Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 221 - 221 1 Return to the Homeland

221: Chapter 1: Return to the Homeland 221: Chapter 1: Return to the Homeland On the evening of January 22, 2044, a plane landed on the runway at Beiping Daxing International Airport.

Moments later, Xiang Shan and another elderly man exited from the departure gate.

Xiang Shan restarted the AR smart glasses hanging in his front pocket.

Soon, the glasses had searched the crowd, found their target, and displayed a prompt icon.

This locking system, purportedly created by top game designers hired by this generation’s development team, fits quite well with human instincts.

With the help of the glasses, Xiang Shan locked onto the assistant who had come to pick them up—this logistics staff member was someone he was supposedly meeting for the first time.

But he did not need to be acquainted with this subordinate.

The apps on the assistant’s phone were linked with Xiang Shan’s AR smart glasses.

The company had sent instructions to the assistant’s phone.

As long as he was at the pick-up point, Xiang Shan’s glasses would display his presence.

One could say that this system, to some extent, had replaced the facial recognition mechanism in Xiang Shan’s brain to construct another type of interpersonal relationship.

“Boss, you really are detached,” the old man said, “After all, these are employees you come into contact with frequently; it wouldn’t be hard to remember a bit about them personally.”

“To use emotions beyond what is called for by the employment contract to win over employees is a very evil thing,” Xiang Shan replied, waving at the employee, who also saw them and waved back energetically.

Other assistants were responsible for collecting their luggage.

Led by the employee assistant, Xiang Shan and the older man boarded a stretch business vehicle, which had been specially modified.

When necessary, it could block electromagnetic wave transmission both inside and out, creating a relatively private space to prevent eavesdropping.

The driver’s seat was isolated from the back with soundproofing installed between them.

The back seat had four seats facing each other, with a small coffee table in the middle.

However, Xiang Shan and the elderly man were not planning to discuss any business secrets, so they did not activate those advanced features.

Through the car’s intercom, the assistant asked, “Chairman Xiang, do we go back to the company or directly to your home?”

“To the office,” Xiang Shan said, his tone tinged with fatigue.

“Aren’t you going home, Boss?” the old man asked, surprised.

“Today is the Republic’s Lunar New Year’s Eve, and I thought you were eager to return to the country just to reunite with your family.”

“I live in Beiping, and there’s never a lack of time to gather with the family,” Xiang Shan explained.

“Besides, if I go home now, they wouldn’t have prepared my dinner anyway.”

The business vehicle slowly left the airport.

The elderly man skillfully took out a bottle of sweet sherry from the lower icebox and poured himself a small cup.

He lifted another empty cup, gesturing to Xiang Shan, who shook his head.

“Such a waste.

Everyone considers that you cannot appreciate wines with sour, astringent, or bitter tastes, which is why they’ve stocked up on sweet wines here,” the old man said as he put the bottle back and slowly drank half the cup.

He set down his glass and looked toward the rapidly approaching North Beiping cityscape, saying, “It’s funny, seeing this sight makes me feel relieved even though I have just returned from my homeland.

I suspect if I visit the Federation a few more times, I might become a national enemy there.”

“Impossible,” Xiang Shan smiled.

“Sometimes I doubt you ever go online, boss,” the old man sipped his drink again, “What do they think of me over there?

A spokesperson for demons, a would-be destroyer of the world, a wrecking ball to the medical industry…

if I were seen in public with a political figure, I might even risk getting egged!”

“That’s just a small fraction of extremists,” Xiang Shan dismissed, “Over here, I am officially certified as a pillar of the nation.

Still, there’s a bunch of idiots online cursing my entire family daily, saying I ‘intend to corrupt human bloodlines’ and am a ‘great sinner of the nation.’ The minority.”

“The situation really is different.

There’s too many idiots over there—haven’t you forgotten those guys from Silicon Valley who threw stones at us?”

Xiang Shan laughed, “Right, but a single phone call from you brought in a whole squad of riot police.

I think they had it rougher.”

“Oh, you really are…” the old man shook his head again, “Let me advise you once more to pay more attention to business reputation, corporate image…”

“Our enterprise is centered around R&D.

Every activity exists to support our research institutions,” Xiang Shan countered, blocking any further comment from the old man.

The old man was Bernard Dubois.

In the Republic, he had adopted a localized name, “Dibona.” Sometimes Xiang Shan referred to him as “Old Di.”

