All of you come at once; I'm in a hurry.

Mid-September, the weather in the capital began to turn cool.

On the twentieth floor of the Huanmao Center, in the CEO office of Deep Space Technology.

Dai Damai pushed the door open, holding a thick folder in his hands, his expression grim.

"Boss Chen, I've checked everything."

Dai Damai tossed the folder onto the coffee table and pulled up a chair to sit down.

Boss Chen didn't rush to look at the file. "Judging by your face, the opposition has serious backing?"

"Serious doesn't even cover it." Dai Damai pointed at the file. "It's like the Six Major Sects laying siege to Bright Summit."

Boss Chen flipped open the first page, scanned a couple of lines, and raised an eyebrow.

"I originally thought the worst that could happen was Baidu scheming behind the scenes, plus maybe some jealous competitors," Dai Damai scoffed. "Turns out, all four of the top smartphone manufacturers by shipment volume in the country are in on it."

Boss Chen's hand froze mid-page.

"A joint crackdown?"

"Exactly." Dai Damai nodded heavily. "The four of them ganged up to pressure Samsung China. They placed an emergency order for thirty million screens, with one condition—indefinitely postpone production for Meizu."

"Samsung did the math. On one side, there's Deep Space Meizu, just getting started. On the other, four super-customers placing a joint order. Any fool knows which way to go. They'd rather pay our liquidated damages than piss off those big shots."

Boss Chen leaned back into the sofa, tapping his cane slowly and unhurriedly with his fingers.

"And Baidu? What role did they play?"

"ATM and a PR hit squad." Dai Damai flipped to the last page. "Baidu offered these manufacturers rebates for search channel access, while also bankrolling a full-scale online smear campaign against us."

Dai Damai took a deep breath, feeling a bit powerless.

"Boss Chen, we've stepped on everyone's toes. Traditional phone makers are scared our Moss will disrupt user interaction, and Baidu is worried we'll steal their search gateway. They're working in perfect sync to smother us in the cradle."

Silence filled the office for a moment.

Dai Damai assumed Boss Chen was weighing the pros and cons—after all, facing a united blockade from the entire industry, any company would need to think twice.

But then Boss Chen suddenly chuckled.

"The top four manufacturers, plus a giant like Baidu, all teaming up to take down a company that just finished its funding round?"

Boss Chen stroked his chin and let out a scoff.

"This treatment—did Steve Jobs ever get this?"

Dai Damai was stunned. "Bro, how can you joke around at a time like this? Right now, the whole industry sees us as a thorn in their side. If we don't handle this well, BOE might cave under the pressure too."

"What would most people do in a situation like this?" Boss Chen asked.

Dai Damai thought it over. "Issue a vague statement, hint that there's been a supply chain force majeure. Then quietly find someone to smooth things over, throw a few dinners, give up some benefits, and beg the big shots to go easy."

"That's them."

Boss Chen used his cane to push himself up slowly.

"I've got a short fuse. Can't stand people playing dirty behind my back. Since they want to start a war, don't blame me for finishing it."

"What are you planning?" Dai Damai had a bad feeling.

"We've got the live launch for Moss's new model tomorrow afternoon. Let's also lock down the delivery date for the BOE special edition while we're at it."

Boss Chen pointed at the file on the table.

"Have legal turn all those bank transfer records, exclusive agreement copies, and that Samsung VP's recording into a high-res slideshow."

Dai Damai's eyes went wide. He shot up from his seat. "You're going to go public with this at the launch? That's burning every bridge in the industry! Who's going to want to work with us after this?"

"Burning bridges?"

Boss Chen walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the endless stream of traffic below.

"Lao Dai, you're missing the point. We're not here to join this club."

"Go get it ready. Tomorrow, I'm pulling out all the stops for netizens across the country."

...

The next day, at two in the afternoon.

Deep Space Technology's live stream was broadcast online. Within ten minutes of going live, concurrent viewers had surpassed three million.

