155: Chapter 155 A Year of Rapid Progress

"It's alright,

Mr. James Smith."

Faced with James Smith's refusal,

Zhao Ming acted as if he didn't care this time.

"If you don't want it,

then I'll take it back.

It's just a pity,

such a grand gift,

I spent a long time preparing it,

I didn't expect you wouldn't want it..."

Zhao Ming was clearly a master at manipulating human nature;

he noticed that James Smith's eyes hadn't left the pure gold-carved copy of 'the analects' for a second.

He knew

this guy wanted it very much,

but he was saying one thing while thinking another,

playing hard to get,

and was likely undergoing a fierce internal struggle at this moment.

Sure enough,

when Zhao Ming said he would take the item back,

James Smith suddenly became anxious: "Wait,

however,

if you insist on giving it to me,

I can accept it.

After all, you spent so much time preparing it,

I can't let your efforts go to waste."

"Hahahaha!"

Zhao Ming let out a hearty laugh,

then waved his hand,

signaling for the person nearby to close the lid on the item

and place it at James Smith's feet.

Next

was dinner time for the two of them.

James Smith seemed to be constantly thinking about the pure gold-carved 'the analects' at his feet,

and his conversation with Zhao Ming was distracted and disjointed.

In fact, at this moment,

James Smith was still undergoing a fierce mental struggle.

One voice told him,

"You are a public official of the Eagle Country,

you should not accept bribes from personnel of other countries!"

However, another voice told him: "What's the big deal?

Think about what those other high-ranking government officials are doing.

Drug use!

Sexual assault of minors!

Organ trafficking!

Wouldn't any of those things cause a massive scandal if they were exposed?

And you,

you've only accepted a small gift,

what's wrong with that?"

The other voice said: "This thing is no small gift,

its value is definitely not cheap.

What you are doing now

is incredibly evil!

You are failing the country and the people who raised you!"

"So what?

The Eagle Country's sanctions against honor phones were improper to begin with!

Do honor phones really pose a threat to the Eagle Country's national security?

Any fool knows they don't.

It's just that the Eagle Country sees Honor as a Dragon Country enterprise

and finds them an eyesore!

So it was the Eagle Country that first violated the free trade treaties

by engaging in local protectionism.

Therefore, the Eagle Country's actions in this matter are inherently improper!"

In other words,

what he was doing before was improper,

and now he was simply correcting his previous improper actions,

while receiving a small gift for mending his ways.

Ultimately,

James Smith accepted the gift.

As soon as he walked out the door,

he held it in his hands,

unable to stop admiring it;

he truly couldn't put it down.

After returning,

he instructed the Ministry of Commerce

to stop pursuing the investigation into honor phones.

honor phones were only sold in the Eagle Country region,

and their servers were also set up in the Eagle Country,

so how could they talk about endangering national security?

This reasoning was sufficient to satisfy the public.

In fact,

for that dinner,

Zhao Ming had also made a backup plan:

if James Smith's conscience had triumphed over his greed

and he hadn't accepted the gift in the end,

Zhao Ming would have released a video on the Eagle Country's public internet.

This video

showed James Smith with a supermodel on each arm,

dining with him at such an expensive restaurant.

But now, it seemed,

that video was completely unnecessary.

When he saw James Smith finally take away the pure gold-carved 'the analects',

he knew

that honor phones would be able to survive in the Eagle Country.

Survive first,

and worry about growing larger and stronger

later; that was Zhao Ming's current line of thinking.

After the dinner concluded,

Zhao Ming immediately called Bai Jingqing with great respect

to inform him of the progress here.

Bai Jingqing nodded with satisfaction: "Very good."

If

the previous year was the year Huayao Communications got started,

when everything was for the sake of survival,

then this year

was the year Huayao Communications grew and expanded,

gained a firm foothold,

made steady progress,

and continued to branch out all over the world.

By the end of this year,

Huayao Communications had directly captured at least thirty percent of the global mobile phone market share.

Its business was extremely extensive,

covering Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and other regions.

Bai Jingqing's accumulation of wealth

had already reached a point that no one could even guess.

In this year,

Huayao Communications produced generation after generation of classic mobile phone models,

becoming the favorites of many people.

Huayao also generated more and more heated discussions online,

and at the end of the year,

a news story made it to the top search results.

This news story

introduced the market share held by Huayao Communications in various parts of the world.

By now,

Huayao had developed into a behemoth in the global market,

occupying about 30% of the global mobile phone market,

making it a presence that could go toe-to-toe with Apple and Samsung.

"Our whole family uses Huayao Phones;

they are indeed very easy to use and durable,

and Huayao Phones are very smooth,

not even much worse than Apple.

The key is,

every year, with each new generation of phones,

they are equipped with some unique 'black technology',

which is what I think is most impressive about them.

Up until now,

Huayao seems to have been leading the progress of the mobile phone industry,

guiding the direction of the industry's development."

"Who still remembers

that Huayao Communications

was once on the same level as Li Xiang Phone.

Yet after a year,

Huayao Communications holds a 30% share of the global market,

having long since left Li Xiang Phone in the dust;

now Li Xiang Phone can't even hope to catch up."

"Li Xiang Phone: Family, who understands this?

We were competing and competing,

and then it suddenly became a global giant."

"Although Li Xiang Phone's current situation is still decent,

it has ultimately had too much of its market share eaten away by Huayao Communications.

However, I heard that Panda Live was also invested in by Li Xiang Phone,

and its current state is okay,

it's just that I heard livestreaming doesn't make any money right now,

so I don't know how much longer Panda Live can hold on."

"Oh,

those of us with little money in our pockets

shouldn't worry about the business of people who make hundreds of millions a month."

"That's true,

but Huayao is indeed very impressive now,

it's even almost forming a monopoly.

Its business covers Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Oceania;

Huayao's presence can be seen on almost every continent in the world."

"No,

one continent was missed—Antarctica."

"Antarctica?

Are you joking with me?

There are no people over in Antarctica.

Unless you mean

that even those penguins are going to use Huayao Phones?"

"Of course I don't mean that.

In fact,

everyone has noticed Huayao's commercial success,

but no one has noticed Huayao's efforts in scientific research."