by <unknown>
"I'm looking for Xia Yin."
Chen Chen informed, "Just tell me where her office is."
"Ah, you're looking for GM Xia?"
The clerk shot Chen Chen a queer look. "Do you have a reservation? I'm afraid I can't help you if you don't have a reservation."
"I don't, but you can just call her and tell her that it's Chen Chen looking for her."
Chen Chen said with a faint smile.
"Chen Chen?"
The clerk was dumbfounded by this sudden statement. She stared at Chen Chen for what seemed like forever. Her eyes widened in shock before finally asking in a trembling voice, "Are, are you Chairman Chen?"
"That's me."
Chen Chen nodded. When he saw the clerk was still caught in a daze, he figured it was easier to take a look at the information displayed at the front desk himself.
According to the display, the office of the general manager was located on the top floor, the fiftieth floor of the building.
"That's surprising, Xia Yin has the same preference as I do…"
Chen Chen muttered a comment to himself before heading to the elevator, paying no mind to the clerk.
"Ah…"
The clerk finally snapped back to her senses. When she saw Chen Chen's figure departing, she suddenly called out, "Chairman Chen, the general manager's office is located at…"
"I know."
Chen Chen said without turning around as he stepped into the elevator.
After the elevator closed, Chen Chen finally turned into an upset frown.
To tell the truth, he was not pleased with the employment standards at the headquarters. To be fair, there was the factor of his sudden arrival at play, still, there had to be a certain standard of professionalism to be met.
Shortly after that, the elevator took Chen Chen to the top floor and opened with a faint "ding". Chen Chen saw two ladies dressed in common secretary office wear running circles around the office, tidying everything frantically.
Upon noting Chen Chen's arrival, they immediately stopped what they were doing and stood to attention before bowing politely. "Welcome, Chairman!"
One of the office ladies reacted faster and stepped forward before the other one could. She smiled like a blossoming flower at Chen Chen's direction. "Chairman Chen, since it's your first time here, you might not know where your office is. Would you like me to bring you there?"
"That's alright."
Chen Chen gently pushed her aside and turned his attention to another door nearby. "I'm not here for my office, I'm looking for Xia Yin."
Before the two of them could add any further comments, he went to the office labeled with the general manager sign.
Before he reached the door, it opened on its own. The person who opened the door was revealed to be Xia Yin who was wearing professional attire. There was a look of mild surprise mixed with a combination of an assortment of emotions in her eyes.
Chapter 446: Hadron Collider |
Chen Chen stepped into Xia Yin's office and took a look around.
It was a very simple office without much by way of decorations. The only notable aspect was the sheer size of it.
This office was nearly the size of Chen Chen's office in Eco Science City.
Xia Yin seemed to have sensed what Chen Chen was taking in so she stated meekly, "There's no other way around this, the dimension of this building turned out to be far larger than what we needed. Since there are only several hundred staff stationed here, we have to make the offices larger to not make the place seem too vacant."
"Vacant is good, makes the place feel quieter."
Chen Chen made himself comfortable in the seat opposite the general manager's desk. He looked at Xia Yin who had become very comfortable in her role and asked, "Everything going well in the company?"
"Yeah."
Xia Yin pouted a little. "Headquarters is only an honorary title we have over here because not much goes on here, we're pretty much a decorative vase at this point. All we do is manage the websites and make the occasional announcement. There's not much else apart from that. How are things supposed to be not going well?"
"This place is very important, you only feel this way because the decisive time isn't here just yet."
Chen Chen took the coffee from a secretary and offered a quick thank you before continuing. "Besides, working in headquarters is like being the Minister of Palace Affairs, isn't that nice?"
"Ministers are usually eunuchs."
Xia Yin joked suddenly before sighing. "But the good thing is your loyal secretary Aixen usually keeps in touch with us. I heard that Aixen is an underage girl?"
"?"
Chen Chen tilted his head, puzzled by this question.
"I've been wondering why you're not interested in me, turns out you're into lolitas!"
Xia Yin twisted her expression in horror. "Sicko!"
Chen Chen noticed that they were getting sidetracked and immediately reverted to the topic at hand. "Forget about that. There's another reason that I came today apart from taking a look at the headquarters. I'm going to email you a document later, it's the registration form for a certain project. I'm going to need you to prepare for it because you'll be representing Blacklight Biotechnology to meet the high-ranking officials all over the world sometime in the future."
"What project?"
Xia Yin asked, looking puzzled at Chen Chen.
"An investment project involving tens of billions of dollars and the entire Earth Federation, which is why I need you to go in person."
Chen Chen answered, "Simply put, I plan to establish branches in the Central, East, South, and North Sea Continents. This includes all continents ranging from Indian, Middle East, Northern America, Southern America, Europe, Oceanic, and the Antarctic. On top of establishing branch companies, we'll also be establishing local research institutes and sanatoriums to expand the international scope of Eco Science City."
