Chapter 703: Taking Advantage, and Going for a Spin
Jenny chuckled and hit him several times. “Nonsense. I’ve always been nice to my employees.”
Luke immediately thought of a bad idea. “No, it’s better to be more imposing. Only then will CEO Gwenis be more like a queen!”
As soon as he said that, he was punched again.
Luke and Jenny laughed for a while to get rid of the gloom before Jenny explained the situation at the phone company.
Miss Beth’s “revenge” on her family had made it possible for Titanium Phone Company to start sales two months earlier.
But she was only a major shareholder in the company, and wasn’t the only one who made the decisions.
It wasn’t a problem for Beth to suppress her heartless father and brother.
As long as there were enough benefits, the other shareholders at Island Dragon wouldn’t object to her revenge operation.
Beth must’ve had a lot of private meetings. At the very least, she had to ensure that the company’s profits didn’t fall, or maybe could climb even higher.
But it was thanks to the fact that Miss Beth was a major shareholder that the Thompson family had always gotten the phone components from Island Dragon at relatively lower prices.
Miss Beth’s revenge aligned even more with the other shareholders’ interest.
It was only because of this that the production of the parts for Titanium Phone Company was brought forward.
The smartphone chip required for the Titanium phone had a high performance requirement, and the profits that Island Dragon could make were also high.
At the same time, Titanium Phone Company had also put in an order for wireless router components with Island Dragon.
Weyland Corporation had also placed an identical order.
Of course, Island Dragon Corporation knew that Weyland Corporation was working with Titanium phones.
This also meant that the sales of Titanium phones were likely to skyrocket.
Thus, Beth wanted Titanium Phone Company to increase their order.
That was why Jenny was in a hurry to find Luke.
She had very conservative expectations for the initial supply of Titanium phones.
The first batch of 200,000 phones could be gradually increased to 500,000 on the market in a year.
The company’s order would also increase in line with this forecast.
Beth, however, wanted Jenny to order at least a million phone chips in one go.
Luke thought for a moment before he nodded. “Sure. It doesn’t matter if there’s more.”
The product he created was an imitation of the Apple 4, which people sold their kidneys for in his past life.
It would only take a few months or half a year to sell a million phones.
Jenny smiled bitterly. “With what money? This is an inventory that has expanded several times in one swoop. We don’t have that much money.”
Luke said, “Isn’t Weyland thinking of investing? That money should be enough, right?”
Jenny said, “But the timing is tight. If we want Weyland’s investment, we’ll definitely lose out.”
Luke said, “It’s fine. At most, I’ll pawn my shares in the gold mine. Those are also worth quite a bit.”
Jenny said, “…Forget it. I’ll work harder on Weyland.”
She knew that Luke had already transferred his shares in the gold mine, and she didn’t really want to touch them.
She wanted the phone company to be the result of both hers and Luke’s hard work, not just his.
At that point, the matter was basically settled.
Jenny knew that Luke wasn’t interested in financial wrangling, so she stopped talking about it.
Leaning against each other, they picked up glasses of wine and discussed work in low voices.
…
The next day, at five in the morning.
After breakfast, Selina asked casually, “Did Miss Jenny look for you about work again?”
Luke nodded and told her about the infighting in the Thompson family and about the phone company and how they might launch early.
Selina was stunned for a moment. “Really?”
A moment later, she suddenly exclaimed, “Then, we can use the Internet anytime and anywhere in the future…”
Luke raised a finger to tell her not to say anything.
He hadn’t outright said anything, but Selina had been with him for a long time, and her fake phone had similar functions. It was just that without access to a wider user base, it couldn’t demonstrate its full potential.
Once mobile wireless was launched, certain functions of the fake phone would be enhanced exponentially.
But this was too sensitive an issue. At the very least, people like them who held shares in the phone company couldn’t say anything.
With this, Luke could make up for the flaws in their intelligence network.
He had only had the system for a short time, and didn’t have enough manpower, connections, or funds.
It was wishful thinking to establish in a year a first-class connection network that would otherwise take decades or even generations to construct.
Before they truly took off, the cell phone would be his eyes and ears and wouldn’t draw too much attention.
When other people obtained intelligence, most of them had to be traded for benefits.
The intelligence that Luke needed was mostly for earning experience and credit points.
He was going to do all he could to become a black hole for intelligence going in and nothing coming out. He would secretly swallow the information that was useful to him, and wouldn’t touch anything that wasn’t related to it.
For his current situation, the only thing he needed was experience and credit points.
Money and power weren’t enough for him to take huge risks.
Laying low was the route to survival.
In the next few days, Luke and Selina spent most of their time in Los Angeles. Occasionally, they would go for a spin in other parts of California.
They put on disguises when they went out investigating.
Luke dressed like a hip-hop teenager, while Selina wore the bohemian dresses he bought.
Luke looked like a Latin American, while Selina was more like a white girl.
They found half the families of the missing girls and children and asked them one by one what happened back then.
As they collected more and more intelligence, the facts started to take shape.
Although it wasn’t supported by solid proof and seemed unrealistic, Luke and Selina were aware that as long as one case produced proof, most of the other cases would be true.
After visiting with parents of one missing child in Sacramento, Luke and Selina drove back.
As long as they were outstation, Dollar and Gold Nugget would stay at home to keep Claire safe.
At that moment, there were only the two of them in the car.
Outside the window was the scorching afternoon sun. There were only specks of green in the vast expanse of desolate yellow, and it was extremely hot.
Selina, however, didn’t turn on the air conditioning. She opened the window, and Luke drove at a speed of about seventy kilometers per hour.
Work was busy, but they couldn’t be caught up in life’s fast pace. That would make work and living torturous.
The more they investigated, the more darkness they felt.
Luke was fine. After all, he had seen the headquarters of the Bubblegum Gang, which was even darker.
Selina, however, needed some time to adjust her mindset.
The hot wind blew in through the open window and her ponytail fluttered.
“What are you going to do if we find solid evidence?” she suddenly asked.