Wang Donglu originally thought the old men of the Beiyang clique would talk for a long time, but he didn't expect that with just one phrase from Zhao Tianlin—"The initiator of this evil, will they have no posterity?"—Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui would cease their discussion. Soon, Wang Donglu's father brought up the matter of Wang Donglu. Hearing that the aircraft design bureau where Wang Donglu worked had ceased operations and personnel were being transferred to other departments, Zhao Tianlin's expression actually showed a kind of relief. Looking Wang Donglu up and down, Zhao Tianlin said to Wang's father, "The state naturally has its arrangements. How could the state let a talent like Nephew Wang sit idle?"

Hearing this, the stone weighing on Wang's father's heart was finally lifted. If not for his precious son, Old Master Wang would not have been willing to attend such a gathering. Since he had come, what he hoped for was to hear an evaluation of the future from a figure like Zhao Tianlin. Since even Zhao Tianlin thought there was no problem, Wang's father didn't ask further.

After the meal, Wang's father took Wang Donglu back to the guesthouse. As the taxi stopped outside, Wang's father simply said, "Wait here properly, don't wander off. When you're done with your business, come home for a visit."

Wang Donglu now understood his father's intentions. Realizing that his father had taken his affairs so to heart, he was truly moved and didn't know what to say for a moment.

His father pushed his shoulder. "Go on, quickly. In case someone is looking for you right now, are you going to make them wait? Whatever you have to say, say it when you get home."

Wang Donglu could only utter a "Thanks, Dad" before getting out of the car. Turning back at the guesthouse entrance, he saw the taxi, which looked as if it were made of thin sheet metal, already driving away into the distance.

Entering the guesthouse and walking to the corridor where his room was located, he saw two men in military uniform standing at his door. This startled Wang Donglu; he had never expected the military to actually come for him at this time.

In the afternoon, Wang Donglu began to undergo a personnel investigation. Wang Donglu hadn't been subjected to such a detailed investigation in a long time. He had undergone similar vetting during his brief stint in the National Security Bureau and before joining the Aircraft Design Bureau. But compared to those times, the emphasis this time was clearly greater.

Four days later, after completing the investigation, Wang Donglu had a talk with the National Defense Force. Behind a door in a long corridor of an office building, Wang Donglu spoke with a Major General Luo of the military. The Major General asked Wang Donglu if he was willing to work at a certain aircraft research institute. Wang Donglu answered immediately, "As long as it's a research institute that builds fighter jets, I'm willing."

After he spoke, Wang Donglu waited for a long conversation with Major General Luo. Instead, Major General Luo took out a document and placed it in front of him. "Take your time, read it carefully. After you finish, decide whether or not to sign this contract." With that, Major General Luo stood up and left the room.

Wang Donglu looked at a major sitting nearby, feeling that this officer's job was probably not to converse with him, and opened the document to read. It was a contract listing the responsibilities and obligations of both parties if Wang Donglu was willing to go to the aircraft research institute.

Most conditions were nothing special, except that after Wang Donglu ended his cooperative relationship with the institute, he would have to undergo a "desensitization period" lasting several years. During this period, Wang Donglu would have to live in a designated place and could not meet with anyone outside of regulations.

When Major General Luo returned, Wang Donglu asked about this contract clause that made him uncomfortable. "Major General Luo, if I work at this institute until retirement, will I still need this desensitization period?"

Hearing this, Major General Luo shook his head. "Even after ending the contract relationship, you must undergo this desensitization period. The content to be observed during the desensitization period is the same. Expert Wang, the industry you are engaged in involves national technical secrets. I think you already have a deep understanding of this."

The phrase "technical secrets" lifted Wang Donglu's spirits, and he immediately stated, "Where do I sign?"

"Do you want to consider it a bit more?" Major General Luo did not answer immediately.

Wang Donglu replied briskly, "I'm already prepared!"

Seeing Wang Donglu's firm attitude, Major General Luo had the major beside him point out several places for Wang Donglu to sign the date and time. Afterward, the major opened an inkpad box and had Wang Donglu press his fingerprint over his signature.

