The question was bluntly sharp, directly targeting the most sensitive speculation.
Zhang Lin did not answer imdiately. He picked up the water cup and took a slow sip, this was to buy so ti. When he put down the cup, he had already thought out a strategy.
"Mr. David, your question reminds of sothing Professor Yang often says." Zhang Lin’s eyes turned profound, as if recalling a sacred mont, "He says, a scientist’s ti does not belong to themselves, but to the questions awaiting answers and the people waiting for hope."
He paused, letting the words settle in the air.
"As for why Professor Yang did not attend the award ceremony, actually Doctors Tang Shun and Song Zimo have explained it on the night of the award, and I don’t want to reiterate. I just want to say, we cannot judge the pure ideals of a twice Nobel Prize-winning genius scientist with vulgar thoughts, it is a kind of blasphemy, a misaligned thinking. My expression may not be good, but I think Mr. David has understood what I an."
The eting room was so quiet that one could hear the electric current from the caras.
David’s Adam’s apple moved, his statent about poor expression abilities—real aning being, not having enough intelligence or realm to understand my words, further questioning or dwelling on this issue implies a lack of comprehension ability."
"I understand your aning, Teacher Zhang! As a scientist, Professor Yang has almost detached himself from worldly trivialities, dedicating almost all of his ti to scientific research."
"Mr. David, thank you for your precise understanding." Zhang Lin nodded slightly.
In the latter half of the interview, the atmosphere completely changed. David’s questions beca gentle, even respectful. He feared that a misunderstanding would make the public think he has low intelligence or poor scientific literacy, leading to an inaccurate understanding of Teacher Zhang’s words.
At the end, he solemnly shook hands with Zhang Lin: "Please convey to Professor Yang that his choice has helped us understand the true spirit of science."
Zhang Lin nodded: "I will, and thank you for accurately bringing every word of ours to the audience."
Interviews followed one after another...
A week later, Zhang Lin had beco a legend in the Institute.
He developed a complete set of conversational tactics: when asked about specific data, he would say: "This is an issue of multi-dinsional data space, I need to establish a few key coordinate systems for you first..." then begin drawing incomprehensible diagrams on the whiteboard.
When asked about theoretical disputes, he would say: "All model shifts go through this phase. When the bacterial theory was first proposed, the mainstream dical community dismissed it as ’fantasy’; when the DNA double helix structure was published, many authorities considered it ’too simple.’ Questioning is not the end, but the starting point of scientific dialogue."
When asked about Yang Ping’s personal life or character, he would say: "Professor Yang often says a scientist should focus like a lens on the problem itself, we should learn from Professor Yang and focus on the scientific issue itself, so sorry, all I can tell you about him personally is that he loves dicine very much."
What’s more clever is how Zhang Lin started proactively "feeding information." He would carefully prepare so seemingly heavy, but actually innocuous "exclusive news":
"What can be revealed is that we are cooperating with three top research centers in Europe to develop the next generation of system assessnt tools... Exactly which three? Sorry, cannot disclose before formal agreent signing, but can say that one has history tracing back to the Weierstrass era."
"Professor Yang is recently rereading so seemingly unrelated classics, such as the ’Inner Canon of Huangdi’ and ’On Energy Flow in Life Systems’... He often says modern dicine needs to look back at the path traveled to see the future direction more clearly."
"Our team has a tradition, Thursday afternoons are ’failed data sharing sessions.’ Yes, specifically sharing failed experints, negative results, inexplicable anomalies. Because we believe the real key to scientific progress often hides in those data points inconsistent with expectations."
This information was eagerly reported by the dia: "Yang Ping’s team investigates next-gen assessnt tools," "Nobel laureate finds inspiration from Chinese dical classics," "’Failure Sharing Sessions’ — Unique culture of a top team." The public saw an open, profound, philosophically heightened scientific team image, while the team’s core work was perfectly protected under the halo.
Zhang Lin even developed "personalized response strategies":
To academic dia seeking depth, he talked about paradigm shifts and scientific philosophy; to popular dia seeking stories, he spoke of patient stories and team anecdotes; to online dia seeking hot topics, he threw out so carefully designed "golden phrases," such as "dicine is not about conquering death, but about granting quality to life," this phrase was made into posters and went viral on social dia.
The monitoring room beca the team’s most popular "entertainnt center." After dinner each day, everyone would gather to watch how Zhang Lin "fooled" various dia.
"Look, he’s drawing that ’multi-dinsional phase space’ diagram again, I bet the reporter doesn’t know it’s just a three-dinsional coordinate axis with so curves added." Chu Xiaoxiao laughed until she leaned forward and backward.
"This ti, this reporter is impressive, persistent with the question about adverse reactions... Nice! Beautiful! Zhang Lin shifted the topic to ’the risks and ethical boundaries of science,’ perfectly dodging." Jiang Jitong applauded.
Yang Ping usually just watched silently, a smile on his lips. Once, Zhang Lin said in an interview, "True science is not about finding answers, but about learning to ask better questions," Yang Ping nodded lightly and said to Tang Shun beside him: "That is actually correct. It’s just, coming from his mouth, it’s more like a tactic."
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