913 Useless Banque
This was Lu Zhou’s busiest day of the year...
And the day had only just begun.
The moment he stepped off the podium, he was already being chased by reporters. This was followed by endless interviews, which were full of boring questions.
After getting rid of the reporters, Lu Zhou spent 10 minutes eating his lunch. After that, the secretary of the Lunar Orbit Committee placed a printed schedule in front of his face.
Just like he expected, his afternoon was fully packed, down to the minute. There wasn’t a single minute of free time for him.
This cast a sharp contrast between today’s busy schedule and Lu Zhou’s past two days of leisure, and he felt a little overwhelmed.
After the busy day was over, Lu Zhou thought he could go ahead and get a good night’s sleep. However, Director Li found him and told him about the dinner.
As the chief designer of the Lunar Orbit Committee, he had to attend the dinner...
“I know you’re tired; we all are, and I haven’t even eaten lunch yet.”
“For a US$20 billion project, you should just come. You don’t even have to do anything, just stand there like a mascot, just let people know that you’re the chief designer of the Lunar Orbit Committee!”
Lu Zhou wasn’t persuaded by Director Li’s words...
But US$20 billion...
That was more than his net worth.
Because of how much money was involved, Lu Zhou decided to go...
...
The dinner was also at the Beijing Conference Center, but the location was changed from the auditorium to the Golden Hall, which was dedicated to hosting state-level banquets.
In comparison to the opening ceremony in the morning, which was open to all attendees, this dinner was only reserved for special guests with a golden invitation letter.
As for the other guests, their dinners were arranged at their respective hotels.
Actually, when it came to the dining experience, the hotel actually had better food. Not only was it a buffet, but it also had a greater variety of dishes.
On the other hand, other than the unlimited supply of red wine, the food at the Golden Hall came in tiny amounts on giant plates, which were swapped frequently. If someone was too busy networking with others, they wouldn’t even have time to eat.
However, other than Lu Zhou, everyone was happy to eat in the Golden Hall.
After all, no one came to an international conference just for the food.
The people in the Golden Hall were Nobel Prize nominees, high-ranking officials, and various politicians and executives from the aerospace industry.
Networking with someone at this dinner would be more beneficial than attending any academic conference dinner.
Of course, that was for people who were trying to climb the political and academic ladder.
For the people who were at the top of the ladder, this banquet was useless.
After Lu Zhou entered the banquet hall, he greeted some of his friends and then immediately went to sit down at the white-cloth covered long tables.
The carefully arranged food and wine were placed on the tables.
Lu Zhou didn’t eat a lot for lunch, so right now, all of his attention was on the food in front of him. He happily began eating.
Even though the food wasn’t delicious, the presentation was sophisticated.
There was even a trolly on the side where the chef would cut up roast duck.
Lu Zhou loved the crispy and tender roasted duck. He wrapped it with some cucumbers and green onions, then added some sweet bean sauce; the contrast between the saltiness and sweetness was amazing.
While Lu Zhou’s tastebuds were in heaven, two well-dressed Russian men approached him.
“Hello, Academician Lu, I am Novak, Minister of the Department of Energy,” the cleanly shaved Russian said. He reached out his hand and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”
Lu Zhou looked at him and said, “Hello, Mr. Novak... You’re here as well?”
Lu Zhou was a little confused about why the Russian energy minister was here.
Novak saw Lu Zhou’s confused face and said, “I came here to attend a controllable fusion energy summit, and when I heard that you’re attending this banquet, I decided to attend as well.”
Lu Zhou reluctantly watched the chef push the roasted ducky trolly away and spoke.
“Oh, you didn’t have to come all the way here to find me.”
“It’s fine, I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
Lu Zhou wanted to tell Novak that he was disturbing his dinner, but he restrained himself.
Novak reached out his hand and introduced the Russian standing next to him.
“This is Academician Sivali, chief engineer of Rosatom.”
This man was a little older, but he looked competent. He enthusiastically reached out his calloused hand.
“Hello, Academician Lu! I’ve heard many things about you.”
“Hello...” Lu Zhou politely shook Academician Sivali’s hand.
Even though he didn’t recognize Sivali, he had heard about Rosatom before. This Russian nuclear industry giant was one of the world’s leading nuclear fuel production companies. They controlled most of the uranium mines in Siberia, and they had their hands in various branches of the nuclear industry.
They worked with more than 904 Russian nuclear energy equipment manufacturers, 540 nuclear energy service agencies, 39 nuclear material and radioactive waste storage sites, 75 research institutes, etc.
After the controllable fusion negotiation, Rosatom, the head of the Russian nuclear industry, signed orders with East Asia Energy on behalf of Russia, thus obtaining the first controllable fusion reactor outside of China.
That reactor was placed in St Petersburg, with the China National Nuclear Corporation helping with supporting facilities.
Academician Sivali was the chief engineer of Rosatom; hence, he was a huge academic leader in Russia.
At least in the nuclear engineering field.
However, what confused Lu Zhou was that he heard Russians were very irritable and arrogant, especially Russian scholars. He thought they were extremely disagreeable.
For example, the famous Russian mathematician Kolmogorov was known for publically arguing with his own supervisor at mathematics conferences.
However, that wasn’t the impression Lu Zhou had of Academician Sivali at all.
Academician Sivali was calm as a cucumber, almost a little timid.
“... I’ve read your paper on plasma turbulence, and it opened a door to an entirely new world for me. I can’t believe someone came up with such a clever design, emitting a He3 particle into the chaotic plasma and analyzing the state of the chaotic system... You have no idea how shocked I was when I read your paper.”
Academician Sivali was still holding Lu Zhou’s hand.
Fortunately, Minister Novak could tell Lu Zhou was uncomfortable, so he coughed and interrupted Academician Sivali.
“Okay, Sivali, we’re not here to talk about academia since that can be discussed at another time.”
This old Russian let go of his hand and awkwardly scratched his head.
“Oh, sorry, I was too excited.”
Lu Zhou nodded with a polite smile.
“It’s fine.”
Novak only came to this banquet to meet Lu Zhou. He still had to talk with Chinese officials about cooperating in the field of energy. Thus, he smiled and said, “I’ll let you eat in peace. If you have time, you should visit Russia. I’m certain the food in Moscow will impress you.”
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.
“Well, I hope I get the chance to visit someday.”
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