At the beginning of October 1957, the sun was bright and cloudless.

Carl got up early and came to the Bandan Book Company, where he came in his new Cadillac car.

He had been promoted to editor-in-chief a few years earlier, and since he became Alex's editor-in-charge, he has been working his way up the ranks. Every time a new Harry Potter book is released, Bantan Books makes a lot of money, and Carl gets the benefit of it.

He thought back to the time, and was glad that he didn't throw Alex's manuscript aside, but grabbed the opportunity and never let go.

What's the name of the guy he was competing with in the first place? It's Andrew or Andre or something, that guy doesn't know where he has gotten to for a long time. As for himself, he firmly occupied the opportunity and successfully ascended to the position.

In the past eight years, the development of the Bandan Book Society has more than doubled, and the number of editors-in-chief has increased. Carl even became a partner in the book club, and he received a lot of dividends every year. It's all Harry Potter from Alex, and it's a shame that the book is coming to an end.

Originally, it was possible that Carl had moved Alex and asked him to write it down before this. For Alex, the Harry Potter book income is nothing, but for Carl, it is the source of his livelihood.

Now that this golden job bowl is about to be gone, how can you not let Carl worry. Unexpectedly, Alex would be kidnapped at a signing party, which not only made Alex temporarily withdraw from the entertainment industry, but also made him stop his plan to write the next step.

"Hey! What an unforeseen situation! Carl thought about it all the time. He felt that he was so unlucky.

He came to his office and sat down. I was thinking about whether to give Alex a call. Before that, he had made phone calls. But they were all blocked by the people around Alex.

Carl tries to try again, and he plans to convince Alex to keep writing.

Looking at the time, it was still early, and he estimated that he would still be picked up by others. Alex shouldn't be free at that early hour, he guessed.

Out of boredom, he took out a radio from a drawer, which had been given to him by Alex. There is also one at home. He bought it for his children. This type of radio is small and convenient, and the shape is novel, which makes it a great gift for others.

I turned on the radio and tuned a random channel, and a strange electronic sound came from inside.

"Toot toot! Drip, drip! Doodle! Toot toot! Drip, drip! ”

Carl tapped the radio, and he thought it was broken, or maybe the channel wasn't getting it right, so he changed it again. But the voice I received was still this strange sound.

"Is it really broken?" He stood up and wanted someone to fix it.

The office door suddenly opened, and a man broke in. That's Carl's assistant. He was sweating profusely and looked a little flustered.

"The editor-in-chief is not good, our newly bought TV is broken!" The assistant said.

The TV was only bought last week, and it is a perk offered to the staff of Bantan Books. The person above thinks. As a book editor, you must always be aware of current news and current events in order to accurately target the book market.

"Broken? What's going on? ”

Carl followed the assistant to the hall. He had some ominous premonitions in his heart that the price of this TV was not cheap. It is also an electrical appliance of the "Carpenter" brand. Could it be that there is a problem with all the "Carpenter" brand products today?

The TV was on, and there was a bunch of people standing around. They were all employees of Bantan Books, and a few of them were slapping the television to fix the broken appliance.

The program can still be received normally, and the image sound or something can still be played, but there is a mysterious electronic sound sandwiched between them.

"Toot toot! Drip, drip! Doodle! Toot toot! Drip, drip! ”

The sound was exactly the same as the sound of the radio in Carl's hand, which was very strange. When Carl told the others about the coincidence, they soon found their respective radios, which were also able to pick up the mysterious sound signal.

"Oh! Oh my gosh, what's going on? Could it be that all the Carpenter appliances broke down all at once? ”

Someone couldn't help but shout, but soon someone objected: "It's not just Carpenter's problem, my other brands of radio have also received that mysterious signal." ”

"Could it be that there is a radio station around us that is broadcasting signals, which is why it interferes with the normal operation of the radio and television set?"

In this era, televisions still receive signals wirelessly, and they receive analog signals, which are easily interfered with by other high-power radio stations. However, they soon received many reports of similar problems in other states.

