"Wait, what do your expressions mean?"
After Guo Yi's self-infatuated moment, he suddenly noticed the others wearing expressions that looked like they wanted to laugh but didn't dare.
It was exceptionally awkward!
"Didn't you think of anything?"
"What else is there?" Guo Yi wore a questioning look, then looked at Elder Zhou in terror: "You aren't going to tax this too, are you?"
"That, no. You're tax-exempt."
Gao Linlin shook her head and continued, "No, you still haven't figured it out?"
???
Guo Yi thought about it again, completely unable to think of anything related to him.
Then, he said indifferently, "Whatever, I don't want to rack my brain.
As long as I'm given the money, everything else is fine."
"It's a good thing you never started a company!" Gao Linlin looked at Guo Yi and sighed helplessly: "Do you even know where the bulk of the money is?"
"What bulk?
This time the family takes the fame, I take the money. What else is there?"
"..."
At this point, everyone finally couldn't help themselves and burst into laughter.
"How much are the ones sold actually worth?"
Gao Linlin looked at Guo Yi speechlessly and bluntly complained: "We only offer a one-year warranty, isn't subsequent maintenance money?
And what about selling the materials, isn't that money too?
What about the electricity costs?
Aren't you even going to consider this money?"
Following Gao Linlin's words, Guo Yi's mouth opened wider and wider, and then he stared fiercely at Elder Zhou, his eyes burning red with tears practically about to burst out: "Elder Zhou, what about the money from those areas?"
Elder Zhou picked up his teacup and said faintly, "You were the one who said back then that you only wanted the net profit from what was sold.
You didn't say you wanted the rest of the money~"
With that, Elder Zhou took a sip of tea and continued twisting the knife: "I originally wanted to mention it, but you interrupted me yourself.
It has nothing to do with me!"
"Ah~~~"
Guo Yi frantically rubbed his hair: The money had been snatched away!
Exoskeleton charging cost around 100 per unit per day.
And how many units did the family have?
Not to mention the materials for the Exoskeleton Armor, which could be used in other places!
In the absence of materials with the same price and attributes, they were harvesting the money of the entire world!
Either of these two areas would yield a higher profit than the net profit earned from selling the armors!
For Guo Yi, who was short on money, this was simply the rhythm of having flesh carved off with a knife.
"Can I take it back?"
"Hoo, this tea is good. It really lives up to its special-supply status!"
"..."
Guo Yi huffily turned his head away, wearing a displeased expression as he secretly sulked.
"Haha, alright, I won't tease you anymore." Seeing Guo Yi's expression, everyone chuckled: "It's already been negotiated for you. The electricity costs are hard to calculate here, so the family plans to secretly build five large, super advanced deuterium core power plants.
Once those five power plants recover their costs, all the remaining electricity revenue will be yours.
As for the net profit from the materials, it'll be a three-seven split, with you getting seven!"
Guo Yi looked at Elder Zhou in pleasant surprise: "Really?"
"Nonsense, the family knows you're having a hard time too." Elder Zhou looked at Guo Yi's incredulous expression and said irritably: "Do you really think the family is that stingy?
If it weren't for considerations like keeping a low profile and the public disclosure of economic mobilizations, believe it or not, trillions could be mobilized for you within a day."
With that, Elder Zhou sighed: "The family wants to fully support you too, but openly and on a large scale mobilizing the family's assets would make it very difficult to hide our existence.
That's why we squeezed and scraped together 50 billion for you without making any public announcements.
As for the rest, we can only stealthily launder it through various related enterprises first before we can mobilize it for you."
"..."
Guo Yi nodded: "As expected, the family really is the biggest money laundering organization..."
"...Scram!"
Time marched on, the opening speech of the military industry exhibition also concluded, and the exhibition officially began.
Meanwhile, in the family's exhibition area.
Those three mechs from earlier stood tall right in the very center of the exhibition zone.
In other places, there were various tools made of the same materials: tanks, armored vehicles, and so on.
Apart from the guides and the team led by Department Head Kang Jie, the entire space was temporarily devoid of a single person.
"Heh, it looks like everyone is still negotiating with their respective families.
