249: Chapter 248 Failed Bid

At this moment, in an office building outside the Third Ring Road of Donghai City.

In a meeting room on the fourth floor, a man, around thirty years old, sat upright behind a coffee table, fiddling with the tea set in his hands.

Sitting opposite him was another young man of similar age, whose gold-rimmed glasses and designer suit accentuated his extraordinary temperament.

"It's been so long since we last met, and your tea-brewing skills still haven't improved."

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses said with a smile.

"It's not that easy to improve at this sort of thing." The man glanced at the person opposite him and said indifferently, "Besides, I don't have time to sit here drinking tea every day."

As he spoke, he handed over the teacup in his hand.

"Heh." The man with the gold-rimmed glasses chuckled, took the teacup, sipped it gracefully, then placed the cup on the table and asked, "What's wrong? Are you not used to being transferred here?"

"If I made you, Young Master Cao, deal with that bunch of guys every day, see if you'd get used to it."

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses shook his head with a smile. "I don't have your slick social skills, Young Master Ji. If you let me do it, I'd probably mess things up."

"It's good that you know."

The man surnamed Ji took a sip of tea and asked, "Tell me, what brings you here this time?"

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses shook his head slightly. "Nothing much. I was passing by, so I thought I'd drop in to see you."

As he spoke, he looked out the window at the busy scene of people coming and going in the factory and nodded slightly. "It looks like you're doing quite well."

"It's going smoothly enough." A trace of a smile appeared on the man surnamed Ji's lips. "With the Group's technical support, capturing the market is very simple."

His tone was flat, but the hint of pride in his words and the smile on his lips betrayed him.

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses smiled and shook his head. "Even with the Group's support, it takes real skill to build this kind of scale within two years. When you go back this time, you should be promoted to department vice president, right?"

Speaking of this, the pride on the man surnamed Ji's face became even more obvious. Just as he was about to say something, his phone rang.

The man surnamed Ji glanced at the man with the gold-rimmed glasses, left his seat, and answered the call.

A few minutes later, the man surnamed Ji returned and sat back down on the sofa, but his expression had become somewhat gloomy.

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses saw this and looked slightly surprised. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." The man surnamed Ji didn't seem to want to talk about this topic, so he changed the subject. "It must be a big deal to make you, Young Master Cao, fly all the way from Pengcheng to Donghai City? Can you tell me? I'm very curious."

"It really is nothing." The man with the gold-rimmed glasses said with a smile. "I was originally heading straight to Hanzhong City, and since Donghai City isn't far away, I stopped by to take a look."

"Going to Hanzhong City?" The man surnamed Ji asked in surprise. "There's no branch of the Group there, why are you going there?"

"To see my younger brother." The man with the gold-rimmed glasses smiled gently. "And by the way..."

"To meet someone."

Outside the venue.

A Middle-aged man put down his phone, looked at the test report in front of him, his expression changing several times, and finally threw it into the trash can.

He pressed his temples to calm himself down, then took out his phone and dialed a number.

"Chairman Luo, for the next test, I hope to have the people from Tiance handle it..."

"Don't worry, I've already arranged everything. You just need to provide test results within a reasonable range according to the previously submitted test report."

"After it's done, the remuneration we promised you... will be doubled."

Wang Shuo gently typed the last letter, straightened his back, and stretched comfortably.

"Zero."

"I'm here, sir."

"Check the code, execute the optimization, and replace it if there are no errors."

"Very well, sir. Estimated time is three minutes."

Wang Shuo looked at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen; it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

"Lin Junfeng and the others must have gone to attend the bidding meeting by now."

With this thought in mind, Wang Shuo temporarily extinguished the idea of making a phone call. He stood up, picked up his teacup, walked to the window, and stared blankly at the scenery outside.

The corridor and garden, which were originally shaded by lush green trees, now appeared somewhat bleak because the trees were bare.

Wang Shuo suddenly thought of Ning Hao's face.

With blood at the corners of his mouth and an expression filled with distortion and madness, Wang Shuo always felt something wasn't quite right.

And Ning Hao's hysterical words.

Chen Zhongxuan is in danger?

Wang Shuo frowned and pondered.

Chen Zhongxuan is the helmsman of the Chen Group; what kind of danger could he be in?

This question could be asked in another way, which is, what kind of danger could threaten Chen Zhongxuan?

Just the Cheng Brothers alone are ruthless characters from special forces.

The two bodyguards from the last time they captured the brain-dead trio even accomplished things that professional criminal police couldn't, so their combat effectiveness probably isn't bad either.

With these people protecting Chen Zhongxuan, Wang Shuo couldn't think of any danger that could involve him.

Not to mention, this is still within China. Although it can't prevent things like the homemade, defective pistols from last time, large-caliber rifles and other heavy firearms are completely out of the question.

As for wanting to blow someone's head off from a thousand meters away with a sniper rifle, only the military and police could try something like that.

"Although that's what I say, Ning Hao definitely knows something. Perhaps that organization has issued another kind of assassination order."

Wang Shuo shook his head.

This organization doesn't show its face often, but every time it does, nothing good happens.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Wang Shuo returned to the sofa and said, "Zero."

"Contact Uncle Chen."

Soon, Chen Zhongxuan's dignified face appeared on the TV screen in front of Wang Shuo.

"Wang Shuo?"

Chen Zhongxuan seemed a bit surprised. "You kid don't often call me. Speak, what's wrong with that girl Chen Xin again?"

Why is the first person you care about that girl Chen Xin?

