Chapter 130: The Prime Minister's Expectations

The banquet was a great success. Lin Feng deliberately wanted to put Xia Ruoxi in the spotlight, so throughout the evening he had her converse with the other guests in her capacity as the future chief executive of Future Style Technology. Prime Minister Zhu and Second Uncle were also extremely popular at the banquet. Foreign guests and domestic tycoons alike rushed to make their acquaintance. Setting aside their identities as senior officials of Huaxia, the main reason for their popularity was that Lin Feng had chosen to locate his computer assembly plant in Yanjing.

After the banquet, once all the guests had departed, Prime Minister Zhu and Lin Chuan Yan kept Lin Feng behind and brought him and Xia Ruoxi to their hotel room. They did not allow Lin Feng to leave with the other guests.

When Lin Feng saw that Prime Minister Zhu had singled him out again and that he could not escape, he assumed the old man was still brooding over the matter of not having received an invitation. Wearing a pained expression, he said to Prime Minister Zhu, who was seated nearby, “Grandpa Zhu, are you still upset about the invitation?”

Prime Minister Zhu glared at Lin Feng first, then took a sip of tea to moisten his throat before saying, “I’m not as narrow-minded as you think. I asked you to stay because I have serious business to discuss.”

Lin Chuan Yan was puzzled when he heard this. He and Prime Minister Zhu had traveled all the way from Yanjing to Zhanhai together, yet he had never heard the prime minister mention any other business involving Lin Feng. Now he, too, looked at Prime Minister Zhu with curiosity, wanting to hear what this serious matter was.

Lin Feng was equally bewildered. He exchanged a glance with Xia Ruoxi. The two of them looked curiously at Prime Minister Zhu, waiting for him to continue.

“Lin Feng, with the assembly plant provided by your Future Style Technology, Yanjing’s economy will be able to rise another level. But Yanjing is already the capital of Huaxia and has long been a first-tier city. Zhanhai is the same; it is also a first-tier city. Now both of these major cities are benefiting from your company. They already possessed excellent natural advantages, and with these additional resources, they will certainly grow even stronger. Zhanhai, in particular, has the headquarters of Future Style Technology itself, so its future development is impossible to estimate.

“This has made people from the other provinces terribly envious. The leaders of many central and western regions have brought their complaints to me. Tell me, what do you think we should do about this?”

Lin Chuan Yan could only offer an awkward, helpless smile. There was truly nothing he could say on the matter. After all, he was the mayor of Yanjing, and he had benefited from Lin Feng’s favor.

Lin Feng, however, was baffled. After listening to Prime Minister Zhu’s complaint, he asked in confusion, “Grandpa Zhu, this is a matter for the country. Isn’t it inappropriate to discuss it with someone like me, who is outside the official system?”

Prime Minister Zhu was displeased by Lin Feng’s words. He glared at him and lectured, “Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world. Don’t you know that? Besides, this whole mess was caused by you, boy.”

Faced with the prime minister’s unreasonable argument, Lin Feng was speechless for quite some time. At last, he looked at Prime Minister Zhu and said, “That’s ridiculous. My family is in Zhanhai. If I don’t start my business there, am I supposed to go all the way north to launch it? Besides, Yanjing is the national capital. I established a branch there to handle overseas agency rights and placed the assembly plant near the branch. What exactly did I do wrong?”

Hearing Lin Feng’s defiance, Prime Minister Zhu realized that his previous argument did not hold water. Nevertheless, he continued, “That isn’t the key point. The key point is that the other provinces want resources too. They want major enterprises or labor-intensive factories to settle in their regions. That is the important part!”

“Uh… But that has even less to do with me. If they want those things, what use is it telling me? Their leaders should be the ones thinking of a solution!” Lin Feng grew even more depressed and stared at Prime Minister Zhu in confusion.

“It’s not that they have any way to solve it themselves. They’re all jealous, so they came to me to complain. I had no choice but to grumble to you,” Prime Minister Zhu said, continuing to lay his trap.

Lin Feng sensed that something was amiss and carefully avoided falling into it. He looked warily at Prime Minister Zhu and said, “There’s no point in telling me either. I don’t have that kind of ability. I’m already doing well enough if I can manage my own affairs.”

Seeing that Lin Feng had caught on, Prime Minister Zhu finally dropped the pretense. He looked at Lin Feng expectantly and pleaded, “You have a clever mind, boy. Come up with a few more things and distribute some of them among the other provinces. Go there and inspect the regions, or invest in any projects where cooperation is possible.”

Only then did Lin Feng realize that this had been the true subject of the evening. He absolutely did not dare agree. He hurriedly waved his hands and refused, saying, “Please don’t. I know exactly how capable I am. Find someone else for this glorious responsibility. Don’t come looking for me.”

Seeing Lin Feng reject him, Prime Minister Zhu sighed helplessly. He knew that he was indeed asking too much of Lin Feng, but Huaxia’s economic strength was unevenly distributed, and the remote regions in the central and western parts of the country remained underdeveloped.

After Lin Feng refused, the conversation became increasingly dull. In the end, Prime Minister Zhu lost interest as well and let Lin Feng and Xia Ruoxi leave.

