Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 228 Utter Madness! (Third Update!)

University of Pennsylvania.

Energy laboratory.

Odysseus stood with his arms crossed in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking through the thick glass at the laboratory just across the window.

Inside the laboratory, more than twenty researchers in white coats were busy working on four batteries.

These four batteries vary in size. The smallest battery is only 20 centimeters long, wide, and high, while the largest battery is a full meter long, wide, and high.

As Odysseus watched intently, a gaunt old man, who appeared to be in his fifties and clearly of Norse descent, approached, stood beside him, crossed his arms, and looked into the laboratory, saying:

"Today is the last day for data collection, my director. How do you plan to announce this to the public?"

"Judging by the time, it should be Friday morning in China."

What kind of fun stuff do you think they'll send?

“I don’t know!” Odysseus replied without turning his head, his words devoid of emotion.

After watching for a while, he turned to the person in the white coat beside him and asked in a low voice:

"Dr. Jonas, you know what? Even now, I still can't believe this thing is real."

Jonas seemed to have anticipated his reaction, glancing at him briefly before quickly looking back into the laboratory.
"I can't believe it either, but I have to believe it. That distant country has caught up with us in a certain field, and then, far surpassed us."

"That's the truth, even if you don't want to believe it, you have to believe it."

"Burying your head in the sand like an ostrich is not something a proper American should do."

In the end, Jonas's words unconsciously took on a preachy tone.

Odysseus was a shrewd man, and he could naturally detect the hint of preaching in those words.

He raised his hands and waved them wildly at Jonas, explaining as he did so, "No, no, no, no!"

"It's not that I don't want to believe it."

"I am someone who really likes technological innovation, especially innovation that can bring huge benefits. I like it from the bottom of my heart."

"It's America's men who don't want to believe it."

"Otherwise, those idiots in the CIA wouldn't be guarding the door."

When Odysseus spoke of those gentlemen, Jonas's expression became quite strange.

What's wrong with men only wanting to make money and satisfy their pure desires?
Everything, everyone, and everything that gets in the way of the gentlemen making money should disappear.

Kill those you can kill, and set those you can't kill on fire.

Jonas pressed his hand to his brow and answered with his eyes closed:

"Whether they believe it or not, all of this has already happened and is an objective fact."

"Faced with the facts, there are only two choices."

"Either be more objective and take the initiative to embrace it."

"Or they use subjective perceptions to desperately discredit this product, delaying its launch and application, so that they can prolong their own existence for a little longer."

"By the way, what did the CIA say?"

When the CIA was mentioned, Odysseus couldn't help but press his temples. He really didn't want to deal with these people because they were like savages. Talking to them felt like communicating with another species.

He rubbed his temples, lowered his hand, and answered calmly:
"Those guys are talking to some Chinese people who delivered the batteries. I don't know what they're talking about. Those guys are just regular mail carriers."

"I know nothing."

After utterly discrediting the CIA agents with a few words, Odysseus turned his attention back to the laboratory:
"When will the final test end? And when will the corresponding report be released?"

Just as Jonas was about to speak, a beep sounded from the lab.

Immediately afterwards, the researcher closest to the two raised his right hand and made an OK sign. Then he walked to the switch next to him and began to turn off the power one by one.

"That's it!"

As the test on this side ended, the CIA's interrogation on the other side was also nearing its end.

Tony lay on the sofa, a notebook between his left and a pen between his right, staring blankly at the ceiling.

His eyes darted around, and then he suddenly sat up and looked at the four people opposite him:

"In other words, you don't know whether your company has any plans to go public."

"You don't even know when your company will launch its products."

"What else can you possibly do?"

Across from him, four people were huddled on the sofa, not saying a word, just silently watching him.

Being stared at by eight pairs of eyes, Tony felt as if needles were pricking his entire body.

After feeling upset for a while, he closed the laptop, tossed it aside, and crossed his arms, saying:

"I only want to ask one thing right now: does your company have any agents in America?"

“If not, our dear director would like to become the agent.”

