At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

After seeing Cao Weidong off, Li Xiao returned to his office alone and read the land pre-approval opinion again.

A hundred acres of land may not seem like much on the map of Jiangyang High-tech Zone, but for a new company that hasn't even been officially registered yet, it's a large enough canvas.

Right now, however, not a single stroke has been actually made on this canvas.

Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing is, so far, just a concept.

Although Peng Yue's team had agreed to come, the people who came were production line workers, not product developers.

Although Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing differs from Xinglan Technology by only two characters, it is a separate company.

There is no equity relationship between it and Xinglan Technology; they are only linked together through layers of technical service agreements.

Sun Zaiquan had already advised Li Xiao that "intelligent manufacturing and technology must be completely separated from each other in law," because intelligent manufacturing will involve risks that are completely different from those of software companies, such as hardware supply chains, production safety, industrial environmental impact assessments, and equipment loans.

Li Xiao agreed, and the company's legal department is also setting up according to this structure. In other words, no matter how big Xinglan Technology becomes, Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing must develop its own capabilities.

During this period, many locals in Jiangyang were talking about it behind their backs.

Some of the comments reached Zheng Hao's ears and then reached Li Xiao, who said that the Li family must have been out of their minds to set up a robot factory in Jiangyang without even considering whether the area had the necessary industrial foundation.

Some people were even more direct, saying that Li Xiao had just gained a foothold in the software field, and was too eager to jump into hardware, which would inevitably lead to his downfall. Li Xiao just laughed when he heard this.

Even Zhou Yanhuai once asked him, "Brother Xiao, why robots? Xinglan Technology's current strengths lie in NLP and data services. If you go further, whether it's building an enterprise service ecosystem or a human resource digitization platform, you're already on your own track. Why do you have to ditch into mechanical engineering?"

Li Xiao did not answer directly at the time.

He poured Zhou Yanhuai a cup of tea and asked in return, "What do you think is the biggest ceiling for Xinglan Technology's NLP endeavors?"

Zhou Yanhuai said, "Our clients are mainly enterprises with strong stickiness, but growth requires us to tackle each industry one by one, and our data sources are limited to the vertical scenario of human resources."

Li Xiao said, "So it's like having only one leg. You can't reach the top with only one leg. Xinglan Technology can develop data analysis and scheduling capabilities, but for the data to be implemented in the physical world, there must be a machine to execute it for you. Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing is to be that executor. You say they are two different tracks? In my opinion, it's a closed loop."

After listening, Zhou Yanhuai thought for a long time before saying, "I understand. You're not crossing over into a new field; you're moving down to the bottom. Data is the brain, and robots are the hands and feet. Without hands and feet, no matter how smart you are, you can only produce reports."

Li Xiao nodded.

He never intended to build a robot, but rather to extend the reach of his data business into the physical world.

Starbee is just the first finger on these hands.

In the future, this chain can be extended further down to include intelligent manufacturing, logistics automation, and unmanned warehouse transformation.

Whoever controls the execution layer controls the downstream of the industry chain. Xinglan Technology has already achieved 200,000 concurrent connections in its cloud scheduling algorithm. What it lacks has never been software, but rather the ability to "grow bones" in its software.

Li Xiao had never mentioned this idea in public.

He was only willing to lay out the complete logic when dealing with core members he truly trusted, such as Zhou Yanhuai and Chen Qiming.

To the outside world, Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing was still just a preparatory project that had just signed a land agreement; the company sign hadn't even been put up yet. To ensure Xingfeng's smoother path forward, Li Xiao deliberately refrained from any external publicity at this stage. He knew that only once Xingfeng's prototype was truly operational would all the doubts naturally disappear.

Before Li Xiao returned to Jiangyang some time before the Lunar New Year, Chen Qiming sent him a message saying that Zhao Ming asked him, "Are you really going to do Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing? That's the manufacturing industry."

Zhao Ming's concerns were very practical—manufacturing, unlike software, requires large investments, has long cycles, and suffers from shortages of local support, supply chains, and skilled workers. Li Xiao replied at the time:

"We do it, but not with a manufacturing mindset. StarBee's core is in scheduling, not tightening screws. Peng Yue handles the screw-tightening, but we handle the scheduling. That's our barrier to entry."

Chen Qiming later relayed this sentence verbatim to Zhao Ming at an internal meeting.

Zhao Ming didn't ask any more questions. He simply retrieved the motion control algorithm he had previously worked with Lu Yuan from the database and began figuring out how to integrate Xinglan's scheduling genes with Lu Yuan's chassis control. Once things loosened up on Luo Tiangong's side, he would put this piece of the puzzle into place.

Sun Zaiquan and his team were running around handling the land acquisition procedures for Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing.

After the red line map was completed, Li Xiao asked Lao Lin to arrange for people to put up a fence around the boundary of the plot.

The corrugated iron fence hummed softly in the winter wind, like a melody without lyrics. Passersby could only see that it was empty inside, with nothing at all.

Only Li Xiao knew that what was brewing inside that fence was much bigger than outsiders thought.

While handling other related matters, Sun Zaiquan was also negotiating with the county's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau on targeted training of skilled workers, coordinating with the park management committee on temporary water and electricity for the factory, and negotiating payment terms with several suppliers for electric drives and sheet metal parts.

Xinglan Technology set up a separate team to create the first version of the bill of materials and cost model for Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing.

Each task may seem small, but when piled up, they form a schedule that determines whether Starbee can get things moving on time.

Li Xiao hadn't looked at the materials list sent by Chen Qiming in great detail, but he knew that Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing was currently just a shell company. The registration process was still in progress, the official seal hadn't been made, the account hadn't been opened, and the fences around the factory site had only been put up last month.

Starbee hasn't even finalized its outer shell drawings, let alone produced a prototype.

But there are advantages to having a shell.

Once the shell is firmly established, the outside wind cannot blow away the fire inside.

Everything seemed to be still in the most primitive paper stage, even to the point of being rudimentary and shabby.

But in Li Xiao's eyes, this was never an obstacle.

The framework of heavy industrial manufacturing is built up inch by inch with steel bars, cement, and code; it cannot be rushed or panicked. What he wants is not a hastily assembled exhibit to attract attention, but a set of industrial standards that can withstand the rigorous testing of tens of thousands of units, from the capillaries of the supply chain to the underlying closed-loop control.

Li Xiao casually signed his name on the last page of the bill of materials, closed the folder, and pushed it aside.

Outside the window, the north wind swirled a few snowflakes, which pelted against the glass with a crisp, delicate sound.

In the distance, within the corrugated iron fence, the dormant frozen land appeared exceptionally deep in the twilight.

Official seals can be carved slowly, and blueprints can be repeatedly polished, but the very structure of this land has already begun to grow rapidly amidst the wind and snow.

All that remains is the thunder of spring, and all the silence and forbearance will transform into a steel torrent that tears apart the old order.