Chapter 761 - 732: South Heaven Gate

On September 11, Musk arrived in Modu City, once again to negotiate for the construction of a Tesla factory.

After much effort, there had been some results in previous attempts, but due to several bills introduced by John, Tesla had no choice but to abandon the plan, moving the idea of the Modu Super Factory to be implemented in America.

However, this shift did not go smoothly, John’s Federation could provide subsidies, but it couldn’t provide the high construction efficiency Musk required, and even after so much time had passed, progress was slow.

Upon hearing the "rumor," Musk took immediate action, hoping to confirm this "rumor" from the attitudes of the Chinese people.

On the 11th, 12th, and 13th, Musk roamed around Modu City three times and got the answer he wanted.

...

"Musk wants to see me?"

Lin Ju looked at the foreign affairs staff member who had come to notify him somewhat surprised but, after thinking about it, he replied,

"All right, but I’m only free the day after tomorrow. I have to return to New Yuan soon."

The notifying staff member nodded, then friendly reminded him,

"Mr. Elon mentioned he sent you a Direct Message on Twitter, but you didn’t respond."

"..."

Of course, Lin Ju was unaware of this; he generally didn’t check social media backends, as opening them meant an endless bombardment of messages.

"Elon doesn’t have much time, he’s flying back to America tomorrow night, going to the Capital tonight, so he should be coming over tomorrow morning."

"No problem... Can I ask about Tesla?"

"Of course, it’s no secret. Negotiations in Modu City are settled, Tesla’s Super Factory will go into production within 2019, I reckon Tesla’s stock has already started to rise, just not sure by how much."

The staff member’s attitude was very objective, but Lin Ju’s heart was already stirred.

The inevitable had come, the secret agreement between the two countries allowed the Modu Super Factory to successfully land, and in the original timeline, it was this very event that caused Tesla’s stock price to surge, elevating Ma to the position of the world’s richest man.

However, this time it might not be possible, apart from Xin’an’s early influence intensifying the domestic energy revolution, Musk’s bid for the richest man position had a major obstacle: the current richest man, Bezos.

Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Bezos, became the world’s richest man starting from 2018 in the original timeline, maintained it even after a costly divorce from his wife in 2019, until he was surpassed by Ma.

Now, Bezos was different. Blue Origin, backed by the Artemis program, took the spotlight in the Moon project. The once unreliable Blue Origin was on the path to legitimacy through the lander project and had become the third largest aerospace company behind Boeing and SpaceX.

Their BE-4 engines had also begun to stabilize, and the "New Glenn" rocket was ready for launch next year, which will be the largest reusable rocket after Starship.

However, Musk was not lagging behind; SpaceX too had grown rapidly with the support of NACA, and he might still end up buying Twitter in the end.

Lin Ju: "Did he say what he wants to see me for?"

"It seems to be about space and intelligent automobiles."

The staff member uttered an obvious statement.

...

"Lin!"

Musk firmly shook Lin Ju’s hand, clearly delighted to see him at the airport.

The two embraced like friends, although Musk was actually 21 years older than Lin Ju, the two together had no sense of incongruity, as if they were contemporaries.

Musk was touched that Lin Ju had personally come to pick him up and immediately offered to share a car with him.

However, Lin Ju’s reply took him by surprise:

"No, we are not taking a plane, we’re taking that."

Musk followed the direction of his pointing hand and saw a C810 making ready for takeoff.

"From here to New Yuan, it only takes 30 minutes, faster than going to the guest house in the Capital."

Lin Ju’s intentions were clear, willing to take him on a tour of the New Far Base, and Musk was immediately excited, then he noticed the emotionless faces of the accompanying diplomatic staff and asked in a subdued voice:

"They don’t seem very keen on this."

"This is already a compromise on my part. I originally hoped to take you on an Aero-Space Plane; the Tiangong Space Station has a large cabin that can be used for business receptions."

The two communicated in English, and in actual conversation, foreigners like to use abbreviations and simple vocabulary combinations, with hardly a sentence conforming to grammar, making the translation easy as long as it doesn’t involve professional vocabulary.

When Musk heard "Space plane" and "Tiangong," he was a bit slow to react, and it took quite a while before he realized and asked in return:

"Is it easy to go to space with the Aero-Space Plane?"

Up to now, three of the Cloud Ascend series Aero-Space Planes had been in service, with the remaining three progressing rapidly, but there wasn’t much specific information known to the public.

NACA and the American Air Force were skeptical of the publicity, offering little information and vague narratives, completely reports by outsiders with unclear details like maintenance costs and timing.

In Musk’s mind, the newly introduced Aero-Space Planes would also be extremely expensive and complex, even more delicate than the Space Shuttles, revealed to be efficient only under the crazy spending of the Chinese space program.

Yet, from Lin Ju’s behavior, it didn’t seem to be the case.

"Hahaha... Elon, if I want to go to space right now, from ground crew preparations to its flight to the sky, it only takes three hours. Half of that time is due to fueling up. Overall, it’s about as much work and maintenance as a Boeing 747.

I was serious just now; New Yuan isn’t just moving industrial and research centers to space but is also considering transferring its management center. It’s a very ambitious plan."