Rejecting Tsinghua and Peking Universities: I Will Lead Harbin Institute of Technology to World Lead

The days in the mountain city were a rare and truly relaxing time for Lin Feng in recent years.

He sleeps until he naturally wakes up every day, goes for a morning run, eats breakfast made by his mother, and then accompanies Shen Moran to the coffee shop.

The coffee shop has opened two branches, but Shen Moran still prefers the original one. It's located by the river, in a renovated old house, and the walls are decorated with photographs she personally selected—the mountains, the waters, the alleys, and the people of the mountain city.

Lin Feng sat in a corner, a cup of Americano and a laptop. He did nothing but watch Shen Moran busy herself in the shop—greeting regular customers, teaching new employees how to make latte art, checking inventory, and doing the accounting.

Sometimes Xiaoxiao would come too. This girl ran the coffee shop very well, and whenever she saw Lin Feng, she would greet him with a smile and call him "boss lady," which would make Shen Mo blush and chase after her.

That evening, the family ate dinner. Lin Guodong would open a bottle of wine, drinking only a couple of small glasses. They chatted about company matters, anecdotes from the coffee shop, and which old street in the mountain city was slated for demolition. Lin Feng rarely spoke, simply listening, smiling, and occasionally serving food to Shen Moran.

Such days are so ordinary they're almost a luxury.

Until one morning.

The family had just finished lunch when Lin Guodong's eyes suddenly lit up after watching the news.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Lin Feng asked.

Lin Guodong looked up, his face filled with barely suppressed excitement: "Everyone, let's go to the main store for lunch this afternoon, it's on me."

"The main store?" Su Wenqing asked, puzzled. "Today isn't anything special..."

"You'll find out when we get there," Lin Guodong said mysteriously. "Take Xiaoxiao along too."

3 PM, Lin's Hot Pot flagship store.

This is one of the most famous hot pot restaurants in the mountain city. It has five floors and can accommodate thousands of diners at the same time. Even outside of mealtimes, there is already a long queue at the door - Lin's Hot Pot never accepts reservations, everyone has to wait in line, this is a rule set by Lin Guodong.

But today, the store manager was waiting at the door in person. Upon seeing Lin Guodong and his party, he immediately came forward and said, "Chairman Lin, the private room is ready, and the large screen has been tested as you instructed."

"Okay." Lin Guodong nodded and led his family upstairs.

As Lin Feng passed through the lobby, he heard various whispers and murmurs.

"What's going on today? Why are all the TVs in the living room on?"

"I don't know, they said they'd be broadcasting some important news..."

"Is there some kind of competition?"

The private room was on the third floor, facing the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lobby, offering a view of the bustling diners below. The large screen on the wall was currently black.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Shen Moran couldn't help but ask curiously.

Lin Guodong sat down with a smile and poured everyone a cup of tea: "Didn't any of you watch the news this morning?"

Lin Feng shook his head.

Shen Moran shook his head, and Xiao Xiao was even more bewildered.

"Then let's wait and see." Lin Guodong glanced at his watch. "There's a special live stream at four o'clock sharp. Let's eat hotpot and watch it together."

The hot pot arrived. The red oil bubbled and sizzled, filling the air with its aroma. Tripe, beef aorta, duck intestines, beef... a whole table was laid out. But at this moment, everyone's attention wasn't on the food, but rather fixed on the screen on the wall.

Time passed second by second.

The noise in the hall gradually subsided. The diners seemed to have noticed something and all looked up at the television.

3:59.

The screen suddenly lit up.

There was no opening music, no host, just a vast blue sea. The camera was steady, showing the sea from above, its surface as calm as a mirror.

Then, a gray-black silhouette slowly entered the frame.

First, there's the bow, sharp as a knife, cleaving through the waves; then comes the massive hull, over 300 meters long, like a giant steel whale; next is the wide flight deck, perfectly flat without a ripple; and finally, the sharply angled island superstructure, with its modern radar antennas slowly rotating.

At the bottom of the screen, a line of text appeared:

[China's first domestically designed and built large aircraft carrier – the Kunpeng]

Dead silence.

The entire hot pot restaurant, with its thousands of patrons, fell into absolute silence at that moment.

Everyone, whether they were eating hot pot, pouring drinks, or chatting and laughing, froze, their eyes glued to the screen.

Two seconds later.

"Buzz—"

It felt like something was exploding inside my chest.

"Holy shit!"

I don't know who uttered the first curse word, but it wasn't an insult; it was just an instinctive reaction in the face of extreme shock.

"An aircraft carrier?! Our own aircraft carrier?!"

"When was it built? How come I haven't heard a thing about it?"

"Kunpeng...what an imposing name!"

The murmurs rose like a tide, growing louder and louder. Some people stood up, some slammed their fists on the table, and some even took out their phones to take pictures.

