After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

The roar on the other end of the phone did not lessen in the slightest because of Ye Zhen's German greeting.

Hans was clearly furious, the sound of the waves mingling with his angry panting: "Ye! Stop with your pleasantries! I know you Chinese have an old saying, 'A weasel paying respects to a chicken!' Don't think I don't know what you're up to, unless the sun rises in the west!"

The main room was quiet.

Sweat streamed down Vice Minister Li's temples. Although he couldn't understand long passages of German, even a fool could hear the resolute and irritable tone in Hans's voice. It was over; this German was as stubborn as a mule—determined not to intervene.

Gu Zheng leaned back in his chair, his long, slender fingers tapping idly on the table. His deep eyes were fixed on his wife, a faint smile playing on his lips. He knew Ye Zhen too well; this woman only revealed this languid, cat-like expression when setting a trap for her prey.

Ye Zhen held the receiver a little further away to avoid damaging her eardrums with the high-decibel German. She even had the leisure to stretch out her fingers and twirl the coiled telephone cord, her fingertips gleaming with a cold, jade-like luster.

"Hans, calm down a bit." Ye Zhen's voice was calm and even, as if she were soothing a sulking child. "Originally, I was thinking of calling you to wish you a Happy New Year, since it's the Lunar New Year, as an old friend."

"I don't accept New Year's greetings! I have a holiday! I want sunshine! I want the beach!"

"By the way—" Ye Zhen ignored his protest, her tone rising slightly, revealing a casual nonchalance, "let's talk about a little idea I just came up with about 'titanium-magnesium alloy' while looking at those clouds on the plane back to China."

The other end of the phone went silent instantly.

Like a duck whose neck has been choked, Hans's roar abruptly ceased. Only a faint crackling sound of electricity remained.

As Siemens' top engineering manager, Hans has a hound-like sense for the word "materials".

"What did you say?" Hans's voice dropped an octave, tinged with hesitation. "Titanium-magnesium alloy?"

"Yes, a new type of instrument specifically designed for future minimally invasive interventional surgeries." Ye Zhen didn't keep anyone in suspense, her tone as if discussing the filling of tonight's dumplings, "I plan to use titanium-magnesium alloy for the main body."

"Ridiculous! Utter nonsense!"

Less than three seconds later, Hans's scream pierced the receiver again, even louder than before, "Ye! Did you drink too much champagne on the plane? Do you know what it's used for? It's for building airplanes! It's aviation material! Even a tiny bit of it will make the cost skyrocket! You want to use materials for building fighter jets to make hemostats? No hospital can afford it! This is commercial suicide!"

Vice Minister Li, listening nearby, was terrified. Although he didn't know what Ye Zhen had said, judging from the German's agitated appearance, the talks had probably fallen apart. He was anxious to interrupt, but Gu Zheng's cold gaze froze him in place.

Ye Zhen chuckled softly, a calmness born from intellectual superiority.

"No, Hans. Costs will come down."

She switched hands to hold the receiver, leaning slightly forward, her cool eyes gleaming with ambition. "Because I have an exclusive design. This alloy is expensive, but it has a characteristic that stainless steel can never match—it's non-magnetic."

All I could hear on the other end of the phone was heavy breathing.

"The future of medical imaging will no longer be dominated by X-rays; MRI will reign supreme. You should know better than me that under a strong magnetic field, all traditional metals become deadly bullets. But titanium-magnesium alloy won't." Ye Zhen's voice was full of allure. "Moreover, it's extremely strong, yet weighs only a third of stainless steel. What does that mean for surgeons who need to hold instruments for extended periods? I don't need to explain it to you, do I?"

Hans fell silent. He was an expert; he knew perfectly well what this meant. It meant an extended career for doctors, more refined procedures, and a monopoly!

But he stubbornly insisted, "Cost! Yes! Cost is God! No matter how good it is, a pair of pliers costing several thousand marks is something only a madman would buy!"

"So, this is the second point I want to discuss with you," Ye Zhen dropped her trump card, "What if I told you that I designed a 'detachable' structure?"

"What?"

"Reuse the handles, discard the forceps heads." Ye Zhen spoke at lightning speed, her logic frighteningly clear. "The handles are made of high-strength titanium-magnesium alloy, for lifelong use; while the forceps heads, which come into contact with the human body and are prone to wear and dulling, are made with disposable snap-fit ​​interfaces. In this way, the cost of consumables for a single surgery is even lower than that of the expensive stainless steel instruments that require repeated sterilization and maintenance."

This is the standard approach for laparoscopic surgical instruments in later generations.

But in the early 1980s, when even the concept of minimally invasive surgery was not yet widespread, this "modular and consumable" business logic was simply a game-changer!

This is not just technological innovation; it's a disruption of the business model! Whoever controls this patent will control the pricing power of surgical instruments for the next twenty years. This is a blue ocean market worth hundreds of billions!

The sound of rummaging through drawers and cabinets came from the other end of the phone.

"Wait! Damn it! Where's my pen?! Where did that damn waiter put my pen?!"

Hans's voice had completely changed. Gone was his previous arrogance and irritability, replaced by an almost frantic greed and eagerness. Holidays, beaches—all of that was thrown to the winds at that moment.

"Ye! Slow down! What is the specific magnesium content ratio? To ensure a balance between strength and toughness, what percentage of titanium is required? And how did you solve the force transmission problem during closure of the snap-fit ​​structure?"

Vice Minister Li watched in stunned silence.

How come the German grandpa who was just calling someone a monkey is now acting like a humble schoolboy seeking knowledge? What kind of spell did Comrade Ye Zhen cast on him?

Ye Zhen smiled slightly and recited a string of numbers.

"The ratio of magnesium, aluminum, and zinc is..." she paused, then spoke clearly and forcefully, "Al6V4..."

All that remained for Hans was the scratching sound of his pen tip frantically scraping across the paper—the sound of money falling into his pocket.

However, just as she was about to finish stating the crucial molecular formula, Ye Zhen suddenly stopped.

"oops."

She glanced at the clock on the wall, her tone filled with regret, "It's already this late. Minister Li is urging me to eat dumplings. After all, it's Lunar New Year's Eve, and it's not good to keep the leader waiting. Hans, have a pleasant vacation, get some sunshine, and take care of your calcium intake."

After saying that, she made a move to hang up the phone.

This feigned retreat was executed with masterful skill.