High School Belle Fell in Love with Me

Chapter 574 - 251: Jiang Banxia’s Ticket (2)

Forget about seat heating and ventilation, it costs tens of thousands to add them.

As for in-car entertainment, it’s good enough if you can listen to music. Want to go online? Pay the data fees dutifully every month, and the price isn’t cheap—three times the cost of a similar mobile phone plan.

The performance of the car system is terribly outdated, with no operational space, like the old Nokia phones.

Of course, when fuel cars reach the million-dollar mark, they begin to transform. Both the interior and performance can provide unprecedented satisfaction. This emotional value is something electric cars can’t hope to replace in the short term.

In the coming years, domestic new energy car users will gradually replace fuel cars with an annual increase of five million. This is an extremely large market; by 2024, this increase will reach ten million.

For Li Yang, Extreme Shadow Cars is a lifelong business opportunity.

The current total mileage of fifty million kilometers isn’t much, equivalent to each car driving only three thousand kilometers in half a year.

However, the failure rate is very low, and battery spontaneous combustion hasn’t occurred yet.

Spontaneous combustion is unavoidable. After all, such a large battery will inevitably have some faults leading to heat and fire.

Fuel cars have only one lead-acid battery, but they still spontaneously combust, and globally, the number of fuel car spontaneous combustions isn’t low every year, mostly due to circuit aging leading to poor contact.

This year, Extreme Shadow Cars mainly has three directions: the first is the range extender, the second is auxiliary driving 2.0, and the third is Spirit Wind chassis 2.0.

Extreme Shadow Cars nearly have two thousand engineers now; the technology must be updated quickly.

If it’s a bit slow, they’ll lose the edge.

He’s personally involved in auxiliary driving, mainly guiding the direction.

Aside from initially working on some of the underlying architecture, he hasn’t typed a single line of code afterwards.

Currently, the company has several cars training intelligent driving, but they’re still in closed facilities with frequent faults; going on the road could easily cause accidents.

The simulation of various scenarios, the rate at which Extreme Shadow Cars burns money is beyond imagination.

Now, the funds from orders for over fifty thousand cars, more than ten billion, are almost spent.

On one hand, it’s about expanding production capacity, from previously one production line to now four, because Megrez Series orders are too many and can’t be delayed until next year, forcing an addition of one production line, estimated to be completed by the end of July. Then, monthly production capacity for the Megrez Series will be around eight thousand units.

The other two production lines are for the Shaking Light Series, also under construction, estimated to be completed by October.

Both production lines combined will have a capacity of six thousand units per month.

It’s expected to need another ten billion in investments this year. Every step he takes is bolder than others’. He knows he must succeed.

But industry isn’t like finance; finance depends only on numbers, and with Celestial Eye activated, he can basically make a steady profit.

Yet real industry doesn’t work that way. Even with Celestial Eye, it’s hard to see any effects in the short term.

For example, this time, he can only manage by borrowing funds to acquire used cars from the market, barely maintaining the price of second-hand cars in the short term to prevent a price crash.

Currently, the increase in orders for Extreme Shadow Cars is less than three hundred units per month, a visibly declining trend.

Initially, he planned to only keep one production line for the Megrez Series because it will have range extenders next year, different from the pure electric production line.

But with unexpected turns, he had to spend an additional multi-billion to prevent keeping those people waiting until next year for their cars.

A promising start in industry can’t guarantee future outcomes; Li Yang now wants to stabilize the situation thoroughly. The only way is to slow down the depreciation rate of Extreme Shadow Cars.

He can’t just throw in his own money.

That’s a bottomless pit; it can only be used when Extreme Shadow Cars have a low retention rate...

Even if he believes he can earn money on US Stocks next year, which would encourage more people to buy cars.

But their starting point is investing for reward points, not really considering how good the car is.

Instead, after making money, they’re willing to sell their cars at lower prices, impacting the second-hand market.

It’s not because Extreme Shadow Cars are bad; many haven’t even driven them.

Or after driving them, they can’t adapt to them in the short term, for various reasons...

