232: Chapter 232 DJI's Orders

Shenzhen, DJI Headquarters.

In the top-floor conference room, the representative from Xinghong Holdings, Manager Zhou, politely greeted everyone.

He then pulled a contract from his briefcase and, with a slightly consultative tone, gently pushed it across to the opposite side.

Sitting opposite him was a young man in his mid-thirties, wearing a dark blue polo shirt. His hair was messy, clearly showing he had just rushed over from the production line without even having time to wash it. This person was General Manager Lin, the head of the drone project.

General Manager Lin picked up the contract, flipped to the first page, and scanned down two lines.

His fingertips paused.

"The maximum endurance is directly doubled?"

General Manager Lin raised his eyes and looked at Manager Zhou.

"You are aware of the data for our top-tier models available to the public, right?"

Manager Zhou didn't move his body, his hands resting flat on the table: "I am aware."

General Manager Lin read aloud in a low voice, item by item.

"Military-grade electromagnetic interference resistance, independent quantum encrypted communication, all-weather stealth cruising."

After finishing, his tone was flat, as if he were just checking a procurement list.

"This set of parameters has long since exceeded the scope of civilian and commercial use."

Manager Zhou nodded slightly.

"That is correct."

General Manager Lin didn't speak, pondering for a moment.

He flipped back a few pages, pressing his fingertips against the paper, pausing for a moment as if weighing the significance of this order.

Then he closed the contract and placed it by his side. When he spoke again, his tone was a few degrees heavier.

"Who is the purchasing entity?"

He looked at Manager Zhou and added: "According to company regulations, end-customer information must be registered and filed."

Manager Zhou didn't respond.

He picked up the water on the table, took a sip, put the cup down, and then spoke.

"Customer information is kept confidential throughout the process, as clearly stated in the contract terms."

"I understand the rules, but you have to give me a general direction." General Manager Lin leaned back in his chair, "What industry, and what is it used for?"

Manager Zhou pondered for a moment, speaking slowly: "High-end global security risk control."

"Security?" General Manager Lin frowned, "Which specific area is it responsible for?"

"It falls under the security category." Manager Zhou didn't offer any further explanation.

General Manager Lin watched him quietly for a long while and didn't press further.

He reopened the contract and turned directly to the financial details page.

The terms were written very straightforwardly.

Full payment in advance, one thousand units at once. The price per unit is thirty percent higher than the top-tier models on the market.

His gaze moved down to the settlement account.

It wasn't a standard corporate account number, but a string of code with a special prefix. Below it was a line of small text, marked "Yansheng Bank International Letter of Credit."

General Manager Lin stared at that line of text, stunned for a few seconds.

He closed the contract and stood up, losing the pedantic focus of a technician and gaining a bit more caution.

"This order exceeds my approval authority; I need to report it to higher-ups."

"Understood." Manager Zhou stood up as well, "I will wait for the result in the conference room."

General Manager Lin clutched the contract and walked quickly out of the conference room. He didn't go to the work area, nor did he look for the vice president in charge; instead, he went straight to the top floor and knocked on Wang Tao's office door.

A response came from inside, and he pushed the door open to enter.

Wang Tao was sitting at his desk with half of a disassembled engineering prototype in front of him. He was holding a screwdriver and glanced up.

"What is it?"

General Manager Lin handed over the contract: "Just received a purchase order for one thousand customized industrial drones.

The parameters are all maxed out, with military-grade anti-interference, quantum encryption, and stealth cruising all included. The estimated cost per unit is thirty percent higher than the top-tier commercial models. Full payment in advance, with settlement via Yansheng Bank Letter of Credit."

Wang Tao put down the screwdriver and took the contract to flip through it page by page. He paused for a long time at the financial page, his gaze lingering on the settlement channel for two seconds, then he flipped to the acceptance standards. After finishing, he gently closed the document.

After a moment of silence, he spoke: "Yansheng Bank issued a letter of credit as an endorsement?"

