Carlotte ran all the way to the Canton Tower, also known as the Small Waist of Guangzhou, and after circling the new landmark of Guangzhou, which had only been officially open to the public for a year, Carlotte finally confirmed that he had indeed arrived in Guangzhou.
Even though he was in Kunming, Yunnan, at 10 AM, he had already arrived in Guangzhou, Guangdong, by 11 AM. Carlotte even suspected that he might have been hypnotized by the Chinese, distorting his sense of time.
It was very likely not 11 AM anymore, but perhaps 5 or 6 PM. It was even possible that the entire time in Guangzhou had been deliberately adjusted, as in the eyes of these people, nothing was surprising that a country with a state-run system like China could do.
So, Carlotte specifically called the headquarters of The New York Times and personally confirmed the time with the editor-in-chief. Only after confirming that it was 11 AM Beijing time did he have to admit that China had indeed built its ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline to Guangzhou.
At this moment, Carlotte felt a sense of dizziness.
After all, he had bought a full $1.5 million worth of stock in the United States United Ultra-Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, which was his life's savings.
The most fatal part was that his timing wasn't great either. He bought the stock when the United States United Ultra-Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company's total market value broke through $4 trillion, so its stock was actually stuck at a high position.
If the news that China had actually completed the first phase of the project were to be announced at this moment, it would be obvious to anyone that the stock price of the United States United Ultra-Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company would inevitably experience a plunge. In that case, he would be completely trapped.
Logically, as one of the first to know the intelligence, Carlotte should have been able to quickly sell his stock at this opportunity.
However, there was a time difference between the United States and China.
It was 12:00 PM, but it was early morning in New York. The stock market could not possibly open at this time.
NASDAQ opened at 9:30 AM New York time and closed at 4 PM.
This time, converted to Beijing time, was from 9:30 PM to 4 AM the next day, perfectly offsetting the 12-hour difference.
In short, if he waited until the market opened at 9:30 PM, the news would probably have already spread all over the world with the frantic reporting of reporters from various countries, and he would have no advantage in terms of intelligence.
In fact, while this reporter insisted on going to the landmark in Guangzhou to confirm his presence, other reporters didn't bother much. They directly stood outside the station and, at the fastest speed, wrote a short article of several hundred words on their notebooks, which they sent directly to their media headquarters.
Never mind the traditional print media; as long as the media had logged onto the online platform, they immediately published this news report.
However, the fastest was Jiangnan Media. Their media outlets in the United States and Europe immediately uploaded edited videos.
This was a video shot from a reporter's perspective, showing the process from entering the station in Yunnan, to exiting Guangzhou Station a few minutes later, and the boarding process in between. It captured some important segments and was edited into a video of about 30 seconds, which was directly uploaded online.
In just one hour, the video's click-through rate on the entire network exceeded ten million. Everyone was stunned, watching the reporters riding the supersonic vacuum magnetic levitation train.
This feeling was the same as when they first saw the video footage of the moon landing on television, filled with incredibly shocking sensations.
Fortunately, it was early morning in the United States. Otherwise, American netizens would probably have exploded.
And the most excited were naturally our Chinese netizens. These netizens had suffered enough grievances and humiliation online, but the authorities could not produce any evidence.
But now, with the broadcast of this video across the entire network, it had completely vindicated China's technology and strength. Countless netizens celebrated, and for a time, it was truly a joyous occasion for the entire nation.
Of course, there were also some people who questioned whether this was false information again.
However, an hour later, at 1 PM, media outlets such as XHS and YTV simultaneously released corresponding official news. At the same time, this news was more comprehensive, not only including a press release of up to 4,000 words but also a three-minute video.
This video was much more comprehensive than those hastily edited videos. It started with the care of leaders, the strength of the country, and the efforts of workers, and finally included the entire boarding process and the scenes of passengers inside the vehicle, fully showcasing the entire process.
