Huaxuan Technology Research and Development Headquarters.
Zhang Mo, a senior engineer, was striding down the hallway in a state of utter confusion.
Just moments ago, he had been in the lab, leading his team in a simulation to further simplify the optical path for the "dual-beam interference maskless" proposal Li Dong had submitted for the semifinals. They were watching the parameters approach their perfect theoretical values when the internal line from the director’s office rang, summoning him over immediately.
KNOCK KNOCK.
As Zhang Mo knocked and entered the director’s office, Lin Wei was just putting down his phone.
"...That’s right. Postpone the two remaining meetings for today."
Lin Wei then handed a test paper to Zhang Mo, who had just walked in.
"Take a look at this."
Bewildered, Zhang Mo took it and looked down at the paper.
At first, he glanced at it casually, but after reading just two lines, he froze on the spot as if he’d been struck by lightning.
"Synchronously fine-tune the vacuum wavelength (λ) of the light source to proportionally offset fluctuations in the immersion fluid’s refractive index (n)..."
"Ensure the ratio (n+Δn)/(λ+Δλ) remains constant, thus maintaining the phase φ and equal optical path length..."
Zhang Mo’s breathing involuntarily grew heavy.
This paper was telling him: forget the water, control the light!
’So... so this is another possible approach?!’
Zhang Mo looked at Lin Wei.
"President Lin, which top-tier lab proposed this new idea? This is a stroke of genius! It completely bypasses the most difficult aspect—medium control—and attacks the problem from a higher level, right from the light source!"
Lin Wei said nothing, simply pointing at the test paper.
Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School, Li Dong.
Zhang Mo’s mind went blank.
Li Dong?
"President Lin... isn’t... isn’t this the high school student who proposed the maskless concept for the semifinals?!"
Zhang Mo asked in disbelief.
Lin Wei confirmed, "The very same."
"A genius! This is an engineering genius the likes of which you see once in a century!" Zhang Mo exclaimed excitedly.
"President Lin, no matter the cost, we have to get him! Even if we have to sign a ten-year joint development agreement first, it’s worth it!"
"Our legal and HR departments will worry about poaching him," Lin Wei cut him off, his voice grave.
"What you need to do now is take your team and immediately build a Mathematical Model. See if this synchronous wavelength tuning approach is actually viable in a practical engineering setting! Go!"
"Understood! I’m on my way!"
Clutching the test paper, Zhang Mo rushed frantically out of the office.
No sooner had Zhang Mo left than Lin Wei’s phone rang again.
"President Lin, Teacher Chen and the student Li Dong from Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School have arrived."
"Show them in."
A moment later, the office door opened, and Elder Chen walked in with Li Dong.
"Director Lin, I hope we’re not intruding."
Elder Chen smiled "amiably."
"Not at all, Teacher Chen. Please, have a seat."
Lin Wei stood up, gestured to the sofa, and then got straight to the point.
"Li Dong, the idea you left on your final exam paper was incredibly enlightening for us. On behalf of Huaxuan’s R&D department, I’d like to express our gratitude."
"As for the follow-up verification, our company’s team will get on it immediately."
"If it proves feasible, we will discuss a formal agreement with you in detail."
Hearing this, Elder Chen knew he was in a strong position.
Before coming, back at the hotel, he had asked Li Dong in detail what he had written on the paper.
Although Elder Chen didn’t work in semiconductor engineering, the moment he heard about the "wavelength compensates for refractive index" model, he knew Li Dong had once again hit one of Huaxuan Technology’s major pain points.
’Since Huaxuan Technology is using our student’s idea, we have some leverage now.’
Elder Chen spoke slowly.
"Director Lin, Li Dong is currently the top student at our Sixth Middle School."
"As his teacher, I’m naturally happy and proud that the fruits of his thinking can help you solve practical industrial problems."
"However," Elder Chen’s tone grew firm.
"Scientific research requires positive feedback."
"Li Dong is currently preparing to apply for the ’Qiu Chengtong Middle School Science Award,’ so..."
After listening, Lin Wei’s brow furrowed deeply.
He looked at Elder Chen and shook his head. "Teacher Chen, I told you yesterday outside the examination hall."
"In principle, that is absolutely out of the question."
"President Lin..."
Elder Chen still wanted to press his case.
"No, Teacher Chen, you still don’t understand."
Lin Wei interrupted him, his tone turning a few degrees colder.
"Whether it’s the previous proposal or this new one, its value lies entirely in the ’idea’!"
"The most precious part is that initial breakthrough—the spark that cuts through the noise! The moment this paper is published, international giants like ASML and Nikon only need to see the words ’synchronous wavelength tuning’ and they’ll immediately be on our tail. With their vast resources, they could even bypass our patent barriers in an instant! Business competition is a life-and-death struggle. I absolutely cannot open that door."
Elder Chen was completely shut down by Lin Wei’s words, momentarily at a loss for a rebuttal.
He hadn’t considered this angle before; he had only been focused on securing a stepping stone for his student.
Just as the atmosphere in the office grew heavy, Li Dong, who had been sitting quietly to the side like a silent observer, suddenly spoke up.
"Director Lin, excuse me for interrupting."
