Chapter 113...wait, isn't the price in this contract written incorrectly?

Secretary Xiao Zhao was very efficient. After a burst of keyboard clicking, a small device connected to a portable printer spat out several pages that were still warm.

"President Liu, it's been drafted."

Xiao Zhao handed the contract to Liu Jianguo.

Without even looking, Liu Jianguo signed his name with a flourish and then slapped the contract heavily onto the desk in front of Li Jiajun.

"Xiao Li, sign it! Once you sign, the money will be in your account immediately!"

His tone was urgent, as if he were afraid that if he were a second late, Li Jiajun would change his mind.

Li Jiajun looked at the procurement contract, which was of the level of a formal government document, feeling delighted.

'One hundred ropes, one hundred thousand each—that's ten million!'

'I'm really hitting it big this time; it's even more profitable than selling elderly joys! As expected, doing business with the state is much more satisfying. It's not like that dead fatty Smith, who even tried to pull some return-and-refund blackmail.'

As he thought happily, he picked up the pen.

Out of a businessman's instinct, he subconsciously glanced at the amount column before putting pen to paper.

With just that one glance, his hand froze in mid-air.

"Huh?"

Li Jiajun blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him because he had stared at the sun for too long.

He leaned in closer and carefully counted the zeros after that long string of numbers.

[Unit Price: 800,000.00 CNY]

[Total Price: 80,000,000.00 CNY]

Eighty... eighty million?!

Li Jiajun stared blankly at the number, his heart skipping a beat.

Wasn't it ten million?

How did it become eighty million?

Where did this extra seventy million come from? Did it fall from the sky?

He instinctively looked up at Liu Jianguo, only to see him looking back with a kind expression, his eyes full of encouragement, as if saying: "Sign it, child, you deserve this."

A sense of unreality enveloped Li Jiajun.

As someone who loved money, he should have been ecstatic at this moment.

But as a normal person with a bottom line—and currently in a state of confusion—he couldn't help but point his finger at the number and ask weakly:

"Um... Uncle Liu."

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Liu Jianguo asked with a smile, in high spirits.

"Was this contract... printed incorrectly?"

Li Jiajun swallowed and said honestly, "The price on here... seems to have an extra zero? No, it's several times more than it should be."

"An extra zero?"

Liu Jianguo froze for a moment, then turned to Secretary Xiao Zhao with a slight frown. "Xiao Zhao, what's going on? How could you mess up such important data?"

Xiao Zhao turned pale with fright and quickly leaned in to look. Then, with a face full of grievance, he said, "No... it's correct, President Liu! Didn't Factory Director Li just quote one hundred thousand? The current exchange rate is about one to eight. One hundred thousand USD converted to CNY is eight hundred thousand. My calculation is very precise!"

As soon as those words were spoken...

Li Jiajun was dumbfounded.

'What? Exchange rate?'

'USD?!'

He opened his mouth wide, looking at Xiao Zhao, who took it for granted, and then at Liu Jianguo, whose expression was gradually becoming strange. Finally, he realized.

So... when he quoted "one hundred thousand" just now, these big shots automatically assumed it was one hundred thousand USD?!

'Holy crap...'

He thought to himself, speechless.

'This misunderstanding has gone too far. Am I that kind of black-hearted businessman? If I dared to sell them for one hundred thousand USD each, I'm afraid my dad would come up from the underworld in the middle of the night to take me away!'

At a time like this, if he went along with the mistake and kept quiet, that seventy million would be safely in his pocket.

But looking into Liu Jianguo's eyes, which were full of trust, Li Jiajun's mouth twitched, and he ultimately lost to his damn conscience.

"Cough, cough..."

He scratched his head and said somewhat awkwardly, "Um... Uncle Liu, I think you might have misunderstood."

"I meant... one hundred thousand CNY."

"Not USD."

Silence.

Dead silence.

Liu Jianguo felt his brain buzz, as if he had been struck with a club.

One hundred thousand... CNY?

Meaning, roughly ten thousand-plus USD?

Something that cost a little over ten thousand USD, that Ugly Country company turned around and wanted to sell to them for ten million USD?!

