The heavy blast doors of the Taichu-Jiangcheng Joint Advanced Lab slid open with a soft hydraulic hiss.
Lin Mo stepped onto the polished gray antistatic floor beside Professor Xu, Su Wan, and Shen Qiaoqiao. The five-thousand-square-meter facility gleamed under bright white LED panels. Rows of automated robotic assembly arms, vacuum sintering furnaces, and digital chemical vapor deposition chambers hummed with precision.
Thirty young graduate assistants in blue clean-room suits surrounded the central testing chamber. In the middle of the room stood a massive cylindrical wind-tunnel chamber behind four-inch bulletproof quartz glass.
Inside the wind tunnel, six giant turbine fans roared at full speed, generating simulated gale-force winds of ninety miles an hour. Jets of cold water sprayed across the chamber, simulating a coastal autumn typhoon. The air inside the glass cylinder was freezing, dropping below minus ten degrees Celsius.
Hovering motionless against the howling hurricane was a heavy-lift Taichu medical emergency drone.
The carbon-fiber drone carried an insulated fifty-pound organ-transplant container. Mounted beneath its central fuselage was a compact, silver rectangular power pack the size of a shoebox. Across its brushed titanium casing were embossed four emerald characters: Taichu-1.
Lin Xiaoxiao stood before the central telemetry console, her fingers dancing rapidly across the touchscreen. Beside her, Chen Yu held a digital stopwatch, his eyes glued to the live power monitors.
“Three hours!” Chen Yu shouted, his voice cracking with pure excitement. “Three continuous hours at maximum thruster output in a category-twelve typhoon simulation! Battery capacity remaining: forty-two percent!”
A roar of cheers broke out from the thirty lab assistants.
Lin Xiaoxiao spun around to face Lin Mo, her cheeks flushed with scientific triumph.
“Chairman Lin! Professor Xu!” Lin Xiaoxiao announced, pointing to the telemetry graphs displayed across the main laboratory wall. “Energy density reached nine hundred and fifty watt-hours per kilogram! That is more than triple the finest commercial lithium cells in the world! And full recharge from five percent to one hundred percent takes exactly four minutes!”
Professor Xu adjusted his glasses, his hands trembling as he stared at the continuous current curves.
“Nine hundred and fifty watt-hours per kilogram... with zero voltage decay under sub-zero spray,” Professor Xu whispered, his voice trembling with emotion. “For twenty years, foreign battery conglomerates claimed a solid-state cell with this stability was impossible before the year twenty-forty. They mocked our university researchers for chasing fairy tales. Today, our students built it in forty-eight hours.”
Lin Mo looked through the quartz window at the hovering drone. “What about safety under physical trauma, Xiaoxiao? If an emergency ambulance or medical drone crashes, will it catch fire?”
Chen Yu stepped forward, a confident smile spreading across his face. “Chairman Lin, let us demonstrate the severe penetration test right now.”
Chen Yu tapped a red command switch on the console.
Inside an adjacent reinforced containment pod, a secondary robotic arm positioned an identical Taichu-1 battery cell under a five-ton hydraulic ram. The ram was fitted with a hardened eight-inch steel spike.
“Live cell voltage: four point three five volts,” Chen Yu called out into his microphone. “Penetration test starting in three, two, one!”
THUD!
The hydraulic ram slammed downward with immense force. The steel spike drove completely through the center of the silver battery pack, piercing cathode, solid electrolyte, and anode layers in a single fraction of a second.
Everyone held their breath.
With standard commercial lithium batteries, a steel nail penetration triggers instant thermal runaway, erupting into a thousand-degree chemical fireball within three seconds.
Yet, inside the Taichu pod, there was no flame.
There was no smoke.
There was not even a spark.
The digital voltmeter on the monitor screen dipped slightly, then stabilized within two seconds.
“Internal resistance self-isolated at the puncture boundary,” Lin Xiaoxiao reported proudly. “The solid-state composite lotus polymer formed an instant insulating seal around the steel spike. Zero thermal runaway. The battery remains completely inert and safe.”
The thirty lab assistants erupted into another round of applause, clapping each other on the back and cheering.
Lin Mo nodded slowly, a faint smile touching his lips. “Clean, safe, triple the range, and charges in four minutes. This battery will save thousands of lives.”
