Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 243: The Gap Between East and West

July 11, 1982, Sunday, hot weather.

This morning, just like celebrating the Lunar New Year, a certain alley in Beining, the capital of the Eastern Turkic Kingdom, was bustling with activity.

A dozen or so middle-aged men and women arrived at the courtyard early in the morning, some helping Zhou Yuan's mother kill the chicken, some stewing the ribs, and others cleaning. A dozen electric fans were also moved into the courtyard and house.

Urged on by his mother, Zhou Yuan rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up early. He put on a white shirt and his father's trousers, tucking the white shirt into the trousers. Zhou Yuan also wore shiny black leather shoes. This way of dressing was fashionable and stylish in the Eastern Kingdom at that time, and it was basically learned from the Western Kingdom.

Zhou Yuan's mother looked at her son, tidied his hair a little, and gave him a thumbs-up. "Son, like this, so cool. Even your dad isn't as handsome as you."

Zhou Yuan smiled slightly, "Mom, you've worked hard."

"Son, what are you saying? Aren't parents all about their children and grandchildren?"

Zhou Yuan's mother arranged for everyone to eat breakfast in the main room, which consisted of porridge, steamed buns, and dumplings.

"Sister Zhou, my sister and the others will arrive around nine o'clock."

"Thank you, Hui-mei."

Hui Mei pulled Zhou Yuan's mother aside and said softly, "Sister Zhou, Little Zhou looks great today, so cool."

Zhou Yuan's mother smiled and said, "My son usually dresses casually. If I hadn't been watching him, he would have dressed casually today as well."

"That won't do. Our distinguished guests are here; we can't be so casual."

"Yes, Hui-mei, my son is quite obedient."

"My old man went to a big hotel and came over with my brother-in-law and the others."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Brother Guo."

"It should."

"Hey, Hui-mei, where's Brother Pan?"

"His daughter Nana arrived in Beining last night. I guess Brother Pan is with his daughter. Brother Pan said he'll come over around 10 o'clock."

"Oh." Zhou Yuan's mother was surprised.

The two then chatted for a few more minutes.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out outside the door, followed by Old Pan's shout, "Nana, come back here! Don't disturb them!"

"Dad, I just want to see Brother Zhou. It's been more than ten years since I last saw him."

A tall, stylish young woman burst into the courtyard, leaving everyone stunned.

Old Pan came in too, nodded apologetically to everyone, and said, "Nana, don't be so rude."

"Is this Nana? She's so tall! She's such a beautiful girl."

"Nana, this is Fifth Aunt, this is Uncle Zhang, this is..."

Nana bowed and greeted everyone, quickly saying, "Good morning, uncles, aunts, and everyone. I'm Nana, and this is my dad." After saying that, Panna put her hand on Old Pan's shoulder, and Old Pan couldn't help but smile wryly.

Presumably because of the hot weather, Panna was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, and even a crop top.

"Nana, where's your mother?"

"Uncle Zhang, my mom and dad aren't coming; they've gone to visit tourist attractions in Beining."

"Oh."

"Brother Zhou, Brother Zhou..." Panna looked around at the surrounding houses and called out loudly.

"Nana, don't do this."

"Dad, what's up? Wait a minute, is there some kind of happy occasion at Brother Zhou's house today?"

Panna probably figured it out.

Old Pan pulled Panna aside, "Girl, your Brother Zhou is on a blind date today."

"Blind date? Haha!" Panna burst into laughter. "You guys are really, really old-fashioned, blind dates?"

Zhou Yuan's mother and Zhou Yuan came out of the inner room together. Zhou Yuan and Pan Na made eye contact, and Pan Na couldn't help but bend over and giggle incessantly. Zhou Yuan found this beautiful woman inexplicable.

Zhou Yuan's mother walked up to Lao Pan and asked, "Brother Pan, is this Nana?"

Pan Na finally straightened up, still smiling, and bowed to Zhou Yuan's mother, "Good morning, Auntie."

"Wow, Nana's so tall! She's so beautiful."

"Thank you auntie."

Zhou Yuan stood next to his mother. "Nana, when did you get back?"

"Arrived last night. Handsome guy, why are you wearing so much in this heat? Look at me."

After showing off himself, Zhou Yuan couldn't help but glance at him a few more times. He recalled what Xiao Mei had mentioned about her brother in the Western Land Kingdom yesterday and sighed that the Western Land Kingdom was indeed as it was.

"Handsome, you should change your clothes. You may not be hot, but I feel hot just looking at you."

As soon as the word "hot" was mentioned, everyone felt it was hot. Zhou Yuan's mother quickly led everyone into the lobby, which was quite large. This immediately attracted Pan Na's interest, and Pan Na looked around and touched everything.

"Daughter, let's go home."

"Dad, why are you in such a hurry? I still need to talk to Brother Zhou. Didn't you say he's a top student from Qing Teng University?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yuan walked up to Pan Na and asked, "Nana, which university do you attend, and what's your major?"

"I'm at MIT, my major is... come over here."

Pan Na took Zhou Yuan's arm and walked to the corner of the lobby, where she whispered to him, "I studied artificial intelligence."

Artificial intelligence? Zhou Yuan was completely bewildered. He had never heard of this term before, and none of his teachers had ever mentioned it. What was artificial intelligence? It must be related to humans. Intelligence? It was probably related to human wisdom.

"Nana, I've never heard of studying human intelligence?"

"Yes, it involves some things." Pana seemed to have discovered a treasure, and suddenly grabbed Zhou Yuan's hand. "Brother Zhou, is that your study?"

Zhou Yuan's room happened to be open. When Pan Na saw the rows of bookshelves, she was first stunned, and then she felt inexplicably excited.

Zhou Yuan was dragged to her room by Panna. Panna let go of his hand and began to reach for the bookshelf. "Brother Zhou, why are these books so yellow?"