After this process was completed, Major General Luo stood up and extended his hand to Wang Donglu, who was wiping the red ink from his finger with paper. "Welcome, Expert Wang, to work at the research institute."

As their hands clasped together, Wang Donglu knew he could continue to serve the country and the fighter jet industry, and his heart finally settled.

Two days later, Wang Donglu bid farewell to his parents, boarded a plane with his luggage, and headed straight for his destination: Chengdu. This beautiful city would be Wang Donglu's future workplace.

At the aircraft research institute, Wang Donglu successively met many old colleagues. Just seeing these people made Wang Donglu very happy. Everyone had worked together for so many years and held each other in high regard. It was evident that the standard for this personnel adjustment was truly both virtue and talent.

At the first meeting of the aircraft research institute, a Senior Colonel in military uniform distributed a list to everyone. "Experts, your future work will mainly consist of two parts. One part is the production of our country's fighter jets. The other part is to analyze and determine the strength of fighter jets equipped by countries around the world based on aircraft data. Ultimately, we aim to develop our country's fighter jets targeting foreign ones."

The crowd was stunned. Wang Donglu recalled his own fighter jet R&D experience. From the establishment of the Aircraft Design Bureau by the Northeast Government in 1918 until the end of the Anglo-Chinese War in 1927, attention had been focused on solving the problems encountered by their own fighter jets. After 1927, the main effort was placed on how to complete the research and development of the new-style combat aircraft planned by He Rui. During these dozen years or so, the Aircraft Design Bureau rarely made requirements to compare with foreign aircraft. Suddenly being given such a comparative task was truly unexpected.

After the Defense Force explained the work content, they left the materials and departed. The model here at the aircraft research institute was the same as the Aircraft Design Bureau, still with experts forming teams to complete tasks. The experts divided into various groups according to their specialties and began working.

Wang Donglu hadn't expected research could be so fun. When burying their heads in researching only their own aircraft, what everyone encountered were all their own various problems. The content of discussions was nothing more than how to solve these problems and why such problems appeared. The sense of frustration generated by this self-negation and doubt was actually quite tormenting.

Now that they were looking at foreign aircraft, they could discuss matters on their own merits very freely, and these foreign aircraft truly brought everyone too much fun. In terms of design philosophy, apart from the landing gear structure where foreign countries still persisted in the mode of having two wheels at the front, other design ideas were basically consistent with China's aircraft before 1927. As experts, they understood this content at a glance.

Especially in 1934, when the British Air Ministry issued the F.7/30 fighter specification (Note: The text says F5/34, but historically F.7/30 led to the Spitfire, though F.37/34 was later. The text explicitly mentions Supermarine and Mitchell). The text mentions the F5/34 specification, multiple companies competing, and Supermarine's engineer Reginald Mitchell offering two designs—Type 300 and K5054. Ultimately, the Type 300 won and was named "Spitfire".

If He Rui hadn't intervened and ended the research and development of piston-engine fighter jets, it's possible that China's latest fighter jet would be very similar to the Spitfire.

But the data on the Spitfire was not particularly complete. Not only British fighters, but the data on fighters from France, the Soviet Union, and the United States in 1934 was also incomplete. However, just from these basic materials, the experts at the Aircraft Research Institute knew that their peers around the world had not been idle during the years the Chinese Aircraft Design Bureau was agonizing. Foreign peers were ceaselessly developing new-style aircraft. The reason the Chinese Aircraft Design Bureau didn't communicate much with foreign peers was largely, one feared, due to He Rui's determination to burn his bridges and insist on developing a Chinese aircraft technological route. After seven years of hard work, the experts had fulfilled their mission.

As long as enough resources are invested, the power of a radial engine can be made greater than that of a turboprop engine, and aircraft using radial engines can theoretically be faster than China's J-9 prototype. But the Chinese experts were not panicked at all after seeing the results of their foreign peers. As long as foreign peers continued to use piston engines, Chinese fighter jets only needed to make adjustments and improvements on the existing foundation to remain in a leading state. Because the two sides were no longer playing the same game.

