After the manned moon landing mission was successful, China quickly decided on its next national aerospace strategies. It was about time for Lu Zhou to return to Jinling.
After hearing that Lu Zhou was planning on leaving Beijing, Academician Wang Zengguang quickly found him and took him to a restaurant near the hotel. Wang Zengguang ordered some food and began to talk about the past.
“I wanted to buy you dinner a few days ago, but I heard you had a meeting to go to, so I thought I’d wait a few days. I didn’t expect you to leave right after the meeting.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Yeah, work is getting really busy, I don’t have time to waste.”
Academician Wang took a sip of liquor and spoke.
“You must have offended a lot of people with the moon space station.”
Lu Zhou put some food in his bowl and said nonchalantly, “It doesn’t matter, anything I say will offend some people.”
Any argument would have a counterargument, that was inevitable.
If he didn’t want to offend anyone, then he could forget about expressing his opinion.
Academician Wang smiled and said, “Seems like you don’t care then.”
Lu Zhou put down his chopsticks and said, “It’s mainly because there’s no reason to care.”
Academician Wang filled his glass with some beer and said, “Cheers to not caring!”
“Cheers.”
Lu Zhou smiled and downed his glass.
After eating, Lu Zhou bade farewell to Academician Wang. He returned to his hotel and packed his luggage. Wang Peng then drove him to the high-speed rail station.
Before the conference even began, the State Administration for National Defense already bought him a business-class train ticket. Even though Lu Zhou didn’t need them to be this polite, he still appreciated the gesture.
Lu Zhou was sitting on the high-speed rail train. He asked the stewardess to make a cup of coffee. He then took out his laptop.
He was looking through the documents stored in his mailbox when he suddenly received a call.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, where are you?”
Through her pleasant voice, Lu Zhou could immediately tell Chen Yushan was the one calling.
Lu Zhou leaned in his chair and said, “I’m nearly back in Jinling, what’s up?”
Chen Yushan smirked and said, “Nothing, I just wanted to call you. I always thought you didn’t have any business talents, but it seems like I have underestimated you.”
“Haha, you definitely did.”
Did you call me just to kiss my a*s?
Why?
Lu Zhou smiled and rubbed his nose as he said, “By the way, what made you change your mind?”
Lu Zhou was actually a little embarrassed.
He always knew he didn’t have any business talents, but he didn’t think Chen Yushan would notice.
Chen Yushan: “Didn’t you see? The State Administration for National Defense published on its website the information for the space conference in Beijing. China will focus on the lunar space station as its next aerospace development plan.”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “… Oh, what about it?”
He attended that conference before, and he was actually the one who suggested this route.
What does that have to do with business talents?
“I asked people in the aerospace department to do an industry report for me. Yesterday, I took a closer look at the report and found that if we bid for the lunar orbit space station, we are the only one qualified to bid for the entire spacecraft transportation project.”
Chen Yushan said emotionally, “To be honest, I was never optimistic about aerospace. It requires a large investment, it’s a high risk and low return project. But you, it’s like you saw the future. We are now the industry leader in aerospace. I’m really impressed.”
Honestly, before launching the Skyglow project, she even helped the company formulate countermeasures, in case of bankruptcy.
She didn’t expect everything to go so smoothly.
Lu Zhou replied, “Oh, I see…”
Seeing how he wasn’t excited, Chen Yushan asked, “… What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…” Lu Zhou pinched his forehead and sighed. He said, “I just think that people are going to hate us for eating the entire pie.”
He finally realized why the head of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation gave him a death stare when he was walking out of the conference room.
Also why CEOs of private companies, such as i-Space and Zero One Space, had such dismal expressions on their faces when they walked out of the conference room.
Even the state-owned corporations couldn’t win the bidding war… They could forget about winning the bids. They only had two options.
They could either try to develop new space launching technologies, or they could focus on the business aspect and invest more money into research and development on outer space equipment.
Chen Yushan heard Lu Zhou’s sigh, and she chuckled. “Why are you worried about this?”
Lu Zhou: “I’m not worried, I just think…”
Chen Yushan: “Beta!”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Beta?
Am I being a beta?
Chen Yushan smiled and said, “Don’t worry, you should worry about something more important. I have a meeting soon, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay then, see you.”
Chen Yushan was right, Lu Zhou’s worries were superfluous.
The market will eventually adjust itself back to a sustainable position.
If companies are unable to adapt in this era, they will be abandoned. If the companies can find another profitable pathway, then they will survive.
There is always someone better to take their place.
As for people hating me…
I guess it doesn’t matter.
After thinking about this, Lu Zhou felt a lot better.
He put his phone back into his pocket. The stewardess came over with his coffee.
“Sir, your coffee.”
“Thank you.”
Lu Zhou took the coffee from the stewardess. He nodded as a show of thanks and took a sip. He then continued to stare at his computer screen.
When he opened his browser, a news headline caught his attention.
Lu Zhou was intrigued, and he clicked on the article and began to read.
“… Johnson & Johnson has made a major breakthrough in human frozen dormant slow-release technology. The CEO of Johnson & Johnson said that if the technology matures, not only will it be used for ultra-long distance interplanetary travel, but it will also allow some terminally ill patients to survive into the future, where medical technology is more advanced.
“… This is quite interesting.”
Lu Zhou’s eyebrows rose.
If controllable fusion were the discovery of fire, then aerospace would be like the invention of the wheel. It reignited people’s enthusiasm and desire to see new technologies.
Just like how the Americans ignited the Europeans’ desire to explore, exploration of outer space would leave people longing for more.
Ever since the end of the Cold War, most technological fields outside of computer technology had stagnated. Now, it seemed like the wheel of technology was finally moving forward.
Lu Zhou felt a little emotional.
He looked forward to seeing what the world would look like half a century later.
I’m certain the next half of the century will be more exciting than the last half of the century.
If everything goes well, I will get to witness this technological revolution…