Chapter 153 The whole internet is in an uproar: Mr. Lu, please stop! Don't drag the automotive industry into bankruptcy too.

The wind crept in through the gap in the floor-to-ceiling window that hadn't been closed tightly.

Shen Qingqiu's crisp white shirt billowed out, creating a straight crease along her waist.

"Toyota Greater China Region is issuing press releases to scold you," she said, her slender fingers tapping on the glass coffee table. "How are you going to respond?"

Lu Jingming didn't even lift his eyelids. His thumb flicked the flint wheel of a green plastic lighter, on and off. "Click," "click." Two sparks flew out, but the flame didn't ignite.

"Why bother responding to them?" Lu Jingming tilted his head back and poured the last mouthful of ice-cold cola from the can into his mouth. The carbonation fizzed in his throat, and he let out a muffled burp.

"A bunch of people selling assembled sheet metal—they're half in the grave already, can't they let people shout a couple of times?"

Chu Xuan hugged a tablet and squeezed through the doorway like a meatball. Today, he had changed into a yellow short-sleeved shirt with black spots. The buttons on his belly were stretched tight, revealing a roll of fat.

"B-Boss Lu," he said, his tongue tied. He was clutching a wad of wet tissues in his hand, water dripping down through his fingers. "It's normal for foreign media to publish hit pieces mocking us, but, but the trend on the domestic hot search... it's insane!"

Lu Jingming tossed the empty can into the trash bin. It made a crisp "clatter."

"Are the paid trolls stirring up trouble?"

Chu Xuan shook his head violently. A few strands of his center-parted hair, stuck together by sweat, whipped across his forehead. "It's not paid trolls! These are all real accounts!"

He shoved the tablet under Lu Jingming's nose, his fingers trembling as he opened the comment section of Xinghai Technology's official Weibo. The screen was filled with comments. No one was doubting whether Xinghai could build something with four wheels. After all, this company had even developed black technologies like microwave over-the-air charging.

The top comment had over 300,000 likes. "God Lu, I'm kowtowing to you, please stop! My uncle is tightening screws at GAC, he has elderly parents and young children to support!"

The replies below had completely gone off-track. "Begging Boss Lu to spare the car companies! Don't try to 'make friends' by selling cars for 19.90 with free shipping, you'll really get people killed!"

"Once Xinghai starts making cars, joint-venture factories will definitely go bankrupt, and that street of auto parts shops will have to hang up banners and beg for food tomorrow."

Lu Jingming stared at the screen, his back teeth aching. The thought process of these netizens was truly messier than the code Xia Weiliang wrote.

Shen Qingqiu glanced at it, a cold sneer tugging at the corner of her mouth. "They are afraid that you'll sell cars like cabbages."

At the same time, in the basement of a high-end office building in Yanjing, Boss Li of a new car-making startup sat in the back seat of his newly released SUV. The AC in the car was turned to the lowest setting, yet his high-end custom shirt was stuck to the leather seat, damp and cold.

Boss Li bit the dead skin on his lip and held down his phone to send a voice message. "Old He, Old Wei. Have you seen this hot search?" His throat was dry, and he swallowed twice.

"If that madman Lu really enters the car-making business, will our newly raised billions be enough for him to skip a stone with?"

In the WeChat group "Three Poor Car-Making Bastards," no one replied with text for a long time; only two voice messages popped up.

Boss He's breathing sounded like a broken bellows. "Him making phones and chips is dimensionality reduction. But making cars... surely he has to rely on physical tuning for the chassis, right?"

Boss Wei's voice shook even more violently. "Stop comforting yourself! He even built an anti-gravity drone! Who knows what kind of monster he's going to stuff into a car!"

Donghai City, the fourth basement level of the Xinghai Technology building. This place was originally an abandoned air-raid shelter. The air was filled with the pungent smell of rubber tires, mixed with the scent of unevaporated motor oil.

It made Chu Xuan sneeze twice, and he rubbed his nose while groaning. Several rows of pale fluorescent tubes overhead flickered with a buzzing sound.

On the anti-static concrete floor, over a dozen cars were parked neatly. They were all in-stock vehicles purchased in full from various 4S dealerships overnight: Porsche 911, Mercedes-Benz Maybach, Lexus LM, Toyota Prado.

