Chapter 111 A Frenzied Suppression of Xinghai Computer? Consumers Vote with Their Feet

The roars in the Beijing conference room hadn't even faded.

The rebate agreements printed overnight by Lenovo's sales department hadn't even dried of ink yet.

The smear articles from the internet trolls had already swarmed the entire web like locusts.

A tech blogger with ten million followers took the hush money.

They posted a misleading, edited review video overnight.

In the video, the back panel of a xinghai matebook was manually dismantled.

The capacitors on the motherboard were emitting black smoke, accompanied by piercing alarm sound effects.

"Without a fan for cooling, this thing turns into a bomb after half an hour of use!"

The internet trolls were frantically spamming the comment section, steering the narrative wildly.

Lenovo executives stared at the rapidly rising data of the smear keywords in the backend.

Leaning back in their executive chairs, they thought they had it in the bag.

But they underestimated the public's intuition for distinguishing good from bad.

And they even more severely underestimated the absolute lethality that dimensionality reduction strikes demonstrate in reality.

Ten o'clock in the morning, Donghai City South China 3C Digital Plaza.

The scorching sun was overhead.

The asphalt road outside was baking, emitting a layer of distorted heat waves.

Inside the Lenovo specialty store, the air conditioning was blasting.

The store manager, Brother Wang, leaned against the glass counter.

He was rolling up a colorful summer promotion flyer in his hand.

"Slap."

He slammed his hand onto the glass counter, squashing a green-headed fly.

"This is truly bizarre."

Brother Wang used a tissue to pinch away the fly's corpse, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"It's the weekend, how come there isn't a single college student coming into this big mall to even touch a keyboard?"

Several sales clerks in blue vests were squatting in the corner nearby.

They were bored, scrolling through their phones.

Hearing this, one sales clerk stood up and pointed across the way.

"Brother Wang, everyone went to the other side."

Brother Wang looked in the direction the finger was pointing.

His eyes bulged, and his eye sockets instantly filled with red bloodshot veins.

At the opposite Xinghai Technology direct-sales store, the line had already extended out of the shop.

The crowd of people wound around the fountain in the center of the plaza, wrapping around it three full times.

A dozen or so security guards in black uniforms were pulling on yellow caution tape.

Sweat had soaked the backs of their uniforms, sticking to their skin.

"Don't push! Everyone back up!"

The security captain's voice was hoarse, sounding like a broken bellows.

"We only have five hundred units in stock today! If you can't grab one, scan the code to pay a deposit!"

The people in line didn't listen at all, stretching their necks and pushing forward.

A few scalpers were mixed in the crowd.

They were waving a stack of red bills in their hands.

"I'll pay a 1,500 premium! Whoever transfers their stock to me, I'll pay on the spot!"

The scalpers' shouts drifted over on the hot wind.

Lenovo store manager Brother Wang swallowed his dry saliva, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

He rubbed his eyes, feeling like the world had gone mad.

Just then, a male college student with a backpack walked into the Lenovo store.

The student didn't look at the rows of computers with flashing RGB lights in the counter.

He walked straight up to Brother Wang.

He was clutching a thin, black cardboard box that had just been unsealed.

The box was printed with the Xinghai nebula logo.

"Boss."

The college student slammed a silver-gray, all-aluminum laptop onto the glass counter.

It emitted a dull metallic thud.

"Let me borrow your power outlet to test this new machine. It's too crowded to stand at the store across the way."

Brother Wang's face darkened, his back teeth aching.

This was like dancing on a grave.

But he forced a professional fake smile and pointed to the outlet in the corner.

"Little brother, buying a computer from Xinghai?"

Brother Wang curled his lip.

"They say online that those things don't have fans and can burn through the motherboard when running programs. You've got guts."

The student didn't respond.

He plugged in the xinghai matebook and lightly pressed his finger on the fingerprint key.

"Hum—"

The extremely narrow-bezel retina screen lit up instantly, sliding smoothly into the desktop.

