249: Chapter 249 Xu family line, Xu Qingling

As a high-level lifeform, Jiang Chen could alter the size, strength, color, and shape of any part of his body. Soon, Xue Yao experienced what it meant to "get it all done in one step."

"So the stomach really can bulge."

Looking at Jiang Chen, who was five meters tall and weighed at least several tons, Xue Yao was secretly shocked.

Was this a Level 3 Lifeform or a Level 4 Lifeform?

To think he could increase his height, weight, and size at will!

"Honey, can you glow?"

Xue Yao asked curiously.

"Do you take me for a glow stick? Glowing, indeed."

Jiang Chen retorted crossly.

It was good enough that he could change color, let alone glow!

"Oh~~"

Xue Yao thought to herself that she needed to hurry up and become a Level 3 Lifeform. Otherwise, if Jiang Chen became a super giant god standing tens of thousands of meters tall and weighing tens of thousands of tons, wouldn't she just be a tiny ant?

How could they be a married couple then?

...

Five days passed quickly.

Jiang Chen mainly had the Starship notify the top hundred on the lifeform rankings to come over.

However, because Old Fungus Lao and the other two were on Jupiter, the distance was too great, so they could only participate in the meeting online.

General Wei, ranked sixth on the lifeform rankings, was on the Luan Bird and also led his subordinate commanders to prepare for the online meeting.

The three Starship commanders near Venus were all in the top hundred of the lifeform rankings, so they naturally received invitations to the meeting as well.

Excluding the deceased fourth-ranked Mai Gurong, Zhao Yinhu, who was ranked fifth on the lifeform rankings, arrived at the Starship as scheduled because he was on the moon.

Beside him was a strange woman.

She wore her hair in a bun, was dressed in a qipao, had a graceful figure, and looked to have a very classical charm.

Seeing Jiang Chen cast a puzzled look, Zhao Yinhu stepped forward to introduce her.

"Comrade Jiang."

"This is Ms. Xu Qingxue."

"Chairwoman of the Earth-Moon-Xinhuo Space Logistics Group."

"A peak Level 2 Lifeform, ranked seventh on the lifeform rankings."

"Over these past few decades, 70% of space logistics have been developed by their group, making a huge contribution to humanity's logistics system."

Ranked seventh on the lifeform rankings?

Jiang Chen understood immediately.

On the three planets of Earth, Mars, and the Lunar Base, besides the Xinhuo Faction and the Dragon Emblem Faction, there was also the low-key The Xu Family.

This faction did not have any extremely top-tier high-level lifeforms.

The strongest among them was only ranked seventh on the lifeform rankings.

Whether it was Zhao Yinhu of the Dragon Emblem Faction, Mai Gurong of the Xinhuo Faction, or General Wei of the Luan Bird, they were all a cut above The Xu Family.

However.

The Xu Family mainly engaged in space infrastructure, space logistics, and space shipyards, belonging to those who make a fortune in silence. Although they lacked top-tier high-level lifeforms, the seventh, eighth, and tenth places on the lifeform rankings all belonged to The Xu Family.

In contrast, Dragon Emblem and Xinhuo, aside from their top powerhouses, were actually somewhat lacking in successors.

"The Xu Family, is it? I know. Your interest group circles around the moon, Mars, and Earth, making money from all three sides, yet you don't participate in any conflicts."

"Although your strongest is only ranked seventh on the lifeform rankings, you occupy three seats in the top ten of the entire lifeform rankings. If this continues, once Zhao Yinhu and Mai Gurong face a lack of successors, you will be able to carve them up."

Jiang Chen looked at the picturesque woman with a Jiangnan temperament before him and said with a smile.

Xu Qingxue had not expected Jiang Chen to be so incisive, instantly laying bare the core of the entire interest group behind her. She smiled charmingly and parried, saying: "Comrade Jiang, you misunderstand. Rather than calling us The Xu Family, it would be better to call us a neutral faction. We are just striving to build humanity's space logistics, leaving behind some infrastructure that future humans can use for a long time. We have no other intentions."

"Regardless of whether you have other intentions or not, I can tell you clearly that I will not allow anyone, or any interest group, to ride roughshod over all of humanity."

"Mai Gurong can't, the Lunar Base can't, and your The Xu Family can't either."

Jiang Chen looked at Xu Qingxue and said bluntly.

Xu Qingxue's mouth twitched. The meeting hadn't even started, and she was already getting hit with an opening barrage?

She retorted somewhat unwillingly: "Comrade Jiang, I know you are very strong, but isn't it a bit inappropriate for you to be so arbitrary? The Xu Family has, at the very least, relied on our own development to get to where we are step by step; it can be said to be legal and reasonable. Furthermore, we are not riding over all of humanity. Haven't we always been public servants, working like oxen and horses for all of humanity, handling space logistics... Just this past week, to reopen the previous Earth-Xinhuo logistics line, we lost the lives of three employees."

