I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

That night, Chen Xi lay in bed playing on his phone, while Jiang Yu couldn't sleep at all. He kept thinking about it but still couldn't figure it out, so he looked at Chen Xi and asked, "Mr. Chen, you said these farmers were wronged, why didn't anyone stand up for them? After all, it's not just one person who's encountered this. If they had reacted sooner, we would have known sooner, right?"

“There’s an old saying, ‘The nail that sticks out gets hammered down,’ ever heard of it? In China, even if a lot of people have opinions on a certain issue, absolutely no one will stand up to oppose it. What they do is stand still and wait for someone to jump out and speak up for everyone, but that person who jumps out often becomes the target. The problem is that after someone jumps out, most people still choose to stand by and watch. And they’ll even feel smug and happy inside, thinking that they’re the smart ones, and that the one who jumped out is a big fool who doesn’t know how to be patient. To put it bluntly, they brought this humiliation on themselves…” Chen Xi replied nonchalantly.

Back when he was studying in Australia, people from all walks of life would frequently unite to carry out movements, rallying together to fight for their own welfare. Looking at things here now, he didn't know what to say.

"Hmm, that seems to make sense..." Jiang Yu seemed to have figured it out after listening, and the confusion in his mind was resolved.

"Hey, you just got back, it's good that you don't want to go along with the corrupt practices. But since you're new to the workforce, I'll find a few people to help you." Chen Xi glanced at the other person's youthful face.

"Um...then why don't you just hire these people to do it?"

"Our great nation has never lacked 'smart people,' but what it lacks are 'fools' who dare to step forward and find problems."

"..."

"Okay, turn off the lights and go to sleep." Chen Xi smiled and placed her phone on the bedside table.

New mother-in-law, Huodudu branch.

It was late at night, but the office was still brightly lit.

"Damn, this idea is brilliant... I've got it, I've completely got it!" Zhou Sheng muttered to himself as he stared at the computer screen.

The assistant who had just entered looked bewildered: "Mr. Zhou, what have you realized?"

"The end of logistics is finance! Hail Hop is going to get into cryptocurrency trading. Look at electric vehicles, batteries, loans, financial leasing, freight insurance, logistics... as long as you add cryptocurrency, all aspects of payment, settlement, and credit can be connected. We at Huodudu have so many drivers and merchants in Southeast Asia, but the Southeast Asian market is fragmented, and cross-border settlements have always been troublesome. If we use cryptocurrency, the problem will be solved! Moreover, all transaction funds can be aggregated on the exchange for operation..." Zhou Sheng turned around, his eyes gleaming.

"Boss, isn't the second half a bit too risky?" The assistant thought the first part was pretty reliable, but the second part sounded a bit risky.

"What do you know! Look at the state of our domestic business right now! If we don't take a gamble, how can we turn things around? I've been running around like crazy lately, but I haven't managed to secure much investment. The institutions don't believe we can win the battle to get the goods. Fortunately, Southeast Asia is still our territory. We need to make our moves before Hail Hop gets involved!" Zhou Sheng stood up excitedly.

"Boss, why are you so confident?"

“Idiot! You’ve been here so long, don’t you read the news? The new mother-in-law has been pushing digital currencies, but the country is cracking down on them. Aren’t all those Ponzi schemes and scams ending up here? If you ask me, this is Asia’s future cryptocurrency paradise!” Zhou Sheng pointed out the window.

Zhou Sheng wasn't the only one with this idea. After Hail Hop's announcement, many domestic companies sensed a similar opportunity.

Across the ocean.

"Honey, you're amazing! You've even expanded your business to America!" Ouyang Ming, dressed in a sharp suit, stood next to Liya, muttering with pride.

"That's all thanks to your guidance behind the scenes. But the company belongs to Chen Xi, I'm not the boss." Liya winked at him as she walked, then said seriously.

"That's right! Behind every successful woman, there's always an outstanding man!" Ouyang Ming patted his chest, beaming with pride.

But then he thought about it and realized something was off: "Wait a minute, Hail Hop's biggest competitor here should be Uber, right? Shouldn't the two companies be fighting to the death? How come they're talking about cooperation?"

"Hehe, you don't know, Uber has been losing a lot of money in the past three years."

"Really? I see that it has a very large global presence."

"You'll find out soon enough," Liya said with a mysterious smile.

The elevator doors opened, and Musk was already waiting there, smiling and extending his hand to Liya: "Welcome to Tesla!"

