Chapter 166 The CEO of Ningyuan Times Comes to the Door

The raindrops outside the floor-to-ceiling window were like hail, pelting the explosion-proof glass with a pitter-patter.

Chu Xuan pressed against the glass, his hands tightly covering his mouth.

The white beam from the security guard's flashlight downstairs happened to sweep across the license plate of that black Maybach.

Min A·88888.

Chu Xuan sucked in a cold breath, feeling as if his scalp were about to explode.

He spun around abruptly, scrambling and crawling toward the door of the CEO's office.

With a "bang," the door was slammed open by his shoulder; he tripped and nearly fell flat on his face.

"Lu, President Lu!"

Chu Xuan clutched his collar, his voice cracking.

"That old man soaking in the rain downstairs... it's Zeng Jianguo from Ningyuan Era! President Zeng!"

Behind the desk, Lu Jingming was twirling a green plastic lighter in his hand.

Hearing this, he didn't even lift an eyelid.

"Oh."

Lu Jingming tossed the lighter onto the desk with a light "clack."

"Let him come up. Just don't let him dirty the floor tiles downstairs."

Five minutes later, the door to the CEO's office was pushed open again.

A thick, fishy smell of rain mixed with cold air surged in instantly.

Zeng Jianguo didn't let the security guards help him.

The grey-black Zhongshan suit he was wearing had long been soaked through by the rain.

The fabric clung tightly to his hunched back like a heavy suit of iron armor.

Muddy water dripped down his trouser legs.

On the expensive wool carpet, a large, dark water stain spread in the blink of an eye.

This billionaire tycoon, who once called the shots in the new energy circle, now kept his head low, his hands tightly gripping a file bag wrapped in layers of plastic bags.

"President Lu."

Zeng Jianguo's voice was as hoarse as if he had swallowed a mouthful of sand.

He took a deep breath, bent down, and respectfully placed the file bag on the desk.

"President Zeng, not sleeping in the middle of the night, and you came here to take a cold shower?"

Lu Jingming leaned back in his boss chair, his chin slightly raised, coldly watching the disheveled middle-aged man before him.

Zeng Jianguo gave a bitter laugh.

With trembling, calloused hands, he peeled away the layers of plastic film from the file bag, pulled out a thick stack of papers, and pushed them toward Lu Jingming.

"President Lu, I watched your live stream of the extreme cold test from beginning to end."

Zeng Jianguo's eyes were red, and rainwater pooled in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

"Once solid-state batteries came out, all the liquid lithium battery production lines in the world became nothing but scrap metal."

He looked up abruptly, a fierce look of someone pushed to the brink in his eyes.

"This is the share transfer agreement for 51% of Ningyuan Era."

"I've already signed it. From today on, Ningyuan Era belongs to Xinghai."

Chu Xuan, standing nearby, nearly popped his eyeballs out onto the carpet.

He clutched his chest.

Fifty-one percent? This is literally handing over an entire hundred-billion-dollar empire!

Lu Jingming didn't even glance at the document.

He picked up the lighter on the desk.

His thumb pressed onto the flint wheel and struck it hard.

"Click."

A ghostly blue flame flared up, illuminating Zeng Jianguo's pale face.

"To give such a big gift, what does President Zeng want?"

Zeng Jianguo's legs buckled, and he almost fell to his knees.

He braced his hands on the edge of the desk, staring fixedly at the flame.

"Contract manufacturing! Ningyuan has twelve super factories globally, with three hundred thousand skilled assembly line workers!"

He swallowed his dry saliva, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

"President Lu, this era belongs to you."

"I, old Zeng, concede. You eat the meat, just leave a sip of soup for the three hundred thousand brothers under me."

Lu Jingming released his finger.

The flame extinguished instantly, and the office returned to darkness.

He pulled open a drawer and tossed out a contract that had been prepared long ago.

"The terms are very harsh. Profits compressed to the extreme, and all technical patents stripped away."

Lu Jingming tapped his finger on the contract, his voice casual.

"Sign it, and Ningyuan will be an employee of Xinghai from now on. Do you dare to sign?"

Zeng Jianguo didn't hesitate for even half a second.

He grabbed the pen on the table, ripped off the cap, and "swish-swish" signed his name at the bottom of the contract.

The pen tip tore through the paper, the force visible on the back.

He wasn't afraid of being exploited.

He was only afraid that when the giant ship called Xinghai sailed away, it wouldn't even leave him a spot to hang onto.

"Chu Xuan, show him out."

Lu Jingming put away the contract and tossed it into the drawer.

"Send people tomorrow to take over Ningyuan's finances and production lines."

Zeng Jianguo bowed three times, thanking him profusely.

Dragging his heavy footsteps, he stumbled out of the office.

As soon as the door closed, Chu Xuan was so excited he almost jumped on the spot.

"President Lu! That's awesome! You took down Ningyuan Era without a single drop of blood!"

His leopard-print shirt seemed to shake with excitement.

"With their three hundred thousand skilled workers, we won't have to worry about our solid-state batteries..."

"Ring-ring—"

The red dedicated landline on the desk suddenly rang wildly, as if demanding a life.

It abruptly cut off Chu Xuan's flattery.

Chu Xuan grabbed the receiver.

"Hello? Production Department? Why are you wailing in the middle of the night!"

He didn't know what was yelled on the other end.

The smile on Chu Xuan's face froze instantly, and then "whoosh," it drained away completely.

His wrist trembled, and the receiver almost fell onto his foot.

"Y-you, what did you say? Pre-orders broke five hundred thousand?!"

Chu Xuan's voice cracked instantly, like a rooster with its neck being strangled.

He turned his head and looked at Lu Jingming as if he were seeing a ghost.

"L-President Lu. Something big has happened."

Chu Xuan put down the receiver, his legs so weak he had to hold onto the desk.

"The official website backend statistics are out, 520,000 confirmed orders, fully paid."

He gasped for cold air, nearly crying.

"But those old car manufacturer assembly lines we acquired can't keep up at all!"

"Even if we include the battery kits from Ningyuan Era, these 520,000 cars..."

Chu Xuan held up five fingers, shaking like a sieve.

"Even if the workers work three shifts and screw in bolts until they smoke, it will still take a full three years to produce!"

Just then, Xia Weiliang, who had been sitting by the computer playing games, slammed her hand onto the keyboard with a "bang."

"Stop making noise."

She bit her strawberry lollipop and kicked the computer case with her bare foot.

"That 'Old Buddy' Ma of yours in America is talking nonsense on Twitter again."

She swiped her finger, casting the foreign Twitter interface onto the wall.

Musk had posted a selfie celebrating with champagne.

The caption was only one extremely mocking sentence in English: "Welcome Xinghai Technology to production hell."

The foreign internet was very confident.

What's the use of building a good car? If you can't deliver the goods, just the breach of contract penalties alone could bankrupt Xinghai.

Chu Xuan pulled his hair in despair and collapsed onto the carpet.

"It's over. Old Ma is trying to choke us to death with massive orders!"

He looked up at Lu Jingming, his face ashen.

"President Lu, if there's no other way, shall we go out and hire outsourced assembly line workers at high salaries?"

Lu Jingming didn't answer.

He looked at the Twitter screenshot of the champagne celebration on the wall.

He slowly pulled the green plastic lighter from his trouser pocket.

"Click."

The metal lid flipped open.

His thumb pressed heavily on the flint wheel, the ghostly blue flame illuminating the wild ambition in his eyes.

He leaned back on the boss chair casually, bit into half a white canine tooth, and asked nonchalantly, "Hire workers? Chu Xuan, who told you I was going to use people to build cars?"