Xu Qingxue linked the matter of restarting the logistics line with Jiang Chen's battle against the Starship.

In an instant, she made Jiang Chen bear the burden of three lives.

After all.

If the logistics line had remained normal, these three lives might not have been lost.

However.

Jiang Chen had long done his homework on The Xu Family. He took a monitor handed to him by Xue Yao, pressed a button, and projected a series of data, saying: "According to data from the last three years, your Earth-Moon-Xinhuo Space Logistics Group, with 500,000 employees, loses an average of 150 employees every year due to maintenance, debris, malfunctions, and so on."

"That's about one employee every two days."

"Calculated over a week, that's about three employees."

"You say that the three employees lost this past week were due to the restart of the logistics line and should be counted against me."

"I do not deny that the Earth-Xinhuo battle affected space logistics; I will take responsibility for that. But even without that impact, the figure of three employees lost per week—I didn't make that up, did I?"

Jiang Chen was logical and well-founded. For a moment, Xu Qingxue gave a sheepish laugh.

Regarding those three lost employees, she couldn't really say whether Jiang Chen bore more of the blame or she did.

She wanted to ease the atmosphere, so she said: "Comrade Jiang, you misunderstand. I am not saying this is your problem; after all, the declaration of war on Mars was issued by the Mars Base, and you have made huge contributions to saving Earth. As for this loss data, we will strive to reduce it in the future."

"How will you reduce it? Not just by saying so. I have analyzed your loss data, and the main reason is that the value of a human life is far less than the value of a mecha."

"A human life is compensated with one million, while a mecha costs tens of millions to build."

"That is why you are unwilling to guarantee a mecha usage rate of over ten percent."

"Space logistics are very dangerous; a slight jolt could throw employees working on the deck into space. Furthermore, long-duration voyages can cause huge psychological problems. You should raise the mecha usage rate."

Jiang Chen pointed to another set of data and said earnestly.

Generally, the mecha usage rate on Starships reaches over sixty percent. The Shuipo Starship, belonging to The Xu Family, has reached a 65% mecha usage rate.

However, the Earth-Moon-Xinhuo Space Logistics Group, although not a Starship, only has a pitiful 5% mecha usage rate, far inferior to Starships.

Therefore!

Most dangerous work is still left to humans.

Even if one hundred employees are lost in a year, it only amounts to one hundred million in compensation.

That's equivalent to ten mechas.

This calculation can be said to be very capitalized.

After listening to Jiang Chen's analysis, Xu Qingxue's expression was not very good for a moment.

Although this had been happening year after year for nearly fifty years.

No one had ever criticized her about it.

Even if a family member was occasionally dissatisfied with the compensation, she would just double it to shut them up.

Two million, after all.

She felt that she had been very humane.

Moreover, she also provided employment for so many people.

Thinking of this.

She couldn't help but argue: "It's not that we don't want to increase the mecha usage rate, but we need to provide enough employment. If we increased the mecha usage rate, then people would be unemployed..."

"No one is born liking to work in these dangerous positions. In the past, there was no choice, but now that there are more and more mechas, we should slowly increase the mecha usage rate and let others slowly transition to other positions."

"What unemployment? That's just an excuse. After industrial upgrading, there will naturally be new jobs."

"According to your 'fear of unemployment' theory, humans today should still be digging for coal instead of using Controlled Nuclear Fusion."

Jiang Chen scoffed at Xu Qingxue's statement.

For the space logistics group, they were like the mining tycoons of the past; if digging for coal made money, why bother with industrial upgrading and investing money into researching Controlled Nuclear Fusion?

Xu Qingxue's face turned green and then white.

Jiang Chen, however, continued: "If you were a small logistics company, I wouldn't bother saying anything, as you might lack the capacity for industrial upgrading. But your Earth-Moon-Xinhuo Space Logistics Group is humanity's largest logistics group; you basically monopolize about seventy percent of logistics goods. If you don't engage in industrial upgrading, who will?"

"Also, you have tens of trillions in profits sitting on your books. If you aren't increasing mecha usage rates or engaging in industrial upgrading, what are you trying to do? Military industry? Are you waiting for Mars and the moon to lack successors so you can directly carve them up?"

Jiang Chen's words were deafening.

For decades, the mecha usage rate of Earth-Moon-Xinhuo Space Logistics had remained at around five percent, without any improvement.

Research funding was even less than 1%.

It was simply the king of salted fish!

The salted fish among salted fish.

Xu Qingxue was in her forties this year. As the chairwoman of the space logistics group and ranked seventh on the lifeform rankings, she could be said to hold a high position with great power, and was accomplished at a young age.

In her daily life, who wasn't polite to her?

Even Mai Gurong and Zhao Yinhu would give her some face.

But now.

Jiang Chen's harsh criticism left her speechless.

For a moment.

She felt very aggrieved.

After doing so much, she was actually being described as completely useless.

