Chapter 89 The Despair of the Father of Android: Market Share Plummets

Andy Rubin slumped in his boss chair.

His face was gray and haggard, like a corpse that hadn't slept in days.

On the desk sat a newly purchased xinghai pad.

The starry sky wallpaper on the screen glowed dimly, that smear of blue light stinging his eyes.

"Andy... are we really shutting down the servers?"

The vice president stood across from the desk.

He clutched a stack of reports, the edges of the paper softened by sweat, his voice wavering.

"Otherwise what? Keep them for the New Year?" Andy roared, his voice raspy like a broken gong.

He violently grabbed the Android prototype next to him.

The plastic casing let out a sharp crack as he smashed it directly against the glass wall opposite him.

With a "crash," the prototype's screen shattered into a spiderweb pattern, falling onto the thick carpet.

"Look at this piece of junk! It drops frames just trying to scroll the screen!"

Andy plunged his hands into his messy hair and tugged at it desperately.

His scalp stung with pain.

"What do we have to fight that monster, Xinghai!"

The vice president swallowed, his Adam's Apple bobbing.

"But we've been preparing for three years. We were counting on open-sourcing to unite the big manufacturers and take a slice of Apple's cake."

"Big manufacturers? Where are the big manufacturers now!"

Andy's eyes were red, and spit sprayed onto the solid wood desk.

"Do you think I don't want to launch? No one wants to play with us anymore!"

The vice president lowered his head, his shoe tip scuffing the carpet seams.

"Just a moment ago... word came from HTC. Their CEO called personally."

He stammered, his tongue licking his dry, cracked lips.

"They've quit the group. They unilaterally tore up the Android Alliance agreement. They'd rather pay the penalty fees."

Andy felt like he'd been struck in the chest with a club.

His breath caught in his throat, unable to get any air.

"And Motorola," the vice president squeezed out through his teeth.

"Their head of the Greater China Region bought a plane ticket overnight and flew to Donghai City. He went to pay his respects to Lu Jingming."

The scene cuts to the top-floor conference room number one at Google.

The ashtray was stuffed with cigarette butts.

The smell of cheap tobacco mixed with the sour stench of coffee, making one's head ache.

The projector screen on the wall was lit.

The curve representing the projected market share for the Android system lay at the very bottom like a dead snake.

Google CEO Larry kicked over the folding chair beside him.

The chair slammed into the whiteboard, leaving an ugly black mark.

"Who can tell me where our ticket to the mobile internet went!"

Larry braced his hands on the conference table, his gaze sweeping over the executives below like a knife.

"Torn to shreds by a Chinese assembly plant? Flushed down the sewer?"

No one dared to answer.

Several software supervisors shrank their necks, pretending to look at the tips of their leather shoes.

Once the Xinghai OS closed-loop ecosystem came out, even a fool would know how to choose.

Device synchronization was seamless, as smooth as if it had been greased.

Android, this makeshift operation full of loopholes, no one would dare install it even if it were given away for free to those big manufacturers now.

"It can't end like this."

The bald supervisor from the business department, who had been sitting in the corner, stood up.

He rubbed his shiny forehead, a hint of vicious calculation flashing in his eyes.

"We can't win at the system level. The underlying logic of those Chinese people is twisted."

The bald supervisor walked to the screen, his finger pointing at the image of the xinghai pad.

"But boss, don't forget what cards we hold in our hands."

Larry frowned and sat back in his chair. "Speak plainly."

"The internet gateway."

The bald man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth stained with nicotine.

"Foreigners buying phones and tablets, they have to go online to watch videos and check maps, right?"

He slapped the edge of the table.

"Google Maps! Google Search! And YouTube videos! These are all locked in our servers!"

The people in the conference room were stunned for a moment.

A few seconds later, their lifeless eyes instantly lit up.

"As long as we write a line of interception code in the backend. We can directly block the IP access permissions of Xinghai devices!"

The bald supervisor became more excited as he spoke, gesturing wildly.

