Mu Qingxue, dressed in a business suit and high heels, exuded an overwhelming aura.
As she finished her sentence...
Snap!
She raised her delicate hand, and a new product poster appeared on the giant screen behind her. The bottle had changed from its original transparent color to an elegant pale green, and the name had changed as well.
[Yunlan · jade dew (Improved and Upgraded Edition)]
"Through the day and night efforts of our R&D team, we have successfully broken through technical barriers!"
"The new generation product abandons the traditional extraction process of rhodiola rosea and adopts a brand-new herbal extraction technology. Its effectiveness has tripled, and the absorption rate has doubled. Most importantly..."
Mu Qingxue held up a finger, a mocking curve rising at the corner of her mouth. "More quantity at no extra cost. In fact, to give back to our new and old customers, the launch price will be reduced by twenty percent. One hundred thousand sets are in stock and will go on sale across the entire network in one minute!"
Boom!!
The press conference venue instantly exploded with excitement as camera flashes flickered frantically.
In Qin Xiao's office, however, there was a deathly silence. The goblet in Qin Xiao's hand was crushed by sheer force.
The crimson wine flowed through his fingers and dripped onto the expensive carpet, looking startlingly like blood.
"How is this possible..."
Qin Xiao muttered to himself, his eyes hollow and dull. "Abandoning rhodiola rosea? Tripling the effectiveness? That's Chinese medicine, a formula passed down for thousands of years. How could she possibly change it in just three days? And without clinical trials??"
Mu Qingxue's move was completely beyond his comprehension.
Fang Ming was right; Qin Xiao was a transmigrator who had been reborn.
In the memories of his previous life, Yunlan International barely solved the raw material problem by purchasing rhodiola rosea at high prices and lengthening the shipping cycle. In this life, he had bought up the rhodiola rosea in advance.
Logically speaking, Mu Qingxue should have had no choice but to beg him. Where did this jade dew come from?
It's all messed up. This world is completely messed up.
Standing nearby, Fang Ming watched Qin Xiao's world-view-shattering reaction, feeling an indescribable sensation in his heart.
He didn't hate Qin Xiao; he just didn't want to be a dog for a fickle guy like him just to get ahead, like the original owner of his body. To escape this life of constant fear as soon as possible, he had to side with the protagonist.
Naturally, A Biao didn't know what Fang Ming was thinking. He hurriedly pulled out some tissues, wanting to wipe the wine and blood off Qin Xiao's hand.
"Young Master Qin! Your hand!"
"Get lost!"
Qin Xiao shoved A Biao aside, his eyes bloodshot as he roared hysterically:
"Investigate! Go investigate right now! What exactly did she use to replace rhodiola rosea?!"
"Also, where did that formula come from? With the bunch of useless trash under Mu Qingxue, they could never have come up with such a thing!"
"Go now!!!"
...Three hours later.
A freshly printed lab report was placed on Qin Xiao's desk.
At this moment, Qin Xiao's hand was wrapped in white gauze. He sat slumped in his chair as if his soul had been sucked out.
He stared fixedly at a few words on the report, his expression shifting from anger to confusion, and finally to an extreme sense of absurdity.
"sedum sarmentosum... trace ethanol residue... aloe extract..."
Qin Xiao's voice trembled, each word squeezed out from between his teeth.
"sedum sarmentosum that costs a few cents per pound? A roadside weed? She used something that wouldn't even be fed to pigs to beat my hundreds of millions worth of rhodiola rosea?!"
Slap!
Qin Xiao slammed his palm onto the desk, sending the report flying.
"Ridiculous! This is the biggest joke in the world!"
He felt as if his intelligence was being ground into the dirt.
He had planned every step and calculated every move, even cutting off the raw materials in advance, only for the opponent to turn the tables with a few weeds?
What terrified him most was the note on the lab report:
[Although the main components were detected as sedum sarmentosum and aloe, the molecular structure is extremely stable, suspected to have undergone some special catalytic process. Current conventional methods cannot crack its synthesis process.]
Knowing what it was but not how it was made—that was the technical barrier.
Standing to the side, Fang Ming was also somewhat surprised.
Even though he knew it was a formula given by the 'Marvelous Doctor of Chinese Medicine,' seeing this simple list of ingredients on the lab report made him marvel at the protagonist's god-like medical skills.
The greatest truths are the simplest. This effect of 'knowing the materials but being unable to replicate them' was something only a novel's protagonist could pull off.
"Young Master Qin!" Fang Ming spoke cautiously, choosing his words carefully. "This matter... indeed seems fishy."
"I've heard of that Dr. Liu from Yunlan International; he's just a conventional old scholar. Even if you gave him ten years, he wouldn't think of using a wild method like sedum sarmentosum."
"Moreover, the report says the process cannot be cracked. This means... it definitely wasn't developed by any modern assembly line."
Fang Ming was intentionally misleading him. He wanted to muddy the waters, making Qin Xiao suspect some ethereal hidden master so that he would overlook the mole right beside him.
Sure enough.
Hearing Fang Ming's words, Qin Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly. "You're right!"
As a wealthy young master with the experience of two lives, Qin Xiao prided himself on having seen a lot.
But this plot—where the opponent whips up a divine medicine from roadside weeds right after he monopolized the raw materials—was completely outside the realm of business logic.
It was like two people agreeing to a fight; you bring a Gatling gun and are ready to fire, only for the opponent to pull out a fire poker, chant a spell, and make your Gatling gun vanish.
Who the hell are you supposed to argue with about that?
"Old Ghost."
Qin Xiao exhaled a long breath and leaned back heavily against his chair, his gaze becoming increasingly deep.
"Young Master Qin." Old Ghost immediately stepped forward.
"This sedum sarmentosum formula could never have been developed by Mu Qingxue's research team."
Qin Xiao tapped his finger on the lab report. "Use all our connections. We must find out who Mu Qingxue has contacted in the past few days and what calls she's made. Even if it's a dog passing by her front door, I want its background checked. Remember, don't alert the enemy."
"Don't worry, Young Master Qin. I'll get on it right away. I guarantee I'll dig out that 'master' hiding behind the scenes for you!"
Although Old Ghost was usually smiling, that was only toward his peers. In front of a venomous snake like Qin Xiao, he was just a slightly larger mouse.
Qin Xiao nodded and then turned to look at Fang Ming.
"Fang Ming, you keep an eye on Chu Yao's side. Although Mu Qingxue turned the tables here, that little brat Chu Yao doesn't have that kind of ability."
"I understand."
Fang Ming nodded slightly.
"All of you, get out. I want to rest for a while!"
Qin Xiao waved his hand as if shooing away flies.
The three of them responded in unison and turned to leave the office.
As the heavy mahogany door closed, the suffocatingly oppressive atmosphere instantly dissipated.
The corridor was covered with a thick handmade carpet, making their footsteps silent; only A Biao's heavy breathing sounded particularly harsh.
Old Ghost wiped the sweat from his forehead, cupped his hands toward Fang Ming, and said with a fake smile,
"Brother Fang, I'll be going then. Young Master Qin's task is quite heavy; let's catch up later."
This old fox obviously felt that this job was a hot potato and was in a hurry to make his moves, not bothering to waste time with pleasantries with Fang Ming.
"Okay!" Fang Ming nodded politely.
Once Old Ghost's figure disappeared around the corner of the elevator, Wang Meng, who had been guarding the door, walked over.
Just as Fang Ming was about to say something to Wang Meng, he suddenly felt someone bump into his arm.
The force was quite strong, carrying obvious malice.