Chapter 170 Uncle Liu, I

Looking at the screen filled with "Militia General," Li Jiajun felt he desperately needed to ask Uncle Liu for a whole bottle of quick-acting heart-saving pills.

He silently turned off the livestream.

The office instantly fell silent, with only the computer fan humming.

Li Jiajun slumped in his boss chair, staring blankly at the ceiling with hollow eyes, as if his soul had been sucked out.

A few days passed.

He remained in this state of listless despair.

On his desk lay the just-arrived final payment for the drone R&D from the Shunfeng Group, as well as the staggering technical cooperation compensation fee from the military, with subsequent annual patent fees and such to be paid to him.

That long string of zeros, which in the past would have made him jump for joy, left him cold now.

Looking at the money now, his heart felt ice-cold.

"Militia General."

This title was branded firmly onto him.

He opened any social media platform and could see discussions about his new nickname and all sorts of outrageous photoshopped images.

There were images of him photoshopped as a farmer wearing a tank top and carrying a rocket launcher; images of him standing on an aircraft carrier, fishing for aliens with a rod; there were even people who photoshopped him together with Uncle Liu, with the caption: "The Evil Genius and His Unlucky Old Cadre."

He wanted to argue back, but found himself unable to defend his case.

He wanted to explain, but found that everyone just thought he was memeing or humble-bragging.

What made him feel even more desperate was that the business logic he had once taken pride in had completely collapsed through these successive events.

He wanted to pivot to civilian products, but ended up creating weapons of war.

He wanted to find a reliable large domestic enterprise to cooperate with, thinking he could finally escape the fate of being requisitioned.

He even chose the Express Delivery Company, a logistics giant whose business scope was entirely domestic, signed a contract, held a press conference, and President Wang even gave his word in front of the whole nation.

But what was the result?

The result was the same.

The military helicopters came just as they always did, and President Wang's guarantee was as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of absolute power.

'I previously thought the problem lay overseas, that those unscrupulous clients had contaminated my pure civilian products.'

'But what about this time? This time the client was President Wang, a top private entrepreneur in the country, and the cooperation project was purely logistics and transport. But why... why did it still end up like this in the end?'

A thought like this emerged in Li Jiajun's mind, and he fell into deep self-doubt.

This sense of powerlessness, this frustration of being unable to control his own destiny no matter how hard he tried, made him feel unprecedented confusion.

Just as he was doubting his life, his phone rang.

On the caller ID was the name that made him love, hate, and fear all at once—Uncle Liu.

...

Li Jiajun numbly picked up the phone.

From the other end of the line came the familiar, slightly weary voice of Liu Jianguo.

Over the past few days, the twin-tailed scorpion project team had been reporting frequent successes.

Although Liu Jianguo was happy, whenever he thought about how this was all caused by that kid Li Jiajun, he felt a dull ache in his heart.

"Little Li, how have you been lately? You haven't caused any trouble for me at the factory again, have you?"

Liu Jianguo's tone was very calm, just like an elder caring about the daily life of a junior.

"I'm telling you, you brat, behave yourself lately and don't go messing around with any new toys. Last time I went to the capital for a meeting, I almost ran out of my medicine."

Out of the professional integrity of a person responsible for aftermath cleanup, he still made this daily greeting call.

Of course, the main point was to knock the other party down a peg and get him to settle down.

In the past, Li Jiajun would have definitely cheekily retorted to this half-joking concern.

But today, it became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Li Jiajun held the phone, listening to Liu Jianguo's weary voice, and his nose soured, his eyes instantly turning red.

A sense of long-repressed grievance and confusion erupted at this moment.

He could no longer hold it together.

"Uncle Liu..."

His voice carried a trace of imperceptible choking.

"I'm sorry... I've caused you trouble."

Liu Jianguo on the other end of the line was instantly stunned.

'Huh?'

'This kid is acting strange today?' He was speechless in his heart. 'Doesn't he usually have a stiff neck and mess around with me? How did he learn to apologize?'

Liu Jianguo even subconsciously glanced at his phone screen to confirm if he had called the wrong number.

Before he could figure it out.

Li Jiajun's tearful, completely defeated plea for help came through the receiver.

The voice was filled with despair.

"Uncle Liu... I don't want to invent things anymore... I really don't want to be requisitioned anymore."

"I'm begging you, please show me a clear path!"

"Whatever you tell me to build, I will build! As long as it is absolutely safe, absolutely civilian, and absolutely won't be taken away by you guys driving trucks to haul it off, that's fine!"

"Even if you make me knead mud or knit sweaters, that's fine! Just don't let me touch these industrial products again!"

"I'm really... really fed up!"

Listening to Li Jiajun's tearful words, Liu Jianguo on the other end of the line fell into a long, complete silence.

He had imagined countless times how to completely tame this unruly wild horse, and had even prepared for a protracted war.

But he never dreamed that the other party would actually surrender to him in this way.

After a brief shock, an indescribable ecstasy instantly flooded into Liu Jianguo's heart!

'An opportunity!'

'This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!'

Liu Jianguo felt his heart pounding wildly, but this time it wasn't because of heart palpitations, but because of excitement!

A brilliant plan formed clearly in his mind.

'Yes! Instead of passively waiting for this kid to cause trouble and then going to clean up his mess, why not reverse it and actively find a project for him to do?'

'As long as the project I find for him is safe enough, civilian enough, wouldn't that fundamentally eliminate the possibility of him going down the wrong tech tree again?'

'Let him have something to do, but something that absolutely cannot result in any major event that would alarm the military!'

Once this thought appeared, it was like a prairie fire that could no longer be extinguished.

Liu Jianguo's eyes grew brighter and brighter; he seemed to have already seen his future life with stable blood pressure.

He needed such a project.

One where the technical content couldn't be too high, but still had some challenge to satisfy this kid's desire for R&D.

A project closely related to people's livelihood, but absolutely impossible to be associated with weapons and equipment in any way.

What on earth... should he let him build?