Love in the Courtyard: Starting with Engineers

A few days later in New York, in the Western Communications Alliance's production workshop, the robotic arms suddenly stopped working all at once.

The production manager, holding a walkie-talkie, shouted, "What's going on? The core chip supplier has suddenly cut off supplies, saying that raw material prices have skyrocketed. They're demanding either triple the price or cancel the order!"

The news spread like wildfire, plunging the R&D center and management offices into chaos.

Alexander had just seen off the new management team sent by old Rockefeller when this news poured cold water on his enthusiasm.

He stormed into the purchasing department, grabbed the phone, and dialed the supplier's number. As soon as the call connected, he yelled, "How dare you cut off our supply? Our contract hasn't expired yet!"

The person on the other end of the phone said calmly, "Mr. Alexander, I'm sorry."

"Recently, there has been a global shortage of core chip raw materials, and prices have doubled, forcing us to adjust our prices."

"Either we pay the new price, or we can only prioritize supplying other customers."

"Three times the price?!"

"This is extortion!"

"Say whatever you want, it's the law of the market." After saying that, the other party hung up the phone.

Then, more bad news came in.

Suppliers of waterproof coatings for base station casings and manufacturers of components for signal transmitters have all sent "price increase notices," with the lowest increase reaching 150%.

Some manufacturers even announced a "suspension of cooperation." The supply chain was like being strangled, breaking down instantly.

Alexander slumped into his chair, his back soaked with cold sweat.

He only felt that it was due to sudden market changes and suppliers being greedy and unscrupulous.

They didn't even consider Long Teng and Li Yu, since Zhou Qiming's team was still "diligently" debugging the technology at the R&D center.

Those few recruited technicians were reporting on Longteng's internal activities every day.

"It must be a coincidence! We're just unlucky!" Alexander muttered to himself.

At that moment, the assistant pushed open the door and came to Alexander's side, saying, "Mr. Alexander, the new management has requested an immediate emergency meeting to discuss the supply chain crisis."

In the conference room, the representative sent by Rockefeller Sr. looked grave: "This is by no means a simple market fluctuation; someone is deliberately trying to contain us."

"Immediately investigate the flow of funds behind these suppliers to see if there is any other capital manipulating things behind the scenes!"

The investigation order was issued, but the results that came back quickly brought a sigh of relief to everyone.

All the price adjustments by suppliers point to the mining disaster in the raw material production areas.

The reasons given, such as soaring international logistics costs, are irrefutable, and no trace of funds related to Longteng or China can be found.

The representative, looking at the report in his hand, said, "It seems we were overthinking it. We just happened to be caught in a wave of global supply chain turmoil."

Alexander also breathed a sigh of relief, his heart finally settling back into his stomach.

"I told you! It must be a coincidence! The most urgent thing now is to find an alternative supplier; we can't let the production line stay down!"

Meanwhile, in the study at Rockefeller Estate, the elder Rockefeller was reviewing the base station investigation report submitted by the technical team.

His expression grew increasingly grim. The report revealed that a microchip was embedded in the core control module of all base stations.

It may look like an ordinary signal booster, but it can actually transmit data in real time and has remote control capabilities.

"A bunch of useless trash!" Old Rockefeller slammed the report on the table.

"How come you only just discovered such an obvious backdoor now!"

The technical supervisor, who had been called over, lowered his head and dared not utter a sound: "We have tried to remove these chips, but we found that the chips are deeply bonded to the base station motherboard, and forcibly removing them would render the base station completely unusable."

"Moreover, these chips have a self-destruct program that will delete all data once abnormal operation is detected."

"What's even more troublesome is that the chip's technical origins show that it came from a small European company and has no connection with Longteng."

Rockefeller's brow furrowed even more deeply.

Small European companies?

"Contact the White House immediately and have them use national security resources to crack the control programs of these chips."

"Also, keep a close eye on Zhou Qiming's team and those technicians, and make sure they don't make any mistakes."

"Right now, we still need to rely on their technology to solve the base station problem."

Meanwhile, at Longxing Factory in Beijing, Li Yu was receiving a report from Lou Zhenhua: "Chief Engineer Li, all suppliers' plans to cut off supplies and raise prices have been implemented, and all traces have been cleaned up."

"The Western telecommunications alliance just considers it a market disturbance."

"News also came back from Zhou Qiming's side that not only did old Rockefeller not suspect them, but he also valued them even more."

"very good."

"That's exactly the effect we wanted. If they can't figure out who's behind it all, they won't dare to act rashly, and only then will our people be safe."

"Their funds are almost exhausted. Now the production line is shut down, research and development cannot proceed, and the operators' default penalties are about to expire," Lou Zhenhua added.

"Furthermore, Rockefeller Sr. has discovered the backdoor chip in the base station and is contacting the White House to crack it."

"Crack?"

Li Yu sneered and said, "The encryption system of that chip uses our latest quantum encryption technology."

"Even the White House's technical team cannot crack it in the short term."

"Furthermore, if they attempt to crack it, I will activate the self-destruct program to completely cripple their communication network."

Li Huaide, standing to the side, said with a smile, "Brother Li, that was a brilliant move!"

"They cut off their supply chain, didn't expose themselves, and allowed Zhou Qiming and his team to continue operating there—it's a triple win!"

Li Yu shook his head: "We cannot let our guard down."

"Moreover, we suffered significant losses this time. In order to reach agreements with certain suppliers, we will have to get our goods from them for a long time. However, we also need to quickly build up our own supply chain."

He then picked up his phone and dialed Zhou Qiming's encrypted number: "Qiming, find a way to get those recruited technicians to provide Alexander with a fake list of alternative suppliers."

"The manufacturers on the list are all shell companies we control, so we can make them jump into the pit again in their desperation. Remember, do it discreetly and don't leave any loopholes."

Zhou Qiming readily agreed, "Understood!"

After hanging up the phone, Li Yu checked the time, stood up, and said, "I'll leave this to you. I need to go pick up Nannan from school."

At the entrance of the Longxing Factory Children's School, Li Yu had just parked his car when he saw Nannan carrying a schoolbag, holding a little boy's hand, and walking quickly toward him.

Li Yu's face turned dark instantly upon seeing this.