Chapter 125 Sorry, I've already hollowed out the fruit chain.

Chu Xuan clutched the cold metal USB drive tightly.

His Adam's Apple bobbed violently twice.

He turned and yanked open the solid wood door.

He sprinted out as if he had wheels of fire under his feet.

The dull thuds of leather shoes hitting the anti-static floor echoed through the hallway.

Half a month later.

On the other side of the ocean in California, the sun was still scorching.

In the top-floor office of Apple's headquarters, the air conditioning was blasting.

Cook leaned back against the wide leather chair.

He held a glass of expensive Romanée-Conti red wine in his hand.

The deep red wine left a beautiful arc around the walls of the crystal glass.

The Greater China Executive sat opposite him.

He rested his hands on his knees, his face betraying unconcealable excitement.

"Boss, it's been half a month."

The executive swallowed, his voice wavering.

"Over at the Xinghai foundry, it's so quiet you wouldn't even hear a screw drop on the floor."

Cook took a sip of red wine.

He loosened the silk tie around his neck with one hand.

He sneered, a trace of arrogance unique to a tycoon curving the corner of his mouth.

"Without Sony's camera sensors and Corning's screen glass."

Cook rubbed the stem of his glass with his fingertips.

"Is Lu Jingming going to mold a phone out of mud?"

The executive nodded in quick agreement.

"Our 'either-or' poison pill plan is too effective. No one in the supply chain dares to offend Apple."

He wiped non-existent cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"Even if Xinghai has a trillion dollars in their account, it's just a pile of scrap paper right now."

Just as they were popping champagne to celebrate at the California headquarters.

The supply chain circle in China had already been brought to a boil.

In Shenzhen, at the Luxshare Precision industrial park.

The asphalt road outside was radiating heat waves under the sun.

Chu Xuan was wearing that blue-based, yellow-flowered shirt, with the collar open.

He was squatting on the curb at the entrance of the factory.

Clutching a crumpled tissue in his hand, he desperately wiped the greasy sweat from his neck.

President Wang of Luxshare stood before him.

He held a few pages of freshly printed blueprints for microcrystalline ceramic glass technology.

His hands were shaking like a sieve, and the papers rustled loudly in his grip.

"P-President Chu..."

President Wang gasped, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

"These process parameters, the hardness is approaching sapphire? And the yield rate can be pushed to ninety percent?"

Chu Xuan stuffed the soaked tissue back into his pocket.

He stood up and brushed the dust off his backside.

"The blueprints and technology are all for you to use for free. Xinghai will cover the equipment modification costs."

President Wang's knees went weak, and he nearly knelt on the scorching asphalt.

He swallowed dryly, his throat feeling bitter.

"Then... what about the profit sharing?"

"Fifty-fifty."

Chu Xuan grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

"In the past, Apple exploited you, not even paying twenty yuan in assembly fees per unit."

Chu Xuan held up five fingers and waved them in front of President Wang.

"President Lu said, once you switch to our Xinghai technology, we'll settle your profits at ten times the rate per unit in the future."

President Wang's head buzzed.

It felt like he had been struck in the back of the head with a hundred-pound hammer.

Blood rushed to his head, and his scalp tingled.

Just then, President Wang's female secretary trotted over in high heels.

She was holding a phone that was currently on a call.

"President Wang, the Apple Greater China Region procurement department is urging us to sign the exploitation contract for the next quarter again!"

President Wang whipped his head around.

A layer of fierce, bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes.

He snatched the phone and roared into the receiver.

"Sign my ass! Tell those vampires in California!"

President Wang spat onto the screen.

"I'm done serving them! Let them take that pittance of an assembly fee and go buy themselves urns!"

The same scene.

Was playing out crazily in factories large and small across the "Apple supply chain," such as Goertek and Lens Technology.

Shen Qingqiu held 15 billion dollars in cash flow.

The money was thrown in without even a sound.

She directly smashed through the foundation of the supply chain that Apple had painstakingly built over ten years.

The scene cuts back to Cupertino, California.

Cook was swirling his red wine glass.

Preparing to hear the executive report on the parts price reduction plan for the next quarter.

Suddenly.

With a loud "bang."

The heavy double glass doors were slammed open from the outside.

The glass hit the metal door frame, letting out a screech.

The doorstop was torn right off.

The blonde assistant scrambled in, tumbling and crawling.

He was running too fast.

He tripped on the edge of the wool carpet, his soles leaving a black mark on the floor.

He and the tablet he was clutching fell heavily to the ground.

Making a dull, heavy thud.

Cook's eyebrows knitted together tightly.

Bloodshot veins instantly appeared in the whites of his eyes.

"You idiot! Is there a dog chasing you!"

Cook gritted his teeth, his voice as cold as a knife in an ice cellar.

"Get out and knock again!"

The assistant didn't even care about the dull pain in his kneecaps.

He scrambled up on his hands and knees.

Gripping the tablet with the cracked screen edge tightly in both hands.

"B-Boss!"

The assistant was panting like a broken bellows with a snapped string.

Cold sweat dripped madly down his chin, hitting the carpet.

"The foundries in China... they've rebelled!"

The Greater China Executive stood up abruptly.

His knee hit the table leg.

Knocking over the black coffee in front of him, brown liquid spilling all over the table.

"Rebelled? Are you dreaming!"

The executive's voice cracked instantly, like a duck with its neck stepped on.

"Without our orders, those Chinese laborers will be starving next month!"

The assistant's hands trembled as he handed over the tablet.

Right under Cook's nose.

On the screen.

It was full of dense red text alerts for bank refunds.

The glaring red light shone on Cook's pale face.

"Goertek and Luxshare Precision..."

The assistant swallowed dryly, his Adam's Apple bobbing violently.

"They've refunded the prepayments we sent over in full!"

The muscles in Cook's face twitched violently.

His knuckles, gripping the wine glass, instantly turned a deathly pale white.

"Refunds? Who gave them the guts!"

The red veins in Cook's eyes burst open like a spider web.

His chest heaved violently; even with his tie loosened, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

"It's Xinghai!"

The assistant's voice carried an unconcealable sob.

His legs were trembling, and his whole body was shaking.

"Xinghai took ten billion dollars and, along with technology and production lines, hollowed out the entire Apple supply chain!"

The assistant pointed to the breach of contract notice on the screen.

Stamped with a glaring red official seal.

"Boss! Goertek and Luxshare have refunded all our prepayments!"

"Crack."

A crisp and shrill sound of shattering glass exploded in the office.

The crystal red wine glass in Cook's hand was crushed by his furious grip.

Glass shards instantly pierced into the flesh of his palm.

Crimson blood mixed with the deep red wine.

Dripping down between his fingers.

"Plop," "plop," landing on the precious documents.

Cook couldn't feel the pain.

His brain buzzed, all his reason crushed by this sudden dimensional strike.

The assistant stared fixedly at Cook's bleeding hand.

Frightened, he took two steps back, his back hitting the door frame.

His voice trembling like a rag in the cold wind.

"They said..."

The assistant gasped for breath, squeezing out the final sentence of that desperate verdict.

"The production lines for the next three years have already been fully booked by Xinghai!"