Chapter 2325: Chapter 2237: I’m a Liberal Arts Monk
This time, with Yu Qingzhu transporting the Gold on her own, the process went very smoothly—aside from the fact that the stacking wasn’t particularly neat, there were no other problems.
However, this trip not only vaguely confirmed her status as the third person of Luohua, it also meant that in terms of mindset, she had officially stepped into the ranks of Cultivators—Yu Family’s Little Princess no longer existed; when necessary, she was just one of the tools among the Luo Hua Cultivators.
In the time that followed, Feng Jun started making Divine Sense Obsidian, transferring the information about the Insect World bit by bit into other people’s minds. But this was a long-term process, and after that whole mess with Zhang Caixin, he became even more cautious.
During this period, the international situation was also turbulent and unpredictable. First, Persia’s new currency was pegged to the Huaxia currency’s exchange rate, and they also hinted quietly that the next step for the new currency would be to consider using Gold as the base currency.
This news could have caused a huge uproar, but Persia had released too many smokescreens recently, so people were only briefly surprised before the matter passed.
But right after that, Bei Xinluo also announced that it would abandon the Mai Dollar in international procurement and pay directly in Gold.
Bei Xinluo using Gold to purchase goods was a tradition, but making such an open statement now clearly meant some variables had appeared. What was more troublesome was: the Gold price in South Shinra was much higher than the international Gold price.
Soon after, a Huaxia cargo ship was forcibly inspected by the Tianzhu Navy in the Tianzhu Ocean, because they suspected it was carrying weapons. In the end, although no weapons were found, they did find some industrial products containing Gold.
Britain immediately chimed in, claiming that according to reliable information, Huaxia was building a Gold refinery in the Taklamakan Desert, and there was evidence showing that Huaxia had mastered a new type of Gold refining technology.
Once the Europa troublemaker made a move, the Gallic Rooster immediately followed, saying that if such a technology truly existed, then it should belong to all humankind, and using Gold as the base currency would be a blessing for the entire Earth.
Then, various other Guojia also voiced their opinions one after another: if the new Gold refining technology could reduce pollution and lower energy consumption, they hoped Huaxia could publish it as soon as possible.
Right after that, the Vikings also stated that if such a technology really existed, the Gunpowder Prize would open its doors to the inventor.
Just as it looked like the world was about to descend into chaos, the president of Mai Nation finally stopped dodging the issue and openly stated: nobody understands refining Gold better than I do. What Huaxia is brewing over there is a huge scam. Yes, the new refining method does not exist.
So, everyone should protect the Gold in their hands. If you feel you don’t have enough strength to protect it, then Merrick possesses the largest vault in the world.
However, as if deliberately contradicting him, before the president’s words had even finished echoing, the international Gold price shot up sharply again. Correspondingly, the stock market of Mai Nation plummeted; capital’s choice was already very clear.
Only at this point did Huaxia shyly announce a discovery: near a certain oil field, they had found a super large Gold mine, and it was a rich deposit. Proven reserves already exceeded one thousand tons.
That’s right, just one thousand tons—Huaxia Citizens really did things this modestly.
Britain immediately stated that the reserves were definitely more than one thousand tons; it should be a whole cluster of Gold mines, and total Gold reserves could likely exceed ten thousand tons, accompanied by a large amount of rare-earth deposits.
This Guojia really wasn’t afraid of stirring the pot. The people of Mai Nation couldn’t help jumping out again, saying that a large amount of intelligence showed Huaxia’s Gold was created by simulating a supernova explosion and contained extremely high radiation.
In other words, even if Huaxia had large quantities of Gold, it was not recommended that everyone buy it—that wasn’t hard currency, it was a grim reaper. As for real hard currency? Of course it was still the Mai Dollar.
Someone even immediately followed up, claiming that the Gold held by various countries now also had radiation, just with a relatively small dose, but without a doubt, its radiation intensity was higher than that of 5G base stations.
Once this news spread, quite a few people publicly stated that they would seal away the Gold in their hands—at least, thankfully, no one was stupid enough to throw away their Gold like burning 5G base stations.
Amid this cacophony of voices, Huaxia once again stated that if anyone felt Gold was unsuitable as hard currency, they could sell it to Huaxia—we would purchase it with Huaxia currency.
As soon as these words came out, someone immediately raised a meticulously prepared question: if you’re using Huaxia currency to purchase Gold, does that mean you consider the Huaxia currency a world currency already, or does it mean that in the future when we use Huaxia currency, we’ll also be guaranteed to purchase sufficient Gold from Huaxia?
Huaxia’s answer was as ambiguous as ever, but finally showed a hint of little fangs: we are currently considering the possibility of a Huaxia-currency Gold standard.
The questioner pressed on relentlessly: does this mean the Huaxia currency has already begun a "de-Mai-dollarization" process?
Huaxia’s spokesperson responded in a relatively euphemistic manner: the Mai Dollar still possesses a certain degree of irreplaceability in this world...
