"Mingqiu, the nuclear power plant construction still needs some time. Do you have any new research plans at the moment?"
Jing Mingqiu scratched his head, "Not at the moment, but when I was signing a contract at the teahouse a while ago, I noticed that Hanfu is very suitable for hiding mechs. I'm considering whether to combine them and create a wearable, form-fitting mech."
"This is indeed something to consider. International situations have been turbulent recently. Being able to wear a mech personally would certainly be safer." Feng Weiguo paused, then asked, "How long do you estimate it will take to complete this project?"
Jing Mingqiu narrowed his eyes, brought up the system panel, and did a quick calculation.
"The mech itself won't take too long. But my understanding of Hanfu is not deep, so it might require more effort. If you could find me some fashion design teachers to help, Principal, the speed could be much faster."
"No problem," Feng Weiguo agreed readily. "I recall that there are a few teachers in the fashion department who are experts in Han culture. I'll speak with them later and ask them to lend you a hand."
"Do you have any other requests? If not, I'll be going back. We're preparing to hold an awards ceremony next Monday. As a hero who rescued people from the fire, you'll need to give a speech, so remember to prepare a speech draft in advance."
Jing Mingqiu stopped Feng Weiguo, "Ah, wait a moment. Principal, you came to see me today just to ask about my next research project and to inform me about the speech next Monday. Why did you have everyone else leave?"
Feng Weiguo stroked his beard and laughed heartily, "Truth within falsehood, falsehood within truth. This is mainly to create a sense of mystery around you, making them think I was discussing something very important with you."
"However, I clearly could have contacted you through more discreet means. You insisted on making such a big fuss. Instead, they suspect you are merely a scapegoat I put forward. Then, when they investigate and uncover some so-called truths..."
Feng Weiguo explained the entire plan in detail. The more Jing Mingqiu listened, the more confused he became, reaffirming his conviction that he was not cut out for politics and solidifying his resolve not to enter officialdom!
After an hour of talking, Feng Weiguo left the dormitory, completely satisfied, and Jing Mingqiu's life returned to its normal routine.
During the day, he showed affection at school; at night, he worked in the laboratory.
The biggest difference from before was the addition of a little tag-along, Jing Rou, who also joined in.
With Mo Ruixue's tacit approval, Jing Mingqiu embraced her from both sides, and his classmates were forced to witness double the public display of affection.
Unknowingly, a week had passed.
While Jing Mingqiu enjoyed his peaceful days, other countries, having exhausted all means and unable to obtain the manufacturing methods for Dragon Country's new national technology, and even failing to ascertain the true identity of "Kunpeng," finally descended into madness, launching large-scale destruction and attacks.
Concurrently, led by the United States and joined by twenty other nations, they issued a joint notification to Dragon Country, demanding that Dragon Country return the lithography machine technology to the United States and hand over the thief "Kunpeng" for trial in a national court.
Otherwise, they threatened to jointly impose economic sanctions on Dragon Country.
In response to the joint notification from the twenty countries, Dragon Country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with just fourteen characters, two sentences.
They were:
If you wish to accuse us, you will find a pretext.
If you want war, we will fight!
Thus, Dragon Country and the Western powers, led by the United States, officially kicked off the prelude to an economic war.
Both sides increased tariffs, blockaded trade ports, and the conflict escalated.
...
Behind the scenes on the grand stage of the Dongyang City Institute of Science and Technology's sports field, everyone was making final preparations for the awards ceremony.
Jing Mingqiu pushed aside the suit handed to him by the student union members, grabbed the speech draft prepared by Jing Rou, with a long sword hanging horizontally at his waist, and wearing a moon-white Hanfu with long sleeves, looking like a swordsman ready to roam the world. Just as he was preparing to go on stage to give his speech, the Principal suddenly appeared backstage, stuffed a thick stack of speech drafts into his hand, and pointed to a specific spot on it.
"The rest is not important. What's most important is here. You must read this passage aloud."
With that, he pushed Jing Mingqiu out.
As soon as Jing Mingqiu stepped onto the stage and before he could speak, thunderous applause erupted, with the students from the dance department making the loudest noise.
The applause continued for several minutes before gradually subsiding. Jing Mingqiu took out the speech draft prepared by the Principal, cleared his throat, and began to read according to the order.
"Esteemed teachers, dear classmates, good morning. It is a great honor to stand on this stage today..."
Jing Mingqiu had only spoken a couple of sentences when he felt a wave of nausea. It wasn't that the speech draft was poorly written; it was written too well, filled with official jargon, flowery language, and elegant sentence structures, but it just didn't sound like something a person would say.
Quickly flipping through the pages, he found that the stack contained over twenty pages, estimating it would take at least an hour to read. Jing Mingqiu finally understood why the Principal had said that to him before going on stage.
Faced with such a substantial stack of speech drafts, Jing Mingqiu decided to read the designated passage first and then improvise the rest.
"After successfully rescuing the injured personnel in the fire, using the mech provided by the Principal, I discovered that the injured personnel suffered burns on their skin due to the high temperature of the mech's surface. Therefore, I have decided to develop a new type of mech that can maintain a low surface temperature even in a fire, preventing secondary injuries to the rescued."
After reading this sentence, Jing Mingqiu breathed a sigh of relief, casually tossed the manuscript onto the ground, and directly spoke the truth: "This draft was prepared by the Principal for me. The words in here are too much, and I really can't read it."
"I actually didn't want to come to this speech today. As I said earlier, that mech wasn't made by me. I just borrowed it from the Principal to play with and to explore the research direction of military combat mechs."
"Who would have thought that I would coincidentally encounter such a situation, and I had no choice but to step up and rescue people from the fire. I must clarify beforehand, I did not start this fire. I was performing a play at the time, and I have perfect alibis."
As soon as Jing Mingqiu finished speaking, the atmosphere in the venue instantly became lively. A male classmate shouted loudly, "Who knows? With your abilities, making a time-delay ignition device wouldn't take much effort."
"Don't slander me out of thin air," Jing Mingqiu made a show of fear, "I'm a good person. I never do anything wicked or harmful..."
The audience consisted of his peers, and Jing Mingqiu felt no fear of the leaders on stage. The atmosphere was very relaxed. What was supposed to be a simple speech had completely transformed into Jing Mingqiu's personal stage.
Getting carried away, Jing Mingqiu suddenly drew the long sword hanging at his waist. The mech hidden beneath his Hanfu extended, gripping his fingers and helping him control the sword better.
Thrust, block, parry, guard!