Wu Xiong carefully considered what Lu Yuan had just said.
He seemed to have grasped the key point.
"Dr. Lu, did you just say that was the price if paid with money, meaning you'd also accept other forms of payment?"
"That's right."
Lu Yuan sat up straight, and the discussion finally got to the main point.
"I need a complete set of gene research equipment, from limb research to cell research and then to the most microscopic gene encoding devices, a full set of equipment."
Wu Xiong's face was expressionless, Sun Ying was stunned, Wei's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
The three showed different psychological resilience according to their rank and status.
Lu Yuan: "As far as I know, the gene research equipment left over from the old era that your Starlight Group has control over is slightly more advanced than what Tianyu Group has."
"I'm not greedy, just one working set will do, you can set the price however you want."
Wu Xiong blinked and carefully asked, "Dr. Lu..."
"Are you conducting medical research that already extends to the field of genetics all on your own?"
Beside him, Wei gazed in shock, "The R&D personnel in our group's gene department haven't even--"
Wei didn't finish speaking before he felt two surges of cold intent converge on him.
Wu Xiong and Sun Ying glared at Wei full of killing intent.
He immediately shut his mouth.
Lu Yuan didn't directly answer the question Wu Xiong asked.
He just smiled without saying anything.
But in Lu Yuan's mind...
Hmph, extends to the field of genetics?
Hillbilly!
It would scare you to death if I told you the truth!
I'm already almost at the end of the genetics field!
Gene encoding!
Unlocking the human genome!
Lu Yuan didn't know what stage those medical groups on the outside had reached in their genetic research.
But he knew that they probably couldn't compare to him.
Otherwise, why would the Starlight Group value so highly the mechanical prosthetics he had devised three years ago?
Next, Wu Xiong made a phone call and came back. After nearly another hour of bargaining, the two sides reached a series of agreements.
The Starlight Group would trade a complete set of gene research equipment for 100 full sets of mechanical prosthetics from Lu Yuan.
The total value was about 2.6 billion.
Each would be responsible for their own loading and transport.
For the place of exchange, Lu Yuan and Wu Xiong tacitly chose a random location on the border between S Region and X Region.
The exact location would be determined later.
If the Starlight Group had further demand for prosthetics in the future, they would purchase them with cash payments of 3.5 million per set.
Both signed two copies of the contract, Lu Yuan imprinted his handprint, and Wu Xiong affixed the official seal representing the Starlight Group.
Given the lack of sufficiently authoritative law enforcement and judicial institutions in this era, signing contracts didn't have much significance anymore.
But the ceremonial cooperation passed down from the old era still gave some sense of security in most cases, especially when working with financial groups like the Starlight Group.
At the very least, big financial groups still cared about face on the surface.
The two sides exchanged contracts, and Wu Xiong casually remarked, "Oh right, Dr. Lu, don't forget to provide detailed installation videos and instruction manuals when we make the exchange!"
Lu Yuan stopped what he was doing and slowly said, "President Wu, let's keep things separate. The prosthetics are prosthetics, and the technology is technology. I don't provide it for free."
Wu Xiong stared and asked, "Dr. Lu, if I buy a piece of furniture, installation instructions should be included, right?"
Lu Yuan calmly replied, "President Wu, if I sell an airplane, do I have an obligation to provide pilot training? There's no such precedent, right?"
Wu Xiong: "Then at the very least you have to provide the service!"
"Of course the service is provided!"
Lu Yuan smiled again.
Wu Xiong immediately understood. He slapped the table in resignation and said, "Fine! Name your price!"
Lu Yuan seemed to have already prepared in his mind. His voice was slow and methodical: "I don't know if President Wu wants an exclusive regional distributorship or just a regular distributorship?"
Wu Xiong was stunned for three seconds as anger nearly burst out the top of his head.
To Wu Xiong, Lu Yuan's words were tantamount to "Do you want me to cultivate another medical financial group in S Region that possesses this technology?"
Beside Wu Xiong, Sun Ying helplessly held her forehead and mournfully said, "Dr. Lu, you're a doctor..."
"Can you please not calculate so shrewdly like a businessman?"
Lu Yuan took off his eyeglass frames that didn't have lenses and put them into his white coat pocket. "I'm sorry, doctors doesn't mean I have to selflessly dedicate myself to you."
