Chapter 260: Being Serious While Making Utter Nonsense

Qin Feng's remarks on "acceptance speeches" at the award ceremony were like a deep-sea bomb dropped into a calm lake, sparking reflections and discussions that continued to ferment within the "New Era" scientific community, as a new atmosphere emphasizing independent thinking and breakthrough innovation quietly spread.

Yet not everything was so serious or profound.

A few days later, at the Central Library of the Sea-floor City "Civilization Ark"—the newly completed and opened Phase One project of the Cultural Center—a science outreach lecture for teenagers was being held. The speaker was a young researcher from the Biology Department, known for his wit and humor, named Zhou Ming. The topic of the lecture was "The Truth and Lies of Deep-Sea Monsters."

The auditorium, capable of holding hundreds, was packed, mostly with schoolchildren brought by their parents, their eyes wide with curiosity. Xia Madam's younger daughter, Nannan, sat among them, under the care of a neighbor aunt.

Researcher Zhou Ming had excellent oratory skills; with vivid language and holographic projections, he introduced various bizarre deep-sea creatures—from glowing jellyfish to giant squids—eliciting waves of exclamations from the children.

"... So, classmates, the legendary deep-sea monster 'Kraken' was likely an exaggerated image of the giant squid in ancient eyes..." Zhou Ming spoke fluently, the atmosphere light and cheerful.

At that moment, in the back row of the auditorium, a boy around eleven or twelve years old, wearing thick glasses and an intensely serious expression, suddenly raised his hand.

Zhou Ming noticed and smiled, gesturing for him to speak: "Young student, do you have a question?"

The boy stood up, pushed up his glasses, and asked in a tone far too serious for his age: "Professor Zhou, you just mentioned that deep-sea pressure is immense and ordinary fish cannot survive. Then, according to the principles of energy conservation and fluid mechanics, if a creature exists that can resist such pressure, its muscle density and skeletal structure must have undergone adaptive evolution. Could this evolution possibly lead to the formation within its body of a miniature energy core analogous to 'biological nuclear fusion,' to sustain its high-energy activities in extreme environments? For instance, might they ingest specific minerals and perform atomic-level fusion reactions internally, thereby emitting that deep, bioluminescent glow?"

The moment the question was asked, the entire auditorium fell silent.

Nannan, seated in the front row, tilted her small head, her big eyes filled with confusion—she clearly understood not a single word.

The other children also looked utterly baffled.

Even some accompanying parents wore expressions of shock.

Biological nuclear fusion? Miniature energy core? What on earth was this?

Researcher Zhou Ming's smile froze for a moment; his lips twitched almost imperceptibly. He had been teaching basic marine biology—how had this suddenly jumped into nuclear physics and high-energy biology? This kid's imagination was too wild!

He looked at the boy's utterly serious expression—as if discussing a legitimate scientific problem—and for a moment, he didn't know how to respond. To outright deny it might crush the child's imagination and curiosity. To go along with it would be pure fabrication, violating scientific integrity.

As Zhou Ming awkwardly weighed his words, the teenager sitting beside the boy—apparently his older brother—could no longer hold back and covered his face, muttering under his breath:

"Xiao Kai, you're at it again... You're just being completely serious while making utter nonsense!"

The remark was quiet, but in the silent auditorium, it rang out clearly.

"Pfft—" Someone couldn't help but laugh.

Soon, suppressed giggles spread through the auditorium. Though the children didn't understand the complex terms, they knew the phrase "making utter nonsense while being serious"—and suddenly found the glasses-wearing boy hilarious.

Seizing the moment, Researcher Zhou Ming eased the tension with humor, smiling at the boy named Xiao Kai: "Young student, your imagination is extremely rich, and your thinking is... quite unique. However, our current known biological mechanisms do not support the hypothesis of 'biological nuclear fusion.' The mechanism behind deep-sea bioluminescence remains primarily chemical..."

He skillfully steered the topic back onto the proper scientific track.

The lecture continued, but this small incident became the hot topic during the children's break.

"That glasses-wearing brother is so cool! I didn't understand a word he said!" "Cool? My brother says he's just making stuff up!" "But he sounded so serious..." "That's exactly what 'being serious while making utter nonsense' means! Haha!"

Nannan ran back to the neighbor aunt, tilting her face up curiously: "Auntie, what's 'being serious while making utter nonsense'?"

The neighbor aunt stifled a laugh and patted her head: "It's... like that little boy just now—he spoke with a very serious expression, saying things that sound plausible but are actually just made up in his head."

"Oh..." Nannan nodded, half-understanding.

Meanwhile, in the library's monitoring room, Qin Feng, accompanied by Su Wenqian, was inspecting the newly built cultural facility. Through the surveillance screen, they had just witnessed this scene.

Su Wenqian watched the boy on screen—still frowning, as if seriously pondering where his "theory" went wrong—and couldn't help smiling: "This child's thoughts are wonderfully wild."

Qin Feng's gaze lingered on the boy for a moment; his expression remained calm, but a faint glimmer seemed to flash in his eyes.

"Being serious while making utter nonsense..." he repeated the phrase softly, his lips moving in the faintest possible curve.

Su Wenqian glanced at Qin Feng in surprise—she rarely saw him react to such trivial matters.

Qin Feng said nothing more, turning to leave the monitoring room.

Su Wenqian followed, puzzled. What had that reaction meant? Amusement? Or...?

Suddenly, she recalled: at the boundaries of science, at the limits of human understanding, many ideas once dismissed as "utter nonsense" eventually became revolutionary truths.

The boy's "biological nuclear fusion" was wildly imaginative—but who could definitively rule out that somewhere in the vast universe, life forms beyond current human comprehension might exist?

Perhaps what the gentleman saw was not ridiculous fabrication, but an unshackled curiosity brimming with infinite possibility.

Rigorous inquiry within established rules is the cornerstone of science. Bold imagination beyond those frameworks may be the beginning of breakthrough.

Being serious while making utter nonsense—sometimes, it's not entirely a bad thing.

But this truth was still too distant for the laughing children in the auditorium, and for the boy earnestly wrestling with his own "theory."