However, without a doubt, if the Huaxia currency could adopt a Gold standard, it would effectively help stabilize its value and make a great contribution to the prosperity and development of the world economy.
The questioner finally dropped all pretenses: then, how much Gold reserves does Huaxia already have in order to realize a Gold standard?
Huaxia’s spokesperson’s answer was like an antelope hanging its horns with no trace to be found: I don’t have specific numbers on the Gold reserves, but I trust our country’s financial and economic experts.
While he was answering the question, around an abandoned coal mine in Jin Province, the sixth batch of intruders was caught: two locals and two foreigners, who claimed to be travel enthusiasts that had gotten lost...
In fact, Huaxia’s possession of large Gold reserves was no longer a secret in the eyes of high-level figures in some Guojia. The only thing they weren’t sure about was: just how much Gold had Huaxia quietly stockpiled?
Some analysts said ten thousand tons, others said thirty thousand tons—although this number already challenged everyone’s understanding, if it was less than that, there would be no point in pegging the Huaxia currency to Gold.
But if it was more, say a hundred thousand tons, no one would believe that figure; it was far too unrealistic.
As a result, some people in Gold-related industries started encountering bizarre inspections and all sorts of difficulties abroad.
Some were even briefly detained. Fortunately, the relevant Guojia stepped in in time and pulled them out, but the laptops and such they carried had already "gone missing."
Feng Jun didn’t pay much attention to this, because it was no longer his field of expertise. Besides, as the provider of the Gold, if he continued to express opinions in other areas, his hand would be stretching too far.
No matter what line of work or profession you’re in, eating from start to finish is what earns you the most hatred.
Right around then, Beauty Lin contacted him again, still about the Yunlei Stone. She said that based on over half a year of research, they had concluded that this stuff really couldn’t be synthesized—at least not with current tech levels.
So they wanted to release one piece as bait to divert the international community’s attention away from the Gold standard.
Feng Jun said he didn’t care. Since he had given it to them, how they used it was none of his concern, but... weren’t they worried that once the other side got it, they might actually figure something out?
Beauty Lin replied very straightforwardly that they would try not to let the other side obtain it, so they had designed a self-destruct device. Because there were only four pieces total, it wasn’t enough for effective live drills, so they were now seeking his input.
Feng Jun of course would help. He actually didn’t know that much about Yunlei Stone either, but... didn’t he have the ability to conduct deductions?
Beauty Lin provided more than ten self-destruct design ideas. After looking them over for a while, Feng Jun said, "This thing contains quite a bit of energy. I don’t know what level of destruction you want from this self-destruct—just destroy the stone, or do you want to trigger a big fiery explosion?"
Beauty Lin’s idea was that just destroying the stone was a bit too mild, but a big fiery explosion was a bit overboard, so they should aim for something in between.
Feng Jun immediately got a headache over this "in between." Through the Divine Sense transfer business, he had discovered that his ability to define fine details was still limited, so he simply said, "Bring over all the items involved in the designs, and I’ll help you run the deduction on-site."
"On-site deduction?" Beauty Lin was stunned at first, then immediately grew excited. She stood up without hesitation. "I’ll report this to my superiors right away; I guarantee everything will arrive within a day."
She was speaking a bit too confidently, because a lot of the items involved were of very high classification level.
If she wanted to use them herself, she might be able to apply for special approval, but just to bring them over for a deduction, that was harder to explain—wouldn’t that mean exposing quite a few related parameters?
Fortunately, since it was related to Feng Jun’s project, she was able to get some big names to step in. In the end, right at the one-day mark, all the required items were brought over—they had even used two armored cash trucks and several special agents.
Due to the classification level, some items couldn’t leave the guards’ line of sight, and Feng Jun didn’t want them entering his manor, so he simply went out himself and conducted the deduction in the Cultural Town.
There wasn’t much to say about the deduction process; he quickly produced results and estimated the explosive yields for each scheme. Which one to pick was no longer his problem.
However, this operation of his shocked the experts who had come along to watch: you just swipe a couple of times on your Mobile Phone and can determine the possible explosive yield of each scheme?
They were inclined not to believe it, but for a few schemes whose effects were relatively easier to determine, the values Feng Jun gave were very close to their own calculated figures—obviously not something he was just making up.
But if they were to fully believe him, then some of the yields he deduced for certain schemes clearly didn’t make sense.
Before coming, the experts had already been briefed accordingly, so no one rudely questioned Feng Jun, but they were allowed to independently ask some questions.
So someone spoke up, "Mr. Feng, may I ask why the yield for Scheme Six is so low? Our calculations put it at three times your value... Could we trouble you to explain what formula you used and how you calculated it?"
Feng Jun glanced at Beauty Lin and, seeing no reaction from her, blinked and cleared his throat lightly. "Well... my apologies, I’m a liberal-arts monk."
