23: Chapter 23 Three Billion? Sorry, I only give my things to the country!
With an order from General Zhang, the soldiers on the dozen military trucks "swished" and raised their guns in unison.
The pitch-black muzzles instantly locked onto the conspicuous BMW Mini and Jiang Yingxue beside it.
"Clatter!"
Almost at the same moment the soldiers raised their guns, four dark figures darted out like ghosts from the shadows around the BMW Mini, shielding Jiang Yingxue in a fan formation.
The four men were all wearing black suits, tall and sturdy, with bulging temples and an aura of bloodshed about them.
"Protect Miss Jiang!" the leader growled, crossing his hands and sliding two gleaming military daggers from his sleeves.
Captain Li Jun's eyes narrowed, and he whispered into his headset: "Team A, move!"
Before the words had even faded, four "telecom repairmen" in blue uniforms rushed out from behind the crowd, moving with lightning speed to engage the four suited bodyguards.
There were no fancy moves, only the dull thuds of fists hitting flesh and the terrifying cracks of dislocated bones.
This was the purest, most efficient form of military combat.
The suited bodyguards were skilled and their moves were lethal, but they were still no match for the four top-tier elite soldiers.
In less than a minute, accompanied by four muffled groans, all four bodyguards were subdued, their arms twisted at unnatural angles, pinned firmly to the muddy ground, unable to move.
Jiang Yingxue watched this scene without the slightest panic.
She simply smoothed her wind-blown hair, adjusted the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, and looked with amusement at the man walking toward her with the rank of general on his shoulders.
"General Zhang, quite the display of force."
Her voice was still soft and sweet, but it carried a hint of icy mockery.
"To mobilize an entire Engineering Battalion for a country boy, you really think highly of him."
General Zhang walked up to her, his massive frame like a mountain, casting a shadow that completely enveloped her.
"He is not a country boy."
General Zhang's voice was as heavy as iron.
"I know you. Your public identity is some bullshit tech streamer, but is that really who you are? Don't think we haven't investigated you!"
"Me?"
"My true identity?"
Jiang Yingxue smiled. She extended a slender finger and pulled a gold-stamped business card from the inner pocket of her trench coat.
"Jiang Yingxue, Chief Representative of the Pan-Pacific Future Technology Investment Group for the Dragon Country region."
She handed the card to General Zhang.
"As for my purpose..."
Her gaze drifted over General Zhang's shoulder, landing on Su Che, who was standing behind him in a daze.
"It is, of course... to offer the respect and wealth that our Dragon Country's genius, currently wandering outside, deserves."
"Instead of acting like some people who only know how to use guns and fists, treating a national treasure like a prisoner. General Zhang, don't you think... that is quite pathetic?"
This sentence was like a needle, piercing deep into General Zhang's heart.
General Zhang did not take the business card; his expression was so dark it seemed ready to drip water.
Pan-Pacific Future Technology Investment Group.
He knew this name all too well.
A behemoth spearheaded by the Eagle Sauce Country, uniting over a dozen overseas tech giants.
Under the banner of "venture capital," they were frantically harvesting and monopolizing various cutting-edge technologies and top-tier talent across the globe.
To put it bluntly, they were just a bunch of tech pirates in suits.
Their chief representative had diplomatic immunity.
He couldn't arrest them. He couldn't attack them.
General Zhang felt like he had swallowed a fly; it was utterly disgusting.
Su Che also sensed that something was wrong.
He looked at the woman who remained calm and composed even while being pointed at by dozens of guns, and then at the general beside him, whose face had turned green with anger.
He roughly understood the situation. This woman had a huge background, so huge that even the general couldn't do anything about her.
"Mr. Su."
Jiang Yingxue's gaze turned back to Su Che, her eyes filled with undisguised admiration and seduction.
"My offer still stands."
"If two billion as a deposit isn't enough, we can add more. How about three billion?"
"As long as you nod, I guarantee that within three years, your name will appear at the NASDAQ bell-ringing ceremony, not in this godforsaken backwater where they can't even fix the roads, playing house with a bunch of the old, weak, sick, and disabled."
Her words were soft, yet they felt like a knife, stabbing deep into the hearts of everyone in Su Family Village present.
It also stabbed into Lin Waner's heart.
Standing at the edge of the crowd, Lin Waner looked at the dazzling Jiang Yingxue, who seemed to come from another world, and then looked down at her own faded down jacket and the mud-stained sneakers on her feet.
