Never Surrender! Never Admit Fault! Fight to the End!

Hmph!

"This is going too far!"

"Do they think China has no one left to stand up to them?" Inside the red-walled compound, Wu Dongming's face was ashen as he muttered resentfully.

Kunlun Company, a rising star in the chemical fiber industry, had been brutally targeted by international giants. Naturally, the news reached the compound as well and caused quite a stir.

Secretary Zhou Kaidi said with a worried expression, "Kunlun is no ordinary company. From what I've learned through various channels, Kunlun Company's owner, Gao Yuan, seems determined to make a major name for himself in materials science."

"Most of the bank loans and profits he obtains have been poured into building laboratories and research teams. He even poached several people from the National Textile New Materials Laboratory."

"Poaching people from the national team is certainly not ideal, but it also shows that Gao Yuan is committed to achieving something in materials science. The fact that he is willing to devote himself to manufacturing and genuinely loves industry is truly rare in today's China, where the internet industry dominates."

Wu Dongming nodded slightly. Everyone knew that materials science was exhausting and demanding, with returns utterly disproportionate to the costs. It was the kind of field that drove people away, a notorious pitfall major that could not compare with popular fields such as computers, the internet industry, and finance.

Yet for a major country, it was absolutely impossible not to level up its materials science capabilities. Otherwise, in the foreseeable future, it would inevitably suffer endless humiliation.

Materials formed the foundation of all industry. Take the recent push for semiconductor self-reliance. If you wanted to build a Photolithography Machine, didn't you first need lenses and crystals? Weren't those materials science?

What about silicon wafers? Were etchants, cleaning agents, and photoresists not materials science as well?

In short, every industrial and technological powerhouse in the world, without exception, had to develop its materials science capabilities first. Otherwise, it would sooner or later pay a heavy price.

Not many private companies were willing to work on materials, much less achieve what Kunlun Company had. The X series fiber had appeared out of nowhere and shocked the entire world!

Its potential was beyond doubt. Given enough time, the X series fiber would surely produce more derivative models, and those derivatives might well play a decisive role in certain major defense projects or key scientific research initiatives.

At that thought, Wu Dongming raised his brows slightly and looked at his secretary. "Book two train tickets immediately. You're coming with me to Jiangnan."

Gao Yuan drove his beat-up Accord past ICBC when he suddenly remembered his promise to Jiang Yuanyuan.

He had promised to treat her to hot pot, yet various matters had delayed it until now. As a man, he seemed to have handled this rather poorly.

I'll wait until this busy stretch is over.

As Gao Yuan pondered it, he thought of Jiang Yuanyuan's two close friends, Su Zhenqiu and Fan Xiaoyun. Both had been among the prettiest girls at school back then. He wondered whether they had boyfriends now.

"Why did Director Qin invite us to dinner?" Dr. Xu Qingzhou asked.

He was still resentful that Gao Yuan had dragged him out of the laboratory by force. Several experimental designs still had not been completed.

"I don't know." Gao Yuan shrugged. "But since we're asking him for help, it wouldn't be right to reject his invitation. We're still hoping Director Qin can send us more people."

Dr. Xu Qingzhou said nothing more. Their biggest problem at present was that the company's foundation was too weak and the laboratory lacked manpower.

And if they wanted senior brothers from the National Laboratory to come help, they could not do without Director Qin's approval. It seemed that no matter what, people could never escape the word relationships.

The car arrived at an unremarkable farmhouse restaurant in the suburbs.

Once they entered the courtyard, they found a classic Jiangnan scene of little bridges and flowing water. Even more rare, a large bamboo grove had been planted there, spacing the private dining rooms far apart and making the place exceptionally quiet.

"When we're almost done eating, use the restroom as an excuse and settle the bill at the front desk," Gao Yuan instructed Dr. Xu Qingzhou. "Although Director Qin arranged this dinner, we can't really let him pay. That would be far too rude."

