637 I Have A Bad Feeling

When Lu Zhou heard Academician Lu, he looked at him inexplicably.

“Why would I do that?”

Academician Lu said anxiously, “Then why are you building space shuttles?”

Oh, I see.

Lu Zhou instantly realized what Academician Lu was thinking, so he began to explain.

“The media article is a bit inaccurate, the space shuttle project is mainly done by Xiao… Star Sky Technology. I’m only funding the project.”

So close, I nearly blurted out Xiao Ai’s name.

Academician Lu didn’t notice Lu Zhou’s hiccup. He sighed and said, “I don’t know a lot about the aerospace industry, but my old friends at the Academy of Engineering have talked about it. Even though there are supporting government policies, the domestic aerospace market is still very competitive. It is very difficult to compete with the international space companies, and most companies are still trying to get financing.

“The reason I came here isn’t that I’m worried something is wrong with your research, I’m just worried that you have forgotten your roots!

“Once a scholar becomes a businessman, it’s very difficult for the scholar to stay in academia. I’ve seen this happen way too often.

“It’s none of my business, but your mind is in chaos. If you can just calm down and focus on researching physics, you might become a Newton or Einstein-level physicist. Now you’re doing aerospace? Your priorities are all wrong!”

Lu Zhou said, “But if I only focused on one thing, controllable nuclear fusion wouldn’t exist.”

Academician Lu paused for a second and didn’t have anything to say.

Lu Zhou paused for a second and continued, “I’ve always thought researching theoretical physics is very interesting. However, there is more to science than just theory, and using our theoretical knowledge to change the world is also a very meaningful thing.”

“Like the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap.” Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “If my guess is correct, it will become the key to the miniaturization of controllable fusion. This is why I have chosen it as my main research project.”

Miniaturization of controllable fusion!

Academician Lu looked shocked.

He couldn’t help but ask, “Is it really this simple?”

“It’s not simple, but we have found a possible technical pathway. It’s too early to discuss whether or not we can succeed.”

Even though Lu Zhou’s words sounded a little depressing, he didn’t look depressed at all.

Academician Lu looked at him and sighed.

“If you really can miniaturize controllable fusion energy, the entire country will have to thank you.”

Lu Zhou gently smiled.

“There’s no need to thank me.”

…

Munich, Germany.

Munich was one of Germany’s major industrial and cultural city. It was also home to Germany’s oldest industrial university. The headquarters of Siemens was also located here, and Siemens was one of the largest electrical companies in the world.

Near the headquarters building.

Two men in suits walked out of a black Mercedes. After they showed their identification documents to the security guard, they entered the building. They went inside an elevator and arrived at an office lounge.

After five minutes, an elderly man with gray hair, rimless glasses, and wrinkled face walked into the lounge and sat on the sofa opposite the two men.

“Would you guys like some coffee?”

The man sitting on the right said in a serious tone, “No, thanks, now is not the time for afternoon tea.”

“I always thought you Americans loved your coffee.”

The man sitting on the left coughed.

“Mr. Joe Kaeser, let’s talk about business.”

Kaeser shrugged and said, “I’ve been waiting for you guys to take the initiative.”

The man sitting on the right extended his hand and said, “Then let’s get straight to the point, we’re from the CIA. You can call me Horns.”

Kaeser shook his right hand, then leaned back on the sofa.

“Then, Mr. Horns from America, what do you want?”

Horns stared at Kaeser and said in a serious manner, “We detected an unusual order involving sensitive equipment. Two high precision five-axis linkage machines, which are used in the aerospace industry.”

Kaeser frowned and immediately thought of the company’s recent order, which was exported to Italy.

“Unusual order? The deposit was paid normally, and the €20 million has arrived in our accounts. I don’t think this is unusual at all.”

Horns: “The problem is, we have heard some rumors about this order. We need you to provide information about the buyer, and this includes the account for the payment, as well as the company’s registered legal person, etc.”

Kaeser shook his head and said, “This is an invasion of customer privacy. I can’t tell you unless you have a letter from the Ministry of Commerce…”

“This is the letter.” Horns impatiently took out a document from his pocket and placed it on the table. He said, “I hope you can cooperate.”

Kaeser adjusted his glasses and picked up the document. He briefly glanced at the document before placing the document back onto the table.

“Since you have the approval from the Ministry of Commerce, I have nothing else to say.”

Kaeser paused for a second. He then looked at his secretary who was standing next to the sofa.

“Print out the relevant documents for the order.”

“Yes, sir.”

The man standing next to Kaeser nodded and left the lounge.

Kaeser didn’t have to wait for long.

About ten minutes later, the secretary came back with a pile of freshly printed document.

“This is the document you requested.” Kaeser threw the document on the table and paused for a second. He said, “The buyer is a manufacturing company in Naples, Italy. Called Ai Industry. The corporate representative is an Italian named Saatche Farbile. The parts are for Rolls Royce to produce aerospace components… I don’t see a problem with this order.”

Multi-axis linkage machine technology had always been a highly confidential technology. Over the past few years, China had made breakthroughs in high-precision machine technology, which caused many countries to remove some of the five-axis linkage machines from the sensitive technology list, but a lot of high-precision five-axis linkage machines were still on the prohibited list.

These machines were often exported to international companies.

When China wasn’t able to produce five-axis machine tools, other countries only sold three-axis machine tools to China. Then, when China was able to produce five-axis machine tools, other countries immediately began selling high-precision five-axis machine tools to China, affecting China’s machine tool industry.

One of the focuses during the controllable fusion technology negotiation was on the five-axis linkage machine technology. China hoped that the Europeans could open up the machine tool market, which meant allowing Chinese companies to acquire European industrial equipment.

However, regardless of what the Europeans thought, the Americans weren’t happy with this…

Horns frowned and said, “Ai Industry?”

Kaeser nodded and said, “Yeah, it’s a strange name, but nothing out of the ordinary, I’ve seen stranger names. Also, we checked their Ministry of Commerce filings, they don’t have any equipment export qualifications.”

“I’ll investigate their export qualifications myself.” Horns stood up from the sofa and shook hands with Kaeser. He said, “Thanks for your cooperation.”

Horns let go and looked at his assistant, who was sitting next to him.

“Let’s go, next stop, Naples.”

His assistant hesitated for a second.

“Now?”

Horns nodded and looked outside the window with a solemn look on his face.

“Yeah, the sooner the better, I have a bad feeling about this.”

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