The video also deliberately included landmark buildings in cities like Kunming and Guangzhou, using rich video evidence to prove the historical truth to the world.
A few hours later, it was gradually getting light in the United States, and many Americans, groggy from sleep, got out of bed and found their personal terminals filled with dense notifications. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that all the notifications were from various news, video, and social media apps, and they all conveyed one message: China, and indeed the world's, first ultra-high-speed vacuum magnetic levitation train test run was successful, carrying over 450 passengers, it traveled from Kunming, Yunnan, to Guangzhou, Guangdong, in just 32 minutes, covering a total distance of 1582 kilometers.
"Oh my God!" Seeing this news, these Americans could only exclaim, and then immediately started clicking on the related detailed news.
At this moment, the entire internet was filled with related news, with text, videos, and pictures, all providing comprehensive evidence. Even those American media outlets that had previously mocked China's railways were now honestly reporting relevant articles.
Some who were unwilling to accept reality simply kept quiet, pretending nothing had happened, and silently deleted all their previous articles slandering Chinese technology to avoid embarrassment.
Seeing this, most Americans seemed to have to admit the fact.
But in reality, a significant portion of Americans, at least American netizens, still refused to admit it or surrender.
Many netizens began to fully use their imaginations and fabricated various so-called truths online.
The simplest and most crude was that the Chinese had directly bribed various media outlets to spread false information online.
Of course, this theory was too foolish, and not many people believed it. Then, some people said that the Chinese had bribed those reporters and then faked the videos.
Others said that the reporters were not bribed, but that the Chinese had deceived the reporters' eyes. The method of deception was simple, similar to the various conjectures Carlotte had come up with, which mainly involved creating time differences or carrying out various forms of hypnosis.
These so-called intelligent people found these theories to be utterly ridiculous, but they were enthusiastically supported by many American netizens, who claimed that these were all Chinese conspiracies and false information. They absolutely refused to believe that the Chinese had built such a long pipeline, that it was at most just a segment.
Then, those who believed and those who didn't immediately clashed online, with the dissenters seizing the evidence of the video being edited to argue that these videos could be pieced together and were not from a single journey, and that unless they could provide the entire, unedited video, it was all fake.
The entire Western internet world was in an uproar, with netizens arguing heatedly for nearly a week about the truth of the matter, to the point where their brains were about to fall out.
Meanwhile, Carlotte stared at his computer with bloodshot eyes. On the computer screen was one of the world's most famous forums, where people were fiercely debating matters related to China.
On the other side was primarily the trading software for NASDAQ, displaying the real-time price changes of various stocks under NASDAQ.
And the one that Carlotte had pinned was naturally the stock of the United States United Ultra-Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company.
The stock was currently awash in red, with the current price at $29.5 per share. This indicated that the total market value of the United States United Ultra-Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company had fallen from its peak of $4 trillion to below the $3 trillion mark, currently standing at $2.9 trillion.
This also meant that Carlotte's $1.5 million investment was now only worth about $1.14 million. In one week, Carlotte had lost nearly $400,000.
This was Carlotte's life savings, and he could not bear it. He now wept bitterly every day, drowning his sorrows in alcohol.
At this moment, he saw that users on the forum were still fiercely debating the authenticity of the news, with the most crucial point being the issue of a completely unedited, continuous video.
This was also the strongest evidence for these opponents. If the news was true, why was such a continuous video not shown?
Well, in fact, China High-Speed Railway Company had already posted the complete video on its official website. However, this video was mainly from the perspective of Chinese officials, and because the company felt that this was sufficient proof and had not considered the need for a continuous shot, the video was a combination of footage from several cameras. As a result, it became evidence for opponents to prove the forgery.
If it's real, why don't you show an unedited video instead of piecing it together?
This must be fake.
"An unedited video... I have it!" Seeing this, Carlotte froze for a moment, and then a look of ecstatic joy instantly appeared on his face.