Convention - Ch. 7 Black Ice

The holiday was soon over, and after returning from Lake Jegusharon, Mo ShiXin had been devoted to her work.

For her, it was a good thing that the busy and demanding work kept her away from many worries. As her fingers tapped the keyboard and clutched the pen to count the plugs and bolts one by one, she had no extra energy to do multiple choice questions or think about something impractical.

For example, about the cursed key.

As an atheist, she rarely used the word ‘cursed,’ but the chip was undoubtedly cursed, and no matter how much she focused on her work, it would flash through her thoughts without warning. It was not so much that it interrupted her thoughts, but it made her uncomfortable, and it was clearly a problem she was trying hard to avoid.

Mo ShiXin tried to analyze what kind of psychology Lanna had used to give her this key, but the conclusion was uncertain because, after careful analysis, Mo ShiXin realized that she didn’t actually understand Lanna, but she didn’t want to admit that she admired someone she didn’t know at all, so she made the conclusion anyway.

This conclusion was the one she was most willing to believe, a ritualistic act out of heritage and growth.

Lanna had said that she had once been given such an opportunity to use so much as a key. But as it turned out, she didn’t seem to do that, something she didn’t mention and no one said. Maybe it was the time she received the key that she got some change and growth.

So now she wants the same kind of growth for Mo ShiXin — her student — in the same way. And in no way did she want her to use the key. Perhaps, Lanna’s intention was for her to learn to compromise.

Picking up the wrench to tighten the last screw of the part, Mo ShiXin wiped the sweat on her forehead.

In this way, the set of instruments is fully assembled. She tugged at the undershirt that was stuck to her body because of sweat, and suddenly felt her mouth dry.

It’s ironic, it is obviously a sub-freezing snow outside, but inside people are so hot that they want to take off all their clothes. The last stage of work was fine, that was only to assemble the basic units, now these things are electrified, the heat released by thousands of sets of units in such a closed room is simply comparable;e to the newborn O-Star.

Mo ShiXin stood up and walked towards her group’s desk. The glass of water she had placed on the table earlier seemed to be half missing, and she didn’t know whether it had been evaporated or drunk by Lanna. She sat right next to the desk as the calculators ran at high speed, the roaring fans spreading the heat around, the flashing butterfly charts heralding the countless data collected at each moment to begin the various calculations.

In theory, Lanna, who was born under the Middle East sun, should be more heat-resistant than Mo Shixin, but she acted like she was more afraid of heat than anyone else in the entire lab because she was the only one in the entire lab who dared to undress to the limit and strut around with her legs crossed, tapping her laptop with disinterest, and wearing what looked like a set of high-class light underwear.

Mo ShiXin walked up and drank the water in the glass, from the second stage of work, she wanted to say something about Lanna’s indecent behavior, but felt that this behavior of not caring about the eyes of others and only seeking to work comfortably and efficiently was beyond reproach, so she did not say anything.

“Child, have you finished loading there?”

Lenna asked, staring at the screen with rapt attention.

Her glasses reflected rows and rows of code in the computer screen, scrolling at the same speed as before she spoke, seeing that even with the distraction of negligence, she had more than enough to handle that huge amount of data.

“Well, it’s loaded.”

“Then go get the letter, it just came in.”

“The letter?”

Mo ShiXin froze for a moment, suddenly remembering the wonderful postal system of this base.

For the sake of secrecy, the network of this base could only connect to the local area network, and communication with the outside world became a problem, and in this information age, they had to rely on the primitive paper media to communicate with the outside world. Since all staff members have signed a confidentiality agreement, all letters and packages sent to the staff’s original location will be automatically delivered to this base by the computer when the accessories are made, which means that they will change hands once more.

Because of the difficulty of traveling to this secret base in Iceland, these letters usually accumulate a lot before they arrive in one breath with the supply team.

She looked around for a moment, the lab was inexplicably quiet now, empty of the roar of machinery.

“I don’t really want to go, why do we have to go get this kind of thing in person.” Mo said, taking a seat in the chair next to Lanna.

