Chapter 35

Zhang Yuan pondered about the question for two seconds before slowly grabbing the mic off the host’s hands. He suddenly felt that the golden-haired lady was rather adorable. She really believed in her outlook to raise such a question.

He took a deep breath and said in a monotonous voice, “Miss, I think you might have mistaken something.”

“Every year, the government and various other charities allocate tens of billions of yuan for poverty alleviation funds. And those funds are built upon the cold-hard cash and property donated by people from all over the world. These kind-hearted people have sacrificed their interest to help those in need. They are noble.”

“However, the 167 trillion dollars the aerospace industry generates every year is revenue, not net profits. Additionally, that money does not belong solely to the Deep Space Foundation, as it is the collective wealth created by 43 million space workers and 2.2 billion Earth workers, involving 273 different industries of all sizes.”

“Without this revenue of 167 trillion, I believe that there would be an additional 2 billion people living in poverty right now. Everyone’s lives would be way worse than what we see now…”

“Therefore, the donated poverty alleviation funds and the total revenue of the aerospace industry… these two things cannot be confused with each other.”

“And as for your question, this is my answer. The aerospace industry is equivalent to building a big cake, and donating to the poor would be a redistribution of the cake. For me, I’m more inclined to the idea of making the cake and so, I donated the money to the Deep Space Foundation.”

The audience was all listening to Zhang Yuan’s answer in all seriousness.

Zhang Yuan’s words were neither fast nor slow, and his reasoning was very clear. It was as if he had prepared his speech in advance.

Wang Lili and Xu Yunjing started discussing in a low tone. “I didn’t expect him to be so eloquent. He outwardly looked pretty shy.”

“He might be faking his shyness!”

“Haha, so this is Zhang Yuan’s true colors!”

Zhang Yuan continued and said, “So, why have I made such a choice?”

“Miss Angelica, I’m not sure if you have ever ridden on a space elevator or witnessed the entire solar system. If you have ever seen the vastness of space, you’ll come to understand that the space and aviation industry, this piece of cake, is shockingly big. It’s a hundred times, a thousand times, no ten thousand times bigger than what you can imagine.”

“As long as we build this cake well, it can support hundreds of billions or even trillions of people!”

“Therefore, what you said about donating to the poor is merely a small problem in comparison.

“However…”

“The difficulty to eat this piece of cake is exceedingly difficult. Ten billion yuan or a hundred billion yuan is merely a drop in the ocean. The first space elevator behind us cost trillions to build, and it took twenty whole years!”

“No other public organization has the determination nor the ability to spend decades building a 36000 kilometer-long space elevator that essentially generates no profit. Only a non-profit organization like the Deep Space Foundation would do so…”

“Without the investments poured into that space elevator a hundred years ago or the generous donation from those idealists, I think that we would still be confined in this tiny home we call Earth and living in general poverty. Even if we possess controllable nuclear fusion, we would still be poor.”

“Therefore, I donated the prize money my father received for his award to the foundation. Even if it is just a drop in the ocean, it is a sincere gesture from me.”

“We need more like-minded people to join in this massive cake project. We must let more people enjoy a slice of this cake.”

“As for the problem of poverty alleviation you have mentioned, it is important, and I agree with your ideals. I also appreciate your universal love for everyone regardless of nationality. However, there’s an old saying in our country, teaching them how to fish is better than giving them fish. Blindly giving them money and food would only raise a group of lazy people. If we do that, there would be no progress at all.”

“I believe that it is only through education would they get a chance to change their lives. In regards to that, the Deep Space Foundation has a charity department spearheading the field of online education which aims to popularize education through remote networks. I shall not add on anything further here, and if you are interested, you can try to research it yourself.”

“Thank you!”

A thunderous round of applause soon filled the hall.

Zhang Yuan’s answer was perfect. From any angle, it was impeccable.

The golden-haired reporter only had her mouth wide open, speechless.

Even though she was not convinced, the audience was convinced and that was enough.

