NOVPUBBut no matter what, they had cracked the case!
Who could have imagined that a scientific award that many of them had never paid attention to could affect so many Fortune 500 traditional manufacturing companies and even possibly cause them losses of hundreds of millions, or even tens or hundreds of billions of US dollars?
That was just an estimate of the cost; if you considered the money they could have earned, it would be even more.
My goodness, countless people were literally shouting "my goodness."
A single Crafoord Prize, with a total prize money of only half a million US dollars, directly affected trade orders amounting to hundreds of billions or trillions. Once the potential connection was discovered, who wouldn't be flabbergasted?
So the phones and emails of some people started getting busy at the same time.
...
Sweden, Stockholm.
In the bedroom, an old man was staring at the phone in a daze.
That was already the third call he had received.
Not just him, he believed that members of the Crawford Award Jury Committee must have received similar calls today.
The callers didn't have official statuses like Ruel Smith, representing some invisible power. But those who could reach his mobile phone were also people with status, at the very least wearing the title of a consultant.
Even if these people weren't well-known now, before becoming consultants, they all had political experience, and their invisible influence was significant. After all, behind the role of consultant, these people have a special moniker—fixers.
These people also formed an invisible network, influencing every aspect of a country's decision-making.
Originally, the old man felt he should have nothing to do with these people.
But this time, they all came directly to him, with some politely inquiring about Crawford Award's review process, while others started by questioning the fairness of the award...
The most ridiculous part was, out of the three calls, two came from the United States.
Has it reached the point of such a split personality?
Don't they have an idea why this award is not fair in their hearts?
If it weren't for the Langley people pulling out the Science Academy's fund operation data to threaten them, considering the safety of the funds, not getting frozen or targeted, causing the final bankruptcy of the funds, would he choose to submit?
As a result, now he had staked the credibility acquired by an award over many decades, producing an unexpected outcome, and while already under intense scrutiny and frustration from the academic community, these people came to criticize their fairness?
They were even threatening that they should fairly judge the award and give it to the deserving recipient?!
Really, the only reason he didn't curse out loud was because of the years of composure he had accumulated.
After all, one cannot be shameless to this extent, the ones who asked them to deviate from fairness considering their values were these very people, and now they are the same ones emphasizing that the evaluation of academic awards should be fair without deviating from the primary principle of scholarship.
Are they insane?
Yes, at this point the old man still didn't know what was happening in the world.
He was not a businessman, so he naturally didn't know that across the Europe and America region, many tycoons controlling billions in wealth were having sleepless nights.
However, his phone got even busier afterward.
His judgment was correct.
It wasn't just him who received similar calls; Emerson Gustaf, who was directly responsible for the Crawford Award review, received even more calls, and the callers seemed to be even more impolite...
"Sir Andrei, I simply cannot believe it, they're actually demanding that I immediately change the winner, they even issued death threats!"
The old man could hear the agitation in Emerson's tone, and his mood grew even darker.
Of course, he could understand the agitation; anyone would be agitated if threatened in such a manner!
So torn, so freaking torn!
In a civilized society, issuing death threats over the phone?
And the demand was to change the recipient of the award?!
Do those Americans really want to uphold their so-called values? To suppress a rising talent in mathematics?
This is clearly an attempt to ruin the credibility of an academic award!
Rage surged within him, but he still tried to calm himself down before asking, "Alright, Emerson, calm down. Didn't you tell them what was really going on?"
"Sigh..." The person on the other end of the line took a deep breath and replied, "I did! But the caller didn't accept it. His exact words were: Oh, Langley? Heh, then what I have to tell you is, Langley can do it, and so can we, and we can even do it more professionally."
Upon hearing this sentence, the old man was stunned.
Great.
More professional than Langley...
Do they really think they can treat us like pushovers?
A wave of anger surged through him in an instant.
"I see, Emerson. Don't worry, I'll make a call and find out what's happening."
"No need to ask, they told me. It's because they suspect that since the Crafoord Prize wasn't awarded to Qiao Ze, Huaxia directly put a series of key materials that were originally allowed for export on the no-ship list, effective immediately.
According to statistics, already more than thirty-nine Fortune 500 manufacturing companies are directly affected, with thousands of companies indirectly affected. And the hardest hit areas are the construction and automotive manufacturing industries."The other end of the phone spoke quickly.
It seems that death threats really can unleash significant capabilities, including information gathering ability.
In one sentence, the old man understood the whole context of the affair.
Indeed, nothing escapes the entanglement of interests.
He had decided to yield to Ruel Smith considering his own interests, and the aggrieved party decided to counter-attack by suppressing the interests of others.