She really wasn’t in a hurry to get the mail, her father would occasionally write and send letters, but most of them were just hush-hush platitudes, and probably she had reached the rebellious phase where they made her feel a little awkward and even a little ashamed to hear them.

“How do you expect me to get the letter in this condition?”

“Then why don’t you put on your clothes?”

“No, it’s hot.”

“It’s cold outside.”

“Come on.”

Lanna said, hitting the Enter key hard.

“I’d better go by myself.”

With that, she stood up from the chair, Mo ShiXin thought she was going to get dressed before going out, but she didn’t expect her to take it in stride just to walk towards the door with only her underwear. When she almost crossed the door, Mo ShiXin reacted and rushed over to pull her back and pressed her back to the seat.

“It will freeze you to death! It’s better for me to go.”

“That’s right, good girl.”

After the words, Lanna made a bright and exaggerated smile.

Generally speaking, the employees need to wait for half a day to line up one by one to get their letters, and they have to bear with the staff’s slow search for it. But when Mo ShiXin went, the dozens of sacks is almost empty.

This half-year, her father seems to have written her a lot of letters, adding up to nearly a dozen. Lanna’s letters, on the other hand, were much fewer, just one.

It is also true that she is a widow, her only child was just born in the base, and her parents should be deceased, so naturally, there will not be much contact with the outside. However, the only letter is a bit special, the envelope is very thick, looks like it contains a lot of things, the outside is made of good grain-free kraft paper, it seems that the skin is also stamped with a layer of gold, and put out a beautiful luster.

The most striking thing is the seal, the letter is not sealed with glue or paste, but with sealing wax, printed on it is the symbol of David Shield.

Mo ShiXin walked while picking up this letter and looked at it for a while, this solemn and luxurious appearance obviously would not be a correspondence between ordinary friends …… then who would it be?

She had the urge to open the letter to see, but this is obviously a lack of education and immoral action, and the sealing wax is difficult to put back. She did not want to be because she doesn’t want Lanna to hate her over this, so she finally suppressed this evil thought.

Soon, Mo ShiXin returned to her place, she put her stack of letters on the table, and then handed over Lanna’s shiny golden envelope.

“Here, your letter.”

The very moment she reached out, she never dreamed that the contents of the letter, which she cared so much about before, would be known to her in the very next moment. Just as she handed the letter over, the sealing wax on the letter loosened without warning, and then the contents of the envelope all fell down in a heap, scattering all over the table.

She froze for a moment carrying the empty envelope, and then immediately flung the envelope away and waved her hand to explain.

“I …… I I I, I didn’t touch the sealing wax!”

“It’s okay.”

Lanna’s face unchanged and collected the scatter letter, she took a slight glance and then adjusted the order and put back into the envelope. As if not surprised that the sealing wax was not strong at all.

Then she tapped on the keyboard again.

Mo ShiXin sat down in her chair and looked at Lanna, relieved at her attitude. But then fell into a new tangle, because she saw the contents of the letter.

When the letter fell, she subconsciously swept the letter on the table, and because of her unusual memory, she memorized the letter that she had mindlessly swept without missing a word. Although the reading is not complete, it probably infer what is the content.

The letter seemed to be sent to her by a rabbi, who wanted to hold a large gathering and was a little short of funds, so he hoped that Lanna could give him some financial support. From the tone of the letter, it sounds like Lanna is a model believer and it was not her first time sponsoring.
[AN: Rabbis are a special class of Jews who often serve as spiritual leaders or mentors of the church.]

Mo Shixin did not have a good feeling about religion. When she was a child, Mo HeSheng was instilling in her the idea of the opposition between religion and science, and from the facts, it seems that religion and science did seem to be in opposition, a contradiction between materialism and the heart.

It is true that many great scientists had faith in the past, and the most famous survey of 300 scientists done by the Coalition Government had an overwhelming proportion of scientists who believed in God, but this survey was not scientific at all, and the greatest scientists since the twenty-first century are almost all rational atheists.

When she learned of Lanna’s funding and support for religion, her first reaction was surprise, which turned to disbelief.

“Do you believe in God?”

She asked, raising her empty glass and pretending not to think about it.

“Are you asking me?”

“Who else is here but us.”

