Steal the enemy's base at the start and build a technological empire.

Chapter 443 Supply Chain Emergency Meeting

The meeting room was booked on short notice. The large meeting room was occupied by the HR department for their annual performance reviews, so Zhao Weiguo had to vacate the small room on the fourth floor of the R&D center. The table was only big enough for eight people, but twelve were actually crammed in. There weren't enough chairs, so two people were standing to listen. When they got tired of standing, they leaned against the wall, their elbows propped up against it.

When Lingyun came in, the room was in complete chaos.

Ma Baoguo's voice was the loudest; it could be heard even through the door. "...He just says he won't supply anymore? What about the contract? It clearly states 100,000 pieces per month, and he just tears it up like that? When has Xinghuo ever been treated like this, with someone riding on its neck and defecating on it?"

"What's the use of yelling at me?" Zhang Weinuo's voice was half a octave lower than Ma Baoguo's, but his speech was faster. "It's not that I'm going back on my word, it's that the evaporation machine on the production line has a precision problem. The pixel defect rate is four points higher than last month. Even if I force you to produce these 100,000 pieces, the yield rate will be less than 60%. Do you dare to accept them?"

"I dare—"

"You two, stop arguing," Zhao Weiguo's voice interrupted. "Listen to me. The problem isn't anyone's fault; it's that Yu Xiang has swept up all the good products on the market. I just got a call this morning from O-Film. They said their production capacity for the next two months has been booked by a company, and they won't deliver unless they sign a long-term contract. I asked them which company, but they wouldn't say, but everyone knows who it is. Plus, Sunwoda's delivery schedule is booked until March next year. We can't buy anything even if we have the money."

When the door was pushed open, everyone turned to look at the entrance. Ling Yun walked in, followed by Zhao Hu. There was a moment of silence in the room, then several people spoke at the same time—Ma Baoguo was holding a fax, Zhang Weinuo was holding a panel, and Zhao Weiguo was clutching a piece of paper covered with numbers.

Ling Yun didn't take anything. He sat down in the remaining empty chair and raised his hand to press down lightly.

"Let's go one by one."

Ma Baoguo spoke first. He slammed the fax on the table, the pages snapping open with a thud, the last few lines of text bobbing up from under his finger. "Yi Xiang has also locked down those second-tier screen manufacturers in South China. They signed long-term contracts, paid a 30% deposit, on the condition that these factories cannot supply any other mobile phone brands. Furthermore, I checked—they're not just stockpiling screens, but also camera modules, battery cells, and even RF antennas. Some of these things they don't even need themselves; they're just buying them and storing them in their warehouses, not letting anyone else touch them."

Zhang Weinuo placed the OLED panel he was holding on the table. A white label on the panel bore several numbers written in handwriting: yield rate, pixel defect rate, and color accuracy deviation. "Over here, the vapor deposition machine on the production line keeps breaking down every few days. They sent two people from Germany to fix it, and for every screw we need, we have to get a part from the main factory, which takes two weeks," he said, flicking the edge of the panel with his finger. "Now the yield rate is dropping drastically, and Yixiang has sent people to discuss cooperation again. I didn't agree, but the price they offered—my sales manager is crying in bed. He's a grown man, the pressure is immense."

After Zhang Weinuo finished speaking, he leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at the panel, as if he were looking at a child that would never grow up.

Zhao Weiguo spread the paper he was holding on the table. It was a table; the first column listed the material names, the second the current inventory, and the third the estimated shortage. Most of the numbers were marked in red, with a few rows almost black. "Screens are currently the biggest shortage. Next are batteries, then camera modules. Following that are touch chips—currently only Fingerworks is supplying them, which Lingyun acquired a few years ago, so supplying them isn't a problem for now. But if someone tries to cut us off from other parts of the supply chain, the consequences are hard to predict."

Ling Yun pulled the table over and looked at it from beginning to end. After looking at it, he turned it over; the back was blank.

