Chapter 66: The Wheel of Fate Begins to Turn

No matter how well one promises, when faced with great profit, one may still fight until heads bleed.

If Dongling High-Tech is truly acquired or invested in by Sitong Group, it might be fine if the company never makes money—but if it does start profiting, they won’t necessarily treat each other with respect, especially when facing Duan Yongji, known as the IT godfather and Old Fox of Zhongguancun, whose office politics skills are maxed out and who excels at seizing power and profit—who knows how much bickering there’ll be?

It’s easy to invite a god but hard to send him away; once Duan Yongji and Sitong Group enter Dongling High-Tech, trying to kick them out later won’t be possible without a battle as fierce as the Wanke equity struggle of the previous life.

Li Dongling truly didn’t want to engage in open or covert power struggles with Duan Yongji over Dongling High-Tech’s equity—better to refuse outright from the start!

Take Sina’s predecessor, Sino-Land, as the best example: Sina initially received investment from Sitong Group, and the terms Wang Jun presented to Li Dongling were the same—only money, no interference in Sina’s internal management.

What happened? After Sina went public, Sitong Group, as its major shareholder, dealt it a brutal blow; Wang Zhidong, Sina’s founder and also a former Sitong employee, was directly thrown out on the street—the very Sitong Group that had promised not to interfere swallowed Sina whole!

Amid widespread public speculation about rumors between Dongling High-Tech and Sitong Group, Li Dongling paid no attention; instead, he ordered Dongling High-Tech’s R&D department to accelerate development of the electronic pet device, as thousands of workers at the electronics park were waiting for their salaries—Dongling High-Tech needed massive cash flow to develop its mini radios, car radios, USB drives, and other products; arguing with Sitong was meaningless.

When a dedicated vehicle from the joint laboratory, escorted with a security box, delivered a single electronic pet device wafer to the Dongling High-Tech lab building, the entire company sprang into urgent action.

With the wafer in hand, the rest was assembly and program debugging; the entire Dongling High-Tech R&D department began working tirelessly on the project. Chen Tao, as technical director, also came over to help.

Ten days later, a black-and-white pixelated egg, “born” by computer, appeared in the lab.

Hu Zi, Yao Luoying, Gao Peng, Zhang Ao, and others rushed to the lab and stared at the electronic pet device, resembling an egg with a cartoon-style appearance.

From a future perspective, this electronic pet egg was extremely crude: a simple black-and-white screen, three buttons, and a basic pixelated block—that was its entirety.

But this was the era of smartphones, when even electronic watches were wildly popular; this electronic pet device, at first glance, appeared refined enough—Hu Zi, Zhang Ao, and the other men were merely curious, but Yao Luoying was different—her gaze locked tightly onto the device.

Women are visual creatures; for electronic pet devices with anime or cartoon aesthetics and bright, cute designs, their hearts instantly glow with maternal warmth, like seeing a pet cat—while not entirely powerless, most women feel an urge to pick it up and touch it; this is innate female nature.

Just as men remain boys forever, forever drawn to eighteen-year-olds… no, forever unable to resist a perfectly straight stick—childhood sword qi cleaving the world, ten miles of rapeseed flowers bowing down—this electronic pet device was to women what a cat was, and to men what a very straight stick was; humans cannot resist their nature!

After another round of testing, under Yao Luoying’s expectant gaze, Li Dongling placed the world’s first electronic pet device into her hands.

Holding the device, after a brief understanding, Yao Luoying quickly mastered it—after all, the functions were few; a few tries were enough to learn how to operate it.

The electronic pet device was small, only half the size of her palm; after a few beeps, Yao Luoying’s eyes lit up as she entered the interface: first, hatching a pet, with thirty-five choices including dog, cat, rabbit, monkey, chick, and panda.

Once familiar, she used the buttons to feed, bathe, play with, and clean up after the pet; when hungry or needing hygiene, it emitted beeping alerts—just like caring for a real cat.

The program was simple: feeding improved mood, playing raised happiness, but if hygiene wasn’t maintained, the pet would fall ill, run away, or even die, allowing players to experience a pet’s entire life cycle—from birth, growth, to natural death.

The gameplay was simple, the controls easy, but Yao Luoying, encountering such a thing for the first time, became utterly hooked—only when she noticed the device had warmed up did she realize nearly half an hour had passed!

