Jessica was a famous actress in Hollywood, holding a high position in the hearts of Americans. That day, she had just finished filming and, pulling on her thick coat, was about to drive home when her agent, Luo Xia, found her. Trailing behind Luo Xia was a young man from China.
“Luo Xia, who is this?” Jessica asked, puzzled.
Luo Xia chuckled. “Dear Jessica, allow me to introduce you. This distinguished guest is from Starry Sky Group in Hong Kong. His name is Chen Qi.”
Chen Qi smiled and extended his right hand toward Jessica. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, the beautiful Miss Jessica. I am Chen Qi.”
Jessica politely shook Chen Qi's hand, though she was slightly perplexed about why someone from Starry Sky Group would seek her out. Were they looking for her to film a commercial? But she was currently shooting a new film for the great director Spielberg and simply had no time.
Luo Xia interjected. “Dear Jessica, since we’ve met Mr. Chen Qi today, why don’t we grab a drink together and discuss some topics that might interest us both?”
Chen Qi offered a timely gesture of invitation as well.
Jessica tapped her foot and smiled. “Alright, but I’ll need to change clothes first. It’s too cold right now, and traveling is inconvenient. I feel quite stiff.”
Luo Xia hunched his neck, wrapping his scarf tighter around it to ward off the biting cold. He nodded in agreement with Jessica’s assessment. However, he glanced somewhat strangely at Chen Qi standing beside him, as Chen Qi was still wearing only a regular shirt and thin trousers, yet he showed no signs of being cold despite the sharp wind. Luo Xia found this peculiar but maintained politeness by not inquiring about the specific reason.
It was Jessica who noticed Chen Qi’s odd attire. She asked with some curiosity, “Mr. Chen Qi, aren’t you cold wearing so little?”
Chen Qi smiled and shook his head. “Thank you for your concern, Miss Jessica, but I have a secret weapon on me, so I don’t feel the cold.”
“A secret weapon?” Jessica asked, intrigued.
Chen Qi produced a small package and handed it to Jessica, smiling. “Miss Jessica, this is my secret weapon. Please accept this humble gift from me.”
Jessica accepted the small package with a puzzled look. “Dear Chen, is this what you call your secret weapon?”
Chen Qi gave a mysterious smile and countered, “Do I look like I’m dressed warmly right now?”
Jessica replied, “Naturally. The temperature is already at freezing point. I can’t imagine you standing here in summer attire of a shirt and trousers.”
Chen Qi laughed. “This package contains the secret to why I can wear a shirt and trousers in winter.”
Jessica paused, then asked, “May I open it now?”
Chen Qi smiled. “Beautiful lady, this gift is yours now; of course, you may open it.”
So, Jessica opened the package and found inside a set of innerwear as thin as a cicada's wing. However, these undergarments were different from others because they covered the entire body.
“Mr. Chen Qi, what is this?” Jessica asked in surprise. In her imagination, a secret weapon that allowed someone to wear a shirt and trousers in winter should have been intensely sci-fi, not just a flimsy set of undergarments.
Chen Qi chuckled. “Why don’t you try touching them?”
Jessica immediately touched the set of innerwear, and an expression of disbelief spread across her face. Luo Xia, watching from the side, grew anxious and quickly asked, “Dear Jessica, is there something different about them?”
Jessica exclaimed in astonishment, “They’re warm.”
Luo Xia was taken aback. “Mr. Chen, did you heat up this set of underwear before you came?”
Chen Qi smiled. “Miss Jessica will know if they’ve been pre-heated once she puts them on. By the way, the topic we are here to discuss is related to this set of innerwear. Miss Jessica, this innerwear is quite amazing.”
So, Jessica went to her dressing room. As soon as she slipped the thin innerwear on, she immediately noticed that it had excellent elasticity, offering a shaping effect that enhanced her curves. Furthermore, the texture was superb, and it was highly breathable, feeling incredibly comfortable against her skin. But this wasn't the main point. The key was that once the innerwear was on, Jessica felt a wave of warmth emanating from it, similar to being in an air-conditioned room, instantly dispelling the chill she felt. Based on Jessica's experience, the temperature of the garment felt close to a comfortable 25 degrees Celsius room temperature.
Jessica waited a while, still wearing only the innerwear, only to find that the temperature emanating from it didn't decrease; it seemed perfectly constant. Only then did she put her coat back on, but she instantly felt too warm. She quickly took the coat off, changed into the light clothing she usually wore only at home, and finally felt comfortable.
Confused, Jessica gathered her coat and stepped outside wearing only her thin clothes. As she emerged, everyone still working on set stared at her, wondering why the girl who was notoriously sensitive to cold was suddenly dressed so lightly.
Jessica, almost in disbelief, found Luo Xia and Chen Qi while still lightly dressed. Luo Xia stared and exclaimed, “Oh my, what am I seeing? Has our princess of the cold been miraculously cured?”
Chen Qi smiled. “Miss Jessica, what do you think of this set of innerwear?”
Jessica smiled back. “It’s a shame there are no stockings; otherwise, I could have worn my summer high heels out.”
Chen Qi laughed. “There will be stockings, and there will be high heels too. Let’s go; we still have that topic of mutual interest to discuss.”
Elsewhere in the world, there were others like Chen Qi, searching everywhere for individuals who could endorse Starry Sky Group’s latest product—the thermal and cooling innerwear (and stockings). Jessica was merely one of the endorsement candidates selected for the North American region.
