"The economic environment in North America is not doing well right now, and many patent trolls have gone crazy," Wu Changxun remarked as he sighed. "On my recent trip to North America, I almost got caught in a sting operation on the street."
"Tell me the details?" Chen Yiyang was very interested upon hearing Wu Changxun's words.
It's well known that sting operations are commonly used by various law enforcement agencies in North America.
However, Chen Yiyang had only heard about them and never witnessed one himself.
After all, he had only been to North America once when he wasn't well-off. After he became successful, he didn't dare to go again, fearing that he'd end up like Brother Dong, where his reputation could be ruined in an instant.
Now, hearing that Wu Changxun had experienced a sting operation in North America, he was very curious.
"You know how the police budget in North America is always very large, in many places it can account for forty-two percent of administrative expenses, and if you add in the judicial expenses needed for maintenance, it even approaches seventy percent, higher than their military spending."
Chen Yiyang had read a lot of popular science about North American police, knowing that their welfare and benefits are excellent, and that if they ever face a lawsuit, they often have to pay a lot of money.
But he never imagined that the proportion of police expenditures was this high.
"Because the police budget is so high, sometimes to generate revenue, they resort to sting operations in North America.
They hire some local beauty pageant winners into the enforcement team, to disguise themselves as streetwalkers.
There are men who, upon seeing such beautiful streetwalkers, can't resist inviting them into their cars.
In some states, merely inviting a streetwalker into your car is considered illegal, and this crime increases, with penalties accumulated on the second and third times caught.
Upon a third offense, in most North American states it's considered a felony, with only Nevada being an exception.
During my last visit to North America, a companion of mine saw a particularly beautiful streetwalker and wanted to invite her into his car and go to a hotel, luckily a local warned him."
Chen Yiyang didn't know that streetwalking was illegal in North America. He always thought they were quite liberal about it there.
But after Wu Changxun's explanation, he learned that North America isn't liberal, it's just that perspectives vary widely from place to place.
In many states, social mores are actually quite conservative, so streetwalking is illegal too.
For North America's cash-strapped law enforcement, catching people like this to make quotas is very convenient, so they often do it.
"So how did the local tell which was a police decoy and which was a real streetwalker?" Chen Yiyang continued to ask out of curiosity.
"Simple," Wu Changxun answered, "because the streetwalker was too beautiful and had no noticeable tattoos on her body."
Chen Yiyang hadn't expected such a straightforward answer.
But thinking about it, it makes sense.
As long as you don't just watch Douyin and go out more, you'll know that good looks are actually a very scarce resource in this society.
Someone that attractive could do much better things, streetwalking is too low-return.
And having no tattoos really counts as being a good girl.
The only explanation is that she was there for a sting.
"Of course, even if the local hadn't warned us, I would have certainly stopped it. If this spread out, it would be too damaging to our image. As Tengxu people, we must abide by local laws when we go abroad."
"Don't be ridiculous," Chen Yiyang rolled his eyes.
After dining with a few friends he knew in the Imperial Capital for several days,
Chen Yiyang had originally planned to return to Lin'an.
However, in Anhui Province, someone invited him to visit a nuclear fusion power project.
Chen Yiyang had previously invested in a nuclear fusion power project in Shanghai, which was well known.
However, the project in Shanghai is still in the experimental phase, and any hope for commercialization is likely several years away.
But the one in Anhui Province is different.
The nuclear fusion power device there is called BEST, a nuclear fusion power project led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, unlike other similar projects that are still in the experimental stage.
They have already begun constructing the first operational fusion power device in human history and expect it to be completed in 2027.
The project team there had noticed Chen Yiyang's great support for cutting-edge technology projects, so they invited Chen Yiyang to visit.
So Chen Yiyang flew to Hefei and visited the project site.
"BEST stands for the Compact Fusion Energy Experimental Device, it's a follow-up project to the all-superconducting Tokamak fusion experimental device EAST. Our main approach is the compact high-field superconducting Tokamak technical route, employing high-performance superconducting magnets, deuterium-tritium fusion fuel, and several new technologies for power generation."
The project's supervisor explained to Chen Yiyang, "The working principle of this project is to construct a magnetic cage through a strong magnetic field, separating one hundred million degrees Celsius high-temperature plasma from a minus two hundred sixty-nine degrees Celsius cold environment, achieving a safe, stable fusion reaction in a vacuum chamber."
The professional terminology was truly lost on Chen Yiyang.
After all, he didn't study science back in the day.
So he directly asked the question he was most concerned about, "How safe is this project?"
Currently, Europe and America and many other places oppose nuclear power mainly due to concerns about nuclear power's safety, fearing that once an accident occurs, contamination is hard to eliminate quickly.
However, they have actually wronged nuclear power's safety.
Nuclear power, like airplanes, seems dangerous but the probability of accidents is quite low.
Several historical major nuclear accidents were caused by the unprofessionalism and negligence of the responsible teams.
But similar to airplanes, once something goes wrong and a crash begins, passengers are hardly likely to survive.
When nuclear power has an issue, the resulting impact is difficult to eliminate and the pollution worsens over time.
Just a few days ago,
Germany implemented the demolition of the once mighty Gundremmingen nuclear power plant.
With 600 kilograms of explosives and 1,800 blasting points.
At the command, the two 160-meter-high cooling towers completely collapsed.
This also marked the complete end of Germany's nuclear era.
From now on, there will be no nuclear power facilities on German soil.
In reality, the nuclear power plant demolished this time had actually been shut down three years ago due to protests from environmental organizations.
At the time, the German industrial sector called for these nuclear plants to be preserved and kept operational.
In case of an emergency in the future, if a power crisis occurs, Germany could restart these nuclear plants for emergency use.
But the Green Party in Germany wouldn't hear any of this.
Still clinging to your nostalgia?
Then blow it up, leaving not a single wistful memory.
So this nuclear plant, which had been shut down for several years, was demolished, becoming part of history.
Even if the original team were reassembled in the future, restarting the nuclear plant would be impossible.
