I transformed into a cute girl and lived a carefree life in the apocalypse.

Chapter Seventy-One: The So-Called "Exchange Meeting"

Yan Ziming's gaze followed Liu Mengxian's and found that it was in the direction of the rostrum. However, due to the strong sunlight and the glass barrier, all he could see was a reflection.

"Xian'er, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing, let's go."

Liu Mengxian took Yan Ziming's hand and walked out of the gymnasium into the bustling street. Instantly, everyone's eyes were on Liu Mengxian, including many foreigners.

Soon, a human wall formed, blocking Yan Ziming and her group's path.

So beautiful.

There are differences in aesthetic concepts between people from the East and the West; this is an objective and universally acknowledged fact.

Easterners tend to prefer classical or traditional understated beauty, while Westerners value passion and exuberance and pursue sensual beauty. From a purely literal perspective, the difference is undoubtedly quite significant.

But Liu Mengxian's beauty clearly transcended this category, leaving everyone present in awe.

"Xian'er, let's go this way."

Yan Ziming quickly pulled Liu Mengxian through some deserted alleys, going back and forth through many places before finally shaking off those thieving people.

"Xian'er, could you cover your face with a cloud of mist like before? We're too conspicuous like this."

After shaking off the nosy crowd, Yan Ziming immediately pleaded with Liu Mengxian to keep a low profile, as how could she protect Jiang Lan if she attracted so much attention?

Bodyguards need to keep a low profile!

"can."

As soon as she finished speaking, wisps of smoke suddenly appeared in the air, swirling around Liu Mengxian, ethereal and indistinct, adding a touch of mystery to her.

After resolving the issue of attracting attention, Yan Ziming dared to take Liu Mengxian out onto the street. Although they still attracted a lot of attention, it was much better than the previous situation where they were surrounded and unable to move. Most of the time, people just took a picture or posted it on their WeChat Moments as they passed by, without getting too entangled.

Leading Liu Mengxian through a maze of turns, Yan Ziming arrived at the location designated by Mo Sheng. After exchanging a secret code with the contact, a stretch Lincoln drove up from the road.

"Holy crap, a stretched Lincoln!"

Yan Ziming got into the car with trepidation. It was the first time she had ever ridden in such a prestigious Lincoln. In this day and age, it would probably cost hundreds of millions of US dollars to get one.

After all, this car has top-notch protective capabilities, capable of protecting the safety of its occupants even in the midst of gunfire. It is also the standard vehicle of choice for the President of the United States, a reputation that ensures its price will only be high, not low.

After getting into the car, Yan Ziming felt that the driver looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, he recognized him as Yan Shan, who had been disguised during their trip to the deserted island.

"Uncle, you really have a lot of side jobs," Yan Ziming couldn't help but complain.

"Never mind that, hurry up and let the person in the back get on the bus."

Yan Shan laughed and scolded, but after seeing who the second person got into the car was, his eyes became focused. He stepped on the gas pedal with his right foot, and the extended Lincoln roared toward its destination.

"I see, so you're on guard against that person... But with you all here, I can rest assured."

"Uncle, what exactly is the situation?" Yan Ziming asked.

"What else can we do? Several meetings have fallen apart. These greedy guys!"

Speaking of Yan Shan makes me angry. They were willing to share such good technology with these capitalists, but these stingy guys only offered some technology they didn't even want in exchange. They completely disregarded their good intentions!

Capitalists are capitalists, especially those Western capitalist giants. They have always looked down on Easterners and will never let go of their arrogance. They try every means to take advantage of others and have no sincerity whatsoever.

In the past, they imposed technological blockades on China. For example, if China wanted to import lithography machines, it had to pay dozens of times the original price.

That's right, not several times or a dozen times, but dozens of times!

Unfortunately, this thing is of great significance to the country's industrial development, so we have no choice but to buy it. We can only swallow our bitterness and suffer in silence.

All we can do is forge ahead and strive to overcome the manufacturing technology of lithography machines, achieving the goal of creating something from scratch.

Until recently, China finally broke through the key manufacturing technology of lithography machines. The price of lithography machines exported to China by the West plummeted to a price much lower than the original price. They also persuaded China to give up further research on lithography machines and just import them from them, intending to ensure that China would never be able to manufacture its own lithography machines, so that they could continue to sell them at unimaginably high prices to make huge profits.

When China was researching its own passenger aircraft, it suffered a huge loss, which directly led to the suspension of China's passenger aircraft manufacturing industry for more than a decade. China could only import Airbus and Boeing aircraft from the West, spending hundreds of billions of yuan every year to buy these large aircraft!

Having learned such a painful lesson, why would the Chinese leadership pay them any attention?

With a single-minded focus on researching its own advanced technologies, and after more than a decade of effort, lithography machine technology suddenly reached a world-leading level, and was sold to third-world countries at a very low price. Unable to make huge profits from other countries, the lithography machine capital company collapsed.

This situation is not unique to the field of lithography machines; countless other high-tech fields are experiencing the same process, causing numerous financial giants to lose their jobs and suffer greatly.

This is where the nickname "the crusher of developed countries" comes from.

After this happened many times, Western capitalists came up with a solution.

