Break out of the courtyard

"Professor Hua, you and Dean Zhang really know how to give us a tough time!" The head of the foreign affairs department complained as he entered the conference room, then walked to the head of the conference table with a smile and addressed Professor Hua, Professor Li, Professor Yang, and others:
“Those foreigners are now trying to get information out of us. Some want to cooperate with us, some want to spend money to buy power equipment, and some say that we are spreading false information.”

"If it weren't for the confidentiality agreement, I would have liked to ask them for inside information, haha!"

Old Hua stood up, shook hands with the person who came, said thank you for your hard work, and then told the person in charge to go find his place.

Once all attendees had arrived and the meeting doors were closed, Mr. Yang, who was chairing the meeting, finally spoke, "Please turn off your mobile phones and hand them to the meeting staff!"

"This meeting is classified as Top Secret. Please abide by the meeting rules!"

"The main topic of this meeting is how to amplify the impact of Dean Zhang's press release!"

……

The Northern Soviet Union once established a "General Directorate of Strategic Deception," with an annual budget of up to 40 billion US dollars.

Although Omega has not established such a strategic deception bureau, its intelligence agencies in various countries have related partner companies that release misleading information.

For example, after the United States announced its Star Wars program, many American companies and universities announced that they had participated in a project under the program.

It's worth noting that the United States' Apollo program involved more than 20,000 companies and over 200 universities, directly or indirectly, and successfully led to a manned lunar landing.

If it weren't for the US companies and universities colluding to create a smokescreen, the Soviet Union wouldn't have invested heavily in the Star Wars program.

There is no Strategic Deception Bureau in mainland China, but many military academies offer courses in military strategy and have relevant experts and professors as advisors.

Therefore, after Zhang Heping publicly disclosed the controlled nuclear fusion power device and gravity system, many military factories and research institutes in mainland China revealed that they were helping the lunar base produce classified parts.

To make these rumors seem more believable, many containers, whose contents were unknown, were sent from military factories across the country to Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen.

Just as foreign intelligence agencies were unsure of the truth, Peace Space launched a series of rocket launches on May 14th.

After the rockets successfully launched and sent lunar landers into space, NASA, which had just put on a rocket fireworks display, immediately arranged a robotic lunar launch mission.

This time, however, unlike last week's launch mission, which involved a large-scale public celebration, the launch was carried out secretly at night.

As expected, the spare lunar module and robot were blown to smithereens shortly after launch, leaving no evidence of their deaths.

As a result, one-third of the funding for this year's Apollo program has been cut.

This cannot be blamed on the people at NASA. The main reason is that the successful completion of the Apollo program resulted in too many people losing their jobs or changing careers, which served as a lesson for those who followed:
It doesn't matter if a project fails a thousand or ten thousand times, as long as there are R&D funds to inject!
On the contrary, if a project succeeds once, the project has to be terminated, resulting in the loss of subsequent research and development funds and ultimately unemployment!
After receiving news of the failure of the second launch mission of the Apollo restart program, Klaus Schwarz first lashed out at the head of the space agency on the other end of the phone, and then summoned his think tank.

"I believe the mainland has not fully mastered controlled nuclear fusion technology!" An elderly man with white hair sat in Xiao Ke's office reception room, analyzing with a serious expression:
"Three years ago, the controlled nuclear fusion device they tested in Shenzhen operated for 3 seconds at a temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius, but then there was no further news about it."

"If they really have developed a controlled nuclear fusion power device, why not test it in Shenzhen? Why send it to the moon, hundreds of thousands of kilometers away?"

"There's only one answer: they can't be sure of the stability of that controlled nuclear fusion power device, and they feel that starting an experiment in Shenzhen would be very risky!"

“This isn’t a question of truth or falsehood!” The young man, who was operating the laptop on the coffee table, frowned and said, “If we can’t send robots or lunar rovers to the moon in the short term, then let’s send a few spy satellites into lunar orbit.”

"If necessary, we can also send those spy satellites to probe the defense system of the Guanghan Palace base!"

A middle-aged man with a thick beard from Northern Europe suggested, "If the US space agency can't launch rockets, we can let other countries launch them. Ideally, we could use lunar rovers and robots to go deep underground at the Moon Palace base to confirm whether their gravity system is real!"

"If they really do have a gravity system, then it means the intelligence we received about anti-gravity devices earlier was true!"

A blonde middle-aged woman frowned and asked, "Is the reason why the mainland isn't cooperating with us on the lunar base because of the WTO incident?"

