On January 5, Magic City, it became cloudy.
Elon Musk's private plane landed at Pudong International Airport on time.
Zhao Chen's car drove directly onto the tarmac, Su Wantang was sitting in the passenger seat, and Chen Xi was holding a laptop in the back seat. On the screen was the flow chart of Green Energy Technology's signing ceremony.
The hatch opened and Elon Musk appeared at the top of the gangway.
He was wearing a dark gray turtleneck sweater and a black jacket that looked like it had been washed many times.
Zhao Chen was dressed almost exactly the same as when Boca Chica saw him, the only difference was that there was no machine oil mark on the jacket.
Behind him were two assistants carrying Briefcase and a laptop with a SpaceX sticker on it.
On the other side of the tarmac, three black Tesla Model S have been waiting for a long time.
There was a row of people standing in front of the car--Tesla Magic City Several senior executives from the factory, all dressed in suits and ties, meticulously tied.
The leader Zhao Chen has been seen in the news. He is the person in charge of Tesla Greater China. His surname is Zhu. He is an engineer by Silicon Valley, but he has developed a localized sophistication in Magic City.
General Manager Zhu saw Elon Musk walking down the gangway, with a decent smile on his face, and was about to greet him--
"Zhao." Elon Musk crossed General Manager Zhu and waved his hand towards Zhao Chen without any hesitation in the direction of his feet.
Zhao Chen Open the door.
Elon Musk lowered his head and got into the back seat of Zhao Chen's Buick GL8.
Su Wantang turned around from the co-pilot and handed over a bottle of water. Elon Musk took it and unscrewed the cap and took a sip.
The Tesla executives on the tarmac stood there, General Manager Zhu's hand still maintained the posture of holding it out, the smile on his face did not disappear, but he froze there.
The assistants looked at each other, and one of them took out his cell phone and typed quickly, probably reporting to a certain work group that "the boss got into someone else's car."
On both sides of Airport Expressway, the branches and leaves of Wutong trees have fallen off, and their bare branches stretch out under the winter sky.
The winter in Magic City is completely different from that in Boca Chica. It is not the cold that is dry and smells of gravel and engine oil, but is wet and penetrates into the bones.
"Are Pilot Line and Engineer Fang of Green Energy Technology here?" Elon Musk asked.
"Yes. He knew you were coming, so he went through the entire process parameters of Pilot Line yesterday." Zhao Chen said.
"Very good."
Elon Musk didn't ask about the signing ceremony, the valuation, the quota allocation, or Industrial Capital.
He flew from Boca Chica to Magic City, not to sign autographs, not to socialize, not to shake hands with those in suits.
He came to see the Pilot Line.
Downstairs from Green Energy Technology Zhangjiang Laboratory, Zhou Bingcheng, Old Fang and the core team have been waiting for almost an hour.
Zhou Bingcheng rarely wore a dark blue suit, with the collar buttons neatly tied, and he held a flow chart for the signing ceremony in his hand.
Old Fang stood next to him, wearing the washed-out work clothes with the Green Energy Technology logo printed on the left chest.
The background board for the signing ceremony has been set up. Green Energy Technology and the logos of several investors are printed side by side on the blue background exhibition board--
Era Vanguard, Tesla (Elon Musk individual), Dening Times, Bidiya, Two Central State-Owned Enterprises.
There were several chairs in front of the exhibition board, covered with dark gray velvet. The microphones had been adjusted, and the hostesses were standing on both sides holding trays.
A Buick GL8 parked at the door. The door opened and Elon Musk stepped out.
His gaze went past Zhou Bingcheng, past the background board of the signing ceremony, past the hostess and microphone, and landed directly on the security door at the end of the laboratory corridor that required a swipe card to enter.
Zhou Bingcheng went up to him and stretched out his hand. Elon Musk shook his hand briefly.
"Where is Engineer Fang?" Elon Musk asked.
Zhou Bingcheng turned around, and Old Fang was standing on the side of the background board of the signing ceremony, with his hands in the pockets of his work clothes.
"Engineer Fang." Elon Musk walked towards him.
Old Fang took his hand out of his pocket and shook the hand extended by Elon Musk.
Old Fang's hands are rough, and there are calluses on the fingertips left by years of operating Reactor.
Elon Musk held his hand, and the first real smile on the road from Pudong Airport to Zhangjiang appeared on the corner of his mouth.
The signing ceremony has been temporarily put on hold.
Elon Musk and Engineer Fang walked into Green Energy Technology's Pilot Line side by side, with the translator following closely behind them.
Zhou Bingcheng stood in front of the background board of the signing ceremony, still holding the process sheet in his hand.
Deputy General Manager Zheng, Director He and representatives of central enterprises have already taken their seats, with a signing document in front of everyone.
Director He picked up the tea cup and took a sip. His eyes fell in the direction of Pilot Line, with an expression that showed nothing.
Deputy General Manager Zheng turned the flow chart over and placed it on the table, leaned into the back of the chair, and tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest.
"Mr. Zhou, signing ceremony--"Sister Liu lowered his voice.
"Wait." Zhou Bingcheng said.
In Pilot Line, Elon Musk stands in front of the stainless steel Reactor.
Engineer Fang stood next to him, holding the process flow chart of Third-Generation Formula in his hand.
"From Powder Synthesis to molding and sintering, there are seventeen core process parameters.
The most critical ones are the temperature gradient control in the synthesis stage and the temperature rise and fall rate in the sintering stage."
Engineer Fang's voice reached Elon Musk's ears through a translator.
"The traditional process uses isothermal sintering, and the grain growth is uneven, resulting in a large dispersion in cycle life.
We switched to a sintering curve with segmented temperature control--"
"Sectional temperature control." Elon Musk interrupted the translation and repeated these four words in English,
"How did you find this curve?"
Engineer Fang was silent for a moment, not hesitating, but remembering.
"It was baked. From the first generation formula to Third-Generation Formula, it took four years to bake.
After each batch of samples is sintered, they are cut into thin slices and scanned with an electron microscope to see the distribution of grain sizes and the width of grain boundaries.
Burn a batch, cut a piece, read it once, and change the parameters once. Burn it again, cut it again, read it again, and change it again."
He paused,
"In four years, I cut more than two thousand samples. It was three o'clock in the morning when I found this curve."
The translator translated this passage into English. Elon Musk did not speak immediately after listening.
He stretched out his hand and patted the stainless steel shell of Reactor very lightly, as if patting the neck of a horse that had been following him for many years.
"I understand." He said. There was no need to translate, and Engineer Fang didn't understand the two English words either.
But he understood from Elon Musk's eyes.
Elon Musk spent countless hours squatting in front of Raptor engine's test bench at three o'clock in the morning.
He knows what it means to "burn a batch, cut a slice, look at it once, change it once."
That's not research and development, that's using flesh and blood to try a road that no one has traveled before.
The signing ceremony was nearly an hour later than scheduled.
When Zhou Bingcheng, Deputy General Manager Zheng, Director He, representatives of central enterprises and Chen Xi signed their names on the signing documents one by one, Elon Musk never appeared at the signing ceremony.
His document was signed by a legal attorney sent by Tesla.
Era Vanguard's signing document was signed by Chen Xi. Zhao Chen sat in the audience and watched Chen Xi sign his name in the "Times Pioneer Capital" column.
After Deputy General Manager Zheng put down the pen after signing, his eyes stopped on Zhao Chen's face for a moment.
Director He signed quickly. After signing, he pushed the document to the representative of the central enterprise next to him, leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
After the signing ceremony, Green Energy Technology officially released the Series B financing announcement.