Scholar's Advanced Technological System

Chapter 603: I Want To, But I’m Scared…

Shanghai, Haixiang Capital, general manager’s office.

Li Xiang sat in his office chair with his phone in his hand. He nodded while sweating and said, “Okay, Director Wu! I understand… No no! I’ll never do anything without your approval.”

The phone call ended.

After he hung up the call, he sighed and leaned back in his chair. It was like he had just run a marathon; his entire forehead was full of sweat.

Director Wu was obviously the shareholder of Haixiang Capital. He was the one who received the news about East Asia Energy in advance and told Li Xiang to buy the shares.

Li Xiang was worried that Director Wu would blame him for not being able to buy the shares. Li Xiang wanted to investigate who was behind Star Sky Technology, and if he could somehow take a piece of Star Sky Technology’s shares…

However, one phone call from Director Wu scared Li Xiang away.

He didn’t expect Star Sky Technology to have such an impressive background.

When he remembered he was almost going to have a chat with the shareholder from Star Sky Technology, he was drenched in cold sweat.

Have a chat with him?

I’ll be fired before the conversation even begins.

Suddenly his office door was opened, his deputy manager Tang Guang quickly walked in.

“Boss, we found the information you want! Lu Zhou is the registered legal person of Star Sky Technology. He’s Professor Lu, a professor from Jin Ling University!”

Li Xiang nodded without expression and said, “Okay, I understand… Okay then.”

Seeing how Li Xiang was expressionless, Tang Guang paused for a second and said anxiously, “General Li, this is an opportunity!”

Li Xiang paused for a second and was dumbfounded.

“What?”

“An opportunity to make money!” Tang Guang excitedly said, “Why do you think a scientific researcher is so rich? I’m guessing this money is probably dirty! We just have to tell the public about his mansion and company, and make them think that he’s using the state’s research funds for his own benefit! The bank will freeze his accounts, and the relevant departments will investigate him…”

Tang Guang’s plan was quite devious.

Even if there was seven billion dollars in cash, it would be impossible for the money to get to the account so quickly.

If something happened to the money and Lu Zhou couldn’t make the payment, the 700 million shares would be available to the public?

A state-level project like this wouldn’t want to have any delays.

Not to mention, there were a lot of people staring at this piece of the pie. As long as they did a bit of work, it was very likely that the shares would be reissued. They couldn’t buy all of the shares, but they might be able to buy some.

As for discrediting an internationally-renowned scholar…

Why should they care?

Li Xiang looked at him.

“You’re an absolute genius.”

Tang Guang smiled.

“Thank you, it’s all thanks to your guidance…”

“Guidance my a*s!” Li Xiang took a file folder and threw it in his face. Tang Guang was muddled, so Li Xiang explained, “You think you’re the only one who can come up with these retarded ideas? Even if there is a problem with his funding, do you really think you’re going to be investigating him? Do you think you’re the FBI or the CIA?”

“But, but…”

“F*ck off!”

Li Xiang threw a pen holder at him.

Tang Guang covered his face with his hands and left the office.

Li Xiang looked at the empty doorway and panted for a while before calming down.

When he thought about his subordinate’s plan, he felt afraid.

Fortunately, that retard had the foresight to mention the plan to him first, before acting on his own.

Even though he was envious, after he learned about Star Sky Technology’s background, he didn’t have a strand of malicious intention left in his heart.

Government, industry, academia, and the media, none of them were touchable.

Not to mention, Lu Zhou’s level of security.

If he really did something he shouldn’t have, not only would his boss not be able to protect him, but his boss himself would be thrown into the pit together.

Now he finally understood why the brokers and other predators in the financial industry were so quiet.

Obviously, it wasn’t because they didn’t want to.

But it was because they didn’t dare to…

…

After an agreement was reached with ExxonMobil regarding the laboratory sale, Lu Zhou went to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

He didn’t lie to Woods about his experiment plans, he actually did have research to do.

Around half an hour ago, the samples and the sample testing results from the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant had been sent back. All he wanted to do was to return to the research institute and look at the experimental data.

It took around 40 minutes to drive from the city center to the high-tech zone. By the time the black sedan was parked outside the research institute, the buildings in the area were already completely dark. The research building was the only one that still had some lights turned on.

Wang Peng turned off the car and Lu Zhou looked at him.

“Do you want to go eat something? I’ll probably come back after 12 o’clock.”

“No need, I’ll just smoke a few cigarettes.”

“Okay then.”

Lu Zhou didn’t say anything else. After he got out of the car, he walked toward the research institute.

He passed through security and got in the elevator.

When he arrived at the laboratory, Li Changxia, Sheng Xianfu, and a couple of other professors were already in the laboratory.

Judging from the looks on their faces, the situation didn’t seem good.

However, Lu Zhou still asked.

“What’s the result like?”

Sheng Xianfu sighed and said, “Look at it yourself.”

Lu Zhou was handed the freshly-printed documents that were still warm to touch. He sat down on a laboratory stool and began to carefully read the experimental report.

However, the more he read, the more serious his expression became.

Just like he had expected, the experimental report wasn’t ideal.

The neutron radiation damage was fine, and the self-repairability of the PGC-1 material itself and its permeability of neutron rays were pretty good. It should be a perfect reactor material.

However, the problem wasn’t the neutron radiation, it was the heat dissipation.

“The concept of fast ignition might be correct, but the heat accumulation is a big problem.” Sheng Xianfu looked at him and sighed. “If we use inertial confinement fusion, our materials will have direct contact with plasma that is hundreds of millions of degrees hot. Even though there aren’t a lot of reactants involved in the nuclear core reaction, it will still create a lot of pressure on the reactor itself. We might not be able to find a suitable way to get rid of this heat, especially in space…”

Even though the temperature in space was very low, because it was nearly a vacuum, there was no water or air for any kind of heat transfer. It could only dissipate heat in the form of thermal radiation.

If the heat generated by the fusion reaction couldn’t be dissipated in time, the components would be damaged and the spacecraft could be burnt or disintegrated.

This wasn’t just a fusion battery problem, this was a problem with almost all aerospace components. Normally, the solution was to add heat sinks and accelerate the thermal radiation by increasing the surface area.

However, when it was about nuclear fusion, using thermal radiation to dissipate the heat was obviously abysmal…

Li Changxia thought for a long time and sighed before he said, “If only we can slow down controllable fusion energy.”

Sheng Xianfu couldn’t help but say, “How about we just decrease the temperature of the controllable fusion reaction, because that’s definitely possible.”

Cold nuclear fusion became a sensation in the 1980s, but it turned out to be an academic fraud. The investigation lead by a 22-member panel from the United States Department of Energy concluded the whole incident as a hoax.

Even now, there were still people that claimed to have solved the problem of cold nuclear fusion, but it was all either an error in the data or outright fraud.

Regardless of whether or not cold nuclear fusion could be achieved in the future, it was unrealistic right now.

However, Li Changxia’s words attracted Lu Zhou’s attention.

If they could slow down the reaction and leave enough time for the nuclear core to transfer heat to the power generator or dissipate the heat outside the aircraft, it might seem feasible?

However, Lu Zhou had no idea how to achieve this.

The discussion went on until late at night.

Lu Zhou stared at the clock on the wall and said, “It’s getting late, let’s end the meeting.”

It was already midnight.

Even if they continued this meeting, it wouldn’t be productive.

And Lu Zhou also needed time to think about this so that he could come up with a research project that could solve this problem.