I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

Gu Zongyan immediately said, "I can't wait for her to get married!"

The fact that two old men were talking about this kind of thing was completely unbecoming of their status; they seemed more like two ordinary old men from the village entrance.

The content was extremely awkward. Gu Yuqing felt like she was tearing her crystal high heels apart just listening to it, while Cai Zhenyi and Yi Yangbing next to her were also secretly plotting something.

Both of these men had pursued Gu Yuqing; one openly pursued her, and the other secretly pursued her. They were just one of the "hundreds of men who wanted her."

Gu Zongyan pointed to Yi Yangbing behind him and said, "She has too high standards. I introduced her to people, but she didn't like any of them. I was also planning to match them up with this young man from the Yi family, but after they met once, nothing came of it."

Xia Longju turned to look at Yi Yangbing, only to see Yi Yangbing giving an awkward smile, while the wavy-haired girl next to him was also staring at him.

“It’s good to have higher standards,” Xia Longju said.

He thought to himself that Yi Yangbing was too frivolous, with the air of a showy young master. If it were his own daughter, he would definitely not even introduce her, let alone try to match them up.

However, he wouldn't make any rash judgments about his old friend's decision. He knew that his old friend was a businessman, and all decisions he made had to prioritize business.

Gu Yuqing followed behind the two, feeling quite helpless.

At this moment, she desperately hoped that Chen Ya could come quickly and save her from this predicament.

Moreover, for some reason, she really wanted to show that guy off to everyone.

Chapter 392 Room Temperature Superconductivity

Human joys and sorrows are not the same for everyone. Gu Yuqing wanted to show off her soon-to-be boyfriend, but Yi Yangbing was disgusted.

After Xia Longju finished speaking, everyone could understand the implication, and Yi Yangbing's expression froze on his face.

Xia Longju looked down on spoiled brats like him, which made Yi Yangbing very unhappy, but he had nowhere to vent his anger.

He glanced at Gu Yuqing and said sarcastically, "High standards? I doubt it."

Gu Yuqing frowned slightly and asked, "What do you mean?"

Yi Yangbing turned his head away, not intending to start a fight with her on the spot, and simply said, "I didn't mean anything by it."

The group had already arrived at the entrance of the mansion, and the protagonist of this coming-of-age ceremony also obediently walked over.

"Hello, Uncle Xia."

Upon seeing Gu Chengxi, Xia Longju smiled and said, "I didn't realize my niece Chengxi had grown so much."

After carefully examining Gu Chengxi, who was dressed in her finest attire, Xia Longju said again:

“Okay, the child has grown up and is getting prettier, but still not as pretty as my daughter.”

Gu Zongyan finally couldn't stand his doting father anymore and cursed, "A girl changes a lot as she grows up. She may be pretty when she's young, but she may not be pretty when she grows up."

Xia Longju frowned slightly; he was genuinely worried about this. He turned to Gu Yuqing and asked, "Were you pretty when you were little?"

Gu Yuqing hesitated for a moment before saying, "It's alright."

"Beautiful," Cai Zhenyi immediately remarked.

"Oh." Xia Longju was relieved.

Gu Zongyan glanced at Cai Zhenyi, a smile on his face.

He's already this age, how could he not understand Cai Zhenyi's reaction?

It seems this guy still likes his daughter.

Xia Longju took out a red envelope from his pocket and handed it to Gu Chengxi, saying, "Niece, please keep this. Uncle Xia isn't good at choosing gifts, so this is all I can give you."

Gu Chengxi took the red envelope. It felt hard to the touch and was shaped like a card. Looking through the opening, she could see a dull black-gold shimmering inside, making it clear at a glance that it was something special.

"Thank you, Uncle Xia." Gu Chengxi quickly bowed again, looking very obedient.

Xia Longju unexpectedly turned to Gu Yuqing and said, "My dear niece, you didn't invite me to your coming-of-age ceremony, and I didn't give you anything. I'll make up for it today so you won't think that your uncle is being biased."

After saying that, he handed Gu Yuqing an identical red envelope.

This surprised Gu Yuqing greatly, and she found it somewhat unbelievable.

She gratefully accepted the red envelope and sincerely thanked Xia Longju.

Money was no longer important to her; what surprised her was that someone would still remember her on this special day.