Xiao Ke stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a wine glass. He listened to the discussion of the think tank behind him while looking at the white clouds in the distance, pondering the pros and cons of the lunar base.

"If this lunar base issue isn't handled properly, I might lose my chance for re-election!" Little K thought for a long time before turning around and saying this.

Upon hearing the word "re-election," the advisors in the meeting room fell silent!

This year is a US election year. If Clinton fails to win re-election, these advisors will lose their preferential treatment and return to their previous work routines.

"The best solution now is to directly cooperate with the mainland to develop the Moon Palace base!" A brown-haired woman frowned and said, "The mainland's ability to launch so many rockets into space in a short period of time is mainly due to the rocket recovery technology support from the Peace Group!"

"To be precise, that's the skill of Mr. Zhang, Mr. Xiao Ke's friend!"

"I suggest that Mr. Xiao Ke try contacting Mr. Zhang to inquire whether it is possible to facilitate our cooperation in developing a lunar base!"

"If Mr. Zhang disagrees, we can influence the financial markets in Southeast Asia!"

"As you all have probably heard, the current booming stock market in Hong Kong is comparable to the Japanese stock market bubble of the late 1980s!"

"If we intervene and trigger a bubble in the Hong Kong stock market, the Peace Group will very likely provide funds to help rescue the market!"

"Furthermore, I've heard that the Peace Group has recently started acquiring gold and gold mines again; if we can release a batch of gold at the same time, tying up the Peace Group's working capital, their Guanghan Palace base project will face funding problems!"

……

May 18th, Saturday noon.

Xie Jia returned to the Shenzhen World Advanced Technology Research Institute and was astonished to find that there wasn't a single student in the campus!
Seeing her husband looking around with a puzzled expression, He Fang asked her daughter, "Xiao Wan, where are the students over here? Has something happened?"

"All the students have gone to their internships!" Xie Wan said seriously. "Mom, Dad! Uncle Zhang and the others are very busy lately, so please don't bother them with hospital matters for now!"

Xie Jia looked at his two daughters, frowned, and asked, "Did your Uncle Zhang say something?"

"Uncle Zhang and his family didn't say anything!" Xie Wan glanced around and lowered her voice, saying, "After Grandpa Hua and Grandpa Li came over on Monday, they had some people transferred out of the hospital next door!"

"Dad!" Xie Ting whispered from the other end, "My sister and I suspect this might be related to you asking Uncle Zhang to go to the hospital to personally examine patients!"

"Go to the hospital later and see if those acquaintances have been transferred to another hospital; if so..."

Although Xie Ting didn't finish her sentence, Xie Jia had already realized the seriousness of the matter.

If it's true that he asked Zhang Heping to come to the hospital to treat patients for several weeks in a row, which led to Elder Hua and Elder Li personally intervening to send him away, then this matter is troublesome. Leaving aside Elder Hua and Elder Li's dissatisfaction with him, those who were forced to transfer to other hospitals would probably also have a lot of complaints about him!
Thinking of this, Xie Jia lost all interest in eating and turned to drag his two suitcases full of gifts to the hospital ward.

“Going to the hospital now won’t help!” He Fang pulled her husband back and said softly, “Let’s go to the Zhang family first and find out what’s going on.”

“If Elder Hua and Elder Li are…” He Fang said, glancing around before continuing, “Going now would be even more disadvantageous for you!”

In other words, Xie Jia was too eager to improve and didn't immediately grasp the key point.

Fortunately, He Fang is ready to retire next year. She has come to terms with many things and is able to analyze things from an outsider's perspective.

“We can’t go to Uncle Zhang’s house right now!” Xie Wan said in a low voice. “Grandpa Hua and Grandpa Li have been having lunch and dinner at Uncle Zhang’s house recently. If Mom and Dad want to find out what’s going on, it’s best to go to Grandma Wang’s house first after we’ve eaten.”

"We'll decide whether or not to have dinner at Uncle Zhang's house after we figure out the situation!"

Xie Jia and He Fang exchanged a glance and accepted Xie Wan's suggestion.

Soon after, they were seen going back to their apartment to put down their luggage, and then taking their lunchboxes to the cafeteria.

On the other hand, Zhang Heping finished lunch at home and then went to the underground base with Elder Hua and Elder Li.

Zhang Heping has indeed been very busy lately, but not with the Phase II energy project at the Guanghan Palace base.

The fact that Zhang Bei, Zhang Long, and Zhang Hu are in the Lunar Engineering Department shows that the construction of the Guanghan Palace base was entrusted to these three lads.

