Chapter 578: Who to Borrow From?

It is not far; he will arrive soon.

He had notified Zhu Heng in advance, and people were arranged at the entrance, in the lobby, and in the elevators.

Adding the people Lin Sicheng brought, there were over a dozen men and women.

After exiting the elevator, the security personnel went to their respective posts and did not follow them in.

But there were still quite a few people; eight or nine followed behind Lin Sicheng, exiting the elevator with great momentum.

Outside the elevator was the reception bar, where Li Zhen and the newly hired receptionist stood in front.

Lin Sicheng nodded and looked at the guest area nearby.

There were not many people, one man and two women; the man had a burly build, his gaze filled with vigilance—at a glance, he was a bodyguard.

The remaining two were both relatively young, around their early thirties. They were also quite beautiful, with delicate features and fair skin.

Taking a look, Lin Sicheng was slightly stunned: wasn't it said there would be many people, so why were there only three?

And they were all Chinese faces?

In the time it took to think, he walked over and greeted them: "Everyone, apologies for not meeting you sooner. My surname is Lin, Lin Sicheng, I am the Person in Charge of the Research Center..."

The three people stood up, and the tall woman extended her hand. She first stared into Lin Sicheng's eyes, then introduced herself: "General Manager Lin, my surname is Liang, Liang Shiya, currently a rotating representative of the United Association. Before this, I was at Saishi Technology's Asia regional company..." "This one's surname is Chen, Chen Jiashan, currently the Legal Director of the United Association. Before this, she was at Saishi Technology's Greater China region..." Lin Sicheng was stunned for a moment: this was trouble.

The so-called United Association was a technology authorization alliance jointly established by six companies represented by Saishi. To put it bluntly: Lin Sicheng's client. CLO is the abbreviation for Chief Legal Officer, translated as: Chief Legal Officer, which is the Legal Director. This position, besides ability, also values background. Looking at this Director Chen's age, she looked to be about thirty-three or thirty-four. It stood to reason that the latter carried more weight.

Thinking again of the position she previously held: Legal Director of the Greater China region. At least in the legal circles of Hong Kong and Singapore, she was absolutely influential. And these two places happened to be the arbitration locations in the supplementary agreement signed between Lin Sicheng and the six companies.

The United Association sending her to Beijing clearly meant they were here to find fault.

CTO refers to Chief Technology Officer, responsible for coordinating R&D and innovation transformation, including supervising R&D activities, guiding technology selection, and promoting the commercial application of technology.

To put it bluntly: adjusting and changing R&D strategies in a timely manner according to the needs of the client's country, and promoting technology upgrades.

It could be said: how many instruments Saishi Company sells to China each year, the R&D direction adjusted for the Chinese market, as well as the level of technology that can be authorized, specific pricing, etc. —this woman could make at least half the decisions.

Even within the Asia company, her words carried more weight than Li Zhenghao's. For Saishi headquarters, especially the technology and R&D departments, her influence was much greater than Li Zhenghao's.

To hold this position steadily, one first looks at technology, and secondly at precise control over the market.

Those who are proficient in both are rarer than finless porpoises in the Yangtze River.

But looking at this person's age, she was only thirty-one or thirty-two, or perhaps not even thirty yet.

Look again at her previous position: that legal officer surnamed Chen only handled the China region, yet she was responsible for the entire Asia region?

One can imagine how high this Representative Liang's technical level must be. In the future, how difficult would it be for Lin Sicheng to play tricks under her nose? The key was that they were mortal enemies: because of Lin Sicheng, Li Zhenghao was driven to Hawaii to herd cattle. The management team he had previously assembled was either held accountable or fired.

These two belonged to the former: capital punishment might be avoided, but living punishment is inescapable. If they didn't want to go bankrupt, they had to perform meritorious service to atone for their crimes!

Previously, they were responsible for a region, or even a continent, with an annual salary of at least one million starting. Now they were just representatives of the executive association stationed in the country, and the object of supervision was only a small company. The annual salary was likely not even thirty percent of what it was before.

And it was a rotating position; it was hard to say if they would be unemployed in half a year or a year.

One can imagine: their opposition to Lin Sicheng, and their attitude?

Lin Sicheng sighed inwardly, but his face showed nothing, and he shook hands with a smile: "Director Liang, Director Chen, I am truly sorry, I didn't know it was the two of you, I have been neglectful!"

"General Manager Lin, you are too kind; we did not state our identities beforehand, so it cannot be called neglect." Liang Shiya looked into his eyes, "I also didn't expect that you were really sleeping!"

