250: Chapter 245 A Grand Wedding

Through previous bulk transactions involving ores, jade jewelry, gold, antiques, and timber, Cao Xiao had accumulated hundreds of billions in capital. This massive sum easily laid a solid foundation for him to begin building his business empire.

Coupled with the influence of He Yueyou's family, the Shen family of Hetian, and other previously established connections, everything played a significant role in the rise of Cao Xiao's business empire.

Cao Xiao shared his idea of establishing the Yuexiao Group in Huanghe City with Commissioner Zhang Ruikang. After hearing it, Commissioner Zhang was very supportive and willing to provide all administrative, policy, and legal conveniences for the group's establishment.

With funding, connections, and policy support all in place, the Yuexiao Group was soon successfully registered.

The newly established Yuexiao Group oversaw seven major sectors: mineral resource development, jade and jewelry sales, gold futures and financial services, bulk commodity sales, antique and curio sales, and the research and development of large-scale complete sets of equipment.

Cao Xiao handed over the mineral resource development sector to Duan Hong to manage.

He entrusted the two sectors of jade and jewelry sales and antique and curio sales to He Yueyou.

As for gold futures and financial services, Cao Xiao gave these two sectors to Hao Linger to manage.

The bulk commodity sales sector was handed over to Li Quanshuo to manage.

Cao Xiao himself was responsible for overseeing the overall situation and the sub-business of R&D for large-scale complete sets of equipment.

Under everyone's full cooperation, all businesses soon got on the right track and began to develop rapidly.

In particular, the gold futures and financial services managed by Hao Linger advanced with great momentum.

Hao Linger truly lived up to her reputation as a genius in financial futures. In the gold futures markets of Europe and North America, relying on Yuexiao Group's powerful capital, physical gold reserves, and intelligence-gathering capabilities, she manipulated the entire Western gold futures market and reaped enormous profits.

The large-scale equipment company managed by Cao Xiao, relying on the immense advantages of his industrial mother machine and artificial intelligence, quickly rose to become a global supplier of large-scale advanced equipment integrating R&D, production, and sales.

Just as Cao Xiao was becoming a well-known entrepreneur, preparations for his wedding with He Yueyou were also in full swing.

Cao Xiao put a lot of thought into his wedding with He Yueyou.

He wanted to give He Yueyou a grand, magnificent, and unique wedding.

But after much thought, Cao Xiao felt that a luxurious scene built solely with money would be too tacky, and He Yueyou might not necessarily like it.

That year happened to coincide with the launch of China's Chang'e 10 and the beginning of the construction of a long-term manned lunar base.

Cao Xiao had a sudden inspiration and planned to hold a space wedding with He Yueyou.

Originally, Cao Xiao intended to hold the wedding on the moon, but considering that only China and the United States currently possessed manned lunar landing capabilities and neither had opened them to civilians, he had no choice but to abandon that bold idea and settle for the next best thing: a space wedding.

After telling He Yueyou his idea, it received her enthusiastic approval.

Commercial space travel had been realized in the United States many years ago.

In recent years, private rocket companies in China have also been able to provide similar services.

However, no one had ever attempted to hold a space wedding before.

Therefore, the world's first space wedding between Cao Xiao and He Yueyou was particularly significant and memorable.

After careful selection, Cao Xiao finally chose a Chinese private rocket company as the technical support for their space wedding.

To this end, the private rocket company specially redesigned the internal layout of the manned spacecraft for Cao Xiao and He Yueyou to accommodate the needs of the wedding.

After nearly half a year of research, design, and manufacturing, a manned spacecraft named the 'Yuexiao' completed its final tests. It was mounted onto a rocket, prepared for launch during the window around He Yueyou's birthday a week later.

During this half-year, Cao Xiao and He Yueyou were not idle either; they both underwent six months of training at a private astronaut training base.

For normal space travel, tourists do not need such a long period of training. However, both Cao Xiao and He Yueyou planned to perform an extravehicular activity after entering space. They wanted the sun, moon, stars, and the vast cosmic background to witness their love in the vacuum of outer space, hence the extra training.

Fortunately, the weather was favorable. On He Yueyou's birthday, there was a good launch window, and the 'Yuexiao' spacecraft was scheduled to launch precisely at 15:20 that afternoon.

One hour before the rocket launch, Cao Xiao, He Yueyou, and another professional astronaut entered the manned spacecraft together.

Cao Xiao and He Yueyou wore two specially made red Chinese-style spacesuits, while the other professional astronaut wore a standard white spacesuit.

This professional astronaut would serve as the primary pilot of the spacecraft and would also act as the photographer and witness for Cao Xiao and He Yueyou in space.

At exactly 15:20, the rocket carrying Cao Xiao, He Yueyou, and the pilot launched on time from a space launch base in the Northwest.

Manned spaceflight technology is now quite mature, so there was no significant danger.

A few dozen minutes later, the 'Yuexiao' manned spacecraft successfully entered its intended orbit.

This special space wedding, which caused a global sensation, also attracted competing reports from media outlets around the world.

Nearly ten billion people worldwide sent their blessings to this divine couple through the live internet broadcast.

“Mr. Cao Xiao, are you willing to take Miss He Yueyou as your wife, to cherish her, respect her, protect her, be patient with her, and accompany her for a lifetime, never to be parted?” the astronaut serving as the witness asked Cao Xiao inside the space capsule.

“I do,” Cao Xiao said loudly, looking affectionately at He Yueyou.

The words “I do” quickly spread across the world via the live broadcast, causing the audience in front of their screens to howl with envy.

After making their promises to each other, they exchanged wedding rings.

At this moment, both were inside the spacecraft's return capsule. Although they were wearing extravehicular suits, because the cabin had normal air pressure and oxygen, they had not put on the gloves. Thus, Cao Xiao was able to place the ring on his wife's finger, which was covered by a white inner glove.

After the two gradually adapted to the weightless environment of space and the professional astronaut explained the precautions for extravehicular walking, Cao Xiao and He Yueyou put on their helmets and gloves. After checking that all instruments were normal, they exited the orbital module one after another according to the procedures in the operating manual.

Protected by two safety tethers, they stepped out of the hatch and into space one by one.

Dressed in vibrant red Chinese-style spacesuits, Cao Xiao and He Yueyou held each other's hands. Guided by the safety tethers, they floated in the outer space outside the spacecraft.

Behind them was the deep space dotted with the sun, moon, and stars, while beneath their feet was the azure Earth.

The external cameras recorded this historic and beautiful scene.