Chapter 472: Knowledge Is The Greatest Asset

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Cars were coming to and fro the construction site; stifling smoke came out of the non-stop roaring excavators and cement trucks. There were engineers wearing white hats, holding design drawings. They personally came to the construction site to command the construction workers who were wearing yellow hats.

Just like the engineering machinery, everyone was working around the clock. The project was progressing at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. The construction site was roaring with action.

The environment was horrible; just standing there watching would make one’s leather shoes covered with mud and dust.

However, the high ranking city council officials were standing nearby. They didn’t have an ounce of disgust on their faces. Instead, their faces were blooming with joy.

A billion-dollar USD national investment was suddenly designated to Jin Ling City. This was basically a blessing from the heavens for Jin Ling City.

Especially since this was a controllable nuclear fusion scientific research project, this would greatly benefit the advanced technology industry and attract skilled talents to Jin Ling City.

Putting it straight forward, this was a huge political achievement.

Of course, this controllable nuclear fusion thing was nothing worth keeping confidential. There were plenty of research institutes around the world that did the same type of research, and they had been doing it for nearly half a century.

However, in order to prevent unnecessary worries and misunderstandings, these things were still kept low-key. Before any brilliant in-progress results came out, it was best to avoid any type of publicity.

Since the engineering part was overlooked by Commander Liao, the quality of the construction team was guaranteed.

At the current progress speed, it’d take at most six months for the project to be completed. If everything went well, it wouldn’t even need to take six months; three or four months would do.

Since Commander Liao gave his word to Lu Zhou, Lu Zhou didn’t worry too much about the construction project anymore. Once he told Engineer Sun some of his requirements, he began to focus his attention on the construction preparations for the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Three days before New Year’s, the STAR Stellarator Research Institute was in its second week of construction, while the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials building was finally completed.

The laboratory building the chemistry department lent to Lu Zhou was finally returned to its original owner.

However, the chemistry professors at Jin Ling University weren’t eagerly looking forward to its return.

Because the relocation of the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials meant that the billion-dollar high precision instruments and equipment would also be reallocated by Yang Xu and his team.

Even though the Institute of Computational Materials wasn’t far from Jin Ling University, it was still outside of the university campus.

Borrowing instruments wouldn’t be so easy in the future.

Dean Li of the chemistry department looked at the truck that was being driven away. As he stood next to Lu Zhou, he began to feel nostalgic. He then said, “Why are you guys in such a rush? It’s not like there’s someone forcing you to leave.”

Lu Zhou: “This laboratory building is still the property of the school; it’s not that good having it under my name.”

Dean Li shook his head and said, “You’re not an outsider though.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Jin Ling University is my alma mater, so I’ve never thought about myself as an outsider. However, it is good to separate public and private matters.”

If the relationship between public and private business wasn’t clear, it would cause problems sooner or later.

When he was overseas, he was careful in his every step. Now that he was back in China, he had to be extra careful.

Since Lu Zhou put it like this, Dean Li didn’t say much else; he just sighed.

“You’re right, you’re a Nobel Prize laureate now; the benchmark of the Chinese science community. All of the spotlights are on you. There’s a lot of people staring at your achievements, and also a lot of people waiting for you to make a mistake, so it’s good to be careful.”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “I will.”

…

Even though the research institute building was built and the instruments had been relocated, this was still only the beginning of Lu Zhou’s vision for the Institute for Advanced Study.

The field of computational materials was the only research institute around; all of the other research institutes were yet to be seen.

If he wanted to make his vision a reality, he had to put in a lot more work.

Because this was a privately owned research unit, after Lu Zhou made his policy requests, he didn’t want to ask the state for more money. Even though the president promised him a billion yuan interest-free loan, Lu Zhou didn’t plan on borrowing this money.

Firstly, he didn’t need that much money right now.

Secondly, there was still quite a bit of funds left in the Star Sky Technology China branch for him to play with.

If he didn’t look at the numbers in his bank account, he would have almost forgotten that he was basically a billionaire. After he realized he had this much money to play with, he immediately invested a hundred million yuan into the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study fund.

Lu Zhou never cared about spending money on research.

After all, the original intention of Star Sky Technology was to help with his laboratory research.

Lu Zhou walked around the brand new research institute building with his most helpful assistant, Yang Xu. While he familiarized himself with the environment, he asked, “How does it feel like to move back home?”

Yang Xu smiled and said, “The laboratory is much more spacious, and there’s not a lot of people around here, so it feels a bit deserted.”

Lu Zhou smiled.

“Deserted is part of it. I’ll quickly hire a new group of researchers and make this place lively again.”

With his Nobel Prize medal, coupled with the sophisticated equipment in the brand new laboratory building, Lu Zhou didn’t even have to offer a high salary to attract a bunch of hard-working researchers.

Of course, looking at it from a long term perspective, he wouldn’t treat his scientific researcher poorly either.

Lu Zhou stood in the research director’s office that had floor-to-ceiling windows. As he looked at the entire institute, he said enthusiastically, “This is only phase one of the whole research institute. There are three more phases to go. Not just in materials science, but also mathematics, and physics. Whether it is software or hardware, we must strive to achieve world-class standards!”

Yang Xu: “Higher standards than CERN?”

Lu Zhou: “That will happen eventually.”

Bragging didn’t require proofs, and what if it turned out to be true?

Yang Xu joked, “You really plan on getting a Hadron Collider?”

Lu Zhou smiled as he replied, “It’s an idea, but the thing can’t be built in the city, plus right now we don’t have the resources needed.”

Theoretical physics experiments was another funding black hole. Nothing spectacular could come from it even if he invested his entire fortune.

However, if the controllable nuclear fusion project was a success, then funding wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

By that time, if he wanted to draw a circle on the ground for a Hadron Collider or place a satellite in the sky to collect dark matter, no matter what ideas he came up with, someone would give him the green light.

Yang Xu didn’t think about things that far into the future; his thoughts were still on the Hadron Collider. Feeling slightly astonished, he rubbed his chin while he thought about it.

“That thing isn’t cheap, right? It’ll cost billions; where will the money come from?” Yang Xu asked.

Lu Zhou smiled, but he didn’t give this question a direct answer.

“Knowledge is the greatest asset, and our research is creating wealth.”

Lu Zhou, who looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows paused for a moment.

“Gather up all of the researchers in the institute. We will have a large conference to talk about the next steps!”

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