"Speaker of the Parliament?!"
Jiang Yongxing took a sharp intake of breath.
"How, how did this end up reaching Speaker Li's ears?"
Fang Xu's expression was somewhat grave, and he said softly, "There's something you might not know yet."
"Something seems to have happened to Xia Country at ITER."
Jiang Yongxing's face instantly changed!
"What?! Something happened at ITER?!"
ITER, the full name being the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project.
It was a superconducting tokamak device that could generate large-scale nuclear fusion reactions!
As one of the member states, Xia Country could obtain a lot of useful data on controlled nuclear fusion through this device.
As for why not build one on their own...
The reason was simple.
It was expensive and troublesome!
The entire ITER project took thirteen years and cost five billion US dollars!
Although Xia Country had developed well in recent years, it was still a bit too extravagant to spend so much money on building a test machine!
After all, whether the tokamak device could support controlled nuclear fusion was still an unknown!
If they spent the money and wasted the time, only to build a huge thing that served no purpose, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
...
In the first ring area of the capital city.
At a location that couldn't be found on the map.
Hong Qiming stood at the door of the office, his face solemn as he knocked on the door.
"Come in!"
An aged voice came from inside the door.
Hong Qiming slowly pushed open the door and walked in.
An old man with white hair was sitting behind the desk, looking at him quietly.
There was wisdom and confidence in the old man's eyes, as if everything in the world was within his grasp!
"Speaker Li!"
Hong Qiming greeted the old man respectfully.
The old man put down the pen in his hand and slowly said, "Minister Hong, I heard that you have something very important to report to me?"
Hong Qiming quickly nodded and truthfully told the old man about the matter reported by Sandaokou University.
Speaker Li's expression gradually became serious.
"Is this true?"
Hong Qiming hesitated for a while and then nodded, "It should be true. You should remember Academician Fang Xu, right?"
Speaker Li nodded, "Of course. The latest achievement in controlled nuclear fusion in Xia Country was achieved by the team he led, right?"
"Does this matter... have something to do with him?"
Hong Qiming nodded again affirmatively, "Fang Xu and the professors from Sandaokou University conducted a preliminary evaluation of the plan, and he has great confidence in this plan!"
Speaker Li was silent for a moment again.
He reached out and pulled out a document from the pile of files beside him and handed it to Hong Qiming, "Let's not talk about this for now. Take a look at this document."
Hong Qiming took the document with a puzzled look on his face. The moment he saw the title, a trace of anger visibly appeared in his eyes!
"This! This is impossible!"
"The scientists of our Xia Country would definitely never do such a despicable thing!"
Speaker Li let out a deep sigh, and a hint of worry appeared in his eyes.
He slowly shook his head and said, "What's possible and what's not... it's not up to us to decide."
"The ITER project has long wanted to kick us out. So, whether our scientists have done such a thing or not doesn't matter."
Hong Qiming opened his mouth but then hesitated, "But..."
"But this reputation is really too bad!"
Hong Qiming gritted his back teeth hard and looked at the document in his hand again.
The document described in detail the behavior of the scientific researchers from Xia Country stationed at the ITER project who, while in their positions, stole important experimental data without permission.
"Then... what should we do?"
"Are we just going to watch ITER frame us like this?!"
Speaker Li said calmly, "In addition to framing us, they also asked us to voluntarily withdraw from the ITER project."
"This news is probably going to be officially released tomorrow."
Boom!
Hong Qiming felt as if the blood vessels in his brain exploded in an instant!
"This... this is outrageous!"
"This is simply, simply too much bullying!"
Speaker Li slowly said, "I showed you this document not for anything else, but to tell you one thing."
"From now on, Xia Country can only rely on itself in the research of controlled nuclear fusion."
"So, you should understand what to do, right?"
Facing Speaker Li's meaningful gaze, Hong Qiming's face stiffened slightly.
"Yes!"
"Don't worry, Speaker Li. I'll go to Sandaokou University right away!"
...
In the evening, Lü Yongchang, who had been wandering around the campus for a day, returned to his dormitory.
"Wow! Brother Lü, you're finally back!"
As soon as he pushed open the door of the dormitory, the voice of his roommate, Wu Qi, came from inside.
"Brother Lü, what were you up to in the General Physics class today?"
Facing his roommate's curious question, Lü Yongchang gave an embarrassed smile and for a moment didn't know how to explain.
Could he tell him that he was reborn?
After thinking for a moment, a somewhat plausible reason slowly emerged in his mind.
"Ahem! I took some time recently to research something. When I was in class, I just suddenly had the urge and went up to the stage to write it down."
The curiosity in Wu Qi's eyes grew stronger, "Research? What did you research?"
"By the way, what did Professor Guan keep you behind for? He's not going to ask you to drop out of school, is he?"
Lü Yongchang: "…???"
Drop out of school?
Why would he drop out of school?
Not to mention dropping out, he might be "promoted" soon!
Of course, he definitely couldn't tell Wu Qi this.
"Er... The professor thought my research was very valuable and gave me his approval. Then... he let me come back."
Wu Qi: "???"
"...That's it?!"
Wu Qi looked at Lü Yongchang in surprise, "Don't lie to me. They all say that Professor Guan is really strict!"
Lü Yongchang quickly changed the subject, "The thing that happened in the General Physics class this morning, didn't it spread around?"
Wu Qi quickly shook his head, and his expression became a little more serious.
"Don't worry. Except for the classmates in that class, I don't think anyone else knows about it."
Lü Yongchang's eyes widened a little, and he looked at Wu Qi in front of him in horror, "Are you serious?!"
In this era where gossip is prevalent, he had even prepared himself to become famous overnight!
Wu Qi didn't say anything. Instead, he turned around, took out an A4 printed paper from the side, and handed it to Lü Yongchang.
"Confidentiality Agreement"
Seeing the large black characters on the A4 paper, Lü Yongchang shook his head with a bitter smile.
He didn't expect that Professor Guan was so reliable and actually had all the classmates sign a confidentiality agreement!
But... that was also a good thing.
Currently, the sun hasn't started to change yet.
For Xia Country to become the leader of the Earth Federation, there's only this last chance to overtake on a curve.
As a native of Xia Country, Lü Yongchang naturally hoped that all the people of Xia Country could survive the upcoming disaster.
As for how to survive...
He had already thought it through!
Since the destruction of the sun was a foregone conclusion, he could only lead Xia Country... lead humanity to escape from the Earth within twenty years!
Only the endless starry sky above was the only way out in the future!