Rebirth of Hong Kong Island, leading the technology war

Chapter 514 The Space Launch Site with No Visible Flaws

Dickinson's expression was somewhat strange, seemingly a mix of anger and helplessness.

Kong Yanbin quickly replied, "Of course, Mr. Dickinson, this is only our preliminary assessment, not the final conclusion."

At this point, Chairod said, "Dr. Kong, in other words, your preliminary investigation has not found any defects in the Tenglong Island space launch site."

"Well... that's how it is, yes, you could say that."

Dickinson said, "Not a single flaw? Don't tell me you didn't find anything except that it was very advanced."

Kong Yanbin sighed: "We have indeed tried very hard to find some problems, but so far, we haven't found anything."

In fact, Kong Yanbin knew very well what kind of content Dickinson liked to hear, such as Tenglong Island being dirty and chaotic, just a big cesspool, and the space launch site being an illusion, just a theme park.

Unfortunately, Kong Yanbin couldn't say that, because Dickinson wasn't the only one listening to the report.

Besides the seven leaders of the stonemasons' guild, relevant departments in the United States also need to see the relevant report, so Kong Yanbin can't just make things up or lie to Dickinson.

What frustrated Kong Yanbin even more was that if they could find some major problems at the Tenglong Island space launch site, that would be fine. Unfortunately, his entire team of more than a dozen people investigated the launch site for several hours, and they were so hungry that they were dizzy, but they found nothing.

Of course, there were some minor issues, but they were insignificant and Kong Yanbin was too embarrassed to mention them.

Kong Yanbin has no choice but to tell the truth now.

At this point, Chai Luode asked, "Dr. Kong, according to your preliminary assessment, does the Tenglong Island Space Launch Site have the capability to launch deep space probes?"

Kong Yanbin hesitated for a moment before replying, "We can only determine at this time that this space launch site can indeed launch medium-sized rockets, but whether it can send a probe to lunar orbit is still uncertain."

"Oh, your conclusions are very useful. It seems we should indeed proceed with our plans to discuss cooperation with Tenglong Island."

Zakbarke's expression changed: "Mr. Chalod, but if we can't be sure that we can send the probe into lunar orbit, the risk will be huge, and we could very well lose everything."

Chalode glanced at Zakharbuque: "Mr. Zakharbuque, I've always believed that a space launch can never be 100% successful, is that right?"

Zakhar Burke was taken aback for a moment before replying, "Well... there's no guarantee of success, but I think we should have more reliable options."

Chairod said, "Have you forgotten why we made contact with Tenglong Island in the first place?"

Zachary Burke snapped out of his daze and quickly said, "No, Mr. Chalod, I haven't forgotten. You're right, we should continue negotiating with Tenglong Island."

Gus felt a surge of satisfaction seeing Zachary Burke's embarrassing moment; the guy still seemed a bit confused about the situation.

The reason for discussing probe launches with Tenglong Island in the first place was to gain a deeper understanding of the technical capabilities and technological level of the Tenglong Island space launch site. Whether or not the lunar orbiter could be successfully launched was actually secondary.

In other words, MetaTech's lunar orbiter is actually just bait, not something they're unwilling to lose.

Now that Kong Yanbin's preliminary investigation has shown that the Tenglong Island space launch site is indeed very advanced, we need to continue the talks and eventually reach a cooperation agreement in order to gain a deeper understanding of the other party's complete technical capabilities.

Zakabak behaved himself this time; it was no use in him feeling sorry for the detector.

Then, Kong Yanbin gave some more details and sent some photos and videos to increase credibility.

Chalode said, "Very good, Dr. Kong, then you can continue to talk with Tenglong Island and make our conditions clear."

Kong Yanbin asked, "What if the other party doesn't agree?"

Dickinson said sullenly, "If you don't agree, then there's no point in talking."

Kong Yanbin agreed.

The video conference has ended.

Kong Yanbin breathed a sigh of relief. Dickinson's gaze just now was quite terrifying, like that of a venomous snake.

Fortunately, the report was eventually completed without any major mishaps.

The next step is to negotiate with Tenglong Island.

The main conversation was with Hu Jiangshan, who seemed to be the person in charge of the Tenglong Island space launch site.

Kong Yanbin recalled the scene of investigating the Tenglong Island space launch site.

Their team of more than a dozen people, almost all of whom were professional technicians, went to see the rocket maintenance and assembly warehouse after inspecting the rocket launch pad.

