Novel Bin Chapter 334 - What Just Happened?
Chapter 334: What Just Happened?
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
March of 20X4
After the land contract was signed and the Russians had been dealt with, Chen Jin found himself with the addition of a $500 billion windfall in his possession.
The weather was getting warmer and the snow was gradually melting. It was a season suitable for construction out in the field.
Xing Hai Technologies’ Desert Reconstruction Engineering Department began working in full force. Nearly a thousand human engineers, hundreds of engineering machines, and tens of thousands of robots began construction from the starting point of the northeast corner of the Taklimakan Desert.
The team began to excavate the tunnel and buried lengths of high strength carbon fiber tubes with a diameter of 10 feet. The tubes were then joined together.
The construction team was highly efficient. They were divided into smaller teams and assigned tasks by the supercomputer so that the construction work was divided into segments for the smaller teams in a modular style.
Every day, the task of constructing and laying down a 3-mile water pipeline was completed. Also, there was a construction team of a similar size that had entered Russia and set up camp at the southern end of Lake Baikal to prepare their supplies.
When April arrived and all the snow had melted, construction would be carried out in full force from the other end as well. The speed at which the pipelines were laid down would not be slow. With two ends, it would be a total of 6 miles laid down per day.
The water pipeline project that was less than 1,100 miles was expected to be completed within one year. The speed was amazing.
The netizens were even more surprised that Xing Hai Technologies had dealt with the Russians successfully and bought the water in Lake Baikal.
“How did Xing Hai Technologies do it?” Everyone was very curious about the answer to this question.
“The Russians never had a trustworthy reputation,” warned some people. “They cut off the oil supply whenever they decide to. Same with the gas supply. They will not be too polite about the water that they sold to Xing Hai Technologies. They will stop supplying if they want to raise the price.”
“Yeah, why did Xing Hai Technologies think of buying water from the Russians?” others agreed doubtfully. “Isn’t our domestic water supply enough? For example, the water in Yalucangbu River. Not only is the volume sufficient, but it’s also closer. We don’t have to spend money to buy it. Why not use domestic water?”
Others answered these questions.
“The water in the upper reaches of the Yalucangbu River is not abundant. The amount of moving water in the middle and lower reaches is large, and the amount of water supplied by the upper reaches is only 35 billion cubic feet. It is impossible to allow Xing Hai Technologies to withdraw all of it. Besides, the river has a dry season and a flood season. While there is not enough water in the dry season, there’s too much in the flood season. In the winter, there are two or three months when the ice seals off the upper reaches, and water cannot be extracted at all. The Yalucangbu River cannot provide a stable supply of water.”
“It is indeed the best choice for Xing Hai Technologies to work with the Russians for this project and pump water from Lake Baikal,” agreed another netizen. “Xing Hai Technologies will never have to worry about the depletion of Lake Baikal. They can pump as much water from the lake as they like and whenever they like. This advantage is irreplaceable.”
The water supply from rivers was unstable. The water resources in the central and western provinces of the Z nation were not sufficient to administer and control the water consumption in tens of thousands of square kilometers of desert. It was also difficult for the central and western provinces to make available billions of cubic feet of freshwater.
If the water resource was located farther away than Lake Baikal, then it would not be cost-effective anymore. Therefore, the water in Lake Baikal was indeed the best option.
“It is impossible that the Russians would stop the water supply to Xing Hai Technologies. They may have the guts, but they can’t bear the cost of doing so. Do they not want the service of the intelligent learning machine anymore? Xing Hai Technologies could simply embargo the sale of the virtual factory to Russia, and then activate the back door to paralyze the program. Don’t they want to extract the research results from the Science Lab? If they give up all these for the water in Lake Baikal that has no value, there must be something wrong with their brains.”
Some netizens analyzed and concluded that the Russians would not stop supplying the water.
“Yes, the Russians may be a bit illogical, but they’re not that dumb.”
“No country can bear the cost of offending Xing Hai Technologies!”
“With the technology and resources of Xing Hai, even after the Russians cut off the water, the problem can be solved within six months. Moreover, Xing Hai Technologies has mastered a technology that can carry out large-scale artificial rainfall based on meteorological changes. It has achieved very good results in Hanxi Province, where there was a severe drought last year. The shortcomings of implementing this technology are the higher costs. Large transport planes have to be mobilized and each mobilization cost hundreds of billions! But in an emergency, the money still has to be spent.”
“If the Russians cut off the water supply, Xing Hai Technologies could immediately cut off their network in retaliation and stop all services. Can the Russians endure that for six months or more?”
“They hold a hand full of good cards. Now, some companies and even some countries dare not offend Xing Hai Technologies or reject the request of the company.”
Some netizens lamented.
“Who said so? Didn’t Mongolia reject the request of Xing Hai Technologies, and did not allow the water pipeline to pass through their territory?”
April 15th
The construction team of Xing Hai Technologies began to lay the water pipelines at the southern end of Lake Baikal. They advanced southwest at a speed of 3 miles per day. They quickly crossed the Russian border and entered Mongolian territory.
According to the “nearest straight-line principle,” a section of 608 miles of this 1,100-mile water pipeline had to go through the territory of Mongolia. They had to borrow a little space.
Of course, Chen Jin had also sent people to Mongolia with a 5 million dollar check for the president of the country. Thus, the two parties had reached an agreement and Mongolia agreed to partner with Xing Hai Technologies in the field of education. The president of the country quickly allowed the issue to pass and the water pipeline could proceed.
However, after a mere few days had passed, the other party felt that 5 million was too little and asked for extra money in private. Otherwise, they would not let the water pipeline pass through Mongolia.
Xing Hai Technologies refused and did not give one extra penny.
The other party was angry. A ban was issued and the construction team immediately stopped working.
Chen Jin was even angrier.
“Don’t you know your position? How dare you try to pull a scam right in front of Xing Hai Technologies? You’re courting your death!” he shouted.
A series of actions went into effect.
Two Weeks Later
Xing Hai Technologies had restarted the construction of the water pipeline. To prevent the team from getting harassed by the grassland wolves, they were also protected by the Mongolian army.
Netizens were very surprised.
“What just happened?”
“The corruption of the former president was exposed on the Internet. How much money he received and how many women he was involved with. Even things like how his son was a bastard from his wife fooling around with the neighbor. All these bits and pieces were enough to compose a 50 episode TV series. It’s a big surprise,” explained one man.
“He was successfully impeached and stepped down,” said another. “In a few days, he decided to take his assets and run away, but he was stopped by the vice president with several soldiers. The vice president single-handedly killed more than 20 presidential guard soldiers. Not a single bullet missed its mark. Nearly every bullet was fatal. He boarded the plane unaccompanied and burst the head of the former president. In the process, he also seized 1,700 pounds of gold and countless cash currencies. This vice president soon became an anti-corruption hero and was elected to be the new president with a high number of votes.”
“What is even more surprising is that this new president used to be a very unfriendly person,” chimed in another voice. “He had made a lot of extreme remarks to us. But this time, after he took office, his attitude changed 180 degrees. He said that Z nation was their father and they are the son; the two sides must be friendly...”
“I don’t understand, this turbulent situation is completely incomprehensible. It’s even more exciting than a movie. Strangeness seems to permeate every aspect of this situation.”
Netizens had a ton of speculations.
As for Chen Jin, he suddenly discovered that the world was not that difficult to master or control. However, he liked the warm sunshine more than being the dark mastermind behind the scenes.
He would try his best not to do such things in the future unless it was necessary.