Carlotte soon found his caution to be quite amusing, as many reporters and cameramen, in the presence of the staff, directly took out their long lenses and cameras, snapping pictures of the entire environment. However, the surrounding staff made no attempt to restrain them, allowing all the reporters present to take photos.
So Carlotte stopped pretending and instructed his cameraman Jackson to film comprehensively. He then reclined on the chair and muttered, "This chair is really comfortable."
Indeed, the chair Carlotte was lying on felt extremely comfortable. Not only did it envelop him, but it also provided significant support at the waist, cradling his entire lower back. It was exceptionally comfortable, and Carlotte rarely encountered such a pleasant chair.
"This looks like the ergonomic chair that's become popular domestically recently!" remarked photographer Jackson after a closer look. "I heard that headquarters has already replaced all the office chairs with these ergonomic ones. Before, we'd suffer from backaches and fatigue after sitting in the office for a whole day. It was unbearable."
"But now, editors would rather sit in the office for a day than lie down at home, because this chair is rumored to be more comfortable than a bed!" Jackson chuckled.
"Yes, I really don't know when this stay in China will end. I miss headquarters so much, and even the chairs at headquarters are so comfortable!" Carlotte also sighed. Hearing this, Mr. Bieber, sitting beside him, rolled his eyes, a peculiar smile playing on his lips, and finally couldn't help but laugh, "If you like that chair so much, do you know who produces that ergonomic chair?"
"Ah..." Carlotte and the others were taken aback. "Don't tell me it's under the Jiangnan Group!"
"Ok, then I won't say anything!" Bieber shrugged and fell silent, leaving Carlotte looking extremely uncomfortable, and even the chair seemed less appealing.
However, photographer Jackson seemed even more interested in the chair. He took a barrage of photos of the chair itself and then exclaimed, "Have you noticed? This chair seems to have a metal frame inside. This is an all-metal chair!"
"What's so strange about an all-metal chair? Aircraft seats and car seats all have metal frames. What's strange about a vacuum-suspended train chair having a metal frame?" Carlotte said impatiently.
"But Old Carl, we're not sitting in a car. This is the VIP waiting hall. How can there be all-metal chairs here?" Jackson hurried to say. Carlotte pondered and realized it did seem a bit odd.
Simultaneously, Jackson quickly made a new discovery and exclaimed, "Old Carl, this chair isn't placed on the floor; it's fixed to the floor, and this floor also appears to be all-metal!"
"Wait, there are gaps between these floor panels. This floor isn't a single piece of metal but is assembled from several long metal plates. My God, I've never seen such a VIP room decoration style!" Jackson soon made more new discoveries and then furiously filmed with his camera.
Here, the sharpness of reporters must be praised. Ordinary people would never notice so many details, but reporters could discover so many interesting points in a short period.
At the same time, Jackson was not the only qualified reporter to discover such a new continent. Some other foreign reporters also noticed the differences in the chairs. Some reporters even found that the size of the chairs was also problematic, being very large, even larger than aircraft seats.
In addition, these chairs were all arranged independently, with at least one meter between each chair in front and back, and about 0.5 meters between them on the sides.
They were also arranged neatly together, which was quite peculiar for a VIP waiting hall.
Just as the reporters on the scene were about to carefully examine the differences in these chairs, a large crowd suddenly rushed into the VIP waiting hall.
Then, these reporters instantly abandoned the chairs and began to intensely photograph the newly arrived people, or more accurately, one specific person. This person was, of course, our Boss Huang He.
"Mr. Huang! What are your views on the construction progress and truth of the two ultra-high-speed magnetic levitation train projects?"
"Mr. Billionaire, there are rumors that your personal assets have exceeded 1,000 billion US dollars. Is this true?"
As the world's richest man, Huang He's appearance was naturally the focus of everyone's attention. All the reporters jumped up and gathered around Huang He, eager to interview him.