Kong Yanbin had a well-thought-out plan. He believed that he could find a weakness in the Tenglong Island space launch site in the rocket maintenance and assembly depot, because such facilities have the highest level of technology.

Rocket maintenance, assembly, and testing require extremely advanced equipment and factory environments. Most small and medium-sized rocket launch sites do not even have rocket maintenance and assembly facilities; they only focus on rocket launches.

Even if it exists, it would be extremely rudimentary and lack many functions.

Kong Yanbin believes that the Tenglong Island space launch site is in the same situation. The facilities do exist, but they are just for show, only capable of storage and simple testing.

However, to his surprise, Kong Yanbin was stunned as soon as he entered the facility.

The environment inside is impressive enough; there's even a rocket inside, which looks like a medium-sized rocket, connected to various testing and debugging equipment.

It was the first month of the lunar calendar, and there were still staff members working inside, conducting data tests on the rocket.

Looking at the testing equipment, Kong Yanbin realized he might have been wrong. The place was much more advanced than he had imagined, and some of the equipment even surpassed his expectations, being more powerful than the equipment at MIT's aerospace laboratory.

Kong Yanbin instructed his team members to split up and record the various instruments, equipment, and functions.

Hu Jiangshan was just watching from the side, not worried at all about any problems, which made Kong Yanbin feel even more strange.

Hu Jiangshan is far too confident! Isn't he afraid of leaking secrets?

Next, Kong Yanbin's team entered the main exploration room of the launch site. Hu Jiangshan still had that indifferent attitude, allowing them to look at any instruments and equipment at will, and even some of the equipment that was turned off could be powered on and checked.

After thinking about it carefully, Kong Yanbin realized it made sense.

Hu Jiangshan is probably the boss, not a technician, so he naturally isn't worried about leaks.

In conclusion, after a thorough investigation and examining almost all the instruments and equipment, I was surprised to find that there was nothing rudimentary or outdated about it.

Kong Yanbin just told Dickinson and the others that this was the preliminary investigation result, which was actually a euphemism. Kong Yanbin knew very well that even if they investigated many more times, it would be difficult to find any major flaws.

Next, we need to discuss cooperation with Hu Jiangshan.

Kong Yanbin will make some demands, some of which are quite excessive. For example, he wants to send people to participate in the launch and even operate the instruments and equipment. Even if Hu Jiangshan doesn't understand these things, he probably won't agree to them.

Moreover, Hu Jiangshan is not stupid. When discussing cooperation, he will definitely call the technical director over. The technical director will definitely tell him that outsiders should not be allowed to operate the key equipment, otherwise serious data leakage may occur.

Thinking about this, Kong Yanbin felt relieved.

Frankly speaking, Kong Yanbin would not want a deep space probe from the United States to be launched from a Chinese space launch site, especially a privately owned one. That would be too undignified.

Even if this space launch site is very advanced, Kong Yanbin does not acknowledge that China's space technology has anything commendable.

Equipment can be bought, but people's skills and knowledge cannot be improved in a short period of time. The next day, Central, Hong Kong Island.

A Mercedes-Benz was driving on the road. Besides the driver, there were three people in the car: two women and one man.

The two girls were very young, both in their teens or under twenty, and both were very beautiful.

One of them was a European or American girl.

One of the girls is Hu Mingqian, the daughter of Hu Jiangshan's uncle Hu Pingyang, and the other is Hu Mingqian's classmate at Tyland International School, named Eva Polk.

The boy was also a foreigner named Ul Gibson, and he was Hu Mingqian and Eva's classmate.

As mentioned earlier, when Hu Jiangshan visited Tailande, Hu Pingyang's family took good care of him, providing him with a villa to stay in and a car to drive. Hu Jiangshan also helped Hu Pingyang solve supply chain problems, so their relationship improved from being cold to being friendly.

Hu Jiangshan and Eva had met once before, but they didn't talk much. At that time, Eva said that she wanted to come to Hong Kong Island with Hu Mingqian to experience the feeling of Chinese New Year.

And sure enough, Eva has arrived.

Gibson, on the other hand, was a sycophant who had his eye on Eva, so he also clamored to come.

Gibson also has relatives on Hong Kong Island, so it's quite convenient for him to come over. However, he spends all his time with Eva and Hu Mingqian, which makes Hu Mingqian quite speechless.

