With Spring Festival approaching, the company finally quieted down for once. Led by Dr. Xu Qingzhou, the laboratory researchers headed to warm Hainan for a vacation, enjoying the benefits provided by the company.
Just after Dr. Xu Qingzhou and the others left for Xiaoshan Airport, Cao Feiyu led people to tear down the wall of the neighboring Meiyun Knitting Factory, taking over the factory buildings and land that had originally belonged to Meiyun Company.
Large numbers of construction machines rolled in overnight. The steel-framed workshops were bulldozed directly, and modular buildings were installed into the foundations.
Once completed, the site would have a brand-new gym with rubberized flooring, a bright cafeteria meeting modern standards, and twelve-story apartment-style dormitories for single employees.
The most important building of all would be the materials science research center. It would occupy a third of the existing land, making it quite a sizable project.
Unfortunately, Kunlun Company currently had only 350 researchers, along with 280 support staff in administration, finance, logistics, and other departments.
So even after the materials science research center was completed, much of it could only sit vacant for the time being. They would have to keep recruiting in the future to expand the R&D team.
Gao Yuan remarked that Dr. Xu Qingzhou and the others had picked the perfect time to go on vacation. Otherwise, even if they had stayed at the company, they probably would not have been able to get much done. Excavators and cranes came and went every day, and the roads were covered in mud. It was truly a mess.
Fortunately, the chaos would not last long. Looking around the world, China was still extremely strong in modular construction. Huoshenshan Hospital, which had been completed in ten days during the pandemic, was a classic example of modular construction.
This time, two companies were providing construction services for Kunlun Company: Yangzhou IMBox and the state-owned CIMC Group. Add Shanghai Ubi Group, and they were the three leading names in China's modular construction industry.
However, Ubi was backed by a Hong Kong company. For reasons everyone knew well, Gao Yuan did not like them, so he had not placed an order with them.
Gao Yuan was someone with clear loves and hates. He disliked people who sold out their own side.
Ms. Yang, the owner of Hong Kong's Esquel Group, the world's largest shirt manufacturer, had personally come to visit Gao Yuan, but she still failed to make it onto Kunlun Company's list of partners.
Although Ms. Yang had made all sorts of solemn promises before Gao Yuan, he had quietly told Cao Feiyu that he did not believe a single punctuation mark she said.
After all, when an avalanche came, no snowflake was innocent. Since they were not on the same path, he would let them sink together with the mud and sand.
At the beginning of February, Kunlun Company, now transformed into a massive construction site, suddenly received a special foreign visitor: Levi, a representative of DuPont Group who spoke fluent Chinese.
Gao Yuan invited Levi into his office with a suspicious look on his face.
He was a man in his thirties with black curly hair and features that suggested Middle Eastern ancestry. Only after asking further did Gao Yuan learn that Levi was Jewish.
"Mr. Levi, your Chinese is truly fluent for a foreigner," Gao Yuan said with a smile. "Where did you learn it?"
Gao Yuan thought that compared with those foreign trash who came to China to chase women and scam money without even being willing to learn a single sentence of Chinese, Levi was at least a dedicated scammer, even if he was one.
Levi smiled. "It's passable. I graduated from Peking University's Chinese department."
Gao Yuan froze slightly. Thinking of Ningbo University, where he had graduated, he could not help showing a look of envy. "Tsinghua and Peking University are the hardest schools to get into in China. If a family has a child admitted to either one, they usually throw a huge banquet to celebrate."
Levi shrugged indifferently. "Really? For foreigners like me, it was quite easy. They even offered full scholarships."
Damn it...
Hearing that, Gao Yuan suddenly had the urge to curse.
He frowned and turned serious. "Since Mr. Levi is here as a representative of DuPont Group, why don't we speak frankly?"
Levi nodded lightly. "No problem. Mr. Gao, you seem to be a straightforward person as well. To be honest, I am not here solely on behalf of DuPont Group. I also represent certain powerful forces on the other side of the Pacific—forces you definitely do not wish to provoke."
"Oh?" Gao Yuan smiled. "Now that is interesting. I'd like to hear more."
Levi's gaze became rather mysterious. "Some people in North America hope I can discuss the possibility of mutual technology sharing with you. You should know that DuPont has merged with Dow, forming the most powerful chemical group on Earth, with countless patents under its control."
