36: Chapter 36: "Project Dragon Slayer" begins; Lin Hao joins the new company.

Early the next morning, Chen Fan began working on the new company matters. He had Xiao Zhi filter information on factory buildings currently up for transfer.

His phone vibrated at that moment. A long-lost name popped up on the screen: Lin Hao.

Chen Fan froze for a second before answering the call.

"Fan Zi?" The voice on the other end sounded a bit tired, but still carried a familiar heartiness. "I didn't dial the wrong number, did I? You... actually haven't changed your number?"

"Hao Zi?" Chen Fan's voice betrayed his joy. "What made you think of calling me?"

"I got laid off," Lin Hao said bluntly. "The company was acquired by foreign capital, and half of the technical department was cut. Our department was the first to be 'optimized'."

Chen Fan fell silent for a few seconds. He remembered their childhood—the summer he was twelve, he almost drowned while playing in the river, and it was Lin Hao who risked his life to drag him ashore. The two had grown up together since they were toddlers, until they each came to the Magic City to make a living. Chen Fan was proud; because he had been doing so poorly the past few years, he hadn't taken the initiative to reach out. He hadn't expected... "Where are you now?" Chen Fan asked.

"Drinking my sorrows away in my rental," Lin Hao gave a bitter laugh. "Are you still in the Magic City?"

Chen Fan thought about the new factory, and a plan quickly took shape in his mind.

"Hao Zi, come over to my place," he said. "Right now."

---

Forty minutes later, a ride-hailing car stopped at the factory gate.

When Lin Hao got out of the car and saw the factory area converted from a scrap yard, he was stunned. "Fan Zi, you... you really opened a factory?"

"Come inside first." Chen Fan welcomed him into the yard.

Lin Hao looked around—though the place was simple, the factory building looked quite decent.

"Sit." Chen Fan poured a glass of hot water and pushed it over.

"Fan Zi, you're becoming more and more successful. I don't even know where my future lies." Lin Hao took a gulp of water.

"I'm only just starting to do better. I wasn't doing well before, almost ended up picking through trash, so I was too embarrassed to contact you. Wasn't your company's performance always pretty good?" Chen Fan asked with some confusion.

"The performance was indeed fine. I worked at 'Huayuan Machinery' for three years, doing non-standard equipment design, focusing on heat treatment production lines. Last month, the company was acquired by a German group. The new boss said they wanted to 'optimize the structure'—keeping those who returned from studying in Germany and laying off the locals. They gave N+1 for compensation, which isn't a small amount, but I just can't swallow this insult." Lin Hao was angry that these foreign companies took the profitable technology abroad and left the labor-intensive, low-profit work in the country; he just felt stifled.

"I'm about to start a new company. Are you interested in managing it?" Chen Fan patted Lin Hao on the shoulder, offering a sincere invitation.

Lin Hao looked into Chen Fan's eyes. He felt as if the Chen Fan before him was no longer the one he knew.

Chen Fan's gaze was firm and full of confidence, a world away from the shrinking, insecure Chen Fan he had known before.

"Of course... I'm interested." Lin Hao intentionally drawled his words to tease Chen Fan.

Chen Fan smiled. It was a smile Lin Hao was familiar with—Chen Fan would smile like that every time they were about to do something "big" as kids.

"Then let me tell you, what I'm doing now might offend the Li Group in the Magic City. It might bring their retaliation. Are you afraid?"

Lin Hao was stunned, then grinned. "Afraid of what! I've already lost my job, why would I be afraid of offending people? Tell me, what do we need to do?"

"I want to start a new company." Chen Fan pulled up the data Xiao Zhi had prepared. "Another one—completely secret, a company where no trace of me can be found in the shareholding structure."

Lin Hao stared at the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Fan Zi, you're planning to..."

"Building a walkway in the open while secretly crossing the hidden path." Chen Fan tapped the Lis Sci-Tech logo on the screen. "I have a grudge against their person in charge, Li Zeyu. Not only did he make me lose my job, but he also took Zhang Ya away, and even Uncle Li at my factory was injured because of them." Chen Fan listed a series of Li Zeyu's misdeeds.

"Zhang Ya... I told you back in school that she wasn't a good person..." Seeing Chen Fan's expression darken, Lin Hao didn't continue.

"It's fine, it's in the past." Chen Fan spoke dismissively.

"So you want to, in the shadows..." Lin Hao steered the conversation back.

"In the shadows, forge a blade that can pierce through their hearts." Chen Fan's eyes were cold. "Hao Zi, you understand machinery and production lines. I want you to do three things."

"First, in the name of Fanxing Technology, go and acquire a small material factory on the verge of bankruptcy. The location should be remote, and it doesn't matter if the equipment is old, but the land title must be clear. Keep the price under two million."

Lin Hao quickly got into character. "What product will we make? What equipment is needed?"

"We'll produce Lis Sci-Tech's core profit product—lightweight alloys for thermal conductive materials."

Although Lin Hao knew Chen Fan's determination for revenge, he asked worriedly, "This... where will you get the technology?"

