Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
Not only the expansive international market, once Penglai City is completed, fresh water supply would become an actual problem. A total of 300,00 units are sold as of now, even with only 50% occupancy rate, the population of Penglai would be a ridiculous number.
Jiang Chen left the Presidential Palace, got in the car, and asked Ayesha to send him to the gate of CWW.
Once they were on their way, he first called the CWW people before opening the hologram image on his left hand.
Blue particles emerged and a three dimensional portrait appeared inside the car.
Ayesha’s widened eyes were written with shock but she didn’t say anything. She closed the windows of the car and continued to focus on the road.
“Jean, initiate the fourth dimensional messenger and scan the technology recovery catalogue of Fallout Shelter 027 to match seawater desalination for me.”
“Understood.” A girl in the hologram projection nodded and the realistic curvature flashed with light blue data streams.
The fourth dimension messenger was previously attached to the chip on his EP and was used to connect with Lin Lin. It was later updated to connected with the Fishbone server to ease Jiang Chen in connecting with the apocalypse.
Because Yao Yao’s watch included the function of EP, Jiang Chen transferred the chip into the watch.
“Search complete. Seven matches found.”
“Download to my watch.”
“Affirmative, Mr. President,” Jean said, emotionless.
Watching the bar load on the hologram screen, Jiang Chen poke the projection.
“Received! You can go play now.”
“Question, what does go play now mean?”
“Uh, it means you can come out once I need you again.”
It was weird feeling having someone watch you. Even if she was an AI, as other than her expression, she was too close to a human.
“Understood.”
She nodded and her figure changed into blue letters before fading from the air.
Sinking into the seat, Jiang Chen called out the documents downloaded.
When the infection source was cleared from the city center, Fallout Shelter 027, with the help of NAC First Division, began to conduct technology recovery work in Wanghai’s shambles. Disregarding if they digested the technology or not, all the data was inputted into the server by the thousands of researchers for future use.
Water desalination technology was a common technology in the population abundant 22nd century. Although Wanghai at the mouth of Huangpu River could not experience the agony of water shortage, it didn’t prevent it in providing technology service to water shortage areas of the PAC.
The scientists of the fallout shelter only recorded the technology without digesting and organizing the technology yet. However, the documents themselves had comprehensive conceptual drawings and data entries so Jiang Chen could read through the content of the technology.
With his finger sliding through the interface, a blue rectangle appeared and outlined the outer appearance of the water desalination device.
“Who is she?” Ayesha curiously asked.
“Artificial intelligence. Her name is Jean.”
“It is a program… I thought she was your assistant,” Ayesha said in a quiet voice while making a turn.
CWW’s office in Xin was located in the city center of Coro Island. Fortunately, the road condition was not too bad and they arrived at their destination in fifteen minutes.
With the car parked, Jiang Chen’s hand grasped in the air and retracted the hologram screen before he stepped out of the vehicle.
In a tourism city full of taxis, a flamboyant Lamborghini was quite eye-catching. Some tourists even took out their phones to snap a picture… although Jiang Chen didn’t know why they were so excited.
He walked into the CWW building and an assistant came to greet him and took him up the elevator.
On the way there, Jiang Chen already phoned CWW’s regional manager. Although the manager didn’t want to persist with Xin’s government on the problem of water desalination, with the consideration of Jiang Chen’s identity, Jim Attri still agreed to his unexpected visit and moved his other meeting back by an hour.
“Please sit down, Mr. Jiang Chen.” Attri poured a cup of coffee for Jiang Chen and sat across from him, “I’m surprised you came to visit our company. Is Future Group interested in the water business?”
“Precisely speaking, we are interested in water desalination.” Jiang Chen took a sip of the coffee before he decided not to touch it anymore.
It was as bitter as Chinese Medicine.
Attri thought Jiang Chen was here to convince him about the water desalination plant, he sighed.
“We have a running joke in our company.”
“Oh?” Jiang Chen looked at him, intrigued.
“Our company’s water supplying business in Xin’s total profit is not even close to our gain in real estate.” Attri savored the taste of the coffee as he continued in a lighthearted tone, “For example the building underneath me, including renovations, it costed a total of 150,000 USD. Now, I can sell it for 2 million USD.”
“Haha, that is a funny joke.” Jiang Chen grinned. “Are you that pessimistic about Xin’s fresh water market? There are only 50 thousand permanent residents here, but what about a year later?”
“This is not the key.” Attri shook his head, threw a cubed sugar into the coffee and gently stirred, “Xin Government wants us to increase our size here but they also want to treat drinking water as a benefit. In terms of price, we don’t have the ability to set the price. Although Coro Island lacked fresh water, to be honest, we don’t view too positively the market here.”
“Then do you have plans to sell the business here?” Jiang Chen asked.
Attri shook his head.
“While we don’t favor it, we don’t plan to leave.”
“So you want to maintain the status quo?” Jiang Chen understood their strategy.
“Yes.” Attri agreed.
Xin’s freshwater pipelines were owned by CWW, other freshwater companies who want to enter the market had only two options. Either work with them or relay the pipelines. Even if the government chose to import freshwater, they still must sell the freshwater at a low price to them based on the contract before they supply the water to the residents. The buy high sell low was another form of subsidization.
Attri took another sip of the coffee, looked at Jiang Chen, and used a quite surprised tone.
“Is Future Group interested in the freshwater business?”
“That’s right.” Jiang Chen nodded again. He looked at him and continued, “Future Heavy Industrial recently made a groundbreaking discovery in water desalination technology. Zhang Yapin happened to mention to me about the water shortage in Xin, so I plan to build a water desalination plant with an estimated daily treatment amount of 40,000 tons.”
40,000 tons was just a conservative number, Any water desalination technology from the 22nd century had a minimum treatment amount exponentially higher than that. But for Xin, the number was enough.
“With Xin’s electricty price, we can control the cost of every ton of treated water to be less than 0.5 USD.”
“0.5 USD? That’s pretty good…” Suddenly, Attri’s hand holding the coffee cup froze.
Bang, the cup smashed on the ground. Without caring for the coffee spilled on himself, he banged on the table and looked at Jiang Chen with eyes widened.
“That’s impossible! I never heard of any technology that could compress the cost to this low, even Matrix can’t do this!”
“But we are Future,” Jiang Chen said without much expression, but he was laughing in his mind. [This is because the electricity price is high here. If it were in the 22nd century, with mature nuclear fusion technology, the cost of water desalination is not much higher than the underground water itself..
Attri wanted to rebuke, but his words were stuck in his throat. He suddenly remembered that Future Group always made miracles come true and they always revolutionized the traditional way of thinking. From virtual reality to housework robots…
An absurd idea surfaced in his head.
Maybe they could really do it!
“What do you think? Are you interested in working with us?” Jiang Chen, with a smile, looked at the silent Attri.
