"In short, I just need a child to inherit my family business!" Tong He suddenly stood up. "Forget it, I'll have my family arrange blind dates for me. I'll have a child as quickly as possible, and then divorce immediately."
"Well, this might be a bit cruel to the woman, so I'll state upfront that I'll give her 10 million as payment for having a child for me!" Tong He said as he stood up. This idea left Boss Huang speechless; he hadn't expected to have misguided Tong He down this path.
But on second thought, perhaps it wasn't a misguided path. Who knew? As long as Tong He and his parents could be at ease, and since he had arranged for people to keep an eye on Tong He and his new girlfriend, there shouldn't be any major issues.
Tong He's plan proceeded very smoothly. His parents, perhaps desperate for a grandchild, didn't object to this plan that clearly put the cart before the horse, and quickly helped him find a suitable match.
It turned out to be a sweet-looking young woman who graduated from a prestigious university and worked for Tong He's parents.
As for why such a promising young woman would be willing to do such a thing, Huang He didn't concern himself with it. After all, wasn't money irresistible?
— — — — — —
"Sir, this is the new generation personal terminal jointly developed by us and Apple. Its performance is no longer inferior to Jiangnan Group's terminal devices!" At this very moment, American companies were also making their own efforts. They ultimately could not stand by and watch the terminal product line remain in the hands of the Chinese; they had to regain control of the terminal market.
Thus, more than a decade ago, American companies like Qualcomm, Apple, and Google joined forces to jointly develop their own mid-range products.
They originally planned to launch their own five-digit mobile terminals, but due to the industrialization of their black gold chip not proceeding smoothly, they subsequently racked their brains to boost their binary chips to a level that could barely compare to Jiangnan Group's terminal chips, and they redesigned an entire terminal system and program.
Now, the time had finally come for their efforts to bear fruit, and the final product was presented before the new president of Goldman Sachs, Wolf.
Goldman Sachs' previous president had passed away due to illness, but the consistent strategy of Goldman Sachs in suppressing Jiangnan Group had been inherited by the new president, Wolf.
Wolf was not foolish. He did not believe the introduction from Qualcomm's executives. Instead, he instructed his secretary to conduct a comprehensive review of the terminal's various data. Finally, his secretary informed Wolf.
Therefore, the specific data of this terminal actually lagged far behind that of Jiangnan Group's terminal. At least in terms of chips, there was a gap of at least three times.
However, this was currently the closest they had gotten to Jiangnan Group's chips, and it was also relatively smooth to use.
"Actually, Jiangnan Group's terminal chips are somewhat overkill in terms of performance lately. Most applications cannot fully utilize the performance of their flagship chips, so our terminals are not significantly lagging behind our competitors in terms of user experience!" The secretary's speaking skills were very high, and Wolf could only nod helplessly.
After all, this plan had been in development for over 10 years, and Goldman Sachs had successively invested tens of billions of dollars to support the research and development of the project. It simply could not be delayed any further.
It was just a small gap, but Goldman Sachs had never considered engaging in pure market competition, as it would be absolutely impossible to defeat Jiangnan Group through pure market competition. They had to incorporate some special tactics, which was the key.
Thus, soon, under Goldman Sachs' arrangements, Apple, Qualcomm, and Google, in a rare joint press conference, launched their latest product, "iTerminal."
This press conference was grand, occupying the entire National Opera House for the event. Almost all American social elites attended, and even the newly elected President of the United States was present to show support.
Even the former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, who had not appeared in public for nearly 10 years, was present. However, Jobs' attire was particularly eye-catching.
He was dressed in a simple Taoist robe embroidered with the Five Elements and Bagua, wore a large Taoist crown on his head, and held a horsetail whisk in his hand.
Concurrently, two young attendants followed behind Jobs. One held a treasure sword, and the other held a golden seal.
The reporters certainly wouldn't miss such an important occasion. They promptly pointed all their cameras at Jobs and began taking a barrage of photos. Jobs, however, seemed completely unfazed. He didn't even glance at the reporters, but sat quietly in his chair, silent and unmoving as a mountain.
"This should be a Taoist outfit, right? I've heard for a long time that Jobs joined Taoism over 10 years ago. I didn't expect it to be true!" Some media reporters whispered after taking their photos.
