Chapter 625 - 446: Equestrianism! The Multifunctional Uses of Deep Blue Battery! Cook: Go to Hua Country

With his Spiritual Power and physical condition, he could easily tame any horse and maintain his balance effortlessly.

As a result, his riding skills improved by leaps and bounds. After just two laps, both his posture and his presence made him look exactly like an expert equestrian with a decade of experience.

"That’s incredible!"

Yang Xinhu was dumbfounded. This was the easiest lesson fee she had ever earned.

Song Yuncheng watched the dashing figure of Chen Yansen on his spirited horse, a faint smile playing on her lips. Her bright, sparkling eyes were filled with his reflection.

Before long, under Yang Xinhu’s guidance, Little Orange was also sitting gingerly in the saddle. Mustering her courage, she whispered to the horse, "Giddy-up."

Seeing this, Chen Yansen sent out a wisp of Spiritual Power to envelop her protectively.

The two of them didn’t leave the club until five in the afternoon.

The moment Song Yuncheng got into the car, she said sheepishly, "My thighs are so sore. Riding a horse looks dashing, but it’s not comfortable at all."

"There is a certain kind of ’horse’ that gets more comfortable the more you ride it," Chen Yansen said, his eyes narrowing playfully.

"Then you have to take me to try it next time," Song Yuncheng said, her face full of anticipation.

"No need. You can ride it tonight," Chen Yansen said with a straight face.

"..." Song Yuncheng might have been inexperienced, but she wasn’t slow on the uptake. A deep blush immediately spread across her fair, pretty face.

「Meanwhile.」

In a factory named "Beacon Fire" in the Northwest Region, several researchers with star insignias on their shoulders were gathered to test the battery life of single-soldier radios.

They were the first and most capable group to purchase the patent license for the Deep Blue Battery.

The factory primarily produced single-soldier electronic equipment, including walkie-talkies, encrypted radios, and satellite phones.

"What’s the energy utilization rate?"

"Sixty-three percent! In the extreme low temperature of negative twenty degrees Celsius, performance dropped by about fifteen to twenty percent. Compared to the lithium-sulfur batteries from the Bin City Institute of Physical Chemistry, it’s several times better."

"I’d love to tear one open and see what materials they used in this thing!"

"Don’t be an idiot! The battery has a fuse circuit. If you force it open, you won’t be able to reverse-engineer its specific parameters."

"The higher-ups are really something else. Why didn’t they just let us produce the batteries, too? They had to split the work."

"I heard the technology for this lithium-sulfur battery came from a private company."

"It’s the Deep Blue Battery, isn’t it? What’s the big secret? Still, it’s pretty embarrassing when you think about it. We and the Bin City Institute of Physical Chemistry spent over five years on research, and we still couldn’t beat a private company."

"Actually, Chen Jian was on the right track. He got the energy density up to 410 watt-hours per kilogram. That’s not a huge gap from Deep Blue Battery’s 600."

"Stop trying to make Chen Jian look good. Those are lab results under constant temperature. He hasn’t even solved the shuttle effect, lithium dendrites, or the short cycle life. He’s light-years away from the Deep Blue Battery."

The head researcher cut off their discussion.

’The difference between good and bad was obvious. A battery technology that even the top brass was willing to pay for so readily couldn’t possibly be subpar.’

As far as he knew, it wasn’t just Beacon Fire. Panda, Beifeng, and 712 had also received the new batteries to upgrade the electronic equipment carried by their soldiers.

Everything from night-vision goggles, thermal imagers, and Beidou positioning terminals to radios and tactical backpacks would gradually be switched over to this new lithium-sulfur battery.

Battery life would double, and combat effectiveness would increase accordingly.

After the debut of the Deep Blue Battery, Chen Yansen’s importance had increased severalfold.

Yuan Ruli had been given his orders and was providing both financial backing and manpower from behind the scenes.

The former You Pu Battery factory had just been newly renovated when the Inspection Institute established a station in the industrial park, solely to ensure the production security for the Deep Blue Battery.

’He knew full well that the Deep Blue Battery had been added to the national list of strategic technologies. If even the slightest thing went wrong, he would be implicated.’

’But if he produced results, it would be a major accomplishment.’

As for the production equipment and the raw materials for the cathodes, anodes, and electrolyte, the corresponding mineral resources had already been procured with coordination from Shencheng City.

Insufficient funds?

Yuan Ruli contacted the bank immediately!

Couldn’t buy the equipment?

The Central Bureau stepped in personally.

With every obstacle cleared and highly efficient assistance escorting the project, the equipment commissioning and mass-production process optimization for Deep Blue Battery Factory No. 1 began quietly before mid-July.

