It was impossible to drive fast in a big, traffic-ridden city like Shanghai.
Chen Yushan was feeling a little down because of the traffic, Lu Zhou comforted her and secretly felt relieved.
What surprised him was that he always had the impression that Chen Yushan was a reserved and smart girl. He had never seen the masculine side of her before.
Lu Zhou: “You like cars?”
Chen Yushan contemplated for a bit and answered, “Kind of, but I’m not that into it. Thanks to Star Sky Technology and you, I’m earning more money than I can spend. Forget about buying cars, I can retire if I want to.”
She was obviously kidding.
Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.
“You’re not projecting, are you? Are you planning on retiring?”
“Of course not.” Chen Yushan smiled and said, “I don’t work to earn money. Do you do research for academic prizes? Are you going to retire if you win another Nobel Prize?”
Lu Zhou said, “For me, the Nobel Prize is just the beginning, it’s not the end-goal.”
Chen Yushan: “What happens after the ILHC is built?”
Lu Zhou felt like Chen Yushan was serious, maybe she expected some kind of answer.
However, Lu Zhou had no idea what would happen in the future.
He pondered for a while before answering, “Maybe I’ll use the collider to discover something new, I don’t know what, but my intuition is always accurate.”
“Oh, really?” Chen Yushan smirked and said, “People always want more… We’re here.”
A uniquely-shaped building caught their attention.
Nearby was the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which was across from the Bund International Architecture Exhibition. Two huge glass spheres, one big and one small, were sitting on top of a milky white building.
As Lu Zhou looked at the fleet of luxury cars parked in front of the Shanghai International Convention Center, he couldn’t help but speak.
“Quite the venue.”
This was much more impressive than the ILHCRC unveiling ceremony.
Chen Yushan: “Of course, giant companies and investment banks from all over the world are coming here. If you want people to work with you, you have to show them strength. Not to mention that this conference is backed by the AIIB and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.”
“AIIB and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation?”
“Correct! Apparently, the higher-ups plan on building a new economic region along the transregional power grid in Southeast Asia, thus expanding the market share of Chinese companies.”
“So kind of like Silk Road?”
He didn’t know a lot about politics.
“Sort of, but there are small differences. Even though we’re dominating in the field of controllable fusion and aerospace, we still have to catch up in other areas… Give me a second, let me park the car.”
Chen Yushan successfully parked the car in an empty parking space. She couldn’t help but flauntingly smirk at Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou looked at her and didn’t know what to say.
There are no cars on either side of the parking space, even I could’ve parked it…
However, Lu Zhou didn’t want to piss her off. He followed her and began walking into the conference center…
It was obvious that this summit was sponsored by AIIB and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
This summit was unlike any other summit.
Hundreds of people were walking into the conference center, and this was quite an eye-opening experience for Lu Zhou.
The huge convention center made it easy to accommodate all of the participants. Various sample pieces were scattered across the building, including small collider models sent from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was like a miniaturized version of the World’s Fair.
Contracts on the magnitude of tens of billions of yuan were being negotiated here. These decisions were going to impact the future of the world.
The macroeconomics conference he participated in paled in comparison to this summit.
Lu Zhou and Chen Yushan went their separate ways and planned on meeting up later. An old man in a suit with neatly combed hair walked up to him.
“You’re Academician Lu, right? Nice to meet you.”
“I am…” Lu Zhou shook hands with the old man and said, “Who are you?”
“AIIB president, Gong Weiqi.” The old man handed him a card and said, “This is my business card, just call me Mr. Gong.”
President of AIIB!
Lu Zhou took the business card and looked surprised.
He was surprised that Mr. Gong was able to recognize him since he didn’t expect the summit organizer to greet him personally.
Lu Zhou composed himself and put away the business card. He smiled at the old man and spoke.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a business card.”
The old man smiled and said, “That’s fine, Academician Lu, you’re a scholar, not a businessman. You don’t need a business card for others to remember you. You’re the representative of the Chinese academic community. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend this summit! Apologies for not sending you an invitation letter in advance, hope you can forgive us.”
“No, it’s fine, I just came here to look around.”
Lu Zhou was a little embarrassed by the old man’s enthusiasm.
He’s too polite.
Lu Zhou felt like most of the executives that worked at banks were good at talking with people.
Lu Zhou wondered how Mr. Gong would react if he spoke his mind.
Of course, Lu Zhou would never say that kind of stuff.
After some small talk, President Gong offered to give Lu Zhou a tour of the conference.
Lu Zhou obviously wasn’t going to refuse a free tour guide.
Lu Zhou politely accepted President Gong’s offer.
The two walked while Lu Zhou asked some questions about the summit as well as the conference center. President Gong answered his questions one by one.
Lu Zhou suddenly noticed an Oriental Pearl TV Tower model standing there.
The tower was about 5 meters tall, made fully from metal.
A few excited Europeans were standing in front of the tower. They fiddled with some kind of measurement instrument and took photos.
“That’s the… Oriental Pearl TV Tower?”
Lu Zhou looked at the sign next to the model, then glanced at the staff member standing next to the tower.
Shenyang Machine Tool?
What does the Shenyang Machine Tool have to do with the Oriental Pearl TV Tower?
President Gong knew what Lu Zhou was thinking, so he smiled and spoke.
“Correct, but this isn’t just a normal model of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. It was built precisely to scale, using the latest high-precision five-axis machine tool from Shenyang Machine Tool. Apparently, the processing accuracy is within 0.01μm. I don’t know if that is true, but they’re the top of the industry!”
Lu Zhou: “And those people are?”
President Gong: “Siemens engineers. A lot of European and North American companies are attending this conference. These internationally renowned industry giants have sent their representatives all the way here.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
When Lu Zhou heard the words Siemens, he had an awkward look on his face.
He still remembered that in order to build the space shuttle, Xiao Ai secretly bought two Siemens high-precision five-axis machine tools from Europe…
When the machine tools arrived at the port of Haizhou, the customs staff were horrified, and they immediately reported it to their superiors. After that, somehow Chief Engineer Yang from Shenyang Machine Tool heard about the news and was able to snatch a machine tool for himself.
It seemed like the machine tool was being put to good use.
Shenyang Machine Tool probably reverse-engineered Siemens’ high-precision five-axis machine tool and even presented the finished product at the conference center, shocking the Siemens engineers.
The surface finish of the non-ferrous metals on the tower reached a precision rating of Ra0.005μm. Even Mikroturn’s top machine tools could barely reach this accuracy.
When did the Chinese machine tools become this nutty?!
This is insane!
The Siemens engineers looked shocked, and Lu Zhou suddenly felt quite bad for them.
They probably didn’t realize this tower was created using their own machine tool.
The only thing that Shenyang Machine Tool changed was the control system, which was created by Star Sky Technology to maximize the performance of the machine tool…
Lu Zhou sighed and looked away.
“I guess the student is surpassing the master.”
Who cares!
I’m not the one who did the reverse engineering, so it’s not my fault.
If Yang Zhongquan isn’t embarrassed, why would I be?
President Gong nodded and spoke.
“Yeah, Academician Lu, you’re right, our industry is—”
“Let’s go somewhere else.”
President Gong nodded and spoke.
“Oh, okay…”