Chapter 52 Steve Jobs' Ambitions: The First Generation Apple is About to Be Released

Shen Qingqiu's eyes were red, her chest heaving.

The English briefing was crumpled in her grip, the paper emitting a harsh, friction-filled sound.

"Scared shitless? Lu Jingming, did you not understand?"

She gritted her teeth, her high heels clicking dully against the wooden floor.

"The Americans are trying to cut off our sensor supply chain at the root! Without those precision components, the tablet sketches you drew are just a pile of waste paper!"

Lu Jingming tossed his plastic lighter aside.

With a "clack," the lighter landed steadily on the mahogany desk.

He leaned back in his boss chair, crossing his legs, his posture as relaxed as if he were on vacation.

"Shen the God of Wealth, you're usually quite sharp when reviewing reports, so why do you get confused the moment you touch an American official seal?"

Lu Jingming picked up his teacup and blew on the floating leaves.

"What kind of efficiency do those lords on Capitol Hill have? Do you think they're as fast as our assembly lines?"

He took a sip of tea, a glimmer of mockery flashing in his eyes.

"Proposals, bickering, hearings, capital games—without at least half a year, this sanctions list won't land at all."

Shen Qingqiu froze, her tightly furrowed brow relaxing slightly.

"You mean, we still have a time gap?"

"This half-year is enough for us to poke a hole in the sky."

Lu Jingming put down the teacup, his eyes becoming deep and dangerous.

"They want to cut off my food supply, so I'll strip off their underwear first. Let's wait and see."

Across the ocean, Silicon Valley, USA.

Inside a fully enclosed circular theater at Apple headquarters, the air conditioning was biting.

There was no extra scenery on stage, only a huge high-definition screen.

Steve was wearing his signature black turtleneck sweater and gray sneakers.

He was pacing anxiously on stage, holding a silver-and-black rectangular device in his hand.

Only a few core executives sat in the audience; Cook pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his expression solemn.

"Wrong! This sliding transition animation is too stiff!"

Steve stopped abruptly, pointing at the screen and roaring at the technical staff backstage.

"I want the texture of silk! The code you pigs wrote sounds like sawing wood!"

The engineers backstage trembled in fear, not daring to breathe.

After venting his anger, Steve took a deep breath.

He looked again at the first-generation iPhone prototype in his hand, into which he had poured ten years of hard work.

His eyes gradually became fanatical, like a cult leader preparing to preach.

"Gentlemen, look at this little guy."

Steve raised the phone, the light hitting the back panel made of aluminum alloy and plastic.

"No stupid number pad, no space-consuming stylus. This, is what you call true industrial art."

Cook opened the folder on his lap, looking worried.

"Steve, that Xinghai Technology in China has been very prominent lately."

"Their performance in multi-touch and Tombstone Mechanism has received high market response. We need to be wary of that young man named Lu Jingming."

"Wary of what? Wary of a barbarian who only knows how to pour resin into phones?"

Steve sneered, his voice filled with condescending contempt.

"No matter how beautiful the glass casing is, it cannot cover up the fact that their hardware foundation is weak."

He walked quickly to the side of the stage and slammed the prototype in his hand onto the podium.

"The xinghai gen 2 is just an assembled toy wrapped in a gorgeous coat."

"Our IOS system is an absolutely closed ecosystem based on the Unix underlying layer! The combination of software and hardware is the only perfect way!"

Steve braced his hands on the table, paranoid flames burning in his blue eyes.

"As soon as our phone is released, that crude underlying mechanism of Xinghai will become a pile of garbage code that no one cares about."

He straightened up abruptly and issued the final order.

"Go, let the PR department send out the countdown poster."

"I want the whole world to know who is truly creating the future."

Just two hours later.

A poster with a dark silver metallic texture smashed into the global internet like a depth charge.

In the center of the poster was a bitten Apple logo.

Below it was an arrogantly worded English slogan.

"Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone."

Translated, it means: Today, Apple will redefine the phone.

Major domestic digital forums instantly exploded.

The Jifeng Forum server was so crowded with traffic that it kept lagging, and the webpage wouldn't load for ages.

"Holy shit! The true god is descending! Apple is finally releasing a phone!"

"Redefining the phone? That's too arrogant, do they think our Xinghai glass screens are just for show?"

"Forget it, upstairs. Xinghai just got lucky and happened to come up with a system, but Apple is an international Silicon Valley giant; can their technical background be the same?"

Many digital influencers who fawn over foreign countries jumped out to stir the pot.

They analyzed Apple's poster, which only had an outline, word by word, blowing the yet-to-be-seen first-generation iPhone up to the heavens.

"Xinghai's doomsday is here. Once the foreigners' core technology comes out, the domestic assembly factory will immediately be exposed."

"I predict that as soon as the new Apple phone goes on sale, the sales of the xinghai gen 2 will definitely be cut in half."

"Lu Jingming has hit a hard nut this time, just wait for him to die."

In the forums, Xinghai die-hard fans and Apple fans were arguing incessantly, and for a time it was chaotic.

All kinds of posts predicting Xinghai's failure were endless.

A sense of inexplicable panic quietly spread among Xinghai's downstream supply chain and distributors.

Donghai City, Xinghai Technology top-floor office.

With a "bang," the heavy solid wood door was pushed open.

Chu Xuan rushed in, sweating profusely, his center-parted hair messy like a bird's nest.

Behind him followed Old Li, who was panting, the old man's thick-rimmed glasses crooked from running.

"President Lu! Apple is going crazy!"

Chu Xuan shoved his laptop onto the table; the screen displayed the "Redefining the Phone" poster.

"The internet is all predicting our failure. They say the true god has arrived, and our Xinghai is about to be finished!"

Old Li wiped the sweat from his forehead, his features scrunched up in worry.

"Young master, I heard Apple is using the real deal this time, they even cut the physical keyboard."

The old man slapped his thigh in anxiety.

"Our second-generation machine hasn't been on the market for long, and if we collide with them at this critical moment, our market share will definitely be snatched away!"

Lu Jingming sat in his swivel chair, his gaze sweeping over the arrogant Apple logo on the screen.

He stared at the English slogan for a few seconds.

Not only was he not angry, but he laughed out loud.

The laughter echoed in the spacious office, carrying an unbridled, wicked air.

Lu Jingming reached out and pulled open the solid wood drawer.

He crumpled the half-finished large-screen tablet sketches on the table into a ball.

He threw them in without mercy.

With a "clack," the drawer slammed shut.

Lu Jingming stood up, one hand in his jeans pocket.

He looked at the stunned Chu Xuan and Old Li, a predatory ferocity flashing in his eyes.

"The tablet will be postponed."

Lu Jingming pointed to the arrogant Apple poster on the computer screen.

He turned to the stunned Chu Xuan and Old Li and said: "Since Old Qiao wants to redefine the phone, then we will teach him what a real future phone is."