Chapter 280 - 215: Too Backward, Perfect for a Display

Chapter 280: Chapter 215: Too Backward, Perfect for a Display

「The next morning, at Yanhai Company.」

Chen Lin had just walked into his office when his phone rang.

He glanced at the caller ID—Xiang Wentian’s assistant, Hang.

His heart skipped a beat.

Academician Liang had already told him via WeChat early this morning about Elder Xiang being rushed into emergency surgery yesterday afternoon.

Although his condition had stabilized, Chen Lin still felt uneasy.

He took a deep breath and answered the call.

"Hello, Assistant Hang."

"Professor Chen, it’s me." Hang’s voice came from the other end of the line. He sounded exhausted, but his tone was steady. "Elder Xiang’s surgery last night was a success, and his condition has now stabilized."

Chen Lin felt a wave of relief. "That’s good, that’s good. Is Elder Xiang available to talk? I’d like to say a few words to him."

Hang was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Elder Xiang is still resting, so it’s not a good time. However..."

He paused, and his voice suddenly filled with an unconcealable excitement.

"Professor Chen, I told Elder Xiang last night that you made a major contribution to the hypersonic vehicle materials research project."

Chen Lin was taken aback.

Hang continued, "After hearing the news, his spirits lifted considerably. He can’t speak in full sentences yet, but I could tell he was very gratified."

Hang’s voice held a hint of a sob.

"Professor Chen, thank you."

"You’re giving me too much credit," Chen Lin said quickly. "Elder Xiang has been very kind to me. This is the least I could do."

He paused, then said sincerely, "When some time has passed, I’ll find an opportunity to visit Elder Xiang in Yuxi."

"Okay, Elder Xiang would be very happy to hear that." Hang’s voice softened. "Well, I won’t disturb you any longer, Professor Chen."

"Alright, thank you for your hard work."

After hanging up, Chen Lin leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief.

Elder Xiang was stable for now, at least.

Given Elder Xiang’s current physical condition, a crisis could occur again at any moment. But at the very least, Chen Lin could provide him with some gratifying news to hear.

’For Elder Xiang, that must be a form of comfort.’

Chen Lin was silent for a moment, then shook his head, pushing the heavy thoughts from his mind.

He turned around, opened his laptop, and went back to staring at the dense technical documents on the screen.

Chen Lin hadn’t mentioned a single word to his colleagues at the company about his involvement in tackling the problems for the hypersonic vehicle project yesterday.

For one, he had signed a non-disclosure agreement, and abiding by it was a matter of basic professional ethics.

For another, while Chen Lin didn’t know much about the defense and military sector, he could guess from the common knowledge he’d picked up over the years—

that a "hypersonic vehicle," even if it wasn’t the kind of definitive, game-changing strategic weapon, was still one of the nation’s most critical trump cards.

The fewer people who knew about this kind of thing, the better. It was just safer.

It was all quite surreal, come to think of it.

Chen Lin leaned back in his chair, the corner of his mouth twitching involuntarily.

Before yesterday, in his pitiful military knowledge scraped together from browsing forums, a "hypersonic vehicle" was something that existed only in PowerPoint presentations and theoretical concepts.

Things like "potential major breakthroughs in the next decade," or "currently still in the technology demonstration phase"...

But as it turned out, he learned yesterday that the nation’s key research projects of this kind already had well-developed and mature plans in place.

They had simply run into some technical bottlenecks in a few key areas, which required his mathematical abilities to help solve.

According to what Academician Liang had revealed to him last night, now that Chen Lin had helped the project team perfect the mathematical model for the "material ablation process under extreme high-temperature and high-pressure environments," the entire project group might be able to conduct a physical test within six months.

A physical test!

’What did that mean?’

It meant that thing was no longer just data and formulas on paper, but a genuine, buildable superweapon!

Chen Lin was suddenly reminded of a meme that circulated online—

"So outdated, we can put it on display!"

He used to think it was just netizens having fun and joking around.

But now, after yesterday’s confidential meeting, Chen Lin understood on a deep level that this shit was no joke at all.

The primary equipment shown in the news and at various public events, even the parts that looked the most advanced, were likely things that had been developed five, or even ten years ago and had already been in service for some time.

As for the truly cutting-edge, state-of-the-art projects with the greatest strategic deterrence... the outside world would never know about them.

Until the day they were truly needed to make their debut.

Thinking of this, Chen Lin suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of pride and mission.

’To be able to use my own mathematical abilities to make a small contribution to these major national projects...’

’Honestly, this feeling is better than earning any amount of money.’

Chen Lin smiled and turned his attention back to his computer screen.

On the screen were the technical materials related to large AI models that he had been studying on his own for the past week.

Although the hypersonic vehicle business had come to a temporary close, his own AI project was far from a point where he could relax.

’Next, I have to devote all my energy to perfecting the new algorithm.’

...

「Two more days passed in the blink of an eye.」

At 3:00 PM on Wednesday, December 10th, in the open office area of Yanhai Company, Chen Lin finally stopped typing.

On the computer screen in front of him, a technical document over forty pages long sat quietly.

The document’s title was written prominently:

[A Novel Neural Network Architecture Based on Adaptive Hierarchical Attention and Linear Recurrence Fusion Mechanism—Complete Mathematical Derivations and Algorithmic Implementation Plan]

Chen Lin had spent the entire afternoon compiling this document, organizing all the core formulas, algorithmic frameworks, and implementation details from his mathematical derivations over the past month-plus into a complete technical document ready for direct use by engineers.

Chen Lin rubbed his aching temples and let out a long sigh.

’It’s finally done.’

For over a month, he had spent more than two hours almost every afternoon engaged in high-intensity mathematical derivations.

Although he was boosted by the [Little Mathematician] title, which made his thought processes far more efficient than an ordinary person’s, the prolonged mental labor still left him feeling exhausted.

’But it was all worth it.’

Chen Lin looked at the document on the screen, a satisfied smile playing on his lips.

From a mathematical standpoint, this new neural network architecture was already far more elegant and efficient than the current mainstream Transformer architecture.

’As for its actual performance...’

’...that will depend on the validation results from Bai Qian.’