"For example, our subsidiary, Corning Group, is the world's strongest presence in the field of silicone materials. Although Made in China produces nearly all the world's mobile phones, the vast majority of those phones must use Corning's strengthened glass."
"That is only one example. I could give many, many more. In short, as long as Mr. Gao is willing to open up licensing for X Fiber technology, any condition can be discussed!"
"The market is huge, and there are many ways to make money. We can absolutely cooperate with each other. Why must we fight to the death? Besides, we possess semiconductor material technologies that China urgently needs right now."
Gao Yuan frowned slightly. The offer was certainly generous.
As a small company, Gao Yuan had only one trump card in his hands: X Fiber. DowDuPont, meanwhile, was the king of chemical materials on Earth, holding numerous technologies envied by the entire world.
Any technology Gao Yuan was interested in could be negotiated for, including semiconductor chip technology currently under severe blockade. The price he needed to pay was merely sharing X Fiber technology with the other side.
What a temptation. Gao Yuan had to admit that it was an enormous temptation.
He could not help indulging in a little fantasy. If he traded X Fiber for DowDuPont's semiconductor technology, then acquired Huawei's HiSilicon afterward, could he transform himself into a new-generation semiconductor giant?
As for why he wanted to acquire HiSilicon rather than help it, the reason was simple. Deep down, Gao Yuan did not trust any capitalist, no matter who they were.
Unfortunately, a fantasy was ultimately just a fantasy.
With a soft sigh, Gao Yuan said, "Since Mr. Levi studied Chinese, I assume you have heard this saying: today, we cede five cities; tomorrow, we cede ten cities. Then we gain one night of peaceful sleep, only to wake and see the armies of Qin at our borders once more."
"I am no longer some naive child. I have long seen your side's methods: offer enormous benefits and make your opponent voluntarily surrender the weapon in their hands. Once Kunlun Company has no weapon left, it will be a tiger with its teeth pulled, at your mercy."
"I never believe what people say with their mouths. I only believe what I see with my own eyes."
"The Kurds scattered across the Middle East believed your lies back then. They risked their lives fighting from Syria to Iraq, from al-Qaeda to the utterly deranged ISIS. They fought campaigns for you in every direction, suffering countless deaths and injuries. Even women and children went to the battlefield."
"And what was the result?"
"On October 7, 2019, you abandoned the Kurds and withdrew yourselves, leaving your loyal allies beneath Turkey's butcher's blade."
Perhaps because betraying the Kurds was indeed not something honorable, Levi's face reddened slightly. He forced himself to argue, "Mr. Gao Yuan, what you mentioned is only an isolated case. Sometimes, for the interests of the United States, we have no choice but to make difficult sacrifices."
"An isolated case?" Gao Yuan gave a cold laugh and spoke in a calm, rapid tone. "In 1920, the Ottoman Empire fell apart. The Kurds served you loyally, yet when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, the Iraqis and Syrians were both given the chance to establish independent nations, while the Kurds' demands were not mentioned at all. That was your first betrayal."
"After World War II, in 1958, you plotted to overthrow Iraq, and the Kurds secretly assisted you once again. In 1963, after a man named Saddam successfully rose to the top, you abandoned the Kurds again. Oh, and the napalm Saddam dropped on the Kurds was paid for by you."
"That was your second betrayal of the Kurds."
"In 1970, Iraq leaned toward the former Soviet Union, and you became unhappy again. So you dragged out the Kurds once more. Under Kissinger's leadership, you launched a plan to arm the Kurds, threatening Iraq not to grow too close to the former Soviet Union. Afterward, the Kurds suffered bloody massacres. They clearly held weapons supplied by you, yet you pretended nothing had happened."
"For the third time, you sold out the unfortunate Kurds."
"In 1991, the Gulf War began. I cannot even be bothered to mention all the back-and-forth in between. Every time you encountered trouble, you remembered the Kurds. Every time the Kurds were slaughtered, you pretended not to see it. The Kurds truly had the worst luck imaginable in making friends with you. They were betrayed again and again, yet through their own resilience, they survived again and again."
A chill flickered in his eyes as Gao Yuan sneered. "Mr. Levi, you do not really think I am young and have never read history, do you?"
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