"Without our GMS service, once a Xinghai tablet gets into the hands of a foreigner, it's just a piece of black glass that can't connect to the internet!"

"They'll become blind!"

Larry took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair.

His knuckles tapped against the table, making a dull "thud, thud" sound.

This was the behavior of a thug, a blatant robbery.

If you can't win, flip the table and use internet hegemony to enforce physical isolation.

But in business, surviving is the only truth that matters.

"Go do it." Larry made the final decision, his eyes cold enough to freeze.

"Within twenty-four hours, get the firewall up."

"I want to ensure that when foreign netizens buy Xinghai machines, they can't do anything but use them to prop up a table corner."

It was high noon in Donghai City.

The sun baked the asphalt road until it steamed, and the cicadas chirped outside the window, making people irritable.

Lu Jingming leaned back on the leather sofa in his office.

He was twirling that plastic lighter in his hand.

"Click, click," one sound after another.

A flurry of messy footsteps came from outside the door.

Chu Xuan pushed the door open and squeezed in, two buttons of his floral shirt undone.

Beads of sweat rolled down his middle-parted hair, hitting the floor.

"Boss Lu! We're going to make a fortune!"

Chu Xuan locked the door behind him, ran to the coffee table, grabbed a glass of cold water, and downed it.

The cold water made him let out a long belch, and he wiped his mouth messily with his sleeve.

"The reception room on the first floor is about to burst! It's full of big shots!"

Lu Jingming didn't even lift his eyelids. "Who's here?"

"General Manager Wang from HTC, and the regional president of Motorola."

Chu Xuan lowered his voice, leaned in closer, his eyes glowing with greed.

"They brought heavy gifts. They said they want to beg for pre-installation authorization for our Xinghai OS overseas."

"They even patted their chests and swore that from now on, their machines will only be equipped with our Xialong Chip."

Lu Jingming stopped what he was doing.

He threw the lighter onto the coffee table, and it slid half a meter away.

"The Android Alliance over at Google has fallen apart?" He tugged the corner of his mouth, revealing half a canine tooth.

"Completely fallen apart!" Chu Xuan was so happy he slapped his thigh.

"The big manufacturers aren't stupid. Our ecosystem can even transmit heartbeats wirelessly; who would still use that broken system that lags into a ghost image?"

Lu Jingming stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

He looked down at the flashy black Maybachs parked downstairs.

"Let them hang for an hour."

Lu Jingming said with his back to Chu Xuan, his voice laid-back.

"If they want to sit at my Xinghai dinner table, they have to know the rules. If they don't provide enough of a pledge of loyalty, they won't even get a sip of soup."

Just then, the "click-clack" of high heels sounded in the corridor.

The steps were hurried and chaotic.

Shen Qingqiu pushed the door open, bringing in a gust of cold air.

She wasn't wearing her suit jacket, and there was a bit of sweat on the shoulders of her white shirt.

"Lu Jingming, Silicon Valley has flipped the table."

She slapped an English printout onto the table, the paper rustling loudly.

Biting her red lips, her face was a little pale.

Chu Xuan was stunned for a moment and turned to look at her.

"Google has locked the IP in the backend."

In her eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses, there was undisguisable anxiety.

"The devices we sold overseas have all become blind without internet. Foreigners on Twitter are cursing and demanding refunds."

Hearing this, Chu Xuan's legs went weak.

He grabbed the back of the sofa to keep from plopping onto the floor.

"Oh my god... cutting off YouTube and Maps, isn't that the same as gouging out the eyeballs of the foreigners!"

Lu Jingming turned around.

He didn't even look at the document and strolled back to sit behind his desk.

He casually grabbed a red Apple from the fruit bowl.

"Blocking my software?"

Lu Jingming took a bite of the Apple, chewing with a crisp crunch.

He swallowed the fruit, his gaze sweeping over the two panicked people, his smile cold and chilling.

"Have these foreign devils forgotten what I started out with?"