There was no sound throughout the whole process.

It was as quiet as a dead metal slab.

Brother Wang was stunned and, as if possessed, leaned in to look.

The student connected to the shop's Wi-Fi and opened a large, multi-gigabyte benchmarking software.

Then, he opened a bunch of full-load web pages and videos in the background.

"Little brother, it won't be able to handle that."

Brother Wang patted the Lenovo Savior flagship gaming laptop beside him.

That machine was as thick as a black brick.

The dual fans underneath were spinning wildly, emitting a roar like a tractor.

The hot air blew against Brother Wang's stomach.

"Computers are all about heat dissipation."

Brother Wang puffed out his chest and recited the sales script.

"Our machine has three pure copper heat pipes. That's real performance."

The student smiled.

He didn't argue, just pushed the Xinghai laptop in front of Brother Wang.

"Boss, touch the base."

Brother Wang reached out, half-doubting.

He pressed his fingertips against the metal base of the Xinghai computer.

Ice cold.

There wasn't a hint of burning heat.

It was even cooler than the air blowing from the store's air conditioning.

He looked at the benchmark data on the screen again.

The red line representing performance was hitting the ceiling.

The numbers crushed the roaring Savior machine next to it on the spot.

Brother Wang pulled his hand back as if he had touched a high-voltage wire.

His head was buzzing.

The smear campaign scripts sent down by Lenovo headquarters all turned into the words of a clown in front of this monster, which had no fan noise and was as thin as a blade.

Several customers who were originally looking at the Lenovo machines gathered around.

Seeing this, they all took out their phones to take pictures.

"This thickness... it's not even half of the Lenovo, is it?"

"No fan and it doesn't heat up? Did Xinghai cheat with this technology?"

"Let's go, let's go! Hurry up and go queue across the street!"

A bespectacled customer crumpled the Lenovo flyer in his hand.

"Whoever wants to buy this brick with a fan, go ahead!"

The crowd scattered with a roar.

They all ran towards the Xinghai store across the way.

Brother Wang felt like a deflated ball, his legs weak, collapsing against the glass counter.

The scene cuts back to the warehouse behind the Xinghai direct-sales store.

A pile of torn cardboard boxes was scattered on the floor.

Anti-static plastic bags were thrown everywhere.

The store manager was drenched in sweat, his white shirt sticking to his back.

He was gripping the landline receiver tightly, his fingers trembling.

"We're out of stock! We really don't have a single unit left!"

The store manager roared at the customers outside the glass door who were banging on the explosion-proof glass.

He turned around and shouted into the phone.

"President Chu! Help!"

On the other end of the line.

In the top-floor office of the Xinghai Technology headquarters in Donghai City.

Chu Xuan was squatting under his desk.

He was wearing a pink floral shirt today, with three buttons undone.

He held a crumpled ball of tissue in his hand, wiping the oily sweat from his forehead indiscriminately.

The four landlines on the desk were ringing alternately like they had gone insane.

The red lights were flashing blindingly.

"What stock do you want! I don't have any stock either!"

Chu Xuan roared into the receiver, his voice completely hoarse.

"The production lines at the Taiwan foundry are about to smoke from overwork!"

"President Chu, you can't just ignore this!"

The computer mall store manager was on the verge of tears.

"There are hundreds of people blocking the door outside! They're threatening not to leave until they get a machine!"

The store manager sniffed, his voice choked with tears.

In the largest computer mall in Donghai City.

The store manager scrambled out of the crowd and shouted into the phone to Chu Xuan.

"President Chu! We're out of stock! Even the display units in the warehouse have been carried away by people at high prices!"

Chu Xuan's legs went weak, and he slumped down onto the anti-static floor.

He was panting heavily.

He threw the soaked tissue onto the desk.

Chu Xuan grabbed the crumpled tissue and wiped his sweat frantically.

"Carry away my ass! Tell them to wait another two hours, President Lu has gone to the production line to tighten the screws himself!"