“If so, our dear Director feels he can replace this agent.”

This time, finally someone from the group opposite spoke up:

"That shouldn't exist."

This sentence delighted Tony. He pulled open his clothes and began to rummage through his chest.

His action startled the four people opposite him. They all flipped over behind the sofa in unison, using it as cover, and stared intently at Tony.

After searching for a while, Tony pulled a business card out of his pocket.

Just as I was about to speak, I discovered that the four people opposite me had already hidden behind the sofa.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but chuckle, then picked up the pistol from the table and waved it around.

"Glock 17, firing 9x19 rounds, the sofa can't stop it."

"If you encounter someone with a gun, run if you can. Don't think about hiding behind a sofa or a door, and don't believe what you see in movies."

"If you want to hide behind a car, you can only hide near the wheel hub in the front engine compartment."

"Other locations can also be penetrated by bullets."

Tony put away the Glock 17, placed the business card on the table, and then gently pushed it across the center line to the other side.

He tapped the business card with two fingers and continued:

"This is the business card of our Director General."

"Please take this business card to your chairman, and also convey this message to him."

“Our director wants to become the general agent for the entire Americas, as well as Oceania.”

"If your chairman is willing, let him dial this number on the business card. With just one sentence, his goods will be under our protection throughout North and South America."

After saying what he wanted to say, Tony stood up, straightened his clothes, and bowed to the people in front of him:

"I'm sorry, you've misunderstood!"

After saying that, he turned around and nodded to Miller, who had been standing by the door, guarding with his gun.

Miller put away his gun, opened the door, and walked out first, while Tony turned around, waved to the people in the room, and then turned and left.

After returning to the CIA's Philadelphia office and handing over the relevant documents, Tony drove his Volkswagen Santana home at a leisurely pace.

When he got home, he didn't rush to wash up and go to bed. Instead, he turned on his computer and logged into both Facebook and Twitter. In his following list, he found the Facebook and Twitter spokesperson accounts for Xiaomi Heavy Industry.

Then click to view the other person's new tweets.

This was a habit Tony developed after he bought FMC stock.

If you want to invest in stocks, you can't be greedy.

You can either trade stocks casually, buy them and leave them there without looking at them, then check back in two years to see if you've made a profit or loss.

Either you're ready to sell at any time, and as long as you're faster than everyone else, you'll profit. Tony is the second type.

He just wanted to run faster than everyone else.

According to a tweet posted by a spokesperson for Xiaomi Heavy Industry a couple of days ago, they will be at 10 AM today…

It's 10 AM local time in China, which is 10 PM Pennsylvania time. I'll be posting some good stuff.

I don’t know if it’s because of the network, but the page loads slowly, so slowly that Tony really wants to call the local carrier.

But when he thought about the operator those jerks hired, he gave up on the idea.

Calling those operators is just asking for trouble.

The loading prompt on the screen lasted for two or three minutes before the page finally finished loading.

Tony was completely stunned the moment he saw the fully loaded page.

He looked at the tweet's title, thought for a moment, and then reached out and pressed F5.

The page started refreshing, and this time, it crashed immediately upon loading.

Upon seeing this, Tony broke down.

He quickly opened a new browser and closed all other applications. This time, he only opened Facebook.

This time he was lucky; the browser loaded the page in just two minutes, and he saw the title he had been hesitant to confirm again.

[Take you through the entire production process of the Vulcan explosive battery! 012]

After carefully reading the title, Tony quickly scrolled down with the mouse.

The tweets below also have the same title, but the numbers at the end are gradually decreasing.

Finally, he pulled up to 01.

He took a deep breath and clicked the mouse heavily.

Page loading!
Page load crashed!

Unconvinced, he reopened the browser and reloaded it.

This time, he couldn't get in.

After refreshing the page a few times, a brilliant idea struck him, and he opened the New York Stock Exchange website.

In addition to regular opening trading, the New York Stock Exchange also has pre-market and after-hours trading.

Pre-market trading hours are from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM New York time.

