The third day after Black Thursday.
The rising sun illuminated Manhattan Island at six o’clock in the morning.
As usual, Ben got off the car with a briefcase. He yawned and began to walk toward his office building when he saw a newspaper stand being surrounded by a crowd of people.
Men in suits and leather shoes gathered around the stand, handing out cash in exchange for a copy.
“What happened…”
Ben walked up and saw a fat man with curly hair walking out of the crowd.
This guy was none other than Carell.
Ben didn’t hesitate before walking up and patting his colleague’s shoulder.
“Hey, what happened? Why are there so many people around here?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I tried to buy a copy.” Carell unfolded the newspaper and looked down at the headline.
The second his eyes touched the newspaper, Carell froze.
Ben also froze.
“The Department of Commerce withdrew! So did ExxonMobil! This is…” Carell looked at Ben and said, “Ben, my friend, quick, think, what does this mean for us?”
Ben grabbed his hair; his brain was racing a million miles an hour.
“I don’t know… This is too sudden, maybe it’s a good thing, maybe it’s not… Let me think, this is good for the fusion power plant in Cali… F*ck! I thought this antitrust investigation would drag on for at least the end of the year! It’s been less than a week and the idiots at Congress already withdrew!”
“There’s an email from the company.”
“What did they say?” Ben quickly asked.
“Nothing, just telling us to arrive earlier, the manager wants to hold a short meeting…”
“Quick! They’re going to discuss this during the meeting!” Ben said as he crammed the newspaper into his briefcase and ran into the office building.
Carell put away his phone and screamed as he tried to catch up.
“Hey! I bought that newspaper!”
What happened near the Goldman Sachs building wasn’t an isolated incident.
In fact, almost all of the newspaper stands in Manhattan were swamped by businessmen.
Some people just wanted to know what was going on.
But most people were people working in investment banks.
The International Trade Commission dismissed the antitrust investigation!
ExxonMobil gave up on their lawsuit!
These two news headlines appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Apparently, the Wall Street Journal editor took a long time to decide which news article to put as the front-page story.
However, it didn’t matter.
Because regardless of which story was on the front page, the newspaper was sold out like hotcakes.
People who were lucky enough to grab a copy couldn’t believe their eyes. People were mentally preparing themselves, but they didn’t expect this anti-monopoly investigation to stop so suddenly!
Soon after, the news spread onto the Internet.
These headlines spread throughout America at the speed of light, and investors were stunned by the news.
This was a huge blow to the conservatives that wanted to give the arrogant Chinese a lesson.
Facebook.
The comment section began to flood.
[This is our darkest time!]
[I’m so disappointed, I won’t vote for this coward again.]
[This is the darkest time! This reminds me of Chamberlain, who signed the peace treaty, thinking that it was going to avoid the war. Then look at what happened!]
[Stop talking out of your a*s!]
[Do you know how many times America has protected the freedom of the world?]
[… You look like a quisling to me!]
…
Tesla building in China.
The conference room on the top floor.
Elon Musk looked at the sun rising through the floor-to-ceiling windows. He had just gotten off a red-eye flight.
He suddenly sighed.
“I’m not blaming you, we all know that we didn’t lose to Star Sky Technology, nor did we lose to Beep Beep Charging, we didn’t even lose to China.”
Bobby didn’t say anything.
He knew what his boss was thinking about.
Bobby said, “Actually, thinking about it carefully, we made the wrong decision. Ever since they registered their patent for the lithium-air battery, we had no chance of winning. I would have done the same thing as them. Even though I don’t think wireless charging is game-changing technology, I would have used another tactic to allow us to become the standard setters.”
A patent was only valid for 20 years.
But how long was a standard valid for?
No one knew because standards had inertia; it was difficult to replace and change.
Elon sighed and spoke.
“I know, but… are you willing to accept defeat?”
Bobby shook his head and replied, “No, but there’s nothing we can do.”
A while ago, the local Shanghai government suddenly became unwelcoming and aggressive toward Tesla.
This type of attitude change was abnormal, so Bobby began thinking.
Then, after Bobby contacted an official from the local government, he learned that this was Beijing’s doings.
They crossed the line.
And before they uncrossed this line, the Chinese wouldn’t change their attitude.
Bobby didn’t know which line they crossed, perhaps it was something they did or something the White House did.
But he knew that Tesla’s future in China depended on them uncrossing this line…
However, he didn’t have the power to make a decision.
Only the man standing in front of him did.
After a while, Bobby spoke to Elon.
“What do we do now?”
“Nothing…” Elon looked at the sun rising and said nonchalantly, “Damage control.
“Charging station is a good industry. We can make a lot of money here, but it’s not our core business model…
“For now, we have to keep Tesla alive in China.”
Bobby nodded and spoke.
“I understand, what about the new model? The 2022 model…”
“Use lithium-air batteries,” Elon said with a look of pain. He clenched his jaws and said, “Use their SH standard…”
SH standard…
I lost again…
Ahhh!
I’m so f*cking pissed.
Bobby had a sense of admiration in his heart.
Maybe…
This is why Elon is America’s greatest entrepreneur…
