What Lu Zhou hadn't expected was that early the very next morning after he handed the letter to Wang Peng, he received a reply from Chang'an Street.
Besides offering high praise for his contributions and those of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, the reply asked for his personal opinions on commercializing carbon-based chips.
In truth, Lu Zhou had no particular opinions. They could simply proceed as appropriate. The only thing that surprised him was how efficient Shangjing had been: the expert discussion had concluded the previous evening, and the reply reached him the following morning.
Turning the envelope over in his hands, Lu Zhou couldn't help asking,
"That fast?"
Standing beside Lu Zhou, Wang Peng explained.
"Classified correspondence like this is transported by air. It only takes an hour and a half to get from Shangjing to Jinling. When I received the call at four in the morning, this letter was already at the Ministry of State Security's Jinling office."
"That's not what I meant... Never mind, let's not dwell on it." Putting away the personally written letter from the Elder Council, Lu Zhou looked at Wang Peng. "Take me to Jin University."
Wang Peng nodded and opened the car door for him.
"Of course. Please get in."
The matter of the carbon-based chips was set aside for now.
After arriving at Jin University, Lu Zhou went to his office as usual and sat down at his desk.
Having suddenly received the reward for his system mission yesterday, Lu Zhou had left work early to visit the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. The carbon-based chip issue had then kept him there, leaving his half-finished research untouched.
Taking yesterday's unfinished draft sheets out of a drawer, Lu Zhou spent about five minutes reviewing his earlier work. Then he took