For the past month, rumors about the Deep Space Meizu phone had been flying around online: supply chain cutoffs, a failed venture, fake PPTs.

Everyone was waiting to see how the young billionaire with a hundred billion in assets would clean up his mess.

On screen, Boss Chen wasn't in a wheelchair.

He was wearing a simple black T-shirt, leaning on his carbon-fiber cane as he walked step by step up to the camera.

The comments exploded.

"Godfather! Your leg still hasn't healed!"

"Drop the 'godfather'—the phones haven't shipped yet! Give me my money back!"

"Hear Samsung cut off your supply? When's the domestic screen special edition coming out?"

Boss Chen glanced at the scrolling comments on the prompter and smiled.

"Good afternoon, everyone. My leg is getting better, thanks for asking. I'm here today to talk about two things."

Without wasting any words, he cut straight to the chase.

"First thing: the Moss model upgrade. Starting today, Moss has the strongest multi-modal understanding capabilities on the market. For the specific specs and demos, our CTO Dai Damai will walk you through it."

The comments flooded with question marks.

"That's all you've got?"

"Don't change the subject! What about the screens?"

"When's my pre-ordered phone actually shipping?"

Boss Chen raised his hand and waved it down.

"Hold on. The second thing is coming right up."

The big screen flipped to a pure black background.

Boss Chen turned around and faced the screen.

"Over the past month, I've seen smear articles about Deep Space Technology all over the internet, every single day. They say we're running a hunger marketing scheme, that our production capacity is a joke, or even that I've taken the money and run."

"To be honest, I was pretty baffled. We paid the money, we signed the contract, we set up the production line. So how did the screens just disappear?"

Boss Chen turned back to look into the camera.

"Until two days ago, my people dug up some very interesting intel."

"By industry custom, when you run into supply chain issues, you put out a statement saying something about 'force majeure' and everyone saves face."

Boss Chen let out a snort.

"But I don't like saving face."

He clicked the remote in his hand.

On the big screen, a clear scanned contract popped up.

In the upper right corner, there was a company seal, clear as day, from one of the country's top phone manufacturers.

The comments froze for a second, then exploded ten times faster.

"Holy crap! That's XX Company's official seal?"

"What the hell is this? He's showing his competitor's contract on live TV?"

Boss Chen didn't stop. He kept clicking.

Second slide. Third slide. Fourth.

A joint exclusive agreement from four of the country's leading phone makers. Baidu's PR and bot-farm records. And a recording of Samsung China's chief—all laid out in front of the whole country.

In the recording, a man's voice with a slight accent said:

"It's not that we don't want to supply them. The four companies put the squeeze on us. We had no choice. Deep Space Technology might have potential, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of screens in their existing orders. We'll pay the penalty, but not a single screen goes to them."

The live chat went completely nuclear.

No one expected Deep Space Technology to pull something like this.

In the history of the Chinese internet, no company had ever dared to do such a thing.

"Are they insane?!"

"Does Deep Space Tech not want to stay in this country?"

"So the whole industry ganged up on them? How shameless!"

Chen Zhi, leaning on his cane, stood in front of the screen, his voice steady.

"Take a good look, everyone. This is what they call an 'act of God.'"

"It’s not that we can’t build a phone. It’s that some people are afraid we will."

"Baidu is scared we’ll steal their search gateway. Our rivals fear our Moss will make their junk obsolete. So they’ve united, trying to strangle us in the cradle."

Chen Zhi stared straight into the camera.

"I’m not airing this today to play the victim."

"I’m here to tell the people hiding behind the screens—"

"Your siege has been noted."

"The BOE Special Edition will officially ship next Monday. First batch: five hundred thousand units. Same price, double the perks, plus two years of free Moss Pro service as compensation."

He raised the clicker in his hand and pointed it directly at the lens.

"You want to play business warfare? Fine."

"All of you, come at me at once."

"I don’t have all day."

The livestream cut off abruptly.

But across the entire internet, public opinion had just been detonated.