Seeing the atmosphere becoming increasingly tense, Zhao Yinhu gave a dry cough and hurriedly tried to smooth things over: "Comrade Jiang, you shouldn't dump all the blame on Ms. Xu. The mecha usage rate can't be raised mainly because the cost of mechas is too expensive, and they are prioritized for Starships..."

"Fifty years ago, the cost of a mecha was around the ten-million level. Why is it still at the ten-million level now?"

Jiang Chen posed a soul-searching question.

Back when he was at the Longke Academy, the earliest batch of mechas cost nearly over one hundred million.

But later, with mass production, the cost was brought down to the ten-million level.

Theoretically, after fifty years of development, the cost should be a few million per unit now.

Zhao Yinhu explained: "The cost on Earth is a bit cheaper, but the bases moved to Mars and the moon, didn't they? The cost naturally went up again... Of course, that's not the main reason. The main reason is the competition between the moon and Mars, which causes the costs of labor, materials, and transportation to remain high."

"It is normal for the logistics group to choose to delay increasing the mecha usage rate."

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow: "In other words, because of your groundless competition, the common people have to suffer a bit more?"

Jiang Chen just felt it was ridiculous. They could have developed together and reduced costs, but they had to engage in vicious competition.

This caused mecha costs to not come down.

With costs not coming down, Xu Qingxue naturally had no motivation or intent to increase the mecha usage rate.

Therefore!

The risks and costs were all shifted onto the common people.

"Well, because Dragon Emblem didn't want to be assimilated by Xinhuo, we used a different production system. I'll take part of the blame."

Zhao Yinhu spoke up.

"Besides, how the profits of Earth-Moon-Xinhuo Space Logistics are used is not something I can decide alone," Xu Qingxue added.

Although she was seventh on the lifeform rankings, the eighth and tenth were her grandfather and her maternal grandfather, respectively.

She would often listen to their opinions.

"What about those two old men?" Jiang Chen asked.

"They... had something to do and couldn't come, so they sent me," Xu Qingxue replied.

"Couldn't come, or didn't want to come?" Jiang Chen asked persistently.

Xu Qingxue shrugged: "You can also interpret it as not wanting to come."

"Alright then, they don't have to come in the future."

"Let's go, everyone, enter the conference room."

Jiang Chen waved his hand and turned to walk toward a giant conference room on the Starship.

Xu Qingxue's expression shifted.

Although she had long known that as the representative of The Xu Family, she would be reprimanded, she had never expected that the other party would beat her down from the angle of mecha usage rate.

For The Xu Family, this meeting was likely to be ominous.

The giant conference room.

It could accommodate a thousand people.

With various projections, it could easily facilitate direct dialogue with ten thousand people.

"How is the preparation?"

Jiang Chen stepped forward and asked Tiezhu in the conference room.

At this moment, it was leading a group of small robots to check various equipment to prevent any problems.

"No problem!"

Tiezhu held up three fingers.

Jiang Chen nodded and found a seat in the front row to sit down.

Xue Yao sat beside him.

Jiang Haipeng had arrived the day before and was currently huddled in the seat to Xue Yao's right, engaged in a verbal sparring match with Commander Jiang Qiuzhi.

"The meeting is about to start, stop muttering."

Xue Yao glared at Jiang Haipeng.

"Oh~" Jiang Haipeng sat up straight.

Before long.

Many people entered the conference room one after another.

Most were strangers, a few were familiar faces.

These people were mostly high-level officials among current humanity, giants in various industries.

This included those in the top hundred of the lifeform rankings; as long as they could make it in time, they all came.

Those who couldn't come in time participated in the online meeting.

Moreover, after the internal meeting concluded later, the public meeting on-site would be broadcast to all of humanity.

Around ten in the morning.

Over nine hundred people were seated on-site.

Jiang Chen, seeing that everyone had basically arrived, signaled Tiezhu, who was presiding on the stage, to start the cloud meeting.

[Connecting to Marquis Huaguo...]

[Connecting to Li Boyang...]

[Connecting to He Shiqi...]

[Connecting to General Wei...]

[Connecting to the commanders of Sister Li, Tudigong Starship, Moon Rabbit Starship, Dragon Cry, Dragon God, Dragon Soul, Shuipo Starship, Kunlun Starship, and Nüwa Starship...]

[Connecting...]

Virtual projections cast the figures of people from far away into the void.

The scene was silent; these were the biggest bigwigs among humanity.

This Jiang Chen was actually able to assemble so many people here in one go; the order of humanity was likely about to be rebuilt once again.

Just as everyone was holding their breath, Tiezhu didn't know where the operation had gone wrong.

As a result.

A large screen behind it, which was originally intended to display technological blueprints for Jiang Chen, suddenly showed a photo of Cuihua wearing a bikini on a beach.

"Whoa!!!"

The scene erupted in an uproar.

Tiezhu was startled and hurriedly turned on the loudspeaker: The system is currently under repair.