Mo ShiXin smiled awkwardly and kept rubbing the handle part of this cup with her thumb. The sweat that was dripping due to the heat had turned into cold sweat at some point. She tried her best to make her expression soft and natural so that Lanna wouldn’t see anything different.

“Why are you asking this all of a sudden.”

“No, just suddenly just wanted to ask.”

“I believe.”

“But there are many kinds of believing.”

She did not give up, she still thought that maybe Lanna just had some special feeling, after all, Lanna was much older than herself, naturally she also had a lot of life experience, so her values of science should still outweigh the value of religion.

“So, what do you think about the relationship between theology and science? Don’t they contradict each other?”

Hearing this question, Lanna’s fingers that’s dancing on the keyboard stopped violently, and the crisp sound of the green-axis keyboard came to a screeching halt. Lanna shifted her glasses and squinted at Mo Shixin.

“Why not? ‘The end of science is theology’, it’s a made-up saying, but there’s still some truth to it.”

“How so?”

“It’s a bit complicated to explain, because there are some metaphysical parts that even I have trouble describing, but, for example, our relationship with God is like the relationship between the Trojans and Heinrich Schliemann. The Trojans built the city of Troy, and Schliemann went to discover it. God has constructed for us the laws of everything in this world, and we go to discover the true meaning of the laws that God has established, and that is science.”

“That is to say ……”

Mo ShiXin held the words in her throat for a while, the sweat on her palms kept pouring out as if the floodgates had opened.

“You think that science is actually a tool to explore the true will of God?”

She didn’t use ‘just’ because she was afraid that if she got an affirmative answer, then Lanna would have no room in her heart.

“You could say that.”

“Hm.”

Hearing such a reply, Mo ShiXin felt as if she had suddenly lost her strength, and she sat down in her chair, completely out of mind to work. Originally, work was able to relieve her bad thoughts, but now her messy mood made her completely unmotivated. In her mind, that ideal Lanna seemed to have been shattered in just a few brief words.

At this point, she needed some quiet time.

She propped up her sluggish body and stood up.

“That, I’m feeling a little sick, I’d like to take a leave to go back to my room and rest.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

Hearing this, Lanna asked with concern.

“Nothing, I’m just a little uncomfortable ……”

“Well, go back then, and come back when you’re well-rested.”

“Mhm.”

With that, she left the lab, physically and mentally exhausted.

Back in her room, she lay down on her bed and slept.

She didn’t know any other way to calm her mood, and she hadn’t felt this sad since she was a child. In the past, whenever she had been lectured by her father or made some mistake, she would just sleep and everything would be fine.

Although she hadn’t experienced it, she didn’t know if it was accurate, but she felt as if she was now feeling as if she had lost her love.

After getting up from a nap, she did feel a little better.

This could be attributed to the self-debate she had in her head before she went to sleep, in which she had been trying to put back together the Lanna idol she had broken, piece by piece, cent by cent. In the end, she supposedly succeeded, and a tall Lanna was once again built up in her mind, albeit full of cracks.

It is true that Lanna may be a somewhat religious person, but believing in or not believing in religion should be personal freedom, a choice of each person’s life. If one were to judge a person based solely on whether they believe in religion or not, wouldn’t that be the same as the unenlightened dark ages? Besides, even if Lanna is not faithful to science, this does not change the fact that she is a great scientist, and her discoveries, papers, and theories so far are to far surpass her own. Her contribution to science is also unquestionable. So what reason do I have to accuse her?

With this in mind, she was a little relieved.

She got up and got dressed. Although it was the middle of the night, she figured that Lanna was probably still working late and it would be too late to go back to work. Just as she was putting on her shoes and getting ready to go, suddenly the phone in her pocket rang.

It happened to be Lanna calling.

“Hello, Little Mo?”

“Uh, it’s me.”

“Are you better?”

“Completely fine already.”

“Oh, that’s good, I’m a little embarrassed to ask, but can you come over now?”

“I was just coming over.”

“I can’t find anyone here, there’s a problem with something, I need you to come over and help me.”

“No problem, I’ll be right there.”