As for Zhang Heping holding a press conference to announce the controllable nuclear fusion power device, gravity system, and defense system, he did so in a high-profile manner.

That's just a diversionary tactic to upgrade space-based weapon systems and to develop the pulse particle accelerator cannon and the Shenmao space-based kinetic energy weapon, which are about to reach Mars orbit.

If foreigners understood the technology involved, they would discover that the controlled nuclear fusion power plant, gravity system, and other equipment were all finished products sent to the moon for installation.

The installation on the moon is not technically demanding, and Zhang Bei and his team are perfectly capable of handling it.

It will only become more difficult when it comes to the extraction of helium-3 in the second phase of the energy project.

"Has everyone eaten yet?" Zhang Heping walked into the controlled nuclear fusion laboratory and said loudly, "Those who haven't eaten, hurry up and eat, or I'll kick you out!"

Upon hearing this, half of the people in the lab stopped what they were doing and ran to the rest area to eat.

"Remember to drink water!" Zhang Heping frowned as he walked down the side stairs and into the 10-meter-high cave laboratory. "You're all like kindergarten students, needing to be reminded to eat every time! Aren't you annoyed? I'm getting tired of calling you!"

Zhang Heping arrived at the rest area and gave a wink to the guard behind him.

Immediately afterwards, the guard stepped forward to check whose leftover food containers were on the food cart.

However, before the guard could call out names, several other people quickly came over and divided up the remaining lunchboxes.

Zhang Heping walked to a desk with a microphone on it, turned on the microphone, and said, "Ask me any questions you have, I have to go to the gravity lab later!"

Hua and Li casually found a plastic stool and sat down, smiling as they looked around at the experts and professors who were either standing or sitting.

A middle-aged man holding a lunchbox raised his right hand, which was holding a spoon, and asked, "Dean, we still don't understand the internal structure of the power battery for the controlled nuclear fusion satellite. How can such a small internal space not only accommodate the combustion chamber but also the thermal energy conversion device!"

"This question has already been answered before. Who can answer it?" After asking, Zhang Heping looked around and nodded after seeing several young assistants raise their hands. "Assistants Xie Ge and Han Lang, you can share it with Professor Tan and the others later. If you still don't understand, ask me again!"

"Next question!"

"Dean!" A young female assistant raised her hand and asked, "Wouldn't replacing the satellite's power battery be a bit of a hassle?"

"If we could add helium-3 fuel to the power batteries like we refuel airplanes in mid-air, the efficiency would be even higher!"

Zhang Heping nodded and said, "The idea is good, but the existing materials cannot support it. You can try your idea in a virtual learning dream environment, find out the difficulties, and establish a related research project!"

"Next question!"

……

After Xie Jia and his group finished lunch, they made a phone call to Director Wang Sumei.

Then, Xie Jia took the gifts to Villa No. 2, while He Fang took her two daughters and the gifts to Villa No. 1.

"Xiao Xie is here again!" Wang Sumei sat on the living room sofa, put down her tablet, and invited Xie Jia to sit on the single sofa next to her.

Secretary Liu Yuan walked to the side, poured a cup of tea, and then went to the restaurant.

Xie Jia asked with a smile, "Aunt Wang, have you been busy lately?"

If Zhang Heping were to answer at this point, he would definitely ask Xie Jia directly about his purpose.

But Wang Sumei was used to the ways of officialdom, and she would think twice before speaking to see if the other person had any hidden meaning.

"What could I possibly be busy with!" Wang Sumei laughed. "The busiest person here is Heping."

"Forget it, let's not talk about him anymore, lest we accidentally let something slip."

When Xie Jia heard Director Wang say that Zhang Heping was the busiest, he couldn't help but think of his daughter's reminder. He then wondered if Director Wang was using this method to remind him not to bother Zhang Heping with hospital matters.

"I just heard that Elder Hua and Elder Li have also come!" Xie Jia asked indirectly, "I wonder what brings them here? Will it be inconvenient for me to go to Brother Heping's place later?"

Wang Sumei thought for a moment and said, "If you're just going over for a meal, it should be fine."

Just going there for a meal!

Xie Jia caught this crucial information!
The implication of this statement is that anything outside of eating could potentially be problematic!
Just to be on the safe side, Xie Jia asked again, "Aunt Wang, are there many patients being admitted to the hospital recently? Will it cause any problems if I go to visit them?"

...(End of this chapter)