"Don't worry about that." Chen Fan didn't explain. "You just need to know that we can make it, we can mass-produce it, and the raw materials—" He kicked the bags of scrap in the corner, "—are this trash."

Lin Hao gasped. He looked at the pile of trash, then at Chen Fan.

"...Fan Zi, what on earth have you been through these past few years?"

"I'll tell you slowly later." Chen Fan patted his shoulder.

Chen Fan pulled up a photo of Li Zeyu.

The young man on the screen was wearing a custom suit, standing on the podium of an industry forum, looking high-spirited.

"Li Zeyu. The young master of the Li Group, the actual person in charge of Lis Sci-Tech." Chen Fan's voice was calm. "His father, Li Guoxiong, started in Magic City real estate and is now involved in retail, technology, and finance. The family assets are conservatively estimated at 800 million."

Lin Hao's hand trembled slightly.

"Scared?"

"...A little." Lin Hao admitted honestly. "But more than that, I'm excited. Fan Zi, we're going to slay a dragon!"

"It's not slaying a dragon." Chen Fan closed the photo. "It's letting them walk into their own graves."

He walked to the whiteboard and began writing the plan:

"Second, after the new company acquires the factory, I need you to set up a minimal production line within half a month. It doesn't need to be advanced, but it must be able to output products stably."

"Third, establish a 'trash supply chain'. All raw material procurement will go through scrap recycling channels to ensure a stable supply of materials."

Lin Hao recorded quickly. "What about customers? Who are we selling our products to?"

"We'll sell them to the Li family's customers." Chen Fan drew a circle around the words "Lis Sci-Tech". "We'll send samples anonymously to the technical directors of their five largest customers. No quotes, no talk of cooperation, just data and samples. We'll wait for them to come to us."

"Will... will they use them?"

"True technical people, when they see something with three times the performance and one-tenth the price, won't ask 'where did this come from'; they'll only ask 'how can I get more'." Chen Fan put down his pen. "By the time the Li family discovers their major customers are turning to a 'mysterious supplier' one by one, it will be too late for them."

Lin Hao took a deep breath, his eyes gradually lighting up. "I get it... On the surface, your Panshi Foundation is being suppressed by them to draw their fire. In the shadows, our Fanxing Technology is already digging up their ancestral graves."

"Exactly." Chen Fan nodded. "So Hao Zi, from today on, your identity is the legal representative, general manager, and technical head of Fanxing Technology. In all public settings, you must play the part of a big boss who holds core technology."

Lin Hao looked at his childhood friend, feeling both unfamiliar and exhilarated.

"Fan Zi," he said seriously, "if this succeeds, how far can we go?"

"If it succeeds," Chen Fan said softly, "the Li family will lose their most profitable subsidiary, Li Zeyu will be abandoned by the family, and the Li Group will lose at least half of its market value."

"And we will have a company that possesses disruptive technology and eventually goes public." Chen Fan planned for the future.

"Hao Zi, this path might not be that simple. The Li family are not good people; once they realize something is wrong, they might use even dirtier tactics."

"Fan Zi, those of us with nothing to lose aren't afraid of those with everything!"

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Just then, Xiao Zhi's screen lit up:

【Urgent Notification: An acquisition target meeting the requirements has been filtered—"Xincheng Material Processing Plant", located on the edge of the North City Industrial Zone, covering 15 acres, with existing basic equipment, has been out of production for eight months. The owner urgently needs to cash out due to immigration. The initial quote is 180,000, with significant room for negotiation】

【Suggestion: Contact can be made today. Press the price down to around 150,000 as an "outsider investor", cash transaction, quick transfer of ownership】

"Fan Zi, this robot is pretty good." Lin Hao found Xiao Zhi quite novel.

"This is Xiao Zhi, an intelligent entity. If you need to look up information or have questions, you can ask it." Chen Fan introduced, then looked at Lin Hao: "How about it, Manager Lin? The first battle?"

Lin Hao loosened his collar, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. "Get the funds ready for me. I'll go back and change my outfit and get cleaned up. This afternoon, I'll go meet that boss."

"Xiao Zhi," Chen Fan instructed, "prepare a detailed report on the Xincheng plant for Hao Zi—including the owner's debt situation, family status, and immigration progress. During the negotiation, 'remind' him at the appropriate time."

"Understood," the mechanical voice replied. "Additionally, the internal network data of Lis Sci-Tech has been fully acquired. Evidence of Li Zeyu's false reporting of R&D expenses has been placed in an easily discoverable directory on their server as per your request. Traces of the attack have been cleared."

The information was immediately sent to Lin Hao's phone.

Chen Fan instructed, "Go there today. If you think the factory is suitable after visiting, press the price down hard. It's best to complete all procedures within three days. I'll transfer a 20,000 deposit to you first."

"Then the actual production line modification..."

"Once you get the factory, I'll bring Uncle Wang over." Chen Fan's eyes were deep. "We'll transform that pile of old equipment into a production line."

"Alright, then I'll head home to prepare." Lin Hao turned and pushed the door open to leave.

"Wait, here are the keys." Chen Fan let Lin Hao drive his mythical creatures name for suv to make it more convenient for business negotiations.