"There may have been people like that in the old era, but now is the new era."
"The gap between financial groups in the new era and officialdom in the old era is also vast."
Lu Yuan's words left Wu Xiong and Sun Ying at a loss for rebuttal.
Sun Ying: "Passion, ethics, responsibility, commitment..."
Lu Yuan: "Hmm? What's up, do you want to become my patient?"
Sun Ying: "I didn't say anything."
Finally, Wu Xiong dispiritedly said, "Exclusive distributor, we want the exclusive distributorship."
"I really didn't expect that usually people plead for the distributor rights to our products. But now, there would come a day when our Starlight Group has become a distributor for someone else..."
Lu Yuan picked up his cell phone and typed "3.5" on it.
"3.5 billion, per year."
Instantly, deathly silence filled the conference room.
After a long while, Wu Xiong drank some water and slowly said, "Dr. Lu, it seems that gene research equipment isn't all that important to you?"
Lu Yuan smiled. He deleted the number on his phone and re-typed "2.6".
"That's the price I give others. Of course I have to show more sincerity when dealing with friends."
"2.6 billion, 3 years, can pay in installments."
Wu Xiong pondered briefly and held up a finger, "The price is fine, but there needs to be an added condition."
"You have to accept Starlight Group's invitation to become an unnamed external medical consultant for us."
"Every month, we can send you a case not limited to prosthetic replacement, and of course we will pay the medical expenses for that case."
Lu Yuan: "You can make things a little more difficult, no need to send one case every month. Just send me as many as you want whenever you want."
"And I guarantee the safety issues for your cases after entering X Region, including safety issues for you several during your departure this time."
Only then did Wu Xiong's expression improve slightly. He asked Lu Yuan at the end, "What about this prosthetic body of mine?"
Lu Yuan waved his hand. "That's just a little gift from me to President Wu. Please accept it with amusement."
Wu Xiong forced a bitter smile. "Please don't. Just give me a discount. Otherwise when the group investigates, I won't be able to withstand it. Let's redraw the contract..."
In the end, Lu Yuan gave Wu Xiong a 20% discount at 1.2 million paid on the spot by transfer.
When the two sides concluded negotiations, it was already 3 pm. Lu Yuan treated Wu Xiong and his group to a meal at Yun City Xia's Group's restaurant to fulfill his host duties.
After eating for over an hour, around 5 pm when it was almost dark, Lu Yuan and Liu Yuan returned to the clinic while Wu Xiong's group returned to their hotel.
But shortly after leaving the restaurant, Wu Xiong told Long who was driving, "Long, leave this place and return home through the night!"
This puzzled not just Long, but also Sun Ying and Wei.
Sun Ying: "President Wu, didn't Dr. Lu say to leave tomorrow and he would have people send us out of X Region?"
Wu Xiong looked at his new body and urgently said, "You don't understand shit!"
"It's more dangerous if we let that Lu follow us!"
"And I can't wait any longer, I have to hurry back and test out whether this body works well!"
Long had no choice but to turn the steering wheel towards the suburbs of Yun City.
As darkness fell, Wu Xiong's car soon disappeared into the pitch black night.
...Suburbs.
As they were about to leave the outskirts of Yuncheng, the several people in the car finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Whether it was the clown that had appeared earlier or the female ghost Long had spoken of afterwards, both had left considerable psychological shadows on everyone.
Sun Ying patted her chest and said, "Long, play some music."
"Sure."
The gentle, antique-style music soon rang out in the car, the melody languid, however...
Long subtly knitted his brows, because he did not remember putting this track in his in-car music player.
As a macho man, Long did not like antique-style music.
Suddenly, swish—
Long slammed hard on the brakes.
His action gave the other three people in the car a sudden fright!
No one questioned Long, with everyone first looking out the car windows.
In this already-dark suburb, fog had actually arisen.
"Why would fog come up this late at night?"
"This place really is freaking sinister!"
"L-Long, turn off the music, listening to it in this environment is p-pretty scary..."
Long did not move at all, staring fixedly at their surroundings, saying in a low voice: "Can't turn it off..."
"This music isn't coming from our car at all."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
