Chapter 64 The Conspiracy of the CEO of Gaotong Chips: The Patent Stick Takes Strike

Donghai City International Airport.

A pure white Gulfstream G550 private jet tore through the clouds and touched down steadily on the runway.

The roar of the engines was deafening, kicking up a wave of scorching heat.

The cabin door popped open, and the airstairs slowly lowered.

Paul Jacobs stepped down from the plane unhurriedly in his custom, handmade leather shoes.

He wore an elegant silver-grey suit, with a pair of large, black-framed sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose.

Behind him followed a whole row of white lawyers in suits and leather shoes, each carrying a heavy briefcase.

This lineup didn't look like they were here to talk business.

Rather, they looked like medieval lords coming to claim their spoils of war.

The motorcade caught green lights all the way, heading straight for the Xinghai Technology headquarters building.

As soon as the sensor doors of the first-floor lobby slid open, this group barged in, bringing with them an unapproachable chill.

Third floor, Meeting Room No. 1.

The central air conditioning was whirring, blowing out cold air.

Lu Jingming wasn't wearing formal attire, still clad in his eternal black T-shirt.

He leaned back in his executive chair, holding a nail clipper, lazily trimming his thumb nail out of sheer boredom.

Shen Qingqiu sat on his right, a slim laptop open in front of her.

Old Li and Niu Dazhuang stood on either side like two door gods, staring grimly at the entrance.

Bang!

The heavy double wooden doors were violently pushed open from the outside.

Paul swaggered in, leading his massive team of lawyers.

He didn't even take off his sunglasses and didn't spare a glance at the people sitting on either side of the long table.

He walked straight to the opposite side, pulled out a chair, and sat down in a domineering posture.

His expensive leather shoes were propped directly up on the mahogany tabletop.

"Mr. Lu, the traffic in China is truly a headache."

Paul snapped his fingers.

A blonde lawyer behind him immediately stepped forward and handed over a thick document.

Paul tossed the document across the long table like it was trash.

With a rustle,

the papers slid across the smooth tabletop, stopping right by Lu Jingming's hand.

"My time is very valuable. There's a dinner party waiting for me back on Wall Street."

Paul leaned back in his chair, a haughty sneer playing on his lips.

"Sign it quickly, so we can all save some effort."

Lu Jingming didn't even lift his eyelids.

He blew away the nail clippings and slowly pocketed the nail clipper.

Shen Qingqiu reached out with her fair hand, took the English contract, and flipped to the first page.

With just a glance, this Goddess of Wealth, who had seen her share of storms, instantly darkened her expression.

Her fingers gripped the edge of the paper so tightly that her knuckles turned slightly white.

"Mr. Paul, isn't your company being a bit too calculating?"

Shen Qingqiu looked up, her gaze behind her gold-rimmed glasses sharp as a knife.

"A fixed patent fee of eighty dollars per phone is already an astronomical price."

She slammed the contract onto the table, her voice freezing cold.

"And yet, you actually want to extract another five percent cut from the retail price of the entire device?"

As soon as she said this, the air in the conference room instantly froze.

Old Li sucked in a cold breath, his thick glasses nearly sliding off his nose.

"How much? Five percent?"

Having worked in hardware for most of his life, he had never heard of such an outrageous, bullying clause.

"If we sell a phone for two thousand yuan, we have to hand over a hundred yuan to you for nothing? What kind of rule is that!"

Paul pulled out a thick Cuban cigar and sniffed it at the tip of his nose.

"This is called the Qualcomm Tax."

He didn't even look at Old Li, his tone carrying a sense of natural charity.

"It is also the rule that every phone manufacturer on this planet must follow."

Paul put the cigar in his mouth and mumbled indistinctly.

"Without our Qualcomm's underlying communication patents, your phones wouldn't even be able to send a text message. Is it too much to charge a little toll?"

Niu Dazhuang already had a fiery temper.

