Chapter 74: Do You Want to Eat Food First or Eat Me First?

"I launched a plan codenamed 'Wallbreaker,' providing R&D funding to many top domestic scientific institutions,"

Lin Ruoxuan's tone was as calm as if discussing the weather, but the content was enough to shock anyone,

"Its sole mission was to target those Western giants, especially the core technological barriers of the Augustus family and their allies, those patents they view as cash cows and use to strangle the neck of the global industrial chain."

"We crack them, imitate them, and even directly copy them..."

The corners of her lips hooked up into a cold and ruthless arc,

"At their most critical moments, throw them directly into the 'Technological High Seas.' That is an open-source platform facing global developers that I established. Free and unrestricted."

"We don't commercialize them, so it's very hard to pin responsibility on us."

The hands Xu Yunzhou used to grip the steering wheel tightened slightly.

He completely understood what this meant—this wasn't just snatching the cake, this was directly blowing up the other party's entire cake factory, and making the secret recipes public along with it!

This was digging up the ancestral graves of those century-old giants!

But on second thought, how is this not also a great technological liberation?

Those cutting-edge technologies monopolized for decades, those sky-high patent fees that made countless enterprises flinch, those technological barriers hindering industry development, were being shattered one by one by this seemingly delicate woman.

It's just that he absolutely never expected that the words he spoke to act cool back then would actually be put into practice to the extreme by her using such intense methods.

"For example?"

He needed more specific concepts to understand this crazy war of hers.

Lin Ruoxuan's tone was understated:

"For example, a key polymer synthesis pathway used for high-end photoresist that the Augustus family controlled for seventy years."

"They collected astronomical patent fees globally, strangling the throat of the entire industry. My team found a brand-new synthesis method that could replace it and had lower costs three years ago."

She paused, a trace of pleasure flashing through her eyes:

"Then, a week before they were about to sign a new round of sky-high licensing agreements with a certain major country, I made the optimized production line design blueprints completely public on the 'Technological High Seas.'"

"Overnight, their stock market value evaporated by twelve billion US dollars, and the family heir responsible for that business reportedly went straight into the hospital."

Xu Yunzhou drew in a breath of cold air.

She really is a madwoman.

Much crazier than he imagined.

No wonder he couldn't search for her recent updates; it turns out she was trying her best to hide herself. After all, at this magnitude, every single thing is enough to make the other party want her life at all costs.

"This is not all,"

Lin Ruoxuan continued, as if talking about an insignificant trivial matter,

"They allied with several giants, attempting to build a new monopoly on the next-generation artificial intelligence framework, investing tens of billions of US dollars. Little did they know that there was long an undercover agent I bought in the core team."

"Three months before their release, I prematurely published an open-source framework optimized based on their research and development foundation, directly making their years of investment and layout vanish into bubbles."

Her eyes became colder and colder, and also increasingly empty and silent:

"And their biopharmaceutical monopolies, the patents they rely on to control sky-high drugs for certain rare diseases... Everything targeted by me, almost none were spared. Although I didn't gain any benefits from it, and even spent massive amounts of funds, I just enjoy doing it."

"They gave me many nicknames, calling me the 'Eastern Mad Queen,' the 'Black Widow.' People domestically who are friendlier call me Lin the Demolisher..."

Xu Yunzhou took a deep breath and praised from the bottom of his heart:

"Beautifully done!"

Lin Ruoxuan's voice finally took on a trace of undetectable trembling:

"It's not that I am a saint wanting to benefit humanity, it's just that I didn't know where you went, I didn't know how to find you."

"What I could do was use this most extreme method; I wanted to poke a hole in the sky, I wanted to see, when I stirred things up messily enough, would you... would you be unable to stand watching it, and come back to manage me?"

Xu Yunzhou sighed with some emotion, saying gently:

"Mhm, I saw it, so I came back."

As he spoke, from the corner of his eye in the rearview mirror, he faintly saw a black off-road vehicle always maintaining a distance neither far nor close.

He could even vaguely feel the faint cold light reflected from the lens of a telescope on a rooftop when passing a seemingly tranquil countryside villa.

However, the expected attack did not happen.

The other party seemed to be waiting, or rather, dreading something.

Is it because of this tight escort convoy, or because of... him?

"With me here, I absolutely won't let anyone hurt you."

Xu Yunzhou's voice was steady and certain, carrying a strange comforting power,

"Because I am an immortal."

If this sentence were spoken from someone else's mouth, it would only seem absurd and ridiculous.

But spoken from his mouth, combined with that unbelievable early warning from before, it inexplicably relaxed Lin Ruoxuan's tense heartstrings by a few degrees.

She had an almost instinctive absolute trust and reliance on him.

Xu Yunzhou wasn't blindly confident either, but after receiving Shen Mingyue's message, he understood that at least he didn't have any accidents in the near future. So everything encountered currently is not a problem.

The car finally slowly drove into the famous "Sandalwood Palace" in the western suburbs of Shanghai.

This was a forbidden ground for the powerful and wealthy in the true sense. Hidden deep amidst towering ancient trees, every building represented energy and foundation that could not be underestimated.

After careful inspection at three overt checkpoints with loaded guns, and layer upon layer of scanning by at least five cutting-edge electronic monitoring systems in the dark, the vehicle finally stopped in front of an old Western-style house full of Shanghai style and settled by the years.

"Arriving here, no outsiders can enter, unless a world war breaks out."

Lin Ruoxuan's slightly tense nerves finally completely relaxed, her tone carrying the composure and certainty of returning to an absolutely safe domain.

Stepping into the brightly lit hall, a middle-aged female housekeeper wearing a moon-white qipao and having a gentle temperament immediately stepped forward to welcome them:

"Miss, lunch is already prepared."

When she saw clearly that there was also an unfamiliar handsome young man standing beside Lin Ruoxuan, a trace of surprise flashed across her face uncontrollably.

She had served in the Lin family for nearly ten years, and this was the first time she saw the Miss bring a person of the opposite sex home, and in such a... close and natural posture.

Lin Ruoxuan, however, was completely oblivious to the housekeeper's surprise, or rather didn't care at all.

She looked up at Xu Yunzhou, those eyes that were usually calm and wise currently rippling with water light:

"Tyrant, do you want to eat food first,"

She paused, her eyes flowing, her voice lowering a bit,

"Or eat me first?"

Xu Yunzhou almost choked on his own saliva. Subconsciously glancing at the female housekeeper beside them who was already dumbfounded, he coughed awkwardly:

"You... whatever you arrange is fine."

However, Lin Ruoxuan had already grabbed his wrist without any explanation and pulled him straight toward the master bedroom on the second floor.

Leaving the female housekeeper Wen Yu standing alone in place, looking at the figures of the two disappearing at the corner of the stairs, the shock on her face not fading for a long time.

Having served Lin Ruoxuan for many years, she had witnessed her coldness and decisiveness in the business world, and also accompanied her in her desolate loneliness when alone late at night, but had never seen her so vibrant, even carrying a bit of a young girl's capriciousness.

This young man... Wen Yu frowned slightly, suddenly feeling that face was exceptionally familiar.

Right, it looks almost exactly the same as that oil painting portrait occupying half a wall in the Miss's bedroom!

It turns out the Miss's white moonlight has returned!