Danger

The Old Boy at Mar-a-Lago took office right before the Lunar New Year in Dragon Country, and from the start, he brandished the big stick of tariffs once again.

Old Boy's logic was simple: higher tariffs make imported goods more expensive, thus creating opportunities for domestic manufacturing. This holds true in evenly matched competition, but the manufacturing strength gap between the two sides of the Pacific is now the distance from Earth to the Sun.

In the face of such a vast disparity, imposing tariffs isn't for others; it's entirely for oneself. Because even if tariffs are raised to 300%, Eagle Country's current efficiency still wouldn't allow it to produce competitive industrial goods.

What's more, let alone 300%, even 30% would push a large number of Eagle Country citizens struggling near the poverty line into homelessness.

So Lin Yuan guessed Old Boy's real intention was to return to conservatism, because Eagle Country started with conservatism, only stepping out when it saw the profitability of globalization.

As Lin Yuan observed, after Old Boy took office, he once again played the role of the withdrawal expert, and withdrawing from groups is the best proof of returning to conservatism.

Lin Yuan even asked Musk about this issue, and his reply was: "The conservatives and globalists will have a long tug-of-war, and I'm not sure about the future direction."

But the esteemed Minister of Efficiency stated: "Contraction is definite. The most important thing now is change. Besides that, I don't know what else can be done."

The implication: Musk is helping Old Boy find every possible way to cut expenses. Since there isn't enough money, they'll find every way to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. As for what will happen in the future, who knows.

Musk also kindly reminded Lin Yuan to pay attention to his personal safety. "I know their habits too well." These were Musk's exact words, everything was left unsaid.

Lin Yuan didn't have much time to gossip about The Other Shore anymore, because he believed Musk's words weren't groundless.

He had caused The Other Shore's capital to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, and that was just the beginning; who knew what the subsequent impact would be. Therefore, after calming down, Lin Yuan reflected that he was still too slow.

Lin Yuan realized that when he did things, his attention was overly focused on the matter itself. He always considered himself an engineer, and as a result, his focus truly remained on technology, ignoring that technology can have a drastic impact on the real world.

All the strength of modern first-tier countries is based on military power, and the foundation of military power is the strength of cutting-edge technology.

Unintentionally, Lin Yuan had punched a small hole in the iron curtain of The Other Shore's technological military power.

Although The Other Shore's culture doesn't have the saying "a thousand-mile dike collapses because of an ant's nest," the essence of this concept is thoroughly understood by The Other Shore. Therefore, for such actions, The Other Shore will definitely pursue them relentlessly.

It can be said that technological hegemony is The Other Shore's only strategic high ground at present.

Lin Yuan only understood after everything was done that his previous open-source actions were actually punching a small hole in the core section of The Other Shore's future technology dam.

The core of The Other Shore's future technology layout is naturally the AI field, which has high hopes placed on it and is predicted to be the next trillion-dollar market.

As a result, Lin Yuan open-sourced important algorithms. Open-sourcing was one thing, but what was terrifying was that Lin Yuan's open-sourcing was overly detailed. Western tech companies have always used and guarded against Dragon Country people, so under normal circumstances, Dragon Country engineers working in Western companies couldn't possibly know so many details.

Hence, the rumors came—this algorithm isn't from OpenAI; it was developed by the collective of Dragon Country engineers.

If the act of open-sourcing caused The Other Shore's capitalists to lose money, then such public speculation was meant to strike at their hearts.

Therefore, Lin Yuan, danger!!!

Lin Yuan also understood why his country's authorities were sending a security team to protect him as if facing a formidable enemy.

If he were to be cut once for every hundred million dollars lost, then the damage he caused to The Other Shore this time would warrant at least five or six thousand cuts.

Lin Yuan felt a chill down his spine just thinking about it.

Lin Yuan thought of his parents. He was tightly protected, but what about his parents?

Fortunately, the authorities had also considered this and had already notified the village committee in Lin Yuan's hometown to pay attention to the appearance of unfamiliar outsiders.

Fortunately, Lin Yuan's parents lived in a rural area in the central region, and the village in their hometown was inhabited by familiar people year-round. If a stranger appeared, they couldn't escape the intelligence network of the grandpas and grandmas at the village entrance, so there was no need to be overly alarmed.

But Xia Ye's situation became difficult.

Lin Yuan tried asking Zhang Yan, "Can Xia Ye also be protected, or simply brought over to live together?"

Zhang Yan smiled and replied, "Do you want to bring Song Xiaoxiao over too?"

"If possible, that would be for the best."

"Then how do you think I should write my report to the organization? What identity should Xia Ye have? If she's your wife, then I'd have to be transferred. It's easy to cause gossip, especially since my old man would definitely be furious first if he found out."

Lin Yuan had no choice but to give up. Because he couldn't possibly make a request to the higher-ups—"Please also protect two of my opposite-sex friends whose relationships are inconvenient to disclose."

Forget it, Lin Yuan thought. The best protection for Xia Ye was not to contact her.

For safety, even the money Lin Yuan sent to Xia Ye went through channels arranged by Zhang Yan, changing hands several times before reaching Xia Ye. He no longer contacted Xia Ye directly after that, instead sending messages through the channels arranged by Zhang Yan.

This was done out of concern that interested parties might locate Xia Ye based on his call records or online chat data. This wasn't difficult for Lin Yuan, so he figured it wouldn't be difficult for others either.

And what about Xia Ye?

After she enrolled in Purple Arts after the Spring Festival, she hadn't seen Lin Yuan again. They had always been in contact remotely, and the money Lin Yuan gave her had never been short.

But suddenly one day, Lin Yuan called her from an unfamiliar number, telling her that he wouldn't be able to contact her for a period of time and that a special channel would proactively reach out to her. Any future messages could be sent through this channel.

Lin Yuan didn't say much else, and Xia Ye didn't ask Lin Yuan: "Are you abandoning me?"

Because Xia Ye knew that Lin Yuan wouldn't go to such great lengths just to get rid of her. Xia Ye instinctively realized, "Lin Yuan, did something happen to you?"

Xia Ye had seen news about Lin Yuan many times; Lin Yuan had long become a prominent figure among tech new money. But now that Lin Yuan suddenly needed to go into hiding, Xia Ye's first reaction was that he must have encountered something.

Lin Yuan didn't deny it. "I'll find you after this is over. Take care of yourself and live a low-key life with Song Xiaoxiao."

Lin Yuan, through Zhang Yan, gave Xia Ye a year's living expenses and tuition. Although Lin Yuan wanted to give her a million or so at once, Zhang Yan disagreed.

Zhang Yan wasn't stingy with money; her character was like iron, and she firmly believed that fortune often comes with misfortune. Zhang Yan felt that giving too much money to Xia Ye and Song Xiaoxiao might actually be a disaster. Firstly, she worried about the money being exposed, and secondly, she even worried that Xia Ye and Song Xiaoxiao might perceive it as severance pay and then make further demands.

Lin Yuan didn't agree with this, but he still respected Zhang Yan's approach. He had long been accustomed to Zhang Yan's little tricks; this girl always handled things by leveraging human nature. So, when dealing with Xia Ye and Song Xiaoxiao, Zhang Yan kept them hooked by continuously giving them money monthly.

Lin Yuan had a feeling that, setting aside the technical aspects, he was practically a small fry in the hands of people like Zhang Yan.