The construction of the mutant farm would be operated by the merchants themselves; the NAC would only be responsible for providing the piglets. The profit would be a three-seven split with NAC taking 30% in the form of a "patent fee."
Some clever merchants wanted to purchase the piglets at a high cost and buy the patent from NAC, but Jiang Chen rejected the proposal with a smile. Turning profits was only part of it with the priority being that NAC had to control the level of crystals produced. And these piglets must only be strictly raised in NAC territories without leaving the city. If any evidence of a leak was been discovered, NAC would terminate the partnership and issue a hefty fine.
After an agreement was reached, the eight merchants left the conference room with excitement. The partnership agreement Jiang Chen proposed without a doubt dragged them from the brinks of bankruptcy, so they had no reason to reject.
And they were even more surprised that Jiang Chen was willing to share such a big piece of the pie with them. Because of NAC's power, they easily had the ability to build their own farm.
Jiang Chen made the choice with careful consideration. With NAC's financial capabilities, they didn't need to bother with small profits. All in all, NAC printed the currency, so did he need to care about the profit of a few farms?
Compared to being a millionaire in the slums, Jiang Chen would much rather be a king among the rich. Other than the food trade and advanced military market controlled by the NAC military government, he had plans to contract out all "non-core profit" to private companies. This was because regarding expansion to new markets, private individuals had more energy compared to officials. As to the reason, history certainly had many lessons.
He finally took care of everything on Sixth Street. Jiang Chen said goodbye to Chu Nan and thanked him for the arrangements at Sixth Street before he boarded a helicopter to return to Fishbone base before Dusk.
It was almost late October already and Ayesha's mission was almost done. On the other hand, the Rothschild family invited him to Europe to attend a car exhibition. Since Jiang Chen had a friendly relationship with Carmen, he obviously wouldn't decline this opportunity.
The apocalypse was on the right track.
Compared to dealing with threats in the far future, development plans had to shift toward the modern world now.
When the helicopter landed, Jiang Chen noticed through the window that Jiang Lin was waiting beside the helicopter pad.
When Jiang Chen came out, he immediately walked up.
"What do you need?" Jiang Chen looked at him with surprise.
"It's about that warp drive paper." Jiang Lin took a deep breath and said briskly.
"Is there any progress?"
"How is that possible?" Jiang Lin shook his head with a bitter smile. "After reading it through, it gave me and the research institute a lot of inspiration. Can I know who wrote the paper? If possible, please take me to see him."
"That's not possible. The scientist who wrote the paper already boarded the colonization ship."
Still digesting that fact, Jiang Lin let out a sigh. "Just as I thought."
"Anything else?" Jiang Chen asked.
"Yes, it's about research priorities," Jiang Chen said with seriousness. "Although this research paper provided us with a new, clear research path, it's still extremely difficult to make the warp engine into a reality. In other words, it's almost impossible considering the current conditions…"
"The priority is the same as other research projects - regardless how hard it is and even if it takes ten or twenty years." Jiang Chen stared into Jiang Lin's eyes. "This has to do with the life of a lot of people."
Dazed by Jiang Chen's solemn tone, Jiang Lin held his breath.
Moments later, his voice trembled.
"Who?"
"A lot of people." Jiang Chen didn't tell him who but only gave him this ambiguous answer before leaving.
To be honest, with his current abilities, if the modern world was matched up against the Harmony, he would have no odds of winning at all. With the Sailor Bug that could interstellar travel as well as the weapons in their possession, he couldn't think of any way they could win.
But if this side could design the theoretically-possible warp drive that could achieve the speed of light, then his odds of winning would increase.
Although the danger could be foreseen, Jiang Chen still had some time left. The distance of 20.5 light years meant it would take Natural Selection a hundred years to reach Earth.
But even then, their time was still limited. Although it was superficial to value a civilization's power with history in time, they were still monsters who traveled thousands of years in time.
And a monster with invasion written in its genetic code.
It was strictly impossible to tell the world that "aliens" were on a path to invasion. Disregarding the possibility of current technology observing Natural Selection light years away, even if he did convince people in the modern world, it would just create unnecessary fear.
How would he get the countries around the world on board? How could he make the Earth civilizations possess the power to fight Natural Selection? There were still many problems that Jiang Chen had to solve.
Development had to be done step by step, but the steps had to be accelerated.
When he returned to the mansion, after having dinner with the girls, he went into the bedroom with Sun Jiao.
Jiang Chen had already told them his date of returning to the modern world. After his return from the Sixth Street, he took care of everything he needed to.
Sun Jiao remembered he was leaving, so she was particularly passionate during their night of intimacy as if she wanted to stuff Jiang Chen into her body and fuse their bodies into one…
It was a long night.
The next morning, Jiang Chen stood by the bed and stared at the audacious but beautiful face.
Without any parting words, he kissed her on the cheek.
Gently covering her body with the covers, he returned to his own bedroom and disappeared from the mansion.
When he opened his eyes again, the scenery was different and the world was colored with vibrancy.
Staring at the elegant chandelier on the ceiling, Jiang Chen laid on the bed for a while before he switched his thought process from the apocalypse to the modern world.
The first thing he did was check his phone. Without Ayesha being a communicator, it was hard for him to receive messages from the modern world. But as soon as he opened his phone, hundreds of missed calls filled his screen.
And the missed calls belonged to the same name.
Jiang Chen pressed his screen a few times and immediately called her back.
The phone only rang for a second before it went through. He couldn't even open his mouth before he heard an anxious voice.
"Where are you now? Hello? Are you okay on that side?"
Jiang Chen listened to her concerned questions as he was dumbfounded.
"I… I'm okay. Uhh, I'm in Xin of course."
After confirming Jiang Chen's safety, Xia Shiyu sounded relieved. But when she realized Jiang Chen was okay and she worried over nothing for one week, her voice carried a hint of blame.
"As the president, it's better for you to not suddenly disappear. You're in Xin. If you disappeared, I wouldn't even know which phone number to tell the police."
"Ahem, don't worry, nothing will happen. But because of my job demands, I have to occasionally go to an area without signal. A random island in the ocean." Jiang Chen made up a story.
Xia Shiyu took a deep breath and didn't completely believe Jiang Chen's explanation, but she still accepted it.
"Let's not talk about this and get to business."
"Mhmm, I'm listening." Jiang Chen held the phone with one hand while he used the other to change into a new pair of pants.
"The company recently received a lot of invitations. Aside from private functions, there are some official invites."
"For example?" he asked nonchalantly.
"The Xiangjiang Government as well as Han's invitation."
[Finally here?]
Jiang Chen smiled.
[With erdefining technology, someone finally felt pained.