"Yes." General Manager Lin stood in front of the desk and replied, "The contact person is Manager Zhou from Xinghong Holdings. The end customer's identity is confidential, and they refuse to disclose the name. When I pressed for the industry application, they only said that phrase: 'high-end global security risk control.'"

Wang Tao placed the contract on the desk, raised his hand to rub his temples, and remained silent for seven or eight seconds.

"Could it be that Mr. Li?"

General Manager Lin was stunned: "Which Mr. Li?"

Wang Tao didn't answer directly. He looked down at the purchase number on the contract cover, tapped his fingertips on the desk, and sorted through the information internally.

"The major shareholder of Xinghong Holdings. The person behind this order holds 20% of our company's equity."

General Manager Lin opened his mouth, but swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Wang Tao stood up and walked to the window. The heavy blackout curtains blocked the view outside. He stood quietly, his thoughts drifting far away.

"Go back and tell Manager Zhou that we accept the order. Pull the company's top R&D team, open a dedicated production line, polish the equipment regardless of cost, and follow the specifications provided by the other party strictly to achieve the industry's limit."

"Does the end customer need us to arrange a dedicated person for communication?"

"No need." Wang Tao turned around, "You just focus on production and timely delivery. As for the rest, don't ask, don't investigate."

General Manager Lin nodded and left. The door closed, leaving the office in silence. Wang Tao stood by the window, slowly twisting an unassembled screw with his thumb and forefinger, before finally tossing it into the parts storage box on the desk.

After the contract went through the group's internal processes, all the engineers in the project team had seen this outrageous parameter sheet.

During the lunch break, someone was flipping through the parameters repeatedly and couldn't help but lean over to a colleague, lowering their voice.

"Who exactly placed this order? The configuration is significantly higher than the models supplied to the military."

The person sitting next to them was buried in drawing and didn't even look up: "Not sure, General Manager Lin is handling it personally."

"There must be some news about the end-customer unit, right?"

"Confidential order, completely sealed."

"They won't even disclose the industry?"

"I heard it's for security."

The engineer was silent for a few seconds, then scanned the dense parameters again.

"Where would security work need quantum encrypted communication?"

The person drawing finally looked up and reminded them indifferently: "Just finish the drawings in your hands and don't ask too much."

Over the next two weeks, similar whispers continued intermittently. Some guessed it was a national-level security unit, some said it was a Middle Eastern energy giant, and others speculated it was the European military.

Various speculations were flying everywhere, but none could fit that vague phrase, "high-end global security risk control." The four words covered a very broad scope, but when you thought about it, you couldn't grasp any specific clues.

The entire project team worked overtime continuously for three full months.

The acceptance standards were extremely strict. Every single unit had to undergo a full set of complete tests before leaving the factory, with a level of rigor far exceeding all of DJI's external commercial orders.

In the pantry, an engineer with bloodshot eyes held a cup of cold coffee and complained in a low voice.

"This isn't building drones; it's clearly building satellites."

A colleague nearby replied casually: "The client offered a high enough price; they are willing to spend money."

"Money is one thing, but look at the acceptance standards. Forty-eight hours of continuous hovering, stable operation under level-eight electromagnetic interference, all-weather stealth cruising. Even if we build it, who among ordinary people could use this configuration?"

"They paid in full in advance, so naturally, they have corresponding use cases."

The engineer didn't argue further, took the coffee, and silently walked back to the workstation.

Three months later, on the day of delivery and acceptance, several strangers arrived at the factory.

No uniforms, no badges, and no one handed out business cards the entire time. The leader was in his early thirties, with neat short hair and a black jacket, followed by two attendants. The group spoke very little. They didn't ask questions during the entire acceptance process, testing each unit on the machine one by one, with all data strictly matching the contract standards.

General Manager Lin accompanied them the whole time. He offered them mineral water once, and they simply thanked him, with no further conversation.

When testing the seventeenth unit, an attendant walked to the side of the leader and whispered a few words. The leader nodded slightly without making any adjustment requests.

After all equipment was tested, the leader picked up a pen and signed the acceptance documents. He capped the pen and returned the documents to General Manager Lin.