That’s how real industry is—hard at the start, hard in the middle, harder later on.

...

In the evening, Li Yang ordered a meal from the restaurant and sent it to Bai Qing’s place.

Bai Qing had just returned, mainly busy with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds qualification matches.

This time, he didn’t bring the babysitter, just had someone come over ahead to clean up the place.

When Li Yang arrived, he only saw Bai Qing, Chen Peipei, and the child.

In the night, after comforting each other, Bai Qing, lying in Li Yang’s arms, spoke: "Honey, shall we take wedding photos tomorrow? I can’t wait to marry you."

"Sure, I happen to be free tomorrow."

Even if he had work, Li Yang wouldn’t want to show it.

"Then do you prefer Chinese weddings or Western weddings?"

"What about you? I like whatever you like."

"Then... let’s have a Chinese wedding. I like the traditional Chinese wedding attire."

"Alright!"

...

On July 2nd, Li Yang barely went outside; he stayed home with Bai Qing picking outfits, then had them sent over for fitting.

They booked a photo studio but could only go on the 5th. Then, they’ll take wedding photos in Jiangbei.

Bai Qing originally had arrangements on July 3rd, but Li Yang made an excuse about having work.

In fact, early on the 3rd, he boarded the high-speed train to Capital City.

Today is Jiang Banxia’s birthday.

The gifts were already prepared, and when he arrived, Xue Ning was also there.

He came to Jiang Banxia’s side, put his arm around her shoulder, "Honey, happy birthday!"

He felt like he’s not a good person, yesterday choosing wedding gowns with Bai Qing and today calling Jiang Banxia his wife.

Though both words are the same in pinyin...

At night, Li Yang and Jiang Banxia talked about Extreme Shadow Cars, the current challenges encountered, and the funding gap for the second half of the year.

Jiang Banxia listened intently.

This was the first time Li Yang sought her help.

She could also see Li Yang’s recent suppressed emotions. Judging from Li Yang’s business layout, if Extreme Shadow Cars collapse, then everything else is meaningless.

It couldn’t support a sufficient foundation.

Just like stock trading, no matter how many hot topics a stock hits, its rise is quite limited; if the main business doesn’t get up, the market value will never see substantial gains.

When it got late into the night, Jiang Banxia asked, "Honey, are you going to stay here for a few more days?"

"I... probably can’t stay, I need to go back during the day."

"Will you come back again in a few days?"

"I guess I won’t be back until the end of August, but then I’ll spend every day with you. How about that?"

"Mm, okay."

While speaking, Jiang Banxia opened the bedside drawer and took out a small wooden box.

After opening the box, there was a card inside.

The card was hand-drawn, resembling a train ticket.

The departure station was written as high school, and the destination was blank.

The time was from 2014 to 2096.

The passenger was Jiang Banxia, and the driver was Li Yang.

Jiang Banxia took out the card and said, "Honey, I bought the ticket, you must take me to the destination..."

Li Yang saw it, took it over, and said, "Now everyone takes high-speed trains, who still takes a train?"

"Trains are slow, they let you see more of the scenery outside. High-speed trains are too fast, I’m afraid my life would pass too fleetingly..."

"Fleeting? I’ll soon let you know what it’s like to have Mount Tai pressing down!"

After saying that, Li Yang started becoming playful.

In the blink of an eye, Jiang Banxia shyly said, "I... indeed kind of want it."

...

"Honey, happy birthday!"

"Okay."

...

On the afternoon of the 4th, Li Yang returned to Jiangbei.

Before leaving, Jiang Banxia gave him a birthday gift.

After seeing Li Yang off, Jiang Banxia lay in her bedroom and sometimes read a book when bored.

Regarding business, she didn’t know much, only realized after hearing Li Yang talk about some things that money alone doesn’t solve everything.

After reading for a while, she opened the bedside drawer to continue practicing hand drawing.

There aren’t many things now that can fully capture her focus.

But just as she opened the bedside drawer, she saw that wooden box from last night.

After opening the box, there’s a train ticket lying inside intact.