Chapter 160: Price Announcement – ​​Lu Jingming Completely Overturns the Table for Joint Venture Automakers

Lu Jingming stood on the silver-gray roof of the xinghai su1.

The wind from the air coolers in the venue blew in from all directions, pressing his faded black T-shirt tightly against him, outlining the firm muscle lines of his waist and abdomen.

He stood with his hands in the pockets of his worn-out jeans, looking down from above.

His gaze, sharp as a blade, swept across the joint venture car company executives frozen in their leather chairs in the front-row VIP section.

Old Henry pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.

His fingers were trembling so violently that his fingernail scratched against the lens, leaving a greasy, blurry fingerprint.

He turned his head and whispered to the Toyota Vice President beside him, "Don't panic. He's just losing money to drum up attention."

Old Henry swallowed his dry saliva, his Adam's apple feeling painful in his constricted throat.

"Carbon fiber integrated die-casting, the material cost for this shell alone must be at least 100,000!"

He spat saliva onto his suit lapel, not even bothering to wipe it off.

The Toyota Vice President tugged desperately at his choking Windsor-knotted tie, leaving a glaring red mark on his neck.

"Right, right. And that magnetic levitation chassis."

The Toyota Vice President's voice cracked, revealing the hollow attempt to bolster his own courage.

"That insane computing power chip, plus the Holographic Projection car system module."

His left hand plunged tightly into his dress pants pocket, clutching a small white plastic pill bottle.

His fingernails dug hard into the edge of the cap, turning his fingertips a deathly, pale blue.

It was his fast-acting heart pill.

"Just in hardware materials alone, this car must have had at least 400,000 sunk into it!"

The Toyota Vice President panted heavily, his lungs aching.

"If he dares to sell it for under 500,000, the cash flow of xinghai will break by tomorrow!"

In the third row, President Li of the new car-making force was clutching the web of his hand, which had been pierced by a ballpoint pen and was bleeding, hissing in pain.

He nudged his technical partner, Old Wang, with his elbow.

"Old Wang, give me the bottom line."

President Li wiped his bloody finger on his trousers.

"For this magnetic levitation chassis without guide rails, how much does it cost just for the mold?"

Old Wang pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, his legs trembling.

"P-President Li. It's impossible to calculate."

Old Wang's throat was parched. "Just that microwave radiation shielding net for the whole car's power supply, one piece alone costs 20,000. The production cost of this car is definitely approaching several hundred thousand."

President Li let out a long breath, his tense back slumping slightly.

"Then he has to sell it for at least 600,000. Our SUVs that cost just over 300,000 and come with a big color TV can still survive."

As long as it was priced above 500,000. This was the final psychological line of defense for all the car company bosses present.

There would always be ordinary people who couldn't afford a 500,000 luxury car.

As long as there was a way to survive, their Accords, Camrys, and 3 Series could still linger on underneath, squeezing two more years of profit out of those old engine production lines.

Lu Jingming stood on the car roof, seeing through the cowardly whispers of the people below.

He pulled out his right hand and took out a plastic lighter with a layer of green paint chipped off.

He pressed his thumb onto the metal grinding wheel and struck it down hard.

"Click."

The crisp sound of mechanical friction traveled through the lapel microphone, instantly expanding to every corner of the eight-thousand-person venue, making people's eardrums numb.

A ghostly blue flame flared up, dancing in the cold wind with a pungent smell of inferior kerosene.

The firelight illuminated the sharp, bone-white canine tooth on one side of Lu Jingming's mouth.

"You few down there calculating accounts."

Lu Jingming stared at the flame, his voice languid and devoid of any inflection. "Have you figured it out? How much do you think my car should sell for?"

Old Henry's back stiffened abruptly.

His high-end custom shirt stuck tightly to his spine, freezing cold.

"These foreigners who make cars have a stinking habit of extortion in their bones."

Lu Jingming casually extinguished the flame.

The plastic shell made a crisp, light sound.

The firelight was cut off instantly.

"A broken screen is considered an optional extra. A leather seat requires extra money."

Lu Jingming let out a cold snort, exuding an arrogance that threatened to flip the table upside down.