"Dear reporters? Today I am here to attend an event for the China Ultra-High-Speed Railway Technology Development Company, so I will not steal the spotlight today. Please do not ask me any questions, and I will not answer any of your inquiries. Thank you!" Huang He said, and indeed, he stopped answering reporters' questions and only chatted with the friends sitting beside him.
Most reporters gave up given the situation, but a small number of persistent ones continued. It wasn't until the company's chairman appeared in the reception hall, smiling, that he said, "Dear reporters, please observe order and immediately return to your assigned seats. I guarantee that if you do not return to your seats, you will definitely regret it in the future! You will miss the most important part of today's event!"
After the chairman's remark, some reporters returned to their seats. Of course, some reporters remained persistent, trying to interview our Boss Huang, but they were quickly controlled by the surrounding security guards and kept several meters away. However, these reporters continued to film.
Meanwhile, this chairman did not walk onto the main stage to address all the reporters as he would at previous meetings.
Instead, he directly sat in his seat, and the projection screen in the VIP hall displayed an image of the chairman sitting upright. He addressed all the reporters in this manner, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, first, I apologize to everyone. Our actions today were somewhat hasty. Many reporters were still asleep and were confusedly flown to the beautiful city of Kunming, Yunnan. I apologize to everyone and ask for your forgiveness for the haste in our work."
"I also want to tell you that the main responsibility for our haste actually lies with your colleagues. Recently, many international media and reporters have raised many questions about us. They claim that the ribbon-cutting ceremony for our first phase project a while ago was a scam. All our company employees feel very distressed about this."
"Of course, this is not the fault of you reporters. It's just that we haven't explained many things clearly. Because we were so eager to share this exciting news with everyone at that time, we held the ribbon-cutting ceremony before much of the work was completed. I must reflect on this."
"But there is a Chinese saying: It is never too late to mend. After more than a month of preparation, I am honored to tell you that the trial operation of China's ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation train is ready. Next, everyone here will become the luckiest people in the world, becoming the first to ride the world's first ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation train in operation. Let us all applaud ourselves to congratulate!"
As the chairman finished speaking, Boss Huang immediately led the applause, and the staff members also applauded enthusiastically. The reporters, however, displayed a variety of expressions and actions.
Some applauded fervently and even whistled excitedly.
At the same time, some remained expressionless, only applauding politely.
The most outrageous were those who couldn't even be bothered to feign enthusiasm, looking as if they thought they were being treated like idiots.
The main reason these reporters didn't even bother to clap was that, like Carlotte, they had largely guessed the intentions of the China Ultra-High-Speed Railway Development Company beforehand.
They were also as certain as Carlotte that this was merely an emergency measure taken by the China Ultra-High-Speed Railway Development Company to save face.
They were sure that the company would use the already completed section of the pipeline to let them briefly stay inside the ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation train for a few minutes, and then return to Kunming, all in an attempt to deceive everyone into believing that the first phase pipeline had been completed.
Some reporters even had more far-reaching speculations, believing that the pipeline hadn't been built at all, and there would only be a single train.
And once on the train, regardless of whether it had windows or not, the inside of the pipeline would be pitch black, and no scenery could be seen outside.
Therefore, no one would know if the train was actually running inside the pipeline. They might simply put people into a dark tunnel and continuously vibrate the train, or simulate fast-flashing light strips outside the windows to trick them into believing they were already traveling inside the ultra-high-speed vacuum pipeline.
In any case, the carriage doors would be tightly shut throughout the journey, and there would be no possibility of disembarking to verify if the environment outside was a vacuum. Who could say it was fake?
Even the Americans' moon landing had many questionable points back then, let alone experiencing a vacuum magnetic levitation train that one could only be confined to within the carriage?
Thus, while the chairman passionately delivered his speech on stage, the reporters in the audience were all making various sarcastic remarks and scoffing. After the chairman finished his speech, he invited Huang He to speak.
"Everyone, see you in Guangzhou!" Boss Huang said only seven words!