The Secretary of the Treasury pushed open the door and entered the President's office.

Shi Jinfan stood by the window, hands clasped behind his back, gazing out thoughtfully. He gave a soft acknowledgment, "Mhm," upon hearing the question.

The Secretary of the Treasury sank onto the sofa, letting out a long, slow breath. "With these four items secured, our chances of defeating the Hongxian Federation have significantly increased."

Shi Jinfan, however, wasn't quite as optimistic. "Implementing these four new technologies and integrating them into combat readiness will take at least six months. I worry about what might happen during this interim period..."

Though he left his words unfinished, the Secretary of the Treasury understood his apprehension and tried to offer comfort. "The Hongxian Federation is formidable, certainly, but our military is no pushover. We have been preparing for this war—which was inevitable—for over fifty years."

The President remained silent. He knew the logic, yet the reports filtering back from the front lines were deeply unsettling. The Hongxian Federation was pushing steadily closer, on the verge of breaking through the second line of defense. If their advance wasn't stalled soon, the nearest inhabited star faced the imminent danger of falling.

"Speaking of which, that young man is quite extraordinary," the Secretary of the Treasury remarked, intentionally changing the subject.

Mentioning Zhong Yun successfully drew Shi Jinfan's attention away. He nodded solemnly. "This youth is enigmatic, his origins completely unknown. Neither the spacecraft reported by the First Fleet, nor the four technologies he presented today, are things an ordinary middle school student should possess."

The moment Zhong Yun's identity became known, the national machinery had already mobilized, digging up every piece of data on him, from his childhood onward. Even the fact that the Yang family had fabricated a new identity for him was uncovered.

Fortunately, because the Tongguang Star incident was heavily encrypted, it didn't appear during searches of the government database. Otherwise, even that secret would have been exposed.

"I suspect a powerful faction supports him. A faction whose civilization level is clearly far superior to Davo's."

Shi Jinfan sighed at this point. "The reason I expended such effort to fast-track his military rank was precisely to deploy him onto the battlefield. If he can defeat the enemy, so much the better. But if he is defeated, I presume the power behind him won't simply watch their carefully nurtured asset perish. They would inevitably intervene."

It had to be admitted, this scheme of his was ruthless. What if the faction behind Zhong Yun chose not to interfere? What if there was no faction behind him at all?

However, these were not things he needed to dwell on. As the president of a nation, he had to utilize every resource available and throw it into the war effort.

As for the consequences? They could discuss those after winning this war.

The Secretary of the Treasury had guessed Shi Jinfan’s intentions early on, which is why he had cooperated as much as possible during the previous discussion. Unfortunately, owing to their own vested interests, those major powers would never allow someone with deep ties to the Yang family to rise high in the military ranks. That would completely upset the established balance—a scenario they desperately wished to avoid, even though that balance was already precarious under the shock of this war.

Every member of the cabinet held their own position; consensus could only be achieved through compromise and exchange.

"It's a pity that Zhong Yun produced chips I simply couldn't refuse," Shi Jinfan still felt a trace of regret. These were chips that not only he but also the major powers, and indeed the entire nation, could not refuse.

Possessing these four technologies would elevate Davo's overall strength to an entirely new level. Fully assimilating this technology could advance Davo's science by three centuries.

Every era-defining technology was capable of sparking a revolution across an entire industry, even society as a whole. Just like the "Zhong Stabilizer," which had wrought earth-shattering changes in the entire machinery sector. The biggest beneficiaries weren't the Zhong Corporation, but Giant Machinery Group and several other titans of the mechanical industry.

"Then about Zhong Yun's situation..." the Secretary of the Treasury ventured tentatively.

Taking a deep breath, Shi Jinfan once again turned his gaze toward the window. An unidentified, enormous grey bird was flying into the distance, quickly shrinking into a tiny black dot.

"Let's put it aside for now. We'll revisit it after the war is over."

"Xiao Yun, can you please tell me what on earth happened?" Sitting in the shuttle, Yun Rong could no longer hold back, demanding answers from her son.

Zhang Du and Huang Jian were riding in a separate shuttle. Since only the three of them were in this vehicle, there was nothing that couldn't be said.

"Mom sat in the President's office for over ten hours and still hasn't figured out what happened?" Zhong Yun teased. He was in high spirits. Not only had he successfully extricated himself from the battlefield, but he had also maximized his gains using those few technologies. By the time this war concluded, the Zhong Corporation would surely be a behemoth capable of rivaling the Giant Machinery Group.

"Stop fooling around," Yun Rong chided.

Zhong Yun stuck out his tongue. Given his current standing, even the President had to treat him with deference. Only this cheap mother of his could speak to him like that.

In this world, he was certain that the only people who would wholeheartedly devote themselves to him were his biological mother back on Earth, and this woman before him.

"This is quite a long story," Zhong Yun scratched his head. "I really don't know where to begin."

"Keep it brief," Zhong Pingjiang interjected. Although he suspected some of it, he still wanted his son to explain.

Zhong Yun paused, then asked, "Do you remember that girlfriend I mentioned?"

How could Zhong Pingjiang forget? The princess of the 'Marshal's Lineage'—she was impossible to forget. Yun Rong, however, didn't know the full details. While her son had mentioned having a girlfriend, he hadn't disclosed her distinguished background.

"Through Yun Qi's brother and father, I managed to connect with the President," Zhong Yun summarized the process as simply as possible. "When I met the President, I thought that, as a Davo citizen, I should contribute what I could while the nation was at war."

"So, after consulting with my teacher, he agreed to provide these four technologies, hoping they could aid the war effort."

Zhong Yun finished his fabricated explanation with a shrug. "That's the gist of it."

"That's it?" Yun Rong was slightly stunned. The way Zhong Yun glossed over the events made it almost unbelievable.

She understood perfectly the significance of today's negotiations for the Zhong Corporation. To put it mildly, within ten years, the Zhong Corporation could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the nation's top-tier companies.

Those companies, aside from the outlier Yidao Group, had taken hundreds of years to reach their current scale. Even the Yidao Group had taken twenty or thirty years.

How many years had she and her husband toiled? It was only with the money Zhong Yun earned from planting flowers that they accumulated their first substantial capital and realized their long-held dream of starting their own company.

In less than two months, their son had produced two new technologies and secured two heavyweight partners, setting the Zhong Corporation on its path to ascendancy. This pace of development was more than a hundred times faster than when she and her husband had struggled.

Then came the framing, the crippling ten-billion debt that nearly forced them to sell shares—again, it was their son who produced the funds to clear the debt.

Today, it was their son again, using four technologies as leverage to negotiate with the President, truly establishing the foundation for the Zhong Corporation's soaring trajectory.

It could be said that every phase of the Zhong Corporation's growth and expansion bore the imprint of their son. Without him, there would be no Zhong Corporation of today or tomorrow.

Yet, amidst the joy for her son, Yun Rong felt a pang of loss. Had her and her husband's efforts amounted to nothing at all?

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