After-hours trading is from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM New York time.

These two services are only supported by some securities firms.

Coincidentally, the brokerage firm Tony chose supported both of these functions and allowed him to issue purchase orders in advance at any time.

If the brokerage firm has the corresponding stocks in its inventory, you can trade them directly. When the time comes, the stocks and funds will be transferred to your respective accounts.

But when he issued the purchase order, a message popped up on the page that filled him with despair.

[The selected stock is sold out. Please confirm and select again!]

There is no such thing as stocks being truly sold out. There are just too many buyers, causing the stock price to skyrocket. When sellers see the price soaring, they hold onto the stocks they were originally planning to sell and stop putting them back into the market.

Upon seeing this notification, Tony sat helplessly in front of the computer, lost in thought.

That night, he never saw that headline again, nor did he see anyone put stocks into the market.

The morning sunlight streamed in through the window. He stretched his stiff body, washed his face, and slowly drove his Volkswagen Santana to work at the bureau.

With little work to do, he simply sat in front of his computer, opened the New York Stock Exchange website, and waited for the stock market to open.

The stock market opened promptly at 9:30 a.m.

He frantically clicked on FMC's stock, wanting to buy more, but the pop-up system kept showing the same message.

[The selected stock is sold out. Please confirm and select again!]

Seeing this, he completely gave up.

He closed the exchange's page and went to Facebook to see what kind of video the so-called spokesperson had posted.

Click to enter the other party's homepage.

Find the first video and click play.

The video begins with several people wearing white coats and gas masks, with only their eyes visible, busy using equipment to weigh items.

As for the substance being weighed, judging from the label on the outer packaging, it is lithium carbonate.

In addition to lithium carbonate, it also contains lithium hydroxide, cobalt, nickel and other metallic elements.

The entire video is about weighing these substances.

The weighed material is lifted by a forklift and placed into a new container.

The new container was placed nearby, waiting to be transported away by other forklifts.

At the end of the video, a detailed weighing chart appears, showing the complete weight of the metal elements.

Looking at the chart, Tony vaguely understood its purpose, but he wasn't sure.

He exited the first video and eagerly clicked on the second one.

In the second video, the person in the white coat changed into ordinary worker's jeans.

And all these people's clothes were printed with the logo that he had seen countless times in the past two days.

The silver cross logo.

These workers used forklifts and overhead cranes to feed the metal elements from containers into the furnace in proportion.

Every time these people put in a little money, Tony would think of the form he had just seen.

Finally, he confirmed that the table was indeed the so-called combination ratio table.

To his regret, in the second video, when the raw materials were being fed in, the camera was always pointed at the feeding port, and the temperature of the furnace and other operating conditions were not visible.

After closing the second video, he clicked to enter the third video.

But as soon as the third video started playing, he was completely stunned.

Because the third video, right at the beginning, features the temperature control that the second video lacked.

He stared blankly at the numbers flashing on the video screen, his mind a complete mess.

He racked his brains trying to figure out why these people released the video, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand why they would do such a thing.

Shouldn't something of this caliber be kept secret, monopolized, and then used to rake in huge profits?

How could anyone be so stupid as to release these videos?
Unable to figure it out, Tony decided to stop thinking about it.

He decided to buy some stocks!

Once the other party releases these videos, regardless of their purpose, other companies will try to follow suit and verify this production process.

At that time, stocks in the lithium battery industry will surge.

Go buy some yourself right away!
I'll sell when the price goes up a bit.

Just as he was about to close his Facebook account, the network refreshed and he saw that the official Science account, which he was following, had posted an announcement.

The title and content of the announcement were very simple!
After detailed testing, it has been confirmed that the high-performance battery provided by Xiaomi Heavy Industry, named "Vulcan Explosion Battery," is genuine.

The operations department editors have formally apologized to Xiaomi Heavy Industry.

We will also release related test videos and reports later, so please stay tuned.

The moment Tony saw the announcement, he immediately started cursing:
"Nima!"

(End of this chapter)