I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

"What is this? A bullet printer?" The Japanese man exclaimed in surprise as he took the brochure handed to him by the staff.

While printing pancakes and cosmetics was somewhat understandable, the concept of printing bullets is truly perplexing.

"That's right, this is the seed bullet printer developed by our Xinde team. It can produce biodegradable capsules containing seeds, nutrient soil, and water-retaining agents. Drone swarms can carry these seed bullets and, according to a preset GPS map, accurately sow seeds on hard-to-reach hillsides and tidal flats. It can even print a grid structure to fix the soil."

At the same time, this device is also a flexible materials and smart fabric printer. Using hot pressing, ultrasonic welding, or functional inks, it can directly print circuits, sensors, or LEDs onto fabric to create smart clothing, or directly print seamless shoe uppers and backpacks. This technology is applicable to wearable devices, smart clothing, sports brands, and the fashion industry,” Chen Caiyue explained with a smile.

These innovations may have a lukewarm reception in developing Asian countries, but they are extremely attractive to European and American markets.

The introduction itself reveals the allure of cutting-edge technology.

In the agricultural sector, drone operations are nothing new, and DJI's equipment is widely popular abroad, but the seed bullet is a first.

If drones can complete most agricultural tasks in the future, the cost of other equipment will be significantly reduced.

Furthermore, European high-end clothing has always been known for its designs, and if this type of printer can be adopted, it is expected to capture the mid-to-high-end market and achieve product diversification.

"Next, please allow me to introduce Xinde's new generation of machine tools..." Chen Caiyue lifted another dust cover.

If the seed bullet printer only surprised people slightly, then the machine tool in front of them caused a gasp from the audience, because its function was exactly the same as what Huade had just introduced.

"Please don't worry about data security. Xinde will utilize the newly built big data center in Xinlu City and will cooperate with the Alibaba Group. In the future, these new machine tools will be widely used, and for data storage, everyone would prefer to choose a professional large-scale data center rather than just finding a database from a non-internet-related company, right?"

After she finished explaining, Hu Jian, Chen Ran, and others took over to explain the technical details. Then, Chen Yifeng pulled Chen Caiyue to a corner of the booth.

"What's going on? How come Xinde's machine tools are the same as ours? Chen Caiyue, you're plagiarizing! Let me tell you, I have a patent for this technology." He lowered his voice, unable to hide his anger.

"What do you mean by plagiarism? What do you mean by your patent? I also have a share in the research institute! I didn't even pursue those little tricks you used to transfer funds during your divorce, and now you're arguing with me about this?" Chen Caiyue crossed her arms, looking indignant.

"Where did you get this technology from? Who at the research institute gave it to you?"

"Who am I to tell you?"

"Hmph, I'm going to find this traitor!" Chen Yifeng clenched his fists, but didn't dare to actually file a lawsuit.

If she really wants to pursue the matter, Chen Caiyue can also countersue him for his actions before the divorce. If the two of them go to court, their chances of winning are not high; it would just be a waste of time.

To be fair, while Xinde's equipment is 90% similar to Huade's, a closer look reveals some differences. It has addressed some of the shortcomings of Huade's equipment; the only remaining weakness might be materials. However, with Xinde reaching a cooperation agreement with Deutsche Bank, materials will no longer be an obstacle in the future.

"You didn't bring this out before, just so you could embarrass me and make me look bad now, right?"

"Yes, didn't you say it yourself? You always save your trump card for last." Chen Caiyue covered her mouth and chuckled.

Seeing that force wouldn't work, Chen Yifeng immediately put on a smiling face: "Caiyue, we were family before. Huade is going to be left to our son. If you ruin it, what will I leave him? Our son will definitely complain that I don't care about him..."

“Alright, since it’s all going to our son, you can share the research institute’s technology and materials with Xinde from now on.”

“No problem! But you have to explain to those people first that the product you just introduced was actually manufactured under license from Huade. Anyway, everyone knows that our two brands were originally from the same company.”

"Do you think I'm stupid? You've never kept your word. You promised to take me around the world once the business was stable, but after the divorce, you went traveling by yourself, taking other women with you everywhere. I will never trust you again this time." Chen Caiyue brought up all the old grievances at once.

While the two were arguing, the car exhibition area was also bustling with activity.

Unlike other exhibition areas, this one had a specially reserved open space in the center of the hall, with many seats neatly arranged. Musk was sitting in one of them, facing a barrage of questions and criticisms from a group of domestic new energy vehicle company executives.

Previously, he had repeatedly belittled these local car companies in front of the media. Now, the bosses are taking advantage of this home-field opportunity to get revenge and are determined to demand an explanation in person.

