Chapter 137 The All-Out Invasion: From Department Stores to Smart Homes

Chu Xuan followed Lu Jingming's finger.

The ancient air conditioner on the wall was making a "clack-clack" sound.

The yellowed plastic casing shed dust with every vibration of the compressor.

The cold air it blew out carried a musty smell of accumulated years.

It choked Chu Xuan, causing him to cover his nose and sneeze twice.

"Visiting someone else's house?"

Chu Xuan swallowed dryly, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

He wiped the oily sweat from his neck with a crumpled tissue.

"Boss Lu, are you planning to cross over into manufacturing air conditioners? Isn't that a bit too much of a leap?"

Lu Jingming withdrew his gaze.

He reached his right hand into the pocket of his faded jeans and pulled out a green plastic lighter.

He pressed his thumb against the metal striker.

"Click."

A ghostly blue flame shot up, dancing in the musty cold air.

"Manufacturing plastic shells?"

Lu Jingming stared at the flame, a cynical sneer rolling from his throat.

"That's work for low-end manual laborers. Xinghai now has a trillion-dollar market cap; why would I go fight hardware factories over tightening screws?"

He flicked the lighter shut.

The plastic casing made a crisp sound.

Xia Weiliang was barefoot, dragging her yellowed, dirty lab coat as she sauntered over slowly.

She had a grape-flavored lollipop in her mouth, the plastic stick bobbing as she chewed.

"You don't know jack."

Xia Weiliang rolled her eyes dramatically and kicked Chu Xuan's shin with her toe.

"Boss Lu means to use their shell to hatch our egg."

Chu Xuan rubbed his shin, grimacing in pain.

"What egg? How do we use it?"

"Don't we have a pile of scrap chips in the warehouse?"

Xia Weiliang crunched the lollipop loudly.

"I took some time to write a streamlined version of the Pandora micro-kernel."

She stood barefoot on the wool carpet.

"We weld it together with the wireless power supply module. The cost is less than thirty yuan."

Xia Weiliang pointed to the broken air conditioner on the wall.

"As long as we stuff this thirty-yuan module into that iron box, it becomes a 'zombie' for Xinghai OS. No plug needed, no remote control needed. Wherever the wristband goes, the air follows."

Chu Xuan's head buzzed.

Blood rushed to his scalp, making it tingle.

He knew exactly what this meant.

This wasn't about manufacturing appliances.

This was about putting a Xinghai leash on every traditional appliance in the world!

Accompanied by the "clack-clack" of high heels on the carpet, Shen Qingqiu walked over.

The collar of her white shirt was buttoned meticulously.

She pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, a cold, calculating glint flashing behind the lenses.

"No building factories, no holding physical inventory, no handling after-sales maintenance."

Shen Qingqiu said coldly.

"We only sell the underlying communication modules and system licenses."

She rested both hands on the glass coffee table.

"Traditional appliance manufacturers struggle and toil just to earn those meager assembly fees."

"While Xinghai takes the lion's share of their profits, we can also absorb all the user habits they've accumulated over decades into our ecosystem."

Lu Jingming leaned back against the leather executive chair, legs crossed and resting on the edge of the dark desk.

"Chu Xuan."

Lu Jingming pulled up the corner of his mouth, his sharp, white canine tooth flashing with a cold light.

"Take the modules. Go to Shenzhen and talk to the small appliance factories."

His eyes revealed a fierce intent to smash the traditional market.

"Tell them: if they don't integrate into the Xinghai ecosystem, the plastic shells in their warehouses are just scrap."

A dimensionality-reduction strike, spreading from department stores to living rooms, had begun silently.

Half a month later.

In an industrial park on the outskirts of Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen, at a small, nameless electric fan factory on the verge of bankruptcy, Manager Fatty Zhang sat shirtless next to a greasy assembly line.

He clutched a technical authorization document sent by Xinghai Technology, his hands shaking so much that the paper rattled loudly.

"Manager Zhang, have you thought it over?"

Chu Xuan was wearing a loud, blue-and-white floral shirt with the collar open.

He squatted on a plastic stool nearby, wiping sweat from his chin with a crumpled tissue.

"Add this microwave power-receiving module, and your fans won't even need a power cord for the base."

Chu Xuan grinned.

"Costs go down. And when you sell them, you can stamp them with the 'Xinghai Ecological Certification' label."

Fatty Zhang swallowed dryly.

He looked at the prototype on the workbench that had just been modified.

It wasn't plugged in.

He took a step forward while wearing his ninety-nine yuan Xinghai wristband.

The head of that broken fan seemed to have grown eyes; it automatically turned to face him and blew air directly at him.

The wind speed even adjusted automatically based on his body temperature data.

