Chapter 278: Project Xingtian

Blacklight Biotechnology Ltd. had a dedicated website on the Internet.

The core server of the website was located in Shangdu of Mainland China and was operated by the data center that was under the head office. This was the same center that Chen Chen once bought.

However, at this time, inside the head office’s building, the employees of the technical department who received the information were initially shocked.

“No way! Is this real or not, real or not!”

A young man in a suit and leather shoes, who had graduated only recently, was yelling, “Did I read it right? This is the information for the website update sent by GM Xia? It can’t be an April Fool’s Day joke, right?”

“What happened?”

The rest of the technical department gathered in front of the computer, then read the copy on the screen. “Bionic technology? It’ll restore the mobility of the disabled... Is this a bionic prosthetic?”

“Isn’t our company a business that develops biomedicine? Why is it suddenly taking on bioengineering?”

“And why didn’t you question the fact that we sell translation software too?”

Everyone joked with each other and started discussing.

Just as the entire technical department was chattering noisily, the supervisor of the technical department suddenly walked in with a stern expression. “Everyone, get ready. In ten minutes, GM Xia will have a meeting with us in the conference room on the 30th floor.”

“Just us?” the young man asked.

“Yes, there’s no one else in the meeting other than the technical department.” The supervisor nodded, then left in a hurry.

“Little Zhang, don’t ask that question anymore. It’s not appropriate.”

As soon as the supervisor left, an older man smiled and came to the young man who had asked the question and patted him on the shoulder.

“Why?” The young man became even more puzzled.

“You’ll understand after you’ve worked here for some time.”

The older man said kindly, “I know that when you applied for a job here, you must have come for the name of Blacklight Biotechnology. Although our company didn’t make it into the Global 500, it was because our company was not listed. Many people said that once our company goes public, the market value would immediately exceed 100 billion USD.”

“Yes, I applied for a job here based on the potential of Blacklight Biotechnology, but...”

The young man called Little Zhang was rather mystified. “From what I can see, it doesn’t feel like a high-tech company at all.”

“That’s right.”

Another employee who looked like a stale fried dough-stick came over, chortling. “Our name sounds awe-inspiring. The world-famous Blacklight Biotechnology is a company that has developed an age-reversal treatment project and a variety of anti-cancer drugs as well as the Blacklight virus vaccine. Here is the head office of Blacklight Biotechnology, so it should be pretty awesome, right? We were deceived.”

“Deceived?”

“Because these projects are all developed in Africa and the company’s real focus is in Africa too. To put it bluntly, our head office is just an external platform.”

The employee with the appearance of a stale dough-stick exclaimed, “Surely you understand now. Although our head office has hundreds of people, there are almost no other tasks besides maintaining the website and operating the Little X Translation System. Despite being a biological company, there isn’t even a research center in Shangdu, which is f*ckng ridiculous!”

“Doesn’t that mean that although GM Xia is the general manager, second only to the boss, she doesn’t even have any real power...”

Little Zhang opened his mouth as if there was something he wanted to blurt out, but the man hurriedly covered his mouth. “It’s enough that you and I understand this. Don’t say it out loud.”

“In truth, it isn’t like what you think.”

Seeing this, the stale dough-stick employee once again said ruefully, “I’ve joined since the establishment of Blacklight Biotechnology. I won’t even conceal the fact that the boss and GM Xia were schoolmates. The two met at university. It’s too bad that this is a classic example of a one-sided love...”

“Is the boss that young? Only a few years older than GM Xia? So, the boss is less than thirty years old?”

Someone who was listening raptly suddenly exclaimed.

“He’s younger than you think.”

The stale dough-stick employee laughed and said, “I met the boss before he went to Africa. He’s three years younger than GM Xia. In other words, if the boss had not dropped out of university, he’d be a fresh graduate this year!”

“That can’t be...”

Everyone burst out yelling and exclaiming.

“Alright, alright, look at what time it is. Shouldn’t we hurry to the conference room so that we’re not late?”

Someone suddenly gave a reminder. “Don’t gossip about GM Xia anymore. Even if she isn’t involved in those research projects, it’d be a piece of cake for her to fire you and me.”

Upon hearing this, everyone dispersed quickly.

...

At the same time, in the conference room on the 30th floor, Xia Yin was standing on the podium, gazing at the empty seats below. She seemed a little lost in thought.

“GM Xia. GM Xia?”

A secretary popped up from the side and clattered loudly toward Xia Yin, then stood there, swaying. “Manager Guo has notified the technical department and they’ll be there soon.”

“Very well.”

Xia Yin came back to her senses and nodded to the secretary. Then she turned on the computer while asking, “Has the information been organized?”

“The materials sent by the African branch have been sorted out. You only need to play them in order,” the secretary replied, then walked to the door of the conference room and looked outside. “GM Xia, they’re here.”

Xia Yin nodded without speaking and watched as the group from the technical department filed in and found their seats. After waiting for a while and seeing that no one else was coming in, she turned to the supervisor who was sitting in the first row before the stage. She asked, “Manager Guo, are all your people from the technical department present?”

“Other than those who are on leave, all the rest are here,” Manager Guo looked back and replied immediately.

“Very good.”

Xia Yin smiled in satisfaction. At the same time, she suddenly exuded the shrewd, capable aura of a strong, independent woman. She seemed to be a different person entirely. Meanwhile, she pressed a button on the desktop and the screen behind her instantly began to display a mix of text and image.

“You should’ve received the email sent to you just now, so I won’t beat around the bush. I’m happy to announce that our Blacklight Biotechnology has achieved another glorious success. According to the update from the African branch, the first-generation bionic prosthetic project we’ve launched has finished its development and will soon enter the commercial stage.

“The bionic prosthetic project developed by the African branch uses the ‘lace electrode’ brain-machine interface technology from Neuralink of North America. We’ve obtained the rights from Neuralink. The reason for this meeting is that, for the official website, we hope that everyone in the technical department can come up with a good plan and creative ideas.”

Xia Yin said in a low voice on the podium, “After all, our company’s website hasn’t changed for two or three years. Let’s use this opportunity to revamp the company’s look...”

As Xia Yin spoke, the screen behind her began to flicker, quickly revealing a humanoid monster with only a body and without a head.

Xingtian?

Everyone in the audience immediately recognized the figure when they saw the ink painting that was influenced by Chinese culture.

“I believe that, as Chinese descendants, you must’ve heard of our own myths and legends. Xingtian is one of them. According to legend, Xingtian was an official of the Yan Emperor. Because he couldn’t accept that the Yellow Emperor had defeated the Yan Emperor, he went to challenge the Yellow Emperor. After Xingtian was beheaded by the Yellow Emperor, he continued the fight with his two nipples as his eyes and his belly button as his mouth...

“This is the origin of Xingtian. I’ll suggest this idea to you — if this project is publicized, I hope to use this Chinese myth from the Classic of Mountains and Sea[1], ‘Xingtian’, as the theme. First, we can promote the culture of Mainland China. Secondly, Xingtian’s persona is indeed in line with the inspirational spirit of being ‘disabled but not disheartened’.”

As Xia Yin explained all this, a line from an ancient poem suddenly appeared on the screen beside Xingtian —”Jingwei[2] bites hold of twigs, determined to fill the deep-blue sea. Xingtian wields his spear and shield, his old ambitions still burning fiercely!”

“Therefore, I think the new bionic prosthetic project can be called —

“Project Xingtian!”

[1] A classical Chinese text of mythic geography and beasts.

[2] A mythological bird who was once the Yan Emperor’s daughter. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingwei.

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