As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 181 Conversation with Lei Jun
Because the people Merlin cast his spell on were all Americans.

The American side kept the matter a secret.

Anyway, the handover between the donkey and the elephant has been completed in 2024, and the previous group of senior executives can gradually fade out of the public eye.

It’s just that foreign media will keep keeping an eye on them, especially Russia’s RT, which is extremely powerful and provides various close-ups to analyze people’s psychology.

RT TV station also gave this matter a definition: "Merlin's Curse".

Anyone who is struck by this curse will lose their positive emotions, and judging from the appearances of big shots in public, their smiles are clearly fake.

There was only endless emptiness and fatigue in his eyes.

The term Merlin's curse is recognized worldwide, and everyone agrees that it is an appropriate description.

It is also a warning not to act rashly before you are absolutely sure.

There may not be any benefit, but once you are attacked by Merlin, you will be the target.

In addition to Merlin's elusiveness, they didn't even dare to mention Merlin's name until they could restrain Merlin from remotely controlling the human body.

So much so that there was a joke among American insiders:
"He's a bit like the mysterious man, the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads."

"The main reason is that the means by which William is controlled are too strange. Before we find a way to control this means, everyone around us could be his substitute.

More importantly, he can use a similar solution to the global surveillance program we used before, and he has a technological advantage over us in the Internet field."

"So now all investigations against him have stopped. The bigwigs will not make irrational decisions until a solution is found."

"That may not be the case. The way this person thinks now is not something that normal people can understand."

Leadership is indeed easy to surprise people.

Not only did the people in England think that Merlin was English, even the official level in England doubted whether Merlin was English.

Originally they were looking for a list of people who had mysteriously disappeared in England's history over the past five hundred years.

And college students and scientific researchers are the focus of attention.

England spent a lot of manpower and resources to do this, trying to find the missing traces from history.

After Merlin's curse came out, the incident stopped immediately. No one could withstand Merlin's attack on them.

All data of this project has been archived, pending possible restart.

The existence of Bill and others is the best deterrent to the Blue Star civilization.

Chinese netizens have linked Merlin's curse to the dark law of the jungle in "The Three-Body Problem".

“Technology may not be inferior to magic, but the problem now is that we are in the light and Merlin is in the dark.

We know nothing about magic, while Merlin seems to know everything about Muggles. We are not on the same level of knowledge. "

Zheng Li's clone in Lion City also felt that the "attention" to him had disappeared.

Deterrence is still effective.

Before the launch of the first model of Rice Auto, Lei Jun flew to Singapore to meet with Zheng Li and visit Rice's R&D center in Singapore.

Meeting Zheng Li is the core purpose, and inspecting the rice Singapore R&D center is only a secondary purpose.

There are obviously more white hairs on Lei Jun's head than before, and even hair dye can't cover it up.

Zheng Li chose to meet Lei Jun on the top floor of Huali Family.

Lei Jun hugged her as soon as they met: "We haven't seen each other for a long time. The last time we met was probably in 2022, when I came to Singapore for business and met her."

"Every time I see you, I feel like we are still young and I always feel like I should retire."

Zheng Li was only 24 years old at the time, but he was already the richest man in Asia, with a net worth of over one trillion RMB.

After seeing this, Lei Jun felt like he had been working in vain for so many years.

Zheng Li smiled and said, "It was the first venture capital that my senior brother gave me. It was with the start-up capital at that time that I was able to achieve what I have today."

After serving the tea, the butler disappeared silently into the living room.

The conversation between the two involved some confidential information, and any leak of this information would have an impact on the secondary market.

"No, no, no, I'm just the icing on the cake. Even when you were still a student, my fifty million was just the icing on the cake, not a life-saving gift."

Lei Jun was very modest. He knew Zheng Li was not good at talking, so he continued:
"Science Biotechnology is a purely technology-driven company, and the endorphin manufacturing method of Science Biotechnology at that time was a core human need, so the competitiveness of its products is obvious."

“Even without my venture capital, it would take you a little longer to get started, but you would still be able to develop Kechuang Biotechnology to where it is today.”

"On the contrary, it is because of you that Shunwei Capital is able to own 10% of Sinovation Biotech's shares."

The market value of Kechuang Bio has exceeded 4 trillion RMB. After the split, the total share capital has increased from 40 million shares to billion shares.