"This isn't a secret at all. Didn't you see that no one else at the scene showed any surprise? This means they all knew Jobs had joined Taoism long ago!" another reporter said. "Besides, I heard that Jobs currently holds a very high position in Taoism. Three years ago, Taoism established the Great America Ancestral Court, and they bought almost the entire Mount Whitney, building layer upon layer of Taoist temples on it."
"It is said that the Heavenly Dao Jade Butterfly is currently managed by Master Lu, and below Master Lu are the Twelve True Persons. The Heavenly Capital True Person, who holds the highest status, is actually Jobs. He is now essentially the second-in-command of the entire Taoist sect, spending his days meditating on Mount Whitney and largely keeping to himself. If it weren't for Apple's board personally inviting him down the mountain this time, he would never have moved!"
"I heard that this Jobs seems to be truly close to becoming an immortal. They say he even cured his own pancreatic cancer, is that true?" the reporter asked again.
"Whether it's cured or not, I don't know. Generally, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, one only lives for 5 years, but he has now lived for almost 25 years. If he hadn't been cultivating, do you think that would be possible?" another reporter said. "Also, you might not know this, but more than half of the people in Silicon Valley have secretly joined the Taoist registry and become Taoist priests, but because they are afraid of the Church, very few dare to admit it publicly."
"How is that possible?" This reporter's eyes widened upon hearing this.
"There's nothing impossible. The richer people are, the more they fear death, and the more they want to live forever, but their physical bodies must remain on earth. God can't wait for his sheep to join him soon. Only the immortal teachings of Taoism allow us to cultivate immortality, and upon attainment, we can ascend to the heavens along with our physical bodies, living for a hundred years. How could those wealthy individuals refuse such temptation!" another reporter said.
"That's impossible. I've heard many people say this kind of thing is fake, and that humans cannot cultivate to become immortals. Our community's bishop constantly preaches to us that China's practices are feudal superstition and not to be believed!"
"Heh, are you smarter than the big shots in Silicon Valley? They are all cultivating immortality, yet they deliberately withhold information from us, isn't their purpose precisely to become immortals themselves and then summon us whenever they please?"
"Is this cultivation of immortality truly a bit far-fetched? Years ago, quite a few Taoist priests came to our area to spread their teachings and even taught us a set of qigong exercises. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't achieve the state of 'settled mind' they described. It felt like a waste of time, and it's definitely fake!"
"That's also quite normal. As the Chinese movies clearly state, cultivating immortality requires aptitude and enlightenment. The vast majority of humans cannot cultivate immortality; only those with the strongest talent can. You must have insufficient talent, otherwise, why can't you even enter a state of settled mind?"
"Several people in our community have successfully entered the state of settled mind. According to them, after entering this state, they can indeed see spiritual energy suspended around them! And they can see it with their eyes closed, with points of light, which is very magical!"
"That's impossible, isn't it? Aren't movies usually fake?"
"Would fake things be passed down by the Chinese for thousands of years?" This reporter snorted. "Let me tell you, the Chinese are the most stingy people in the world. They hide all their good things and are reluctant to share them with us. They have had 5,000 years, and these things have been passed down for 5,000 years. If there were no practical道理, how could they have been passed down for so long?"
"Those cultivation scriptures are monopolized by a few people. Only those with wealth and power can find ways to obtain them. If it weren't for the current highly developed internet, we would still be in the dark!"
"Moreover, our inability to cultivate might not be due to our lack of talent. Those Chinese use a very difficult-to-understand ancient Chinese script for their top-tier secret manuals. You can only truly understand the relevant scriptures after learning that ancient Chinese script. In short, it's very troublesome."
"Oh, no wonder I feel like there are so many Chinese language learning centers popping up all around the community, and many wealthy people are eager to learn Chinese. So that's why, it's to understand these scriptures!"
Regardless of what these two reporters were chatting about, Steve Jobs sat firmly in place and, after attending the entire press conference, left just as silently.
Of course, the people from Apple Group didn't painstakingly invite Jobs just for him to be a news sensation. They wanted to get advice from Jobs on how to further design and improve their own terminals and subsequently how to compete with their rivals in the market!
"Give up this foolish plan!" Unexpectedly, Jobs poured cold water on them, saying, "To take away the terminal market from Jiangnan Group, there are only two paths. Either stronger performance and technology, or more attractive cost-effectiveness."
"This device currently possesses neither of these points. It is an impossible task to succeed!"