"Our domestically produced new energy vehicles are cheaper than Tesla's, and their interiors are better. Mr. Musk, may I ask, are you treating our consumers like韭菜 (leeks, a metaphor for exploiting them) by selling Teslas at such high prices in the Chinese market?" Shen Yihui, the boss of Weima Motors, asked sharply. Upon hearing this, Musk frowned slightly, then smiled and replied, "We at Tesla spend our money where it's needed, such as body materials and batteries. I think the primary purpose of a car is driving, not focusing on interior decoration. Besides, once the Shanghai factory is established, Tesla's price will gradually decrease, and it won't be so expensive then. I respect your country's consumers and don't treat them like suckers. You say we're exploiting them? That's an interesting analogy. But I think we're more like planting a technology tree. The initial investment is huge, but one day it will blossom and bear fruit, allowing everyone to enjoy its shade. As for the price, once our factory is operational, you'll see how we turn luxury goods into everyday items."

"So you mean we didn't spend much money on the body materials?"

"Um... there are many new energy vehicle companies in your country, and I'm not in a position to comment on them all, because each company's manufacturing costs are different. Each company has its own budget allocation philosophy. It's like some people are willing to spend a lot of money on a crocodile leather wallet, while others think a canvas bag is more practical. We choose to spend money on ensuring that the vehicle can safely get people from point A to point B, rather than letting you enjoy a leather massage while stuck in traffic." Musk was somewhat annoyed by this aggressive questioning. However, this wasn't America after all, so he couldn't directly confront them.

"Since you say Tesla has spent all its money on materials for the cars, then Mr. Musk, how do you explain the spontaneous combustion incidents of Tesla's electric vehicles in recent years? With so much money spent on building cars that are still so unsafe, did you not even spend the money on them? Just a few months ago, an electric vehicle and a Tesla charging station spontaneously combusted in Shanghai. How do you explain that? The same thing keeps happening. Is Tesla building cars or bombs?" Li Buxiang, the boss of Lixiang Auto, also joined the fray.

"This is a matter of probability. There are many reasons why a car might catch fire, but Tesla will not shirk its responsibility and will compensate accordingly. May I ask all the car manufacturers out there, have your electric vehicles never had any problems? Mr. Li said we are building bombs? This reminds me of a joke: when the world's first car was invented, people were worried it would ignite a haystack. Any new technology will experience growing pains during its development; the key is how we solve them. Speaking of probability, did you know that, according to statistics, the probability of a gasoline car catching fire is actually several times that of an electric car? It's just that a Tesla fire makes headlines, while a gasoline car fire only makes a small corner of the local news. As for the charging station spontaneous combustion, we have already investigated and found that it was caused by the owner's unauthorized modification of the battery management system. This is like heating metal utensils in a microwave oven and then blaming the microwave oven manufacturer for its design flaws. What I want to say is that instead of worrying about why a Tesla catches fire, you should first figure out how to build a mass-produced car that can catch fire. After all, you need a car first before you can have the opportunity to catch fire, right?" Musk retorted.

All the bosses were holding back their anger, their faces turning red.

Their cars do have many problems, but when problems arise, they use public relations and legal services to suppress negative news. So even if something serious happens, most people won't see the news; only some people in the industry know about it.

As for Musk's final statement, it was a slap in the face to them: their combined electric vehicle production is still less than that of Tesla alone. Most of them have orders but no cars, and only they know how those orders came about.

"Then how do you explain the numerous cameras on the Tesla vehicle? Does the vehicle collect data on our roads and environment through a large number of cameras and transmit it back to the United States? This practice seems to pose a significant threat to our national security," asked He Dapeng, the boss of Dapeng Motors, picking up the microphone.

“Wow, this question makes me feel like I’m not running a car company, but the props department in Mission Impossible. You’re more interested in our cameras than in my rocket recovery technology. Let me put it simply: Tesla’s cameras are like installing a bicycle dashcam on a car, only ours are smarter and can distinguish between a bicycle and a tree. You’re worried they’ll map your country’s roads? Please, their job is to avoid crashing into your car! If I wanted to get information about your country’s roads, I’d rather use Baidu Maps; that’s a million times cheaper and more accurate than training AI to analyze the blurry pixels in our cameras. As for sending the data back to America? That’s science fiction, both physically and logically. First, your laws don’t allow it. Second, do you know how much it costs to upload that much video data over a mobile network? I’d go bankrupt!” Musk made an exaggerated gesture of clutching his wallet, making everyone around him burst into laughter.

"Honestly, if my engineers were secretly mapping your country, they would definitely email me complaining: 'Boss, we want to use professional surveying equipment, not those car cameras that only cost a few dozen dollars! This job is impossible!' We just want to do autonomous driving well, not play 007. After all, my rockets are already enough to make me look like a movie villain, there's no need to add more drama to cars..." He continued to mock the car company bosses.

