High School Belle Fell in Love with Me

Chapter 657: Chapter 279: A Fight with Bai Qing! (Part 2)

Things are better now, primarily because I made a huge profit from Wanliu Capital’s stock.

But similarly, if she wants to keep her shares in front of two money-making giants like Jiang Banxia and Li Yang, that money will have to be invested eventually.

Otherwise, Kuai Pai’s equity will be further diluted.

Li Yang called Xiangnu.

"Xiangnu, let’s grab a meal together, Xiaxia probably won’t have a chance to come out anytime soon."

"What happened to her?"

"She’s pregnant."

"..."

What can Xiangnu do?

She obediently bought a gift and went over.

In the evening, she arrived at the restaurant and upon seeing Li Yang, she congratulated him, "Congrats, world second!"

She never played games, but thanks to Li Yang, she developed a habit of watching competitions.

Li Yang’s face fell, "What world second, I’m still world first on the player leaderboard!"

"But you didn’t get the championship!"

"Pah, it’s not something I care about, what’s a championship worth? Watch me bring it back next year!"

"Hmm? Bring it back for me?"

Xiangnu glanced at Jiang Banxia and then at Li Yang.

Can you say such things openly? Can’t you say it privately?

When she saw Jiang Banxia didn’t care at all, she was relieved.

Li Yang then said, "Who else would I bring it back for? You think I can’t win the championship, so I have to prove it to you! But... if I win the championship, what will you give me?"

Xiangnu replied irritably, "The championship is yours, it has nothing to do with me."

"Oh, then never mind, I won’t aim for the championship."

"Hmph..."

Only Xiangnu knew how tense she was for that split second.

It seemed she had bet with Li Yang once before and lost.

But Li Yang seemed to have forgotten and never brought it up.

After sitting down, Xiangnu started chatting with Jiang Banxia.

She felt Jiang Banxia was really ambitious, having another child now; she’s missing out on the best years of her life.

If only she focused a bit more on work, perhaps...

Oh, she’s already the world’s richest, so it doesn’t matter.

Wanliu Capital’s stock price didn’t see a massive surge over the past six months, but overall it increased quite nicely.

At one point, it rose to twelve trillion but then dropped back to around ten trillion. Since September, it’s slowly climbing back up.

Even if it rises just a penny every day.

Investors in Wanliu Capital remain patient, even the National Major Fund has stepped in.

Li Yang wasn’t interested in their conversation, only the food that was about to be served.

After eating and receiving gifts, he took Jiang Banxia back to Jiang City in the afternoon, completing his task.

He spent a week at home with Jiang Banxia, occasionally starting a livestream to keep up appearances with fans, warming up for the upcoming Extreme Shadow Cars launch event.

This year’s new Extreme Shadow Cars models are fundamentally different from the previous two.

First, after three years of nurturing, the technical reserves in the relevant industry chain are in place, and according to the contract, Li Yang has priority access before Extreme Shadow Cars implements those hardware; relevant companies can’t sell to others.

Having paid to build up the supply chain, enjoying priority is only fair.

The two cars this time are already in prototype stage.

In Li Yang’s view, they’re on par with new energy electric vehicles around 2022.

In terms of comfort and functionality.

Also, the entire car system has been improved, something Li Yang is keenly focusing on.

The hardest part of a system isn’t the code.

Just grab some programmers, and they can whip up an operating system.

The hardest part is system ecosystem.

For example, Android apps don’t run on IOS.

Currently, a phone needs services from at least 1,600 mainstream internet companies domestically to satisfy daily needs.

Otherwise, if you can’t download WeChat or Pinduoduo, who’s gonna want it?

The same logic applies to car systems.

Older car systems barely had any functionality, more like a vehicular local network.

Nowadays, car systems are much more complex, mostly deeply customized based on Android for better compatibility with existing software.

Li Yang’s approach was different; he developed it himself, fundamentally different from any system on the market and it’s not open source.

Typically, an operating system is open source to attract global internet companies to develop corresponding versions, or it follows the IOS model, relying on first-mover advantage and user base to compel companies to develop versions.

Li Yang doesn’t operate this way — others customize systems, he customizes ecosystems.

Out of the most frequently used apps in cars, he approached manufacturers for deep customization.

Spending money is a given, customizing one app costs at least tens of millions, maybe even billions.

Just the Gaode Maps customization cost over three hundred million, updates aren’t as frequent.

On other platforms, Gaode Maps updates seven to eight times a year.

While the Gaode Maps in Extreme Shadow’s car system in nearly three years has only had two updates.

Yet Li Yang persists.

Spent over ten billion customizing more than a hundred popular apps, his ecosystem is starting to take shape.

China’s market is big enough that even if the Hongmeng system competes for market share in a few years, he believes there’s a spot for him.

Of course, there’s the risk of being wiped out.

But who can guarantee failure?

Huawei is ultimately driven by capital, but he is not.

Huawei chases after profit, he does not chase.

...

Li Yang took out the Extreme Shadow Phone and handed it to Jiang Banxia.

Jiang Banxia was taken aback, "Huh?"

"Give it a try, see how it works."

Jiang Banxia turned on the phone and murmured, "Is it internet-ready?"

"Yes, all the procedures are done, just not launched yet."

"Oh oh oh..."

After powering on, Jiang Banxia used it for a while.

Overall it was incredibly smooth, she might even say she’s never used a phone this smooth.

The phone had many built-in apps, all the mainstream ones were there.

"What system is this?"

"Soaring Dragon Operating System."

"Huh? But it’s running WeChat..."

"Yeah, I spent eight hundred million just to get them to develop a version for Soaring Dragon."

Jiang Banxia: "..."

After a while, Jiang Banxia tried several apps and noticed something.

"No app has ads? Are they being blocked or not embedded at all?"

"Not embedded... have to pay annually, WeChat costs thirty million a year."

"And, all music apps are free?"

"Yeah, costs thirteen million a year."

"Video sites don’t require memberships or have ads?"

"Yes, even more expensive, nearly forty million a year."

"Alright alright, this phone looks great, I’ll use this from now on, it meets my needs. By the way, how much is this phone selling for?"

"Not for sale, it’s a gift for car buyers, free with the new car purchase!"

"Oh oh oh..."

...

The next day, Li Yang returned to Jiangbei.

Jiang Banxia fiddled with the phone, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Being forced to watch ads all the time, even paying didn’t help, and now all of a sudden they’re gone.

It’s a bit of a masochistic tendency; clearly now the experience is better, no time-wasting every day.

In essence, this phone is extremely comfortable to use.

The forced intrusion of ads felt bad, even the plethora of faux-trendy accounts in social circles selling deceptive goods, a mere accidental tap forcefully extracts personal data.

Quite akin to being violated.

In Li Yang’s words, she hasn’t tasted anything good.

Whether IOS or Android, despite IOS not being open source, it seems like the owner has significant control.

In reality, much of it is just for show.

Like the photo-send feature where it lets you choose authorization, but in the background, all data is taken.

The only benefit is that some ads won’t download with a click, there’s a confirmation option.

Some Android are truly rogue!

Even downloading Pinduoduo doesn’t require login or address input, just ordering, it auto-locates, quite impressive.

Jiang Banxia felt powerless again, Li Yang seemed determined to monopolize the matter...

Maybe next time she meets Bai Qing, she should really fight it out, otherwise...