The paintwork, which would look blinding under sunlight, exuded an aura of impending doom in this basement, as if waiting to be slaughtered. Chu Xuan tugged at the collar of his floral shirt, his legs trembling.

"Boss Lu, all these cars parked here are money," he said, looking at the brand-new Maybach, his face contorted in distress. "You spent so many dollars buying up all this stock—aren't, aren't we supposed to be building our own?"

Lu Jingming had one hand in the pocket of his washed-out jeans. His plastic flip-flops slapped against the concrete floor with a "pat-pat" sound.

He walked over to the Lexus and kicked the tire. The rebound force of the rubber made the soles of his feet go numb. "Know yourself, know your enemy." Lu Jingming pulled the plastic lighter out of his pocket. His thumb pressed down on the flint wheel. "Click."

A ghostly blue flame flared up, illuminating one side of his stark white canine teeth. "If we don't strip off their underwear to take a look," Lu Jingming stared at the paintwork, "how will we know how they're scamming people for money?"

"Clang!" A deafening sound of metal colliding suddenly came from afar. Chu Xuan shrank his neck in fright, not even bothering to pick up the wet tissue that had fallen to the ground.

Following the sound, he looked over. Xia Weiliang was crawling out from a pile of scattered parts. Her yellowing, dirty white lab coat was smeared with black grease. Her bird's-nest hair was as messy as a haystack.

What was most critical was that she was barefoot, stepping directly onto the concrete floor covered in iron filings. The soles of her feet were as black as if they had been rubbed with coal ash.

"Pfft." Xia Weiliang spat the chewed-up plastic lollipop stick onto the ground. She was dragging a half-person-tall industrial hydraulic cutter with both hands. The jaws of the cutter gleamed with a chilling cold light, looking even more terrifying than a guillotine.

She dragged the cutter forward. The heavy metal handle scraped against the concrete floor, sending out a string of blinding sparks and making a teeth-grinding "ka-la ka-la" sound.

"W-Weiliang, my girl," Chu Xuan said, his tongue tied, his voice floating. "Take it easy! That Porsche 911 cost three million to get! It hasn't even been registered yet!"

Xia Weiliang rolled her eyes so hard they almost went to the back of her head. "Three million to buy a pile of broken iron pipes? You guys have water in your brains."

She walked to the front of the red Porsche 911. The car had just been lifted up by a jack. The chassis suspension system was completely exposed under the pale light. Xia Weiliang threw aside the hydraulic cutter. She crawled under the car barefoot and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, leaving a black streak on her face.

"I just dismantled the air suspension of that Maybach," she said, her voice filled with deep disdain. "Boss Lu, can you believe it?"

Xia Weiliang crawled out from under the car and grabbed the heavy hydraulic cutter. Veins popped out on her thin arms. She forced the jaws of the cutter onto the Porsche's thick aluminum alloy front suspension shock absorber spring.

"Just to make it bump a little less when going over potholes." Xia Weiliang gritted her teeth, her cheeks bulging. She pressed down on the cutter's control handle with all her might. The jaws clamped tightly onto the metal spring. The metal twisted under the force.

"Creeeeak—" The ear-piercing sound of squeezing echoed in the empty basement, making Chu Xuan cover his ears. "Crack!" With a crisp snap, the thick front suspension spring was cut in two.

The broken metal part hit the concrete floor and bounced twice. The front of the car lost its support and tilted downward violently, slamming onto the lift tray with a "clang."

Chu Xuan's heart gave a violent jolt along with that loud bang. A three-million-dollar luxury car, totaled with one snip.

Lu Jingming walked over. He held the lighter, the ghostly blue flame flickering at the broken part of the spring. "Did you figure anything out?" he asked casually.

Xia Weiliang threw aside the hydraulic cutter and patted the rust off her hands. She stood barefoot on the oil-covered concrete floor, completely unbothered. She sneered, her eyes filled with disdain for this mechanical structure.

"Chassis tuning?" Xia Weiliang pointed at the broken spring on the ground with her black, grimy finger, her voice full of mocking rhetorical questions. "These Germans are still using this kind of primitive physical shock-absorbing spring to scam people for money?"