General Manager Lin looked down. In the signature column, there were only four simple words: "Meets standards." There was no name, title, or unit affiliation—just a blank space.

He hesitated for a moment and asked softly: "Would it be convenient to disclose your unit?"

The leader twitched the corner of his mouth slightly, didn't respond, turned around, and took his people away.

The three walked out of the factory building and got into a dark-colored commercial vehicle. The vehicle idled the entire time, and as soon as they sat down, it drove away from the factory area.

It had a Guangdong-B license plate, with the ending numbers arranged neatly; it didn't look like a randomly assigned number. General Manager Lin saw this but didn't delve into it, nor was there any need to investigate.

That evening, the office team held a review, and a young engineer asked.

"Were the people who came to inspect during the day from the client side, or were they third-party quality inspectors?"

General Manager Lin pondered for two seconds: "Not sure."

"The acceptance form should have the name of the unit, right?"

"Just four words: 'Meets standards.'"

The people present looked at each other, and no one spoke again.

A long time later, during an internal company dinner, General Manager Lin mentioned the inspection team from that day to Wang Tao.

"The professionalism of that inspection team exceeded expectations. They acted extremely low-key and didn't show any identification throughout the entire process."

Wang Tao lowered his head to pour tea without even lifting his eyelids: "Normal situation."

"Is that considered normal?"

"They weren't the client's technical workers; they were a dedicated risk control inspection team. Mr. Li has an independent security team under him, all of whom are retired veterans with professional capabilities that don't lose to our core R&D engineers."

General Manager Lin was slightly stunned: "Forming a dedicated security team and ordering one thousand special drones at once?"

Wang Tao finished the tea in his cup and put it down.

"The wealth that person holds and the industries he has laid out—imagining it on the grandest scale wouldn't be an exaggeration. A set of special security equipment is nothing major to him. We deliver the product according to the contract; there's no need to delve into the rest."

General Manager Lin stopped there and didn't ask any more questions.

More than half a year later, a competitor in the industry tried to find out where this batch of drones went. Marketing staff spent three months digging for clues, but all traces of tracking were blocked by the Yansheng Bank settlement System.

Overseas accounts, overseas delivery addresses, and shipping logistics companies were all shell entities with no public registration information.

The competitor's marketing director replied to the intermediary with a helpless tone.

"The entire chain is encrypted and locked; it is impossible to trace it back to the source."

The intermediary pressed: "Not even a single Breakthrough?"

"Only the letter of credit issued by Yansheng Bank, but this bank's customer information is independently isolated, and outsiders have no right to access it."

This batch of drones was shipped overseas in batches without making a sound. The packaging boxes had no brand logos, and the customs declaration Materials were uniformly labeled as industrial parts to avoid all sensitive words.

Various overseas bases of Xin Dun Security successively signed for the equipment. The internal instructors test-flew them once and turned to say only one word to Qiang Zi.

"Stable."

That night, Qiang Zi sat in the base office and sent a message to Li Xin.

"All drones have arrived, and the test flight results are very stable."

Ten minutes later, Li Xin replied with a short sentence: "That's good."

Qiang Zi typed a long paragraph, deleted and modified it repeatedly, and finally sent only one sentence.

"Thank you, Brother Xin."

The message sank like a stone into the sea, with no reply. Qiang Zi put down his phone and walked to the window, looking at the expanse of night over the overseas city. He lit a cigarette, the smoke hitting the glass window and slowly dissipating.

He had no way of knowing that at DJI Headquarters, Wang Tao had long ago instructed his secretary to archive two separate documents.

The first file was the ledger showing Xinghong Holdings' 20% stake in DJI.

The second was the procurement file for the exclusive client. There was no name, only a string of numbers, followed by two tags: Mr. Li. Long-term customization. Priority A.

These two files were stored separately, the keys to the safe were kept by two different employees respectively, and the information was not shared between them.

Throughout DJI, only Wang Tao knew that these two sets of information pointed to the same person.

Later, at an internal company technical sharing meeting, a newcomer saw the project team displaying the technical achievements of these customized drones and pulled an old engineer aside to ask after the meeting.