When Mo ShiXin returned to the laboratory, she suddenly found that the laboratory unexpectedly dark, a dark, before those flashing flowers and human smoke of the unit indicators are all gone, the unit that roaring sound of operation, as well as high heat also all died down.

In the vast darkness, she could only see a conspicuous light, which should be a flashlight, and when she entered the laboratory she was shone head-on, flashing her eyes.

“Yo, you’re here.”

Lenna greeted her at a trot while holding up the flashlight.

“Well, I’m here.”

“Is your body already okay?”

“After sleeping for a while, I feel completely fine.”

“Youth is really good, I am now far from rest when I work overtime.”

Listening to the joking words, Mo ShiXin giggled.

“What’s wrong? Something happened?”

“Ah, look, some of these units have stopped.”

Lanna said, shining her flashlight on the behemoths that had gone silent in the shadows.

“I think there’s something wrong with the power source, if it’s just a problem with the units it’s not possible for them all to go out, and the electricity in the living area seems to be normal, so I want to find a helper to go with me to take a look, but because I let everyone go back early today, so now everyone is resting in their rooms, so ……”

Mo ShiXin did not wait for her to finish, nodded, took another flashlight from Lanna’s hand, then lifted the toolbox placed next to the table, followed Lanna towards the lab that was marked with a door that was forbidden to enter.

She had not entered this room before and did not expect this room and she thought completely different, unexpectedly spacious. Behind this small door, the room is actually 10 meters high, into30 meters wide, in the center of the room placed a huge object.

That should be the power source, Lanna went up to check the slot, Mo ShiXin with a flashlight shines the engine, but because it is too large, can only see a rough outline, but she has never seen anything like this and was suddenly curious. So again with the flashlight she shines the engine all over.

“What kind of engine is this? The structure looks a bit strange.”

She shone the engine while shouting.

“It doesn’t seem to be burning mineral ice…is it gasoline…it doesn’t look like that either ……”

Lanna didn’t answer her, just waved a hand towards her, signaling her to bring the toolbox over.

“I seem to have found the problem.”

Lanna said.

“Look, there’s something wrong with the feed port of fuel tank number five, it should be blocked.”

So saying, she replaced the power supply of the engine aside, and instructed Mo ShiXin to lift the huge lid of the fuel tank with her, and then carefully put the lid down again with Mo.

The fuel tank was empty and could not smell any traditional fuel, not to mention the smell of mineral ice that seemed to choke the alveoli, which made Mo Shixin’s curiosity even stronger as to what this engine actually burned.

Lanna asked Mo ShiXin to bring the long ladder in the corner, and then put it down from the mouth of the fuel tank, and then walked down herself step by step, and asked Mo ShiXin to hold the ladder. This fuel tank is large enough to have the capacity of dozens of people, and is really not suitable for a person to operate, if no one holds it, they may be trapped in the fuel tank.

While Mo ShiXin holds the ladder, she shines at Lanna, only to see Lanna went to the fuel inlet, from there to remove a screen. The screen was filled condensed thick white material. Lanna wasted a lot of effort to knock the white objects off the screen, and then left those residues in the fuel tank, and slowly and leisurely climbed up.

“What are those white things?”

“It’s salt.”

“Salt? Why is there salt in the fuel tank?”

Lanna didn’t answer her, but just turned on the power to the engine, and then, from the filter, a steady stream of colorless, odorless, transparent objects were seen pouring out, and soon, the outside unit began to roar.

“What kind of fuel is that, how come it doesn’t smell at all.”

“That’s water.”

“Water ……? Is that coolant?”

“Yes, it’s coolant, and it’s a fusion reactor.”

“Fusion reactor?!”

Like a bolt from the blue, the name that overturned Mo ShiXin’s perception bombarded every cell in her body.

Many years ago, along with the decline of nuclear fission reactor technology, people began to look for other alternatives, some people proposed the use of fusion reactors, whether light or heavy elements, people can all “extract” energy from them, whether to create small suns or huge stars, people proposed countless programs. But this method is ultimately a fool’s dream, a product of fraudulent funding. But now this machine appeared in front of her, and put into use in such an important project, she simply can not believe it at all.

“The salt you just saw is the precipitate of seawater. The fuel for this fusion reactor is taken directly from the seawater collected during operation, first separating the hydrogen isotopes in it to supply the primary light element fusion reaction chamber, and then putting all the remaining seawater into the secondary heavy fusion reaction chamber. Theoretically, seawater is purified in advance, but there seems to be a little mistake over there, resulting in the sea salt is not treated cleanly.”

“So that’s the way …… are those two reaction chambers the equivalent of having two suns? Then this thing will still be stable?”

“It’s stable, even light can be captured by the super aerogel, one of the core, otherwise it would not be used in such an important project.”

“Oh my God …… I feel like I’m practically dreaming ……”

“Ah, by the way, this fusion reactor is a GST secret, you can’t say it everywhere, although no one will believe you even if you say it, haha.”

“Secret? Why? Such an epoch-making invention, shouldn’t it be published?”

“Well …… it’s a bit troublesome to explain.”

“Is that so …….?”

Mo said, and held up the flashlight to shine the engine all over again, like a child who had found a new toy, she was very fond of this machine.

“So which team from GST invented this machine, can you tell me this?”

“This machine was invented by one person.”

“One person? Then this person must be a genius.”

Mo nodded thoughtfully.

“What’s his name?”

“Jerome Stein.”

“Jerome Stein?”

Mo Shixin froze for a moment at that, rereading the name over and over, then added.

“What a coincidence, the same …… scammer as that Universal Fusion Reactor scam in 2005.”

“That’s the same Jerome Stein.”

“That’s him?”

Mo ShiXin frowned.

“Are you kidding me? That has been recognized as a scam, and that scammer registered a patent that was confirmed to be something without any new technological content.”

“You know very well, then you should know how he died.”

Lanna returned, face somehow, slightly gloomy.

“As I recall, it was because the scam was exposed and he committed suicide in fear.”

“Don’t you feel conflicted?”

“Where?”

“A man who went up to the one hundred and first floor of the Empire State Building and wanted to die in the midst of all the attention would jump to his death so simply? He would at least have to wait for the reporters to come in a helicopter.”

Hearing this, Mo ShiXin was silent.

“No, that’s impossible, the official investigation report said there was no sign of him being held hostage.”

“Sometimes the truth seems worthless.”

Lanna said in a serious tone.

“You mean, he was murdered?”

All along, Mo ShiXin had dismissed the incident as a boring online conspiracy theory. However, she didn’t think Lanna was someone who would take conspiracy theories …… but ……

“His invention moved the energy barons’ cake at the time, so they thought of getting rid of him and then discrediting him, it was that simple.”

Then, after a short silence, she added.

“The Dunkeld family also has a part to play.”

Hearing this, Mo Shixin also fell into silence together, and only after a long time did Lanna clear her throat and continue.

“At the end of the 20th century, the Dunkeld family industry has had a large scale, after Jerome Stein died, people did not find his original design, which is also one of the most important reasons why he was considered a liar, this design according to the agreement of the tycoons should be destroyed, but the Dunkeld family at the time thought that this design has an important significance …… so they secretly left a copy of the backup, this fusion reactor is as a prototype improvement to come.”

“But how could a program that was spurned by the public ……”

“The greatest scientific advances always come from coincidence, and coincidence doesn’t always happen to the right people …… Jerome Stein was a right man and a wrong man. It is true that he was not a businessman and that he designed a fusion reactor with many flaws, but gave people a basically workable solution and GST scientists have been refining his invention, especially when the super aerogel was born and this fusion reactor finally took shape ……”

“But ……”

Mo ShiXin felt this was so unfair that she gritted her teeth and said

“He deserves a minimum of respect, and his bronze statue should be erected at the entrance of GST.”

“I feel the same way, but it’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“Because the GST won’t allow it. to vindicate Jerome Stein would mean that a technology as advanced as the fusion reactor must become known, and this powerful machine that puts energy at the fingertips of the people would make the GST’s mining interests devastated. the GST needs to have a firm grip on the mining industry to control the Coalition Government, and only then can it maintain now such a scientific kingdom ……”

Hearing this, Mo ShiXin understood at once.

“That is to say… actually the mining of mineral ice …… is unnecessary?”

“What color do you think the ice is?” Lanna asked an intriguing question, and turned to leave.

It was past midnight and Mo ShiXin was back in her dorm room, remembering a movie she had seen called “City Hero”, one of the few movies she had seen because her father had loved it so much in the year before she left home that he watched it almost every day.

When her father watched the movie, his eyes were always vacant, neither expressing an opinion nor making a comment, just staring blankly at the unlucky man named William in the movie. Mo ShiXin is curious about what the appeal of this movie is, so also followed his father to see it once.

As for the content of this movie well …… may be described by the lines in a comic book.

‘It only takes one bad day to make a person crazy.’

Today, Mo ShiXin feels like she is experiencing such a bad day, and all the values she has built up in the past are smashed to smithereens on this day. It gave her an urge to vent, only she didn’t know how to do it.

She stood in the room for ten minutes, not wanting to lie down or sit down, just standing there in a daze. Until she found the stack of letters she had brought back still sitting quietly on the table. Unable to find anything to do, she sat down and unpacked the letters, carefully wrapped in vellum, in front of the table.

As usual, the letters contained the same clichés about the cold weather and extra clothes. But now, for Mo ShiXin, these words can really calm her down a little.

Just then, there was a sudden knock at the door.

She frowned, there shouldn’t be anyone else at this point in time.

So she cautiously walked out and opened the door, only to see a dusty man standing outside, wearing green work clothes and looking like someone from the supply team.

“You are ……?”

“I’m from the supply team, and I have a letter here that I want to forward directly to you.”

“Directly forwarded?”

“Yes, it was entrusted to me by your father, you know that letters sent here are censored, and he did not want to be censored.”

“But I have it here already ……”

She stared back at the opened letters on the table, then took it, said thank you, and closed the door again.

“What’s going on here?”

She said as she opened the letter, walking towards the table as she scanned at the writing on top of it. Suddenly, when her eyes landed on the last two words of the letter, it was as if her heart stopped.

”Last Words”.

This letter, it was a Will.

She was a little afraid to imagine, she hesitated for two or three seconds, rushed to the phone and opened the address book.

Looking for Uncle Chen, this was the first thing that came to her mind in reaction.

The phone here can not communicate with the outside as far as the rules are concerned, but there are some special people who are authorized to communicate, and Chen Yang is one of them, to know the situation of the father, she can only look for him.

The telephone voice echoed in Mo ShiXin’s ears for a long time, obviously only a dozen seconds, but she felt as if tens of thousands of years had passed.

Finally, someone answered the phone.

“Uncle Chen, what happened to my dad?” Mo ShiXin asked eagerly.

And the person on the other side of the phone was obviously stunned and silent for a while.

“You received that letter… alas alas, still a step too late.”

“What happened, why would my father write a Will?”

“ShiXin, your father is now at home, under my care, the situation has been stabilized, you can rest assured ……”

“You tell me now! What is happening!?” Mo ShiXin interrupted Chen Yang’s words.

“Alas, I will properly persuade your father, for this matter the GST Group internals has done a review, it really should not be like this, Old Mo is also the patriarch, what they have done is too much!”

“What did they do to my father, in the end, what happened? Tell me!” Mo ShiXin cried, she could not imagine what her father had suffered in the end, would choose to die lightly.

“I’m not too sure about the exact thing! Old Mo suddenly went to Herman that day, asking for the restoration of the Astronomy Department, how do you think this is possible, the two got into a fight, Herman wanted to stop paying Old Mo’s salary, and then directly called the security section to lock up Old Mo, what happened afterward I am not sure, Old Mo was not locked up for a long time. After half a day they inform me to get him, don’t worry, I will take care of him, I promise you. ”

Mo ShiXin was already sobbing, she knew that her father was proud, he must have been insulted, she instinctively went to Lanna to ask for clarification, with Lanna’s power, she can certainly set things right, at least give her father the justice he needed, but Lanna’s words earlier made her feel twice as depressed.

Birds die, bows hidden. Rabbits die, dogs were gone.
[TLN: Idiom, those who have contributed are abandoned or killed.]