Dividing the Profits

"Oh, if it isn't my dear bestie Tang Shizhe. What's the matter, playing the loser again?" Yin Qi scrutinized Tang Shizhe as he sat down, rolling her eyes.

"Cut the crap and give me back my car." Tang Shizhe rolled his eyes in return; this girl was clearly an ingrate, borrowing his car without a shred of appreciation.

"Fine, take it. By the way, have you heard of Titan Environmental? Rumor has it the boss is just a college student, about our age." Yin Qi crossed her arms, scanning Tang Shizhe's face with a probing gaze.

"You're overthinking it. What, looking to latch onto a rich guy and get yourself kept?" Tang Shizhe teased with a sleazy grin.

"Hmph, as for his company, if this lady wanted to, I could have a net worth ten times his in a heartbeat." Yin Qi snorted and turned away, ignoring him.

"Wake up, stop dreaming in the morning." Tang Shizhe chuckled and patted Yin Qi's shoulder, only to have his hand slapped away.

Seeing that Yin Qi was ignoring him and with several minutes left before class, a bored Tang Shizhe began aimlessly browsing news apps on his phone.

He was deep in thought; Titan Environmental was now on the right track, and the profits generated were sufficient to support his expansion into other industries.

Furthermore, since the number of Splitters had increased to sixty, he could finally spare some manpower to study other fields.

These disciplines weren't as simple as learning computer science; biology, chemistry, and physics all required a massive reserve of foundational knowledge. Innovation was incredibly difficult, so even with the increase in Splitters, their mastery of biology hadn't improved as rapidly as he'd hoped.

Truth be told, without the fragmented technology carried in their genes, the Splitters' learning process had already hit a bottleneck.

"Wait, the energy-storage tissue of the Purification Tree!" Tang Shizhe suddenly slammed his hand on the desk. Lost in his thoughts, he had suddenly recalled the energy-storage tissue located at the roots of the Purification Tree.

This tissue could store the excess energy absorbed by the Purification Tree during the day for its use at night.

The tissue was small in volume, but the energy density it could hold was extremely high—fifty times the capacity of a lithium battery of the same size. Moreover, its material was highly flexible and could be molded into any shape.

In other words, if a phone battery of the same size were manufactured using the Purification Tree's root tissue, it would possess fifty times the capacity of a standard battery! It could even be shaped to fit into the tightest corners of any device.

Would Tang Shizhe release a battery with fifty times the capacity? Impossible!

Following his greedy merchant logic, he would start by releasing a technology with three times the capacity of a standard battery.

As for the construction, he would mix a useless biological material with the Purification Tree's storage tissue; even if a reverse-engineer cracked it open, they would be left completely baffled—though the Purification Tree's storage tissue was fundamentally impossible to crack or replicate.

"That's it. It can be completely stripped away to establish a new company!" Tang Shizhe nodded in satisfaction. By now, he was so immersed in his own train of thought that he hadn't noticed class had already begun.

When he finally looked up, he saw the teacher standing right in front of him, watching him in silence.

The surrounding students were stifling laughter, waiting for the show, and Yin Qi, who had been sitting next to him, had already moved two meters away.

"Student Tang Shizhe, if you don't want to attend class, that's fine, but don't disrupt the learning of others. You can leave now!" The teacher pointed toward the classroom door.

"Oh." Tang Shizhe nodded obediently, picked up his phone and textbook, and walked out of the classroom under the gaze of his classmates.

He was actually eager to get back to the factory to research his new company anyway.

Four days later, Victor, based in Europe, boarded a flight to the Xia Kingdom.

After handling the affairs related to the Victor Investment Company, which no longer belonged to him, he set foot on Xia Kingdom soil with two hundred million USD under Tang Yi's orders.

This time, Tang Shizhe had essentially emptied out all his overseas black funds; the only thing remaining was less than twenty million USD recently acquired from selling Leiden Coin.

Those dollars were needed to maintain the operation of two first-tier shell companies and couldn't be touched.

Although Victor didn't know why his big boss wanted to invest in this Xia Kingdom tech company, he had no right to question it.

The only thing he could do was use his meager remaining authority to book himself a first-class ticket.

Thirteen hours later, the plane landed slowly at Shangdu International Airport.

By then, a motorcade from Titan Environmental had been waiting for quite some time; three black Maybachs lined up, exuding an imposing aura.

Tang Shizhe had specifically bought this fleet to bolster the company's image. After all, it was a company valued at ten billion; it had to look the part, didn't it?

"It seems your company isn't short on cash," Victor said, sitting in the top-trim Maybach in the middle, asking the Splitter "bodyguard" in front with some confusion.

However, he received no response and could only smack his lips in awkward silence.

The motorcade soon merged onto the highway, heading straight for Jiaodong City.

Before Victor, the "Chairman" of Victor Investment, had even arrived, Titan Environmental announced that it had secured a second round of investment.

In the Titan Environmental press conference hall, numerous reporters gathered once again. This was their second time in this hall; they heard that Titan Environmental had secured a second round of funding?

They clearly didn't have any areas that required massive cash burn, so why the sudden second round of financing? Could it be that the other party's research had burned through a huge amount of capital?

"Dear reporters, we've called you here today because there are actually two things to announce!" Tang Shizhe walked onto the podium as usual. He wasn't worried about his photos being leaked, as all the media had reached a tacit agreement with him: his personal information would not be exposed without his permission.

And if anyone dared to leak it online privately, Tang Shizhe's team of dozens of Splitters wasn't just for show; they would burn the publisher's computer to a crisp in minutes.

"Ahem."

"The first piece of news is that our Purification Tree has sold three million units this month! Our company's net profit has reached six hundred million RMB!" This was the first time Tang Shizhe had publicly announced the profits of the Purification Tree, which, of course, was purely fictional.

"After discussion by the company's board of directors, we have decided to issue our first dividend. This six hundred million in earnings will be used entirely for dividends!" Tang Shizhe announced a decision that shocked the reporters below.

Was this Titan Environmental crazy? After all, Titan Environmental had finally earned its first pot of gold to develop the company, yet they were thinking about paying out dividends first!