bsaa (Part 2)

"Finally got the call—thought he'd forgotten about me." After hanging up from Happy's call, Shen Fei finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Stark had a track record with this sort of thing; he'd only waited a few extra days, but Killian had once spent an entire freezing winter night on a rooftop.

After hanging up, Shen Fei started packing his things. Someone would be coming to pick him up soon to meet Stark, and he needed to prepare for smooth negotiations.

Before long, a man in standard security attire rang the doorbell, saying he was there to pick up Shen Fei.

Shen Fei wasn't exactly Spider-Man, so he naturally didn't get the treatment of Happy personally chauffeuring him.

"Doesn't look like we're heading to Stark Group—maybe it's Stark's villa." Tony Stark owned numerous villas around the world, even more than one private island, but his most important residence seemed to be that beachfront villa in California.

Shen Fei hadn't dug up too much information on Tony Stark. A simple search could be chalked up to preparation for the meeting, but excessive probing would raise suspicion.

After all, Stark had his personal AI system, Jarvis. Overly thorough searches would easily be detected by Jarvis.

Don't think hackers are invincible. In reality, hackers only look impressive on the surface—congratulating themselves on breaching the Department of Defense one day, the FBI the next, or the military—but that's just the facade.

Most hackers were in it for the money. If they could really crack secure targets so easily—like national secret research labs or major corporations such as Stark Group's R&D facilities—they wouldn't have to work so hard peddling information.

Getting any kind of classified data, like Stark Group's weapons blueprints, could fetch a sky-high price. They could even hack into bank transfers directly, which was faster and safer than robbing a bank.

Why weren't there more hackers doing this? Don't bring up hacker ethics—those codes might restrain some, but not everyone. There were always people willing to do anything for money.

The reason they didn't wasn't that they didn't want to, but that they couldn't, or even if they did, they'd be easily traced.

Besides personal skill, equipment was a huge factor for hackers. Compared to nations and big corporations, individual hackers were severely lacking in gear.

Not to mention that nations and corporations also had powerful hackers on their side.

For someone like Stark, if anyone was caught gathering intel on him, the FBI and S.H.I.E.L.D. would likely invite them for tea soon enough.

Manhattan.

The car soon arrived outside an independent villa in Manhattan—vast in area, luxurious in appearance—with Happy standing at the main gate.

"I wonder if Coulson has to go through checks to see Stark." As he was being inspected at the gate, Shen Fei thought to himself. After the check, Happy led Shen Fei inside the villa.

There weren't many guards outside the villa, which made sense. Given Tony's style, he'd rely on electronic security and Jarvis. Unless someone forced their way in, sneaking in silently was impossible.

"Hello, Mr. Stark." Entering the villa, Shen Fei was a bit surprised that Stark had him come straight to the in-house laboratory, where Pepper Potts was also present.

"Perfect timing. Can you tell me how you did this?" Stark pointed at the red potion sitting on the table and asked directly, clearly very curious about it.

"That's hard to explain all at once, Mr. Stark. Why don't you tell me exactly what's confusing you?" Shen Fei replied.

"Fine." With a wave of Tony's hand, a holographic image appeared between the three of them—it was the composition diagram of the red potion. Stark pointed at certain parts and asked, "How did you manage to combine so many functions into one?"

Shen Fei's potion could be taken internally or applied externally.

"All the ingredients I used are traditional Chinese herbs. Mr. Stark, you should know something about that, right?" Shen Fei thought for a moment before explaining.

At Kamar-Taj, besides learning magic, Shen Fei had also studied something important: traditional Chinese medicine. The Ancient One had ancient texts on the subject.

With the power of the Op-Op Fruit, Shen Fei's skill in Chinese medicine skyrocketed. During those two years in Kathmandu, he became a fairly well-known doctor in the Kamar-Taj area.

Through free clinics, Shen Fei gained plenty of practical experience. If anyone investigated him, they'd probably think those two years were spent studying medicine in Kathmandu.

