Chapter 358 - 221: Overseas Market 2

Chapter 358: Chapter 221: Overseas Market 2

"It’s fine. It’s on my back, and my back is pretty fleshy!"

"It’s true you can’t really see your own back..."

He was about to say, ’Let me take a look for you,’ but suddenly realized something was wrong. ’The Endurance Value is acting up again!’ Thank goodness he held back and didn’t send the message.

Lin Ya replied, "Yeah, I can’t see it myself, and it’s not really something I can ask others to look at..."

The message was wonderfully ambiguous. It could mean she couldn’t let other people see it, or it could mean that *other people* couldn’t see it, but Chen Xiao could.

Knowing the Endurance Value was kicking in, Chen Xiao didn’t dare chat with her any longer. He was afraid that if he wasn’t careful, he’d say something he’d regret. ’Wouldn’t that be a disaster?’

Just then, Ma Jing returned, which created a welcome distraction.

"Brother Chen Xiao, your bonus is in!"

As for how she knew, it was because her 150,000 had arrived.

’This is such easy money.’ Follow-up calls, scheduling appointments, signing contracts, processing payments, and applying for the bonus!

With hundreds of thousands in bonuses arriving like clockwork every week, being an assistant made her feel like the queen of all employees...

She knew exactly who was responsible for her good fortune, and that he was earning far, far more.

"DING! Detected Host has received a sales commission bonus of 1,500,000 yuan. Awarding Diligence Reward bonus of 96,000,000 yuan. New balance: 5.064 billion yuan!"

’Got it. Just a little bit of pocket change. Shanyun Auto really is stingy!’

"Brother Chen Xiao, you’re such a humblebragger! You think 1.5 million is a small amount?"

’Who’s complaining about 1.5 million? I’m complaining about the 96 million being too little!’ Chen Xiao couldn’t be bothered to explain it to her.

He had planned on finding Feng Feifei, giving her a hug, and then leaving the company. Since she wasn’t around, it was her loss!

"Ma Jing, come here and give me a hug. I’m heading out!"

Ma Jing’s face instantly turned red. "Are you going to pinch me again?"

Chen Xiao, looking shameless, feigned anger. "When did I ever pinch you? It was clearly a grab!"

"Fine, pinch away. There’s plenty of flesh there, anyway!"

She stepped forward and gave Chen Xiao a hug. Chen Xiao didn’t hold back. ’You’re the one who said you’re fleshy. I’ll just have to see if you’re lying!’

After a good squeeze and grope... ’Mmm, she’s right. Plenty of flesh, nice and thick!’

’My little assistant... who knew she was so well-endowed!’

...

Chen Xiao only dared to think such audacious thoughts after he was a safe distance away. Otherwise, he was afraid he’d actually act on them.

Watching Chen Xiao’s retreating figure, Qiao Xin was dying of envy. Ma Jing got to spend time alone with him every day.

But as the receptionist, she couldn’t just abandon her post.

「On the 28th floor of Yunfeng Building.」 Xu Gang was reporting to Xu Wu.

During his report, he mentioned an interesting tidbit. The only reason he brought it up with Xu Wu was that it involved her bodyguard, Xiao Qi.

Xiao Qi and Xiao Wu were both elite mercenaries—"kings of the battlefield"—forged in the blood and fire of numerous wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Even after retiring, they stayed in contact with many of their former comrades.

Hassan was one of Xiao Qi’s old comrades, a friend from the Arab World.

He had always admired Huaxia’s culture and often discussed its history with Xiao Qi. He was particularly fond of studying its military strategies, holding works like *The Art of War* and *On Protracted War* in the highest regard.

After Xiao Qi retired, Hassan did as well, gathering a group of his ’brothers’ to try their hand at business.

Not all Arabs are oil tycoons, and if Hassan had been one, he wouldn’t have become a mercenary.

He and a dozen of his brothers chose the path of business, but figuring out *what* business to get into was a headache.

On one chance occasion, while contacting Xiao Qi, she had a sudden flash of inspiration and suggested he look into the new energy vehicle market.

Hassan’s first reaction was, ’How could that possibly work?’ Selling new energy vehicles in a place overflowing with oil? ’People there aren’t short on gas, so why wouldn’t they drive gas-powered cars?’

The development of new energy vehicles has been incredibly fast. Initially, it was just about swapping energy sources—changing the powertrain from an internal combustion engine to a battery or a range extender.

But after a few years of development, the biggest evolution is no longer in the power source, but in their smart features.

This is where new energy vehicles hold an absolute advantage over their gasoline-powered counterparts. The ultimate evolution of smart features comes down to a battle of computing power, and computing power ultimately depends on electricity.

No matter what they do, gasoline cars simply can’t compete with electric vehicles on the smart-feature front.

Xiao Qi didn’t understand all the technical details, but she often drove Xu Wu’s Xiangjie S9. That car had completely shattered her narrow perception of new energy vehicles.

When she described these advancements to Hassan, he was stunned.

After all, many in the West tend to demonize Huaxia, so much of the information reaching Hassan was processed and filtered. He had no real understanding of new energy vehicles, let alone the insane level of competition and development in Huaxia’s market.

In the past two years, traditional joint-venture brands and even established luxury brands have been beaten into a steady retreat, utterly unable to fight back. They keep dropping their prices, but the cars still won’t sell, a testament to the rapid rise of domestic automobiles.

In the old joint-venture era, a car model might get a major update every three years, but besides the exterior, little else would change significantly.

But now, domestic new energy vehicle manufacturers seem to be pushing out several updates a year, with major changes each time. The competition is just brutal.

How could those old-school Western companies possibly adapt to this pace? All they can do now is give up and "lie flat."

Hassan trusted Xiao Qi’s words implicitly. He decided to travel to Huaxia—specifically, to Jiangzhou—in the near future to investigate for himself.

If things were truly as good as Xiao Qi described, he was prepared to launch a pilot partnership with Junxing Auto. Their future market wouldn’t just be in Arab nations; they also had a sphere of influence in Southeast Asia—because they were armed.

"A friend comes from afar... When he arrives, you should host him well."

Junxing Auto was always going to have to export eventually, but she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. The first car since she’d truly taken over, the Junxing M7, hadn’t even been released yet!