Companies like BYD, Ningde Era, and Desai had already gotten word, but Chen Yansen’s reply was clear: he was not selling the patent license for the Deep Blue Battery for the time being.

Some felt the Deep Blue Battery had obvious flaws, making it suitable only for niche applications. Others believed they were rejected because their offers hadn’t met Chen Yansen’s asking price.

From thirty million, to fifty million, and even one hundred million—no matter how high the offers went, Chen Yansen didn’t budge.

Increasing the patent royalty from 2% to 5% also failed to sway him.

’To me,’ Chen Yansen thought, ’if it’s not 10%, don’t even bother opening your mouth. You sons of bitches. For every battery you sell, once you factor in the costs of the separator, electrolyte additives, and cathode materials, plus the patent fee, the total fees can account for up to 15%.’

’But when it comes to my cut, you only offer 5%?’

’Are you treating me like a beggar? Who do you think you’re looking down on?!’

’If you don’t have the money, get lost!’

’If you can’t afford it, go home and wait to die!’

Chen Yansen knew that Little Days had constructed multiple patent pool barriers in the solid-state battery sector. That was why he had chosen lithium-sulfur batteries as his breakthrough point, starting a new path entirely.

In an instant, all of Little Days’ hard work was rendered worthless!

Once the Deep Blue Battery was launched, he would use Orange products like mobile phones, computers, smart bands, and Electric Vehicles as a foundation to gradually introduce the lithium-sulfur battery to the wider market.

By then, the higher the Deep Blue Battery’s market share, the more valuable the patent would become.

It was just like the Aurora OS. When the Orange Mobile Phone first launched, nobody was interested. Now, more than a dozen phone manufacturers were using Aurora OS.

Chen Yansen was well aware of one thing: ’You have to beat your competitors until they feel the pain. Only then will they obediently hand over the money.’

Of course, Senlian Capital would also give its full support to industry peers who were willing to cooperate.

For example, if companies like Xiaomi, NetEase, 360, and Meitu Mobile Phone were willing to help promote the Aurora Future System, Senlian Capital would help them lower their supply chain costs and even handle their production and after-sales services as a package deal.

「Meanwhile.」

Lu Hongbo received a data summary from the sales department. From mid-June to early July, in less than a month, the number of Ni Cai Factory Store franchisees had plummeted by more than 400.

After making inquiries, he learned that they had either switched to selling fried chicken and milk tea or defected to OPPO or VIVO.

In the half month since its launch, the Nicai Big Qingcheng had only sold 37,000 units.

He used to lament that there were so many fools out there that Ni Cai’s production couldn’t keep up. Now he was the one left dumbfounded—all the customers were buying Orange Mobile Phones instead.

Failing that, they would consider the Redmi 1 or the 360 F1 as alternatives.

In the past, Nicai Mobile Phones always entered their peak sales season during summer vacation, but this year’s peak seemed to be arriving very late.

Or perhaps it had already come and gone, without making a dent in the sales figures.

「Elsewhere.」

Wang Xin took advantage of a downturn in Qian Du’s advertising business to secure a two-month exclusive partnership agreement for sixty million yuan.

When Qian Du users searched for keywords like "Group Buy," "loan," or "P2P," the official website for ’Group Buy Loan’ would appear at the top of the first page of results.

Additionally, advertorials for Group Buy Loan were planted on Qian Du Knows and Qian Du Q&A.

The core message of the ads was: "High returns, low risk, with an annualized return of up to 9%."

The implication was that the returns from investing in Group Buy Loan were much higher than those from Yu’e Bao, Lingqian Bao, or Yuli Bao.

Ads for Group Buy Loan also started appearing on the subways and buses in Yanjing.

In the booming and optimistic climate of 2013, an annualized return of 6% to 9% didn’t raise any alarms; instead, people found it quite reasonable.

After all, Yu’e Bao’s own annualized yield had soared to 5.6% just the previous week.

In reality, the borrowers were even bolder. They dared to apply for loans with interest rates as high as 15% or 18%, confident that they could earn returns of 50% or even 100% in just a few months.

Borrowing to buy houses, borrowing to invest, borrowing to start businesses—an intricately woven net was cast over the generations born in the ’80s and ’90s, trapping them all.

「At the same time.」

Chen Yansen returned to Xucheng to practice horsemanship with Song Yuncheng.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, Apple had learned of the Deep Blue Battery’s existence after making numerous inquiries.

’Double the energy density?’

’Wouldn’t that mean the iPhone 5S could be made even thinner!’

Cook was immediately interested!