"Hello, hello! I'm Ouyang Ming!" Upon seeing this top global tech mogul, Ouyang Ming excitedly stepped forward to shake hands. But Musk's attention was entirely on Liya.

Since Liya took over Real-Car and then took full control of Hail Hop, the company's performance has soared until it went public independently. Chen Xi had previously mentioned privately that his friend was an all-rounder with beauty, ability, and a great personality. Musk had always been very curious about this.

After a brief conversation, he surprisingly had the idea of ​​poaching people.

"Uber's ATG self-driving division, while causing huge losses for the company, initially raised $10 billion in funding and was valued at nearly $70 billion. Acquiring it would be very expensive," Musk said, pushing a document over.

Liya glanced at it and smiled slightly: "Hail Hop is Uber's biggest competitor right now. It's holding a hot potato that's burning through nearly $8 million a year, and it can't shake it off, which is really painful for it. If its competitor suddenly says they want to take it over, do you think it will grit its teeth and cut its losses?"

"You mean... Uber will sell ATG to you at a low price, hoping you'll continue to lose money and thus slow down your development?" Musk immediately understood.

“That’s right. ATG mainly relies on multi-sensor solutions such as LiDAR, while Tesla focuses on pure vision. After acquiring ATG, we can integrate the two to form a more stable technology roadmap and launch driverless ride-hailing services.”

"Uber tried its hand at driverless ride-hailing before, lost a lot of money, and after a few accidents recently, it's preparing to shut it down. Do you still dare to do it?" Musk asked rhetorically.

“I’ve analyzed Uber’s report. It’s indeed difficult for driverless ride-hailing services to be profitable within ten years; at best, they can break even. But that’s enough. Hail Hop’s collaboration with Tesla is primarily aimed at generating buzz and boosting the stock price. As for the project’s losses, they’re negligible.”

"That's impressive! It took me a long time to convince those investors to have that kind of vision." Musk's eyes showed admiration.

Ouyang Ming, who was standing to the side, listened to the conversation and watched his girlfriend being praised by the big shot. His face was full of pride.

My woman is so capable that she has to listen to me at home, so wouldn't I be even more capable?
The next morning, Chen Xi and Jiang Yu sat at a roadside stall eating noodles.

Chen Xi looked through the messages sent by Saori and Jin Nana on his phone and couldn't help but chuckle.

These two women have been having a rough time with their business back home lately, their text messages are full of complaints about how unethical people here compete using underhanded tactics. A while ago, Saori came up with a heartwarming new idea.

KURIMU has launched a dining and conversation companion service, allowing people with disabilities to remotely control robots via the internet to provide companionship for customers dining alone. This not only provides income for people with disabilities but also alleviates the loneliness of single diners.

The idea was wonderful, but its implementation in China faced numerous obstacles. Saori and Kim Nana thought that society in island nations and South Korea was already indifferent enough, but the reaction here was even more disheartening. Almost no one ordered the service, and online, a flood of sarcastic remarks emerged, saying it would be better to have pretty waitresses accompany them instead of wasting their time. Others argued that it was pointless to involve disabled people, suggesting that reducing employment opportunities would benefit those in need.

Maid cafes exist in China, but Saori felt they might not be suitable for the local culture and would often attract inspections, so she didn't consider it. Online reactions made the two women feel the service was too impersonal, so they cancelled it. Unexpectedly, this service later became popular in Japan and South Korea.

After reading it, Chen Xi felt it was perfectly normal. The pace of life in China is too fast; ordinary people don't even have enough income, so where would they find the spare money or the mood to pay a stranger with a disabled person to chat and eat with them? As for people becoming increasingly indifferent, he had already experienced that in his previous life.

"Mr. Chen, where are we going today?" Jiang Yu asked, wiping his mouth after finishing his noodles.

“There’s a charming town nearby, which is also a Huahetong project. Shall we go check it out?” Chen Xi had listed several places to visit beforehand, and he just picked one at random.

The so-called "characteristic towns" are essentially rural complex projects that have become popular in recent years. This concept has been popular for many years, and its popularity has never waned.

An hour later, the two drove to their destination.

Before them lay a desolate, undeveloped area, almost devoid of people. Chen Xi frowned: "What's going on here?"

Jiang Yu glanced at the information board next to him: "It's quite large... maybe it's not fully developed yet?" He himself didn't sound very confident about saying this. After what he had seen and heard yesterday, he had already given up hope.

The two walked forward on the bumpy dirt road, with bare fields on both sides and several buildings in the distance with their doors and windows tightly closed and their exterior walls mottled.