That bottle of red potion was exactly what Shen Fei had created by combining various Chinese herbs with the Op-Op Fruit's ability. The biggest challenge in Chinese medicine was understanding the properties of the herbs—the hardest part—but for someone with the Op-Op Fruit's power, it was actually the easiest.

"Wait, what do you mean by mutual generation and restraint? What does that mean?" When Shen Fei started explaining terms like mutual generation, mutual restraint, mutual conflict, mutual suppression, and medicinal guides, Stark cut him off, apparently not understanding.

"It's roughly like chemistry—a neutralizer." Shen Fei thought for a moment and explained the meaning.

But even after Shen Fei's explanation, Stark still seemed confused. Maybe to avoid looking ignorant in front of Shen Fei, he nodded as if he understood.

Westerners found it too hard to grasp these Celestial Dynasty concepts. It was like Celestial food—after entering the Western world, it changed drastically. Or tea—adding milk, ice, sugar, and treating it like coffee. How could they even drink that?

"I think I get it. Name your price—I'll buy it." After Shen Fei finished explaining, Stark said bluntly.

"I don't need to tell you the market potential of this product. I'm not selling the formula—I'm here to discuss a partnership. I'll contribute the technology as equity, take fifty-one percent of the shares, and the rest goes to you. But you'll handle running the company." Shen Fei laid out his bottom line directly.

"One billion dollars for a full buyout." Stark responded to Shen Fei's offer. "Stark Group will never let anyone else hold controlling shares."

Unlike other publicly traded companies, Tony always held absolute control over Stark Group, even during its most dangerous times, keeping fifty-one percent of the equity.

If another company tried that, they'd likely go bankrupt. But Stark Group was different—Howard wasn't just a genius scientist but also one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders. Unlike Dr. Hank Pym, Howard had very high emotional intelligence.

Compare Dr. Hank Pym's treatment as the inventor of Pym Particles, or the treatment of Whiplash's father, with Howard's achievements—it was night and day.

If not for being assassinated, Stark Group's accomplishments would have been even greater.

"Ms. Pepper has already used this product and knows its effects. One billion dollars is far from enough. Once word of this product's effects gets out, countless investors will want in. I came here first because I trust you, Mr. Stark. Otherwise, I could easily find other investors."

Shen Fei had goodwill toward Iron Man Tony, but in the world of capital, controlling shares were crucial—he wasn't budging on that.

"How about this: we take fifty-one percent of the shares and compensate you with one billion dollars." Pepper suddenly spoke up from the side.

"Sorry, that was my bottom line. This offer is only because it's Mr. Stark. For anyone else, the terms wouldn't be the same. Since we can't reach an agreement, let's leave it. Consider that bottle a gift for Ms. Pepper. Goodbye." Shen Fei said and prepared to leave.

"Wait a moment." Pepper said, pulling Stark aside. They seemed to be discussing something. Taking the chance, Shen Fei looked around the lab. Though it wasn't Stark's main lab, it was still top-tier by outside standards.

"We accept your terms, but we have some conditions of our own." Soon, Pepper and Stark returned, and Pepper laid out their conditions.

"Alright, I agree." Shen Fei thought about Pepper's conditions briefly and accepted. If it had been Stark, he might have refused, but Pepper had already used the potion. With her business acumen, she knew exactly how big the market was—there was no way she'd let this opportunity slip by.

Pepper's conditions were simple: the new company wouldn't be merged into Stark Group but established as an independent entity, avoiding any conflicts. As for staffing, that was easy—professional managers were everywhere as long as you had the resources.

"By the way, earlier you said you came to me first because you trusted me. What did you mean by that?" Stark then asked.

"Simple. If it were anyone else, I probably wouldn't walk out of here alive today. But you, Mr. Stark, wouldn't do that."

Hearing this, Stark looked very pleased—it was a roundabout compliment.

"Interested in coming to work for my company after you graduate?"

"Let's talk about it after I graduate."

For Stark, finding out that Shen Fei was about to attend Empire State University was easy. Stark Group had set up plenty of scholarship programs there.