On Mars orbit.
Looking at the shipyard getting closer and closer, Academician Yang Chongping slightly adjusted the collar on his chest. At the same time, he calmed the emotions in his heart a bit.
About a day ago, he suddenly received an email from East Asia Heavy Industries. In the email, East Asia Heavy Industries stated that Fuxing Mining Company intended to change its mind and continue to complete the unfinished Noah’s Ark instead of disassembling it into metal alloys and selling it.
They put forward some suggestions for improvement on part of the design of this starship, hoping that he, as the designer of this starship, could provide technical assistance.
After reading this email, Yang Chongping didn’t hesitate and agreed to the matter immediately.
Not only that, he even put off the academic conference that was held that day and took the student he was most proud of on the shuttle to the shipyard. He planned to go to the site to discuss the improvement plan with the person in charge of Fuxing Mining Company.
To be honest, the reason why he was so attached to this matter was not because of how much money Fuxing Mining Company gave him, but because the other party actually changed their mind. They weren’t going to dismantle the starship, and they even planned to continue to invest in it.
When he heard the news, he couldn’t describe how excited he was.
After all, this was an effort he spent countless days and nights to complete.
Even throughout the history of human civilization, one couldn’t find a spaceship that was larger and more distant than it.
And if it really arrived at Alpha Centauri one day and spread the flames of civilization there, as the designer of this starship, he would receive praise from all of humanity.
However, he didn’t meet the person in charge of the Fuxing Mining Company. Instead, he met a guy he saw just a few days ago…
Looking at Lu Zhou standing in front of him, Yang Chongping gulped, and it took a while before he squeezed out a word from his throat.
“Why are you…”
Looking at Academician Yang Chongping, who was baffled, Lu Zhou spoke with a smile.
“We meet again, Academician Yang Chongping.”
“What are you doing here…”
“Let me explain it to you.” Looking at Academician Yang Chongping, who had a stiff expression, Zhong Ziyu, who was standing next to Lu Zhou, seemed to realize something. So, he smiled and said, “This is Academician Lu, the chairman of Star Sky Technology… He is also the sole major shareholder of Fuxing Mining Company. This is Academician Yang. Lu Zhou, you should have met him before.”
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. “Yes, I saw him not long ago.”
After listening to that person’s introduction, Academician Yang Chongping felt like a lightning had struck in his mind. He stared at Lu Zhou wordlessly and was dumbfounded for a while.
Seeing the expression on Academician Yang’s face, Lu Zhou spoke with a light cough.
“You shouldn’t be that surprised, right?”
How could I…
Not be surprised!
His throat moved, and he grinned reluctantly.
“It turns out that you bought the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation.”
“Sort of, although there are some twists and turns in this process, you can think of it this way.” Lu Zhou noticed Zhong Ziyu looking at him frantically, so he smiled at him and said, “The news is probably going to be made public tomorrow anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I tell him in advance.”
“Some news is different from others.” Zhong Ziyu sighed with a nervous laugh. He looked at Academician Yang Chongping and said, “I hope you can keep this a secret until tomorrow.”
“Secret… I don’t understand. Since you bought this starship, why bother to come here?” Academician Yang Chongping looked at Lu Zhou with a stern face. A trace of anger appeared in his tone as he asked, “You came here specifically to humiliate me?”
“How come?” Lu Zhou smiled when he heard these words. “Did you misunderstand something?”
“Misunderstand?”
“That’s right.” Lu Zhou nodded while looking at Academician Yang Chongping with a stiff expression. He said in a relaxed tone, “I believe you should have received an email from East Asia Heavy Industries. We plan to hire you as the designer of the Noah’s Ark project. You are in charge of our colonization project.”
Lu Zhou felt that the olive branch he threw out to Academician Yang Chongping should be quite attractive. For a scholar who had not broken away from low-level desires, what could be more attractive than fame and fortune?
What Lu Zhou didn’t expect was that after he threw out this proposal, Academician Yang Chongping didn’t happily agree to it at all. Instead, there was a look of struggle on his face.
It was almost like…
The conditions offered made him feel very embarrassed.
Lu Zhou was confused about what embarrassed him when Yang Chongping suddenly spoke.
“I do not understand…”
Lu Zhou gently raised his eyebrows.
“Don’t understand what?”
“I don’t understand, why are you doing this?” Looking at Lu Zhou, Yang Chongping continued in a complicated tone, “With your abilities, you can completely redesign a colonial ship. Why continue my plan?”
If he were the one who stood in Lu Zhou’s current position, he would definitely not be so magnanimous. He would use all available means to completely erase any design left by the other party from this project.
Lu Zhou guessed what the middle-aged man was thinking. He smiled, looked at him, and asked, “May I ask what your understanding of academics is?”
“Academics is learning and skill, from the study of knowledge to the application of what has been learned to the perfection of technique… Of course, this is just my own humble opinion.” Staring at Lu Zhou, Yang Chongping asked, “What about you, Academician Lu? What do you think is the meaning of academics?”
“Your understanding can be said to be quite practical. I’m afraid I see it in a more abstract manner.” Lu Zhou smiled and continued in a relaxed tone, “Academics is the exploration for the truth of the universe.”
“The exploration for the truth of the universe…?”
Seeing Academician Yang with a dumbfounded look on his face, Lu Zhou nodded lightly and continued with a smile, “It may sound a bit simple, but this is my opinion. I felt this way a century ago, and today, a century later, my thinking remains the same.
“There are things more worth pursuing than vanity. At the very least, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter who completes the research or who builds the building. They’re the same to me. I think your work is good, that’s it.”
“That’s it?”
A bitter smile suddenly appeared on Academician Yang Chongping’s face.
For some reason, at this moment, his heart seemed to be overwhelmed with mixed feelings. A lot of words were stuck in his throat, but he couldn’t say a word.
But one thing he knew was.
Not only did he lose, but he also lost thoroughly.
And not only in terms of knowledge but also in terms of morals…
After that, the two briefly talked about technical issues.
Especially with regard to installing the warp drive engine on this starship, Lu Zhou put forward many detailed requirements, and Academician Yang Chongping also wrote them down one by one.
When leaving the shipyard on the shuttle, Academician Yang looked at the silver-white colonial ship outside the porthole. He suddenly said to himself, “I finally understand now…”
The student standing next to him was slightly taken aback by his teacher’s emotional tone. He asked in a low voice, “Sir, what do you… understand?”
A look of realization suddenly appeared on his face. Yang Chongping looked at the universe outside the porthole and spoke in an emotional tone.
“I finally understand…”
“Why the people in that era respected him so much…”
