor series remainder analysis, or the deeper logic behind substituting equivalent infinitesimals, you could see the trick behind it in an instant."
Li Dong’s explanation flowed with effortless grace, but Misha’s heart pounded in her chest as she listened.
Li Dong paused and looked at Misha, who was furiously scribbling notes. He couldn’t help but say...
"Misha, your fundamentals are honestly very good. You’ll have no problem getting into a Tier 1 university from Seventh Middle School. I really don’t think you need to spend money on tutoring from me."
Misha simply glanced at him, refusing to engage with the topic.
"But... that variation of the bonus problem Teacher Jiang put on the blackboard... I stayed up two nights and still couldn’t solve it."

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