[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-technology-invades-the-modern-world":3,"chapter-technology-invades-the-modern-world-technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-10":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Technology Invades the Modern World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2269494,4430,"Chapter 10: Impossible","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-10",10,"\u003Cp>Time is short, the mission is heavy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The biggest problem now is that he still doesn’t know the time flow rate of 1960.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is, if twenty-four hours pass in 2020, how much time corresponds in 1960.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Twelve hours have already passed; in Lin Ran’s mind, he must quickly obtain the Fabian Society badge and return to 1960.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 2020, he’s just an insignificant nobody; no one would notice if he vanished for any length of time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in 1960, he has Haines, a NASA engineer, right beside him—someone with minor fame within NASA.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After returning to 2020 and reviewing NASA’s official public records, Lin Ran learned that Haines was in fact a core member of NASA’s series of space programs in the 1960s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If time permitted, forging a Fabian Society badge might also be a viable option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the biggest flaw now is that time doesn’t allow it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, there are some issues—he knows what the badge looks like, but doesn’t know if it has any anti-counterfeiting features.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it does have anti-counterfeiting features and someone spots it as a fake, new troubles will arise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, from every perspective, obtaining the Fabian Society badge from Li Xiaoman’s family heirloom is the best solution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Xiaoman, I have a way to earn a huge amount of dollars in a short time, but this plan requires your cooperation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last night, the two drove for four straight hours to return to America, meaning they arrived home at four a.m. after traveling under the stars; now only an hour and a half has passed, and Li Xiaoman had just fallen asleep when Lin Ran knocked on her door and called her to the third-floor common area.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman’s anger was at its peak. She wasn’t like Lin Ran, who had just undergone transformation and could stay mentally sharp for three days and nights without sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how calm she usually was, or how ambiguous her relationship with Lin Ran, being dragged around like this was simply unbearable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Randolph, what the hell are you doing!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Even the biggest money-making plan—I just want to sleep right now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran said: “If this plan succeeds, we can earn one hundred million dollars—or more.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman instantly snapped awake. Clearly, money was the most direct stimulant for the brain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially when Lin Ran mentioned one hundred million dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That wasn’t a small sum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Li Xiaoman’s family background was indeed prestigious, she herself had no money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After her parents died, she lived with her uncle and aunt in the ancestral home left by her grandfather; she occupied the third floor, while the rest was occupied by her uncle and aunt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had no idea how much property her parents had left her, and she suspected that even if there was any, her uncle and aunt wouldn’t give her a cent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, although the house was nominally half hers, her uncle and aunt had no intention of granting her any ownership at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, doctoral students in STEM fields might still receive scholarships, but she was pursuing a law doctorate—no scholarships at all, and tuition was terrifyingly high, tens of thousands of dollars per year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s only for public universities; if she attended Columbia University, the cost would triple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, given her family background, she would have definitely gone to Columbia University—the hub of the Frankfurt School—to pursue her doctorate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides working part-time and taking out loans, Li Xiaoman rented out her house just to barely make ends meet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, when she became a lawyer and wanted to intern at a top law firm, she’d even have to pay them money herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, the lure of money was undeniably immense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman asked first: “You’re not joking with me, are you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran shook his head: “I never joke about things like this. Besides, why would I joke with you at six a.m., right after you went through all the trouble of bringing me back?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman said: “Give me two minutes—I’ll come to your room to talk.” She didn’t want her uncle and aunt to overhear this big deal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two minutes later, Lin Ran met Li Xiaoman in his room—her face still damp, clearly having washed up to regain clarity; now she was fully alert, back in elite mode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Look, last March, the White House announced at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council that America would return to the Moon before 2024—four years earlier than NASA’s original schedule.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And this document is NASA’s 2020 annual budget, approved on April 2, which includes rockets, the Orion spacecraft, the Lunar Gateway, and commercial lunar landers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The commercial lunar lander program will begin risk verification this year, and subsequent bidding will adopt a multi-phase contracting approach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Multi-phase contracting: the NextSTEP model, where NASA provides technical guidance while private companies handle commercial development.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>NASA first used this model to support two commercial space firms, one of which was SpaceX.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman already regretted coming. She looked at Lin Ran like he was an idiot: “You’re not seriously telling me you want to bid for NASA’s multi-phase contracting, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just the two of us?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know your undergraduate thesis project was Apollo lunar landing—you think you actually participated in Apollo.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman thought this was even more absurd than teasing her—it was beyond absurd, more ridiculous than any Hollywood blockbuster she’d ever seen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran explained: “There are differences from what you imagine, but what I plan to do might be even more outrageous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>NASA is using a bidding process for commercial lunar landers; the winner will almost certainly be Musk’s SpaceX.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But clearly, whether from public information or the terrible personal relationship between Bezos and Musk, Blue Origin intends to claim a share of this pie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I can help Blue Origin win this project, how much would they pay me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman was speechless: “Your premise is built on impossibility.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But how, exactly, are you going to help Blue Origin secure a NASA contract?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Are you the director of NASA or the head of the White House National Space Council?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran thought: If I had saved Kennedy in 1963, I might truly have become director of NASA.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran said: “What if I can help Blue Origin return to the Moon ahead of schedule?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman stood up to leave: “Randolph, you’re truly ill. You need rest. Today I’ve heard a joke even more absurd than a joke.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman practiced her Chinese by insisting Lin Ran speak Chinese with her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One called the other “Xiaoman-jie,” the other called him “Randolph”—when Chinese international students from New York State University heard them, they found it strange.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran quickly grabbed Li Xiaoman’s hand: “Xiaoman, I know you think this is unbelievable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this is exactly what I’m about to do.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>America successfully landed on the Moon in 1969 and completed six lunar missions afterward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet now it cannot land again—even though all the historical technical materials still exist. During my stargazing trip to Cherry Spring, I figured out a core technical problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once this technical problem is solved, retrieving the historical data makes it entirely possible to achieve a lunar landing using Apollo-era technology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We need to make Blue Origin believe we can do it, use Bezos’s resources to carry out this plan, and get paid by Blue Origin.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1221,"2026-06-19T21:37:46.551Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","fce55bf7b13c7eea819c12cb8d6346307ba9016268a7fac7638fb1feaf691d8a","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-11","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-9",162,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ftechnology-invades-the-modern-world-cover.jpg"]