Chapter 1483 - Cleaning Up Worms

While the entire “Future” editorial department and Academician Zhang, who was the reviewer, were worried about Lu Zhou’s paper, the research and development department of East Asia Energy had similar difficulties because of Academician Lu’s coming to power.

Director Song Yangwei of the Science and Technology Committee of the Board of Directors was dismissed, the senior executives of the entire R&D department had a big change, followed by the reform of the approval mechanism for scientific research funds.

There were rumors that Lu Zhou was reviewing the academic resumes of the senior executives of the entire R&D department and adopted a zero-tolerance attitude towards the uncoordinated project managers. The entire R&D department was panicking.

Of course, not everyone was panicking.

For those who were diligent in scientific research, the series of measures Lu Zhou made after he came to power was still quite desired. For this group of people, they were long sick of those department executives who relied on nepotism and those project leaders who had not published a paper but still received funding.

“The impact of feng shui on the safety of the controllable fusion reactor core... What kind of rubbish research project is this? How dare they!”

A big red cross was drawn on a document. Lu Zhou, who was frowning, reached out his index finger and quickly swept across the holographic screen, switching to the next document without stopping.

After the development of a century, the scale of East Asia Energy had become larger and more bloated.

Behind the huge profitability and scale of the company were exhausted creativity and bureaucratic corporate culture.

Although this big tree was branched out in all areas, it was riddled with holes that had been eaten by worms.

If it hadn’t been for the hard work of people from a century ago, Lu Zhou would sell his stock directly and start over with the money.

However, he did not expect to be pushed to the position of chairman after his angry remarks.

Even though in his opinion, East Asia Energy was dying, it wasn’t hopeless.

Despite the future people letting him down again and again...

Lu Zhou looked at another study titled “Twenty-seven Methods of Coffee Brewing and Their Effects on the Quality of Napping”, Lu Zhou’s eyebrow twitched fiercely again.

“This is a f*cking project?!”

Is this a scam?

This company needs to be streamlined.

Lu Zhou looked at the project applicant’s name and how Director Song had granted two million credits to this garbage project. He couldn’t stand it anymore. He made a label next to the name of the paper author.

He would ask his office secretary to clean up these spineless research worms.

In the beginning, he wanted to just cancel their projects. After all, he was their founding father. However, now it seemed like if he didn’t exterminate them, they would spread across the whole company!

Lu Zhou looked at the time in the upper right corner of the holographic screen. He took a deep breath and got up from the office chair, seeing that it was almost time for a lunch break.

Although he didn’t have any appetite, he had been working in the office all morning, so he decided to go to the rest area on the floor for a cup of coffee and get some fresh air.

He finally realized how difficult it was to run a business.

Despite this business being in his area of expertise.

Other than scientific research funding, I wonder how many problems are behind East Asia Energy...

Lu Zhou held a paper cup full of coffee in his hand as he looked at the city outside the windows. He suddenly thought of Chen Yushan, who had silently supported him all those years. He couldn’t help but feel a little down.

Although he always controlled himself not to deliberately recall things from a century ago, he still felt like everything seemed to have happened yesterday.

In fact, ever since he woke up, he had been urging Xiao Ai to help him dig out things about Chen Yushan from a century ago.

However, all the clues were gone three years after her disappearance. The only indirect clues showed that she went to Beijing after resigning as CEO and met her parents.

After that, she disappeared into the vast sea of people, and no one had seen her since then...

“Still reviewing the projects?”

Lu Zhou heard the voice come from behind, so he turned around.

He saw a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses with a cup of coffee in his hand, walking to his side with a smile.

The AR technology of this era was quite convenient. Even if someone couldn’t remember the name of the other party, if they were in their electronic address book, they could quickly recognize the name of the other party through the face recognition function of AR glasses. This minimized the embarrassment of forgetting each other’s names in social interactions.

With this function, Lu Zhou noticed that this guy’s name was Zhong Ziyu.

“Sort of, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing, just curious.” Zhong Ziyu smiled while standing next to Lu Zhou. He continued in a chatty tone, “It has been five years since the AIIB assigned me to East Asia Energy. Of the three chairmen I have seen, you are probably the most courageous one.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“It’s not a compliment, it’s just a statement of facts.” After taking a sip of coffee, he cast his eyes on the Huangpu River, he smiled and continued, “Everyone knows where the problem is, but you are the first to stand up and try to solve it.”

Lu Zhou said blankly, “If you guys solved the problem, then I wouldn’t be here right now.”

“It’s not that we don’t want to solve it, the problems are far more complicated than you realize.” Zhong Ziyu sighed lightly. He continued, “Besides, any company is actually the same. There will always be people who do work and those who don’t. The two sides reach a balance at a certain critical point and jointly maintain the efficiency of the enterprise.”

Lu Zhou: “But it is unfair to those who do work seriously.”

“There is no fairness in this world.”

“But this is not a reason to stop pursuing fairness...” Lu Zhou frowned slightly and said, “I feel like you have something to say.”

“Why? I was just a little surprised...” Zhong Ziyu said with a smile, “I didn’t expect you to be an idealist.”

Lu Zhou asked, “So?”

Zhong Ziyu: “Please don’t get me wrong. I just admire your ideas. To ordinary people like us, we have no interest in what happens to others... Maybe this is why you are a great man, we are just observers.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m a great man or not, I only do what I should do.”

Lu Zhou threw the empty paper cup into the recycling bin next to him. He looked at Zhong Ziyu and continued, “We’ll have a meeting in the afternoon. Help me inform all the research and development departments. All research project team leaders have to attend.”

Zhong Ziyu nodded and replied happily, “I will keep you informed.”

...

The lunch break was over.

Two o’clock in the afternoon.

Lu Zhou arrived at the conference room on the first floor of East Asia Energy on time.

When he arrived here, the conference room was already full of people. East Asia Energy’s research institutes were spread throughout the Pan-Asian region. Although not everyone was present in person, they were at least standing here through the holographic conference system.

Lu Zhou glanced around at the disturbed researchers and the supervisors of the various project teams. He said a few opening lines and went directly to the main topic.

“When I checked the accounts, I discovered that East Asia Energy invested large amounts in new areas of technology research and development, but unfortunately, the results were few to none.

“Then, when I continued to check where each scientific research fund was used, I finally found out where the problem was.

“This discovery made me feel disappointed.”

Lu Zhou looked at the silent meeting room and the faces that were excited, nervous, hostile, and full of hope. He continued to speak in a steady tone.

“Solving these problems is an urgent matter. The approval of scientific research funding and the entire East Asia Energy R&D department needs a top-down reform!

“From today onwards, the unlimited funding approval system will be obsolete. The filing of all projects will require signatures from the scientific research director and the Science and Technology Committee of the Board of directors. Everything will be streamlined.

“As for the existing projects, I will cut down 50% of them. I will also liquidate the projects that are suspected of serious funding abuse and hand them over to the legal department for accountability!”

Lu Zhou looked at the quiet crowd. He then slowed down a bit and continued, “Now, let’s focus on the main topic for today’s meeting.

“Let’s talk about the second-generation controllable fusion project.”