"This is f***ing magic!"

Fatty Zhang's voice cracked.

He snatched the pen from the table and signed his name with a flurry of strokes.

"President Chu! I'm in! Even if I have to sell everything I own, I'll switch everything to Xinghai modules!"

The dissemination of Xinghai's technology was like throwing a torch into a pile of dry firewood.

Desperate to survive, the grassroots nameless brands and small factories frantically embraced Xinghai OS.

In just one month, the landscape of major department stores and 3C retail outlets across the country had completely changed.

At the largest comprehensive appliance store in Donghai City, the weekend crowds were so packed there wasn't even room to stand.

"Don't push! The Xinghai-certified smart desk lamps have been restocked!" the salesperson shouted until their voice grew hoarse.

Hundreds of young people crowded the "Xinghai Ecological Zone."

The goods on the shelves were swept away.

There was no complicated pairing.

You bought it, took it home, and put it on the table.

When your wristband got close, the light automatically adjusted to eye-protection mode.

When you left the room, the light automatically turned off.

There wasn't even an unsightly data cable to be seen.

In contrast, the traditional major appliance section on the other side of the mall was so deserted you could swat flies on the counters.

The sales clerks, dressed in crisp suits, watched the sea of people across the way, their molars aching with anxiety.

A middle-aged customer walked over, eyeing a robot vacuum from a traditional brand.

"Can this machine connect to a Xinghai Mobile?" the customer asked casually.

The sales clerk forced a smile.

"Sir, this is an independent system. You need to download our brand's exclusive app and connect via WiFi."

The customer's face fell as soon as he heard that.

"Still need to download an app? Still need to plug it in to charge? What an antique."

He waved his hand and turned to leave.

"I'm going across to check out the Xinghai-certified ones. You just tap it, and it cleans. Much easier."

The sales clerk's face twitched, and his legs trembled.

This was already the twentieth customer today who had walked away because it "wasn't Xinghai-certified."

This panic quickly traveled up the sales reports and slammed into the conference rooms of the domestic appliance giants.

The traditional appliance giants faced the fear of being shuffled out.

They suddenly realized that their pride and joy—compressor technology and motor longevity—had become unattractive industrial jargon in the face of Xinghai's idiot-proof, whole-house smart connectivity.

Not integrating with Xinghai was equivalent to being forcibly reformatted by the times.

They couldn't even get through the doors of the retail stores.

Zhuhai.

Gree headquarters building.

In the high-level conference room on the top floor, the air conditioning was set to sixteen degrees, cold enough to make one's bones ache.

Along the long mahogany conference table sat over a dozen executives in suits.

No one dared to make a sound.

The air was as oppressive as a sponge soaked with water.

Cold sweat seeped from everyone's foreheads.

At the head of the table sat the woman known as the Iron Lady, Chairwoman Dong.

She wore a sharply tailored gray professional suit.

In her hand, she clutched a copy of the "Xinghai Smart Home Ecosystem White Paper," the edges of which were deformed from her grip.

"A ten percent hardware commission?"

Chairwoman Dong stared fixedly at the unreasonable terms in the white paper.

She clenched her molars, making a dull grinding sound, and bloodshot veins instantly filled the whites of her eyes.

"Not only do they want a commission, but we also have to open up the underlying control permissions for all appliances to them?"

She slammed the white paper onto the table with a dull thud.

A vice president beside her wiped away sweat.

He swallowed dryly, his voice wavering.

"Chairwoman Dong, the market only recognizes the Xinghai label now. Midea and Haier are reportedly already in contact with Lu Jingming."

The vice president's legs went weak.

"If we stubbornly refuse to sign, I'm afraid our next quarter's financial report will be shattered by those small OEM factories."

Chairwoman Dong suddenly raised her head.

Her sharp gaze scraped across the vice president's face like a razor blade, scaring him into silence.

She had dominated the industry for thirty years, building this appliance empire on the strength of superior compressor and refrigeration technology.

Now, some young man who made mobile phones wanted her to surrender everything just by holding a few chips?

The Montblanc fountain pen in Chairwoman Dong's hand was hot from her grip.

"Bang!"

With a loud crash, Chairwoman Dong grabbed the expensive purple clay teacup beside her and smashed it hard against the floor.

Broken porcelain shards scattered everywhere.

Scalding tea splashed onto the vice president's trouser leg, but he didn't even dare to dodge.

Chairwoman Dong's chest heaved violently, her eyes filled with the unyielding ferocity of an industrialist.

"They want us to be an OEM factory just for assembling shells?"

She braced her hands on the edge of the conference table, her voice taut like a fully drawn bowstring.

"Lu Jingming can dream on!"