Chapter 197 - 191: Lin’s Chicken Soup_1

On the evening of July 4, Factory Manager Lin, who had been trending at the top of the hot search all day, finally responded. He posted a new Weibo first to apologize for his behavior and then stated that he would do a live broadcast later that evening.

Many netizens speculated that he might personally make a video apology or something, but they didn’t consider it very important.

After all, it wasn’t a big deal. A sports car being impounded due to paperwork issues was at most a gossip news item. It was only because Lin Ju was rarely in the news that the incident had gained so much attention.

At 7 p.m., Lin Ju started the live stream, and in an instant, over one million people flooded in, the traffic so immense that the server prepared by the platform barely managed to handle it.

In front of the camera was Lin Ju, wearing a shirt and casual attire, with a safety helmet on, much like an envisioned future employment image of a civil engineering student from an advertisement.

Lin Ju rolled up his sleeves unhurriedly and then greeted the camera:

"Hello, my friends, guess where I am?"

The comments were a mess, but Lin Ju didn’t play coy. He picked up his smartphone and stepped outside, turning the camera around in a selfie pose.

Zhou Rui’s grandson, Zhou Qingfeng, was just eleven this year, but influenced by his family and his grandfather’s astronaut status, his knowledge of aerospace had already surpassed that of most of his peers.

He and Zhou Rui sat in front of the computer and saw the blinding searchlights in the night, the blue steel structure, and the closed doors of the assembly building.

Zhou Qingfeng’s small legs kicked excitedly, for he recognized where it was:

"The launch site, Qiongzhou Launch Site, right, Grandpa?"

"Yes, hmm... it should be Work Position 2. Last time, I was launched from there and stayed in space for three months, so yes, that should be it."

Zhou Rui was also rare to have a break. Recently, it was the graduation season, and he had to go back to grading those almost unbelievably horrible, ah, not dissertations.

Reading these papers with zero valid information in a sentence and incorrect contents and formatting was a real torture, even worse than memorizing the hefty "H1 Spaceplane General Driving Manual," which was over 600 pages, even in the abridged version.

Breathing in the moist and salty air of Qiongzhou, Lin Ju took a deep breath and felt refreshed. He also saw a neat row of correct answers in the comment section.

Those following Lin Ju were naturally mostly aerospace enthusiasts; they figured out that the massive assembly building had to be in Qiongzhou, overturning their previous speculations.

The apology was over, and now it was time to show off!

Lin Ju, holding his smartphone, walked back into the assembly building. The camera caught glimpses of workers passing by and the enormous white body of the rocket as he rode the elevator up.

With millions of viewers, there were bound to be some who guessed the right answer, especially since Lin Ju’s impending trip to space had always been highly anticipated.

The announcement had been made in March, only four months before July. Even the aerospace forums had "Factory Manager Lin’s Countdown to Space Launch" as a featured thread, with users checking in daily.

As the elevator rose to its highest level, Lin Ju’s legs on the steel walkway trembled slightly. After all, almost 100 meters high, looking down was still a bit frightening.

The live broadcast view shifted, presenting the New Yuan-2 combination body, already equipped with the spacecraft, completely in front of the netizens.

Shot from the high walkway, the rocket and spacecraft at the center were vividly framed against the profound darkness, with the white body of the New Yuan-2 emitting a soft glow, making it appear all the more massive.

Zhou Qingfeng, watching the live broadcast, wished he could stick his head into the screen, his eyes wide as if he were standing in the assembly building alongside Lin Ju.

He also seemed to be at a height of a hundred meters, where the huge rocket was entirely in view from top to bottom, making one’s legs feel weak.

"Grandpa, was this the rocket you first rode in?"

Zhou Rui glanced at the rocket, momentarily lost in thought, then affectionately answered his grandson:

"Yes, the first time I went up, I thought I might never see Qingfeng again. Did you know, the New Yuan-2 had..."

"7 units of 220-ton class full-flow staged combustion liquid oxygen and methane engines, with a liftoff weight of 1270 tons, each engine with a power output of over 14 megawatts, and all seven nearly reaching 100 megawatts—enough for ten thousand families to use electricity during peak times, right?"

Zhou Qingfeng interjected with the answer, as he had heard these details too often, both from his grandfather and online, and knew them by heart.

"Hmm... Alright, alright, your idol Factory Manager Lin is about to speak."

Zhou Rui awkwardly turned Zhou Qingfeng’s head, physically shifting the conversation.

By this time, the camera had steadied its focus on Lin Ju and Guo Shen standing in front, with the side profile of the H1 spacecraft "Unity" in the background.

At that moment, Lin Ju was nearly level with the vertical Unity’s cockpit, the contrast between human and spaceplane underscoring the towering stature of the H1.

"The machine behind me right now is the H1 Spaceplane number two, the ’hero-class’ spacecraft that performed the special rescue mission for Oriental Action.

Up to now, Unity has completed 6 manned flight missions, with a total of 29 people shuttling back and forth, making it our company’s spacecraft with the most manned missions—a veritable ’model worker’."

And beside me is the man who was deeply involved in the design and manufacturing of both the New Yuan-2 rocket and Unity—the Chief Designer and the department head of New Yuan Aeronautics’ Space Propulsion, Guo Shen."

Guo Shen stood before the camera with the presence of a scientist, his shiny bald head suggestive of a surface on which nothing could remain in place.

"As a child, I dreamed of being an astronaut. By the time I grew up, I realized I had already missed that opportunity. So, I studied spacecraft engine technology and, in a way, indirectly fulfilled my dream.

Space exploration is a thrilling pursuit; and as to why it’s thrilling, I think no reasons are needed. When we stand here, with a 1300-ton assembly just behind us, all descriptions seem feeble and powerless."

Lin Ju: "Often, I see people asking online: why don’t they see me enjoying the wealth I’ve accumulated? Why pour innumerable funds into spaceflight, which is hard to expect immediate returns from, and why go to space personally?

I want to say, just as from the day people saw birds they longed to fly, and longed for adventure upon seeing the sea—that’s why, when we look up at the stars, we are always striving to reach them.

Half a century ago, the exploration of space replaced warfare as the stage for the superpowers’ contest for dominance. Everyone remembers Yuri Gagarin, everyone remembers that phrase: ’That’s one small step for me, but one giant leap for mankind.’

Just yesterday, I visited a farm base on the outskirts of New Yuan City. The ancestors of the rice grown there have sustained our ancestors from five thousand years ago. Now, having journeyed through space, these rice seeds have become more disease-resistant and high-yielding, nourishing the people on Earth.

The cosmos is not a mere illusion or a vanity project. Even the vacuum of space is a valuable treasure—far from being empty and desolate, the universe is a treasure trove more precious than Earth with the aid of science and technology.

Humans need the cosmos, the endless resources of the planets to be harnessed. Although it may seem far from us at the moment, it requires that some of us start working towards it now.

New Yuan Aeronautics’ Propulsion will endeavor to send over ten thousand astronauts, engineers, and civilians into space and onto planets within the next ten to fifteen years."

"Also, on July 6th, I will board the Progress spacecraft to reach near-Earth orbit."