Chapter 567: Cross-Regional Power Grid
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Moscow.
An office in the Kremlin.
A powerful-looking man was sitting behind his wooden desk. After he heard his servant’s report, he frowned.
“Woke up?”
The man who was in a leather jacket nodded.
“Yes… According to our intelligence personnel, Professor Lu Zhou has already woken up from his coma. According to the experts at the World Health Organization, there is no evidence that his coma was caused by external factors. It’s likely that he was just fatigued.”
Fatigue that resulted in a coma of more than 20 days.
Even though this sounded somewhat ridiculous, this seemed to be the most reliable explanation compared to the other outrageous speculations.
Mr. Vladimir walked to the window and looked at the Red Square outside the Kremlin. His facial expression made it difficult for people to guess what he was thinking.
Lu Zhou is alive.
This definitely isn’t good news for Russia.
The Russian economy relies heavily on energy exports, and China is the second-largest buyer for Russian crude oil and natural gas. They accounted for 18% of total exports.
If the leverage caused by the fall of oil prices caused the US dollar to strengthen in the short term, then the Russian ruble would receive an unacceptable blow.
However, in order to win over Russia, China will not cut the import orders for Russian crude oil and natural gas in the short term. But this undoubtedly means that the Chinese will have more leverage in the negotiations of energy imports.
The global political situation was originally in an equilibrium state.
Now that controllable fusion was thrown into this mix, this balance was completely broken.
Suddenly, a terrible image emerged in Mr. Vladimir’s mind.
What if one day, the Siberia factories have to rely on China’s power grid?
This is quite scary…
If only that kid never woke up.
If he pa.s.ses away, his story will undoubtedly become legendary. He will be remembered as the greatest scholar of this century. Not only will the Chinese people mourn him, but so will I. Even the President of the United States will manipulatively prepare a eulogy to mourn his death.
But the problem is that he is still alive…
“Mr. President.”
Vladimir looked at his servant and said with a blank expression, “What?”
The man in the leather jacket lowered his voice and said, “What if we…”
“I know what you’re thinking, but that is not possible.” Vladimir looked away from the window and sat back down again. He said, “We can’t risk the chance of offending the Chinese. Especially at such an important time. It would be asinine to do something like that.”
In any case, a.s.sa.s.sination was a barbaric act. It would mean that their country was an uncivilized country.
Especially when it was the a.s.sa.s.sination of an internationally renowned scholar.
Not to mention, the other party had the ability to avenge themselves.
The man in the leather jacket stood there silently as he waited for the president’s order.
After sitting at the desk for a long time, Vladimir said, “Continue to collect intelligence intel on controllable fusion energy. They are ahead of us, but we can’t fall too behind.”
He flipped through the doc.u.ment on the table. When his eyes came across a certain line, he squinted his eyes.
“He’s single?”
Suddenly, the office door was pushed open.
“Latest news!”
The Russian Foreign Minister quickly walked to Vladimir’s desk, and he said in a hurry, “China has started negotiations on cross-regional grid interconnection projects with Myanmar and Laos. Even though we don’t know if an agreement will be reached, but according to our reliable sources, the Chinese side has provided the two countries with very attractive offers…”
It was too late to ask why they didn’t knock on the door. The moment Vladimir heard this, his pupils dilated slightly.
As expected, his biggest worry came true.
Even though Russia didn’t have any interest in Southeast Asia, this still wasn’t a piece of good news.
It was Laos and Myanmar now. The question was, who would be next?
If they went south, they could expand their energy grid to Vietnam, Thailand, and maybe even Malaysia. They could control Malacca and pave their way for their power across the ocean.
Or they could go west, along the Silk Road. They could connect the five Central Asian countries and continue their power on land.
Perhaps only G.o.d knew the answer to this question.
…
Beijing.
301 Hospital.
Lu Zhou originally planned to just take a walk. He didn’t expect to b.u.mp into anyone.
