Many Preparations

Suiren Company's work and Huang Xiuyuan's plans had gone largely as expected.

In the quiet of the late night, the occasional honk drifted in from the road.

Huang Xiuyuan checked his offshore account. After several days of transactions, his total capital had reached 215.73 million U.S. dollars.

Against the backdrop of the global economy, the financial markets seemed to have taken a laxative, with gloom and despair everywhere.

Things weren't going well at home, either. Companies engaged in foreign trade faced sharply declining orders and the danger of not getting paid. The A-share market was a sea of green. Investors either held onto their cash or cut their losses and left, while frenzied speculators tried to buy the dip.

Huang Xiuyuan only glanced at these developments before turning his attention elsewhere.

Using overseas zombie computers, he had made several jumps before secretly returning to the domestic internet, where he hijacked a large number of computers again.

Then, carefully and gradually, he infiltrated the servers of the country's three major telecommunications operators. To Huang Xiuyuan, the XP servers of 2008 were as full of holes as a sieve.

Before long, he had planted a few "little programs" on the servers of numerous telecommunications operators in Shu Province and the surrounding areas.

He prepared a number of text message notifications. Within an hour of the set time, these messages would be sent in a concentrated burst to users' phones in designated areas.

The messages would bear a wide range of "official" names.

In places like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, messages like these might not cause much of a stir. But in the inland region of northwestern Sichuan, it would be a completely different story.

According to relevant statistics, there were around 640 million mobile phone users in China in 2008, with a penetration rate of about 45.7 percent.

After accounting for people with multiple numbers, the elderly, and children, the rate among teenagers and working-age adults was around 70 to 80 percent.

Even though northwestern Sichuan was relatively underdeveloped, it lay close to the Rongcheng and Guanzhong economic circles. Even if mobile phone penetration was low, it could still reach at least 10 to 20 percent.

And once people received a message, they would pass it on to those close to them. If just 20 percent believed it, they could sway the remaining 80 percent and create a powerful bandwagon effect.

Under the sway of the crowd, even those who had initially disbelieved would gradually be convinced. Like a nuclear chain reaction, it would be hard to stop.

On top of that, many people in this era hadn't yet been exposed to the information deluge of the internet age. They weren't nearly as wary of "rumors" as people who suspected everything they heard.

Otherwise, sayings like "Rumors take a moment to spread; debunking them takes forever" and "All you need to start is a picture; the rest can be made up" wouldn't have caught on.

As for debunking the rumors, given the authorities' response time, it would take at least a day.

By then, it would all be over.

In addition to the notifications, he also prepared a large amount of self-rescue information.

To avoid trouble later, he set the traces to erase themselves automatically. Combined with his overseas zombie computers, that cut off any chance of him being discovered.

Meanwhile,

under the name of Suiren Company, he had Lin Baijie acquire a plot of industrial land in Ande Town, northwest of Rongcheng, to serve as the recycling plant for the Shu Province branch.

To make things easier, the site had previously been a furniture factory. After acquiring it,

they began construction on a large scale. The site had plenty of materials for steel-frame factory buildings, as well as a batch of container housing for the workers and a supply of everyday necessities.

There was also a construction crew and a large number of heavy machines.

Huang Xiuyuan also asked his father to keep an eye on the site, along with a deputy general manager he had sent from headquarters.

After buying a house and some storefronts, his father had planned to return home. But Huang Xiuyuan had given him this new job, so he had no choice but to take it on.

These were the two preparations he could make for now. Anything more might make his actions too conspicuous.

All that remained was to wait for the day to come.

April 27.

The equipment at the Materials Laboratory had finally been installed and tested. It had entered the final stage of acceptance inspection.

Huang Xiuyuan and Lu Xuedong personally inspected some of the equipment, then devoted part of their attention to forming a materials research group.

They began researching materials while continuing to inspect the equipment.

Zhongjian Company said it would help Suiren Company complete the paperwork for the laboratory within three months.

During the Materials Laboratory's trial run, Huang Xiuyuan found an opportunity to synthesize what he needed on his own.

It was the second-generation version of the "brain suppressant." Looking at the vial in his hand, which contained twenty milliliters of pale blue liquid, he didn't hesitate to draw out ten milliliters with a syringe and inject it into his body through the jugular vein.

A little over half an hour later, he injected the remaining ten milliliters.

The brand-new brain suppressant reacted in a strange way with his brain's "operating system." The sensation was somewhat different from what he had felt with the first-generation suppressant.

The first-generation suppressant had merely eased the symptoms. The new one combined with his brain cells, allowing them to control certain functions with the help of the "operating system."

For instance, whenever he needed a superhuman memory, he could activate it. When he needed to think calmly, he could enter a state of calm reflection.

The new-generation brain suppressant also remained effective for a very long time. A single injection could last around fifteen to seventeen years.

Compared with the first generation, it was far more convenient. The original drug had to be injected every two or three days, which was both inconvenient and unsafe.

He erased all traces of the experiment, deleted the laboratory's internal surveillance footage, and replaced it with footage from the previous night.

The next day was May Day.

Aside from Lu Xuedong and a few others, many employees were taking turns off.

Most of the company's management hadn't taken the day off, though. They were busy at work.

After handing the Software Laboratory's work over to their respective deputies, he and Lu Xuedong went to the Materials Laboratory. The newly formed materials research group had thirteen members.

Besides him and Lu Xuedong, there were five researchers poached from laboratories around the country, and six recent graduates.

They had spent the past few days getting familiar with the laboratory. They didn't know how skilled Huang Xiuyuan was, but a laboratory with nearly a hundred million yuan invested in it was reason enough to join.

Among the full-time researchers, He Wen, who had been poached from a nanomaterials laboratory somewhere in the country, was a fairly capable researcher. He had simply been frustrated by his lack of opportunities, which was why he had chosen to join Suiren Company.

Huang Xiuyuan looked at the group and spoke solemnly:

"I called you all here today for a very simple task. While studying abroad, I accidentally synthesized a new compound. Everyone signed a confidentiality agreement before coming here. I'll be blunt: I expect everyone to honor it."

He Wen chimed in as well. As the deputy head of the research group, he needed to make his position clear. "The company treats us well. Keep your mouths shut. Anything involving company secrets stays buried in your guts."

"Understood, understood."

"Don't worry, Chairman. I'll keep it confidential."

The graduate research assistants valued this opportunity all the more. It was hard to find a materials science job in China that offered terms as good as those at Suiren Company.

Suiren Company's salaries and benefits were divided into four broad grades and twenty subgrades. Each broad grade was split into five subgrades.

The broad grades were: junior, intermediate, senior, and top-tier.

The subgrades were numbered after the broad grade. For example, the junior grade was divided into Junior 1, Junior 2, Junior 3, Junior... and so on.

For sanitation workers and similar jobs, the company contract specified Junior 1—General Laborer, with a base salary of 1,500 yuan.

Graduate research assistants started with contracts specifying Junior 3—Researcher, with a base salary of 9,000 yuan.

Experienced researchers like He Wen started with contracts specifying Intermediate 3—Researcher, with a base salary of 80,000 yuan.

Add in the company's stock options, profit sharing, and a whole range of other benefits, and even foreign companies might have a hard time attracting them.