The global celebration of the game " Dream Guide " was a huge success, attracting celebrities, tycoons, and tech leaders. It ignited a great fire in the cold winter at the end of the year, allowing everyone to see the dawn of future technology in a depressed economic environment.
Mei Yiqiu originally did not want to participate in this event, but he could not resist the repeated invitations from the organizers, and many influential figures also conveyed their message that he must attend and say something.
Mei Yiqiu no choice but to agree. This made Hou Biao extremely nervous.
The grand ceremony was scheduled to begin in Shenzhou. Shenzhou is very close to Wuzhong, Hou Biao's security company could spare enough personnel to protect the professor's safety as long as they were careful. Moreover, Shenzhou was also the main sphere of influence of the Xia Family, and Xia Wenyuan's eldest son Xia Bozhou, had agreed to mobilize all the security forces they could. With the added protection from the government, Mei Yiqiu's safety was assured.
However, many clients in North America and Europe expressed strong dissatisfaction and demanded that the main venue be held in Los Angeles or Berlin.
Although Mei Yiqiu is implicitly the head of the Third Space Foundation, the development of the Space Box is the result of the collective wisdom of nearly a hundred scientists worldwide and the efforts of dozens of laboratories. He cannot claim all the credit for himself. In addition, foreign capital that wants a share of the pie is already eager to get a piece of the pie. He is afraid that those people will stir up trouble if they don't get a share of the pie. Therefore, he has to consider this matter carefully.
After discussion, the organizers decided to keep the original Shenzhou event as is, and add an event in Los Angeles. Both events will be streamed globally, one week apart. To cater to both viewers and players, the organizers split the original events into two parts. The Los Angeles event will focus on the gaming experience and entertainment, while the Shenzhou event will focus on the upgrade of the Space Box and future technological prospects. This combination of hard and soft elements is a well-thought-out arrangement.
Mei Yiqiu had to travel between two places; she went to Los Angeles right after finishing an event in Shenzhou.
Hou Biao was worried about security in Los Angeles. Neither he nor the Xia Family had the power to penetrate every corner of Los Angeles, so they couldn't guarantee the professor's safety 100%. He didn't trust the United States government's promises at all; it wasn't a matter of security level, but rather that you simply didn't know how many of those people were reliable.
From boarding the plane to the hotel to the conference venue, every unrelated person could be Parasites, Hou Biao had to be cautious.
Fortunately, the Xia Family arranged a private jet for Hou Biao, Hou Biao was able to contact Mr. Wolf, the young master of the Wolf Family. This was Qingmu had told him before: if he ever encountered trouble and needed to use North America influence, he could contact this young master Quiwyn.
Quill Wolf did not attend the grand event in person because his Old Wolf was ill and his family could not be separated from him for even a moment, especially him, the heir who bore the family's mission. However, he generously agreed to Hou Biao's request and mobilized all the family and gang's influence in Los Angeles to add a layer of protection to the entire event.
Even so, Hou Biao stayed almost constantly by Mei Yiqiu, never daring to relax. If something unexpected happened at this critical juncture, he wouldn't be able to explain it to Qingmu.
Although Qingmu hadn't returned for a year, and Hou Biao didn't know if he would ever see Qingmu again, he understood what kind of company his security firm was and what significance his work held. Regardless of whether Qingmu was there or not, or whether he returned, he would continue this business without hesitation.
He used to be a fugitive bandit, a vermin living in the gutter; back then, he was no different from being dead. But now, he's alive. From the moment he walked into that bar, which was still under renovation at the time, and into the studio upstairs, saying, "I'm here. From now on, you'll have to provide me with food and lodging," he came alive.
He watched the Sun rise every day, illuminating the earth and also illuminating the rest of his life.
As the year drew to a close, Mei Yiqiu was going to Los Angeles, so she simply gave the lab an early holiday. Everyone received a large bonus and happily went home for the New Year.
Only Old Yu remained in the laboratory.
Old Yu is in charge of the server room, not the main gate. The lab has a high level of security and automation, so there's no need for a gatekeeper, but the server room still needs someone to watch over it. Because of several special experiments, the server room is constantly running, including several server clusters and some experimental equipment. Although these are already intelligently managed and can be operated remotely, and even in the event of a power outage, there are backup power supplies and automatic generators, in any case, until artificial intelligence develops to the point where it completely replaces human work, someone will still be needed to oversee it.
Old Yu's job was simple: just watch. He would walk around a few fixed rooms every day, not knowing what the things in those rooms were for, because there was no need to know. He only needed to check if the lights were on and whether the faint humming of the machines was normal.
Or perhaps even these things are unnecessary to consider. His real task is to provide emergency protection in the event of an accident, such as a fire or earthquake, and to minimize the damage to the laboratory in the first instance, before the security company and fire department arrive.
Of course, this kind of thing couldn't be done by Old Yu alone. Although Old Yu had received training, he was not a professional, didn't understand science, and wasn't very educated. Besides Old Yu, there were originally more professional staff on duty upstairs. In previous years, there was one staff member on duty upstairs and one on downstairs, a security guard downstairs and a scientist upstairs.
But this year was different. The staff on duty upstairs had been removed. According to the people in the building, it was all done with artificial intelligence and remote control now, so there was no need for anyone to be on duty. But Old Yu always felt that it wasn't that they had let their guard down, but rather that they had become more tense. Getting into the upstairs door was very difficult. It required some kind of high-level authorization and genetic certification, Old Yu didn't understand. Old Yu only knew that the professor didn't want anyone to be upstairs when he wasn't there.
He could tell that Professor Mei seemed to trust no one except a few close friends and family members, and preferred to trust machines and ordinary people like Old Yu.
Professor Mei took his team abroad, giving everyone else a holiday, leaving only Old Yu behind. Old Yu felt a heavy weight on his shoulders, like when he was young and working in a hardware store, when the owner let him stay in the shop and handed him the key.
Old Yu was originally unwilling to work in such a high-level laboratory, but he couldn't find a job. Where could someone who had been to prison twice and whose hair had turned completely white find work?
He wanted to go home, but the thought that his relatives in his hometown were long gone, and that he didn't know any of the younger generation, made him lose the courage to embark on the journey back. He thought of Old Zhao, Old Zhao's dead daughter, and of course, Zhao Pengcheng, who was now nowhere to be found.
The person who got him out of prison gave him an address, telling him to go there if he needed anything. He found the place and discovered it was a bar, but he couldn't work there. It was a place for young people, and as an old man, even cleaning would look awkward to others.
Later, someone took him to the Mei's Laboratory Building. An elderly professor with hair as white as his said to him, "Oh, you're Yu Jianguo. I know you. Qingmu told me about you. So, what do you want to do here?"
Old Yu knew that Qingmu was the one who had shared a family meal with him in prison, so he said, "I'll work as a security guard. I've worked in the hospital security department, managing..." He wanted to say that he had also worked in the morgue, but there wasn't a morgue in the lab. Thinking that the morgue was also a warehouse, he said, "I'm good at managing warehouses too."
The professor, pipe in mouth, said, "Oh, alright, alright, then you can stay and do whatever you like."