With the end of the second-generation controllable fusion project, the work at hand had finally come to an end, and Lu Zhou was finally free.
Since he had been in a retreat for almost half a year, he hadn’t gotten together with his old friends for a while.
Therefore, Director Li, Li Gaoliang, Wang Peng, and Lu Zhou all went to the grilled fish shop that they used to go to, opened a box of beer, and started talking as they ate.
“Time flies by quickly these days. In a blink of an eye, it’s already another year.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, come, cheers.”
Director Li had a flushed face after drinking. He stared straight at the mist rising from the plate, thinking about the past and the future.
Li Gaoliang also cheered Wang Peng. He then said with a smile, “I heard you’re doing well at the Security Bureau recently?”
“It’s alright.”
“Just alright?” Li Gaoliang said with a smile, “I heard people say that there was a strong old popsicle that got hired at the Security Bureau. That guy has no weapon implants in his body, yet few people in the team can win a fight against him.”
Wang Peng smiled and said modestly, “That guy is probably not me.”
Director Li suddenly sighed emotionally and said, “Anyway, space elevator; is that really possible?”
Wang Peng and Li Gaoliang turned their attention to the only person sitting here who knew about this.
In fact, they were also very curious about this matter. A century ago, space elevators were rarely seen even in science fiction blockbusters.
“It should be possible in theory.” Lu Zhou continued after thinking for a while, “Unlike the second-generation controllable fusion, the space elevator at this stage is not facing technically difficult problems. The problem is transforming existing technology into a product.”
“In other words, there is hope…?”
Director Li sighed. For some reason, his tone suddenly became a little melancholy as he said, “The development of the times is really getting faster and faster. This plate of grilled fish is the only thing that doesn’t change. There are more and more things an old man like me doesn’t understand.”
The atmosphere at the dinner table suddenly became heavy.
Lu Zhou didn’t feel anything, but Wang Peng and Li Gaoliang fell silent as well.
They also understood the feeling of being left behind by the times.
Normally, they were reluctant to touch on this topic…
After being drunk and satiated, the group broke up.
Sitting in the same car with Wang Peng, Lu Zhou fastened his seat belt and glanced at the robot driver. He then asked Wang Peng with a smile, “They give you a driver?”
“It’s just a robot driver. It seems to be quite common in private cars.”
Lu Zhou: “Have you guys made any progress in the case of The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?”
“Not much progress.” Wang Peng shook his head and said straightforwardly, “Although we also caught some small bosses and personnel, we didn’t catch any big fish like Morinaga. The clues found so far are that they regularly hold meetings through the virtual reality network, and no one knows their real identities.”
Lu Zhou laughed and teased, “Yeah, it sounds more and more like a story between a superhero and an evil villain.”
“It would be great if this is the case. Popcorn blockbusters usually have a perfect ending, but in reality, this is not always true.”
A helpless expression appeared on Wang Peng’s face. At this moment, he suddenly remembered something that he hadn’t asked, so he continued, “Speaking of which, when you came to see me in San Francisco, what exactly… did you do to me?”
Although he felt that his question was very strange, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity.
Lu Zhou didn’t answer this question directly. He just smiled and asked, “Does your body feel better?”
Wang Peng nodded.
“Feels stronger…”
“That’s good.” Lu Zhou laughed twice and waved his hand. “You don’t need to worry about other things, just know that I won’t harm you.”
The car stopped in front of Lu Zhou’s house. In the end, Wang Peng didn’t find out what exactly Academician Lu did to him.
Wang Peng watched the man disappear at the door. He looked at the robot driver holding the steering wheel on standby. He then nodded for him to start driving.
On the other hand, when Lu Zhou returned home, after dealing with the enthusiastic Xiao Ai, he received a call from the Ministry of Science and Technology
“There will be a seminar on space elevators at the Ministry of Science and Technology tomorrow. Would it be okay for you to come here?”
Thinking that he had to work at the campus tomorrow, Lu Zhou asked, “Is it important?”
“It’s not crucial. It is mainly for anchor site selection and integration of research resources for the space elevator project.” The Minister of Science and Technology said with a smile, “After all, there are hundreds of research units involved in the entire project, and there are many project teams. They may not know each other. If there is a problem in the communication link, it is easy to cause big trouble.”
Lu Zhou agreed.
After all, after being the chief designer for so many years, he himself had seen a lot of mistakes caused by the lack of communication in the project team.
However, this kind of thing couldn’t be solved after one or two meetings. It would take a long time to change.
After thinking for a while, Lu Zhou said, “I have something to do tomorrow, so I’m afraid I can’t go.”
The Minister of Science and Technology did not insist. Instead, he said with a relaxed tone, “It’s fine. We are not particularly anxious. If you are not free, you can deal with your own affairs first. When we need your help, I will contact you again.”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“No problem, if there is any trouble that can’t be solved, remember to call me.”
The Minister of Science and Technology smiled and said, “Definitely!”
…
The next morning, Lu Zhou asked Ling to drive him to the university. He then went straight to the administration building of Jin Ling University.
Coincidentally, when he arrived, his instructor, Sun Lan, came out of the office with a bag of documents.
After seeing Lu Zhou, her eyes lit up, and she said with a smile on her face, “Congratulations, you have completed all the preparatory courses. This is your graduation certificate… I originally planned to go to the classroom to give it to you.”
Lu Zhou took a look at the electronic graduation certificate suspended in the holographic window. After he reached out his index finger to click on it, the electronic certificate was transferred into his document folder.
Is the future era so environmentally friendly that even graduation certificates are electronic?
But both ID cards and bank cards have been digitized in this era and stored in the supercomputing center cloud, so this makes sense.
“In other words, I graduated?”
“Hmm…” Sun Lan nodded and said with some dismay, “I believe that after this year of studies, you have thoroughly integrated into the current society, and there is no need to continue studying for preparatory courses.”
“Thank you.” Lu Zhou nodded. “It’s been a pleasure.”
Sun Lan continued with an embarrassed smile, “Well… this is my job after all. It’s what I should do.”
“It is, but I can still see you devoted your energy into it.”
After smiling, Lu Zhou was about to turn around and walk towards the elevator.
However, at this moment, the elevator door opened, and a group of people walked out of the elevator.
As Lu Zhou looked at Li Guangya, he asked in a daze, “Why are you here?”
Li Guangya obviously did not expect that he would run into Lu Zhou so soon, so he coughed and said in an embarrassing tone, “I… We need your help.”
Lu Zhou’s face was full of weird expressions.
Although he expected that the space elevator project might not be as simple as this guy imagined, he was still surprised at how soon the trouble came.
After all, last night the Minister of Science and Technology sounded confident during their phone call.
“Where is the problem? Can you talk about it now?”
“Not here… We may have more problems than we thought.” Li Guangya continued with an embarrassed expression on his face, “Anyway, can you please come with us?”