Meanwhile, eight miles away in the master bedroom of the Zhao family estate, a very different sound filled the air.
CRASH!
A crystal whiskey decanter shattered against a mahogany wall, spraying amber liquor across expensive silk wallpaper.
Zhao Kai sat on the edge of his king-sized bed, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. He wore an unbuttoned silk shirt, his hair disheveled and wild. On the fifty-inch television screen mounted across from him, the morning financial markets broadcast was playing in bright red ticker tape:
“Breaking: WIPO and National Patent Administration Grant Emergency Strategic Patent for Taichu-1 Solid-State Graphene Battery to Inventors Lin Xiaoxiao and Chen Yu! Zhao Technology Holdings Shares Plunge Eighteen Percent in Morning Trading! Total Market Cap Loss Crosses Six Billion Yuan!”
A television commentator’s voice echoed through the bedroom:
“Market analysts confirm that Zhao Technology previously claimed rights to the battery technology through a contested five-thousand-yuan contract. Following Vice-Dean Ma’s arrest, the Patent Bureau confirmed zero ownership rights for Zhao Technology. Institutional investors are dumping Zhao shares at historic speed.”
The private landline on the bedside table began ringing with shrill, piercing urgency.
Zhao Kai picked up the receiver with a shaking hand. Before he could speak, a furious, raspy roar blasted through the earpiece.
“You brainless fool!” the voice of his uncle, Chairman Zhao Kun, thundered over the line. “Our family spent six years acquiring rare-metal supply lines! And you lost the century’s most valuable battery patent because you tried to rob two graduate students for five thousand yuan?! Six billion yuan wiped out in one morning! If the board votes to remove you today, don’t bother crawling to my door!”
SLAM.
The line went dead with a deafening click.
“Five thousand yuan...” Zhao Kai choked out, clutching his throat as a violent spasm wracked his chest.
COUGH!
Zhao Kai coughed violently into his silk handkerchief. When he pulled the cloth away, bright red blood stained the white fabric.
“Lin Mo...” Zhao Kai hissed through red-stained teeth, his fingernails digging into his palms. “You took my money... you ruined my company... you made me spit blood in my own home!”
Back inside the Taichu-Jiangcheng Advanced Lab, the atmosphere was filled with pure hope.
Lin Mo turned away from the observation window and looked at Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, Chen Yu, and the thirty lab assistants.
His [Pure-Heart Eye Lv.1] scanned the room.
[Target: Professor Xu (93/100), Lin Xiaoxiao (94/100), Chen Yu (94/100), & 30 Research Assistants.]
[Average Goodness Score: 92/100.]
[Moral Status: Pure scientific dedication, uncorrupted by corporate greed, working day and night to advance national health and energy security.]
Lin Mo pulled his Black-Gold Card from his coat pocket and handed it to Su Wan.
“Su Wan, execute an immediate patent-royalty disbursement,” Lin Mo instructed. “Five million yuan directly from our Taichu Technology Royalty Fund.”
Su Wan prepared the tablet. “Ready, Chairman Lin.”
“Allocate one million yuan each in cash royalty bonuses to Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Chen Yu,” Lin Mo announced in a clear, resonant voice. “The remaining two million yuan will be divided among our thirty brilliant research assistants, providing each of them with an immediate sixty-six-thousand-yuan cash reward. Furthermore, Taichu Group is awarding each of you an official deed to a three-bedroom apartment in the Emerald River Island Sanctuary complex.”
Across the testing bay, two young battery technicians dropped their digital calipers onto the rubber mat, staring wide-eyed at Lin Mo.
Lin Xiaoxiao clutched her tablet to her chest, her eyes widening. “One million yuan cash... and an apartment on Emerald River Island?!”
“Chairman Lin, we haven’t even begun commercial production yet!” Chen Yu said with a trembling voice. “This is too generous!”
“True science must be honored when it is born, not after middlemen extract their cut,” Lin Mo replied with a deadpan smile. “You gave our society an unbreakable battery. It is only fair that you sleep in an unbreakable home.”
Su Wan swiped the card on her reader: ¥5,000,000.00.
BEEP.