She had previously thought that the Ms. Li who claimed to be the Office Director was lying to her: with the agreement about to take effect, shouldn't Lin Sicheng be busy looking for a venue, contacting equipment, and raising funds?

With only a one-month deadline, he had to raise over one hundred million; he couldn't take out loans, and even less could he accept loans from unknown sources. Lin Sicheng should be so worried he couldn't eat, yet he could actually sleep?

Secondly, Liang Shiya also didn't expect that the relevant departments could be so careless?

They indeed hadn't announced their identities, but when they went to the Entry-Exit Administration to process their visas yesterday, they had specifically emphasized their purpose. Liang Shiya didn't believe the public security department hadn't reported it.

Other departments might not know, but the Ministry of Commerce definitely knew; they actually let Lin Sicheng sleep soundly?

While pondering, the two women exchanged a glance: the reason they came so suddenly, and so covertly, was to see the other party's reaction speed and attitude.

They had tested it, but it was completely different from what they had imagined...

Lin Sicheng smiled apologetically: "I've let you both laugh at me!"

Liang Shiya shook her head: there was nothing to laugh at; on the contrary, she admired him.

If it were her, she definitely wouldn't be able to sleep.

Lin Sicheng gestured: "Everyone, please come in!"

The receptionist and Li Zhen pushed open the door, and Liang Shiya and Chen Jiashan put away their notebooks.

Lin Sicheng took a glance in passing: on both computer screens were the authorization agreements.

Liang Shiya was looking at the specific technical classifications, while Chen Jiashan was looking at the legal clauses.

It really was a race against time, serious to the extreme?

In a flash, the group entered the center.

Lin Sicheng asked while walking: "Director Liang, how many people are in this inspection delegation?"

"Eight in total; besides the two drivers, there is Accountant Guo Yongxin who is in charge of finance. He previously served as the Financial Officer for Saishi Greater China. The remaining three are our assistants!"

Well, another enemy added?

"All Chinese?"

"Of course!" Liang Shiya nodded, "Director Chen and I are from Hong Kong, and Director Guo is from Nanyang (Singapore)!"

Actually, it wasn't strange at all: previously, Chen Jiashan and that Accountant Guo were responsible for the Greater China business, and seventy percent of the clients were Chinese, so they definitely had to use Chinese people.

Liang Shiya's Chinese identity only accounted for a small part; she could serve as a technical officer mostly because of her strong ability.

"Then I will have the office book a hotel. General Manager Liang, how do you think we should book it?"

"Thank you, General Manager Lin, we have already booked it, no need to be so polite!"

"Alright!" Lin Sicheng smiled, "I will take you all for a tour first!"

A single "Alright" left Liang Shiya stunned: saying there was no need to be polite, and you really weren't polite?

But thinking about it again: no matter how friendly the two sides pretended to be on the surface, it couldn't change the fact that they were like fire and water.

And as the time of contact grew longer and deeper, the opposition between the two sides would only become stronger.

Subconsciously, Liang Shiya understood Lin Sicheng a little bit more.

Li Zhengwu said he was cunning and treacherous, but they hadn't seen that yet. They only saw that this person was very arrogant.

And young enough.

In any case, no matter how she associated things, Liang Shiya could not link the face before her to words like "insidious" or "vicious" that Li Zhenghao had mentioned.

Of course, it was also possible that he was just good at disguising himself...

In a flash, Lin Sicheng led them to the experimental area. All the equipment was in place, all the instruments had been calibrated, and the three zones were orderly and clearly organized by priority.

The source of this batch of machines was not complicated: the batch that Liu Anhua had swapped out was coordinated by law enforcement agencies to be compensated to Lin Sicheng. Afterwards, it was calibrated by engineers from the original manufacturer.

There was nothing worth seeing; Liang Shiya just swept a glance around.

After leaving the experimental area and arriving at the restoration area, she finally showed a bit of interest.

The restoration area used relatively fewer instruments and relied mainly on manual operation, so the space was quite large. The second-hand equipment that Liu Anhua had assembled from junk was temporarily piled up here.

According to the agreement, this batch of instruments was recalled by Saishi Company and was part of the inspection team's work content.

Liang Shiya had no interest in a pile of junk, but she was extremely interested in a pile of junk that could run the most advanced software systems currently available. At the very least, it was absolutely not as Li Zhenghao had said, that Liu Anhua had used high-level permissions to load a Third Generation Machine system onto a first-generation machine.

Not to mention the generational gap or whether the hardware would allow it, just looking at the compatibility: it was like installing an airplane engine on a tractor; the fundamental problem wasn't whether you could make the tractor run, but that you had to first find a way to make the engine turn.

