Top Scholar Wang Ruoxi

Wang Ruoxi, a Chinese prodigy, goes abroad to pursue advanced studies after placing first in the imperial examinations. With extraordinary intelligence and tireless effort, she makes a world-shaking breakthrough at the age of just twenty-two: inspired by the ancient recipe for glutinous-rice mortar used along the Qinhuai River, she achieves room-temperature superconductivity. She graces the cover of Nature, and the international academic community hails her as a Nobel Prize-caliber scientific genius, shining brilliantly.

Yet her discovery, which incorporates a revolutionary topological algorithm, is labeled “capable of cracking U.S. military quantum communications,” plunging her into a geopolitical maelstrom. Beneath the glitter of the celebratory banquet lurks the threat of her becoming a technological puppet. During the solemn moment of her doctoral defense, the FBI storms in and accuses her, sealing off her laboratory and coveting her work.

To protect the invaluable achievement she has poured her heart and soul into, Wang Ruoxi becomes “Returning Swallow.” At an altitude of ten thousand meters, she uses her body heat to activate a device and destroy a critical chip, then transmits Morse code in hamburger foil, staging a thrilling struggle for life and death. Her homeland launches a special operations plan, using a cultural relic delegation traveling to the United States as cover to bring her home. When a fragment of a bronze chime bell in the customs passage mysteriously resonates with the key she carries, the wanderer finally returns home.

Back at Yanyuan, she becomes the youngest doctoral advisor. At the Nobel Prize ceremony, she uses a holographic image of the Mogao Caves to declare, “My superconducting key is called Nanjing City Wall.” Leading her students along the Ming City Wall, she watches blue flowers of room-temperature superconductivity bloom between the bricks. They symbolize not only the dawn of a new technological era, but also the invisible crown forged on the fertile soil of civilization by a Chinese scientist's wisdom and devotion.