A magnificent celestial chime resonated deep in Lin Mo’s consciousness:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥5,000,000.00 RMB on Patent Royalty Bonuses & Housing Grants for Advanced Battery Team!]
[Beneficiaries: Professor Xu (Goodness: 93/100), Lin Xiaoxiao (Goodness: 94/100), Chen Yu (Goodness: 94/100), & 30 Lab Scholars (Avg Goodness: 92/100)!]
[Target Integrity Verified: Rewarding honest inventors, securing strategic national energy independence.]
[Triggered 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Received Cash Refund: +¥500,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥64,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Personal Wealth Milestone: Vault Reaches ¥64,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +500,000 BMP | Total BMP: 156,949,528 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 9,200 Verified Righteous Allies (Existing Campus Sanctuary Beneficiaries — Battery Lab Team)!]
Five hundred million cash refund, Lin Mo thought, watching his vault balance comfortably reach sixty-four billion yuan. Spending five million to reward the young minds who will power our future, and gaining half a billion in cash. Doing good is the most unstoppable economic force in the universe.
The lab erupted into joyful cheers. Several young assistants hoisted Chen Yu and Lin Xiaoxiao onto their shoulders, laughing and celebrating with tears of relief.
Lin Mo turned toward Tie Niu and Dr. Gu Qinghe, who had just stepped into the lab.
“Dr. Gu, Tie Niu,” Lin Mo said, his tone turning sharp and practical. “How fast can we roll this out across our operations?”
Dr. Gu Qinghe adjusted his glasses, his eyes shining with professional enthusiasm. “Our Taichu Hospital ambulance fleet and emergency rescue helicopters are already queued in Master Lu’s workshops. Replacing their heavy diesel generators and lithium packs with the Taichu-1 will triple our emergency response radius. We can reach any remote mountain village in the province without refueling.”
Tie Niu saluted sharply. “Our five hundred Taichu cold-chain vans and Grandma Chen’s food transport barges will also be fitted with the new battery packs within forty-eight hours, Chairman Lin. Our supply lines will be completely immune to municipal fuel blockades.”
“Excellent,” Lin Mo said. “Authorize immediate mass production.”
Just then, the glass doors of the lab opened once more.
University President Gu walked into the clean-room facility, accompanied by two ceremonial student marshals carrying a pair of ornate, carved brass torches. The brass torches were engraved with soaring cranes and ancient pine branches, polished until they mirrored the ceiling lights.
“Chairman Lin,” President Gu spoke warmly, holding out a gold-trimmed envelope bearing the university’s century-old seal. “Tonight at seven o’clock, the entire faculty, student body, and alumni association will gather at the Grand Stadium for the Centennial Torch Gala.”
President Gu looked at Lin Mo with profound admiration, his voice resonating with deep emotion.
“One hundred years ago, our founding chancellor lit the first Torch of Truth in the winter snow,” President Gu explained. “He declared that this university would forever serve ordinary working people and shield scholars from political tyrants. For twenty years, that flame was dimmed by corrupt bureaucrats who sold our dignity for corporate kickbacks.”
President Gu stepped forward, placing a heavy bronze torch into Lin Mo’s hands.
“Tonight, our university will hold the final endowment ceremony to complete the one-hundred-and-fifty-million-yuan Taichu Pure-Heart Scholarship and Laboratory Fund,” President Gu announced proudly. “The university council has unanimously voted that you, Lin Mo, will light the Centennial Torch of Truth before sixty thousand witnesses.”
Lin Mo held the bronze torch, feeling the cool, solid metal beneath his fingers.
Beside him, Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Chen Yu stood straight, their eyes reflecting the golden gleam of the brass.
“It will be an honor, President Gu,” Lin Mo said in a clear, steady voice. “Let us ensure that this flame of truth never flickers again.”
Outside the laboratory windows, dusk settled over Jiangcheng.
The grand stadium across the quadrangle was already bathed in thousands of golden spotlights, while martial drums echoed across the campus grounds. Sixty thousand students, faculty, and citizens were taking their seats, preparing for the historic evening ceremony that would cement Taichu Group’s sovereign position in the city.
Lin Mo slipped the invitation into his coat pocket with a calm, deadpan smile.
The final ceremony was about to begin.