This was no longer just difficult; it was extremely difficult.

Liang Shiya was very curious about how Liu Anhua had managed to do it.

But seeing Lin Sicheng bring her here without any hesitation, she suddenly lost interest: even if Liu Anhua had done something, the traces had already been wiped clean.

Liang Shiya was bored, took a few casual looks, and prepared to leave.

Just as she reached the door, she unintentionally saw a 3D imaging electron microscope and stopped again.

She tried hard to recall in her mind, a suspicious expression appearing on her face:

"General Manager Lin, there is a technology in the authorization agreement: Multi-spectral Intelligent Imaging Technology... I remember that this technology is not owned by the six major companies, but is a patent registered by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (United States). So, why does it also need to be written into the agreement?"

Lin Sicheng glanced at her: this belonged to intentional misleading.

This technology was indeed invented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: that is, identifying objects remotely through spectral characteristics.

To put it simply: through satellite remote sensing control, the surface of the earth is probed to analyze whether a certain area is a military camp, a missile base, or civilian facilities. Specifically in the field of archaeology, it is used to detect site types, tomb sizes, degrees of damage, and so on.

But that is space science imaging. And what the six companies authorized is micro-laboratory type intelligent spectral imaging technology. Strictly speaking, these are two types of technology in different fields.

The former is characterized by distance and scale, while the latter is characterized by precision and minuteness. The specific transformation in this field is basically laboratory micro-analysis and testing instruments: for example, ultraviolet, far-infrared, Raman, and Fourier all belong to this type.

Liang Shiya was intentionally steering the conversation toward the "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" to trigger the Safety Clause.

Secondly, she was curious: "Multi-spectral Intelligent Imaging Technology" is developed by various companies, it's just a matter of different focuses; as long as one of them authorizes it, Lin Sicheng can research it.

Why did he insist on having the entire Industry Association, including the six companies, authorize it?

Lin Sicheng naturally could not answer, because he also didn't have good intentions; the key point lay in the word "Intelligent" in "Multi-spectral Intelligent Imaging Technology":

By synthesizing the focuses of the six companies, this becomes a new technology. And its application fields are extremely broad: CT flaw detection, industrial quality inspection, remote sensing monitoring, fluorescent labeling, component analysis, and molecular separation.

And there is something even more critical: performing multi-target morphology, spatial distribution, and quantitative information analysis, calculation, and model reconstruction.

To put it simply: it can completely restore the initial model of an object through sample slices and can calculate the change process caused by external interference.

And the most important point: when it is intelligent to a certain degree, it can identify the types of cancer cells, analyze their growth process, and even induce causes. It can even monitor and analyze the inhibition and mechanism of action of drug distribution on specific cells.

For example: if Lin Sicheng could research it to this stage, and he only applied for authorization from one company in the transfer agreement rather than the Industry Association, then the remaining companies, as long as they held relevant registered patents, could sue him.

And they would be sure to win.

Therefore, Lin Sicheng would never tell the truth even if it killed him.

He pretended not to understand very well: "Director Liang, I'm not too clear on this either, I'll ask later!"

"Ask who?"

"Naturally, ask the Lawyer who drafted the agreement!"

Liang Shiya curled her lips: "General Manager Lin's Lawyer understands this too?"

"Of course!" Lin Sicheng pointed behind him, "Does Director Liang want to verify it?"

Liang Shiya shook her head.

Those who know, know what kind of background Lin Sicheng's two "Lawyers" have; it was nothing more than a lack of evidence.

She had no time and no mood to play the "Guess Who I Am" game with Lin Sicheng.

After taking a cursory look around, Liang Shiya had a rough impression of this Center. She spoke bluntly: "General Manager Lin, is the technology research authorized by the United Association also placed here?"

"Of course not, this place only does Artifact Research!" Lin Sicheng said readily, "We have already contacted the park property management and will rent a new venue nearby."

"How big?"

Lin Sicheng replied without hesitation: "Five thousand square meters... of course, that's only for the initial stage!"

Liang Shiya calculated: for the initial stage, it was barely enough.

"This is considered the city center, the costs certainly won't be low!" Liang Shiya gestured around, "It can also be seen that General Manager Lin's funds are not very sufficient; how do you plan to solve this?"

Naturally, it would be emergency allocation from the relevant departments, and then transferred to the Center's account under the name of "personal loans."

But there was one point: it had to withstand the audit of the United Association.

As a result, before they even had time to discuss it, the inspection team had arrived?

Lin Sicheng thought for a moment and spat out one word: "Borrow!"

Liang Shiya pressed on: "Borrow from whom?"