Whenever China gains a leading edge in certain technological fields, they hold a so-called academic exchange conference and invite Chinese scientists in related fields to participate, sharing some of their best technologies with each other.

On the surface, their slogans are academic exchanges and technology sharing, but in reality, it's all about deception and fraud. They use high-sounding slogans to spy on China's technological progress in related fields and obtain secrets through eavesdropping or bribery.

You have to understand that at that time, those who could participate in such academic exchange conferences were all big names in the scientific community! So China gladly sent scientists there.

Early Chinese scientists were simple and kind-hearted; they never imagined that these filthy fellows were plotting something like this.

After giving their speeches, the capitalists, having obtained enough information, found that the speakers were spouting nonsense with absolutely no scientific value.

Even worse, after discussing truly core secrets, they directly excluded Chinese scientists, preventing them from accessing any valuable intelligence!

Their arrogant, shameless, and disgusting behavior fully demonstrates the greed of capitalists.

This happened several times. Later, Chinese scientists learned their lesson. They would not say a word until the Western delegation presented truly valuable technology, or they would focus on their own work and ignore the invitations sent by the Western delegations.

In this way, with each side gaining and losing, the term "academic exchange" gradually lost its original meaning. It no longer had such a noble title and was directly used to exchange technology for technology, which was a naked transaction.

Through negotiation, both parties exchange the technologies they need, which is how "academic exchange meetings" have truly been conducted in recent years.

"Since they don't want to exchange, then we just won't give them anything. We're not the ones who will suffer. I don't think we need to give them such good stuff at all. We can keep it for our own use and widen the gap between us and them, wouldn't that be better?"

Yan Ziming said indifferently,

"You can't say that."

Jiang Lan's voice came from behind Yan Ziming, startling her.

Chapter Seventy-Two Needs

"Lanlan, are you trying to get yourself killed! You should have said so sooner if you were here!"

"I just wanted to surprise you," Jiang Lan said with a smile, covering her mouth. Then she looked at Liu Mengxian and asked, "And who is this beautiful lady?"

Jiang Lan's voice carried a hint of jealousy.

Now that she was inside the car, the swirling smoke around Liu Mengxian dissipated, revealing her face, a beauty that would put even angels to shame.

Being outshone in beauty is a big deal for a woman. Take Liu Mengxian, for example. She is very popular among men, but in the eyes of most women, she has definitely attracted a lot of hatred, enough to circle the earth three and a half times!

Of course, this is just an exaggeration, but it does demonstrate just how strong a woman's jealousy can be. However, Jiang Lan wasn't jealous about that; it was because...

Seeing Liu Mengxian and Yan Ziming still holding hands, Jiang Lan felt extremely sad.

Yan Ziming, the person involved, was completely unaware of this and naturally introduced Liu Mengxian to Jiang Lan.

"This is my teacher, you can call her Xian'er."

“Teacher…? Heh…” Jiang Lan uttered a meaningful sound.

"What's wrong?" Yan Ziming asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking how beautiful Sister Xian'er is, that you, Zimo, care about her so much..." Jiang Lan said softly, her gaze fixed on Yan Zimo and Liu Mengxian's clasped hands.

Yan Ziming followed her gaze and immediately felt a little embarrassed. He subtly withdrew his hand from Liu Mengxian's and subconsciously rubbed his hands together, as if savoring the smooth touch.

"Ahem, let's get back to business and continue our previous conversation," Yan Ziming said with a dry cough.

Fortunately, Jiang Lan wasn't an irrational woman. She knew that digging deeper into the matter wouldn't be good for anyone, so she considerately stopped pursuing the topic.

Liu Mengxian showed no dissatisfaction. She hadn't said a word since getting into the car, only nodding to Jiang Lan before closing her eyes and drifting off into her own world.

She was always like this, and Yan Ziming didn't know why she liked to do it this way. He just thought she was resting with her eyes closed.

She, a mere mortal, could not comprehend the thoughts of those who had attained enlightenment.

Jiang Lan began to explain what had just happened to Yan Ziming:

"The reason we traded such important technology with them is because they also have technology that we urgently need, and we must obtain this technology in the short term."

Yan Ziming looked surprised: "What technology is so urgent? You're willing to trade it for a technology that could usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution?"

"Zi Mo, aren't you underestimating the strength of a superpower? It's not just this technology that we urgently need, there are many others that we covet! Acquiring them all could propel our scientific research capabilities forward by more than a decade."

Jiang Lan focused intently on explaining to Yan Ziming:

"I even think that if the two countries can unite wholeheartedly and cooperate sincerely with all their technology and equipment, mutated species may no longer be the main threat to mankind within five years, no, three years."

"That's amazing?!" Yan Ziming exclaimed in surprise. "So, which technology do we really need?"

“You’re a participant in the Civilization Cup, so you know best,” Jiang Lan reminded her.

Yan Ziming was stunned. How did this get involved with her? And it even said it was related to her being a contestant.

If we're talking about what's most eye-catching about this year's Civilization Cup, nothing's more captivating than the participating athletes. However, if we shift our focus to the scientific research aspects...

Jiang Lan asked with a smile, "How do you think the United States prevented the aftershocks of the battles between superhumans from spreading to the audience?"

“…Ah!” Yan Ziming exclaimed in surprise.

Father, like son.