The market value of 10% of the shares held by Lei Jun exceeds 200 billion RMB. The first investment that year was 50 million RMB, and the follow-up investment in the B round was only about 20 billion RMB.

In five years, the investment increased tenfold.

The profit that this investment alone brought to Shunwei Capital exceeded the total investment income they had earned over the years.

Zheng Li: "Brother, we are so familiar with each other, there is no need to be polite. We can just be more direct."

"I feel like you're under a lot of psychological pressure this time. Is the Rice Auto incident stressful for you?"

Lei Jun sighed: "Although what is said in the media does not have to be taken seriously."

"But Rice Auto should really be my last stop. I am too old to do this anymore."

"I have no idea whether Rice Auto can succeed or survive."

New energy vehicle companies have been competing fiercely in recent years, with new players entering the market one after another.

Whether Hua Wei built a car or not is a matter of opinion.

(Anyway, I think it’s no different for Ceres to go down in person)

Luxshare Precision, a former Apple supplier, has also entered the market and announced in a high-profile manner that it will build cars.

Not to mention international consumer electronics giants such as Apple and Sony, which have also announced that they will participate in the competition for new energy vehicles.

In the past, there were Li Auto, BYD, Tesla, etc., and in the future, new energy vehicles from Apple and Sony will soon be launched on the market.

Rice is under a lot of pressure as their competitor, mainly because it has no core advantage. Can rice noodles really work on large items like cars?

Lei Jun felt the same as he said, he really had no idea.

Zheng Li: "With Dami being so successful, Dami Auto will certainly be fine. I believe in Dami's mature supply chain system and the execution capability of the Dami team."

Cars test the strength of an entrepreneurial team far more than mobile phones, and being able to work hard and steadily is a necessary ability to successfully build a car.

But beyond basic abilities, there is still a lot more to survival.

People like Jia and Xu don't even have the basic ability to do things steadily, and their talk of making cars is just talk.

Lei Jun had a bitter look on his face: "Recently, Tesla announced a price cut of 3 yuan in the Chinese market, bringing the price down to the 25 yuan range." "This is too much pressure for Rice Automobile. Even with the support of super lithium battery technology, it is difficult to beat Tesla at the same price."

“Many people who succeed in starting a business don’t know why they succeed. Although they will summarize various successful experiences, in fact, that is only a small part.”

“The biggest factor in entrepreneurial success is timing. If you seize the opportunity and do better than others, you will succeed. This is what we call the wind outlet.”

"But the new energy vehicle trend is really too hot, as the young people say."

“It’s as difficult as starting a business in the mobile phone industry in 2020. Every pain point you can think of has been solved by peers.”

"At the same time, only after really entering this industry can you understand the power of Tesla."

"I heard that Tesla's price cut of 30,000 yuan this time is just the beginning, and it will be reduced by another 30,000 yuan in the future, approaching the price range of 200,000 yuan."

Zheng Li was very surprised. Due to his entrepreneurial experience, he had some understanding of Blue Star's industry.

Zheng Li asked, "I'm very curious. The price of a Tesla is only between 250,000 and 300,000 yuan. How can the price be reduced by 60,000 yuan?"

"Will such a big price reduction affect their own profits? Excluding marketing and the profit margin reserved for dealers, the profit will be negative, right?"

Lei Jun explained: "This is the horror of Tesla."

"Their gross profit margin is 35 percent, so if they cut the price by 60,000, they will still make a profit."

"But the profits of domestic new energy manufacturers are generally between 10% and 20%, and they cannot afford this level of price cuts."

"The super lithium battery has brought a lot of pressure to Tesla, but Tesla has come up with the killer move of price reduction."

"Super Range does solve the range concerns of electric car users, but not every car owner needs this feature."

"Many new energy vehicle users only travel in the city, and super-range is just icing on the cake for them."

Zheng Li: "So Tesla's price cuts can attract all those users who don't care about battery life?"

Lei Jun nodded: "It may not be possible to reduce the price by 30,000, but if it is reduced by 60,000, it will definitely attract most customers who do not care about battery life at this price point."

Zheng Li: "What is the expected price of the Rice Car?"

When Lei Jun mentioned this, he sighed and said, "Our original plan was to divide the Rice car into two models, one with super range and one without super range."

"Among them, there is no rice car with super range, and the price is about 150,000 yuan."

