Ye Wenjie, watch my moves closely.

Chapter 57 Reporting to the Deep Space Research Department

The group chatted for a long time before the HR manager finally arrived. Holding the list, she said, "Dear future stars of academia, the head of the HR department will be here soon. Please be patient."

As they were speaking, people carrying flowers and tea came in to adjust the venue setup.

Soon, people arrived one after another, and they sat down in front of the seats with their names printed on them, leaving the center seat empty.

Amidst applause, the section chief was the last to sit down.

As the welcome party began, everyone took turns going up on stage, holding a microphone, and introducing themselves with slightly trembling voices.

The section chief sat in the center, nodding and smiling at the speaker from time to time to show his encouragement.

In the blink of an eye, everyone had finished their introductions, and it was the section chief's turn to speak.

He stood up and took the microphone, but before he could say more than a few words, an old gentleman suddenly walked into the venue.

Upon seeing the person approaching, the section chief immediately dropped what he was saying and went to greet him.

The welcome party was temporarily interrupted. The newlyweds sitting at the back of the hall made a commotion, craning their necks to guess who the person was.

After all, there are countless big shots at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Those who can only be seen in newspapers might just be old men taking a stroll in the academy.

Someone with sharp eyes recognized him: "That looks like Professor Wang! I saw him on stage when I went to an academic conference with my advisor!"

"Is it Professor Wang, who proposed the theory of inertial confinement fusion?!"

The founder of research theory, which is comparable to the pioneer of a new school of thought in academia.

Just then, Old Wang finished speaking with the section chief. The section chief pointed to the place where the newcomers were gathered. Everyone was filled with trepidation. Could they really have a chance to get close to Old Wang?

Then they heard Old Wang calling out, "Ning Shi! Where is Ning Shi?"

"Ah, here!"

Ning Shi responded and stood up, immediately drawing everyone's attention.

"Stop this stupid meeting and come with me. Everyone's waiting for you."

The shout drew all eyes to Ning Shi. Caught off guard by the sudden attention, Ning Shi was embarrassed and breathless. To avoid wasting everyone's time, she hurriedly gathered her things from the table. A new colleague quietly asked her, "Ning Shi, do you know Old Wang?"

Ning Shi shook her head.

She and Old Wang had absolutely no connection; perhaps she had done something wrong that had attracted his attention.

But her new colleague told her, "I don't think so. Look at the expressions on their faces."

Following her words, Ning Shi quickly glanced around the entire venue. She noticed that apart from Old Wang's rather serious expression, the department head who was speaking, as well as other people whose names she couldn't recall, were all looking at her with kind smiles.

Ning Shi even had the illusion that these people's smiles carried a slightly conciliatory meaning.

But I am nothing, so why should I expect others to show me kindness?

After packing her things, Ning Shi walked up to Old Wang and nodded to both him and the department head. The department head smiled in return, "Ning Shi, please take good care of me in the future. The Deep Space Research Department is quite..."

"Alright, alright, enough with the formalities, let's go, Ning Shi."

Without saying a word, Wang Lao Er led Ning Shi forward. The director, whose speech had been interrupted, was not annoyed at all. He stood behind them with a smile and watched the two leave.

After the two walked away, the director turned back to the podium. Although he still had a smile on his face, the genuine joy was gone. He apologized for the interruption of the meeting and then said, "The new colleagues here are all top talents from various universities. I hope that one day I will see you all join the Deep Space Research Department."

Ning Shi, who was just a nobody a moment ago, suddenly became a role model for everyone. Her new colleagues looked at each other, their eyes full of confusion.

Why?

In this context, the Deep Space Research Department seems to be a very prestigious place?

--

Ning Shi had no idea what her new colleagues at the meeting were thinking. At that moment, she had already boarded the shuttle bus with Old Wang.

On the bus, Old Wang wasn't as serious as he appeared in the meeting room. He was like a kind elder, asking Ning Shi where she lived and whether she was used to life after starting work.

"You ask why I'm the one who came to find you?"

Old Wang laughed, "It's all because I'm the most useless old man, arranged by that group of people to welcome you, the new generation."

Ning Shi didn't dare to respond. Old Wang was a well-known scholar in the field of physics. He could joke about being useless, but Ning Shi dared not agree with him.

But in fact, what Old Wang said was sincere. His research had reached the experimental stage, and many things required the support of a particle collider. That behemoth would take more than a year to complete, so he really didn't have anything particularly busy with at the moment.

After a bumpy ride, the shuttle bus arrived at the Deep Space Research Department's residence. Ning Shi saw a large open area with a row of large houses on it, which looked a bit like a fighter jet hangar.

Upon closer inspection, the Deep Space Research Department's premises were not luxurious. There was a neatly arranged signboard at the entrance, and the buildings on both sides were single-story, with almost no two-story structures.

Ning Shi followed behind Professor Wang, fiddling with the strap of her backpack. She thought, "Professor Wang is so concerned about me and even came to greet me. The Deep Space Research Department must be in dire need of new talent. I must not let him down. I must put down roots in the Deep Space Research Department, no matter how tough or difficult it may be!"

"Huh? Something doesn't seem right."

But as Ning Shi walked further into the gate, she felt increasingly uneasy.

This doesn't look like a place without research funding at all!

The path underfoot had been transformed from mottled stone bricks into off-white anti-static boards. The kinetic energy of walking was absorbed by the sponge structure of the floor, making it completely silent. The entire research room seemed to stretch endlessly, but it was well-lit. Ning Shi searched everywhere but couldn't find any light fixtures.

She had never seen this cinematic viewing experience in any research lab, either domestically or internationally.

After Mr. Wang swiped the keypad to open the door, Ning Shi saw a transparent corridor. She walked forward and, through the glass on the left side of the corridor, saw something she would never forget:

Outside the glass was a laboratory emitting a yellow light. The people coming and going inside were all wearing heavy dustproof and insulating suits. In the very center of the laboratory lay a massive electronic behemoth, several meters deep, with densely packed pipes running all over it like blood vessels.

"Is this a lithography machine...?"

As a graduate student in computer engineering, Ning Shi had heard of this jewel in the crown of human industry, but had never seen it, much less imagined that seeing it in person would be so shocking.

With hundreds of thousands of parts working in precision, any problem with any one of them will cause the machine to stop working.

Ning Shi felt a little dizzy.

Is something like this really something that humans could create?