Chapter 976 - Standards

jin university, mathematics department building.the phone was ringing, and academician wang was the one calling.the second the phone was connected, a hearty voice came through the phone.

“old lu, those guys you brought aren’t the best!”

when lu zhou heard “old lu”, he nearly spat out the water in his mouth.

lu zhou snorted and felt his eyes tearing up. he coughed for a while before saying, “can you not call me old? i’m at least a generation younger than you!”

even though i’m approaching my thirties, i’m still in my twenties! i look older than i am, but still...

this is ridiculous!

“hahaha!” academician wang zengguang smiled and said, “you’re the one asking me for help, i came here all the way from beijing. what, i can’t give you a nickname?”

lu zhou: “...”

lu zhou was speechless.

most people would never be able to ask this nuclear industry legend for help. regardless of what nickname he was calling him, academician wang was still doing lu zhou a favor.

seeing how lu zhou wasn’t responding, academician wang zengguang smiled and spoke.

“i took a look at your charging project. the technology and designs are a mess, but it is interesting. i am a little confused, why are you connecting wireless charging technology with lithium-air batteries? i think there’s no reason to connect these two together since they work fine independently.”

lu zhou: “actually... i’m not sure. i’m just a scholar, i don’t understand a lot of things outside of academia. but my ceo told me about it and i thought it was interesting, so i asked you for help.”

academician wang zengguang said, “oh? what did your ceo say?”

lu zhou smiled.

“to be the one that sets the standards!”

even though lithium-air batteries had nothing to do with wireless charging, if star sky technology had control of both of these technologies, they could combine the technologies together and require both of them to be used at the same time.

hence, other companies would have two options, either pay a high price for refusing to follow the standards or compromise with star sky technology and cater to their established rules.

this might not be beneficial in the short term, but when star sky technology became the standard for the entire electric vehicle industry...

even if there were companies that wanted to go against the tide, it would be too late to do so.

by that time, they would have to face the pressure from star sky technology’s patents...

the other end of the phone went silent.

suddenly, he laughed.

“standards setter? sounds interesting.” academician wang smiled and said, “okay then, i have nothing better to do, i’ll help you! oh yeah, i have high standards. if some of those noob researchers end up quitting, don’t blame me.”

“of course not!” lu zhou smiled and said nonchalantly, “they can quit if they want, they’re all replaceable. as long as one person remains and we train them into an academic leader, it will be worth it.”

after that, they made some small talk and ended the phone call.

just after academician wang hung up the phone, his office door opened. a middle-aged researcher wearing glasses walked in with a document.

“this is the revised plan,” yao hong said as he placed the document on the table. he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and said, “i made them re-do the important parts.”

after taking a glance at the revised plan, academician wang nodded with satisfaction.

“not bad.”

my students are amazing, this plan is much better.

yao hong looked at academician wang and suddenly said, “professor.”

academician wang looked at his student and put down the revised plan.

“what’s wrong?”

yao hong hesitated for a bit before speaking his truest thoughts.

“should we... really help them?

“star sky technology is a private company, and beep beep charging... we’re helping them for free.”

academician wang looked at his student and spoke with a smile.

“so you’re saying we’re abusing the public trust?”

yao hong nodded.

“even though we’re not using state funding and laboratories, but research and development is also part of social resources—”

academician wang interrupted his student and said, “you can’t blindly follow rules, a scholar should be flexible.”

“but—”

“if you think we’re abusing social resources, have you thought about what they have done for society? who created controllable nuclear fusion energy? star sky technology is a private company, but do you see professor lu holding any nuclear fusion patents?”

after listening to his supervisor’s words, yao hong was speechless.

however, he didn’t want to give up, so he added, “but... nuclear fusion technology was the result of everyone’s efforts, so the patent shouldn’t belong to him alone.”

“oh, really now?” academician wang smiled and shook his head. he said, “if he didn’t come back to china and stayed at the max planck society, you don’t think he could’ve created a nuclear fusion reactor in germany? you’re saying that we could’ve solved nuclear fusion alone?”

“but...” yao hong awkwardly said, “he’s chinese, china is his home.”

“yeah, it’s his home.”

academician wang nodded and spoke nostalgically, “this is our home, we all want this place to be better. that’s why he gave up his opportunities and came back here. he traveled with his research team all over the country and didn’t complain one bit. so, do you really think we’re doing him the favor here?”

academician wang stopped talking.

he looked at his student and smiled.

“also, i’m interested in his plans.

“one day, we’ll become the standard setters of the world. we’ll be the kings of electricity. every country will have to act according to our rules.

“hopefully, that day will come soon...”

academician wang reached out and gently patted his student on the shoulder as he spoke in a solemn tone.

“so, stop trying to create enemies!

“we’re on the same team!”