Oh, right, we don't even know if he has mastered the manufacturing method of the new generation of lithography machines. Henry, tell me, is that guy named Qiao Ze a god? Well, even if he were a god, we don't have the slightest chance to meet this god, not a single one. Is that reasonable?"
Clearly, the big shot was on the verge of exploding.
And he had every reason to.
It was bad enough that a mere model had stumped everyone, but they had invested tens of millions to get close to Qiao Ze, and yet they couldn't exchange a single word with him.
The profile of Qiao Ze had to rely on public information and the correspondence between Qiao Ze and those professors.
And they were all discussing fundamental academic questions.
As for messages about applied directions, they couldn't analyze a thing.
This truly was infuriating.
Although the CIA's expenditures didn't need nor could possibly be disclosed to the public, spending so much and gaining so little was still unbearable for him.
All the information could be found through public channels; he didn't even need to ask those experts since he already knew that Qiao Ze had created a proper robotic dog in Huaxia that could talk, entertain, and even recruit students of that kind.
Truly, no one wanted to feed a bunch of deadbeats.
Not only was the offline approach fruitless, but even the usually successful hacker groups were repeatedly hitting walls. The information they obtained was even less valuable than Henry's report at the moment. In short, there hadn't been a single piece of good news for him recently.
"Well, if those professors are unwilling to cooperate, we can't do anything about it... As for the people we arranged previously, they simply can't get close. Moreover, up to now, Qiao Ze hasn't shown any weaknesses."
"No, no, no, Henry, as long as he's human, he must have weaknesses. Money, women, liquor... All right, those are too mundane. Then cowardliness, fear, arrogance, desire... or family, friends... With enough patience, we can always find the flaws, even in those so-called scientists. And now, is it too much for me to want to know what weaknesses that young man has?!"
"Of course, it's not too much, but that's in Huaxia..."
"I know! But dollars can't be spent in vain. Since we're being paid, we must produce some results. Henry, push a little harder, it's bound to work. Remember, we're not running a charity; these are the responsibilities that businessmen should bear."
"But it's getting increasingly difficult, you should know how attractive it is now..."
"Enough, if it weren't difficult, I wouldn't waste my time on this delightful evening meeting with you. Wouldn't I? Remember, I need a result, as soon as possible! Also, get Williams to see me immediately; we need to make some changes to our asset allocation."
Huaxia, Xilin University of Technology.
Qiao Ze never expected that a single research group meeting could accumulate so many questions, leading directly to an extension of the meeting time.
But he had Edward Whitten to blame.
Qiao Ze had only recently learned that his manuscript discussing the Super Helical Coordinate System with Edward Whitten had been circulated back to his home country.
The twisting questions had become the inevitable opening topics for today's research group meeting. There were twelve researchers, plus his and Li Jiangao's five students, making a total of seventeen people.
The students were manageable, but the twelve researchers had turned into curious babies, firing question after question, which he patiently answered, although the effectiveness was unknown. Their perplexed and seemingly understanding expressions made it hard for Qiao Ze to discern whether they had grasped the concept or not, or if they understood one problem only to be stumped by another that arose from it...
Well, Qiao Ze admitted that he had virtually zero teaching experience.
No one could expect someone who relied entirely on self-study to figure out all the relevant knowledge from elementary school to graduate level to accurately judge others' learning difficulties.
Because it all seemed so simple.
Finally, the grueling research group meeting ended, and another problem was laid before Qiao Ze.
"So, Professor Qiao, the academic community is genuinely interested in the Super Helical Coordinate System, perhaps we should just hold a symposium."