Chapter 166 Subscription Fee System

Lin Xi then turned to Liu Xiaodong and said, "Xiaodong, leave a backdoor in the CNC system."

"A backdoor?" Liu Xiaodong was stunned.

"Carve out a separate hidden area in the storage module and isolate it physically."

"It should be invisible to the user."

Lin Xi's tone was flat.

"This area only has one function: to record the operating parameters of this machine tool."

"Huh?" Liu Xiaodong was dumbfounded.

"Spindle load, tool path, processing time, vibration frequency..."

"Record everything that can be recorded for me."

"It doesn't need to be uploaded in real-time; just storing it there is enough."

"We'll get it when our after-sales staff goes for maintenance."

"Or when we recycle the used machine in a few years."

"Plug in our special decryption card, and you can extract the data."

Liu Xiaodong pushed up his glasses, his eyes filled with a clear, innocent stupidity:

"Manager Lin, what... what can this be used for?"

"Isn't it just taking up memory?"

"This is called a 'crowdsourced process library'."

Lin Xi's mouth curled into a mischievous smile.

"Think about it. When we sell 100,000 or a million machine tools globally..."

"It's equivalent to having a million skilled workers helping us test tool parameters and verify processing techniques for free."

"That hidden sector isn't holding data."

"It's holding the unique skills of factories around the world."

"In the future, when we upgrade our algorithms, it will be based on these 'stolen' experiences."

Liu Xiaodong listened, dazed. Although he felt something was slightly off, his technical intuition told him—this move was brilliant.

He nodded, half-understanding:

"Oh... Oh! I get it!"

"I'll go change it later."

He Zhenhua and Zhao Qiang, sitting nearby, exchanged glances, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.

Although they tried to look calm, their hearts were churning.

What kind of crazy move is this from Lin?

This is clearly planting countless tireless industrial spies all over the world!

There was no disagreement about the machine tool, and everyone quickly passed it.

What really made the atmosphere in the conference room strange was the second set of blueprints Lin Xi took out—an air purifier.

The blueprints were passed around among them.

He Zhenhua only glanced at the structural diagram before putting it down:

"This is too simple."

"A centrifugal fan, a few layers of filter screens."

"Isn't this just an electric fan with a filtering function?"

"The technical content isn't even as good as our 'red star · gentle breeze'."

"Low technical content doesn't mean low commercial value."

Lin Xi didn't explain further but looked at Wang Yu, who was in charge of electronic control design.

Young Wang Yu frowned, his fingers rubbing repeatedly over a design on the circuit diagram.

Finally, he couldn't help but speak:

"Manager Lin, this logic isn't right, is it?"

"You asked to add a timer chip to lock the machine with a red light after two thousand hours of operation."

"Or after half a year of being powered on, it forces a lock."

"It won't work unless the filter is replaced."

Wang Yu looked up, his eyes filled with an engineer's honesty and confusion:

"This is too wasteful."

"Filter wear varies depending on the usage environment."

"In places with good air quality, the filter might be fine for a year or more."

"If we do this, aren't we forcing users to throw away good things?"

"Is this... isn't this a bit too much?"

There was a moment of silence in the conference room.

In this era of material scarcity, where people were encouraged to "make do for three years, fix it for three years, and keep using it for another three years," this design philosophy was a direct provocation to traditional virtues.

Lin Xi looked at Wang Yu as if looking at a child who hadn't grown up yet.

He pulled up a chair and sat down, his tone calm to the point of being cold:

"Wang Yu, remember this."

"What we are selling to foreigners is not just a machine, but a sense of security."

"A sense of security?" Wang Yu was stunned.

"The Western middle class is afraid of death, especially afraid of those invisible health threats."

Lin Xi pointed to the red light design on the blueprint, his tone like a devil tempting a human soul:

"That red light isn't a fault light; it's an 'anxiety light'."

"When it lights up, it's telling the user:"

"'Your protective shield has failed; hurry up and pay to renew it.'"

Lin Xi paused, picked up his mug, and took a sip to moisten his throat:

"If we rely on user conscientiousness, they might not change the filter once in three years."

"Then what will our factory eat? What will our workers drink?"

"We aren't selling disposable plastic boxes, but a continuous stream of consumables."

"This is the prototype of a subscription service."

The netizens in the Streamer's chat room were thoroughly amused, the screen filled with funny emojis:

【Hahahaha! What the hell is an "anxiety light"! Is this the legendary planned obsolescence?】

【Wang Yu: I studied technology, but you're teaching me black magic.】

【Capitalists would cry after seeing this! The Streamer is swinging that sickle so fast it's leaving afterimages!】

【To be honest, this is basic stuff in later generations, but in the 80s, it's a dimensionality-reduction strike. The foreigners will definitely be fooled into submission.】

【Learned something new, going to go rip the red light out of my house right now!】

Wang Yu opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to refute, but couldn't find any logical loophole.

His engineering worldview was being shattered by this naked commercial logic.

He Zhenhua nodded thoughtfully.

He wrote the word "consumables" heavily in his notebook.

"Now, let's talk about this herbal purification layer."

Lin Xi pointed to the most core filter layer on the blueprint.

"Erga, you go handle this raw material."

Sun Erga was frowning and calculating:

"Manager, what's written here includes mugwort, mint, and arborvitae leaves. The cost won't be low."

"If we go by your sales forecast, we'll have to buy out half the province's medicinal herb shops."

"Who told you to buy raw medicine?"

Lin Xi glanced at him.

"Go to the pharmaceutical factory and collect the dregs left after they extract the essence."

"Dregs?" Sun Erga's eyes widened.

"That stuff has no medicinal effect left; it's just firewood!"

"Foreigners don't understand Traditional Chinese Medicine."

Lin Xi said,

"As long as it's dried properly and doesn't get moldy, keeping that herbal smell is enough."

"In their noses, that's not the smell of medicine."

"That's the mysterious smell of 'the secret of qi' from the East."

"They aren't buying medicinal efficacy; they're buying emotional value."

"It's the energy purification written in that book, 'the secret of qi'."

"Pfft—"

Klaus, who was drinking water, couldn't hold it in and sprayed it out.

This representative of the rigorous Germanic school coughed while wiping his mouth.

The look in his eyes as he watched Lin Xi was filled with complex emotions:

"Lin, it's fortunate you are in industry."

"If you went to Wall Street or became a politician."

"That would absolutely be a disaster for the world."

"You are taking... what's that word again?"

"Right, turning conning into a business."