Inside the private room, Lin Feng's hand holding the teacup tightened slightly.

He had seen this ship countless times—in system simulations, on blueprints, in workshops, in dry docks, and at sea. But seeing it on television, amidst a surging crowd, felt completely different.

It was no longer a pile of steel and data, but a symbol, a sign, the backbone of a nation.

The scene shifts, and the host appears. She's a female officer in military uniform, her shoulder insignia indicating she's a major. She stands on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, the sea breeze ruffling her short hair.

"Hello everyone. I am Zhao Qing, the spokesperson for the Navy."

Her voice was steady, but if you listened carefully, you could hear a hint of barely suppressed excitement.

"Behind me now is my country's first large aircraft carrier designed and built entirely by China itself—the Kunpeng."

The camera zooms out, revealing the entire aircraft carrier on the screen.

"The Kunpeng has a full-load displacement of 120,000 tons, is nuclear-powered, equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system, and can carry more than 80 carrier-based aircraft of various types..."

With each word she spoke, the gasps in the hall grew louder.

"120,000 tons? Larger than the newest one in the Free Country?"

"Nuclear power?! We've developed a miniaturized reactor?"

"Electromagnetic catapults! Holy crap! Even in the Free Country, these things malfunction constantly!"

People started clapping. First it was sporadic, then it joined in, and finally the whole hall was filled with applause, cheers, and shouts. The steam from the hot pot mingled with the excited breaths of the people, making the entire space sweltering.

Inside the private room, Lin Guodong suddenly stood up.

The man in his fifties, his eyes red-rimmed and his hands trembling, raised his glass, his voice hoarse: "To the Kunpeng, to our navy, cheers!"

No one spoke; everyone raised their glasses.

He drank it all in one gulp.

The liquor was strong, but my heart was warmer.

"Today, all customers who come in," Lin Guodong put down his cup and said to the manager, "will receive a 30% discount. Tell the kitchen to offer more portions at the same price—let everyone be happy!"

"Yes!" The store manager was so excited that his face turned red, and he turned around and ran downstairs to announce the good news.

An even louder cheer came from downstairs.

On the screen, the scene continued. J-15 carrier-based aircraft took off and landed on the deck. At the moment of electromagnetic catapult launch, the aircraft shot out like an arrow. When landing, the tailhook precisely hooked the arresting cable and came to a steady stop in a short distance.

Each takeoff and landing drew gasps of amazement.

"That's incredibly stable! Even more stable than the steam catapults of the Free Nation!"

"Look at those carrier-based aircraft, those are our J-15s!"

"With this fighting strength... we have the confidence to fight on the high seas!"

At the same time, the entire Chinese internet exploded.

The top trending topic on Weibo is: #KunpengAircraftCarrier#, followed by a bright red "Explosive" character.

Clicking on it, the first item is an official press release, accompanied by a nine-grid photo collage—a panoramic view of the aircraft carrier, carrier-based aircraft takeoffs and landings, a close-up of the island superstructure, interior compartments…

The number of reposts exceeded one million within ten minutes.

The comments section was flooded with messages:

@山海皆可平: "Silent and unassuming, yet unleashing a powerful move! Our motherland is awesome!"

@StarrySea: "I cried, I really cried. My grandfather was a veteran of the navy, and before he passed away, he kept saying, 'When will we have our own aircraft carrier?' Today, Grandpa, can you see that?"

@STEMGGuyIsNotRomantic: "120,000 tons of nuclear power + electromagnetic catapult, this technology is at least ten years ahead of the world. I just want to know, which genius led the team that came up with this?"

@Netizen: "Did nobody notice? This aircraft carrier was designed and built without a single word leaking out. The secrecy is incredible."

@PatriotismShouldBeSpokenOut: "From today onwards, the Pacific Ocean is no longer any one country's inland sea. We have the Kunpeng (a mythical bird), we have the confidence!"

Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili... all platforms, all trending topics, all discussions are about the Kunpeng carrier. Some people have made interpretive videos, some have done comparative analyses, and some have even dug up some technical details of the aircraft carrier's design—although most of it is speculation, it's enough to make the whole nation excited.

CCTV's live broadcast lasted for a full hour.

At the end, the camera focused on an aerial shot of the Kunpeng cutting through the waves. The red flag at the stern fluttered in the sea breeze.

The host concluded with the following statement:

"We're ready to head to the sea."

The screen went dark.

But the excitement in the hot pot restaurant had only just begun.

People started singing, singing "Ode to the Motherland" and "Me and My Motherland." At first, it was just a few people, then a whole table, and finally the entire hall was singing. The songs, mingled with the aroma of hot pot, drifted out the window and into the night sky of the mountain city.

Lin Feng stood by the window, looking at the crowd gathered on the street below—they were holding up their phones, the screens showing images of the Kunpeng spacecraft, and they were discussing loudly, cheering, and hugging.