Gu Zongyan's favoritism isn't new. Gu Chengxi's coming-of-age celebrations were extravagant, and she celebrated her 18th birthday alone with her girlfriends.

Forget about giving red envelopes, my family didn't even ask about it.

Gu Zongyan felt a little guilty and embarrassed by his old friend's impartial behavior.

He glared at Gu Yuqing. He felt that Gu Yuqing shouldn't have accepted the red envelope, but he was too embarrassed to ask her to refuse, so he could only hope that Gu Yuqing would return the red envelope herself.

But now that Xia Longju is backing her up, Gu Yuqing doesn't indulge him at all and glared back at him on the spot.

Xia Longju rubbed his legs and said, "Is there a quiet place where I can sit? I've been standing all day in meetings, and my legs are numb."

Gu Chengxi quickly said, "Empress Jiang has also lent us the living room on the first floor. We can go sit there for a while."

Gu Zongyan, that mischievous friend, seized the opportunity to mock, "You used to be able to stand all day without a problem, but now that you're old, you can't do it anymore? By the way, what kind of meeting is this where you're still standing?"

As the group walked into the house, Xia Longju said, "Things aren't like they used to be."

After entering the house, the two elders sat down, but no one else dared to sit. Only Gu Yuqing casually lay down on the single sofa to the side.

Gu Zongyan brought up the old topic again, saying, "What kind of meeting are you holding? Can't someone of your rank sit here?"

Xia Longju laughed and said, "Ah, it's not a meeting where people sit in rows and talk big and empty words. To be precise, it's a meeting that combines sightseeing with a tour."

"What are we visiting?" Gu Zongyan asked curiously.

“The laboratory!” Xia Longju said.

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, seemingly assessing the audience's qualifications, before finally smiling and saying:

"Soon, you will see related news. A major breakthrough has been achieved in a cutting-edge technology in our country."

"What breakthrough? What cutting-edge technology? In which area?" Gu Zongyan immediately asked in a series of questions.

Gu Zongyan got excited; his keen business sense made him particularly sensitive to this kind of news.

There are these advantages to being friends with Xia Longju: he can often get first-hand information from him, which often helps him to make accurate judgments about market trends.

Although Xia Longju wouldn't provide him with sensitive information or concrete help, the information he intentionally or unintentionally revealed, combined with Gu Zongyan's analytical abilities, was enough to win in the business world.

Of course, Gu Zongyan also knew that his old friend was extremely principled and would never tell him any secrets that were truly confidential.

Some of the information was even deliberately leaked to him by Xia Longju. To the organization that Xia Longju represented, Gu Zongyan was a businessman who was honest and controllable, or at least trustworthy.

It's better to let him get firsthand information than to let anyone else. It's a win-win situation for both sides.

It seems to be the same situation today, but judging from his mindset, Xia Longju is clearly in a better mood today.

Xia Longju said, "Some of what I saw today is talkable, and some is not. Don't expect me to say anything I can't say, but what I can say, you'll probably see on the news in a couple of days."

After saying that, he smiled and asked Gu Zongyan, "Are you still listening?"

Gu Zongyan said, "Listen! Tell me quickly! I'm so anxious!"

After teasing Gu Zongyan, Xia Longju said smugly:

"To put it simply, the technology I saw today will greatly change our country's plans for the next five years, it will change everything, it will change the entire world situation."

Gu Zongyan asked intently, "Is it really that exaggerated?"

Xia Longju was not one to boast, and he had never spoken so exaggeratedly before.

He even handles important matters with ease, speaking of them in a lighthearted manner. When listening to him speak, one must learn to hear the thunder in the silence.

From this perspective, the fact that he described something in this way is truly incredible.

"Controlled nuclear fusion has been discovered? Lithography technology has made a breakthrough? Nanotechnology has made new progress?"

Gu Zongyan asked three questions in a row, asking him what he thought were the most likely breakthroughs in heavyweight technologies.

Hearing this, even the ignorant Yi Yangbing knew that this conversation was of extraordinary value.

Yi Yangbing and Cai Zhenyi, standing behind him, tensed up, straining their ears as if afraid of missing something.

Zhang Weiqiang didn't even know if he should still be standing there. He was worried that if he overheard this conversation, he would be silenced.

Only Yi Yangbing's female companion, the obscure actress with big waves, seemed a bit lost. Her limited education meant she didn't quite understand the meaning of those words.

