Cutting-Edge Technology R&D Center

Chapter 49: An Uncomfortable Atmosphere for Wang Hao

“Fang Bing, what’s going on?” An unprecedented seriousness appeared on Wang Hao’s face, as this was the first time he’d ever heard Fang Bing speak like this. “Let’s talk in person. I should be close by now—I’ll come find you.” Wang Hao nodded. He figured that something must have happened to Fang Bing to make his tone so somber. He didn’t press him for details but gave Fang Bing the address instead, since the voice on the other end sounded somber but not urgent—it didn’t seem like anything serious had happened to Fang Bing. “It’s not far. I’ll be there in about an hour,” Fang Bing said immediately after hearing the address. “Okay.” Wang Hao didn’t ask any further questions and hung up on Fang Bing. “What’s going on?” Liu Dan asked with a hint of concern, noticing that Wang Hao had become somewhat serious after taking the call. “I don’t know. My friend didn’t say anything over the phone, just that he’d be here in about an hour,” Wang Hao said, shaking his head. Fang Bing’s words left Wang Hao with little desire to chat with Liu Dan; he was preoccupied with wondering what kind of trouble Fang Bing had run into. Liu Dan, sensing the mood, tactfully refrained from pressing him—she wasn’t the type to overstep her bounds. Still, she sat down quietly. Although she hadn’t known Wang Hao for very long, she had never seen him look so serious in the past couple of days. She was curious to see what his friend would have to say in an hour. “President Chu, we’ve already made contact with those few vendors. Their platforms will help us go live when the time comes,” Li Fan reported. Leveraging Chu Tian’s existing connections, they’d secured a few smaller platforms to expand their visibility. “Proceed as usual,” Chu Tian said, waving his hand dismissively. A cold gleam flashed in Chu Tian’s eyes, however. He deeply resented Chu Jin’s predatory behavior—like a ferocious tiger snatching food from under his nose. Yet he also blamed himself for being careless; he’d allowed that girl, Chu Jin, to plant spies within BlackBerry, causing him to fall just short of success. This incident had already set off alarm bells in his mind. The saying that “the business world is like a battlefield” was absolutely true—a single moment of complacency could leave him with nothing. Even though Chu Ye, the new head of the Chu family, later called him directly to apologize, Chu Tian still seethed with anger over Chu Jin’s actions. “Hao Ge。” Wang Hao watched Fang Bing get out of the car, looking worn out from the journey. Unlike usual, there wasn’t much of a smile on his face. “Rented car?” Wang Hao glanced at the somewhat worn-out SUV and asked. “Yeah.” “Get in. What happened to make you look so down?” Wang Hao looked at Fang Bing, who appeared unharmed, and slowly began to relax. “I just got dumped. I saw a girl in Beihe Province and fell for her, but it turns out she’s already married.” Fang Bing plopped down in the seat, his face full of disappointment. “Seriously, Brother Bing? Have you ever even been in a relationship before?” Wang Hao looked at Fang Bing with a wry smile, unable to help but feel exasperated. He’d thought something serious had happened, but damn it, it turned out he’d just fallen for a married woman. Liu Dan also stared at Fang Bing, speechless, feeling an urge to curse under her breath. He’d completely piqued her curiosity earlier, but it turned out to be something like this. She fought back the urge to punch him and walked away; she felt this guy was even more despicable than that Qi Yu. After Fang Bing arrived, Wang Hao didn’t go anywhere else. He stayed at the café with Fang Bing to discuss the profitability of the Tianbing drones. Since he was planning to head back today anyway, Wang Hao just needed to wait there for Lan Wei and the others to finish, so he stayed and chatted with Fang Bing. When Wang Hao headed back, he didn’t take Liu Dan’s car; instead, he rode with Fang Bing. “When are you leaving for your next livestream?” Wang Hao asked Fang Bing as he sat in the passenger seat. “I’m not planning to go out anytime soon. I want to train a bit and pick up some wilderness skills along the way—I’m getting ready to explore deeper into the wilderness,” Fang Bing said after a moment’s thought. This was something he’d decided on as soon as he left the mountain. “Sounds good. It’s always best to be careful with live streams in the wild—it’s good for you to be well-prepared. I don’t think I’ll be going out anywhere before school starts,” Wang Hao nodded. He’d had his fun; now he wanted to sort out Longnao’s new body as soon as possible. The two million he’d withdrawn from the Tianbing drone had already been deposited into his account. The optimization of the Longnao array was largely complete. He needed to purchase more servers to test out his ideas and provide Longnao with a body capable of fully unleashing its potential; relying on just two servers was no longer sufficient to support its operation. Artificial intelligence generates massive amounts of operational data and places high demands on hardware configuration. Right now, Longnao was, at best, just a newborn—and it had already experienced the air quality in Yanjing. The terrible air made it extremely difficult for him to breathe. Although Wang Hao had faced life-and-death situations and wasn’t afraid of death, chronic torment like smog made him feel thoroughly unwell. He made up his mind: after returning to finish the Longnao Array, he would work with the Longnao to see if they could develop an air purifier.