Trade

Zhou Hongwei moved quickly. At around five that afternoon, he arrived at the café Chen Mo had mentioned. After receiving the call, Chen Mo grabbed his laptop and documents and immediately headed to the café.

His rented apartment was not far from the café, and he got there in five minutes on foot.

After entering the café, Chen Mo looked around. There were not many people inside, only a handful. At a glance, he recognized Zhou Hongwei and the others seated in the corner.

"Hello, General Zhou." Chen Mo walked over and smiled as he extended his right hand.

Zhou Hongwei's eyes held a trace of surprise when he saw Chen Mo. The voice was familiar—it was Chen Mo, the person he had spoken to on the phone—but he looked far too young.

"Hello, Mr. Chen."

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Chen Mo, Zhou Hongwei sat back down with him.

"Mr. Chen, I'd like to see the program you mentioned in person." Zhou Hongwei got straight to the point, sounding almost impatient.

"That's fine, but I don't have a computer infected with the virus," Chen Mo said.

"We prepared some."

Zhou Hongwei nodded to the assistant beside him, who took two laptops from his backpack and placed them on the table.

Both laptops displayed screens locked by an iron gate.

Chen Mo did not waste words. He took out a USB drive, plugged it into one of the computers, and typed a few commands. Two minutes later, once the progress bar finished loading, the screen changed and immediately returned to the familiar Windows desktop.

Zhou Hongwei's face lit up at the sight.

It was real.

They had prepared the infected computers themselves, so there was absolutely no way to fake it. Suppressing his anxiety, Zhou Hongwei continued watching Chen Mo remove the virus from the second computer.

When the second computer also returned to normal, Zhou Hongwei finally let out a breath and leaned back in his chair.

This meant that Eternal Heart, which had swept across the globe, had been cracked—and by this absurdly young man before him.

"Mr. Chen, you're so young. You're still studying, right? A student at Binhai University?" Zhou Hongwei asked.

"Is that important?" Chen Mo smiled faintly.

"It really isn't." Zhou Hongwei smiled. "You developed this program independently, right, Mr. Chen? You're truly a promising young man. Are you interested in joining our company?"

"I have no plans for that at the moment." Chen Mo spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly. "Let's get to the point."

Zhou Hongwei studied Chen Mo carefully. This young man's bearing and manner of speech surpassed those of many young people he had met. He was undoubtedly a rare talent.

"Then let's get to the point. Mr. Chen, you intend to sell the program, correct? How much?"

"Not much. Eighty million."

Hiss...

The moment Chen Mo named his price, everyone who heard it sucked in a sharp breath and stared at him in surprise.

"Mr. Chen, isn't that price a little high?" Zhou Hongwei asked with a smile.

"If you think it's too high, then forget it." Chen Mo shrugged and put the USB drive back into his backpack. "I'll contact Penguin later. Perhaps they'll be interested."

"Don't rush, Mr. Chen." Zhou Hongwei immediately stopped him. "Your price is indeed a little high. Even if you contact Penguin, they won't offer you that much."

"How would you know without trying?" Chen Mo said. "Eternal Heart has indirectly caused tens of billions of US dollars in losses worldwide."

"How about this? One price—ten million. Transfer the technology to me, and we'll sign the contract right now," Zhou Hongwei said.

"Then forget it," Chen Mo said. "At present, no one in the world has found a way to remove the virus. If your company is the first to release software capable of eliminating Eternal Heart, you'll gain both fame and profit. At this price, I'm already taking a loss."

"Thirty million. That's my bottom line," Zhou Hongwei said. "There are only nearly a million infected computers worldwide. Our company won't make much money."

"Reputation and public image are what matter. General Zhou isn't that shallow, is he?" Chen Mo said. "If you don't want it, I'll contact another company. This program should raise Penguin's or Qiandu's market value by quite a bit."