"It's a failed project? The report says it's operating normally." Chen Xi lit a cigarette, his face darkening.

"It's definitely another case of layer-by-layer skimming, demanding money from the company while not actually starting any work," Jiang Yu said angrily, her voice rising.

Just as they turned to leave, a commotion broke out.

A group of farmers wielding shovels and hoes suddenly appeared out of nowhere, blocking the only exit with their dark mass.

“You are…” Jiang Yu subconsciously stepped forward and stood in front of Chen Xi.

"We've been waiting for you! When are you going to pay the rent for our land?" The man in the lead, with thinning hair and clothes covered in mud, raised the shovel in his hand and stared at him as he asked.

"What rent?" Jiang Yu was taken aback.

"Still playing dumb? Isn't this 'specialty town' something your company built?!" The man spat on the ground, his tone becoming even more aggressive.

"Yes...but..." Before Jiang Yu could finish speaking, a group of people had already swarmed around him.

"Fellow villager, is there some misunderstanding here?" Chen Xi asked at this moment.

"Misunderstanding? Your company rented our land, saying we'd get paid without doing any work. Now look what's happened, we haven't seen any money, and the land is lying fallow!" the man sneered.

"This project has been going on for a while now, how long have you been in arrears on rent?" Chen Xi asked.

"They haven't given it to me since the beginning, it's been over a year!"

"If you haven't received the money, why don't you take the land back and farm it yourselves?"

"You think I don't want to?" The man got even angrier when he heard this and started talking non-stop.

It turns out that this land was handled by a manager of a branch of Huahetong. Although it was called a company project, the manager actually used Huahetong's name to lease the land and then subcontracted it to another company, profiting from the deal. As a result, the project was poorly planned, ran out of funds, and quickly became a dead end. The land has been abandoned ever since, and the rent has been in arrears.

The farmers were seething with anger and wanted to get their land back to continue farming, but the village wouldn't allow it, saying the contract was in black and white and hadn't expired. They were also reassured that the rent would be taken care of and to wait a little longer. A group of people with no land to farm and nothing to do saw a car coming in today and immediately grabbed their tools and surrounded it.

After listening, Chen Xi understood perfectly. The manager of his own company, the shell company he had taken over, and the village officials who were trying to smooth things over had probably already formed a network of vested interests.

This reminded him of a movie he had seen before, about a village cadre in a village in Shanxi Province who contracted out a collective coal mine to a private boss. As a result, the villagers did not receive any money for several years, and they dared not speak out against it. In the end, it was only thanks to the protagonist's use of the truth that the truth was revealed.

Although he didn't do it himself, it was caused by someone from Huahetong, so he was in the wrong first. Chen Xi immediately stated, "Fellow villager, the rent issue will definitely be resolved today." He gestured for Jiang Yu to make the arrangements while continuing to chat with the group.

This conversation led to even more questions.

Besides this unfinished "characteristic town," other projects using or related to Huahetong's name are also riddled with problems. Some companies, under the guise of government-subsidized training, organize farmers to attend expensive courses, promising high salaries or subsidies after obtaining certificates. In reality, they issue invalid certificates, the training quality is extremely poor, and it's purely a scam to defraud training fees.

This matter originally had nothing to do with Huahetong, but when Chen Xi heard that the drone training school he had set up to help rural areas had also encountered similar problems, his anger flared up.

Initially, his drone training school was completely free. Later, due to overwhelming demand, he started charging a small handling fee, which actually subsidized the village as organizational funding. Otherwise, why would the village officials be so proactive in encouraging everyone to learn?

But now, things have taken a turn for the worse. The school has become a training center with exorbitantly priced certificates, the higher the level, the more expensive. Some villagers, who have already obtained their certificates, are told that their certificates are not valid for flying and they must retake the corresponding advanced certificate for their drone model, or face fines. The village officials seem to have an ambiguous relationship with these people, and their only solution is always the same: "Everyone, go and get another advanced certificate."

"Damn it! Don't worry, this matter will definitely be resolved for you. And those village officials too." After hearing this, Chen Xi angrily threw the cigarette butt in his hand to the ground, sparks flying everywhere.

"Hey, really? I have proof!" Upon hearing that Chen Xi was going to take action against those village officials, the villagers who had just received their rent immediately changed their attitude, their eyes revealing a long-suppressed excitement.

Soon, Chen Xi learned even deeper inside information. Certain companies had long colluded with individuals to fraudulently obtain subsidies by falsifying planting areas, forging lists, and submitting duplicate applications… (End of Chapter)