Chapter 318
The next morning, Jiang Chen with black circles under his eyes, walked out of Sun Jiao’s bedroom yawning.
As he reminisced the intimacy that happened last time, he couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps because they haven’t done it for so long, last night Sun Jiao was particularly demanding as she only let him sleep after midnight while she drifted to sleep as well like a well-fed cat.
As Jiang Chen thought about this, he stretched his back with a delightful smile-
“Ka.”
The pleasant smile froze on his face as a drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.
[Fu*k, my back! Ouch, ouch, ouch]
At the same time, the still sleepy Yao Yao walked into the hallway.
She looked at Jiang Chen who froze in place as she tilted her head in confusion.
“Hmm?”
“Ahem, Yao, Yao Yao, come help me…” Jiang Chen with his thick skin finally squeezed out these words.
He felt humiliated…
The nice Yao Yao immediately walked up to help him.
Jiang Chen looked at the innocent eyes as he didn’t know how to explain what caused his stiff back.
…
It was already early March; snow was barely visible in Wanghai City now. Followed by the stabilization of the situation on the wasteland, it was time to return to the modern world as events have also been progressing along there.
Of course, before he returned, Jiang Chen still had to take care of some urgent matters.
After eating lunch at the community center, Jiang Chen rode the helicopter to the Sixth Street as he headed immediately to the Zhao Corporation Headquarter within the Inner Circle.
After months of repair, the traces of the civil war were no longer visible in the Inner Circle. Including Zhao Corporation’s building almost penetrated by the electromagnetic cannon, from the outside, it was impossible to tell that a bloody civil war erupted here.
Just as he stared into the Zhao Corporation building, Jiang Chen felt countless eyes focus on him before fleeing away.
He smiled as he didn’t bother with their looks and he headed straight to the elevator.
The new security guard in the front saw Jiang Chen’s back and was prepared to stop him because he didn’t notify the reception desk.
The old security guard with sharp eyes immediately dragged the new colleague back by the collar.
The new security guard tilted his neck and looked at the old security in shock. When he saw that the elevator doors had already closed, he complained in frustration, “What are you doing? Didn’t the boss say that without going through the front desk, all visitors should be kicked out.”
“Bullsh*t, did you not see who he was? If you dared to stop him, your boss would stuff your head into the toilet.”
The old security guard spat all over his face as he remained completely dumbfounded.
“Who, Who is he…”
Seeing how stupid his new colleague was, the old security let out a sigh.
“Sigh, you just came from Hang City so you might not know, the Sixth Street now is not what it was before. Did you see the newly built casino in the Inner Circle? A few months ago a nuke blew up there.”
“Nuke?!” The new security’s eyes widened.
“Tactical nuke. Although it was not a big one, it did wipe out half of the Inner Circle.”
“Is that the person…”
“No, but things changed here. The Group of Ten council collapsed after the civil war. And that man, the only victor out of the war, is the general of the Sixth Street.” The old security let out a sigh as he said melancholily.
It would be impossible to say he didn’t miss the old times, back then the status of being a security guard of Zhao Corporation was envied by many.
The new security guard’s eyes were about to pop out as cold sweat began to roll down, he felt scared.
He was thankful that the old guy dragged him. It would be less of a deal if he lost his job, but if he offended someone of power, it would a question of if he could walk out of the door or not.
Other people would need an appointment to see Zhao Chenwu, for Jiang Chen, the process was not so problematic.
When Jiang Chen walked into his office, the previous ruthless leader was already waiting in front of the desk.
“A rare visitor, what brings you here?” When Jiang Chen walked in, Zhao Chenwu stopped the work in his hands as he stood up smiling.
Jiang Chen noticed that his mood seemed to be a lot better. He didn’t have the same expression of despair that was present when he passed on his power.
“How have you been?”
“Haha, great, thanks to Mr. Jiang. Let’s go talk in the room next door.”
With the food business blooming, although he lost part of his power, he had significant gains in other areas. Under the direction of Jiang Chen he created the trade fleets, not only did he extend the business up to Luzhou, he even opened the market for tea and coffee. The green crystals flooded to him. In less than a month. He had already recovered nearly a third of his losses from the civil war.
While they caught up, the two walked to the guest room next door as they sat around a table. Not long after, his assistant Su Lei walked inside as she poured hot tea for both of them before leaving.
Jiang Chen noticed her right hand was switched into mechanical prosthetics. It must be because of the civil war.
After some small talk, Jiang Chen began to discuss the issues at hand. When he asked about the status of the ten T-3 power armors he has ordered. It was already March; it was around the time the order should be completed.
“It is already done! I went to examine it in the military factory, the technicians have completed the last stage of program testing, do you need me to take you there for a visual?”
Jiang Chen waved his hand. “There is no rush, I will send people to transport it back tomorrow. The 88000 crystals can be deducted from the food business’ income. Also, how’s your production capacity for your military factory?”
When heard Jiang Chen ask about the military factory, he gave a brief thought before he gave a conservative estimate.
“With the newly added production line, the production capacity increased by sixty percent.”
“Sixty percent? Let me try a different question, how many power armor can the factory produce in a month?”
“At most three.”
“That’s too little.” Jiang Chen shook his head.
Seeing that Jiang Chen was unhappy with his work, Zhao Chenwu had a helpless expression on his face. “It is not little at all. Power armors are not bullets, and the process can’t be streamlined. It takes half a month with ten technicians around a skeleton with blueprints to make them. Also, these are all skilled workers.”
“Why can’t the production be streamlined? Is the power armor before the war manufactured one by one?”
When he heard Jiang Chen ask this, Zhao Chenwu forced a smile. “It is not that simple, there are thousands of parts inside. Without a complete industrial process, it is impossible to streamline the process for a massive thing like this. The power armor is one of the better products. If it is the spider tank, at best it would be one unit per half a year.”
Zhao Chenwu paused for a moment before he continued.
“I am serious, with the increasing number of factories, the cost of steel, bronze, and aluminum have all increased. The profit margin of the firearms is no way near as high as the food business…”
Jiang Chen finally understood when he heard Zhao Chenwu say that.
The key point was, he had no interest in developing the military factory. The profit of the food business would bring in millions of crystals, and the power armor had a cost of nine thousand crystals, to begin with. With a sale price of eleven thousand, it would only be a profit of two thousand. The work an entire winter would only net twenty thousand which would be equivalent to a trip down to the neighboring city.
He developed the military factory before to equip his private force. Now that Jiang Chen had put a restriction on the private force, and even injected them with the “honorary chip”, he didn’t have the motivation to develop the military factory.
But since the military factory was not his, Jiang Chen couldn’t demand him to continue to expand if Zhao Chenwu was unwilling, so he spoke after thinking for a moment.
“How about this, sell the military factory to me, including those workers, give me a price.”
Zhao Chenwu was ecstatic when he heard Jiang Chen was willing to take over the not so profitable military factory.
“No problem. The military factories used to produce spider tanks, and power armors cost a total of eight hundred seventy thousand crystals. I will sell it to you at cost.”