In the morning, sunlight streamed through the window, bathing the room in a gentle warmth.
Chen Mo opened his eyes and immediately felt the soft warmth in his arms. A smile crept across his face.
Moments later, Xiao Yu stirred awake. Her face, still tinged with drowsiness, flushed as memories from the night before surfaced. She buried her face into Chen Mo's chest, her cheeks burning.
Thinking of how bold she had been last night, she couldn't meet his gaze. If given another chance, she wasn't sure she'd have the same courage.
She didn't know what kind of woman she appeared to be in Chen Mo's eyes now.
"Now you're shy?" Chen Mo teased with a chuckle. "That wasn't the case last night."
"Don't say it..." Xiao Yu mumbled, her voice as soft as a mosquito's hum.
Chen Mo grinned. "But I loved it... my Queen."
"You're still talking? I'm never speaking again," Xiao Yu groaned, hiding her face deeper in his chest. The memories of her own shameless enthusiasm made her too embarrassed to look up. "Do you think I'm... that kind of woman?"
"What kind?" Chen Mo raised an eyebrow.
"You know... that kind. The... bad kind," she murmured, barely audible.
Chen Mo smiled and gently stroked her head. "My wife can be gentle and quiet, intellectual and graceful, and also passionate, seductive, and fiery. That's every man's dream. Even if you were 'bad,' your badness belongs to me. Isn't that what love is about? Just like how you usually bully me."
"Mn... it only belongs to you," Xiao Yu whispered sweetly, hugging him tightly.
Lying on Chen Mo's chest, her face full of happiness, she felt that last night's boldness was completely worth it. Though it made her shy, it also brought her a unique sense of joy.
After they washed up and finished breakfast, the two headed to the company together.
"Ink Girl, any hot news today?" Chen Mo asked, settling into his chair.
"At 1 a.m. (10 a.m. local time), Apple held their Autumn Product Launch at the Steve Jobs Theater at their new headquarters," Mo Nu reported. "They released two new smartphones: the Apple S3 and Apple S3 Plus. The upgraded mobile OS features a new-generation voice assistant, Siri, which now supports full voice control without manual interaction. Following the conference, Apple stock rose by 2.7%, bringing its market value to $891.5 billion."
"Oh?" Chen Mo raised an eyebrow. "They've had a breakthrough in AI?"
He wasn't too surprised. Artificial intelligence had already reached a critical inflection point. A breakthrough was only a matter of time. Apple's move was expected.
"Brother Mo, Zhao Min is here," Mo Nu added.
"Okay."
Chen Mo straightened up as Zhao Min entered.
"Big Boss, had fun in the capital?" she said with a faint smile, taking a seat across from him.
"Not bad. I brought back a lot of local specialties—I'll send some to you later," Chen Mo replied.
"Thanks in advance. How's the drug testing going?" she asked, switching to business.
"There were a few hiccups, but the issues have been resolved. The trial's been temporarily paused though. I didn't want to wait around, so I came back. Why'd you come by?"
Zhao Min's tone sharpened with professionalism. "Apple just released their S3 flagship with a fully upgraded Siri. It now supports complete hands-free voice operation. They've broken through our monopoly on smart assistants, and their stock price jumped."
"I saw the news. What's your angle?"
Zhao Min handed him a folder.
"This is the revenue report for our smart assistant, Xiaodie. It brings in about 15 billion annually—very profitable. But European telecoms still refuse to cooperate, and we've basically given up on the U.S. market. That leaves our international phone sales stagnant. With Siri's upgrade, if we do nothing, we're handing the non-Chinese and non-English markets to Apple on a silver platter."
She paused, letting the implications sink in.
"What do you propose?" Chen Mo asked.
"We and Apple are direct competitors, just like we are with other domestic phone makers. Since we can't go head-to-head yet, why not stir the waters a bit—and make money doing it?"
"Stir the waters? Explain."
"Our public mobile assistant only supports Chinese and English. If we open up Xiaodie's multilingual capabilities and license them to other phone manufacturers, they'll likely jump at the opportunity. We'll earn royalties by becoming their default assistant provider."
"That makes sense," Chen Mo said. "But?"
"But if we open up multilingual support to them, it makes our Butterfly Eye phone less competitive in those markets. The international competition gets tougher."
Zhao Min laid it out plainly. Every strategy had its tradeoffs.
Chen Mo fell into thought.
It was like when they first introduced carbon-based lithium-ion batteries. If they hadn't licensed the tech, their phones would've dominated—but their production volume at the time was too small. Licensing was the only way to expand quickly.
Opening up Xiaodie's multilingual capabilities would accelerate global adoption. Their own phone might suffer in the short term, but the revenue and ecosystem influence would grow.
Marching Ants and Apple had clashed before. Chen Mo wouldn't mind giving Apple another headache.
"We haven't broken into the international market yet. No need to worry about that right now. Release Xiaodie's multilingual version. I said before, we're not afraid of competition."
Chen Mo's tone was calm but firm.
Zhao Min's eyes lit up with relief. "Got it."
Even if Butterfly Eye phones couldn't go global immediately, licensing Xiaodie was a power move. Better to profit off Apple's market than watch from the sidelines.
"What licensing model are you thinking?" Chen Mo asked.
"I've run the numbers," Zhao Min said. "We can either charge 3% of the retail price per unit, or go with a flat fee—₦50 or ₦100 per phone. Based on global shipments, our annual revenue would far exceed the current 15 billion. We'll need to evaluate which model works best."
"Alright. Finalize the model and let me know."
"Will do." Zhao Min stood up. "That's all I needed. Now that I've got your go-ahead, I'll get started. I'll leave you to your work."
She flashed a confident smile and walked out.
As soon as she left, Chen Mo's gaze turned back to the screen.
"Ink Girl, start organizing the holographic tech files."