Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Facts had proved that Song Yangwei was not joking.
Perhaps it was because Lu Zhou had emptied the entire laboratory. Even though he saw it as the only way to save East Asia Energy, it was clear that the capital market had their own ideas.
On the second day after Song Yangwei’s call, East Asia Energy’s negative news appeared to have burst out in a concentrated manner, frequently showing its presence on major media channels.
Although this kind of news would not interfere with the normal operation of East Asia Power, it had plunged its performance in the stock market into a slump. Originally, the stock price had risen by a small amount because of his return. But now, it was dropping like never before.
It was even worse than before he was the chairman…
Lu Zhou stared at the stock price of East Asia Energy for a while. He suddenly sighed with emotion.
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”
Xiao Ai: “Master? 0.0”
Lu Zhou: “Nothing, just a little emotional.”
This sentence was actually said by Newton.
In his later years, Newton felt that there was no challenge to bullying Hook, so he went to the Mint Bureau of the British Empire to find a position as the governor of the central bank and began to get involved in the financial field.
Although this guy was indeed a genius and helped the British Empire complete the reform from the silver standard to the gold standard, he lost a lot of blood in the stock market.
In particular, he encountered the “South China Sea Company” incident in European financial history that could go hand in hand with the Dutch tulip, causing Newton to lose 20,000 pounds at a time.
Since then, he no longer cared about stocks and devoted himself to studying theology and alchemy.
In fact, Lu Zhou did not lose money.
The money he spent on buying East Asia Energy stock a hundred years ago was barely anything. It was impossible for him to lose money on his investment.
It was just that the guy’s threat to him during the video call made him feel unhappy.
If Lu Zhou didn’t react at all and just watched him short the company, wouldn’t it seem like he was surrendering?
Lu Zhou asked Xiao Ai to put hundreds of bids on the stock market for himself, putting in the entire 9 million credit points that Pan-Asian Airlines had compensated him.
However, Lu Zhou immediately regretted the purchase.
He calmed down and thought about it. He felt he was a little too impulsive.
9 million credits in the pool of East Asia Energy didn’t make a splash at all.
Even if he wanted to increase his holdings, he shouldn’t do it now.
At the very least, he should wait until the job fair was over.
“I’m starting to regret my decision.”
“… W(゚Д゚)w”
“It’s fine, I don’t blame you.” Lu Zhou looked at the emoji in Xiao Ai’s pupils. He shook his head and said to himself, “It’s a pity that I don’t have much cash. A few million credits doesn’t make a difference at all.”
If this were a hundred years ago, he wouldn’t need any loans at all.
He put the stock market aside.
He was sitting in the study room.
He then closed the floating browser window in front of him and kept his sights on the unfinished model in his hand.
This thing was a holographic model of East Asia Energy’s latest controllable fusion reactor.
Compared to his design a century ago, it clearly had a lot of improvements. Many things that he hadn’t considered before had basically been perfected after a century of continuous improvement.
The energy efficiency of first-generation controllable fusion technology did not have much room for further improvement. After understanding this, Lu Zhou made up his mind.
The second generation of controllable fusion, aka, deuterium-helium trifusion, was the future of the energy industry!
To overcome the difficulties of the second-generation controllable fusion technology, there were two main problems that needed to be solved; one was the ignition of the reactor, and the other was the reactor itself.
Specifically, he had to find a container that could hold and compress billions of degrees of high-temperature plasma.
It was obviously unrealistic to expect ordinary materials to withstand this level of energy, so for this “container”, Lu Zhou’s choice was still a magnetic field.
Although the theoretical calculation result of 10,000T sounded a bit scary…
But compared to other technical routes, this was considered the more reliable one.
“But the question is where to find such a large magnetic field?”
Lu Zhou removed the electromagnet component from the holographic model of the reactor, zoomed in, and moved it closer. He then placed it in front of him for a closer look.
In this era, whether it was office or scientific research, paper was rarely used.
The three-dimensional holographic composition could more intuitively reflect every detail in the design, and it could also allow the designer to easily modify the parts that needed improvement.
After a few trials, Lu Zhou quickly realized the excellence of this scientific research tool.
Especially with regards to online collaboration, this tool allowed multiple people to collaborate on the same work. For researchers in a project team, being able to design while discussing was obviously much more efficient than the previous work methods.
However, no matter how powerful scientific research tools were, they couldn’t escape the problems of scientific research itself.
When Lu Zhou was thinking of an answer, a paper he had read a long time ago suddenly surfaced in his mind.
“… Magnetic storm compression.”
He still remembered that a research team from Moscow University strengthened the magnetic field by placing explosives next to the magnetic induction coil, then squeezing the magnetic field into an explosion.
Judging from the experimental results, they were undoubtedly successful. In the era when it was rare to increase magnetic field strength above 100T, they achieved a terrifying 700T of magnetic field strength!
Although the results of this research only existed for tens of microseconds, the research team led by Professor Masajiro Takeyama from the University of Tokyo repeated the experiment. And at the expense of a complete set of experimental equipment and an iron door, the magnetic field strength was increased to 1,300T for a short 100-microsecond time.
Although this kind of violent experimental idea sounded unreliable, it seemed to be the most promising option for now.
If a stable method could be used to achieve the conditions of magnetic storm compression with the energy of controllable fusion itself, a high-intensity magnetic field that could synchronize with the fusion reaction in frequency could be generated…
This might work!
Lu Zhou’s eyes started to light up.
It would be great if his team were still here.
With the technical strength of the 22nd century, if he had Li Jiangang, Sheng Xianfu, and the rest of his team, he was 80% confident that he would be able to make an experimental reactor.