"Who is really behind this big order? I heard the configuration is maxed out to the top tier."

The old engineer glanced at him indifferently and offered a hint.

"Just remember one code name."

"What code name?"

"Mr. Li. Other than that, don't ask too much."

The newcomer still wanted to ask for details, but the old engineer turned and walked away directly.

In the hillside manor in Shenzhen, at dusk.

Li Xin was sitting under a banyan tree in the courtyard, flipping through an antique atlas. The reflection of the sunset was blinding, so he turned the pages and read slowly. Chen Hu walked out of the house and stood quietly by his side.

"Boss, DJI has completed all deliveries and inspections, and the equipment has been shipped to overseas locations in batches. The inspection report has been compiled. Would you like to review it?"

"No need." Li Xin flipped a page, "If you confirmed it's qualified, then there's no problem."

"All tests met the standards, no faults."

Li Xin didn't respond and continued flipping through the atlas. When he turned to the chapter on ancient gold artifacts from southern India, his fingertips gently stroked the texture of the printed illustrations, observing them carefully.

Chen Hu stood quietly for a moment before speaking again.

"DJI fed back that the professionalism of our inspection personnel even exceeded that of their own factory engineers."

Li Xin closed the atlas, placed it on his lap, and looked up at Chen Hu.

"Your people are naturally different from ordinary engineers."

Chen Hu nodded in acknowledgment and turned to go back inside.

The courtyard was left in silence, the evening breeze rustling the banyan leaves. The sky over the distant sea slowly darkened, the orange-red of the sunset fading into a dark purple. Li Xin reopened the atlas and looked down to read carefully.

This batch of customized drones was uniformly named "Chang Kong" in the internal security System.

No one knew the reason for the name, and no one asked voluntarily.

After the DJI project team finished the delivery, they specially reserved an invisible production line exclusively for customized orders of the same specifications.

A year later, a purchase order for the same model was issued again. The process was greatly simplified, skipping the tedious confirmation steps. General Manager Lin recognized the exclusive order number at a glance and directly notified the production line to start work.

During a casual chat with his wife once, he sighed with emotion.

"I've been in the industry for twenty years and have handled countless large orders. But this client is the only one whose real name I haven't known from start to finish."

His wife asked curiously: "Don't you feel unwilling in your heart?"

General Manager Lin was silent for a moment and answered softly.

"It's not about being unwilling. They paid in full, and we delivered with quality—that's all."

He never actively sought to find out where the equipment was flying or in which unknown airspace it was cruising, nor did he speculate wildly. Some inside information only adds trouble if you know too much.

Three weeks after the delivery of the drones codenamed "Chang Kong," Qiang Zi was inspecting the overseas base when his phone rang. The caller was Li Xin.

He answered the phone, and the other party's voice came through the receiver.

"Have all the devices been received?"

"All in place. I test-flew a few, and the stability is excellent." Qiang Zi stood on the tarmac, looking at the drones charging in the distance, "Brother Xin, the cost of this batch of equipment is truly not small."

There was silence on Li Xin's end of the phone for two seconds.

"As long as they work well. Is everything going smoothly on your end lately?"

Just as Qiang Zi was about to answer, an instructor ran over quickly and reported in a low voice.

"Manager Zhang, just received news: the chief instructor at the Angola base, Old Chen, has been poached by a European security company, and his salary has directly doubled."

Qiang Zi frowned tightly and spoke into the phone.

"Brother Xin, there's a sudden situation here. I'll call you back later."

"Okay."

Hanging up the call, Qiang Zi looked at the instructor.

"Which Old Chen?"

"The chief instructor who has been stationed in Angola for three years, responsible for leading the training."

Qiang Zi's expression darkened, and he stood still for a long time. In the distance, the charging indicator lights of the drones flickered in the twilight.

He picked up his phone again and dialed Li Xin's number.

The call connected, and the familiar voice came through.

"What is it?"

Qiang Zi took a deep breath, lowered his voice, and slowly stated the truth.

"Brother Xin, someone has come to poach our core team members."