The bosses were speechless when asked the question, and all turned their attention to Li Weibin of Future Auto.

Actually, Li Weibin is a bit different from the others. His brand is positioned at a higher level, and its pricing follows a high-price strategy, with solid materials used in the vehicles. But since they belong to the same camp, it wouldn't be right to remain completely silent, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and take the microphone: "Mr. Musk, you just mentioned that Tesla invests heavily in materials. May I ask, have you applied SpaceX's aerospace materials to your cars? Otherwise, what materials would be so expensive?"

"Of course there are applications. Tesla and SpaceX have formed a joint materials engineering team to jointly develop new alloys and specialty glasses. These materials are used in electric vehicles and renewable energy products, as well as in spacecraft and rockets. Tesla's key body parts already use aerospace materials of the same level as SpaceX's, which are not only high in strength and durability, but also take into account the requirements of safety and lightweighting," Musk replied calmly.

"But our models also use aerospace materials, and the interior materials are more refined than Tesla's, resulting in a significantly higher overall cost-performance ratio. If the Shanghai factory goes into production smoothly and Tesla further reduces prices, does that mean that the materials used in the vehicles will also be downgraded?"

"Aerospace materials? As far as I know, many products in your country, not just cars, like to emphasize aerospace materials in their advertising, but in reality, most are just ordinary titanium alloys. Some businesses use this concept for marketing hype, but their actual products have no direct connection with real aerospace materials. Some so-called manganese-titanium alloys are actually mainly composed of aluminum, with manganese and titanium content far below the standard, which is false advertising. Even if it is a real titanium alloy, the material requirements and process standards for civilian and aerospace grades are significantly different. Where would a company unrelated to aerospace get channels to obtain aerospace materials in large quantities? As for costs, with technological advancements and improved production efficiency, the cost of the whole vehicle naturally decreases. Price reductions do not mean reduced materials, but rather the result of overall optimization." Musk smiled slightly.

"Oh? So you came to China to build a factory just to take advantage of our labor cost advantage? Isn't that exploiting the local labor force?" The other bosses immediately seized on the key word "labor cost" and asked in unison.

"Heh, what do you think about this question?" Musk didn't answer directly, but instead looked meaningfully at the man who had been silent for a long time.

Chen Xi remained silent throughout.

On this issue, he recalled a common online debate from his previous life. Some argued that Tesla's Shanghai factory offered generous benefits, comprehensive insurance and welfare, and wages far exceeding industry standards, using this as a basis to criticize local companies for exploiting their employees.

However, from another perspective, the fundamental reason Tesla chose to build its factory here is indeed the lower labor costs. In fact, the working conditions at the Shanghai factory are several times different from those in the United States, although this also includes differences in the cost of living, market conditions, and welfare systems between the two places.

Essentially, Tesla did indeed come to the country to reduce costs. However, while the wages it offers are far below the national standard, they are still considered high salaries locally. This is the premium effect of wages from developed countries on developing countries.

To say that Musk is the great philanthropist portrayed by some online is something only a naive person would believe. Capitalists are not philanthropists; they follow business logic.

However, the reason why these car company bosses are attacking Musk one by one is because they are afraid that Tesla will take away their opportunities to make money. In Chen Xi's opinion, what they just said was a bit of sophistry.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this question is like a deep-sea fish swimming into shallow waters and saying to the local fish: 'The water pressure here is really low.' So, is the deep-sea fish showing off, or is it stating an objective fact?"
Tesla's decision to build a factory in my country, and the similarities between many companies here and those choosing to build factories in prosperous coastal economic zones, all follow the same business logic: seeking the optimal allocation of resources. This is similar to a factory choosing to source steel from province A rather than province B because steel from province A offers better value for money. This is a business decision, not a matter of morality.

Regarding salary levels, I believe we should focus more on a positive signal. When a catfish enters a pond, all the other fish are forced to swim faster. Tesla's salary standards objectively set a benchmark for our industry. It tells us what kind of talent companies can attract and what kind of productivity they can generate when they offer competitive compensation.

You've all been discussing material and battery costs at length, but seem to have barely touched on labor costs. In fact, talent is our most valuable asset. If we could shift some of our focus from debating who uses the most robust materials to discussing how to ensure our employees live with greater dignity, perhaps that would be the true beginning of our domestic automotive industry surpassing international giants.

However, water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. Today Tesla chose this place because of its cost advantage, but tomorrow it might choose another place due to changing costs. Those of us who are truly rooted here should be thinking about how to transform our cost advantage into a value advantage, so that our workers are no longer just a cost, but our core competitive advantage…” Chen Xi thought for a moment and said. (End of Chapter)