An unspeakable sense of inferiority sprouted in her heart.
She and Su Che were, after all, not people from the same world.
She quietly took a step back, hiding herself deeper in the shadows.
Everyone's eyes were focused on Su Che.
On one side, there was three billion, the NASDAQ, and a broad road representing wealth and glory.
On the other side, there was the dilapidated village, the muddy dirt roads, and the simple yet poor villagers behind him.
Su Che fell silent.
A look of victory appeared on Jiang Yingxue's face. She didn't believe anyone could refuse such a temptation.
Su Che moved. He didn't walk toward Jiang Yingxue, but instead walked to General Zhang's side and stood still.
He looked at Jiang Yingxue, and for the first time, his face, which usually appeared somewhat carefree, wore an incredibly serious expression.
"I don't understand what you're talking about."
"NASDAQ, new era, I don't care."
He reached out and pointed at the nervous villagers behind him, and then pointed at the dilapidated village elementary school.
"I only know that I set up the internet here."
"I built the printers the children here use."
"The old men and women here are still waiting for me to fix their water pumps so they can have clean water for the New Year."
He paused, his gaze meeting Jiang Yingxue's beautiful eyes, and spoke each word clearly and distinctly.
"My technology is used for this."
"It's not for making money for you, and it's certainly not for becoming some bullshit king for you."
"Whether it's three billion or thirty billion, you can take it."
"I don't care for it."
Having said that, he turned around, grinned at General Zhang, and said, "General, this woman is too noisy. Let her get lost."
"I still have the final step of the blueprint for that Anti-gravity water pump to draw."
Jiang Yingxue's expression finally changed. She looked at his retreating back, at the young man who would rather guard a pile of junk than spare her a glance. An unprecedented sense of frustration welled up in her heart.
General Zhang looked at Su Che, stunned for a full three seconds. Then, he threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.
"Hahahaha! Good! A damn good 'I don't care for it'!"
He turned to Jiang Yingxue, his stern face filled with undisguised contempt and satisfaction.
"Miss Jiang, did you hear that?"
"The prodigy of our Dragon Country is not like those lackeys you can buy with money."
"Take your money and get out of my sight."
"If I see you step into Su Family Village again, I guarantee that next time, it won't be the Engineering Battalion that comes, but a missile brigade."
Jiang Yingxue's face flushed red and turned pale. She took one last deep look at Su Che's back, then turned and got into the car without a word.
The white BMW Mini let out an unwilling roar, made a clumsy U-turn on the muddy village road, and sped away.
The crisis seemed to have been resolved. General Zhang walked up to Su Che and patted his shoulder heavily.
"Good lad! You've done me proud!"
He looked at the sky. "Alright, stop standing there! Engineering Battalion, get moving!"
"Construction through the night! Start now!"
...
It was late at night. The two-story building next door was brightly lit.
General Zhang personally brewed a pot of tea and poured a cup for Su Che.
"Lad, you did a great job today."
"Small matter." Su Che picked up the teacup and blew on the steam, though his heart was bleeding.
Three billion, how could he not be tempted? But he had his own bottom line: he would absolutely not do anything detrimental to the country.
Besides, he understood the principle that a man commits no crime, but his wealth is his undoing.
Only by handing it over to the country could he, in the future, better and more conveniently complete the system's tasks under the country's protection and do more things that would benefit the nation and the people.
"However, don't be too happy too soon." General Zhang's expression sank.
"That Jiang Yingxue, and the group behind her, won't give up. You will have more and more trouble in the future."
"If soldiers come, block them; if water comes, earth covers it." Su Che replied nonchalantly.
"Blocking alone won't work." General Zhang looked at him with sharp eyes.
"We need to... strike back."
He paused and picked up a document from the table containing the three formulas submitted by Su Che.
"Those old guys in the capital have been studying your formulas back and forth until they've pulled out half their hair."
"They say it's theoretically feasible, but... it lacks the critical derivation process and raw data."
"They need a more detailed set of data."
Su Che put down the teacup, looked at General Zhang, and suddenly smiled.
"General, if you want the data, sure."
He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the small building of the village elementary school in the distance, which appeared exceptionally lonely in the night.
"I also have a condition."
"Help me look into someone."
"A researcher who, fifteen years ago, at the 703 Physics Research Institute, had his life ruined because of a so-called 'experimental accident'."
"His name is Lin Xiangdong."