Then I won't wait around, I have some matters to attend to back home."
Kang Jie looked at the empty exhibition area outside without a single outsider, smiled, and then stood up: "I'll leave things in the hands of you two from here on."
Cheng Xiaolong and Wang Kairui nodded simultaneously, standing up to see Elder Kang off: "It's only our duty, Elder Kang. You go ahead and be busy."
Not long after Elder Kang left, someone came knocking.
As expected, the Dog Tycoon, their sugar daddy, arrived with a translator in tow: "Director Cheng, long time no see!"
A middle-aged man wearing traditional Dog Tycoon attire entered the private reception room of the exhibition and enthusiastically greeted Cheng Xiaolong.
Cheng Xiaolong also enthusiastically stepped forward to shake his hand, and then asked, "Welcome, welcome, Prince Mela!"
"Come, sit, let's talk slowly.
Coffee as usual?
Two sugar cubes, no pure milk?"
Hearing Cheng Xiaolong's words, Prince Mela nodded happily: "Heh, as expected of Director Cheng, you still remember my little personal habit."
"Not at all, not at all, you are my benefactor!" Cheng Xiaolong smiled with narrowed eyes: "I still remember that it was you back then who purchased quite a few firecrackers from me, a mere salesman, allowing me to rise to this position."
"Not at all, not at all..."
The two men seated in the reception room chatted animatedly about this and that through the translator, acting just like old friends.
They simply didn't talk about business.
As time ticked on and more and more people gathered outside, Prince Mela could no longer hold back: "Director Cheng, I won't take up any more of your time.
I want to ask, how much would it cost for custom orders?"
"What are your requirements?"
Seeing that Prince Mela was no longer beating around the bush, Cheng Xiaolong also put away his smiling expression.
"What kind of modifications can you make?"
Prince Mela asked with narrowed eyes, acting as casual as could be: "Can engineering mechs and fire-fighting mechs be fitted with weapons?"
That's right, fitted with weapons.
What the family was selling were indeed civilian mechs, but that was just their classification.
Slap a Gatling gun on a civilian mech, and wasn't that an individual combat mech?
And damn it, it was a mech with super heavy firepower too!
Everyone understood this point in their hearts, but no one said it out loud.
Because the moment it was spoken, they would have to consider banning the transaction.
That way, everyone would lose, and only the family would be thrilled.
Because if they couldn't buy them, they couldn't dismantle them, and without dismantling them, they couldn't research them.
At the same time, they had no way of stopping the family from continuing deep-dive research.
Therefore, this was currently the best possible scenario.
The family sold these mechs under the guise of livelihood mechs, and everyone could trade them as livelihood mechs.
You're good, I'm good, everybody's good.
As for the future, it would depend on whose scientific research was stronger.
As for the Dog Tycoon buying them back to slap a Gatling gun on them or something, no one could stop that.
After all, kitchen knives could hack people to death, and the Dongfeng Express was a defensive weapon after all...
"This..."
Of course, modifications were entirely possible, but sometimes you had to manufacture difficulties even when there were none!
So Cheng Xiaolong furrowed his brows deeply, hesitating for a long time without saying whether it was allowed or not.
Prince Mela understood what Cheng Xiaolong was driving at, so he said directly, "All mech weapons will be purchased from you, ammunition as well.
Shipping costs and the like, we will cover ourselves!"
Hearing this, Cheng Xiaolong's tightly furrowed brows instantly unfurled, and he said with an enthusiastic smile: "While this is a bit difficult, I believe our family's technological researchers should be able to modify them to your satisfaction. It's just that the labor..."
"We'll cover all costs!"
"Quantity?"
"Ten thousand modified mechs for now—five thousand fire-fighting mechs and five thousand engineering mechs."
"Deal!"
Cheng Xiaolong enthusiastically stepped forward and shook Prince Mela's hand: "Modification fee is three million per unit, and the family will send some instructors over to guide your installation..."
In the end, Cheng Xiaolong stood at the door of the reception room wearing the expression of someone looking at a mountain of gold as he "respectfully saw off" Prince Mela.
Shortly afterward, another person with a translator knocked on the door of the reception room.