This immediately frightened people, and a creepy feeling arose. In this world, there is no TV tower that can send such a powerful signal and cover the whole of the United States! It's simply not possible.

Soon, Americans learned that this mysterious signal was received not only in the United States, but also on radios and televisions all over the world.

They all received this mysterious electronic voice, and people were puzzled, frightened, and many dissatisfied, and they called the radio or television station to ask what was going on.

This incident was quickly reported, made headlines and TV shows, everyone talked about it, and some scientists analyzed that such a wide range of signals must have come from the universe. In other words, extraterrestrial life.

This speculation has led to excitement, and some people believe that this is a signal from God to humanity to warn greedy humans not to continue to act arbitrarily.

Not only are the people excited, panicked and afraid, but even governments around the world have begun to attach great importance to this mysterious signal from space, and have set up relevant departments to investigate and study. But no one has been able to decipher what this signal means.

It didn't take long for things to pass. The mysterious electronic signal incident soon came to light when the Soviets announced that they had succeeded in building the world's first satellite. It is an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth.

The moon is shaped like a spherical comet, with a sphere diameter of 55 centimeters. There are also several elongated antennas on the outside of the sphere. It orbits the Earth in just 1 hour and 35 minutes, has a maximum altitude of 900 kilometers above the ground, and transmits signals continuously from two channels.

Since the orbit is at an angle of 65 degrees to the equator, it can pass over Moscow twice a day.

The Soviets did not report in detail on the rocket that launched the satellite, but it did mention that it left the ground at a speed of 8 kilometers per second. Soviet officials said: "This launch opened the way to interstellar voyages." ”

The news soon spread throughout the world, and people were shocked by this feat of the Soviet Union. Americans, in particular, have turned their gaze to the red-state country, wanting to see through the thick Iron Curtain what is going on inside.

American officials declared that they were not only shocked by the fact that the Soviet Union was the first to successfully launch a satellite. And surprised at the sheer size of this satellite. The satellite weighs 83 kilograms, eight times heavier than the U.S. satellite to launch.

The news of the successful launch of the first artificial satellite quickly spread throughout the world, and all countries were shocked, and all major newspapers and periodicals in the world reported in prominent positions with big-character headlines: "News that caused a sensation in the 20 th century," "A new era of science and technology," "The Soviet Union is ahead again," "The Russians have opened the road to the universe," and so on.

The New York Times published an article arguing: "The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, and this increase in human ability is equivalent to the first upright walk of primitive humans a long time ago." ”

Wald, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States? McDougall once wrote: "Nothing since Pearl Harbor has affected public life in such a way." ”

The Soviet newspaper Pravda reported the news with great restraint of joy in a standard two-column layout.

Khrushchev, then the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, was overjoyed when he received the news of the launch, and he and his son Sergei turned on the radio and listened to the beep from the satellite. Then go back to the bedroom to rest.

Later, in an interview with The New York Times, Sergei recalled: "We didn't realize at the time that there would be such a huge shaking in the world in the following hours. ”

It was indeed shocking enough, and the whole world was shocked. This is an unprecedented event. Humanity is finally ready to explore space, and this satellite is just a small slingstone, after which more man-made objects will be sent into space.

But for the Americans. Their only question was: "What is it that the Soviets launched the satellite first, and not the United States!" ”

The huge disparity is unsettling for Americans. When dealing with new inventions, people often ask, "What has God done?" ”

Now the question becomes: "What can the Soviets do next?" ”

News of the launch of the first satellite of the USSR. At the same time, Alex, who was planning at home, was very excited, and he shouted: "It's finally time for this day!" Korolev is so good! ”

Media coverage quickly shifted the focus from the kidnapping to satellites, and suddenly, the entire United States was panicked. For the first time, the United States felt that it was lagging behind in space technology, and it was as if the Soviet Union had placed a pair of eyes in the sky and stared at them closely.