Professor Zhao Tianlin did not know that Wang Donglu, whom he had helped, was now brimming with confidence. He was simply landing in Mexico City on the ultra-long-range civilian airliner that Wang Donglu had participated in developing. This year's International Human Rights Organization conference was held in the Mexican capital, Mexico City. Although the World Human Rights Organization was established under China's lead with its headquarters in Hangzhou, the internal structure of the Human Rights Organization was not a hierarchical relationship like that within the Third International, but rather a relationship of cooperation and consultation.

The human rights organizations of various countries were independent institutions of equal status. The various continental branches of the Human Rights Organization were not leading bodies but secretariat-type departments, with the headquarters merely providing a fixed meeting venue.

On the streets of Mexico City, most of the people coming and going wore hats with ultra-wide brims in the local style. The person who came to welcome Zhao Tianlin also presented him with one of these wide-brimmed hats, which reminded Zhao Tianlin of China's bamboo hats and straw hats. And Zhao Tianlin soon felt the practicality of this hat. in a high-altitude area like Mexico City, the ultraviolet rays were exceptionally strong. Even riding a horse without direct exposure to the sun, the reflection from the surrounding environment alone made Zhao Tianlin's skin feel uncomfortable.

The International Human Rights Organization was a non-governmental organization, and the Mexican government did not send anyone to attend. Riding alongside Zhao Tianlin on the street was the representative of the American International Human Rights Organization, Edgar Snow. Among the members of the American International Human Rights Organization, many were journalists like Edgar Snow. Because these journalists had written many books profoundly exposing the dark side of American society during the Great Depression, the then-President Hoover had given these people a nickname: "Muckrakers."

But Edgar Snow was not unhappy about his title of "Muckraker." He had met Zhao Tianlin several times and wanted to talk about the latest achievements of the "Muckrakers." "Dear Mr. Zhao, after the book about American food came out, it is said that after President Roosevelt read it, he never ate sausages produced in American factories again."

Zhao Tianlin laughed. "Haha, we also had several meat processing enterprises in our country that went bankrupt because they were exposed in the newspapers." When it came to the nature of capitalists in various countries, it was really a case of the pot calling the kettle black, and Zhao Tianlin had no intention of speaking up for this bunch of capitalists.

Hearing Zhao Tianlin say this, Edgar sighed. "Of the factory-produced sausages I've eaten, the Soviet Union's 'Doctor's Sausage' undoubtedly has the best quality. I went to the Soviet Union last year. I like the Soviet people very much, but I don't like the Soviet system."

Zhao Tianlin had also eaten "Doctor's Sausage." "Doctor's Sausage" required 15% high-quality beef, 60% lean pork, and 25% fat pork (semi-fat pork, not the pure fat used in many recipes now). Undoubtedly, if the recipe was strictly followed, the shelf life of these products would be very short and the cost extremely high. Even if the selling price was raised and preservatives provided by China were used, the profit margin of the Soviet Doctor's Sausage was far lower than that of sausages where inferior ingredients were passed off as good. So what the Soviet Union provided at this time were just sausage coupons, and the output was not very sufficient.

Even so, anyone who had eaten this kind of sausage would marvel that a factory could continuously produce such high-quality sausages. There was a reason why the Soviet Union was called the "conscience of the workers."

Zhao Tianlin replied, "The Soviet system is a welfare system. From its inception, this system was aimed at satisfying the working class."

The American Human Rights Organization representative, Snow, nodded. "I respect such an attitude very much. There are also very many people in Europe who support the idea of this welfare system. However, neither China nor the United States seems willing to accept the welfare system."

The Chinese representative, Zhao Tianlin, agreed with Snow's observation. "The volume of China and the United States determines that if we want to develop the economy effectively, what is needed is to hold the bottom line, and absolutely not abandon the people."

"Yes, Dr. Zhao. The Soviet Union has a crime called the 'crime of sabotage.' This may be the Soviet Union's way of not abandoning the people. But I personally do not like to see such a system."

