The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 425 Third Brother's House

These days, our engineers are still very pragmatic and frugal. Before they left, Liu Hua gave them tens of thousands of US dollars, which he told them to use for daily expenses at Third Brother's house.

"Engineer Liu, we're only going for a few days, there's no need for so much expense."

Seeing their indifference, Liu Hua could only helplessly persuade them, "It's better to be frugal on the road than to be poor. Besides, we're not going to just any place, it's Third Brother's house. You've definitely never been there before, and that place is quite terrifying."

Both engineers were dismissive; if they went with that attitude, they might not be able to return unscathed.

Liu Hua could only smile and say, "When you get there, don't rush to work or eat and drink. Take a taxi to the Ganges River first. That's their source of drinking water. After you see it, you'll know whether my request is necessary."

Before the two engineers could speak, Liu Hua continued, "I only have one request for you. I can't help you with the food, but try to pick good restaurants, preferably not restaurants run by locals from the Third Brother's area. Buy me imported mineral water for all my drinking water, and don't touch any of the locally produced mineral water from the Third Brother's area. Even if you stay in a five-star hotel, use imported mineral water for brushing your teeth and washing your face. And whatever you do, don't drink the water when you take a shower."

It was the first time the two engineers had visited their third brother's home, and since the task wasn't particularly urgent, they listened to Liu Hua's advice and decided to visit the Ganges River, since it was, after all, their third brother's mother river.

As soon as they got off the plane and left the airport, the smell overwhelmed them. Back when conditions were poor, the smell of the outhouse in the morning was nothing compared to this.

It took them a while to adjust. After taking a taxi, they headed straight to the Ganges River. The two of them chatted and laughed, imagining how magnificent the Ganges River must be for their third brother's family.

The driver couldn't understand what the two were saying, but it sounded like Chinese, so he ripped them off when they got out of the car. The ride was less than half an hour, but he charged them $100.

The two wanted to argue a bit more, but then they saw the driver take a steel pipe from under the passenger seat. They had no choice but to bow their heads when they were under someone else's roof, so they could only shakily pull out a handful of change from their pockets, make up ten bills, and hand them over.

Seeing that the two of them had struggled to scrape together a hundred dollars, the taxi driver figured they weren't rich, so he dropped them off and sped away.

"That's incredibly rude."

One of the engineers complained, "Don't they care at all about the country's international image?"

The other engineer had no time to pay him any attention; the Ganges River was right in front of him, and the sight of the water almost made him vomit.

"If they can ruin their mother river like this, they'll lose all their international image."

The complaining engineer then noticed the river in front of him. He saw people bathing in it, others drawing water from it, and unidentifiable objects floating on the surface. He even saw people placing the deceased on the water to cleanse their souls.

The two finally understood why Liu Hua had repeatedly warned them that the Ganges was their source of drinking water, and that even if the water was filtered a thousand times, they wouldn't feel safe drinking it.

The two men didn't stay at their third brother's house for long, less than a week. Despite being extremely cautious, they still fell into a trap on the day they were watching the goods being loaded onto the ship.

That day, it was very hot. They watched as the goods were successfully loaded onto the ship, thinking they were finally going to escape their suffering. Unexpectedly, the Brahmin, seeing that they were parched from the heat, handed them a bottle of mineral water.

Because things went relatively smoothly at work, they didn't pay close attention to the fact that the bottled water was actually a local brand from the Indian family, and they only took a couple of sips without noticing. As a result, that night, the two of them had a truly spectacular bout of diarrhea. The hotel called a doctor for them, and after taking some medicine, the diarrhea subsided a little, and then they were taken to the hospital.

Before taking them to the hospital, they made an international call to Liu Hua, meaning that the two people had accidentally contracted the virus and needed to go to the hospital.

Liu Hua asked nervously, "Can you hold on? If you can, it would be best to go back to China for treatment. The hospitals in Third Brother's hometown are... well, let's just say they're not the best."

People in those days didn't have such delicate stomachs, and after taking the medicine, the two of them felt they could still hold on.

So they declined the hotel's offer to take them to the hospital and took the earliest flight of the morning, flying directly to Almaty in western Xinjiang, China.

After landing in Almaty, the two couldn't bear it any longer and ended up staying at a local hospital. After receiving brief treatment in Almaty, they flew to WLMQ.

When they returned to the capital, Liu Hua saw the two of them again; they were so thin they looked unrecognizable.

Liu Hua could only comfort her, saying, "I'm so sorry, it was a near-death experience. But it's good that you're back. Take good care of yourself after you get back."

The two engineers said pitifully, "Engineer Liu, please never send us on business trips to Third Brother's house again, no matter what. That's not a place for humans to stay."

Half a month later, the cargo ship that had been sent from the third brother's house finally arrived. According to regulations, all the customs procedures were completed, and the goods were directly transported to the warehouse of China National Nuclear Corporation.

CNNC is also very busy, so they could only allocate ten scientific and technical personnel to help Liu Hua research the thorium-based molten salt reactor.

After obtaining permission from higher authorities, Liu Hua recruited about a hundred people from universities across the country, thus completing the formation of his research team.

The research laboratory was built near Yumen Pass. Liu Hua didn't know that in his previous life, the first experimental thorium-based molten salt reactor in our country was built in the Gansu-Longnan region.

In order to ensure the success of the research, Liu Hua also brought Lanzhou University into the project. It should be noted that the university's college is the cradle for training nuclear facility personnel in our country in its early days, and its strength should not be underestimated.

Liu Hua invested 200 million yuan in the first phase of the project alone, which was a huge sum of money at the time, but for a nuclear reactor, this amount was really negligible.

Fortunately, Liu Hua's business has already taken off, and Taiyi Heavy Industry, Taiyi New Energy, and Taiyi New Materials are all providing him with a steady stream of funding.

One advantage of running a real business is that it generates a large cash flow. Don't be fooled by real estate developers and financial businessmen; they often have billions, tens of billions, or even hundreds of billions of dollars.

However, the cash flow they can access is definitely not as much as that of businessmen in the real economy. Real estate developers have more money from banks, while financial institutions have more money from their customers.

Liu Hua dares not say anything else, but at least for now, among domestic private enterprises, the cash flow he can access is absolutely second to none. It is probably not even possible that Li Ka-shing could access more cash in a short period of time.

(End of this chapter)