Chapter 113: A Mysterious Phonecall

To alter the ecosystem of an entire planet was no child’s play. There were three essential things: Energy, manpower, and resource.

Energy was not an issue. Chen Jin had his hands on the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens’, four 500 MW nuclear fission reactors, and several windpower generation facilities. In addition, there were countless salvagable wind, water, fire, and solar power generators scattered throughout the planet. Considering all of those generators as options as well, the energy supply was endless.

Manpower was not a problem, either, as robots could simply be created on demand. Even making tens of millions of them would be a piece of cake.

The only problem that could be identified was the insufficient amount of resources. The resources that could be collected were finite, especially the non-renewable ones like oil, plastic, rubber, rare minerals, and so on. The resources were all depleted by the survivors of the 20-year nuclear winter, and it was now nearly impossible to gather new resources on the planet. There were still some mineral resources on land, for example, petrol, natural gas, and iron ore. However, they were all of low quality and grade. Moreover, they were difficult to mine and the cost to process them was too hefty, therefore mining for them yielded mediocre value. Only beneath the ocean floors could minerals and ores be found in abundance. In Antarctica, there were still mines that had yet to be depleted.

Nuwa said, “Master, we can repair some of the deep-sea mining equipment to push mining efforts towards the ocean floor; by deploying a batch of mining robots to Antarctica, we can tackle the problems surrounding the resource issue. If we are not afraid of the hassle, there are also plenty of mineral resources on the Moon and the planet Mars. But mining and transporting them here will require a lot of time and a considerable amount of money.”

Alice replied, “Instead of mining on Mars, we should consider the alternative to use the Super Driller to mine directly from Haierfa’s mantle or use the ion filtering method to extract the reactive metals such as sodium, potassium, lithium, and uranium from seawater. The only problem is that both methods will cause enormous energy consumption.”

As a matter of fact, unlimited energy meant unlimited resources. With ample energy, there was a myriad of ways to obtain resources. “In that case, first we begin on land, then the ocean floor, then resort to the ion filtering method, then the Super Driller, and at last the Moon and Mars. Problem solved.” Chen Jin’s train of thought was clear. His suggestion was to begin with the method that had the least cost! If there were to be hindrances, only then would the more costly methods be considered.

Other than that, should some biological resources such as the gum tree seeds (used in rubber extraction) and drought-tolerant plant and crop seeds be insufficient there on Haierfa, Chen Jin could import them from Earth to hasten Haierfa’s refoliation process. In short, Chen Jin was free to use the resources of two planets and definitely did not need to worry about not being able to complete Haierfa’s restoration.

Hence, Chen Jin tasked both artificial intelligence Alice and Nuwa to each come out with a proposal on the plans for environmental restoration and ultimately use the one that was more feasible.

“Yes master.”

“Received, master.”

The two AI spoke together at the same time.

…

At Shang Fei Corporation, Chen Gang had finished his day at work. He stripped off his work uniform, slipped on a short sleeve coat, took his car keys, and headed towards the parking lot. Many people greeted him along his way.

“Going back already Mr. Chen?”

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“Mr. Chen, your son’s factory is also in this area, why don’t you go work for your son? Wouldn’t it be better to be a factory manager there?”

“Chen, my son graduated last month. He is having some trouble getting a job. Can you help introduce my son to work at your son’s company?”

“Chen, what a fine son you raised. He’s way better than that brat of mine.”

Lately, Chen Gang had been hearing similar words, some complimenting him, some wanting to get close to him, and some asking him to arrange jobs for them. All of a sudden, he had become the hot topic in Shang Fei corporation. Even Shang Fei corporation’s big boss, Mr. He Jin Long, personally summoned him to his office and talked about parenting for one whole afternoon. Mr. He wanted to learn his way of parenting. Chen Gang felt extremely flattered and came out with a bunch of parenting techniques that seemingly made sense. Mr. He sighed and said, “If my son were to have even 10% of your son’s accomplishments, my heart will be at ease!”

Chen Gang gave him a bitter smile. That brat of mine, who knows how he became so successful? Even I am completely baffled!

But being consistently poured with praise and compliments, Chen Gang looked ever-so-joyful and vibrant. He even felt lighter when he walked. He was very pleased. Very delighted. Now, if someone bragged about their children in front of him, he did not have to worry about how to create stories to deceive them. Instead, he had to worry about his own wording, because what he said might hurt their fragile pride and feelings.

On parenting, Chen Gang took no part in disciplining his son since his birth. It was all his wife. What he said about parenting was completely irrelevant. His son’s achievements had nothing to do with his past actions, and that was exactly what he was baffled about. “Is she actually doing the right thing? Is it better to let kids follow their instincts than to raise them with strict discipline?” Alright, she might be correct in his case. But if her way of raising kids was to be regarded as ‘the successful way’ and became widespread, somebody will kill me someday, right? For that very reason, when others sought his advice on parenting, aside from general methods, he tended to speak less so that he did not end up giving the wrong advice.

He walked towards his Passat and was about to open the door when suddenly his phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, and after looking at the number, his expression meagerly changed. Holding his phone, he walked towards a secluded corner. He looked around sneakily. After he reassured himself that nobody was around, he answered the call. With a low tone, he said, “Hey! Didn’t I tell you before? Don’t call me if there’s nothing.”

“Do you think I really wanted to call you? Isn’t it all for our Ke Xin? Hang up if you really don’t want to pick up my call.” From the other end, someone’s voice could be heard. It was filled with anger, resentment, and a grudge, but at the same time, it sounded so crisp and pleasant. It was the voice of a mysterious woman.

He became frustrated. He facepalmed and said solemnly, “What do you mean by our Ke Xin? Stop making jokes like that! There’s really nothing funny about it.”

The mysterious woman muttered, “Aren’t our names the ones written on her birth certificate?”

“Just get straight to the point!”

After sensing that Chen Gang was really getting mad, the mysterious woman stopped fooling around and expressed her motive. “I really didn’t want to call you, but you know, Ke Xin is about to graduate this year and she can’t quite find the right job…”

“Is it even hard for girls to find a job nowadays? What is there to worry about with those qualifications of hers? There’s no need for me in this matter.”

“Yes, there are plenty of jobs out there. She got offers by five or six companies she interviewed for, but I refuse to let her work at those places. I want my daughter to work for the government or at the very least in some state-owned enterprise! My daughter doesn’t want to be a civil servant and you on the other hand work in a state-owned company, so could you help in getting my daughter into your department…” The mysterious woman’s intention was to get her daughter into the best department in a state-owned company with good welfare so that she would live a stable life and not need to worry when she grew old. All private sector companies were not within her consideration.

“About that…” Chen Gang felt conflicted. It was not that easy to get someone in. He was merely the deputy chief engineer of a subsystem of Shang Fei’s ‘Big Plane’ project. Shang Fei corporation was an upright company unlike those enterprises in the north-east region. Shang Fei’s competitiveness was bolstered through effective talent recruitments and conceiving positive competition among them. Previously, when he had tried to get Chen Jin into the company, Chen Jin had to go through a series of training, a skills test, and a theoretical test, and even after passing all of those tests, Chen Gang still had to pull some strings before Chen Jin managed to get himself employed by the company. It was no easy task.

He was not able to respond to the mysterious woman’s plea at that moment.