Xia Yin wondered if her ears were failing her so she looked at Chen Chen in sheer astonishment. "Are you sure? Where are we getting all these funds from?"
Xia Yin's bewilderment was completely justified. It was one thing to establish branch companies and administrative departments internationally since most major corporations had done something similar as well. However, to establish an equivalent Eco Science City all over the world was something nowhere near as easy to accomplish.
Blacklight Biotechnology ranked among the best of them in terms of net worth. However, most of the corporation's net worth came from the estimated value of its city.
Although Blacklight Biotechnology never listed itself on the market, most of its revenue was invested into the expansion of Eco Science City. It was not an easy task to upkeep a city.
"Well, we'll be borrowing the money from banks, just as you'd expect."
Chen Chen smirked and answered, "These days, you won't find any businesses willing to operate out of their pocket, what if their investment turns out to be unsuccessful?"
"…"
"I'll leave the negotiations of the rates and conditions in your capable hands by then."
Chen Chen expressed sincerely. "Xia Yin, don't let me down."
"Yes!"
Though caught off guard by this sudden revelation initially, Xia Yin immediately regained her composure. After all these years, she was no longer the innocent and naive girl she used to be, but a hardened and extremely qualified woman.
"I still have one more task for you."
Chen Chen continued. "Which is to order the engine parts for a Hadron Collider. You'll have to secretly order this from the European officials. I'll have the financial groups from Europe get in touch and cooperate with you."
"What!"
Xia Yin was yet again baffled by Chen Chen's request. "Hadron Collider? Chen Chen, what are you planning to do?"
Chen Chen did not bother with offering an explanation. "These are your tasks. After all these years, why don't you show me if you can meet my standards?"
&nbs
p; With that, Chen Chen saw that his errand here was done and he promptly got up, and left Xia Yin's office.
After exiting the main lobby, Chen Chen darted a final glance at the office building before reactivating the communication device with Little X.
"X, tell Cheng Cao to arrange my transport. I'm heading back to Namibia."
Chen Chen whispered.
"Hmmph!"
There was a slightly upset grunt coming from the earpiece, followed up by Little X speaking in a dull tone, "I've informed Cheng Cao, he's on the way here!"
"Perfect."
Chen Chen paid no mind to Little X. He sat down on a seat surrounded by an arrangement of flowers and looked at the busy streets of Shangdu. His gaze was as stoic as the surface of still water.
Chen Chen wanted to purchase the engine parts for a Hadron Collider because this was the perfect timing for it.
It was just like how his decision to establish branch companies all over the world stemmed from the fact that Blacklight Biotechnology was rapidly gaining international recognition and starting to dominate foreign markets.
Chen Chen had already planned to build a Hadron Collider as early as two years ago.
With the development of science and technology, mankind's understanding of the structure of matter was rapidly evolving with every passing day. From the beginning, the observation of substances was done by observing what was visible to the naked eye. Gradually, magnifying glasses and microscopes were applied, which later progressed to the usage of high-energy physics research equipment. The scale of observation was expanded time and time again, spanning into the underlying structure of cells, molecules, atoms, and nuclei.
Each discovery brought forth a monumental societal revolution and technological improvement.
The discovery of atomic nuclei and extranuclear electrons led to the invention of the radio, semiconductors, television, radar, lasers, and X-rays.
The Hadron Collider was one of the equipment used to observe substances on a microscope level.
At its core, the Hadron Collider was a particle accelerator. Its prowess lay in its ability to accelerate particles to such a point that when two particles of equal speed collided, they may fuse with one another to generate a new form of particle.
Moreover, even if the high-speed particles did not collide, researchers could still observe the pattern of changes that occurred to the microcosm during the movement of the particles. This helped with laying the foundation for further research and development of the microcosm.
At the same time, gaining a better understanding of the microscopic world helped mankind gain a better understanding of the construct of the macro world.
Generally speaking, the larger the Hadron Collider, the more proficient it was. This was attributed to the fact that as the size increased, the internal space for operation increased as well, which in turn allowed the machine to generate more energy for the associated particles to accelerate faster. All these factors combined allowed researchers to obtain more precise research results.
Currently, the European Large Hadron Collider was the world's largest and most powerful Hadron Collider, with its tunnel circumference reaching up to 27 kilometers. The European research team had spent more than ten years and 80 billion dollars to construct the engineering marvel.
It should be clear by now that it was not a piece of cheap scientific research equipment, but what would be regarded as a luxury in the realms of science and technology. Only a country with strong economic strength could construct and put it to use. It was a far more momentous task for a mere private company to put together such equipment.
As early as 2014, the Central Continent launched a certain project. The details of the project were to construct a tunnel with a circumference reaching up to 100 kilometers, which was nearly four times longer than the largest known Hadron Collider. This plan was ultimately objected to by Professor Yang Zhenning in 2018. Since then, it had been aborted and never been truly implemented by anyone else since.