Since Alex returned home, he has been busy practicing martial arts, getting acquainted with disguise, and investing. He restructured several of his companies and then used investment companies to make more business investments. Originally, he planned to do something after completing these tasks, but his plan was disrupted by the Soviet Union's satellite launch.

After the news spread, Alex received a call from Hughes. Hughes's voice sounded anxious: "The Soviets are already ahead, we must act!" “

"Don't worry, it's all in my plan." Alex replied that he was telling the truth, that the space race would not have been possible if the Soviet Union had not stimulated the United States.

"So are you sure you're going to launch a satellite?" Hughes asked.

"No matter how sure you are, you can't afford to do it! Launching an earth satellite is not a matter of tens of millions, and the funds involved are hundreds of millions! Are you ready to invest money in now? Alex asked rhetorically.

"I am already in contact with the government, hoping to obtain relevant funding and policy support."

After hearing this, Alex smiled: "Then you go for it, I still have to stick to my own rhythm to do it." You should know that our plan is that the first satellite will not be launched until next year at the earliest! ”

With that, Alex hung up the phone. He believes that it is difficult to get government support at the moment, even if Hughes has deep connections.

However, the preparations could not be left behind, and he called Shockley to ask for news about the miniaturization of transistors.

"No problem, the transistor you want is already ready!" Shockley replied, just judging by the tone of the other party's voice, as if there was something else he wanted to say.

"Then you can send those transistors and other components to the rocket research institute, and I'll need them now." Alex didn't think much of it, he had a lot of problems at the moment, and he didn't have time to care about Shockley's troubles.

"What a shame! I'll send it right away! After Shockley finished speaking, he paused for a moment and asked hesitantly, "Did you get a call about Moore?" ”

To this kind of headless question, Alex replied angrily: "What phone?" I've been kidnapped for so long that I can't even get a call from outside! ”

Shockley hurriedly apologized, he said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You shouldn't have been asked this question! Maybe I'm too careful, of course you won't know about our side of things! ”

Alex shrugged his shoulders and said undeniably, "What else is missing?" By the way, how is your research going? Did it come to fruition? ”

Shockley was silent for a while, and it took a long time before he spit out a sentence: "Not yet, it's being studied now!" ”

"Then you have to hurry up, now that the satellites of the Soviets have been launched into the sky, if you don't hurry up, maybe your research will be preempted by others to apply for a patent while it is still in the laboratory!"

Shockley just smiled at Alex's obvious joke and didn't answer. After the two of them said goodbye, they hung up the phone.

Soon, the Rocket Research Institute of Interstellar Technology received electronic components from Shockley, which were small special things that were intended to be used on the satellite. With these things, Alex's satellite plan can move on to the next step, after all, he is not sending a useless big iron ball, but a communication satellite that wants to realize commercial value.

As an entrepreneur chasing profits, he has to prioritize profits, so he can't be like the U.S. government, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on von Bryan's rocket experiments. He was even thinking about reaching out to the government to ask for money to get R&D funds for his interstellar technology company.

As for how to ask for benefits from the government, it depends on whether the next plan goes smoothly and how strong the Americans' fear of the Soviet Union is.

In this era, more than ten years after the end of World War II, the shadow of war still looms over people's heads. In particular, the rapid rise of the Soviet Union after the war, and the difference in ideology, made the countries of the earth form two camps to compete with each other.

At this time, China had just been liberated, and there were a lot of domestic problems that needed to be dealt with urgently. At the same time, there was no contradiction between China and the Soviet Union, nor did they part ways and set up another door. The concept of the so-called Third Realm still exists only in the minds of some people, and has not yet been loudly and publicly announced.

In the words of Truman: "From Szczecin on the Baltic Sea to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea, an iron curtain across the European continent has fallen!" ”

This iron curtain not only cut off communication from all sides, but also increased the fear in the hearts of the government and the people, desperately competing in various fields, trying to overwhelm each other in all aspects. Alex and Hughes fought with this idea, to use this sentiment to win the support of the government and the people, and earn a lot of political capital and money. (To be continued......)