Chapter 214 - 208 Xie Liaofu_1

Li Wei: ?!?

"This, this can’t be, I can’t..."

Even with Li Wei’s unflappable nature and his half a century of life experience, he was still so shocked by that brief statement that he started to stutter as he spoke.

It was a Moon landing, a Moon landing!

It didn’t matter which number he was in landing on the Moon, as long as he stood there, it would be a unique, important event that would go down in the annals of space exploration.

Lin Ju: "New Yuan Aeronautics’s intention to land on the Moon isn’t to just plant a flag and claim fame like the Apollo program last century, but to actually develop the Moon and find ways to profitably harness its resources.

This will be a long-term process; astronauts stationed on the Moon might need to work continuously for at least a year, two years, or even longer. Because microgravity and spatial constraints are not limiting factors, physical fitness is not the issue; what’s important is the mindset."

"You mean..." Li Wei fell silent for a second or two, then saw the crucial point:

"In the future, there might be no more than a dozen people on the Moon, 380,000 kilometers from the primitive Earth. Earth will look only as big as a ping-pong ball from there, which poses a severe test to one’s psychological endurance;

So far away that even talking is delayed by three seconds, one must be able to tolerate loneliness."

Lin Ju: "That’s right. Even the most solitary submariners only have missions lasting a few months, but for reasons of economy, Moon astronauts will have to stay for quite a while, and many of them will be professional engineers. These people, they don’t have the mental fortitude of soldiers.

Without professional psychological support personnel, group mentality could become chaotic."

Professional psychological support personnel obviously refers to highly-trained astronauts who, after rigorous selection, are the most capable of enduring solitude, bearing loneliness, and possess the mental strength needed to guide others; prestige is even more beneficial.

And Li Wei was clearly the most suitable candidate. With such a legend in charge of the Moon Base, how could morale not be stable?

It had to be said, Lin Ju’s argument successfully convinced Li Wei that he was indeed very useful, and for a moment he hesitated.

Seeing Li Wei’s resolve weaken, Lin Ju poured fuel on the fire:

"Given New Yuan’s current relationship with the space agency, by that time, the base should be built in cooperation. Your presence would be beneficial for everyone."

Li Wei: "That’s not up to me..."

"As long as you’re willing, I’ll find a way. If it comes to it, I’ll beg the higher-ups. We can’t just watch New Yuan Base personnel’s mentality fall into disarray, right? This would be supporting us."

"Hmm..."

Hu Dong, whose ears were perked and who saw through his boss’s ulterior motives, suppressed the strong impulse to turn his head and inwardly exclaimed at his boss’s boldness.

He was aiming to pull Li Wei into their camp. By bringing over such a figure, New Yuan’s status in the hearts of the Chinese people would be fundamentally transformed.

Silently giving approval.

...

"Xie Liaofu, Xie Liaofu!"

"Here, I’m here!"

On a shabby bus in the street, a Russian lady with an arm capable of running a horse and a waist wider than the seat shouted Xie Liaofu’s name in fluent Northeastern Mandarin.

At the very back of the bus, a young man who was overly pale to be a Caucasian but had Asian features hurriedly responded, retracted his gaze from the window, and walked forward, carrying his sad army green backpack.

As he reached the door, the bus also came to a stop.

The elderly woman patted Xie Liaofu’s shoulder with her hand, as thick and solid as a bear’s paw, and took out a piece of sausage from the bag beside her seat, stuffing it into the hand of the young man dressed in retro style.

"All the Chinese people I know are quite wealthy; their students always spend generously, but you’re different. I admire you, young people willing to travel around the world. I hope Volgograd is your last stop, good luck to you, young man."

"Спасибо, буду иметь в виду," he replied.

The young man did not refuse the woman’s kindness, and indeed he was not doing too well at the moment, so he took the sausage and descended from the No77 bus.

Xie Liaofu, born in Fengtian, China, 23 years old, a graduate in Aerospace Power Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology. During a family trip at graduation, an accident took the lives of all of his family except for himself in a frozen river, thus he gave up his job and traveled the world after graduation.

Of course, the real Xie Liaofu had already perished a week prior, lost in the snow and frozen to death in the wilderness; now living on in his stead was Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov.

Xie Liaofu, penniless and wearing wrinkled clothes, had risen from the icy wilderness and walked to the road, where a kindhearted hunter had transported him to the closest town.

Relying on his fluent Russian, Xie Liaofu managed to earn some money through under-the-table jobs and spent a long time mourning after carefully reading through 60 years of history.

He wanted to visit Kiev but realized it was no longer the familiar homeland he knew, nor was it the important industrial hub of the Union capable of producing rockets, missiles, fighter jets, aircraft carriers, and large aircraft anymore.

With the last of his money, he arrived in Volgograd, preparing to do one last thing for Sergey Korolev.

Volgograd, it was once called Stalingrad.

Here, there used to stand a statue of Joseph Vissarionovich Dzugashvili, but it was removed before his death, replaced with that of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the largest statue in the world commemorating an individual.

That day, at the Ilyich Canal Station bus platform, people noticed a young man with an Eastern face bowing his head solemnly in front of the statue of Ilyich for quite some time.

This was not unusual for them to see, and they had become numb to it, paying no particular attention.

Xie Liaofu did not stay long in Volgograd because, when he arrived, he still had a tourist plane ticket won from a draw, redeemable in Volgograd, with Sichuan as the destination.

That very night, Xie Liaofu, carrying a piece of sausage, landed at Rong Tianfu International Airport as the Progress began its deceleration away from the Tiangong Space Station.

Over an hour later, Xie Liaofu got out of the taxi, looked up at the immense base 100 meters ahead, and raised his hand.

"Stop, what is your business here?"

The casually dressed doorman scrutinized the retro-clad young man exuding an air of poverty, casually inquiring about his purpose as per protocol.

It was obvious he wasn’t an employee of the base, and his purpose was rather suspect.

However, the doorman wasn’t particularly on guard, knowing that if there were any trouble, a swarm of soldiers would emerge from around the base to handle the nuisances.

Xie Liaofu took down his backpack, fished out a stack of A4 paper to look over, and then handed it over.

"My name is Xie Liaofu. Last year, Xinyuan Aeronautics’ recruitments accepted me. Now, I’m here to start work."

The doorman had trouble understanding the recruitment contract, but hearing that the visitor was a recent college graduate, he relaxed and asked casually:

"Which department did you apply to?"

"Hmm... I’m not sure, but it should be the office of the First Vice President."

"The First Vice... What?!"