Genius of the Rules-Style System

Chapter 574: Chapter 335: Look! It’s that student!

"Doesn’t understand physics?"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

Director Zhang of the Science Academy’s Physics Department was taken aback hearing Qian Zhijin say so over the phone, "Zhao Yi said he doesn’t understand physics?"

"That’s what he said."

Qian Zhijin was a bit miffed with Zhao Yi’s attitude, but considering their camaraderie which was far superior to that of Director Zhang’s, he thought it wasn’t appropriate to directly voice the concern. Coming up with a rational explanation, he added, "At the time, he was engrossed in his research. You may not be aware that he gets quite irritable when he is researching and not to be disturbed."

"Moreover, young people are tough to figure out. I don’t understand what he meant either, he may have just given a casual response without grasping the meaning."

"Once he finishes his research, I’ll ask again."

Processing Qian Zhijin’s words, Director Zhang obligingly said, "That’d be appreciated, Professor Qian."

"It’s no bother, it’s no bother, it’s my duty," Qian Zhijin politely replied before hanging up.

Director Zhang’s mind was deeply troubled now.

Being the head of the Science Academy’s Physics Department, Director Zhang certainly had the esteemed academician title. Not only was he a rare academician in physics, but he was also quite young at fifty-seven.

Getting elected as academician at his age and shouldering the responsibilities as the director of the Science Academy and managing a disciplinary research was quite remarkable.

Director Zhang’s intent of getting Zhao Yi to join the Collider team was far from simple.

Actually, there’s nothing significantly complex about a collider, many nations possess the technical strength to construct one, but very few have enough funding to support its construction.

A large-scale particle collider requires astronomical amounts of capital investment.

The European collider had dozens of nations contributing to its construction, the most crucial purpose being the sharing of investment costs.

Now the proposal for constructing a large-scale particle collider in China is being held up due to lack of funding, not technical support.

This is not about an investment of tens or hundreds of millions, but rather tens or hundreds of billions.

Such massive capital investment can’t be approved just because someone suggests it. It requires national effort being invested in a single project. Convincing the nation to decide on contributing is a challenging task.

The Science Academy’s Physics Department definitely supports the construction as from the viewpoint of Physics research, having a particle collider of our own greatly facilitates research.

But just the Physics Department of the Science Academy or even all scholars, professors, and experts in the Physics circle nationally, cannot convince the upper levels to allocate such monumental investment. This requires lobbying influential figures.

Now Director Zhang is committed to "lobbying influential figures" to persuade the top-level authorities to have our own particle collider.

Earlier, Director Zhang had tried to persuade the renowned Chinese physicist and Nobel laureate Yang Zhenning. But Yang Zhenning flatly dismissed him.

Yang Zhenning, being rather tempestuous, not only directly rejected Director Zhang but also publicly declared on the media that he didn’t support the construction of a collider. His reasoning was simple, "This investment is not cost-effective!"

"With capital running into hundreds of billions, the collider constructed will essentially be a dowry for foreign scientific research!" freewёbnoνel.com

"We don’t have many physicists nationally. Even if we can afford to build the collider, in the end, those mainly served by it would be foreign scientists. This is a waste."

Of course.

This perspective varies amongst individuals.

What Yang Zhenning said isn’t necessarily right. Supporters of the collider construction have their justifications such as attracting excellent physicists to settle in China.

"Should the collider be successfully constructed, it could attract several thousand physicists and physics workers from around the world to come and live and work in China long-term."

"Simultaneously, the collider, being a major project considered as infrastructure investment, can also provide numerous job opportunities and develop many elite positions. For instance, excellent computer engineers could serve in the maintenance and experimentation of the collider."

And so on.

Director Zhang is an adamant supporter of the collider construction. His aim to have Zhao Yi join the team is equivalent to having Zhao Yi declare his support.

If Zhao Yi joins the collider construction team, it indeed signifies his support for the construction.

Zhao Yi is an important figure.

For the national Physics circle, the greatest achievement holder is Yang Zhenning, but as Yang Zhenning does not currently hold Chinese citizenship, he can only be considered an overseas Chinese physicist.

Zhao Yi is a pure domestic scholar and the one with the highest achievements in national physics research. His stance does hold considerable referral value.

But then, Zhao Yi rejected!

Director Zhang was highly confused. He hadn’t expected Zhao Yi’s rejection, just because he didn’t want to add to his workload or felt that he wasn’t good enough at Physics, causing him to utter ’I don’t understand physics’.

Why did Zhao Yi refuse?

The only answer was: He opposes investing in the construction of the collider nationally!

"It’ll do with Yang Zhenning opposing, but even Zhao Yi is opposing..." Director Zhang, rubbing his forehead, was deeply worried. He felt that convincing authorities had become even more challenging.

When the two leading physicists oppose, how can he convince the superiors to agree to invest in constructing the collider?

...

Zhao Yi had no idea that his words would leave Director Zhang so consumed. He didn’t even know that whether to invest in the domestic collider was still under debate, which could be said to be ’a matter that hadn’t even been set into motion’. He had thought the collider had already started being constructed.