Chapter 108 A Return Order from "Giant Jump Rope"

The beeping of a busy signal echoed in the deathly silent conference room.

Director Wang remained in a posture of holding the receiver, as stiff as a stone carving weathered for a thousand years. The muscles on his face were somewhat out of control due to excessive shock; his mouth twitched, and he didn't regain his senses for a long time.

"What... what happened?"

The Old General's voice broke the silence, low like muffled thunder before a rainstorm.

Director Wang turned his head mechanically, his eyes vacant and his voice as dry as if it were ground from sandpaper: "Canceled... they said... the deal is canceled. There's no stock left."

"Canceled?!"

Liu Jianguo suddenly sprang up from his chair, the movement so large that it knocked over the teacup in front of him. Scalding tea flowed across the table, but he didn't notice at all.

"Are these foreign devils playing with us? Didn't they just jack up the price on the spot to ten million dollars per rope? We agreed, we bit the bullet and signed, so on what grounds are they canceling?"

"That was their goal all along." The Old General closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently. "The ten million per rope, the signatures and seals—it was all just a means to toy with us. Their real purpose is to completely cut off our hope and keep this aircraft carrier of ours, which hasn't even launched yet, pinned firmly in the dock!"

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly shifted from frustration to despair.

It was like a person dying of thirst in the desert; someone brings out a bottle of water and asks for a million dollars. You grit your teeth and agree, only for the other person to pour the water into the sand right in front of your face and mock you for being a fool.

This kind of humiliation was more soul-crushing than murder.

Academician Zhang clutched his chest in pain, his face deathly pale. He knew this meant the launch date of the domestic aircraft carrier would be postponed indefinitely.

"This is too much... simply too much..."

The Old General's fingers dug white marks into the tabletop, his knuckles turning blue.

...

On the other side of the ocean, the Ugly Country, Washington D.C.

In the CEO's office of Titan Heavy Industry, there wasn't the smugness of "strategic planning and successful blockade" that the Dongguo people imagined.

On the contrary, the air was filled with a flustered irritability.

The head of Titan Heavy Industry, Smith, a fat white man with a face full of fleshy jowls, was pacing irritably back and forth in his office like a wild boar trapped in a cage.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn The Pentagon! Damn the Bureau of Investigation!"

He grabbed the whiskey bottle on the table, took a heavy swig, and roared at the trembling secretary in front of him:

"Are their brains filled with shit? Why would they ban me from exporting that batch of goods to the Eastern Country? That was such a good deal! Ten million dollars per rope! They're robbing me of my money!"

The secretary shrunk her neck and replied in a small voice, "Boss... the higher-ups said it's for... for national security. They said we can't let the Eastern Country get advanced aircraft carrier arresting technology, so they issued a top-level ban, strictly forbidding us from selling any related equipment to the Eastern Country."

"Pfft—"

Smith spat out a mouthful of liquor, then burst into an even more hysterical fit of laughter, laughing until tears came out.

"Advanced technology? National security? Ha! Hahaha!"

The fat on his belly jiggled as he laughed. He pointed out the window toward the east, his face full of mockery at whatever nonsense they were doing.

"Those idiot officials have no idea! The so-called 'Ugly Country core technology,' the so-called 'Titan-1' arresting cable—we didn't even produce it!"

Only Smith himself knew this shocking secret.

He didn't have a production line at all.

Those "super arresting cables," which the Ugly Country Navy treated as treasures and purchased for as much as a million dollars each, were actually sourced by him years ago at a remote little trade fair in the Eastern Country.

Back then, a little old man from the Eastern Country (Li Jiajun's father) had marketed a bizarre product called "Ultra-High Strength Jump Rope for Giants" to him, saying it was specifically for giants like Yao Ming. Since people in the Ugly Country seemed tall and sturdy, he pitched it to him. In reality, this was a creation of Li Jiajun's from years ago. At that time, he didn't have the Heaven-Defying Comprehension panel yet, but even without it, he was already a genius in the field of toys. One could say that "Heaven-Defying Comprehension" was just a golden finger that added the finishing touch for him.

Smith just thought it was fun at the time and bought some to test. As it turned out, the strength was terrifyingly high—several times stronger than military standards!

And so, he discovered the secret code to wealth.

Under the guise of fitness equipment, he imported these big, thick, black ropes at an extremely low price from a place called the Li Family Toy Factory. He shipped them back to the Ugly Country, slapped on a "Titan Heavy Industry" label, and they were transformed into top-tier military products to be sold to the Ugly Country Navy for a hundredfold profit.

This time, he had originally intended to sell the batch of goods he just received back to the Eastern Country at a high price to extort them.

He never expected that the Ugly Country officials, in order to blockade the Eastern Country's technology, would strictly forbid him from exporting.

"How ironic..." Smith wiped away the tears from laughing, speechless in his heart. "The thing they are desperately trying to blockade was originally a toy made by the Dongguo people themselves... those stupid pigs!"

"Boss, what do we do now?" The secretary pointed toward the warehouse. "For this big deal, we just imported a hundred 'jump ropes' from that toy factory. Now the military won't let us sell to the Eastern Country, and our own inventory is full... this batch of goods is stuck on our hands."