Zhou Yuan was behind her, and smiled, "These books were all bought at the secondhand book market, and they've been sitting for a long time."

"Oh, you've finished reading it?" Pan Na turned around unexpectedly, and Zhou Yuan happened to be standing behind her. Their faces touched, and Zhou Yuan felt something soft pressing against his chest, which was a little itchy. Zhou Yuan quickly took a few steps back, his face burning.

"Brother Zhou, what's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing. You can stay here and look around, I'll go out for a bit."

Zhou Yuan quickly walked out of his room and went to the bathroom to wash his face with cold water.

Panna randomly picked a few books from several rows of bookshelves, flipped through them, and immediately felt dizzy. Zhou Yuan had marked almost every page of these books, indicating that he was reading them carefully. Panna picked out seven or eight more books, and they were all the same.

Zhou Yuan's room consisted of bookshelves, a bed, and a desk for writing. These six bookshelves held quite a few books.

Panna turned her gaze to Zhou Yuan's bed. The bed was fairly neat and clean, and the headboard was piled high with books. Panna noticed a piece of paper tucked inside one of the books. She quietly walked over to the bedside, picked up the book, and opened it. There were two pieces of paper, one of which caught her attention: Ye Xiaomei? Who is this? It even had her detailed home address and phone number.

Pan Na quickly closed the book, put it back in its place, and walked out of the house. She saw Zhou Yuan chatting with her father. Old Pan looked Zhou Yuan up and down, his eyes showing some strangeness.

"Xiao Zhou, you'll be going back to work in a few days, right?"

"Yes, Uncle Pan, I also want to go to work as soon as possible. I'm so bored at home."

"You seem to be recovering very well."

"Dad, what's wrong with Brother Zhou?" Pan Na asked, leaning closer.

Old Pan glanced at his daughter, "Dad, what's wrong with caring about Brother Zhou?" Pan Na pouted.

"Nana, I accidentally fell down in the rain and suffered a severe concussion."

"Severe concussion?"

"Yes."

Panna didn't say anything, she just looked at Zhou Yuan. Zhou Yuan felt embarrassed by her gaze, turned around and greeted Old Pan, then went back to his room. Unexpectedly, Panna followed him in.

Zhou Yuan brought out a chair, and the two started chatting at the desk.

"Handsome guy, I heard from my dad that you're working at the observatory?"

"Yes."

"Why are you interested in astronomy? I've seen many of your books, which are quite advanced. Of course, many of them are translations of our Western textbooks."

"Well, I guess I've been interested in stars since I was little. Nana, don't you think it's strange that there are a few planets in our sky?"

"According to my calculations, including our Earth, all five blue planets that we can see are facing the sun."

"That's not surprising, it's the sun's gravity."

"No, that's not it. My calculations show that these five planets form a perfect arc, with the sun at the center, and these five blue planets are also arranged at equal intervals."

When Pan Na heard Zhou Yuan say that, she stared at him with wide eyes, seemingly finding it hard to believe.

"Big brother, you're amazing." He said, a strange look in his eyes.

"what happened?"

“Your calculation is correct; that’s what our natural science textbook says.”

"Really?" Zhou Yuan exclaimed excitedly.

Panna was quite surprised because she knew that in terms of technology, the Eastern Kingdom was far behind the Western Kingdom. Panna didn't know if researchers in the Eastern Kingdom, such as those at the National Astronomical Observatory, had calculated or discovered this result. But this Zhou Yuan, who had just graduated from university and lacked observational equipment, was able to calculate this result on his own, which was naturally very impressive to Panna.

"Brother, if you have the chance, you should visit our country and learn from them. You're burying your talents in the Eastern Kingdom."

Zhou Yuan paused for a moment, then said, "Yes, I'll definitely go if I have the chance."

"Go find me when you get there. I'll write down your address and phone number for you."

After saying that, Pan Na, without waiting for Zhou Yuan's agreement, picked up a pen and paper and started writing quickly. After finishing, she handed it to Zhou Yuan to look at. Zhou Yuan glanced at it and asked, "Nana, is this our home phone number? Is the rest of the number?"

"That's my phone number?"

"A cell phone? What's a cell phone?"

Pana shook her head gently. "A cell phone is also a kind of telephone, but it's a mobile telephone. You can hold it in your hand and make calls even when you're in different cities."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yuan was stunned, realizing the vast difference between the Eastern and Western Turkic Kingdoms. The Eastern Turkic Kingdom had lost over twenty precious years of development time, making the gap between it and the Western Turkic Kingdom enormous.

"We also have the internet, which allows us to communicate, chat, work, shop, and so on on computers."

Zhou Yuan was stunned again. During his time at Qing Teng University, he also took computer courses, but those computers used complex, primitive machine language, ran extremely slowly, and were rare and precious. You have to know, Qing Teng University is the best university in the entire Eastern Land Kingdom.

"Nana, our teacher told me that your country has aircraft carriers. What do aircraft carriers look like?"

"An aircraft carrier can sail on the vast ocean for months or even a year without any problem. It can be equipped with various advanced fighter jets and missiles. You could say it's a mobile castle or armory at sea."

Zhou Yuan was taken aback, thinking to himself, "If a war breaks out, this floating castle at sea could destroy coastal cities."

As if to verify Zhou Yuan's idea, Pan Na continued, "Six years ago, pirates were rampant in an island nation in the Pacific, intercepting and robbing our country's transport ships. At that time, our president ordered the dispatch of a four-carrier battle group to wipe out this Pacific island nation and sink a large island, which was forever buried at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean."

"Huh?!" Zhou Yuan imagined a large island slowly sinking into the sea under the attack of weapons flying everywhere, while the island's inhabitants cried out for help.