Hearing this, his back teeth ground audibly, and his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

"Stop playing the fucking big boss here! Your crappy chips are already expensive enough, and you still want a cut?"

He took a sudden step forward, his hand gripping a pipe wrench so tightly it was breaking a sweat.

"You're literally sucking blood from Xinghai's veins!"

Seeing this, several white lawyers immediately stepped forward to block him.

They reached their hands into their suit inner pockets, their eyes alert.

"Dazhuang, step back."

Lu Jingming finally spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chilling authority that suppressed the entire room.

Niu Dazhuang's chest heaved violently, but he forced himself to stop and retreated to his original spot.

Lu Jingming reached out for the contract and flipped through it casually.

"Is this what you flew all this way just to have me sign?"

Paul bit off the tip of his cigar, and someone nearby immediately offered a match.

"Don't be in a hurry, Mr. Lu. The best part is yet to come."

He blew out a thick ring of white smoke.

His blue eyes stared greedily at Lu Jingming through his sunglasses.

"I heard your Xinghai recently came up with some Full-screen Display? And a Slide-to-unlock?"

Paul drew a circle in the air with his finger, grinning so wide his back teeth showed.

"The last page of the contract states it very clearly. To promote industry development, we should do a cross-licensing of technology."

He flicked the ash off his cigar, casually revealing his true motive.

"You will share the underlying code and design blueprints of these two patents with Qualcomm for free."

Paul leaned back, swinging his leather shoes on the table a couple of times.

"In exchange, I can give you a two percent discount on next year's chip purchase prices. How about that?"

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Only the whirring of the central air conditioning could be heard.

Shen Qingqiu trembled with rage, her nails digging deep into her palms.

What did he mean by cross-licensing?

This was clearly using a few pieces of scrap paper to commit highway robbery on Xinghai's core trump cards!

If they agreed to this condition, the Full-screen Display and Slide-to-unlock would no longer be Xinghai's exclusive barriers.

Qualcomm could turn around and sell these technologies at a high price to Apple and Nokia.

The territory Xinghai had fought so hard to win over the past few months would be instantly carved up by these foreigners.

"This is robbery!"

Old Li's face flushed red with anger as he pointed at Paul's nose and cursed.

"Those blueprints were produced after dozens of people in our workshop pulled countless all-nighters for trial production! Why should we give them to you for nothing!"

Paul spread his hands, acting completely like a rogue.

"Old man, don't make it sound so ugly. This is called resource sharing."

He took the cigar out of his mouth, his gaze bypassing Old Li to lock directly onto Lu Jingming.

"You Chinese have an old saying: 'He who understands the times is a wise man.'"

Paul snorted coldly, his threat completely undisguised.

"Mr. Lu is a smart man; he should know how to choose. Don't drag down the entire company just for some unrealistic technological pride."

Lu Jingming closed the bullying contract.

He pulled a one-yuan plastic lighter from his pocket and flicked it with a click.

The deep blue flame danced, reflecting in his deep pupils.

He neither lost his temper nor slammed the table.

Instead, he stared with great interest at Paul's arrogant white face.

A mocking curve slowly curled up at the corner of his mouth.

"President Paul, do you think that by grasping our chip supply, you've grasped my lifeblood?"

Lu Jingming's voice was somewhat lazy, yet it carried a trace of chill.

Paul took off his sunglasses and tossed them casually onto the table.

He leaned forward, crossing his hands under his chin like a venomous snake staring at its prey.

"Mr. Lu, in business there are only interests, no miracles."

He stared into Lu Jingming's eyes, his voice carrying a condescending coldness.

"I might as well lay it all out for you. If you refuse, not a single foundry in the entire universe will dare to sell you a single processor chip."

Paul leaned back and pointed at the document on the table.

"Sign it. If you don't sign this contract, your one million so-called true Full-screen Display phones will turn into a pile of bricks that can't even power on tomorrow."