"They even force consumers to pay an extra 8,000 just to buy a car paint color."

He lifted his foot, his flip-flop stepping on the silver-gray Holographic Projection car roof.

"Pat."

"Today, I'm setting the rules for you."

Lu Jingming curled his knuckles and knocked on the air.

Behind the stage, the massive, pitch-black LCD screen that occupied half the wall suddenly powered on without warning.

Blinding red light instantly flooded the entire venue.

There were no messy, asterisked footnotes on the big screen.

No disgusting, tricky options for low or high trims.

Just four bold, eye-catching Arabic numerals, plus a decimal point.

199,800.

Below it followed a line of small white text.

All models come standard with the highest-level intelligent driving and Holographic Projection magnetic levitation chassis.

Dead silence.

In the eight-thousand-person convention center, the air solidified like concrete.

Even the noise of the air cooler exhaust seemed to have stopped.

"Clang."

A mineral water bottle from some reporter's hand hit the wooden floor.

The sound was like a spark thrown into a powder keg.

The entire venue instantly exploded into chaos.

"190,000? This is robbery!"

A CEO of a new force pulled at his hair, scratching his scalp raw.

His fingernails were full of blood.

"All models standard? Does that mean even the base model comes with Holographic Projection and magnetic levitation?"

"Impossible! He doesn't even have enough for the material costs!"

Old Henry stood up abruptly, his knee knocking over the glass coffee table.

Tea spilled all over the floor.

His eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets, and the red blood vessels exploded into a cluster.

The Toyota Vice President's head let out a loud "buzz."

Blood rushed to his head, and his vision went black in waves.

His left hand suddenly trembled.

His fingers couldn't hold the small pill bottle in his trouser pocket.

The small white plastic bottle slid out along the smooth fabric.

"Pat."

The pill bottle hit the wool carpet.

The cap popped open.

Dozens of brown fast-acting heart pills rolled all over the floor, emitting a pungent medicinal smell.

The Toyota Vice President's legs went weak.

His kneecaps felt as if the tendons had been pulled out, unable to exert any strength.

He slid straight down from the leather chair.

"Thump."

He slid and knelt straight onto the carpet covered in pills.

His knees crushed a few of the pills.

"It's, it's over..."

A strange "clucking" sound came from his throat, his mouth wide open.

He looked like a dead fish thrown onto the shore.

He couldn't even take a breath of cold air, his lungs aching and twitching.

The price range of 100,000 to 300,000.

That was the profit base that joint venture car companies relied on for survival.

In this single second, Lu Jingming kicked the table and the rice bowl along with it, smashing everything to pieces.

The era of domestic comprador car companies was shattered, leaving not even a trace of dust behind.

In the production room backstage, the air cooler was blowing for all it was worth.

Chu Xuan tugged at the collar of his purple leopard-print short-sleeved shirt, clutching the sour-smelling, rotten tissue in his hand.

He stared at the frantically jumping data streams on the computer screen, his eyelids twitching wildly.

"Little Weiliang! Didn't you say Pandora's redundant computing power could be pushed to 300%!"

Chu Xuan jumped around in a panic, his leather shoes making chaotic, muffled sounds.

"Hurry up and turn on the traffic diversion!"

Xia Weiliang stepped on the edge of the keyboard with her bare feet, the soles covered in a layer of black dust.

She spat out the chewed-up lollipop stick in her mouth.

"Phooey."

"Diversion my ass!"

Xia Weiliang's ten fingers smashed against the mechanical keyboard, making it crackle and pop.

Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was so anxious she started swearing.

"President Ma just called me crying! Even the backup nodes on Penguin Cloud have been blown through!"

"Are these netizens trying to snatch cars with the same energy as snatching eggs!"

Chu Xuan grabbed the walkie-talkie and cut directly into Lu Jingming's headset channel.

His voice completely cracked, and he roared at the top of his lungs.

Saliva sprayed all over the walkie-talkie.

"President Lu! The reservation channel just opened, and 5,000,000 people flooded in in ten seconds!"

Chu Xuan panted like a broken bellows, tears streaming out.

"Alibaba Cloud just called."

"Their main server has completely collapsed! It's all black!"