Village chief, your township enterprise sells laser cannons?

"Answer the phone?" Wang Ju nodded her chin at the ringing phone. Lin Man on the other end didn't respond; she simply stood up, walked to the ringing phone, and picked it up.

"Hello, who are you looking for?"

As he asked his question, a slightly broken English came through the receiver:

"Hello, my name is Lucius Edner. I'd like to speak with Mr. Lin. I gave him my business card at the exhibition hall earlier in the day."

The word "business card" pulled Lin Man's memory back to the daytime. He remembered the business cards he had received during the day, and he also remembered that among those business cards, there was indeed a business card belonging to a person named Lucius Edner.

The problem is that the words on that business card were in Chinese characters, and the phone number was a local number.

Why is she speaking English as soon as she opens her mouth, and it's broken English at that? If it weren't for my own accent being so bad, I almost wouldn't have been able to tell.

Also, how did this bastard find out his room number?

After a moment's thought, he said into the microphone, "Come on up!"

Without waiting for a response, he casually hung the receiver on the phone, turned around, walked out the door, went into the next room, and woke up Mo Jun, who had just climbed into bed.

After accommodating Mo Jun at the door, he went into the room and said to Wang Ju, "Give me your voice recorder!"

As Lin Man's old friend, Wang Ju knew very well that Lin Man had his own ideas. He didn't say much, but simply took out his voice recorder from his bag and slammed it on the table: "Aren't you afraid someone will take care of you?"

"Like in TV dramas, a group of people rush in with guns and start shooting at you."

"Shoot and run!"

In front of Wang Ju, Lin Man assumed a starting stance for a boxing technique, declaring, "Within seven steps!"

"The gun is fast and accurate!" Wang Ju exposed him without hesitation, then turned around and started tidying up the room.

Just as he finished tidying up, the doorbell rang from the outside. Lin Man walked over with a smile, opened the door, and stood there—the same foreigner who had given him his business card earlier that day.

There was only one person.

When the other person saw Lin Man, a hint of surprise flashed in their eyes, but they quickly concealed it.

Lin Man caught this slight surprise. He took a step back, raised his hand in an inviting gesture, and said in standard Mandarin, "Mr. Lucius, please come in!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the man, who spoke broken English, started walking inside. Lin Man stepped aside and waited for him to pass by.

As soon as the two sat down, Wang Ju naturally picked up the kettle and made each of them a cup of tea.

Lin Man pushed the tea a little towards Lucius: "Mr. Lucius, please have some tea."

"Thank you!" Lucius continued in broken English, but as soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that the smile on the other person's face had changed.

It turned into a playful laugh.

Before he could speak, Lin Man preemptively warned him in Mandarin, "Mr. Lucius, I don't know how it is in your country, but in our country, it is extremely impolite to come uninvited and inquire about someone's hotel room number."

"I'll let it slide this time, but next time, one seat in the Pearl River VIP section!"

"Alright, please forgive my sudden visit, but for safety reasons, I have no choice!" Having been exposed, Lucius immediately switched from his broken English to fluent Mandarin, while simultaneously playing the moral card.

He had only said two sentences when Lin Man placed his hand in front of him, leaned forward slightly, and said with a forced smile:

"Mr. Lucius, hold on. I'm willing to sit here and listen to your rambling not because I want to hear about your past."

"It's because I believe that in business, everything can be exchanged for profit."

"Otherwise, just because you found out my room number, I should prepare a private room for you in the Pearl River area."

"Now let's get back on track and talk about why you suddenly came here."

Back on track, Lucius glanced at Lin Man, then turned to look at Wang Ju, who returned his smile. He then looked back at Lin Man.

"I'd like to buy the battery materials you have!"

Having figured out that the other party wanted to buy battery materials, Lin Man did not respond immediately. He rested his cheek on his left hand and tapped the armrest of his chair lightly with his right index finger.

After knocking for about two minutes, he finally spoke and asked, "You can eat... how much do you need?"

When asked about the quantity of goods needed, Lucius didn't give a specific number, but instead spread his arms and gestured: "I need a lot!"

"My people are all over the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Your battery can help people in the Middle East and Southeast Asia solve many problems."

"The market is vast."

"However, precisely because the market is so vast, people in the Middle East and Southeast Asia are not very receptive to new things; they need time to accept them."

"Therefore, I hope Mr. Lin can offer me some unique benefits."

"For example, patent licensing rights, or exclusive agency rights."

"With patent licensing rights, we can develop more and better things based on your product."

"Exclusive agency rights can guarantee our future profits, allowing us to focus wholeheartedly on the business without any worries..."

"Stop!" Lin Man used his right hand to force Lucius's remaining words back into his mouth. After the other man shut up, he withdrew his hand and continued tapping the armrest of the chair with his index finger.

"When it comes to business, we should focus on what we deserve, rather than fantasizing about what we shouldn't get."

"I've heard a similar version of your rhetoric at least 10 years ago."

"Even my family members heard this version 20 years ago."

"The version is too old, it's not interesting," Lin Man said, shaking his head with a look of disgust.

Being rejected and having his thoughts exposed, Lucius showed no embarrassment. Instead, he put on an expression of being misunderstood and heartbroken, and said in a low voice, "Mr. Lin, you have misunderstood me."

"Besides Central Asia and Southeast Asia, we also have the European market."

"I think you should be well aware of how strict European standards are. Without sufficient testing, Europe will not allow us in."

"Your relinquishing some licensing rights is actually for your own good."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Lin Man's right index finger waving gently in front of him.

Once he turned his attention back to the chair, Lin Man withdrew his fingers and continued tapping on the chair.

"For ordinary materials, it's a buyer's market, but unfortunately, it's not. It's a seller's market, an absolute seller's market, where I call the shots."

"The only thing you can think about is what price to pay for the materials from me."

"During this period, the price of finished 811-type ternary lithium battery cathode material was approximately US$2.5 per ton, while the energy density of one kilogram of 811-type ternary lithium battery is 0.25."

"Mine is 7.1, which is 28.4 times that of the 811 model."

"I am not a bad person. Here, I voluntarily respond to the international call for environmental protection and am willing to contribute to international environmental protection and world peace."

"The price I can offer you is 15 times that of the 811-type ternary lithium battery. As for price fluctuations, they will follow the international price fluctuations of the 811-type ternary lithium battery."

"The finished batteries are priced separately, but I think this price is reasonable. What do you think?"