Zhou Hongwei had not expected Chen Mo to be so shrewd at such a young age. But this antivirus program could indeed bring both fame and profit to his company, especially at this critical moment in the global virus crisis.

If they let the program go to a competitor, their company would lose a valuable opportunity.

"To be honest, we might not earn eighty million from your program."

"Seventy million. Not a cent less," Chen Mo said.

"Wait, sixty million," Zhou Hongwei said. "We're releasing a free program. We simply can't profit that much."

"Whether you make it free has nothing to do with me. You can charge for it if you want." Chen Mo stood, preparing to leave.

"Wait. Seventy million. Deal." Zhou Hongwei spoke immediately.

"Here are the contract and technical documentation."

Chen Mo sat back down and took out a USB drive and two copies of the contract from his laptop bag, placing them before Zhou Hongwei.

Zhou Hongwei froze when he saw the items already prepared. This young man seemed to have predicted from the start that they would compromise.

He had the lawyer beside him carefully review the contract. Only after confirming there were no issues did he look at Chen Mo. "I didn't expect such an outstanding young man to emerge in this country."

"You flatter me. I only made this program by chance. It was all luck."

"Hm?"

Zhou Hongwei had not expected Chen Mo to say that, leaving him speechless. A virus the entire world had failed to solve was called luck when it fell into Chen Mo's hands. No one would believe that.

"If there are no problems, let's sign the contract," Chen Mo said.

"Fine."

After signing the contract, Zhou Hongwei had someone transfer the money to Chen Mo on the spot.

When he saw that the transfer had gone through, Chen Mo grinned. This was his first pot of gold, earned with his own two hands.

Even after personal income tax was deducted, he would still have over fifty-six million left. Chen Mo was already thinking about how to spend the money.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Chen Mo shook hands with Zhou Hongwei. "I've already deleted the program materials on my end. The copy you have is the only one, so remember to back it up. I'll be going now."

"Not staying for dinner?"

"No. We'll keep in touch."

After saying goodbye to Zhou Hongwei, Chen Mo left the café with his books on his back.

"Send the program to the technical department. Call and tell them to integrate the antivirus code into Guard and prepare to update Guard."

After giving the assistant his instructions, Zhou Hongwei looked toward the door Chen Mo had left through and fell into deep thought.

At seven that evening, Seven Tiger Weibo posted a message.

Seven Tiger Company had developed a program capable of removing Eternal Heart. It was currently undergoing final emergency refinement and would be released as soon as possible upon completion, free of charge as always.

The moment the news came out, it immediately caused a sensation across the internet. Seven Tiger's Weibo also received countless likes and expressions of approval from netizens.

"History is repeating itself in a startling way. Seven Tiger has already found software that can remove Eternal Heart, while a certain computer manager is still posting about playing games."

"A company with a conscience. I'm switching antivirus software right now."

"This time, I support Seven Tiger."

The incident also rightfully made the Headline News pages of major media outlets.

Everything came without warning.

Anything related to Eternal Heart was currently a hot topic. Seven Tiger's announcement was quickly noticed by the media and spread across the country in an extremely short time.

When the announcement was made, some television stations that were broadcasting live news also urgently interrupted their programs with this latest report. The news was likewise posted to overseas social media sites in the shortest possible time.

The entire online world was in an uproar.

This Eternal Heart ransomware incident was practically the largest hostage-taking event in the online world. Nearly a million computers worldwide had been infected, mainly in key sectors such as government departments, energy companies, railway companies, banks, hospitals, universities, and trading venues.

The incident had lasted nearly seven days. Unless they reinstalled their systems, users could not get rid of Eternal Heart. But reinstalling the system meant losing all the data on the computer, something some people could not possibly accept.

Seven Tiger's announcement was undoubtedly a shot in the arm. Those preparing to pay hackers a ransom stopped, waiting for Seven Tiger Company to release its antivirus program.

The contract has been signed, so feel free to bookmark it. Please bookmark and recommend it.