When I went home for Chinese New Year, I spent a million times more money on my foreign wife.

Frontline, temporary camp of the 9th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Northern Theater Command.

A military truck was parked on an open ground behind a trench, with its rear door down, revealing neatly stacked cardboard boxes.

The soldiers gathered around and began unpacking the crates.

The first cardboard box was opened, and inside was foam padding with a small gray quadcopter embedded in the middle. It was about the size of a palm, with a plastic shell and a camera hanging from the bottom.

"What is this thing?"

A bearded sergeant picked up the drone, flipped it over to look at the bottom, and flicked the plastic wings.

"A drone. Made in China. My wife bought one online as a birthday present for my son, exactly the same."

Several soldiers nearby burst into laughter.

"Is headquarters sending us toys?"

"We need artillery shells, why are you sending us this junk?"

The bearded sergeant raised the drone high and waved it in the sunlight.

"It weighs 300 grams; a strong wind would blow it away. What can you do with it? Take a picture of it and send it back to the other side?"

The laughter grew even louder.

A black SUV drove into the camp. Ivan got out of the vehicle, followed by two technicians from Black Kite Defense.

He walked to the truck and saw open cardboard boxes scattered all over the ground and soldiers with grinning faces.

"Who's in this brigade?"

The bearded sergeant stopped laughing and stood at attention.

"Sergeant Mikhail, 3rd Battalion, 9th Mechanized Infantry Brigade."

"Mikhail, you think this thing is useless?"

"The report is too small. What we need is—"

"Shut up," Ivan interrupted him. "Bring one out and show me how it flies."

Mikhail took a drone and a remote control out of the box. The remote control was not much bigger than a mobile phone, with two joysticks and three buttons.

"How do I open it?"

The Black Kite technician walked over and pressed the power button on the top of the remote control. The four rotors started spinning, and the drone rose from Mikhail's palm, hovering two meters above the ground.

"The left stick controls altitude and direction, the right stick controls forward and backward movement. The red button in the middle is for returning to home."

Mikhail pushed the joystick. The drone flew forward, much faster than he had expected. High-definition images were transmitted back to the screen in real time—trenches, sandbags, and distant tree lines were all clearly visible.

"Fly over to that grove of trees over there and take a look," Ivan said.

Mikhail raised the drone to a height of fifty meters and flew it toward the treeline two kilometers ahead.

Thirty seconds later, an image appeared on the screen.

Six armored vehicles, covered with camouflage netting, were hidden in the woods. Ammunition boxes were piled up in a nearby ditch, and at least twenty soldiers were moving around.

Mikhail stopped.

The laughter in the camp was gone.

Everyone was staring at that small screen.

"This is... the enemy's forward position?"

"It's less than two kilometers from us, hidden behind the tree line, out of the artillery observation post's sights," Ivan said. "Your company commander sent a reconnaissance platoon to scout this area three days ago; how many returned?"

Mikhail remained silent.

"Two. Two came back. The other six are gone." Ivan patted him on the shoulder. "A 300-gram plastic toy did the work that eight people couldn't in thirty seconds. Still think it's useless?"

Mikhail gripped the remote control and lowered his head.

"Listen up now." Ivan turned to all the soldiers. "Take out your homemade explosives and attach them to this thing. One explosive per drone, fly over their heads and let go. Whoever blows up a target first will get a personal reward of 100,000 rubles."

-

Forty minutes later.

Mikhail crouched in the trench, with five drones in front of him, each with a homemade RGD grenade taped to its bottom.

He piloted the first aircraft into the air.

The drone flew close to the ground, at a height of no more than ten meters, passing through dry grass, skimming over craters, and approaching the treeline.

The radar station on the other side did not react at all.

A 300-gram plastic airplane has a radar cross-section smaller than a sparrow.

The drone flew directly above the armored vehicle, at a height of twenty meters.

Mikhail pressed the release button.

The grenade fell off.

Two seconds later, the sunroof on the top of the armored vehicle was blown open. Flames shot out from inside the vehicle, igniting the ammunition boxes next to it.

Psychotic explosion.

The chain reaction ignited the entire ammunition pile. All six armored vehicles were destroyed within thirty seconds. Soldiers in the woods scattered and fled, unable to pinpoint the direction from which the attack had come.

Because the small gray plane overhead had already flown back.

Mikhail then piloted the remaining four drones into the air in sequence to clear out the remaining targets one by one.

Fifteen minutes.

The bunker complex on the other side, which housed an entire combined arms battalion, is gone.

-

The battle report spread throughout the entire Northern Theater Command within four hours.

"A Chinese-made drone, armed with grenades, blew up an entire combined arms battalion on the other side."

"What brand?"

"The box is printed with 'Xiaojiang'."

The phone lines of Ivan were overwhelmed with calls from brigade commanders.

"Mr. Ivan, I need five thousand."

"I need 10,000 of them, and I need them tomorrow!"

"Could it be modified to mount anti-tank mines?"

Ivan transferred the call to the Black Kite dispatch supervisor at the factory in the eastern suburbs of Mo City.

The factory's three production lines operate 24 hours a day, producing 10,000 aircraft daily.

The production schedule was filled up for the next three months within two hours.

-

Ice City, Snow Palace International Global Center, top floor.

Chen Yue's desk was piled high with order faxes from the Mo City factory, exceeding the capacity of her desktop file rack.

She picked up the phone and called Chen Yang.

"Brother, the orders at the Mo City factory are booked until the year after next. The factory's capacity can't keep up. Shouldn't the domestic production lines of Yizhou Technology and Yunque Intelligent Manufacturing also be activated?"

"Start the process. Proceed with the export permits the same way as last time. Also, have Longxiang Motors set aside a production line specifically for producing lithium batteries for drones."

"I've asked the chief engineer of Yun Que to send over the battery model number. There's one more thing—Tianying Aviation asked if we should register the DJI brand as an international trademark."

"Register. Register in all 193 countries worldwide, including Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa."

"clear."

Chen Yue hung up the phone, picked up the latest financial statement from the table, and glanced at it. The drone segment's profit figure for last month was followed by a long string of zeros. She closed the statement and started dialing Tianying Airlines' number.

-

Mo City, 1 Tver Street, manor.

Chen Yang lay on the sofa in the living room, his phone resting on his chest.

The screen displayed a Swiss bank's encrypted interface, and DJI's global sales data for its drones was updated every five minutes. The numbers kept jumping upwards.

Katyusha came downstairs and saw him lying on the sofa staring at his phone.

"What are you looking at now?"

"How much money did your factory make?"

"How many?"

Chen Yang handed her the phone.

Katyusha glanced at the screen and handed the phone back to him.

"I casually mentioned wanting a reconnaissance aircraft, and you built a factory. Whose money is that?"

"It's yours. The factory is in your name, the patents are in your name, and the profits are deposited into your Swiss account."

"I do not want."

"Then I'll donate it."

"To whom should it be donated?"

"Your foundation. Used to buy bulletproof vests for the front lines."

Katyusha took the phone from his hand and put it on the coffee table.

"Come with me to that winery this afternoon. The French owner said last time that the Pinot Noir has just been opened this season."

Chen Yang sat up from the sofa.

"Lei Zi, let's go."

A response came from outside the door.

"Boss, the car is already at the door."

Chen Yang picked up the car keys from the coffee table and walked out with Katyusha. He left his phone on the sofa, its screen still lit.

Sales figures jumped another notch.