"They're hoarding," he said. "We anticipated this last time. Hoarding costs money, and large-scale hoarding costs a lot of money. What I want to know is—how far have they gone with their hoarding?"

Zhao Weiguo pulled out a notebook. "The price of spare parts in Shenzhen has been jumping since last week. Today it's almost 30%. Several traders called to test the waters, asking if we should lock in the stock in advance, saying that we can negotiate the price if we do."

Who released the goods that the traders are holding?

"They released it themselves. They didn't use it all—they bought a batch, then resold another batch, buying low and selling high, making a profit from the difference."

Ling Yun flipped the blank sheet of paper over, then back again. "They're not hoarding stock. They're forcing us to raise prices. Every time we raise prices, the cost of the phones goes up a little. When the cost goes up to a point where it can't cover the entire market, nobody will buy the phones on the day they're released."

No one spoke in the meeting room. The sound of water flowing from the radiator rose and fell intermittently for a while.

"I have a solution," Ma Baoguo suddenly spoke up. He usually spoke loudly, but he spoke slowly, as if reading an instruction manual that he himself hadn't fully understood. "There's a screen factory in Fujian called Hongguang Optoelectronics. It's not very established; they only built their production line last year. Their products aren't top-of-the-line, but—they're good enough. The only problem is that they don't have experience making mobile phone screens yet, so the backlight uniformity sometimes fails."

Zhang Weinuo took it. "I have an engineer under me who worked at Hung Kwong for two years. Hung Kwong is a mess right now, poorly managed, and the yield rate is unstable. But the foundation is there; the factory and production lines are brand new. If we can spend some time and money to give it a push, it can be up and running within three months."

Ling Yun looked at Zhang Weinuo. "Send people to assist their production line."

He then looked at Ma Baoguo. "Send someone to sign a lock-in contract with them. Pay a larger deposit upfront, on the condition that our production capacity is prioritized."

Zhao Weiguo scribbled rapidly in his notebook without looking up. "The same goes for batteries. There's a small battery factory in Shenzhen, not very big. The boss used to work at Desay, so he has a solid technical foundation, but he's never gotten any big orders and is barely surviving. The equipment is there, what he lacks is money and reassurance."

"Go and negotiate," Ling Yun said. "Sign a three-year contract. Pay upfront and have them complete the equipment order. Price it according to market rates, don't try to negotiate."

Zhao Weiguo put down his pen. "President Ling, supporting these second-tier factories will require a significant investment."

"Then let's commit."

After Ling Yun finished speaking, the conference room fell silent for a few seconds. Then Zhao Weiguo put his pen down on his notebook, his voice not loud, but everyone heard him: "If you dare to submit, I dare to sign."

Ma Baoguo muttered from the side, "It's not a question of whether we dare or not, it's that we're being choked right now—"

"It wasn't that someone strangled us," Ling Yun interrupted him, her voice even lower than before, but her tone leaving no room for negotiation. "He set a fire in the living room, and instead of fighting him for the fire extinguisher, we grabbed a bucket of water from the kitchen and put it out directly."

After the meeting ended, people walked out one by one. Ma Baoguo turned around at the door, wanting to say something, but then swallowed his words.

Li Mo walked at the very back. He waited until all the footsteps had faded into the distance before standing up from his chair.

"Brother Ling."

Ling Yun had just finished gathering the documents on the table when she looked up at him.

"The systems department has identified someone. The name isn't completely confirmed yet, but we have a lead," Li Mo walked to the table and placed a printed sheet of paper on it. The paper was folded twice, but he smoothed it out with his hand as he placed it. "This person used a former employee's account and logged into the code repository at 2 AM the day before yesterday. The IP address was redirected, and it was eventually located at—" He pointed to the address bar, "...the telecom base station in the development zone."

"Development zone?" Ling Yun pulled the paper over. "Besides us, there aren't many companies over there."

"There's a teahouse," Li Mo paused after saying that, "the place where Zhao Hu took the photos last time."