There was no other way; they were guests from afar and also classmates, so we had to entertain them.

Gibson said, "Hong Kong Island is really small, and the streets are narrow."

Hu Mingqian rolled her eyes, thinking to herself, if you don't like Hong Kong, then don't come.

Gibson added, "But I've heard that Hong Kong Island is the most developed place in China, much better than other parts of China. Other places are very poor, they don't even have pants."

Eva said, "Gibson, don't say that. That was in the past. I hear that China is doing very well now."

Hu Mingqian coughed lightly: "Yes, China's big cities are very open. You'll see when you have time."

Gibson said, "Hu, haven't we arrived at our destination yet?"

Hu Mingqian replied, "We're almost there. Taihe Building should be right ahead. Yes, that's it, do you see it?"

There is a building in front of us, and the words "Taihe Building" are indeed written on it.

Gibson doesn't know Chinese characters, but Eva does.

Hu Mingqian was going to take Eva and Gibson to Taihe Building to visit Hu Jiangshan's company.

Coincidentally, a relative of Gibson's also owned a company in the Taihe Building, which gave Gibson a good reason to come along.

Soon, the Mercedes-Benz arrived at the entrance of Taihe Building.

Hu Mingqian, Eva, and Gibson got out of the car and walked into the building.

Hu Mingqian was about to call Hu Jiangshan to ask him to come down and meet her, but Gibson stopped her.

Gibson said, "Let's go check out my relative's company first."

Hu Mingqian and Eva remained noncommittal. Since they were already there, they figured they might as well take a look.

Gibson had previously boasted to his relatives about how large and wealthy their trading company was in Hong Kong.

On the other hand, Hong Kong Island has always been a place where land is extremely valuable, so companies that can afford to rent office space in this building must be considered very wealthy.

The three young men took the elevator to the thirtieth floor, where Gibson's relative's company, Wilson Trading Company, was located.

Soon, Gibson's relative appeared. His name was Euan Mills, a foreigner in his thirties, of medium build, and looked strong, suggesting he worked out regularly.

Mills was very enthusiastic. He hugged Gibson first, and then greeted Hu Mingqian and Eva.

Surprisingly, Mills spoke a string of Mandarin to Hu Mingqian as soon as they met, quite fluently, though with a slight accent.

It turns out that Mills has been in China for seven or eight years, spending a considerable amount of time in both mainland China and Hong Kong, so naturally he can speak Mandarin.

Mills gave the three a tour of his company.

To be honest, although it's a trading company and theoretically doesn't need many people, the office is quite well-organized and not small at all, probably around 200 square meters.

You should know that renting a 200-square-meter office in the heart of Hong Kong Island can be incredibly expensive.

The fact that Mills could do this is enough to show that the company has indeed made money, and quite a lot of money at that.

The three of them were drinking coffee in the company, listening to Mills talk about the interesting things that happened to him there.

This guy is really talkative, just like Gibson.

Mills said, "I'm a Chinese expert now. There's nothing I don't know about this place. When it comes to doing business, I'm better than any of the locals."

Gibson was quite pleased with himself after hearing this, and he looked at Hu Mingqian and Eva with a look that was clearly showing off.

Mills has every reason to be proud of his achievements at such a young age.

At this point, Gibson said, "By the way, Hu's older brother also runs a company in this building, on the thirty-fifth floor."

Mills looked puzzled: "Thirty-fifth floor? There should be several companies there. Which one is it?"

Hu Mingqian shook her head: "I don't know yet, I'll have to call and ask later."

Mills said, "No need to call, I'll take you upstairs and we can see how the neighbor's company is doing."

Gibson said, "It's definitely not as cool as the company you run."

Mills chuckled: "Of course. I'm not bragging, but apart from those big corporations, there aren't many companies whose entire building can rival the grandeur of my office."

With that, Mills led the three of them up in the elevator, and in the blink of an eye they arrived at the thirty-fifth floor.

Mills said, "Okay, let's guess which company it is."

Gibson pointed to a small company next door and said, "I think it should be this one."

Hu Mingqian shook her head: "It shouldn't be."

Just then, Eva pointed to a company across the street and said, "Qian, could it be that one?"

Hu Mingqian looked ahead and saw the words "Jiangshan Group" written on the logo at the company entrance.

Hu Mingqian's eyes lit up: "Jiangshan Group, that's right, that's the one!"

(End of this chapter)