Chapter 87

Deputy Manager of the Business Department of Philips, Zhao Mingjie, felt a headache as soon as he heard it. He subconsciously gave a slight glare to the young man who had been silent beside him.

This small action was very subtle, but Zhuo Chuan saw it all and remembered it well. This young man was precisely the one he had just introduced, Lu Zhengyang.

Zhuo Chuan began to pay more attention to this young man. After a brief observation, he found that the young man was very low-key, with no distinctive features, extremely ordinary, the kind of person who would be lost in a crowd. Anyone glancing over would focus on the middle-aged Zhao Mingjie rather than the young and promising Lu Zhengyang.

Zhao Mingjie also reacted quickly and smiled, "Mr. Zhuo's proposal for cooperation is, of course, excellent. However, to be frank, it's not easy to establish a long-term and stable partnership with a powerful company. Your company, Tianhua Software, is a professional software supplier, and we, as a professional hardware service provider, are a perfect match for a win-win situation. If the qualification license is renewed annually, it could easily disrupt the newly established partnership. Moreover, a large number of non-professional companies might come in and disrupt the market."

Zhuo Chuan knew the other party was right, but he also understood a crucial fact: long-term cooperation has a fatal flaw—it can be easily held hostage, with a large portion of the profits being siphoned off by downstream companies.

For example, for Starlight Company, they actually benefited greatly as the first to take the risk. Without mentioning anything else, the service access qualification license for this year could be auctioned for a sky-high price, and Zhuo Chuan wouldn't believe it if it was less than 100 million.

As long as the copyright and related patents are smoothly approved, Zhuo Chuan believed that everyone could see the vast market potential worldwide. This software would become the best booster for related ECG monitoring devices, entering every household that could afford it.

An average elderly person using it three times a month would ensure basic safety, though it couldn't guarantee absolute safety, such as in cases of accidents. This software definitely couldn't predict events like falls or heart diseases triggered by arguments. Even humans couldn't predict such things. Everyone would understand these accidents, just as no drug is omnipotent or has a 100% cure rate. As long as it is clinically effective, it can be put into use.

"Ha ha, this has its pros and cons. I believe that introducing full qualification competition is beneficial to the end-users. They can get better service and prevent price monopolies. For example, some telecommunications companies charge exorbitantly in underdeveloped areas, relying on their monopoly, while their service is just average. In developed areas, they align with local companies, offering cheaper and better services. This is the benefit of full competition," Zhuo Chuan directly raised the banner of end-users, effectively countering Zhao Mingjie's argument.

Zhao Mingjie knew that the core technology was all in the other party's hands. His side could only see a theoretical paper that had been manually validated. To commercialize this paper, according to the estimates of the company's senior R&D engineers, a significant leap in software technology was needed, at least to truly solve the intelligent programming issue, to enable the computer to predict and respond quickly to service requests. This has already been fully achieved in the cloud services provided by Tianhua Software in hospitals, although the accuracy is about half that of human calculations. However, it can still avoid false negatives, which is quite impressive. Computers, after all, have their limitations.

They said that this paper is equivalent to providing patients with a very precise diagnostic method. Experts can use their rich experience and strong learning ability to deduce the future physiological changes of patients based on the principles in the paper, but to expect a rigid computer to mimic human thinking and deduce the same results is not feasible. It would take at least 30 to 50 years.

Without relying on computers, there would be no commercial value. The millions of requests that might occur every day in the future would be much easier to handle by choosing to lay bricks rather than trying to manually deduce such a large workload.

"Alright, I understand Mr. Zhuo's thoughts. Let me contact the headquarters and inquire about this cooperation model," Zhao Mingjie said, then got up to leave.

Zhuo Chuan understood the other party's caution, fearing that his high-tech company might have audio and video surveillance. Otherwise, he could have made the call right there. He, of course, wouldn't expose this and shook hands with the other party again, personally seeing them off. He naturally respected these fat sheep.

...

As soon as they left Tianhua Software, got off the elevator, and found a nearby resting pavilion downstairs, Zhao Mingjie, seeing no one around, couldn't wait to start complaining.

"I paid you two million in compensation, and you, the so-called top international-level business spy, didn't get any useful information, just some common stuff. This is very disappointing. The passive situation today is all due to your incompetence. I want a refund."

The young man, Lu Zhengyang, who had been silent beside him, with ordinary features that had barely caught Zhuo Chuan's attention, now had a sharp look in his eyes as he glanced at Zhao Mingjie.

"Manager Zhao, if you say your company's R&D capabilities are insufficient and can't produce the same product, now you're blaming me. Are we not going to play nicely together anymore?" Lu Zhengyang leaned against the pavilion's railing, his tone light but with a clear threat.

"What do you mean? In your line of work, if you dare to threaten your employer, you won't be able to eat anymore," Zhao Mingjie, outwardly fierce but inwardly timid, would be polite to Zhuo Chuan, who would soon be a big boss and a great scientist. He had to be respectful.

What about Philips? They would also have to bow to him. The paper had already been published in Nature and would soon, or perhaps already, be on the list of key protected individuals in the country.

He knew this well. There were too many precedents. It was too difficult for the country to produce a scientist or expert with genuine global influence or a world-class achievement. The more developed the economy, the higher the requirements in this area. Despite the large amount of research funding invested each year, there were no significant achievements. Now, finally, one had emerged, and it was a groundbreaking one. Not to mention, the person was so young and had a bright future.

If he were to think of targeting the other party again, he would have to be prepared for a severe backlash, and it would be impossible to avoid a long prison sentence.

What was this Lu Zhengyang, anyway, to dare threaten him? Just a rat crawling in the gutter, never seeing the light of day. He only had some information about his mistress, which was nothing. At worst, he would split his assets and divorce his yellow-faced wife.

"Ha ha, why is Manager Zhao so agitated? Just now, you were so humble in front of the young and capable Mr. Zhuo. You showed your Philips badge once and then backed off. What's the point of being arrogant with me?" Lu Zhengyang, hearing this, was a bit cautious and retracted the sharpness he had shown.

...