Looking at the electronic pet device in her hand, Yao Luoying reluctantly handed it over to Hu Zi, Zhang Ao, Gao Peng, and others to try.

For these men, who had never played anything like it before, the experience was thoroughly enjoyable.

After all Dongling High-Tech executives had tried the electronic pet device, they already had a clear sense of its quality—if even they got hooked, even slightly addicted, how much more would young people, especially women, love it?

In the conference room beside the lab, Li Dongling looked at the group before him: “For the electronic pet device project, there are now two most important tasks.”

“First, get it into production as soon as possible—set up the production line at the electronics park; before official launch, I require a minimum inventory of one million units!”

“One million units?!”

Hearing this, Hu Zi couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise—such a massive inventory would severely strain cash flow; if sales failed to meet expectations and the units couldn’t be sold, Dongling High-Tech’s entire cash flow might collapse.

Li Dongling knew what Hu Zi and the others feared: “Currently, there are no similar electronic pet devices on the market, no competitors—Dongling High-Tech has a strong chance of dominating the market early on!”

Risk is certain, but if the electronic pet device becomes popular and supply can’t keep up, the opportunity will be lost forever—bigger waves mean bigger fish; compared to potential gains, these risks are absolutely worth taking.

Gao Peng, who managed logistics and also oversaw the electronics park, added: “If we prepare for production now, we must place orders with component suppliers.”

Some components of the electronic pet device can be manufactured in-house by Dongling High-Tech, but the wafer, screen, and button batteries require outsourcing or procurement.

Li Dongling nodded, then turned to Yao Luoying and Zhang Ao: “Contact overseas advertisers—focus advertising for the electronic pet device on Japan, Korea, Singapore, and America.”

“Find overseas distributors and agents as quickly as possible!”

Yao Luoying nodded, but she and Zhang Ao both felt a headache—overseas channels weren’t easy to find; rushing in blindly would mean getting ripped off, with the other side taking huge profits and commissions.

Zhang Ao, who oversaw Dongling High-Tech’s sales department, suddenly remembered a Hong Kong trading company they’d recently been negotiating with: “There’s a Hong Kong trading agency—our sales team is in talks with Ning’s Trading Company, which wants the agency rights for Silver Mink mice in Hong Kong, Korea, Siam, Cochinchina, and Singapore. This company seems quite capable—should we reach out to them?”

“Ask them to come to Pingyang,” Li Dongling said, then turned to Yao Luoying: “Have someone in Hong Kong investigate this company.”

These days, scammers were everywhere—especially those posing as foreign investors or using fake cooperation projects; those exposed by the media had swindled hundreds of millions, even billions, leaving countless families stripped bare—no amount of caution was too much.

Li Dongling felt that if the electronic pet device project succeeded, Dongling High-Tech might need to establish a new headquarters in Hong Kong—this could serve as its trade department to sell products and use the Hong Kong company’s name to purchase overseas R&D equipment, far more convenient than operating from Pingyang; moreover, with a Hong Kong capital identity, Dongling High-Tech’s operations would be smoother.

In the first-class cabin of the flight from Guangzhou to the capital of Hanzhong Province, Ning Wenke flipped through her magazine but couldn’t focus, glancing restlessly out the window.

Ning Wenke hadn’t wanted to come at all—Ning’s Trading Company had shown no improvement, her father Ning Wantian remained unconscious, and the entire Ning family was in chaos.

Just then, news came from the Silver Mink mouse side: something had happened, and they demanded she come to Pingyang personally for an important cooperation discussion with Ning’s Trading Company.

Ning Wenke had investigated in Hong Kong—Silver Mink mice had some fame, but only some; even after winning the lawsuit against Microsoft, mice remained a niche computer accessory, with a limited market—retail sales couldn’t move many units; Ning Wenke had pursued the Silver Mink agency purely as a gamble.

She hadn’t wanted to come, but Ning’s Trading Company showed no improvement, and staying in Hong Kong solved nothing; this trip to Hanzhong was just a vacation for herself, a chance to clear her head, and perhaps find another suitable domestic brand to represent—but she held out little hope; if she found nothing, she’d treat it as a holiday.

After landing, Ning Wenke didn’t linger in the provincial capital—she headed straight for Pingyang, planning to resolve matters with Dongling High-Tech before taking her vacation.