Chapter 167 Insufficient Production Capacity? President Lu Directly Purchases Three Fully Automated Mech Production Lines

"Go recruit workers?"

Lu Jingming leaned back in his large executive chair.

The green plastic lighter in his hand clicked as the metal lid flipped open.

His thumb pressed down hard on the flint wheel, and a faint blue flame shot up instantly.

The firelight illuminated the unreasonable arrogance in his eyes.

"Chu Xuan, who told you that I'm going to use people to build cars?" He said, biting down on half a white canine tooth, his voice languid.

Chu Xuan was sprawled on the expensive wool carpet.

Hearing this, he scrambled to the desk, his hands gripping the edge of the table tightly.

"N-no people?" Chu Xuan stammered, sweat dripping from his forehead down his nose. "President Lu, are you planning to hire monkeys to tighten the screws?"

Lu Jingming ignored him.

His deep eyes narrowed slightly as he summoned the translucent system panel directly in his mind.

[Current remaining points: 1.4 million.]

[Redeem: Fully Automated Mecha Assembly Line (Industrial-grade Black Technology)? Cost per line: 400,000 points.]

"Redeem three." Lu Jingming ordered decisively in his consciousness.

[Ding! 1.2 million points deducted. Three fully automated mecha production lines successfully redeemed.]

[Equipment has been packed into spatial folding containers, ready to be deployed to specified coordinates at any time.]

Lu Jingming released his finger, and the metal lid of the lighter made a crisp sound.

The flame extinguished instantly.

"Chu Xuan, get up." Lu Jingming kicked the edge of Chu Xuan's shoe with his toe.

"Notify the finance department first thing tomorrow morning."

Lu Jingming tapped his fingers on the desk, making a rhythmic clacking sound. "Settle the wages for all the existing outsourced assembly line workers at double the rate, and fire every single one of them."

Chu Xuan's legs went weak, and he almost fell to his knees again.

"F-fire them?!" His voice cracked completely, like a rooster with its neck stepped on.

"President Lu! We have 520,000 orders hanging over our heads!"

Chu Xuan was so anxious he was about to cry. "If we fire all the workers now, can the cars just grow out of the ground by themselves?"

Xia Weiliang, who had been sitting at the computer playing ranked matches, sneered.

She kicked off the chassis with her bare feet.

The gaming chair spun around with a swoosh.

"Crunch." She bit down on the strawberry-flavored candy in her mouth and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"You country bumpkin, just fire them if he tells you to."

Xia Weiliang picked up the plastic candy stick and pointed it at Chu Xuan's nose. "Xinghai doesn't feed useless good-for-nothings. Clear out the factory and get ready for guests."

The next morning.

The entrance to Xinghai Technology's No. 1 Super Factory in the suburbs was bustling with people.

Three armored cash transport trucks drove directly into the factory square.

The finance department had spent the night settling accounts, paying off all outstanding wages and high severance packages to the outsourced workers in cash on the spot.

The workers walked out the gate clutching thick stacks of RMB, looking completely bewildered.

"What the hell is Xinghai doing? The cars are selling so well, why did they fire us all?"

"You don't know jack, they probably spread themselves too thin, and the capital chain broke!"

The news spread like wildfire, covering the entire internet in less than an hour.

The hashtag #Xinghai Technology Suspends Operations and Dismisses Workers# skyrocketed to the number one trending topic like a rocket.

Countless automotive bloggers and keyboard warriors swarmed in like sharks smelling blood.

"Shocking scoop! xinghai su1 bombshell, confirmed shutdown!"

"I knew buying alien technology for 200,000 was a gimmick! They took our large deposits and are planning to run away!"

"The 500,000 orders are definitely fake ghost bots! Refund! Refund, you black-hearted car company!"

On the other side of the ocean.

The top floor of Tesla headquarters was bathed in sunshine.

Musk held a glass of chilled champagne, looking at the latest overseas briefing on his screen.

The corner of his mouth curled into a look of contempt.

His thick fingers tapped rapidly on the tablet, sending three laughing emojis in a row.

"A nouveau riche with no foundation has finally been blown up by the balloon they inflated themselves."

Musk drained the champagne in his glass. "The threshold of the automotive industry isn't something you can cross with just a PPT."

Back home.

President Li from Li Auto and the executives from Toyota were celebrating in their respective offices.

The gloom from yesterday, which had driven them almost to the point of jumping off a building, was swept away.

"Maglev for 200,000?" President Li puffed on his cigar, laughing until tears almost came out.

"The production lines are stopped, and he can't even recruit a single screw-tightening worker. I want to see what Lu Jingming uses to deliver the cars!"

The storm of public opinion intensified.

Countless car owners who had placed orders began to leave frantic messages on the official website, demanding refunds.

However, no one knew.

Midnight.

On the winding mountain road leading to Xinghai's No. 1 factory in the suburbs, a dark convoy rolled over the wet and slippery road surface.

Sixty unplated heavy-duty trucks sped through the night like ghosts.

If any traffic police had stopped the trucks, they would have been scared out of their wits.

Because in the cabs of these speeding heavy trucks, there were absolutely no drivers!

A purely system-controlled autonomous driving module was operating this steel convoy.

The truck beds were loaded with huge shipping containers over ten meters long, covered with heavy black rainproof tarps.

"Screech—"

The heavy truck convoy stopped in perfect unison at the huge unloading area of the No. 1 factory.

The rolling shutter door slammed down, locking tightly.

The entire Xinghai factory area didn't even have a single street light on, and the silence was so dead it made one's scalp tingle.

In the overgrown grass outside the factory.

Two men in ghillie suits were lying in a mud puddle with their butts in the air, feeding the mosquitoes.

One was Old Ghost, sent by Toyota, and the other was a private investigator hired by Li Auto.

Old Ghost pulled a military-grade DJI drone out of his waterproof bag.

"Damn it, the mosquitoes in this grass are really venomous." Old Ghost scratched the bites on his neck and cursed in a low voice.

"Stop complaining." The investigator stared intently at the tablet in his hands.

"The higher-ups have spoken. As long as we get evidence that their factory is empty and operations are suspended, we'll go to the Securities Regulatory Commission tomorrow to report Xinghai for financial fraud."

He sneered, "After we finish this job, the boss's reward will be enough for us to spend a month at the club with young models."

The drone's rotors emitted a low buzzing sound.

Hugging the dark night, it rose into the air silently.

Old Ghost manipulated the joystick, making the drone hover like a bat outside the large exhaust louvers on the roof of the factory.

"There isn't even a single light on in the factory; they've definitely all run away."

Old Ghost raised his eyebrows smugly. "Turn on the night vision and perspective mode, and zoom the lens all the way in."

The investigator swiped the tablet a few times.

The image flickered, changing from pitch black to a ghostly green night vision background.

Old Ghost pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

"I'm telling you, that kid Lu Jingming is just a flashy capitalist playing games; building cars, building a..."

Before he could finish.

The image on the tablet screen gradually focused and became clear.

The cigarette in Old Ghost's mouth fell with a "plop" onto his crotch.

The sparks instantly burned through the waterproof fabric and scorched his skin.

But he forgot to even scream.

His eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, and his pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks instantly.

He froze in the mud, his breathing even stopping.

The investigator sensed something wrong and leaned over to look at the screen.

Just one look.

The investigator shuddered violently, his chin hitting the mud hard.

"O-Old Ghost..." The investigator's voice was completely shattered, filled with the extreme terror of seeing a ghost.

He grabbed Old Ghost's arm tightly, his fingernails digging deep into his flesh.

"What the hell are those mechanical monsters with eight metal arms in the factory...?!"