Zhao Tianlin touched the back of his hand. Wearing the large-brimmed hat, only the backs of his hands were exposed. Even in just this short while, Zhao Tianlin felt uncomfortable. Urging his horse forward, Zhao Tianlin changed the subject, speaking of one of the topics he brought this time: "How to resist the logical invasion of developed Euro-American industrial countries."

It wasn't that Zhao Tianlin was afraid that evaluating the Soviet Union would lead to diplomatic problems. He currently had no official status, and in the formal diplomatic field, the Soviet Union had no reason to link Zhao Tianlin with the Chinese government. Moreover, the intensity of this criticism was nothing on a global scale; among the figures attacking the Soviet Union most ferociously, Trotsky was the most dazzling one.

But Snow seemed particularly interested in the Soviet Union, and he directly combined Zhao Tianlin's topic with the Soviet Union. "It seems the Soviet Union has already established its own logic. I wonder if the Soviet Union has considered the antagonistic nature of this logic with Europe and America?"

Zhao Tianlin could only answer, "The Soviet Union has certainly noticed this antagonism. However, the Soviet personnel I have come into contact with seem unwilling to admit that they are a welfare system country. They insist that what they are doing is called Communism. I have also met many people who support the Soviet Union, and their level of excitement about this even exceeds that of the Soviets. They believe that describing the Soviet Union as a welfare system country is the greatest insult to the Soviet Union."

Snow felt a resonance in his heart; he had also encountered the things Zhao Tianlin recounted. Snow himself had deep expectations for Communism, but after going to the Soviet Union, Soviet-style Communism made Snow feel very uncomfortable. But once Zhao Tianlin defined the Soviet Union as a country implementing a "welfare system" rather than a Communist country, this sense of dissonance quickly disappeared. Even those unpleasant systems of the Soviet Union suddenly became more understandable.

"This is Chairman He's view, isn't it?" Snow asked.

Zhao Tianlin knew he couldn't avoid the topic of Communism, so he simply stopped evading it. He answered decisively, "Yes. This is Chairman He's judgment of the Soviet Union, and this is also Chairman He's analysis of the Communist movement being influenced by the Soviet Union. If the Soviet model is taken as the template for Communism, it will cause very serious influence on the Communist movement."

"Will you deliver a speech on this aspect at this conference? Professor Zhao," Snow asked expectantly.

Zhao Tianlin shook his head. "The theme of my speech this time has nothing to do with ideological content like Communism or Capitalism. The biggest problem countries face now lies in the difficulties encountered at the execution level. If these problems cannot be solved, the oppressed people of the world cannot be liberated. For example, the white people among white supremacists actually want to utilize white supremacy. But the people of liberated countries naturally develop imperialist sentiments. True liberation is neither white supremacy, nor black supremacy, nor supremacy of any other race or skin color. Utilizing industrial advantages to maintain a country's super-profits is a common tendency of industrial countries. Only by clarifying this issue can we understand the internal logic of developed Euro-American industrial countries. Only by understanding their logic can we resist this logic."

Edgar Snow only then understood why Zhao Tianlin was unwilling to continue discussing the issue of Soviet Communism, but he was really concerned about the Soviet issue recently. Soon, Edgar Snow asked again, "Professor Zhao, will the Soviet Union also use the advantages of an advanced industrial country to obtain super-profits?"

Zhao Tianlin nodded. "This is an inevitable result in commercial trade. If the Soviet Union cannot provide a new world trade system, then the Soviet Union will inevitably do such things. In a certain sense, such problems will definitely appear in the development process of every country in the future. What we must do is not to give up eating for fear of choking, but to let all countries enter the new industrial age as soon as possible. Only in high-level economic exchanges can this kind of problem possibly be solved."

Edgar Snow couldn't help but smile. "This is really something to look forward to. What will the future world model look like?"

"It will definitely be different for each. Anyway, I can't imagine the American North and the American South adopting the same housing." Zhao Tianlin reminded Snow very subtly that the world could absolutely not be exactly the same.