Chapter 503 - 494: Unspeakable_1

Capital.

Lin Ju, Academician She, Wu Yi, and a few other board members sat together, glaring at the representatives from Huaxia Nuclear and Luo Luo.

To be honest, the situation had evolved in a way that none of them had predicted, and it significantly differed from what they had imagined.

On the 14th, United Mining started the official process, with Lin Ju personally drafting a report stating that mining on the Moon was too difficult and that they needed about fifteen to twenty super-large yield hydrogen bombs, thus applying for the relevant qualifications and procedures.

After the report was filed within United Mining’s corporate system, it was printed and taken upstairs for discussion by the executive committee that same evening.

The executive committee approved it, and the next day, the expanded meeting approved it as well; the report passed.

The reason for the expedited approval wasn’t because everyone was casually acquiescent, but because they thought the task was unlikely to be achieved. Merely approving a qualification wouldn’t matter much since it was foreseeable that for a long time to come, the country would not agree to provide hydrogen bombs. At most, it would provoke some public opinion.

The higher-ups were roughly aware of the developmental process of the Yushu Base; the preparatory work before detonating hydrogen bombs was by no means minor. It would take no less than a year, so the plan was to first release news and then slowly grind out opportunities.

The initial plan was to toss the order to Russia; the Russian economy was so poor that they wouldn’t miss this chance to replenish their coffers. And they were not afraid of sanctions either.

Therefore, though Huaxia Nuclear’s representative appeared for the bid after the press conference, the actual outcome would be the same without other parties joining—the affair would fizzle out, merely for show.

Indeed, the early developments were as initially anticipated; the stir caused was not insignificant, but no responses were forthcoming. Even the reaction from Russia was lukewarm; they made a terse inquiry via a hot line and hastened to conclude the call.

Two days went by, and on the 18th, United Mining’s official email inbox suddenly received an email from Luo Luo’s company stating their capability to provide hydrogen bombs that met the requirements. However, they currently had no physical stock and had already authorized an embassy ambassador, a military attache, and a specialist who had taken off from London to form a negotiating team for discussions.

Prior to receiving this email, there had been no official negotiations or note, just an ordinary email from a company bidding. If it weren’t for the AI marking it as important, the email might have been overlooked.

Since the press conference, United Mining’s inbox had been flooded with countless emails, 99.999% of which were pranks. Bored netizens from around the world claimed their "companies" had hydrogen bombs, causing the backend to crash within just half a day.

In the end, it was Lin Ju who advised that United Mining’s inbox be temporarily managed by the base AI. All non-corporate emails were filtered out, with a few rules set to clear out the backend. But this also resulted in the backend going from crowded to completely empty.

The employee in charge of monitoring the inbox spent half a day confirming that the information was genuine, not someone’s prank, before hastily reporting it upstream.

This surprised the directors, who had calmed down and were starting to feel disappointed. No one had expected the UK to step forward first—it was completely unexpected.

Even more bizarre was that on the 20th, the day after Luo Luo’s representatives flew in from their home country and had a night’s rest, they showed up at the door. Consequently, United Mining and Huaxia Nuclear could only hurry to conduct the first round of talks.

The negotiating team from Huaxia Nuclear... the UK ambassador Huen Conna sitting beside them carefully scrutinized an old man and then was taken aback.

"Conna, what did you see?"

Luo Luo’s chief negotiator Stevenson asked in confusion, then listened as Conna whispered,

"That’s one of their top experts from the Nuclear Science Institute. He was also present at the press conference the other day."

Stevenson: "The Nuclear Science Institute? That means they’re taking this very seriously, really planning on approving the hydrogen bombs."

Conna nodded gravely, not knowing that the other party had simply come unprepared and could only pull in the Nuclear Science Institute for the count, having no plan at all.

As the atmosphere grew increasingly awkward, Wu Yi had no choice but to stiffly kick off the meeting:

"Stevenson, Mr. Yu Min, first I must declare that the final bid proposal will be determined according to the geological environment of the mining site we collect. Therefore, no matter whether you win the bid in the end, you must sign a confidentiality agreement. Breaching this and leaking information will result in a heavy penalty and other restrictions. Do you agree to this?"

Luo Luo interpreter (Academician Yu): "We have no objections."

Academician Yu sat there gently caressing his pen, having become the senior executive of Huaxia Nuclear the previous night, with full rights to negotiate. He was slowly writing an environmental simulation scheme, planning to later test it on a supercomputer.

In fact, someone else had initially been arranged for this, but the elderly Academician Yu found this plan very intriguing and stepped forward. He believed this was something he could see implemented before his death and decided to make it the last thing he accomplished.

Subsequently, representatives from both sides signed the confidentiality agreement and then received United Mining’s preliminary detonation plan and relevant geological data.

The space expert from the Royal Academy of Sciences beside Stevenson found the precious data on the Moon’s deep layers extremely valuable, while Stevenson himself began reviewing United Mining’s blasting plan. A few minutes later, he put it down, shaking his head slightly.