After walking out of Prime Minister Zhu’s hotel room, Lin Feng and Xia Ruoxi began their journey back to the Lin family villa in Zhanhai. Unable to hold back any longer, Xia Ruoxi said to him from inside the car, “Why didn’t you help Prime Minister Zhu? Once your high-definition displays and hard drives are released, they’ll surely be immensely popular. You could completely place those assembly plants in the central and western regions.”

Lin Feng had not expected Xia Ruoxi to bring up the subject so suddenly, especially since it was the very topic Prime Minister Zhu had just discussed with them.

After recovering from his surprise, Lin Feng watched the road ahead through the windshield and explained to Xia Ruoxi, who was seated beside him, “It’s not that I’m unwilling. I simply can’t set that precedent. Our products will be developed one after another, and naturally I’ll make decisions based on the company’s interests. I’ll place each facility wherever the location is most suitable.

“But once we make an exception this time, the next time we develop something new, they’ll interfere again. Eventually, the locations of all our facilities will have to follow the country’s development plans. This is a private company. I don’t want to make everything so complicated.”

After listening, Xia Ruoxi seemed to understand and accepted Lin Feng’s explanation. She did not say anything more.

…

Time passed quickly. More than two months had gone by since the previous product launch. During that period, Lin Feng had spent most of his time at the laboratory, sometimes keeping an eye on the progress of the research and development, and sometimes joining Zhao Ze in monitoring the training of the recruits.

One day in late May, Lin Feng was chatting with Zhao Ze near the entrance to the laboratory. They were discussing the trainees, and the conversation was becoming increasingly animated, when a series of excited cheers suddenly erupted from inside.

Lin Feng and Zhao Ze stared at the laboratory entrance in confusion. Just as they were about to go inside and investigate, Zhang Wen came charging out as though he had gone mad.

When he saw Lin Feng and Zhao Ze standing outside, Zhang Wen rushed over, embraced Lin Feng, and exclaimed excitedly, “Chairman Lin, we succeeded! We succeeded!”

Lin Feng and Zhao Ze had no idea what he was talking about. Lin Feng held Zhang Wen by the shoulders and urged him, “Don’t rush. Catch your breath first. What happened inside the laboratory? Why is it so noisy?”

Zhang Wen stood to one side and took several deep breaths. Once he had recovered, he immediately grabbed Lin Feng’s hand. He was still extremely excited, but at least he could speak clearly now.

“Chairman Lin, we succeeded! We replicated the high-definition display and hard drive you gave us the specifications for. We even produced working prototypes. After testing, all the data was excellent. The results are nearly identical to the materials you provided!”

“They’re finished? They’re really finished?” Lin Feng became just as excited. He seized Zhang Wen’s hand and asked repeatedly.

“Yes, they’re finished. Come on, Chairman Lin, I’ll take you inside to see them!” Zhang Wen confirmed once more before pulling the equally excited Lin Feng into the laboratory.

At that moment, everyone inside was still immersed in the joy of their success. When they saw Zhang Wen enter with Lin Feng, they gradually quieted down and looked at the two of them in confusion.

Lin Feng had often appeared in the laboratory over the past two months, but none of them knew that he was its owner. Zhang Wen had also forgotten to introduce him, so they had always assumed that Lin Feng was merely one of Zhao Ze’s people from outside.

“Sorry. I kept forgetting to introduce him to you. This is Lin Feng, chairman of Future Style Technology and the owner of this laboratory,” Zhang Wen said, smacking his forehead before hurriedly introducing him.

“He’s Lin Feng? The chairman of Future Style Technology?”

“The chairman is so young!”

“Ah, if I had known he was the chairman, I should have taken the initiative to speak with him more enthusiastically.”

After Zhang Wen’s introduction, the researchers standing nearby began chattering excitedly among themselves.

Lin Feng was too eager to waste time. He desperately wanted to see the prototypes and their test data. He patted Zhang Wen on the shoulder and asked anxiously, “Where are they? I want to see them now!”

“Oh, Chairman Lin, they’re in the room. Come on, I’ll take you there.” Hearing Lin Feng’s urging, Zhang Wen quickly led him forward as he spoke.

Zhang Wen brought Lin Feng into a small private room within the laboratory. The researchers outside did not follow them in. Pointing to a large display and a hard drive behind him, Zhang Wen said, “Chairman Lin, take a look. These are the results we developed from the data you provided.”

When he saw the high-definition display, Lin Feng was genuinely stunned. Its lifelike image quality and astonishing resolution were beyond anything the displays currently sold on Mercury could match. It completely outclassed them by several generations.

“Wow, it really is incredible. If this level of performance is combined with our second-generation computers, it will be absolutely unbeatable!” Lin Feng’s first words after being overwhelmed by the prototype’s display quality were filled with astonishment.

“Exactly. If our company’s second-generation laptops are equipped with this high-definition display, their performance will be several tiers above that of other brands’ high-end products.” As a researcher, Zhang Wen understood the comparative data better than anyone and spoke with complete authority.

After examining the high-definition display, Lin Feng found that the hard drive was not nearly as visually impressive, making its superiority difficult to sense directly. He turned to Zhang Wen and asked, “What about the hard drive? Has there been any improvement?”