Chapter 205 You think I'm as unpredictable as Curry Man?

However, what followed next was reality giving him a resounding slap in the face.

The livestream channel, which carried all his hopes and the future of Curry Country's space program, actually—didn't start.

At first, Rajesh thought it was normal.

Perhaps Factory Director Li was busy counting money? Or maybe he was conceiving the next world-changing toy?

So, he waited patiently.

He was like a hunter lying in ambush in the grass, waiting for prey to appear, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the screen, his finger hovering over the F5 refresh key.

But.

A day passed.

That familiar livestream interface remained a dead, silent black.

Two days passed.

Rajesh began to panic.

His eyes, originally filled with delusions, began to grow anxious, impatient, and even carried a trace of terror.

"What's going on?"

"Why isn't it live?"

"Could he have been arrested?"

Rajesh grabbed his already sparse hair, pacing back and forth in his Curry-scented office, muttering incessantly.

If there was no livestream, how could he contact Li Jiajun?

Call him directly?

No!

That would be too presumptuous, and it would easily expose his identity.

The reason Hassan was able to succeed was that he used the public platform of the livestream to approach him as a "fan", which was the only way to lower Li Jiajun's guard.

If he contacted him rashly, given Li Jiajun's current state as a "frightened bird", he would definitely treat him as someone with ill intentions—though, to be fair, he really didn't have any good intentions either.

So, he could only wait.

...

And what Rajesh didn't know was.

At this very moment.

Thousands of kilometers away in Baishui City, inside the Li Family Toy Factory.

Li Jiajun, whom he regarded as a savior and whom countless Netizens jokingly called the "Militia General", was in the darkest moment of his life.

He had shut himself off.

Truly shut himself off.

At this moment, Li Jiajun was slumped in his large office chair without any regard for his image, his eyes staring blankly at the chandelier on the ceiling.

In his hand, he held the phone that had been polished smooth and shiny from constant handling.

On the phone screen was the WeChat chat interface between him and Uncle Liu, Liu Jianguo.

The last message was still from two days ago.

At that time, Uncle Liu had promised him solemnly to wait a couple of days, saying he would definitely think of a development direction for him that was absolutely safe, absolutely civilian, and absolutely wouldn't be requisitioned again.

He also said that he himself had been an unorthodox figure back in the day, a sort of founding master, so he would definitely be able to point him in the right direction.

At the time, Li Jiajun believed him.

He felt that since Uncle Liu was a high-ranking leader, his word must be gold, and he would surely be able to point him toward a bright path.

So, he waited and waited with high expectations.

And the result?

Two whole days had passed!

Not even a punctuation mark had been sent over!

In reality.

Liu Jianguo had been quite confident at first, but as he thought and thought, he lost his direction.

He had to come up with a perfect idea; otherwise, given Li Jiajun's very "evil" destiny, it might go off track again, and wouldn't that make him an unreliable person?

That simply wouldn't do.

After all, he wasn't a Curry person, so he couldn't be unreliable in his actions.

"Liar..."

Li Jiajun, of course, didn't know Uncle Liu's concerns. At this moment, he muttered to himself, his voice filled with the grievance and indignation of being deceived:

"Talking about pointing me toward a bright path, talking about telling me to rest assured."

"Isn't this just playing with me?"

The more he thought about it, the more stifled he felt.

Think about him, Li Jiajun; although young, he was at least an outstanding young entrepreneur who had both the technology and the looks, right?

How did he end up in this state?

He built a Swarm Drone, it was requisitioned.

He built an elderly joy, it was requisitioned.

He built an Arresting Cable, it was requisitioned.

Even when he built a robot dog for grandpas and grandmas to use for grocery shopping, it was requisitioned!

And every time he was requisitioned, he had to be teased by Netizens and "educated" by Uncle Liu and the others.

"It's too hard for me..."

Li Jiajun sighed heavily, rolled over, like a salted fish that had lost its dreams.

Actually, if it were just Uncle Liu not replying to his message, he wouldn't be this decadent.

What truly caused his mindset to collapse was a remark Uncle Liu had made unintentionally.

That day, when the robot dog was being taken away, Liu Jianguo looked at him and sighed helplessly: "Little Li, your destiny... is indeed a bit evil."

Destiny is too evil.

These four words were like a thorn, deeply embedded in Li Jiajun's heart.

During these few days of waiting, when he was idle, he began to review his experiences over this period.

Once he reviewed it, he realized... Uncle Liu seemed to be damn right!

Whether it was the Swarm Drone, the stealth coating, or this time, the robot dog.

No matter how pure his original intention was, no matter how civilian it was.

No matter how detailed he wrote the manual, or how clearly he listed the prohibited items.

The final result would always, in an extremely bizarre, extremely outrageous way, veer toward military use.

It was as if an invisible dark hand was pushing him down that path from behind.

'Could it be... that I am truly born to do military industry?'

'Is my life destined to never escape the title of 'Militia General'?'

This thought emerged in Li Jiajun's mind.

Once this thought appeared, it startled him, followed immediately by a deep sense of powerlessness.

He didn't want to be any kind of general!

He just wanted to safely earn some money and be a respected toy king!

"Sigh..."

Li Jiajun didn't know Uncle Liu's concerns and just felt he had been played.

He had originally held great expectations for the high-ranking leader Liu Jianguo, but it turned out the other party had also turned out to be a "dud".

Linking this to his own experiences over this time, it was truly as Uncle Liu had said—his destiny was indeed a bit evil.

The more he thought about it, the more disheartened he felt, and he even began to doubt life itself.

The huge sense of defeat left him with no interest in anything, sighing all day in the factory, not even wanting to start a livestream.

What was the point of livestreaming?

To build something new and then wait for it to be taken away?

To be mocked by Netizens as "Your Excellency, the General" again?

It was meaningless.

Truly meaningless.

Better to just lie flat.

...

This was hard on Rajesh, who was far away in Curry Country.

At this very moment.

In the ISRO office in Bangalore.

Rajesh was facing the pitch-black livestream screen, anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

"Start the stream... I beg you..."

"How can you not start the stream?"

Rajesh grabbed his hair with both hands, his eyes bloodshot, his whole person on the verge of a breakdown.

Time waits for no one!

There were less than twenty days left until the deadline for that damned "one rocket, sixteen satellites" launch mission!

Every passing minute was pushing him toward the edge of a cliff.

"Ring-ring—"

The red secure telephone on the desk rang shrilly again.

Rajesh shuddered, looking at that phone as if he were looking at a ticking time bomb.

It was the private line of his immediate superior, The Director-General of ISRO.

This was already the third time today.

He tremblingly picked up the phone, and before he could speak, the arrogant and oppressive voice of The Director-General came through the receiver:

"Rajesh, how is the rocket coming along?!"

"curry speed! I want to see curry speed!"

You must know, over these two days, in order to stall for time, he had even voluntarily given his room key to The Director-General.

Now it seemed he couldn't stall for much longer.

Oh, right, I forgot to introduce this Director-General.

The Director-General, named Singh.

Gender: male.

Hobbies: men, sometimes also loves monitor lizards.