"Do you all remember that time I saved people from a fire a while ago?"
"I entered the fire wearing a mecha then, but the heat insulation of that mecha was insufficient, and coupled with the complex fire situation at the scene, the outer layer of the mecha ruptured, resulting in severe burns to both my hands."
As he spoke, Jing Mingqiu raised his hands, displaying the ferocious scars on the back of his hands to everyone.
"That looks like it hurt so much!"
"Are his hands ruined?"
"So the mecha's heat insulation is that bad? I thought wearing a mecha made you invincible..."
The few paid online commenters arranged by foreign powers were no match for tens of millions of netizens, and with the addition of domestic online commentators fanning the flames, the entire atmosphere of the bullet comments instantly cleared up.
Jing Mingqiu glanced at the bullet comments, very satisfied, and then changed the subject, refocusing on He Zhuo.
"He Zhuo, I'm improving the mecha's heat insulation to make it safer when rescuing people from fires."
"Before answering your question, let me ask you one: if the workshop suddenly caught fire, and you entered wearing a mecha to fight the fire, would the temperature on the mecha continuously rise, or would it fluctuate?"
He Zhuo replied without hesitation: "Of course it would keep rising. The longer the fire burns, the hotter it gets..."
"Shut up!" Jing Mingqiu's sharp reprimand cut He Zhuo off. "Not to mention that the temperatures in different parts of a fire scene are definitely different, but when you enter to fight the fire, won't you be using a water hose? When the water from the hose splashes onto you, won't the mecha's temperature decrease?"
"If you find an injured person, you'll have to carry them out, away from the fire scene. Won't the mecha's temperature have to decrease?"
"..."
After Jing Mingqiu threw out a series of questions he had prepared, he cast a disdainful glance at He Zhuo.
"He Zhuo, what I'm asking is all based on my personal experience, and the testing procedures were set according to this. I never said that testing heat insulation means throwing a mecha into a furnace and seeing which one is more heat-resistant."
"If that were the case, I might as well go to a factory and order a batch of refractory bricks!"
Faced with Jing Mingqiu's sarcasm, He Zhuo's lips trembled with anger, but he was completely stunned by the string of questions.
Seeing the increasingly strange looks from those around him, He Zhuo, in a fit of rage, grabbed the list on the table.
"Fine, fine, fine! Even if everything you say is correct! How do you explain this? The test hasn't even started, and the list of admitted candidates and their rankings have already been decided. Even if the assessment is fair, you must have leaked the questions beforehand!"
"Heh," Jing Mingqiu sneered, "I can tell what your capabilities are with just a glance. The final test is just to let you know where you went wrong."
He Zhuo, unwilling to accept defeat, yelled frantically: "Excuses, all excuses! The structure of a mecha is extremely complex. No matter how skilled you are, without taking it apart, how can you know its internal structure? How can you know its performance?"
"So be it, I'll let you lose convincingly." Jing Mingqiu casually picked up a discarded iron rod, walked to the mecha modified by He Zhuo's team, and pointed to the cracks on it. "Although mechas are complex, they are just a stacking of basic structures. This is the weakest point of your mecha. After being burned and experiencing drastic temperature changes, it has become very brittle. A gentle tap like this is all it takes..."
As he spoke, Jing Mingqiu swung the iron rod and hit it. With a crisp sound, the cracks on the mecha rapidly expanded.
In the blink of an eye, the mecha that had just maintained its humanoid form had completely disintegrated, turning into a pile of debris.
Everyone was stunned by what they saw. Although the mecha had cracked, it was still a three-meter-tall, over-a-ton metal construct.
They never expected it to be so brittle, shattering with just one tap. If someone were to wear this to fight a fire, the consequences would be unimaginable.
After smashing the mecha modified by He Zhuo's group, Jing Mingqiu didn't stop.
Relying on the system's scan to display the mecha's weak points, Jing Mingqiu continued tapping with the iron rod...
"Bang! Bang! Bang bang!"
As the iron rod swung down, more and more mechas turned into fragments in Jing Mingqiu's hands. Only the mecha modified by Zhao Geng's group managed to hold on.
Faced with irrefutable evidence, He Zhuo had no face left to stay there. While others went forward to talk to Jing Mingqiu, he tucked his tail between his legs and slunk away.
Thus, the matter of Jing Mingqiu's favoritism and cheating came to a complete end.
The paid online commentators from Western countries, who had spent a large amount of resources, not only failed to drag Jing Mingqiu down from his pedestal but also, due to his incredible performance, saw his fame rise to another level.
A week later, in the White House of the United States, the President convened a meeting with his advisors.
After rewatching Jing Mingqiu's live broadcast several times, the President showed a look of doubt: "With just a gentle tap, he shattered such a heavy mecha. Is that fellow named Jing Mingqiu really just a decoy released by Dragon Country with no abilities?"
Chief Advisor Rory Augsburgh shook his head slightly. "Mr. President, he definitely has abilities, but his abilities might be different from what you imagine."
"How so?" The President's face showed curiosity. "One possibility is coincidence. So many mechas were all shattered by him with a single iron rod. If he couldn't truly find their weak points, could it be that he possesses innate super strength?"
Rory Augsburgh didn't answer immediately but instead took out a document from his pocket and handed it over. "Mr. President, according to our investigation, Jing Mingqiu wears a special auxiliary mecha that can provide immense strength."
"At the same time, the mechas he shattered had undergone drastic temperature changes, and their inherent strength had been severely reduced."
"With both factors combined, he didn't need to specifically hit the weak points caused by stress concentration. As long as he hit them solidly, there was a high probability of shattering the mechas."
The President suddenly understood. "So that's how it is. He made it seem so real, I was almost fooled by him. Rory, how are our people positioned? Have any new intelligence come out recently?"
"Our people are very safe. That fellow Jing Mingqiu has absolutely no awareness of counter-espionage; the entire laboratory is like a sieve."
"As for intelligence," Rory Augsburgh paused, "there is a lot of intelligence, but two points are mainly worth noting."
"First, the progress of Jing Mingqiu's laboratory research on auxiliary mechas for firefighting is very rapid. The theory has been completed, and it has entered the physical production stage."
"Second, a female student named Yi Wenliu has entered the laboratory as a special guest. She has very close contact with Jing Mingqiu, often communicating in private, and is suspected of possessing significant confidential information!"
The President didn't hesitate and slammed the table forcefully: "Do I need to teach you this? Since there's a problem, why aren't you investigating immediately!"
Before the President's order could be transmitted from the White House, a piece of significant news related to Yi Wenliu had already come in...