"But at this price point, if Tesla cuts its price by 60,000 yuan, the competitiveness of Rice's car products without super-range will be too weak."

"This is not to say that the Rice Auto product itself is not good, but it takes into account aspects such as user recognition."

Many investors are not optimistic about Dami’s car-making business because cars are different from mobile phones.

A mobile phone failure will not affect your personal safety, but a car failure will affect your personal safety.

Given the extent to which Xiaomi mobile phones have squeezed the supply chain, the same approach will not work in making cars.

I would like to mention here that Huawei Mobile never exploits its suppliers, but Huawei exploits its software service suppliers in all aspects.

These are common operations of withholding payment for goods. The most frustrating thing is that the length of time you help Huawei to provide software services depends on when they learn your technology.

The majority of users are clearly skeptical about the safety of rice-made cars.

Therefore, after Dami announced that it would build cars, the secondary market voted with its feet and was not optimistic about it.

The share price fell along with the Hong Kong stock market, falling to the ankle level.

Until recently, after the listing of Brain-Computer VR, Dami held 20% of the shares of the joint venture. With this super positive news, Dami's market value exceeded its previous peak.

Zheng Li knew why Lei Jun looked so much older when he met him this time. "He should have been off the production line, right?"

Lei Jun: "The first batch of rice cars are already in production, and the model cannot be changed."

“The only question now is how far we can push prices down.”

"Originally, Rice Auto didn't want to go the cost-effective route, but now it seems it has to go back to the cost-effective route."

Zheng Li: "We have to survive first before we can discuss the next step."

Lei Jun: "I don't want to focus on price/performance ratio because price/performance ratio is deeply tied to rice."

"Over the years, I have been trying to get out of this restriction, whether it is splitting up Redmi or launching the Mix series."

"Rice cars are going back to the price-performance-butcher route, and I'm worried that this will affect Rice phones."

Zheng Li: "Tesla was the first to become a price butcher."

Lei Jun nodded: "Yeah, I feel much better now that you put it that way."

"If we don't lower the price, we will be doomed. But if we lower the price, there is still a glimmer of hope."

If the price doesn't drop, how can the Xiaomi car with ordinary range of 15 yuan compete with the Model 20 whose price has dropped to 3 yuan?
As a top entrepreneur, Lei Jun has a good sense of smell and can make decisions that best suit current interests.

As for whether anyone can predict what will happen in five or ten years, it is possible in five years, but impossible in ten years.

Lei Jun continued: "Rice Automobile has to go ahead no matter what."

“Even if I fail in the end, I hope I have tried my best.”

"This time when I came to Lion City, I also wanted to talk to you about the share transfer."

"From my point of view, I think it's a good thing for you to transfer 8% of your shares to Huaguo Investment."

"Increasing the proportion of state-owned assets can get some additional support, and the equity allocation of each party's capital will be more balanced."

Zheng Li nodded: "In fact, I have always wanted to introduce state capital, but there has never been a suitable opportunity. This time, Huaguo Investment just happened to find me."

"I transferred a small portion of the shares to them at a relatively suitable price."

Zheng Li did not choose to tell Lei Jun the truth.

What Cheng Gang reported to him was not part of the board’s discussion, so Lei Jun didn’t know about it.

Since Cheng Gang was previously a professional manager at Shunwei Capital under Lei Jun, in order to avoid suspicion, Cheng Gang deliberately distanced himself from Lei Jun.

Even if the news was leaked to Lei Jun by Cheng Gang, Lei Jun would not say it openly to embarrass Zheng Li after hearing what Zheng Li meant.

There was a hint of surprise on Lei Jun's face, which was caught by Zheng Li.

"I thought someone was putting pressure on you, so I wanted to comfort you."

"It's also a good thing for you personally. You can cash out 8% of your shares at once, and you will have funds to allocate some resources."

"In addition, from a certain perspective, expanding state-owned capital is conducive to the subsequent development of scientific and technological innovation and biotechnology."

Let me tell you my thoughts. In an industrialized society, if the protagonist wants to make trouble and bring about social and industrial changes, compromises and exchanges of interests are definitely necessary.

If you want to rely on yourself for everything, you need a country with an established magic society to travel to Blue Star.

In addition, the protagonist compromises, but later as his strength recovers, he will no longer compromise and can do whatever he wants. From a certain perspective, this is also a process of growth.

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(End of this chapter)