An eerie silence lingered on the phone for a moment.
Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information in Director Li's words, Lu Zhou needed a moment to process it all.
The IMCRC headquarters building...
An unveiling ceremony?
Didn't we only just finish the meeting? How was the building already finished? Had they prepared it beforehand... wait!
Lu Zhou abruptly snapped out of his daze.
He had almost overlooked the most important question!
"What do you mean, chairman? How come I've never heard anything about this?"
Wasn't I supposed to be the chief advisor?
How had that suddenly turned into chairman?
At that moment, Lu Zhou's face was one enormous question mark. He did not even know where to begin protesting.
"You haven't heard?" Director Li was taken aback as well, then cleared his throat. "Ahem! Well... that's my fault for not notifying you properly, but you also left too early! Anyway-"
"Hold on with the 'anyway'!" Lu Zhou hurriedly interrupted before the man could declare the matter settled. "I want to know exactly what's going on."
Hearing the displeasure in Lu Zhou's voice, Director Li felt a little embarrassed. He softened his tone and began patiently reasoning with him. "Here's the situation. We really didn't have a choice. The International Lunar Hadron Collider Project is a twenty-billion-dollar project, after all. With so many countries involved, someone has to step up and take the lead, right?"
"We didn't want to trouble you either. We originally planned to pick an academician to fill the position, but after discussing it at a meeting, the central leadership decided that appointing just anyone wouldn't win everyone's support. The Americans also took a big loss over the Budget Committee issue. There's no guarantee they won't seize the chance to make trouble and try something underhanded. Anyone