220: What happened in Chapter 219?

Monday, December 17, 2018.

The winter sun had just crawled over the horizon, and the streets were already jammed with traffic.

Ju Dongke looked at the dense traffic outside the car window, his expression somewhat gloomy.

In order to avoid the morning rush hour, he had specifically asked the driver to choose a less traveled route, but he hadn't expected to be stuck on the road anyway.

The driver, possessing the simple enthusiasm of a Hanzhong City native, looked at the long line of red taillights and said with a cheerful laugh, "Little brother, don't be impatient. At this time, no matter which road you choose, it's useless. Even the expressway will be jammed."

"However, I guarantee you'll be able to board your flight on time."

Board the flight on time?

Looking at the traffic outside the window, Ju Dongke expressed doubt.

But he didn't refute the driver's words; after all, when it came to driving and knowing the routes, the man was the professional.

After thanking him, Ju Dongke took out his phone, opened a webpage, skillfully entered the URL, and then saw that familiar string of numbers.

13 days 17 hours 45 minutes 39 seconds.

These 39 seconds quickly turned into 38 seconds, then 37 seconds, 36 seconds...

This was a countdown, a countdown to when he would receive his zero egg.

For the past two days, Ju Dongke had opened the page almost every time he had a free moment, watching this countdown tick away, second by second.

But what made him somewhat desperate was that two days had passed, and the countdown progress bar hadn't changed much at all; it was still just that tiny length, growing as slowly as a snail.

Since when had fifteen days become so long?

In normal times, this was just the amount of time he would spend going out to collect material.

But now, this long wait made him feel somewhat anxious.

How many years had it been since he had felt this way?

Even when buying things he loved online, he would just quietly wait for them to be delivered to his door.

Thinking that it would be another thirteen days before he could possess zero egg again, Ju Dongke took a deep breath, suppressed the restlessness in his heart, and continued scrolling down the page.

This section displayed the comments from the vast number of silly netizens.

It had to be said that sometimes when there are many people, there really are all kinds of silly people, and they really dare to say any silly thing without any regard for their reputation.

But this was understandable; after all, in the minds of these silly people, they all thought: What does the silly talk of a netizen have to do with me, a good youth in reality?

What? You say I did it? Who saw it? Who can testify?

That was pretty much it.

Ju Dongke scrolled slowly, reading carefully.

The more he read, the more emotional he became.

Casually opening a document on his phone, Ju Dongke began to write the next article he was about to publish:

"...Frontier Technology Co., Ltd., this obscure little tech company, after this battle, has truly established a foothold in the Chinese tech circle.

It released zero egg, and in the current market, it has almost no competitors; no, not almost, there are simply none.

This is the judgment of a veteran who has been exploring the tech circle for many years.

Not to mention the most stunning Artificial Intelligence part, even the zero egg itself is enough to make a host of so-called big tech companies feel ashamed.

Whether in terms of design or manufacturing, the zero egg itself has almost applied humanity's existing industrial design and capabilities to the extreme.

If you are lucky enough to get a spot in the first batch of purchases, then you will be able to personally experience this extreme in the near future.

Let us hope together that Frontier Technology Company can deliver on time; after all, the waiting time is simply too agonizing."

Having written a good half-page, Ju Dongke was just about to write a few more words while the inspiration was flowing, when the car suddenly shook slightly. He looked up slightly and happened to see the driver stuffing his cigarette butt into the ashtray and exhaling a cloud of smoke.

"Little brother, sit tight, I might have to drive a little faster."

Ju Dongke looked at the road ahead, still a sea of red, and couldn't help but wonder, where could he drive?

His confusion soon vanished. When the red taillights began to move, taking advantage of a gap in the traffic ahead, a blue bus cut in from the rear right of their vehicle.

"Hey, here we go."

The driver chuckled, shifted gears skillfully, stepped on the gas, and began to follow the bus closely.

The bus in front overtook and changed lanes left and right, and the driver behind followed suit, overtaking and changing lanes. For a while, they were moving surprisingly fast, and the jammed road felt like a smooth thoroughfare.

Seeming to notice his confusion, the driver was in the mood to explain while driving.

"Little brother is from out of town and doesn't know the ropes here." The driver smiled and said, "In Hanzhong City, us taxi drivers aren't the fastest; the fastest are those driving buses. And that bus in front is driven by a buddy of mine. He's been driving a bus in Hanzhong for twenty years; this little traffic jam is nothing to him."

Ju Dongke looked at the airport shuttle bus weaving flexibly in front and was deeply shocked. This time, it was the Hanzhong City bus driver who brought him this shock.

Just as he was being shaken up and was about to say something, his phone vibrated slightly.

Ju Dongke looked down and was instantly stunned.

...

"This Frontier Technology Company, they really know how to cause trouble."

In an office building somewhere in the downtown area of Donghai City.

A young man complained to his colleague beside him, "The key is that they also made a mess of things."

"I don't think so." The colleague next to him, a slightly older man, probably in his thirties, smiled upon hearing this and said, "The fact that they can get Artificial Intelligence trending on hot searches is a skill in itself."

"Psh." The young man said disdainfully, "It's just a marketing gimmick using consumers' herd mentality. How is this any different from a pyramid scheme? They're all using high-sounding concepts to brainwash consumers."

"That's really not the case." The colleague said with a serious expression, "I've checked the articles and videos online, and even watched the recording of the press conference. This doesn't look like something from a PowerPoint presentation."

"I'll only believe them when they actually bring out the product. As for now? Forget it. My Xiao Ai at home works just fine." The young man pointed at the computer screen, "What I need to consider now is how to clean up the mess they've made. No matter how nice you make it sound, it doesn't stop the shareholders from not buying it. Look, the Artificial Intelligence sector has crashed like this."

This was indeed a problem.

The colleague frowned and pondered.

This was already the second major drop in Artificial Intelligence concept stocks since yesterday. If it continued to fall like this, it would very likely hit the daily limit down tomorrow.

And for their company, this was definitely a huge loss.

Not to mention that their company itself held some shares, the business of those big clients was also related to stocks. If the stocks fell, they couldn't avoid the risk. If the losses were too great, they would have to bear the responsibility.

And this would be counted as company losses, which were closely related to their own salaries and bonuses.

Thinking of this, he couldn't be happy either.

While he was pondering, the young man next to him suddenly blurted out a curse.

"Holy crap."

The colleague looked up upon hearing this: "What's wrong?"

The young man hurriedly waved his hand, his expression exaggerated: "Come here, come here, I just swiped it. This is huge news."

The colleague was confused, but the young man's expression was exaggerated and very attractive, so he threw down his documents, ran to the young man's side, and looked at his phone screen.

Just one look, and he was stunned.

This... what is going on?