Wang Shuo said speechlessly, "Can't it be that I have something to ask Uncle Chen about?"

"You?" Chen Zhongxuan glanced at Wang Shuo, seemingly with some disdain. "If you're looking for me, it's never anything good. Last time, it was you kid showing off the Mark I System in my factory, right? Do you know how much trouble that caused me?"

"Is that so?"

Wang Shuo looked at his nose and focused on his heart, saying, "Regarding this matter... I do have some responsibility, but Uncle Chen, dare you say you aren't tempted by the Mark I System?"

"I couldn't care less!"

Chen Zhongxuan swore directly, completely subverting Wang Shuo's usual impression of him.

Seeming to feel that he had lost his composure, Chen Zhongxuan coughed twice to cover up his emotions.

Hmm... This habit of losing his temper at younger relatives needs to be changed, and changed immediately. Otherwise, who knows what that brat Wang Shuo might think? He absolutely cannot allow the image he worked so hard to build to collapse just like that.

"Let me tell you, Wang Shuo, if you have any sense of gratitude, shouldn't you provide the Mark I System and such to me for free? And that damn permission thing, shouldn't that be removed too?"

Wang Shuo spread his hands, looking somewhat innocent.

"Uncle Chen, didn't you tell me that favors are favors and business is business? You even told me that you hate people who mix favors and business together."

"Uh..."

Chen Zhongxuan almost couldn't catch his breath. He glared at Wang Shuo, then deflated and said, "It's all that brat's fault for favoring outsiders; otherwise, how could I be so passive."

"It's fine to do it your way, but explain to me, what's the deal with that so-called next-generation Machining Center that claims to have an accuracy of 0.005 mm?"

Wang Shuo looked even more innocent.

"Uncle Chen, you can't blame me for this. I gave this to you a long time ago, wanting to trade it for a few Machining Centers. It was you who didn't believe me and insisted on making me pay. I paid for the Machining Centers, so giving you the design blueprints again doesn't make sense, right?"

"This doesn't seem to align with what you taught me about favors being favors and business being..."

"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!"

Chen Zhongxuan hurriedly stopped Wang Shuo. The theory he had taught Wang Shuo had now become his own binding rope. It hadn't set any hurdles for Wang Shuo, but instead, it had set quite a few for himself.

Looking at Wang Shuo acting innocent in front of the screen, Chen Zhongxuan only felt a headache.

That damn Chen Yuqiong.

Cursing inwardly, Chen Zhongxuan's expression softened a little, and he said earnestly, "Wang Shuo, you are still young. I don't think you should be so petty about these trivial details."

"I think so too. There are plenty of opportunities to make money; how could I keep milking you, Uncle Chen?"

Chen Zhongxuan's face twitched. Although that was indeed what he meant, couldn't you use a nicer way to say it?

"How about this, Uncle Chen." Wang Shuo seemed to have made a great decision. "Why don't you come to Hanzhong City in person? If you come yourself, I'll give you a 30% discount for your sake."

Chen Zhongxuan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.

His arrangements in Beijing were almost complete. If he went to Hanzhong City now, who would manage the affairs in Beijing?

"40% discount." Wang Shuo said, "If you come in person, I'll give you a 40% discount, plus my special service."

"Heh, I know what you're thinking. You want to make me lose face in front of Chen Xin? No way."

Chen Zhongxuan sneered.

"You saw right through me." Wang Shuo showed a shy smile and brought out his trump card. "Uncle Chen, if you come, I will give you another type of Machining Center, guaranteed to reach an accuracy of 0.003 mm. How about that?"

Chen Zhongxuan stood up suddenly and looked at Wang Shuo on the other side of the screen.

"Are you serious?"

"When have I ever boasted?" Wang Shuo chuckled. "Uncle Chen, think it over. If you're coming, I'll wait for you at the airport tomorrow."

After saying this, without caring what Chen Zhongxuan said, he hung up the call directly.

The two had been talking for so long and said so much, most of it was an act. If Chen Zhongxuan were replaced by a woman, it would be almost like flirting.

From the conversation, Chen Zhongxuan knew that Wang Shuo had something that required him to come to Hanzhong in person, and Wang Shuo also saw that Chen Zhongxuan had things to do and couldn't leave Beijing immediately.

Therefore, Wang Shuo added chips for Chen Zhongxuan.

A high-precision Machining Center with an accuracy of 0.003 mm, plus the full-permission version of the Mark I System, was enough to make Chen Zhongxuan drop everything and come to Hanzhong.

Hanzhong City is currently the safest place Wang Shuo can think of. Although the coverage of the Sky Eye is currently limited to a few urban areas, and most cameras' pixels and performance are seriously substandard, this doesn't prevent Wang Shuo from feeling it's safe.

"Must speed up the fulfillment of the contract with the Hanzhong City Police Department."

First, build Hanzhong City into the fortress of his dreams, so he can feel more confident in stretching his legs.

To fulfill the contract with the Police Station, it means needing to invest a large amount of capital again, which is like adding frost to snow for Wang Shuo, who currently only has 150 million on the books.

He seems to have to find a way to get some cash flow back.

Wang Shuo sighed a little. Things were happening one after another. Sometimes he felt his time was so insufficient that he wished he could cut himself in half.

Just as he was thinking about how to paint a big picture to get cash flow, the phone rang.

Wang Shuo took a look and then pressed connect.

"Boss."

Lin Junfeng's voice carried a hint of unwillingness.

"We... lost the bid."