"Because of me?" Zhang Chen shook his head and smiled, "Mr. Koch, I haven't been arrogant enough to this extent. ”

David Koch coughed twice: "I'm sorry, you know, Charles and I are both prostate cancer patients, and we have been doing supplemental chemotherapy recently, and we are not feeling well. ”

The Koch family has a genetic history of prostate cancer, and three of the four brothers are prostate cancer patients. They have also donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Cancer Society and the Prostate Cancer Treatment Research Institute, and while they are also trying to prolong their lives, they have also objectively contributed to the advancement of cancer treatment research.

Zhang Chen said politely: "It's okay, if you are not feeling well, we can talk about it another day." ”

David Koch waved his hand: "It's just some adverse drug reactions, it's not a big deal." ”

Immediately after, David Koch took two breaths and smiled: "Have you ever faced death?"

Zhang Chen just wanted to shake his head, but suddenly thought that his rebirth also meant the death of his previous life? Thinking of this, he couldn't help but be stunned.

Could it be that the Koch brothers have discovered that they are born again?

"I've faced it twice, and the time I knew I had prostate cancer, it was the second time. David Koch said to himself.

Zhang Chen sighed, he didn't understand why David Koch suddenly started talking about life with him, did he want to keep the inheritance to himself?

"And the first time, that was in 1991. "I was flying from Ohio to San Francisco on a Boeing 737 with a stop in Los Angeles. When I landed in Los Angeles, I happened to glance out the window and saw that there was a small plane on the runway, and our plane was crashing into it. ”

At this point, David Koch's fingers holding the cigar trembled a little, and this memory was clearly one of the most terrifying memories of his life.

"Although the pilot slowed down with all his might, the two planes collided together. The explosion nearly punctured our ear drums, and the fire and smoke soon filled the cabin. ”

"Fortunately, the plane stopped, and we all squeezed towards the safety exit, only to find that only one of the six safety exits could be opened, and the cabin was even more chaotic. And I, because I was far away from the safety exit, I fell into suffocation before I could squeeze into the safety exit. ”

"At the time, I thought I was going to die. I prayed to God for forgiveness of my sins, but my consciousness gradually blurred, as if I had entered an abyss, losing all perception and even being able to feel my existence. David Koch took two deep puffs of his cigar.

"Thank God that He should have heard my prayers. When I opened my eyes again, I was already in the hospital. David Koch's expression was a little happy and a little proud, "Since God has brought me back into this world, it means that I have a more important mission to accomplish." ”

Zhang Chen's heart was tired for a while, he hated this kind of pretentious mission theory very much. In Zhang Chen's view, the so-called sense of mission has never really changed the world and mankind, but has only added more unstable factors to the world.

And this David Koch is a bit of a god, no wonder the American media is so dark about the brothers.

"It's a legendary experience. Zhang Chen said perfunctorily, "But in terms of faith, I am not a staunch atheist, although I am glad that you were rescued, but I think you should be more grateful to the firefighters who rescued you from the fire." ”

David Koch disagreed: "Maybe when you reach my age, you will have a different understanding." But anyway, from that day on, I was thinking about what I meant in this world. ”

"Charles and I are both members of the John Birch Order, as well as members of Freemasonry. Speaking of this, David Koch couldn't help but smile when he saw Zhang Chen's expression, "Don't be deceived by those exaggerated conspiracy theories, whether an organization is strong or not is more important than the individual ability of the members of the organization, the control of the organization and the closeness between members." Freemasonry members come from all over the world, have different faiths and represent different interests. Freemasonry ties are not so close that general membership is even difficult to verify. In this case, it can only be a loose organization that is not binding on its members. And an organization that is not absolutely binding on its members, even if all the elites in this world are its members, this organization cannot really control the world. On the contrary, an organization with strong control and close ties of members is truly dominant. As a Chinese, you should know this very well. ”

Zhang Chen couldn't help laughing, indeed, an underground organization like Freemasonry could exist for hundreds of years, and it could only be this kind of loose structure.

David Koch changed his words, "But there are certain ideals that Freemasonry and John Birch share very much. Charles and I have always been staunch supporters of the Austrian School, and we have never hidden anything about that. After these two crises of death, I am even more convinced that my mission and meaning in this world is to maintain the right to freedom to the greatest extent. And the government is the worst enemy of freedom and rights. ”

"Charles and I started experimenting more than a decade ago, including funding various social research institutes, but frankly, it didn't work very well. ”

Zhang Chen was already a little impatient, and frowned: "Mr. Koch, I have no interest in politics, let alone a sense of mission to change the world. And this topic does not seem to have anything to do with Matrix's financing. ”

David Koch smiled: "Of course there is, like I just said, we invested in Matrix because of you. With that, David Koch picked up the TV remote on the table and pressed it.

Zhang Chen immediately recognized that what was playing on TV was his speech at Stanford more than a year ago.

"Charles and I started paying attention to you from this speech of yours. David Koch said slowly, "In your speech, you mentioned that the Internet will bring the world closer together and reduce barriers and class differences. This was idealized speculation, but it gave Charles and me another kind of inspiration. ”

"Every user is a point, and it is these points that constitute the Internet, and from this point of view, the Internet does not have a center, it is self-contained. At the same time, the Internet itself does not have a ruler in the true sense of the word, and all users are managing it spontaneously. Although large websites have their own server systems, perhaps one day, with the continuous improvement of computer performance, every user's computer can become the center of the Internet. In a way, this is exactly the kind of free society that Charles and I were looking for!"

Zhang Chen was dumbfounded, what kind of stuff is this? The Koch brothers are too awesome, right? Now that the Internet has just emerged, they have already considered decentralization? Fortunately, they are not from IT, otherwise Bitcoin would have come out at this time, right?

"Charles and I invested in Matrix, partly because we were inspired by your presentation, and partly because Matrix is the most promising PC supplier right now after analysis by professional organizations. By investing in Matrix, we can dramatically accelerate the development of Matrix and enable it to develop faster and better personal computers. "David Koch has a look on his face for the call of duty.

"It's not a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy. A conspiracy to fulfill my and Charles' ideals. ”

(End of chapter)