"Wait— I didn't see anything!" Li Yaqi at once clapped her hands over her eyes, striking the pose of one who'd seen nothing at all.
Even Zhao Chen was taken aback by the gesture.
"What are you doing? Didn't you guess my identity long ago anyway?"
Still covering her eyes, Li Yaqi said with some anxiety, "It's just… sir, is it that you no longer wish to work with me, and that's why you've taken off the mask…?"
"No longer wish to work with you? Why would you think that?" Zhao Chen laughed despite himself.
A crack opened between Li Yaqi's fingertips. "Because… your public identity now is the Chu family's grandson-in-law. With resources as fine as the Chu family's, why would you still want to work with me?"
Li Yaqi had, after no small effort, thought she'd found her money tree — and now this. This was exactly the reason she'd been so ill at ease these past few days.
So the woman had been worrying about that.
"The Chu family is the Chu family; you are you. The two aren't the same," Zhao Chen said.
"I don't quite follow?" Li Yaqi was puzzled.
Zhao Chen went on, "You said it yourself just now — the Chu family has its own deep resources, and my working with them may be a matter of course. But some things must never be put all in one basket."
"You and the Chu family…" Li Yaqi was more astonished still.
Zhao Chen said outright, "The rest, you needn't concern yourself with, nor ask about. I'll simply ask you straight: do you still want to work with me, or not?"
"Of course I do!" Li Yaqi nodded again and again. How could she not? On the strength of the T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer alone, her Northern Goose Starship Technology Group had risen outright; and the four ship designs that followed were more remarkable still — not the runaway hit the T1 Wolf-Louse was, perhaps, but sought-after products all the same. And every bit of it thanks to that money tree, Zhao Chen.
"Very well. From this moment on, the cooperation between you and me is to be kept absolutely secret. Apart from the two of us, no one is to know — including Li Wei. He may guess at some of it, but you must have him say nothing of it to anyone else! If you can manage all this, then not only can our partnership continue — it can go a step deeper!" Zhao Chen fixed his eyes on Li Yaqi.
Hearing that the partnership could continue, the stone in Li Yaqi's heart finally settled.
"I understand all this — I will absolutely keep the secret! Even when my own father asked me where these ship technologies came from, I didn't tell him!" Li Yaqi said firmly.
"Though matters between us must stay secret, some contact will be unavoidable. So I need you to find a way to establish a channel that won't expose us and yet lets us deal back and forth. For instance, if I need certain resources or raw materials, you could pass them to me by this route!" Zhao Chen said gravely.
Li Yaqi thought a moment, then said suddenly, "There is such a way! The truth is, I have private dealings with an interstellar pirate fleet. In our line — interstellar trade — brushing up against these gray industries is unavoidable. This pirate fleet's captain can absolutely be trusted. If you have any need in future — raw materials, supplies, say — I can arrange for her pirate fleet to travel through the fringe space between systems and reach whatever region you specify, and deliver the goods into your hands! Utterly discreet! Only, this method takes dozens of times as long as ordinary shipping, unless one has very advanced interstellar transports. Still, your Owl Dragon Star System is quite near the frontier, so a single trip wouldn't take too long."
Hearing this, Zhao Chen was well satisfied with the method.
"As it happens, I have need of a batch of interstellar transport ships just now. Make the arrangements — I'll give you a set of coordinates in due course, and you'll deliver this batch of transports to the specified location without a whisper." Zhao Chen instructed.
Collecting the dwarf race would require interstellar transports. But Zhao Chen couldn't openly procure a batch of them — that would surely arouse suspicion. He couldn't very well let Governor Chu learn that he'd slipped out of the North Wind Star Region the moment their pact was struck.
"As it happens, I've just rolled out a batch of the T2 Moose you gave me earlier. How many do you need?" Li Yaqi asked.
The T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transport Ship — one of the four ship technologies Zhao Chen had earlier handed to Li Yaqi to run. Zhao Chen began recalling this transport's specifications. A single ship, if given over entirely to carrying people, could hold roughly 100,000. But one had to allow, too, for the food those hundred thousand would need for one trip, and the luggage they might bring — with whole families in tow, there'd be no small amount of it. By a rough first estimate, a single ship's practical capacity was 50,000.