The smile on Smith's face vanished, replaced by a sinister look.

Although the purchase price for this batch was cheap, it was still bought with real money. Moreover, because of the official investigation this time, his cash flow was a bit tight.

"I can't let it sit... absolutely not..."

Smith bit his fingernails, his eyes darting around. A few seconds later, he stopped in his tracks, a savage and greedy smile appearing on his face.

"Since we can't sell it, then we'll return it!"

"Return it?" The secretary was stunned. "But boss, there's nothing wrong with the product quality from that toy factory, and we were the ones who took the initiative to place the rush order..."

"Who says there's no problem? If I say there's a problem, then there's a problem!" Smith straightened his tie, regaining his arrogant capitalist facade. "Just say... say that this batch of 'Giant Jump Ropes' has serious ergonomic design flaws! It caused our clients to... fall down during use! Yes, they fell! It caused serious personal injury!"

The more he spoke, the more he felt like a genius.

"Not only are we returning them, but we're also going to make them pay compensation! According to the maximum penalty clauses in international trade contracts, make them compensate us for loss of business reputation, client medical expenses, mental anguish... a total of ten million dollars!"

"But... the other party is just a toy factory..."

"What's wrong with a toy factory? Dongguo people are most afraid of international lawsuits and big companies like ours." Smith grinned. "As long as we take a hard stance and send a lawyer's letter to scare them, that little boss will definitely cough up the money to settle things quietly! This is called... waste utilization."

...

Eastern Country, Lu Province, Baishui City.

It was currently two in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day. Cicadas in the trees chirped tirelessly, irritating anyone who heard them.

Li Jiajun sat in his office with the air conditioning on full blast, legs crossed, leisurely drinking an iced cola.

Although the "elderly joy" project had a small "accident," the money the state provided was very much in place. Combined with the final payments from several previous deals, his life was now quite comfortable.

"This is the life."

He lamented, then casually opened his computer to see if there were any new orders recently.

Ding-dong!

A new email popped up.

The sender was "Titan Trading Company."

Li Jiajun's eyes lit up. This was an old client who had been collaborating since his father was alive. Although this company's taste in purchases was very strange—always buying "jump ropes" thicker than an arm and incredibly heavy, saying they were for some "strongman training camp"—they paid promptly!

This was the benefactor that had supported the Li Family Toy Factory for several years.

"Could it be another additional order? These foreigners really have good physical fitness; they go through jump ropes so fast."

Li Jiajun happily clicked it open.

However, the moment he saw the content of the email, the smile on his face instantly froze, replaced by a confused grimace.

His mouth twitched.

"Dear Mr. Li... In view of the 'Giant-Specific Fitness Jump Ropes' provided by your party having serious... ergonomic design flaws..."

Reading to this point, Li Jiajun paused, speechless in his heart.

'Ergonomics? You're talking to me about ergonomics for a rope? Are you using it for skipping or for playing the piano?'

He suppressed his patience and continued reading:

"...resulting in several of our high-end clients experiencing... accidental falls during use... causing irreversible physical and mental harm... posing a significant safety hazard..."

Bang!

Li Jiajun slammed the table suddenly, crushing the cola bottle in his hand.

"Falls? You trip over a jump rope and blame the rope? Why don't you blame gravity? Did you come up with this excuse using your heels?"

He suppressed his anger and looked at the last paragraph of the email:

"...Therefore, our party formally notifies your party of the unilateral cancellation of all remaining orders and a request for a full refund for the goods already received. Simultaneously, based on international trade clauses, your party is required to pay our party liquidated damages and compensation totaling... ten million dollars."

Seeing the figure "ten million dollars," Li Jiajun sat there in a daze, his brain short-circuiting for a moment.

Ten million... dollars?

This is robbery!

This wasn't a return; this was clearly highway robbery! It was blatant extortion!

A surge of nameless fury rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, instantly igniting his entire body.

In his life, Li Jiajun hated being played for a fool the most.

"Good... very good..."

He laughed out of extreme anger, stood up, and strode to the window, looking toward the warehouse. There lay dozens of specially made "jump ropes" that had just been produced and hadn't been shipped yet.

To satisfy this client's bizarre requirement that they "must be sturdy and unbreakable," he had invested heavily, even using part of the special polymer material formula he had realized while building the "elderly joy." The quality was even more impressive.

Of course, the cost of each one was terrifyingly high.

And now, not only did the other party not want them, they were turning around to bite him, trying to make him go bankrupt with compensation?

'You really think our small and micro enterprises in the Eastern Country are easy to bully, don't you?'

'You really think I can't deal with you just because we're across an ocean?'

Li Jiajun turned around abruptly, pulled a livestream stand from his drawer, and snapped his phone into it.

Since you want to play dirty, don't blame me for being ruthless!

His fingers flew across the screen as he typed a murderous livestream title—

family, help me judge! A big Ugly Country company is bullying an honest man! Is there no law left!》

Then, he took a deep breath and adjusted his expression, letting that surge of anger and grievance manifest vividly on his face.

His finger hovered over the "Start Livestream" button.