This wasn't just profiteering anymore!

This was robbery! This was rubbing the intelligence of the Dongguo people into the dirt!

An indescribable rage instantly rushed to the top of Liu Jianguo's head.

"Bastards! This is going too far! This is absolutely going too far!"

Liu Jianguo slammed the table, making the teacups jump. He was shaking with rage, his face ashen. "The price of a single rope was marked up nearly a thousand times! Those Westerners, their hearts are as black as coal!"

The surrounding Experts were also furious, each one filled with righteous indignation.

"Too shameless!"

"This is blatant plunder!"

Amidst the angry condemnations, Li Jiajun shrunk his neck and weakly raised his hand, asking tentatively:

"Um... Uncle Liu, since the misunderstanding is cleared up, should the contract... be changed? Change it to one hundred thousand?"

As he said this, his heart was bleeding.

Seventy million! That was seventy million! Just because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, it flew away!

'My big mouth...' he regretted in his heart. 'If I had known, I wouldn't have said anything. They didn't think it was expensive anyway...'

Liu Jianguo took a few deep breaths, forcing down the rage in his heart.

He turned his head to look at Li Jiajun, who looked pained yet still insisted on changing the contract, and his gaze became extremely complex.

There was surprise, gratification, and even more of an elder's affection for a junior.

Faced with the temptation of huge profits, this kid could still remain honest and didn't take the opportunity to fish in troubled waters. This character alone was worth much more than seventy million!

"No need to change it!"

Liu Jianguo waved his hand, his tone brooks no argument. "Sign it for eight hundred thousand!"

"Huh?" Li Jiajun was stunned. "But... that's too much..."

"What do you mean too much!" Liu Jianguo glared at him. "The technical content of this thing is worth the price! Besides, how could the state take advantage of a kid like you?"

"Those Westerners dared to sell it for ten million. For our own people buying it, eight hundred thousand is considered cheap! Take this money; consider it a technology R&D subsidy from the state! In the future, make more good things for me, and don't spend all day on those nonsensical gadgets!"

After saying that, he shoved the pen back into Li Jiajun's hand. "Sign!"

Li Jiajun held the pen, looking at the number '8' on the contract that hadn't changed back to a '1', and was so moved he almost cried.

'This is what you call vision!'

'This is a real uncle!'

He no longer hesitated and signed his name with a flourish.

Watching Li Jiajun finish signing, Liu Jianguo breathed a long sigh of relief.

The goods were secured; the aircraft carrier was saved.

But the doubts in his heart were growing like a rolling snowball.

He picked up the contract and then looked at the return email printed by Li Jiajun, his brow furrowed tightly.

'Something's not right.'

'Something's very wrong.'

Since Li Jiajun's factory price was so low, that Ugly Country company called Titan Heavy Industry would make hundreds of times the profit just by reselling it. Even if they sold it as scrap metal, they'd make a fortune.

Under these circumstances, why would they return the goods?

And they even came up with such a lame excuse, even going so far as to turn against Li Jiajun and launch a massive claim for compensation?

This completely contradicted a businessman's profit-seeking nature.

Unless...

Unless they had some unspeakable difficulties, or... they themselves had run into a major problem?

Liu Jianguo had a background in intelligence and had an extremely keen sense of smell. He vaguely felt that behind this seemingly simple commercial dispute, there might be a shocking secret.

He walked to the window, took out his encrypted phone, and dialed the number of an old comrade in the National Security department.

"Hello, Old Chen. It's me, Liu Jianguo."

His voice was low, carrying a suppression like the calm before a storm:

"Help me look into a company. An Ugly Country one, called Titan Trading. Yes, the one that sells Arresting Cables."

"I want to know all their capital flows, the upstream and downstream of their supply chain, and especially... where exactly the goods they sold to the Ugly Country Navy came from." Although he had already guessed most of it by now.

Hanging up the phone, Liu Jianguo looked at the hot summer sky outside the window, a cold smile appearing on his lips.

"I'd like to see what you Westerners are really up to."

...

(P.S. It's the last day of the month. To all the big bosses, could you send a small gift to help me, Little An, climb the gift rankings?)