After Gu Zongyan finished speaking, Xia Longju shook his head repeatedly and said:

"The ones you mentioned are indeed quite impressive, but I suggest you be a little bolder."

“Be bolder…” Gu Zongyan was bewildered.

He felt these technologies were already quite bold; how much bolder could they be?

"Did you find the alien spaceship?" Gu Zongyan asked.

Xia Longju laughed heartily.

"Old classmate, you're really funny," Xia Longju laughed. "If we really found aliens, would I be talking about it here?"

Xia Longju was honest; he didn't say whether he had found it or not, only that he couldn't say. Gu Zongyan laughed.

Xia Longju composed himself and continued, "Do you know about room temperature superconductivity?"

"Room-temperature superconductivity?"

Apart from Zhang Weiqiang, who had a background in science and engineering and was somewhat involved in this field, none of the people present had any experience in this area, and they had never even heard of the name.

Only Gu Yuqing frowned, feeling as if she had heard this word somewhere before.

Where is it?

Zhang Weiqiang said tremblingly, "I know a little."

Xia Longju glanced at him and said in a very amiable manner, "Go ahead."

Zhang Weiqiang, as nervous as if he had been called on by the teacher in class as a child, said:

"Superconductivity is a phenomenon where the resistance of a conductor disappears at extremely low temperatures, right? I've only come across it, so I don't know much about it."

"What you said is already very professional," Xia Longju nodded.

Gu Zongyan was a little confused.

His intelligence gave him a significant advantage in building such a large business; he wasn't someone who knew nothing.

But judging from Zhang Weiqiang's definition alone, he couldn't see how it could be considered a level comparable to controlled nuclear fusion, nanotechnology, lithography machines, and other such technologies.

Xia Longju said, "At first, I didn't understand the significance of this thing. Isn't it just that there's no resistance? But later, I learned something that made me realize how amazing this technology is."

"Do you know how much loss there is in power transmission lines?" Xia Longju said. "This year, our national power generation is 7.5 trillion kilowatt-hours, but do you know how much loss there is in the power supply lines to enterprises alone?"

"How much?" Gu Zongyan asked.

“370 billion kilowatt-hours!” Xia Longju said. “This only accounts for losses in electricity used by businesses. Most businesses use electricity in high-voltage areas, so the loss rate is not high. The loss rate for residential electricity is much higher!”

"On average, a 10 kV high-voltage transmission line loses 1.5 kWh of electricity per kilometer, all due to power loss caused by resistance," Xia Longju said.

"my country is a country with uneven development and uneven distribution of resources. The north has abundant coal resources, while the south has abundant water resources. At the same time, economic development is also uneven. The eastern coastal areas consume 60% of the country's electricity, but most of their energy needs are transported by railway."

After a pause, Xia Longju continued, "You can imagine how much electricity is lost during the process of transporting electricity from the west to the east?"

Cai Zhenyi nodded and said, "Oh, so you mean if the resistance disappears, then there's no need to consume this amount of electricity, right?"

"Correct."

After Xia Longju finished speaking, he took a sip of water and then added, "But this is only the most insignificant use of this technology."

"Ok?"

Xia Longju continued, "The resistance drops to 0, which means that all electrical appliances will no longer generate heat. This means that long-distance power transmission does not need to use alternating current, but can directly use direct current, eliminating the need for power conversion."

Then, he lowered his voice and said, "This also means that quantum computers can be realized in superconductors, and it also means that the key constraints on controlled nuclear fusion have disappeared."

"Controlled nuclear fusion?? How did we end up talking about controlled nuclear fusion again?" Gu Zongyan said.

Xia Longju thoroughly enjoyed his old classmate's bewildered expression and slowly said:

"The current technical challenge of controlled nuclear fusion is the low conversion rate. The energy required to start a thermonuclear power plant is higher than the output. However, with superconductors, the starting energy for thermonuclear fusion can be reduced to less than 10% of the current level. This would solve a major problem for the commercialization of controlled nuclear fusion."

This string of terms stunned everyone present. Not only did Gu Zongyan not understand it, but even Zhang Weiqiang didn't understand it.

"In short, with this technology, everything will change, it will be a complete transformation!" Xia Longju waved his hand, "It will directly trigger another industrial revolution, and all industries will be built from scratch!"

As a businessman, Gu Zongyan was both pleased and afraid of such words, and continued: