Chapter 8: ‘Large Cup’ Juice

“Happy New Year!”

Chu Xuan arrived at the office of the advisor for his major.

The festival was coming up, so he naturally had to pay a visit, and teacher–student relationships had become much purer by comparison now.

After the Cataclysm, gaming R&D funds and blindly launching projects had already been banned.

Resources were limited and could not be wasted.

Making money off projects?

It made little sense.

Paper currency had vanished, and everything used credit points; however, what was the point of having more credit points?

Housing was allocated.

Cars, even if you had one, could you still speed in the already narrow underground city corridors?

Food was scarce.

As for daily necessities, they were scarce as well.

People’s pursuit of money was no longer so intense.

Teacher–student relations gradually returned to normal.

They taught with real dedication.

They studied with real dedication.

At least in teaching and research, many bad phenomena had pretty much disappeared.

“Chu Xuan, how is your project coming along?”

“It is going smoothly.”

“That is good; by the way, here, this is…”

The advisor directly handed over three lychees, which were still things almost never seen outside.

“Thanks!”

Chu Xuan could not take advantage for free, so he pulled a Crunchy Shark bar from his pocket.

It had transparent vacuum packaging with no other information.

“What is this?”

“Something to eat.”

Chu Xuan did not explain much, and the advisor immediately understood and accepted it without hesitation.

Only after Chu Xuan left did he open it, taste a small bite, and quickly put it in the fridge.

He planned to eat it slowly.

They could plant some fruit under the pretext of experiments to extract vitamins.

But cash crops like cocoa, like tea, were not even allowed to be planted and were extremely scarce.

…

He went upstairs again.

“Advisor He!”

Chu Xuan knocked and entered, and the elderly man before him was his astrophysics advisor, who was very influential in the field.

The original owner’s parents’ advisor for this subject was also this very person.

Therefore, he took quite good care of him.

“Little Xuan, how is your thesis going?”

“I am writing it.”

“Mm, do you have a draft?”

“Not yet.”

He spent these days reading.

Even at best, it would be a few weeks before he could cram it into a template.

“Hurry up; this year is the first year the new thesis review mechanism is in force, and if you want a high score, I cannot help you much.”

“Okay.”

Chu Xuan nodded.

Previously it was fine; if the school said you passed, you passed, and the advisor’s opinion carried great weight.

Starting this year, it changed.

There was intervention by the United Government Senior Talent Management Committee.

They would rate undergraduate theses for validity and practicality.

Useless theses could not get by with perfunctory work at all.

The data upload from his lab was also laying the groundwork for this new rule.

Everything served The Wandering Earth Project.

Therefore, the bar rose.

The difficulty increased by several degrees.

And this was not a bad thing.

For Chu Xuan, it was also a good thing.

So long as the thesis was solid enough, there was a chance it would attract immediate attention.

“Can you give me the data on Earth’s current orbit,” Chu Xuan asked, which was also one of his reasons for coming here.

“It is for writing the thesis.”

Chu Xuan added.

Upon hearing this, He Shuli readily agreed; it was not some secret and was merely unavailable through ordinary channels.

He then copied a set for Chu Xuan.

After chatting a bit more, Chu Xuan left.

He also left behind two lychees and one Crunchy Shark bar.

There were only three lychees, which were not enough to share if he took them back, so he ate one himself and counted the rest as a gift.

As for their source, everyone tacitly understood.

…

On the way home, he passed through the commercial district.

With the Spring Festival approaching, it was quite lively here.

There was a credit points exchange.

There was a pharmacy sales window.

There was a mahjong parlor.

There were barbecue stands.

…

Business was good for all of them.

“Hey, handsome, take a look.”

At that moment, someone came up to him and handed him a flyer.

The front carried two simple, bold characters.

Bathhouse!

That was right.

The underground city did have this kind of service industry.

As for whether it was legitimate, that was not certain.

This was also reflected in the film.

“Here you go; contact me if you need anything.”

Seeing Chu Xuan’s expression, they knew he was not interested, so they handed over another one.

Paperwork.

Travel.

Gear.

Just find Brother Yi.

“…”

Chu Xuan also smiled, as Brother Yi’s business was quite wide-ranging.

They distributed flyers so brazenly in full view of the public.

In fact, basically no one policed it.

As long as it was not reselling weapons and not too excessive, the underground city turned a blind eye.

Three and a half billion people came underground.

The makeup of the population was complex.

It was unrealistic to expect everyone to be well-behaved.

…

It was just as he was looking at the flyer.

A group of a bit more than twenty people walked by.

Many held placards with writing on both sides.

“The Sun will not Helium flash!”

“Oppose wandering!”

“Dismantle the engines!”

“…”

There were all kinds of slogans.

That was right.

In the underground city, many people did not believe the Sun would Helium flash.

They often took to the streets to march.

This was only an internal disagreement of thought.

Outside the underground city, there were quite a few refugee factions.

Do not forget this.

Seven billion people drew lots.

Whether poor or rich, it was the same.

Everyone had a fair one-half probability.

It was obviously impossible for the remaining three and a half billion people to just wait to die.

If they could not get into the official underground city, they banded together to build their own.

The United Government did not stop them either.

Why?

They feared triggering an all-out war if fighting broke out.

It would not be small in scale but a war of three and a half billion against three and a half billion.

It was not hard to imagine that the hopeless side would definitely fight desperately.

Then what should be done; were they supposed to wipe out the other three and a half billion people?

That was naturally impossible!

No one dared to give that order, nor could they bring themselves to do it.

Therefore, the United Government adopted a tacit attitude toward some self-built shelters.

For precisely this reason.

In the film, Han Zi’ang said the outside was dangerous.

The various rescue teams were fully armed.

When Li Yiyi first saw Han Duoduo, the first reaction was panic, and he even took Han Duoduo hostage.

And after learning that Liu Qi’s vehicle permit did not match, his emotions were extremely agitated.

They thought he was someone from an outside underground city who had come to seize the Firestone.

Firestone.

It was the engines’ ignition device.

Light fusion, like an H-bomb, required an atomic bomb to detonate it.

The conditions for heavy fusion were even more stringent and required higher temperatures.

Therefore, put plainly, the Firestone was a hydrogen bomb.

It could not possibly be placed near an underground city.

Instead, it was kept in various war-preparedness bases.

The film also said this: at maximum mobilization, order global war-readiness Strength to set out immediately to transport the Firestone for rescue.

Even Brother Yi could let people without qualifications leave an underground city.

Obviously, letting unqualified people into an underground city was not a difficult thing.

If a hydrogen bomb was placed in an underground city, and resistance forces infiltrated and wiped it out in one go, the risk would be far too great!

Not to mention that the United Government did not dare to take the risk.

Even if the United Government dared to take this risk, the underground city’s populace would oppose it with both hands and feet.

It was also because the outside was not peaceful.

That was why people of preferential status like Liu Qi were barred from military service and not allowed to go to the surface.

Otherwise, if captured, the Fire Seed Plan turning into the Fireball Plan was not impossible.

…

There were also some measures in the realm of machinery and equipment.

This included equipment.

This also included armaments.

They minimized automation and remote control as much as possible.

There had been autonomous driving decades earlier, and decades later the technology was surely more mature.

Why still have people drive the haulers?

It was precisely that the smarter the technology, the greater the cost of losing control.

Once it was cracked, that would be bad.

What followed would be mayhem, and they would get wiped out in one go.

Therefore, besides employment, safety was also a reason to reduce the use of intelligent devices.

Take the operation of haulers, for example.

It took years before one could take them on the road, which made countless people in cinemas complain and sneer.

They felt it was unreasonable, because how could it take years to learn a steering wheel plus throttle and brake?

Why did it get increasingly complicated?

In fact, there was a reason for it.

Just like with military equipment, raising the operating threshold was to prevent outsiders from easily seizing and using it.

If just anyone could drive a tank and go biubiubiu everywhere, it would be a very dangerous thing.

…

As for those holding signs, Chu Xuan had no prejudice.

Good people?

Bad people?

That was not the way to judge them.

It was merely a difference in stance.

Some cared for the world, and some cultivated their own integrity, and one could not say the latter were not noble.

Dying standing and living kneeling were both not wrong.

He did not bother to think more and came to a small shop, deciding to get through the Jupiter Crisis first.

“Give me a large-cup juice.”

“Alright!”

A moment later, it was served.

The small oral-solution vial in his hand was the large cup here, and there were also medium and small cups, and Chu Xuan could only say they knew how to play it.

They called it juice.

But it was not freshly pressed; it was a synthetic beverage.

Even with synthetic beverages, people still could not enjoy beverage freedom.

The densely packed ingredient list could make one dizzy, and the output of some components was not high.

Their uses were also broad.

A single bottleneck alone could directly limit the output of synthetic beverages.

…

Before long, he returned home.

He continued reading.

This time he leaned toward mathematics, and although the symbols looked like spells, if he truly applied himself he could still learn them.