When he heard the middle-aged man yell his name and run toward him, Lu Zhou looked back at him.
“Who are you?”
The man looked at Lu Zhou and reached out his hand. He smiled and said, “Let me introduce myself. I’m the CTV station director, Luo Qidi.”
CTV station director?
When did TV station directors have so much free time?
Not to mention he’s the station director of CTV…
Even though Lu Zhou was surprised, he still smiled and reached out his right hand.
“Nice to meet you, Director Luo.”
There were countless higher-ups that visited him over the past couple of days. Even though the CTV director was a pretty important figure, Lu Zhou wasn’t fazed at all.
“Haha, nice to meet you, Professor Lu.” Luo Qidi shook Lu Zhou’s hand and smiled. He then immediately introduced the person next to him, “This is the host of our TV show ‘Light of Science’, He Ying.”
He Ying smiled politely and said, “Nice to meet you, Professor Lu.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss He.” Lu Zhou nodded toward her. He then looked at Director Luo and joked, “Director Luo, did you come here to personally interview me?”
“Haha, I want to interview you, but I haven’t worked in the field for a long time. I’ll give this opportunity to my younger colleague.” Director Luo smiled and turned to He Ying as he said, “He Ying, please explain the situation to Professor Lu.”
“Okay, Director Luo.”
He Ying looked at Lu Zhou and said, “Here’s the situation, it’s almost Chinese New Year. The entire country is concerned with your physical condition. If you have some time, we would like to invite you to partic.i.p.ate in a popular science show.”
Lu Zhou: “Is it about controllable nuclear fusion?”
He Ying nodded and said, “It’s related to nuclear fusion, but it’s mainly about you.”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit before he replied, “I’m fine with anything, but you should talk to the relevant government departments about your show. After all, a lot of things are confidential and sensitive.”
He Ying nodded and said, “Don’t worry about this, the show will not involve confidential topics. We have already done our homework.”
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Okay then, when is the interview?”
Seeing that Lu Zhou agreed, He Ying sighed in relief. She then said happily, “Tomorrow at two o’clock, our show is going to be broadcast on the day before Chinese New Year.”
Their production department planned a long time for Professor Lu to make a guest appearance on their show. This included obtaining licenses from other departments, collecting questions from the public through telephones and Weibo, screening questions, etc… A lot of the preparation began at the end of last year.
Not only did the production team spent a lot of time and effort, but she also spent a lot of effort on this herself.
After all, being able to interview Lu Zhou would be enormous for her entertainment career.
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. “Okay then, I’ll be there.”
Since the station director came in person, he felt obligated to accept this interview.
However, Lu Zhou felt like the real reason Director Luo was visiting him wasn’t because of the TV show. It was probably the same reason as the other people that visited him over the past few days. Director Luo just wanted to use this opportunity to form connections with Lu Zhou.
However, Lu Zhou wasn’t sure if their careers would benefit from being friends with himself.
Yan Yan saw Lu Zhou agree to the CTV interview and watched Director Luo and the female host walk away. She looked at Lu Zhou with a worried look on her face.
“Is your body fine?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I’ve basically recovered. It’d be better to go outside than to stay in this hospital. Please help me apply for the temporary discharge.”
Due to safety reasons, Yan Yan didn’t want to agree with his request. But in the end, she still sighed and agreed to it.
“Okay then… I’ll go with you when the time comes.”
Lu Zhou coughed and said, “Actually, it’s fine if you don’t want to go, I can go alone.”
Yan Yan immediately said, “No way! If an accident happens again, I’ll…”
However, she suddenly stopped talking.
Yan Yan looked at Lu Zhou and clenched her teeth. She took a deep breath before muttering, “Nothing, pretend like I didn’t say anything.”
It’s not like I can tell him that my father nearly kicked me out of the family because of the last incident!
It’d be so embarra.s.sing to tell him!
Lu Zhou: “…?”
What is this chick talking about?