Though Dr. Xu Qingzhou disliked such formalities, he nodded and agreed.

After entering the private room and exchanging warm greetings with Director Qin, Gao Yuan discovered that there were two other people at the table.

One was slightly older than Director Qin, around fifty, elegantly dressed and bearing an air of high status. The other was younger, just over thirty, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and looking refined and scholarly.

"Gao Yuan, let me introduce you." Director Qin smiled. "This is Professor Wu, my senior schoolmate. He works at the Imperial Capital Chemical Fiber Research Institute. This is Zhou Kaidi, Professor Wu's student."

Gao Yuan did not think of anything like an incognito inspection. He merely followed the usual social routine, chatting and offering toasts.

They were all experienced in social settings, so naturally no one drank much. Each toast was only a light sip, since the main purpose of the gathering was to talk and build rapport.

Wu Dongming was full of curiosity about Gao Yuan. Yet from beginning to end, Gao Yuan remained composed, as though nothing had happened, which greatly surprised him.

After several rounds of drinks, Wu Dongming finally could not hold back any longer and brought up the matter with Gao Yuan himself.

"To be honest, word of your company being targeted has been spreading like wildfire in the circle. Everyone is angry, but also curious. Why are these international giants unanimously targeting you?"

"Could it be because you moved too hastily? X1 Fiber had only just entered the market, and you immediately launched the X2 type, placing immense pressure on those international companies and forcing them to strike at you without mercy."

Wu Dongming spoke in an investigative tone. That was normal—he had come down to investigate the situation. Besides seeing what Gao Yuan was like, he needed to understand Kunlun Company's business strategy before deciding what to do next.

But to his utter surprise, after Wu Dongming finished speaking, Gao Yuan suddenly laughed. There seemed to be a chill in that laughter.

"I have always believed that looking inward first after being beaten is the most vile cultural trait of the Chinese people!" Gao Yuan said with great seriousness. "What is there to reflect on? Whether he has a reason or not, shouldn't your first reaction after being attacked be to beat the hell out of him!?"

"Why those international giants are targeting us, whether it's because we advanced too quickly and left them unable to breathe, whether slowing down would make them let us go—I don't know, and I don't want to know."

"Look across China. They've gone after plenty of companies; we're not the only one. When they targeted ZTE in 2016, ZTE behaved obediently, stood at attention and accepted punishment, choosing to make peace and reflect on itself."

"But what was the result?"

"They were fined until they were barely alive, the entire management team was forced to resign, and the other side even sent people into ZTE Group headquarters to supervise them, under the grand name of guiding improvements."

"This proves that when someone is determined to target you, even if you choose to kneel, you'll still die in the end. So I've never considered the questions you just raised, and they aren't important."

Whew~

Aside from Dr. Xu Qingzhou, who kept nodding in deep agreement with Gao Yuan's logic, Qin Yongbo, Wu Dongming, and Wu Dongming's secretary Zhou Kaidi all looked utterly stunned.

At that moment, Dr. Xu Qingzhou interjected, "Afterward, we discussed it and decided to take this opportunity to establish our corporate culture."

"So, after careful consideration, Kunlun Company set down a supreme rule consisting of twelve characters."

"Never surrender, never admit fault, fight to the end!"

Dr. Xu Qingzhou swept his gaze across the three people opposite him, who were shocked beyond measure. His eyes finally settled on Qin Yongbo's face. Scratching his scalp, he said, "Director Qin, to be honest, there's something else we need your help with."

"The Kunlun Laboratory has been far too busy lately. Development of the X3 High Elastic Fiber has hit a bottleneck. I want to borrow Tan Qinggu, Xiao Hui, and Bai Hongyuan for a while. Once we finish the X3 type, we'll send them back."

After Dr. Xu Qingzhou finished speaking, he waited a full minute before Wu Dongming finally asked in a slightly trembling voice, "You... you're developing the X3 type?"

Please recommend! Please bookmark! Please tip!