“Professor Wang, Zhang Qiming’s son seems pretty good with his words,” the Deep Space Foundation’s vice president, Liu Yi, said with great pleasure, “it totally looked like we have specially prepared this.”

“Even a son of a scientist donated 10 million yuan, now those CEOs will definitely have to bleed in their wallets today!”

Wang Zhong chuckled and did not further comment. However, the pride he felt was hard to conceal.

Praising his student’s child felt much better than praising himself.

The Deep Space Foundation was a giant, not only did it possess strong political influence, scientific and technological strength, it also owned a large portion of shares in the aerospace industry and space elevators. For those capitalists, cooperating with the foundation was a win-win situation.

But of course, if they wanted a win-win situation, they first needed to be noticed by the foundation.

In any case, it would be best to donate first.

After all the prize money had been handed out and with the winners taking a photo, next up were the various art performances and the donation segment.

Zhang Yuan walked down the stage and quietly sat in his seat.

Professor Wang gently patted him and gave him an encouraging look.

“Professor Wang, I didn’t make any mistakes with my speech, right?”

“It was well said!” Professor Wang said with a smile.

He then looked towards those capitalists, who were coming on stage to donate, and secretly thought to himself, ‘If Mr. Qi Yuanshan could witness this scene, I believe he would be very pleased.’

The world went after profit. Even if these capitalists donated with the intention to earn more money, although it was not exactly an ideal situation, it was still a virtuous cycle.

It was easy to add icing on a cake but hard to send charcoal in the snow. Those difficult days were already a century ago, even Wang Zhong had yet to be born back then.

Qi Yuanshan was known as the Einstein of material science. He was a true giant.

The three most outstanding achievements in his life were the high magnetic saturation and superconductive materials, the mass production method of carbon nanotubes, and lastly the addition of sociological contents in the New Civilization School of Thought.

Why was controllable nuclear fusion difficult? There were many reasons such as neutron radiation, triple product, and most importantly, the magnetic field constraint was simply not strong enough.

The magnetic field constraint had to be strong enough to restrain the violent plasma and to stabilize the fusion reaction in the circulator for a long time.

If they wanted a magnetic field that was big enough, it was not only a problem of increasing the electric current.

There was a phenomenon of magnetic saturation in material science. When the applied current and coil density reached a certain value, the magnetic field would not increase any further.

In simpler terms, it meant that the magnetic field could only do so much and the remaining problem was up to the scientists to solve.

The magnetic field constraint reaching the limit was insufficient to bind the plasma. It had become a problem with practically no solution.

However, Professor Qi Yuanshan’s breakthrough in high magnetic saturation and superconductive material had simply but crudely increased the original magnetic field strength by ten times!

Yes, it was ten times!

As a result, the frenzied plasma had been bound into obedience, and many of the initial headaches were no longer a problem. The creation of controllable nuclear fusion that was long overdue had finally appeared in the eyes of the public.

In an energy-deficient era with no petroleum, Professor Qi’s reputation naturally soared to the skies. Promptly, he was named as the father of nuclear fusion.

His second biggest achievement was the mature production technology of carbon nanotubes. This technology allowed carbon nanotubes to become very cheap, and the tensile strength of this material was a hundred times that of steel. Moreover, the density was only 0.03 grams per cubic cm, making it an excellent building material.

He was such a giant in the field of material science that his influence still persisted until the current era. He was truly a respected figure of many scientists.

However, Professor Qi’s plan for the construction of the space elevator had been rejected by the government at that time

Because the required investment was too huge and for the Xia Country who had just recovered from the energy crisis, it was very hard for them to accept…

…

As for what happened in the end that had caused the government’s attitude to drastically change, Wang Zhong did not know.

He only knew that the space elevator had been built on schedule. It was almost finished by the time he was born.

Xia Country gambled a whole 20 years before finally winning a bright future!

Even until today, that period of history was still enthusiastically discussed by historians.

For the development of a country, a first step was of the utmost importance.

It was the same for a civilization.

If no one took that courageous step, perhaps even until now, Earth would not have a single space elevator nor a beautiful future.