"You just said that the idea on my test paper helped you solve a problem?"
Lin Wei looked at the young man, a little perplexed.
"You were the one who proposed this idea. Don’t you know the caliber of what you’ve accomplished?"
Li Dong nodded.
"I know what I wrote, but it doesn’t seem to quite align with what you were just saying about ’immediate implementation’ and ’fearing competitors will copy it’..."
Lin Wei raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I just treated it as a physics problem to be solved."
Li Dong’s tone was perfectly sincere.
"It’s only a theoretically perfect physical path. But in a real-world engineering environment, it’s absolutely impossible to implement."
At these words, both Lin Wei and Elder Chen were stunned.
"Impossible to implement?" As a physics PhD from Fudan University, Lin Wei’s professional expertise was top-notch. "Elaborate."
"The core difficulty of this problem is the requirement to complete the compensation within 1ms, without using any contact-based temperature sensors."
Li Dong analyzed methodically.
"Therefore, the only way is to use feed-forward control."
"This requires building an extremely precise mapping model that forcibly couples laser energy deposition, fluid heat dissipation, and the transient temperature field at a scanning speed of 1200mm/s."
Li Dong looked Lin Wei in the eyes and delivered the fatal blow.
"To achieve this, one must solve the strong coupling of the Navier-Stokes equations (N-S equations) and transient heat conduction under a high Reynolds number in real-time, at the millisecond level. But under high-speed scanning, the immersion fluid is in a state of violent turbulence, and can even produce micron-scale cavitation disturbances due to laser heating."
"Current computational fluid dynamics simply cannot predict this kind of chaotic turbulent boundary layer in real-time within the lithography machine’s control system, using less than 1ms of computing power! The moment the prediction has the slightest deviation, the wavelength compensation will fail, and the yield rate will drop to zero."
Li Dong concluded.
"So, it’s just a beautiful physical model. From an engineering standpoint, the required computing power is unattainable. It’s a dead end."
Lin Wei lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.
He knew all too well about the bottlenecks of turbulence and computing power.
A moment ago, he had only seen the brilliance of the optical theory. He’d been so swept up in his excitement that he’d overlooked the computational disaster that fluid dynamics posed for real-time control!
Just then.
BANG BANG BANG!
The office door was knocked upon, and a sweat-drenched Zhang Mo pushed his way in.
He looked up, saw the guests, and hesitated awkwardly at the doorway. "President Lin, about that simulation..."
Lin Wei took a deep breath and looked at Zhang Mo.
"Did the thermo-fluid coupling of the N-S equations diverge at high-speed boundaries? Is the millisecond-level feed-forward predictive computing power completely insufficient?"
Zhang Mo stared at Lin Wei in shock.
’I just ran over from the Supercomputing Center! I haven’t even had time to write up the report! How could Director Lin possibly know?’
"Y-yes, President Lin!"
Zhang Mo added, "We just introduced a turbulence disturbance factor and found that as soon as the scanning speed exceeds 800mm/s, the predictive model experiences chaotic deviation. The error magnifies by more than tenfold, making real-time feed-forward compensation impossible..."
Lin Wei waved a dismissive, weary hand.
"I know. You can go for now."
The office fell silent once more.
Lin Wei took a long, hard look at Li Dong.
If, before, when Li Dong had proposed the "dual-beam interference" plan for the semifinals, Lin Wei had thought him a rare engineering genius...
...then now, Lin Wei felt he was looking at an absolute monster.
A high school student who could not only propose a groundbreaking new path in an exam room that even PhDs in optics like them hadn’t considered, but could also see through to the fatal flaw hidden in its engineering implementation—the underlying dead end of fluid dynamics and computing power!
He didn’t just sell you a beautiful dream; he told you exactly where the poison was hidden inside it.
Lin Wei stood up. This time, he took the initiative, pulling out his phone and holding it out to Li Dong.
"Li Dong, add me on WeChat."
"I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again very soon."
Half an hour later, Elder Chen and Li Dong walked out of the Huaxuan Technology headquarters building.
Elder Chen looked dejected. He sighed and said,
"Ah, Li Dong, in the end, we couldn’t reach an agreement on the academic publication rights."
Li Dong, however, seemed perfectly relaxed.
"It’s fine, Teacher Chen. If it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out."
This wasn’t Li Dong pretending to be above fame and fortune; he genuinely didn’t care.
Ever since witnessing the elegance of Maxwell’s Equations and the clash of truths between titans like Newton and Einstein in the "Cyan Dragon Study Group"...
...he had discovered that what he truly loved was pure physics.
The ultimate beauty of explaining the laws of the universe with just a few lines of mathematical formulas.
As for this sort of practical engineering application, which involved complex fluid dynamics, computational bottlenecks, and material costs?
It was fine, but it was by no means his ultimate pursuit!
Seeing Li Dong’s carefree attitude, Elder Chen was suddenly reminded of something and asked, puzzled,
"Hey, that’s right. When did you get so knowledgeable about cutting-edge engineering like lithography machines and optical refraction? I’ve been giving you private tutoring every day in my office, and I never noticed you had this kind of foundation."
Hearing this, Li Dong chuckled and thought to himself,
’Like hell I can tell you I can actually see light.’

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