The reasoning for Professor Yang Zhenning's objection was simple. First of all, it was simply too expensive. Second, the success rate was not optimistic. Third, it offered zero substantial application over the next five decades.
There was another important reason for his objection, being that it would be hogged by foreigners after its completion. This was because at the time, high-energy physicists in the Central Continent were far and few in between.
Some people may not understand the reasoning for Yang Zhenning's objection. In truth, one of the greatest potential contributions of this Hadron Collider would be to accurately measure the Higgs Boson to determine if this particle truly surpassed the current physics framework. This particular particle known as the Higgs Boson was also dubbed — God Particle.
The physics community had been looking forward to it for more than four decades as it was the particle that was most likely to surpass the current standard model. If it was verified, then what was known as "Superstring Theory" would be elevated to the likes of "Quantum Mechanic". The phrase "Theory" would hence be replaced and thus referred simply as "Superstring Mechanic."
This "Superstring Mechanic" would be a culmination of the theory of all things — the unified form of the four basic forces.
All existing particles in the world, from the smallest primal atom to the largest astronomical bodies, even including the essence of a black hole or the very origin of the universe, would have to succumb to the laws of superstring…
This was a dream of mankind. Once the interaction of matter and its subsequent principles and movement were standardized, mankind would achieve the omnipotence that rivaled God.
Unfortunately, this vision was never achieved.
As early as the period during the Northern America-Soviet hegemony, Northern America had already planned to build a Hadron Collider with a measured circumference of 100 kilometers. The nation spent more than two billion U.S. dollars over several years, but even the tunnel was not even properly carved out by the end of it. The project ultimately came to an end when the Soviet Union had disbanded at the time.
Naturally, this was terrible news for the pack of supporters of the "Superstring Theory" in the high-energy physics community.
Later on, the European Hadron Collider was debuted with its maximum operation power reached up to 13TeV. Though it was inferior to what the Northern America version could have been, it was at least a completed project. However, after the much-anticipated collision experiment, the journey to discovering signs of supersymmetric particles was to no avail even after several years. With that, 99.999% of the foundation for supersymmetric theory went up in smoke.
Today, the combined thesis for "Superstring Theory" was essentially a pile of scrap paper. However, there were still countless people who believed in its possibility. This group of people believed that the only reason why they could not achieve collision supersymmetric particles was primarily due to power insufficiency, which was why they came to lobby for the construction of the Hadron Collider in the Central Continent. All this was also linked to the opposition of Professor Yang Zhenning.
Simply put, the primary reason that the Central Continent's plans for constructing the Hadron Collider ultimately amounted to nothing was due to the lack of ITS scientific value.
Things were different in Chen Chen's case, for he had two reasons for constructing the Hadron Collider.
The first and primary reason was that Chen Chen wanted to use it to manufacture a piece of technology acquired from Elysium — the high-offset armor.
This variant of isotope metal armor was branded the sturdiest and most stable substance in the solar system. It could be used as the plating for spacecraft due to its ability to resist surface radiation from the sun which allowed it to freely travel across the solar system.
So far, Chen Chen had not discovered any substance that was more resilient than it apart from the water drop from The Three-Body Problem.
The second incentive for Chen Ch
en to construct the Hadron Collider was that unlike the Central Continent, he did not need to invest tens of billions into this creation. He had something special up his sleeve.
The normal-temperature superconductor.
When it came to the tunneling system of a regular Hadron Collider, it was the maintenance of the low-temperature superconductor that cut into a sizable portion of the budget. However, the unique qualities of the normal-temperature superconductor allowed Chen Chen to only expend one-tenth of the usual cost for its upkeep. This also allowed him to create a far shorter, but vastly superior Hadron Collider.
This was the exclusive advantage Chen Chen had.
Another aspect to factor in was that Chen Chen wanted to follow along with the theory of great unification to determine the validity of the so-called "Superstring Theory", which could unify the four fundamental forces. This theory was also dubbed as the theory of everything.
There were several examples of such an ambitious venture. Following Galileo's standardization of the laws of motion and inertia in accordance with "Newton's Laws of Motion" and "Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation", the road to the mechanical industrial revolution was paved.
Maxwell also trailed after that path when he standardized the composition of electricity, magnetism, and light with a set of equations, heralding mankind's electrical age from thereon.
After that came Einstein. He first used the "Theory of Relativity" to combine Maxwell's equations and Newtonian mechanics to create a standardization of the measure of low and high velocity. This was subsequently used to standardize the equation of matter and energy, giving birth to what was now known as nuclear weapons.
After that came quantum mechanics, which was where Yang Zhenning came into the picture.
With a crumpled piece of paper he found in his pocket and a set of mathematical framework theory, he unified electromagnetic force, low-velocity force, and high-velocity force. This mathematical framework was the aforementioned Yang-Mills gauge field theory.