On this first trip, there likely wouldn't be too many dwarf tribes willing to trust him; and Zhao Chen's own shortfall of starship artisans wasn't so large just now — being able to bring back a few tens of thousands this first time would already be a good result. So he'd fix it at five ships for the time being — with room to spare for special circumstances.
"Then arrange five T2 Moose for me. I'll see to the crew myself; when they're delivered, have the ships' crews withdraw. Tell me — how much for the five T2 Moose? I'll transfer it to you, or deduct it from my licensing fees." Zhao Chen instructed.
"What are you saying? The T2 Moose is built with your own ship technology — a mere five of them. The build cost is only 50,000 star coins; five is nothing worth mentioning." Li Yaqi waved her hands again and again, refusing Zhao Chen's offer to pay.
In fact, Li Yaqi had deliberately understated it: the build cost was 50,000 star coins, but the sale price was 1 million — five ships came to 5 million. And ever since its release, this T2 Moose had sold extremely well; orders were already backed up half a year out.
Seeing Li Yaqi put it this way, Zhao Chen said no more.
"The four ship technologies I gave you before — how have sales been so far?" Zhao Chen asked in passing.
At once Li Yaqi assumed her professional manner and began a detailed report; Zhao Chen let much of it wash past him, retaining only a few strings of figures. From when Li Yaqi had first set up the production lines for these four ships to now, three months had passed. Having poured all the earnings from the T1 Wolf-Louse into building those four production lines, she'd achieved mass production by the third month, and held a launch event. In the space of a single month, over 100 ships had sold outright, with orders reaching into the thousands! Not counting the prepaid orders, that came to 90 million star coins!
"By our earlier agreement, your share is 70% — that is, 63 million star coins; deducting the 20 million you advanced earlier leaves 43 million. I'd actually been meaning to contact you in a few days to transfer you this licensing fee," Li Yaqi said. Though she'd earned only 20% of it, Li Yaqi was well content; as capacity gradually expanded in future, this income would only grow.
"No hurry with that money — keep it on your end for now," Zhao Chen said. With one and a half billion star coins on hand now, he naturally didn't much mind small sums like this. Leaving it with Li Yaqi would, if anything, make it more convenient for handling certain matters down the line.
"You mentioned the Hurricane Conglomerate just now? You've had some falling-out with them?" Zhao Chen asked with interest.
At the mention of it, Li Yaqi said helplessly, "That's on account of the T2 Moose as well. In the T2 interstellar transport market, the Hurricane Conglomerate has been grabbing territory these last few years — the North Wind Star Region above all! At present they've already seized 30% of the North Wind Star Region's T2 transport market. But with our T2 Moose appearing — positioned as high value for money — it's snatched no small number of their customers outright. So they've begun going after us, openly and in secret — choking off our raw-material procurement, and the like."
Li Yaqi was thoroughly vexed, but there was nothing to be done — they were the Hurricane Conglomerate. She might have built a reputation on the T1 Wolf-Louse, but set against the Hurricane Conglomerate, she still fell far, far short.
Zhao Chen's face now took on a smile of deep meaning. "In that case — have you ever thought of taking revenge on the Hurricane Conglomerate?"
"Revenge?" Li Yaqi blinked. "How? They're a great house with a vast estate. In a price war, we may have the cost advantage, but with their ample funds, we'd more likely be the ones dragged under."
"To strike a snake, strike at its vital inch — we go straight for its most important market!" Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes, like an eagle that had fixed on its prey. "Isn't their T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer their best-selling ship? In a moment I'll give you the technical blueprints for a T2-grade interstellar destroyer. We'll beat him in the very place he's strongest!"
The Hurricane Conglomerate.
Heh, heh — Zhao Chen's "grudge-holding" nature could no longer be held in check. That Blue Fatty and Yellow Rat he couldn't deal with yet — so first he'd poke a hole in their money-bag!