Chapter 77: Journey To Kyoto
Fan Ren did not care too much about the turbulent situation outside.
In his thought, Xinghai Technology has never been a company with profit as its core purpose.
If it were really so, Xinghai Technology at this time could even establish a mobile phone communication department and an automobile department, using the huge cost advantage of self-developed radio, battery, and chip to frantically attract money in the market.
This is not a particularly difficult matter.
In his view, money is just a tool to achieve goals.
Being able to help him complete the research and development investment of one top technology after another is the main purpose.
Just like at this moment, Fan Ren brought Zeng Yingying, and the two of them very unremarkably got off the flight arriving in Kyoto.
“General Manager Fan, look! Chief Li sent people to pick us up.”
As soon as Zeng Yingying got off the airplane, she saw two black luxury sedans actually parked inside the airport not far away.
Fan Ren looked in the direction she pointed, and two receptionists in uniform had already come over from the sedan there.
“General Manager Fan, hello, Chief Li is waiting for you in the department, please come with us.”
It was indeed Kyoto, although people getting off airplanes from time to time cast curious glances this way, most people were already used to it.
To be honest, Fan Ren was still a bit unaccustomed to this high-spec reception.
He immediately took Zeng Yingying into the sedan. Without too much politeness, the sedan drove straight out of the airport toward the Ministry of Industry.
Sure enough, it saved a lot of time compared to the last time he came to Kyoto.
At the entrance of the Ministry of Industry, Chief Li had been waiting for a long time, and as soon as Fan Ren got out of the car, he came up to greet him.
“General Manager Fan, welcome, please come in quickly.”
Before coming, Zeng Yingying had been responsible for communicating with this side, and Chief Li knew there was an important matter.
Fan Ren even felt a bit flattered, and quickly reached out to shake hands with the other party, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then went inside.
“Whoa, isn’t that young chairman of that Xinghai Technology? Good job, young man!”
The Kyoto old men watching the spectacle from the periphery only then matched Fan Ren with the figure who often appeared on TV recently, and shouted at the top of their voices.
Zeng Yingying’s mouth curved into a bright smile, as if the old man was praising her, and her steps became lighter.
Soon, Fan Ren followed and arrived in the chief’s office to take a seat.
“General Manager Fan, you said it was inconvenient to communicate over the phone before, it’s absolutely safe here, so feel free to speak directly about any matter.”
The others did not follow in, and after the door was closed, only Fan Ren and Chief Li were left facing each other alone.
“Yes, Chief Li.”
Fan Ren sat straight on the sofa, took out a sealed document from the bag beside him, opened it, and handed it over.
“This time I’m bothering you with two matters, one is these types of ore in this document, I don’t know if the Ministry of Industry has them on file? I’ve checked many places, and they are not sold on the market.”
Li Jiandong looked at the ore information in his hand while listening to his words, his eyes narrowing slightly.
There was not much document information, and he soon put it aside.
“The Ministry of Industry does have these ores on file, but due to the extremely harsh generation conditions, the domestic output is very low. No, extremely low. And due to their special nature, all output has been taken by various metallurgy laboratories.”
His words were somewhat helpless; not long ago, he had just boasted at Linhai, and now the person had come to the door. Although he did not explicitly ask for this ore, the implication was clear, wasn’t it?
Fan Ren’s eyes lit up, though; he did not need much, just a few kilograms, enough for their newly established metallurgy laboratory to refine for strength testing.
He quickly said: “Is there any surplus? Xinghai will pay heavy money to buy it!”
Li Jiandong was puzzled upon hearing this.
Why wasn’t he messing with good chips, but running to mess with the metallurgy industry?
He rubbed his forehead and could only helplessly say: “General Manager Fan, please don’t mind me being nosy, the metal refined from this ore currently only has somewhat higher strength, very limited. And no other special properties have been found yet. What are you messing with this for?”
He really had a hard time getting this stuff; these ores had little use, and whenever a tiny bit was mined, most of it was directly sent to the nearest local metallurgy laboratory for research.
The Ministry of Industry only kept a few dozen grams as specimens.
Upon hearing this, Fan Ren knew the other party was thinking the same as many people: since Xinghai had already made achievements in the chip field, don’t mess around.
He smiled indifferently and said: “Xinghai is preparing a nuclear fusion laboratory, but as you know, the biggest difficulty restricting controllable nuclear fusion reaction now is the material problem. I personally guess that due to the special factors of its generation environment, if we change the method during the refinement process, we should be able to refine metal beyond expectations.”
Fan Ren did not explain the specific refinement method clearly, just vaguely mentioned it.
But Li Jiandong in front of him was dumbfounded.
What thing was this that he was going to research controllable nuclear fusion reactors?
This technology was not even remotely related to Xinghai, right?
As the chief in charge of national industry, he clearly knew that current nuclear fusion research was an invisible bottomless pit.
Under the condition of substandard materials, the current research direction could only focus on using magnetic confinement fusion as much as possible, utilizing superconducting materials to confine the high-temperature plasma generated during the reaction in an ultra-strong magnetic field, making it move along the magnetic field lines, thereby avoiding direct collision with the container wall.
In short, using ultra-strong magnetic fields to replace high-temperature resistant materials.
This method was feasible, but the equipment complexity and construction cost were too high.
Wait!
He seemed to say the ore refinement method was wrong? Xinghai also had its own metallurgy laboratory, and now it was saying it wanted to conduct controllable nuclear fusion experiments.
Surprise gradually rose on Li Jiandong’s face, and for a moment he did not dare to speak as he looked at Fan Ren.
“That, are you confident?”
Fan Ren did not answer, waiting for Li Jiandong’s response.
Although he knew that controllable nuclear fusion could not enter the market in the future without Great Xia’s official support, before the research and development succeeded, he did not want it to be known by too many people with too much fanfare.
Without Great Xia’s official promotion, this thing would be like Little Japan’s hydrogen energy project, meaningless even if successful.
Li Jiandong’s expression gradually became serious, and he remained silent for a long time.
He knew what Fan Ren meant; with Xinghai Technology’s current technical reputation in the scientific community, once this project leaked, who knows how many people would want a piece of the pie.
The result would be a direct surge in research and development difficulty, and the ultimate purpose would no longer be pure.
As for Xinghai wanting to monopolize the economic benefits brought by successful nuclear fusion.
That was simply impossible!
Energy is also a livelihood issue, very sensitive.
Moreover, if Fan Ren really had such ideas, he would not have come to discuss this issue with him, the Ministry of Industry chief, today.
Did he really think that this ore was only produced in Great Xia on Earth?