Old Di was a bona fide citizen of the Federation, a typical “old white man”—elderly, white, male.

Much like there could be a vagrant surnamed Fujiwara in Japan, among the “old white men,” there were also impoverished people at the bottom of society.

But wealthy old white men like Bernard meant deep-rooted social connections and extensive networking resources.

Bernard was a professional manager who, two years ago, was hired to join Xiang Shan’s company and became one of the senior managers.

Prior to this, he had held executive positions at many high-tech corporations, bringing with him a wealth of experience.

However, few people knew another identity of Bernard—Political Broker.

He had personal relationships with numerous politicians and knew which organizations were closely connected to the Federation’s governmental staff.

He knew how to properly utilize “donations” to maintain friendly relations between his enterprise and the political forces of the Federation.

Although it might sound somewhat “insignificant,” it was actually a high art.

After all, spending money legally and efficiently was a matter of great learning.

Even on Wall Street, there were many managers and companies ousted from the Free Market because they did not understand these subtleties.

For most of the year 43, he navigated the Federation for enterprises owned by Xiang Shan and others, striving for more favorable bills or policies for those enterprises.

Besides this, he was also responsible for acquiring stakes in specific technology companies for the enterprise.

According to Bernard’s understanding, the research team led by Yawgmoth was working on a massive project.

This project required numerous “preliminary technologies”—embarrassingly, some of these technologies had already been developed and patented by others.

Some companies, extremely confident in their secrecy, hadn’t even applied for patents but kept their innovations clandestine and used them in production processes.

However, what Bernard found incomprehensible was that Xiang Shan’s team seemed to have an abnormal obsession with this issue.

They had no plans to buy licenses or sign profit-sharing agreements through “technology shares.”

From this manager’s perspective, Xiang Shan’s approach seemed buffoonish and unreasonable.

This gentleman either planned to purchase patents he was interested in and then license them to the world at no cost.

Or he intended to acquire them through mandatory takeovers by buying out patent-holder companies and then license the patents to the world at no cost.

Of course, the enterprise’s financial resources were not infinite.

Thus, Bernard’s entrance was necessary.

Bernard’s task was to promote legislation that limited the maximum revenue from prosthetic body patents.

Simply put, he was to use legislation to set a cap on the profit margin for prosthetic bodies, even pushing it as low as possible.

For Xiang Shan, this legislation meant that certain medical technology companies would face reduced anticipated revenues.

He could negotiate the lowest possible prices in patent acquisitions or forced equity purchases.

There were also complementary policies, such as providing high subsidies to some prosthetic body companies to compensate for their research and development costs.

However, to those in the industry with foresight, this was merely a “soft knife.” After all, the uncertainty of “subsidy recipients” and “subsidy scope” was far greater than their market research on demand creation and demand manufacturing.

To conservatives, this strategy seemed utterly unreasonable.

They believed that such actions would undoubtedly affect researchers’ enthusiasm for the medical field and hinder the advancement of medical technology.

It was because of this that Bernard, who was working behind the scenes, was exposed by conservative journalists and dubbed the “Satan of the medical industry.”

“A disciple of the Free Market, huh?” Xiang Shan was unconcerned, “Don’t mind them.

And as a researcher, I must tell you the truth, this approach won’t reduce researchers’ enthusiasm for advancing medical technology.

It will only hinder capitalists’ investments in the relevant sectors.”

“Although it doesn’t sound very ‘free,’ it is quite ‘equal.’ You’ve said it yourself, with a little searching, you can find loads of politicians in the Democratic Party who hope to turn this into an achievement.”

“Boss, I can detect a hint of sarcasm in your tone,” Bernard sighed, “Do you know how in the early 18th century the kingdom of France completely lost its competition against the British Empire?”

“Hmm?

Is it time to discuss historical topics?”

Old Di shook his head, “The kingdom established a ‘Mississippi Company,’ to compare with the empire’s ‘East India Company’.

However, the French king didn’t respect the objective laws of finance at all, and blew a huge bubble within his own country.

This led to France being in decay throughout the eighteenth century, missing out on an entire century—resulting in the well-known revolution.”

“Whereas their opponents respected the general economic laws more.”

“Your highly respected Mr.

Karl believed that economics was a very objective discipline.

Challenging natural laws is foolish.

Even though our company’s research team is one of the greatest in the world, it should not surpass objective laws.

You also ought to respect objective laws somewhat.

If you insist on destroying them, you will definitely come to a day when you badly hurt yourself.”