Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
It was ten o’clock when Lu Zhou woke up.
He took a shower and put on some fresh clothes. When he walked downstairs, he found out that the breakfast buffet was already close. The chefs were busy preparing for lunch.
However, after the hotel lobby manager heard that Lu Zhou hadn’t eaten his breakfast yet, he thoughtfully told a kitchen chef to prepare a separate breakfast for Lu Zhou. However, Lu Zhou didn’t want to bother other people, so he declined the manager’s proposal. Lu Zhou said he was going to take a walk and eat outside.
Lu Zhou sat on the sofa at the hotel lobby and called Wang Peng. He asked Wang Peng to drive to the hotel entrance.
After Lu Zhou got into the car, Wang Peng skillfully drove the car and asked Lu Zhou, “Where are we going?”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and wanted to ask Wang Peng if there were good places to eat nearby.
However, he suddenly remembered that Luo Wenxuan had been here for almost half a year. Therefore, Lu Zhou decided to visit him.
“Head to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of High Energy Physics.”
“Okay.”
…
It was already the end of February, and spring was nearly here.
The air in Beijing was still a little chilly, but there was no need to wear a puffer jacket anymore; a sweater and a coat would be enough.
Fortunately, the traffic was pretty good today. The two reached their destination in less than 20 minutes.
After Lu Zhou got out of the car, he walked to the entrance of the Institute of High Energy Physics. He registered his name at the security entrance and asked where the “lunar hadron collider project team” was located. The security guard then pointed him toward the building.
Lu Zhou knocked on the door, and the door quickly opened.
A lady wearing glasses opened the door. She was probably an assistant. She was a little surprised when she saw Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou looked at the surprised lady and politely asked, “Hello, is Professor Luo Wenxuan here?”
The lady stuttered nervously, “Oh… You’re looking for Professor Luo? He’s here…”
Before she could finish speaking, Luo Wenxuan’s distinctive voice was heard.
“Xiao Juan, who is it?”
Lu Zhou smiled and walked inside the office.
“It’s me, I’m here to visit you.”
Suddenly, there was a thumping noise in the office, like something had fallen to the ground.
Luo Wenxuan sat up straight in his chair. He was astonished.
“F*ck, God Lu?! Why are you here?”
Lu Zhou nearly fell onto the floor. He couldn’t help but complain, “I tolerate other people calling me this, but why are you calling me God Lu?”
“The name fits you.” Luo Wenxuan scratched his head and said, “The people at the Institute of High Energy Physics have been talking about you. They always refer to you as God Lu, so I picked up on it.”
Lu Zhou thanked the lady who brought him tea. He then sat down on the sofa and asked with a smile, “What are they talking about?”
Luo Wenxuan looked at Lu Zhou and said, “You don’t know? Did you not look at the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences?”
“… What’s on the website?”
“The Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academy of Engineering have announced the primaries of the academician elections! Both of them have your name listed. I know you don’t care about this kind of stuff, but the academic forums have been going crazy over this matter.”
Lu Zhou didn’t say anything. He only smiled.
Lu Zhuo wondered what Luo Wenxuan would do if he were to tell Luo Wenxuan that not only did he enter the primaries, but he also passed the academic essay review in June. Lu Zhou was only one review process away from the official voting.
However, he should keep things like this to himself. After all, Director Qian did him a favor telling him, and Lu Zhou felt like he should stay low-key.
Luo Wenxuan picked up the cup and took a sip. He put down the cup and asked Lu Zhou.
“So you came all the way to Beijing to see me?”
Lu Zhou: “Not quite. I mainly came here to receive an award.”
Luo Wenxuan rolled his eyes and leaned on his office chair. “I f*cking knew it! Couldn’t you just lie to me?”
“What’s the point of lying to you?” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Speaking of which, how is the design of the lunar hadron collider going?”
Luo Wenxuan waved his hand and said, “The design itself isn’t difficult. The difficulty is how to actually build the design. The Chinese Academy of Sciences is taking this project quite seriously, and many experienced engineers from the BESII project team were transferred to our team, which made things much easier.”
Even though the Beijing Electron–Positron Collider II wasn’t huge, it still had all of the essentials. The engineers who had participated in the BESII project were all top talents in the field of experimental physics.
Even though these people didn’t rank high in the international academic community, that had nothing to do with their own abilities. After all, it wasn’t as easy to publish articles in experimental physics compared to high-energy physics. Therefore, they mostly worked behind the scenes. This was evident from the fact that most world-class awards were given to theoretical scholars.
After hearing that Lu Zhou planned on building a collider on the Moon, even though they knew this project would be difficult to implement, experts from the Institute of High Energy Physics still took this project seriously.
After all, the Chinese theoretical physics community had a shortage of research funding. It was very rare for someone to willingly invest in a collider. No matter how impractical this plan sounded, they still didn’t want to give up this opportunity.
It would be a shame if they didn’t try at all.
“… Also, our project team contacted CERN. After CERN heard about our plan, they were extremely interested. They sent several engineers from the LHCb to help us solve technical problems.”
Lu Zhou was surprised.
“They sent people from CERN?”
Luo Wenxuan smiled and said, “They weren’t as enthusiastic at the beginning. When the group of Europeans heard that we were building a hadron collider on the Moon, they thought we were joking. But after they heard that you were the person in charge, they immediately signed the cooperation agreement.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “What do they want?”
Luo Wenxuan: “They want us to purchase space probes from their partners, and if possible, let them have a few researchers on the lunar hadron collider after completion.”
Lu Zhou nodded.
These were reasonable requests.
Compared to other competitive fields, theoretical physics was relatively innocent. Most research institutes had a close relationship with other research institutes. Even though there was a certain amount of competitiveness between the institutes, cooperation was very common.
Lu Zhou had no reason to refuse the European scholars in participating in the lunar hadron collider project.
After all, the field of high-energy particle physics benefited humanity as a whole. It was a cause that humans should fight for together, as a species.
Seeing how Lu Zhou didn’t speak for a while, Luo Wenxuan said, “Oh yeah, there’s something I want to ask you.”
Lu Zhou: “What? Go ahead.”
Luo Wenxuan said in a serious manner, “Actually, no matter how we improve the design scheme, the entire project will weigh in the thousands of tons. If we really design this thing, can we even send it to the Moon?”
Lu Zhou looked at Luo Wenxuan and spoke confidently.
“I promise you we can, I will try my best.”
Even with the current technological capabilities of Star Sky Technology, there was no way Lu Zhou could send thousands of tons of equipment to the surface of the Moon. Not even if he sold all of his East Asia Energy stock and lithium-sulfur battery patents…
However, that was the present.
The future could bring unexpected solutions.
After Starlight was built, Star Sky Technology’s Earth-Moon orbit delivery capabilities would increase to another level. At the same time, the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and other domestic research institutes were researching industrial equipment that could automate outer-space mining, smelting, and production.
There were tons of titanium and other resources on the surface of the Moon. It was entirely possible to automate the industrial process of mining these materials.
Of course, Lu Zhou didn’t know how long this would take.
After all, even though he was an excellent scholar, he wasn’t an equally excellent engineer.
He still had a long way to go.
“Let’s forget about all this for a second.” Lu Zhou put his teacup on the table and said, “The reason I came to see you is to see how you’re fitting in, also to buy you dinner.”
Luo Wenxuan was surprised.
“When did you become so generous?”
Lu Zhou was speechless. “What do you mean, when have I been selfish? Are there good restaurants nearby?”
“Okay then,” Luo Wenxuan stood up from his chair and said, “There’s a nice place nearby, come with me.”
