Li Dong was unaware of the storm brewing in the country.
The quiet dragnet operation had sent ripples through more than half of Huaxia’s precision manufacturing supply chain, but all of that was a world away from a freshman studying math at Yan University.
He had simply received a phone call from Lin Wei that evening.
"Li Dong, I need to tell you something."
Lin Wei’s tone was a bit more relaxed than usual.
"The matter with Dongyang Hardware Processing Factory has been resolved."
Li Dong froze for a moment.
"Resolved? How was it resolved?"
"You don’t need to worry about the specifics."
Lin Wei didn’t elaborate, just offering a brief statement.
"All you need to know is that Shengda Precision won’t be bothering you anymore."
Li Dong wanted to press for more details, but Lin Wei clearly had no intention of expanding on the topic.
"One more thing."
Lin Wei’s tone became a little more formal.
"The security clearance for the task force working on your Algorithm 2.1, the one for the photolithography flow field control system, has been raised again."
"What level was it raised to?"
"You don’t need to know the specific level."
Lin Wei paused, choosing his words carefully.
"You just need to know that from now on, all engineering documents, technical communications, and meeting minutes related to your algorithm will be handled exclusively through the encrypted internal network."
"The background checks for all personnel involved have also been comprehensively tightened."
Hearing this, Li Dong had a vague idea of what was going on.
’That company, Shengda Precision... their problem must have been quite serious.’
But what Li Dong didn’t know was that Shengda Precision wasn’t the only one with problems.
Over its many years of operation, Huaxuan Technology’s supply chain had been infiltrated by moles, something National Power Equipment had actually been well aware of all along.
But they had deliberately left them in place, not closing the net.
The reason was simple: from time to time, they would feed carefully crafted misinformation through these channels, letting the other side think they were getting a good deal when, in reality, all they received was sanitized junk data.
This was called "farming fish."
And the reason for the sudden decision to pull in the net this time was precisely Li Dong’s Algorithm 2.1.
Once this system was fully engineered and deployed, it would be directly tied to the core control system of Huaxuan Technology’s next-generation immersion lithography machine.
Its strategic value was so high that it could not allow for even a single potential leak in the supply chain.
So, all the "fish" that had been "farmed" for years were hauled up overnight.
This was also done to protect Li Dong.
"Understood, President Lin."
Although Li Dong still had some doubts, he didn’t dwell on them.
’The Shengda matter was resolved, which meant his mom could finally rest easy.’
Afterward, Li Dong helped Lin Wei solve a few more engineering implementation issues before hanging up.
But as soon as he hung up, Professor Zhou Qifeng summoned Li Dong to his office.
It was now the end of January.
The main final exams for most schools at Yan University were over, and many departments had already started their winter break.
But Yuanpei College was different.
Yuanpei students only had centrally scheduled exams for their general education core courses and public political courses, which were already finished.
However, most Yuanpei students also took specialized courses from other departments.
For example, Mathematical Analysis from the School of Mathematics, General Chemistry from the School of Chemistry, General Biology from the School of Life Sciences, Introduction to Computing from the School of Information Science...
The final exams for these courses followed the schedules of their respective departments.
Some were finished, others weren’t.
Therefore, as the homeroom advisor for this administrative class at Yuanpei College, Professor Zhou Qifeng naturally hadn’t started his break either.
「Inside Professor Zhou Qifeng’s office.」
At that moment, Director Liu was standing next to Professor Zhou Qifeng, his expression a little strange.
He lowered his voice and said cautiously.
"Professor Zhou, please calm down."
Professor Zhou Qifeng shot him a glare.
"Calm down? Why would I need to calm down?"
"I’m overjoyed."
Director Liu nodded from the side.
’Right, right, you’re overjoyed.’
’So overjoyed you skipped lunch.’
But you couldn’t blame Professor Zhou.
Because spread out on the desk in front of him was a grade summary sheet.
It was the final exam results for the first semester of Yuanpei College’s first-year students, exported from the academic affairs system.
One of the rows had a name: Li Dong.
Zhou Qifeng had been staring at it for a long time.
General Education Core Course: 97.
Ideological and Moral Cultivation and Foundations of Law: 76.
College English: 99.
Mathematical Analysis (I): 100.
General Biology: 100.
General Chemistry (A): 100.
Introduction to Computing (A): 100.
Aside from his score in Ideological and Moral Cultivation and Foundations of Law, which was at least somewhat normal, the scores for all his other subjects were anything but.
Especially the four specialized directional courses he had chosen.
Perfect scores in all of them.
You have to understand, these weren’t final exams from some ordinary university.
The difficulty of the exams at Yan University Yuanpei was legendary.
The final exam for every course included several questions that went beyond the syllabus.
The kind that were beyond the syllabus even for these national college entrance exam top scorers and Olympiad gold medalists.
These questions weren’t designed to test foundational knowledge, but to distinguish the "excellent" from the "elite."
Scoring above 90 already made you a top scholar among top scholars.
A perfect score?
In the history of Yuanpei, a perfect score in a single subject was exceedingly rare, let alone perfect scores in four.
But Zhou Qifeng’s feelings at this moment were far more complicated than just seeing four perfect scores.
Because on this grade sheet, one spot was empty.
In the electives section, he had taken Mathematical Analysis, General Biology, General Chemistry, and Introduction to Computing.
But there was no physics.
He hadn’t even taken a single basic course in mechanics or University Physics.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Li Dong pushed the door open and walked in.
"Hello, Professor Zhou. Hello, Director Liu."
Zhou Qifeng looked at the grinning student before him and sighed deeply.
He took something out of his drawer.
"Let’s talk business first."
"Dean Liu spoke with the university, and the project application for your research group has been approved."
Li Dong’s eyes immediately lit up.
The GL(n) project he, Yang Shengguo, and Penrose wanted to pursue had run into an issue.
Yang Shengguo was not an official employee of Yan University.
Although he was a core member of the research group, university regulations required that any non-university personnel needing long-term access to Yan University’s academic resources—including entering and exiting campus, using the library, and accessing the campus VPN to download literature—had to go through the formal resource-sharing process for external personnel.
This process had been underway for a while but had been stuck in the approval stage.
Now, it was approved.
Zhou Qifeng handed an envelope to Li Dong.
"Inside is Yang Shengguo’s temporary campus ID card, as well as the confirmation letters for his VPN account and library borrowing privileges."
"From now on, he can enter and leave campus, go to the library, and use electronic resources without you having to run out and get him every time."
Li Dong took the envelope, grinning from ear to ear.
"Thank you, Professor Zhou!"
Zhou Qifeng waved his hand, signaling that no thanks were necessary.
Then he looked at Li Dong and said grimly.
"You didn’t take physics for your finals this time?"
Li Dong’s smile froze on his face.
’He had taken all the other subjects...’
’But he’d forgotten about physics...’
He had subconsciously felt that, at his current level, University Physics was completely unnecessary for him.
’That bit of mechanics? He’d been solving problems with Lagrangians and the Euler-Lagrange Equations back in high school.’
’Thermodynamics? He’d already gotten the hang of the statistical physics framework when he was deriving the hysteresis loop and first-order phase transition isomorphism for his Qiu Prize project.’
’Electromagnetism? He’d even tutored Newton on the subject...’
’As for optics...’
’He could see light!’
So he had genuinely, subconsciously felt that taking the final exam for University Physics would be a waste of his time.
But he didn’t dare say that out loud.
"Er... It was mainly a lack of time. I had too much going on this semester, so I just didn’t get around to taking it..."
Li Dong tried to explain.
However, Zhou Qifeng seemed to see right through him and added grimly.
"Do you look down on physics?"

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