“Master, someone is looking for you outside. ( ́・ω・`)ノ”
Lu Zhou looked at the electronic screen of the small drone lying on the corner of the table.
“Who is that?”
“He claims to be the president of Huaxia Bank. 0.0”
President of Huaxia Bank?
Lu Zhou froze for a moment. He soon remembered the loan issue he talked about with the bank manager yesterday.
He immediately spoke.
“Let him in.”
“Okay, Master. (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”
After changing into casual clothes in the cloakroom next door, Lu Zhou went downstairs to the living room.
When he walked downstairs, the front door opened. He saw an elegant old man in formal clothes standing at the door with a friendly smile on his face.
“Can I come in?”
Lu Zhou said with a friendly smile at the old man.
“Come on in, no worries.”
Lu Zhou told Xiao Ai to help pour a cup of tea for the guests. He then invited him to sit down on the sofa and looked at the old man.
Judging from the white spots on his temples, he should be older than he thought. Because the average life expectancy of people in this era was relatively long, people in their 50s looked like people in their 30s in the past.
With that being said, the old man might be over eighty years old.
However, this had nothing to do with him.
Just as Lu Zhou was thinking about what to say, President Sun, who was sitting across from him, suddenly said in an emotional tone, “Too young.”
Lu Zhou: “…?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I just felt a little bit emotional.” President Sun smiled apologetically and continued, “I have heard about your history. It is often praised in history books that you are a young and far-sighted scholar. I have always been confused by this, but now that I see you, my confusion is gone.”
Lu Zhou cast an unexpected look at him, wondering what he wanted to express.
After a pause, President Sun continued.
“Innovation is the lifeblood of a company. I have seen analysis reports written by many people. Only through extreme measures can one save East Asia Energy, which is gradually declining in innovation. The board of directors did not show such courage, but you, a dormant from a hundred years ago, made such a decision. I did not expect this.”
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.
Although he thought that President Sun was right, being complimented like this…
He was flattered.
“Thank you.” Lu Zhou said with a soft cough, “I just couldn’t stand those uninspiring worms anymore.”
“After all, this is your legacy to the Pan-Asian people… I mean a gift, I understand.” President Sun smiled and continued, “Enough about this. I heard my manager say that you want to borrow money to invest in yourself?”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“Sort of.”
President Sun said strangely, “But I don’t quite understand… If it is for the second generation of controllable fusion, shouldn’t the money come from East Asia Energy? Why do you need to borrow the money yourself?”
Lu Zhou: “It has nothing to do with the experiment.”
President Sun: “Then what are you doing?”
“In order to expand my right to speak on the board of directors…” Lu Zhou continued after a pause, “I want to apply for a loan so that I can buy the shares of East Asia Energy stock. Can you give me an estimate?”
“East Asia Energy stock is high-quality. There is no problem in a loan. The key lies in how much you need.”
“Let’s start with 10 billion.”
“Puff-cough cough!”
President Sun, who was drinking tea, almost choked on himself.
He coughed, and after calming down, he looked at Lu Zhou with a look of embarrassment and said dumbfoundedly, “What do you mean… Start with 10 billion?”
Lu Zhou frowned.
“I can’t even borrow 10 billion?”
“No, with the stocks you have, you can borrow 100 billion, but the problem is that you don’t have a clear standard for how much money you need—”
Just as President Sun was complaining about Lu Zhou’s view of money, the watch on his left wrist suddenly flickered.
When the old man saw the caller on the holographic screen, he was slightly taken aback, and his expression suddenly turned serious.
“Sorry, I have to answer the call.”
President Sun got up from the sofa. He walked to the side of the living room and pressed the button to connect.
Lu Zhou was not in a hurry. He drank tea while quietly waiting for him to finish the call.
However, he suddenly noticed that the expression on the face of President Sun suddenly changed, as if he had heard some shocking news. His blood pressure had risen instantly.
“What?!
“Yangwei Capital issued a short-selling report? Are you sure you are not mistaken?
“Okay, I understand…”
The call was ended quickly.
After closing the video call window, President Sun took a deep breath and returned to the sofa to sit down.
After hesitating for a while, he said, “Um… Academician Lu.”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah.”
“If you want to apply for a loan, I really don’t recommend you to buy East Asia Energy stock.” With an apologetic expression on his face, President Sun said in a sincere tone, “If you must do this, it is difficult for us to give you an adequate amount.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Why?”
“It’s a problem of risk… You should look at the stock market.”
With a strange expression on his face, Lu Zhou’s index finger clicked in the air, opened the holographic interface, and cut to the window of the stock market.
Almost as soon as he opened his account, a news popped up.
[Yangwei Capital releases their latest research report on East Asia Energy, giving it a sell rating.]
Lu Zhou looked at the 5% dip in the stock price. He then looked at President Sun sitting across the coffee table with a weird look.
“What is a research report?”
“The research report itself isn’t important. The key is that they disclosed in the research report an investigation on the chaos of East Asia Energy’s management.” President Sun looked at Lu Zhou dumbfoundingly and continued, “In short, we recommend that you buy other assets. Uh… Do you still need a loan?”
“Of course, why not?” Lu Zhou said naturally, “I’ll take a loan of 50 billion first.”
President Sun thought he had heard wrong. With a dazed look at Lu Zhou, he said hesitantly, “Fif-fifty billion?”
“Yeah, can it be done?”
“It can, but this needs to be guaranteed…”
“I know, and you can’t use East Asia Energy stock, right?” Lu Zhou smiled faintly. He lightly swiped his index finger in the air and took a screenshot from his account. He gently pushed it to President Sun and said, “Who said I only have stocks in East Asia Energy?”
He continued, “Pick whichever company you like.”