"My way of slacking off was wrong? Only by showing that my abilities are lacking can I truly earn their trust," Lu Ze muttered.
"That's right, that's exactly how it should be!" In an instant, it was as if enlightenment had struck him.
So this was the best way to slack off!
He had shown up at the laboratory on time every day, clocked in, and muddled through, but that had not lowered LLNL Laboratory's guard against him by much.
On the contrary, the more he slacked off, the more LLNL Laboratory marginalized him. Why wouldn't someone use their abilities if they clearly had enough of them? It was hard not to suspect ulterior motives.
"You don't need to take it to heart. That old Hasen has always been like this."
Lucy took a huge bite of her Margherita pizza, her cheeks puffed out as she spoke. "Look at me. I've been slacking off all this time too. Has anything happened to me?"
"If you run into any problems, you can come to me. I can help you solve them too."
She slacked off even more than Lu Ze did, and often did not even go to the laboratory to clock in until the afternoon.
Yet no one had any objections to her. She was still as free and easy as ever.
"We're different." Lu Ze shook his head. "I'm still a Great Xia citizen."
No matter how much Lucy looked like someone from Great Xia, she was still a native-born Eagle Sauce citizen. And no matter how much Lu Ze slacked off, his deeply rooted identity as a Great Xia citizen could never be erased.
That was why Professor Hasen had said that, on this land, identity was sometimes even more important than one's abilities.
Hadn't he originally chosen to slack off because he did not want to draw attention, hoping to return home smoothly after graduating from graduate school?
But Eagle Sauce would never give up genuine talent.
There was often only one solution: if they could not make you stay, then they would simply make sure you never left.
If LLNL Laboratory thinks my abilities are limited, it won't just solve this troublesome problem, Lu Ze thought. I'll also get more opportunities to come into contact with high-tech items.
This was not merely a matter of identity.
It was one thing if you did not admire Eagle Sauce and only wanted to return to Great Xia, but you still wanted access to core technologies? They were already being polite by not placing you under strict surveillance.
In short, Lu Ze was too capable. Eagle Sauce could not keep him under control!
On the other hand, who would care about someone with very ordinary abilities? Wouldn't muddling through be perfectly natural for someone like that?
Michael Hasen truly deserved to be a seasoned veteran of the slacking-off world. His reputation was well earned.
Professor, I understand now!
No matter what, he had to dispel LLNL Laboratory's and Eagle Sauce's wariness toward him.
Didn't they want to make sure they never let any talent slip away?
Then Lu Ze would prove to them that he was nothing more than a pure, useless waste!
Just as he was constantly thinking about how to prove it to the laboratory—
"Lu Ze, let's go." Lucy stood up beside him and elegantly wiped her mouth, showing no sign at all of having eaten too much.
"You're done already? Are you feeling unwell?" Lu Ze looked up at her.
That amount of food did not match his impression of Lucy. She was full after eating so little? Could she be sick?
"About sixty percent full. Eating too much at noon makes me sleepy." Lucy stretched lazily. "I'll just buy some desserts to eat on the way later."
"So that's how it is."
Lu Ze nodded in sudden understanding. "Then I'll treat you to some pastries later."
Now that fit Lucy's character. How could two servings of pasta, two steaks, and one pizza possibly fill her up?
Modu.
This could be called the busiest city in all of Great Xia, and it was also home to the headquarters of Great Xia Commercial Aircraft.
Xu Qianren hurried back from Yanjing by plane and immediately summoned the chief engineers for a confidential discussion regarding the COMAC C919 project.
Inside the general manager's conference room of the Commercial Aircraft headquarters administrative building.
A lean middle-aged man in blue work clothes entered the office and drained a large cup of tea in one gulp.
"Old Xu, why did you call me over here so urgently?" Qin Huaichang sat down directly on the sofa, paying no mind to the dust and grime covering him.
"I'm busy over there. If you have something to say, say it quickly."
The entire C919 project team was currently working at full tilt on preliminary design and construction. He truly did not have a moment to spare.
Construction of the plant, installation of all kinds of equipment—what did not require his attention?
Xu Qianren looked at him calmly and pursed his lips. "Old Qin, this is extremely important. What if I said—"
"Spit it out, then. Since when did you become so coy, Xu Qianren?" Qin Huaichang waved a hand and cut him off.
They had been old friends for years. He had no interest in listening to such a drawn-out opening.
"The higher-ups want us to stop the current COMAC C919 airliner project." Xu Qianren got it all out in one breath.
"Stop developing the C919 project? Why?"
Qin Huaichang stared blankly for a moment, then asked with intense confusion, "Are the higher-ups facing some kind of difficulty? The entire project groundwork has already been laid. How can we stop now?"
"Is there not enough funding?"
They had spent one or two full years preparing, and even the plant and equipment were nearly ready.
And only now they were announcing a halt to development? Not only would this mean incalculable financial losses, it would also deal a severe blow to the confidence of the entire research team.
He had thought the research funding was insufficient and that the project needed to be temporarily delayed.
"No. What they mean is..." Xu Qianren shook his head. "We are abandoning the current C919 project based on the overall Integrated Propulsion Engine system technology provided by CFM Company."
"I called you here this time to evaluate the feasibility of a new technology. We are going to independently develop an Integrated Propulsion Engine."
"What? How is that possible?"
Qin Huaichang flatly rejected the idea. "Once that is changed, the entire COMAC C919's basic architecture will need major revisions."
One had to understand that, whether for military aircraft or civil airliners, the Integrated Propulsion Engine system was the core of the core.
Even in terms of maintenance costs, the engine was often the most expensive part of the entire aircraft. It was the heart.
Changing it meant that every other technical project built upon it would also need to be revised from top to bottom.
What delay was this? This was practically disbanding the whole project!
"What happened? Why are we suddenly abandoning CFM Company's Integrated Propulsion Engine system?" Qin Huaichang's mind was filled with questions.
Why were they suddenly going to independently develop an Integrated Propulsion Engine system? Had something gone wrong with Project 072, the Y-20?
That was a reasonable guess. After all, Great Xia had been preparing to develop a strategic transport aircraft since the early 1990s, and a full sixteen years had already passed.
Its current priority level was certainly far higher than that of the C919 project.
But while strategic bombers were important, were large civil airliners not important too?
If they could develop one themselves, why would he have gone all the way to CFM Company to procure engines?
Given Great Xia's annual civil aviation traffic and the increasingly booming, exponential growth of logistics transportation, how many civil passenger aircraft did they need to buy every year?
For every year wasted, they could only watch money flow into someone else's pockets.
However.
"Old Qin, who said we were abandoning the C919 project?" Xu Qianren laughed heartily. "This time, we are not building a small or medium-sized aircraft like the 737. We're building an ultra-large passenger aircraft."
"An ultra-large civil airliner that is one hundred percent domestically produced."
With that, he directly tossed out a thick stack of draft design drawings.
On the top sheet, the cover clearly read:
[Details of Ultra-High Thrust Aero-Engine Technology.]
(Please bookmark, keep reading, and send monthly tickets and recommendation votes!)
Before you continue