After a period of planning and incubation, Starry Sky Group finally launched this epoch-making product: thermal and cooling innerwear (and stockings). As the Northern Hemisphere plunged into a cold winter, the Southern Hemisphere was simultaneously entering a sweltering summer, meaning this product could perfectly satisfy the differing needs of consumers in both hemispheres.
Liu Hui’s strength was already considerable, and coupled with certain undisclosed reasons, he decided against seeking distributors for the thermal and cooling innerwear (and stockings). He planned to open his own directly managed flagship stores worldwide to sell this revolutionary new product.
In previous market research, Liu Hui’s marketing team had studied the issue of endorsements. Therefore, when selecting spokespersons, he chose different endorsers for different regions. This was not only to cater to the preferences of the local populace but also to strictly delineate the cold and hot markets.
Jessica quickly agreed to Starry Sky Group’s endorsement offer. With her keen female intuition, she felt this product was destined for massive sales, and as the North American face of the product, she was certain to gain more audience affection and acceptance with its success. She was even prepared to withdraw from Director Spielberg’s film set for the endorsement shoot. After all, anyone accepted into this great director's ensemble had limitless future prospects.
Fortunately, when Spielberg discovered the situation, he became very interested in these ultra-thin thermal undergarments. He adjusted the production schedule and agreed to Jessica’s short advertising shoot, but on the condition that Starry Sky Group provide every member of the film crew with two sets of thermal innerwear.
When Starry Sky Group learned of this arrangement, they readily agreed to Spielberg’s request. Upon receiving the two sets of innerwear, Spielberg experienced a burst of inspiration, ultimately incorporating these high-tech garments into the film, adding more intrigue and selling points, and earning him even greater acclaim. Of course, these are matters for later discussion and need not be dwelled upon now.
As Liu Hui’s global market deployment concluded, one thousand directly managed flagship stores were established worldwide, and the high-tech thermal and cooling innerwear (and stockings) were officially released.
Amidst the overwhelming advertising blitz, people experiencing the extremes of heat and cold across the globe were astonished to discover that there was now innerwear (and stockings) that could solve their problems of extreme cold and heat while providing ultimate comfort. Furthermore, the endorsers in the advertisements were celebrities beloved by the local populations, leading everyone to decide to try the product.
Although the initial price seemed somewhat high—thirty US dollars per set (pair)—once people actually used the product, they realized how incredibly practical it was. It instantly resolved the dilemma of extreme hot and cold that had plagued humanity for countless years. Consequently, the flagship stores, which had been quiet for a while, suddenly saw a frenzy of purchases, leading to stockouts. Liu Hui had to instruct the workers to operate around the clock to meet the surging consumer demand.
One month later, the sales figures for the thousand flagship stores were tallied. Globally, the sales of the thermal and cooling innerwear (and stockings) reached an astonishing one billion sets (pairs), with a staggering turnover of thirty billion US dollars. And this was only the first month's sales, during which stock shortages occurred. This result stunned everyone who learned of it. The previously booming Starry Sky Gourmet Restaurants had a monthly turnover of only ten billion US dollars; unexpectedly, the sales of thin undergarments (and stockings) surpassed that. This disparity was partly because the number of gourmet restaurants couldn't meet consumer demand; if ten thousand restaurants were established, their turnover would likely approach that of the flagship stores.
For the entire second half of 2013, the world watched in amazement as Starry Sky Group delivered two super heavy blows. The sudden rise of the gourmet restaurants and the massive success of the thermal and cooling innerwear (and stockings) left industry insiders baffled. They had not expected Starry Sky Group, which was primarily focused on biopharmaceuticals, to pivot so abruptly into the completely unrelated fields of gastronomy and apparel, achieving astonishing results and immediately seizing market leadership in both. Although Starry Sky Group had also garnered significant attention in the first half of the year for launching several new drugs, medicine was their established field, so even great achievements there wouldn't provoke much suspicion. But for Starry Sky Group to succeed again in industries entirely unrelated to medicine—this was truly unexpected.
Consequently, Starry Sky Group once again ignited fervent industry discussion. However, amidst this heated debate, the intentional focus shifted away from the sustained success of Starry Sky Group’s pharmaceuticals like Near-Sightness Reliever, Hepatitis B Reliever, and Diabetes Reliever. If someone were to quantify Starry Sky Group’s scale at this point, they would discover that the conglomerate had grown to an almost unimaginable size.
Regardless of how the outside world judged Starry Sky Group’s abnormal development, Liu Hui continued to proceed according to his own plan. The previous super submarine’s sea trials, after fifteen days of continuous testing, revealed some internal issues. Nevertheless, the vessel was successful overall; it was the world's first large manned submersible to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Moreover, scientists aboard the submarine confirmed that the deep-sea pressure reduction method (Deep-Sea Generator) invented by the young scientist Yang Hua was correct; the deep-sea generator could indeed produce power underwater. Following a period of trials, the super submarine quietly returned to the shipyard in Budaoao for its final modifications.
After one month of refitting, the super submarine was formally christened *Starry Sky One* and began its next voyage. This time, it carried more scientists and detection equipment. Even Chen Changsheng stubbornly managed to board the submersible. They were commencing preliminary surveys and reconnaissance of the seabed mineral resources in the Pacific Ocean.
Liu Hui had already learned the precise distribution map of undersea mines within a five-thousand-kilometer radius from Xiao Hei. Therefore, when charting the route for *Starry Sky One*, he deliberately steered it through areas rich in mineral deposits. As a result, shortly after surfacing, *Starry Sky One* quickly located several highly concentrated mineral areas. To their delight, along the route Liu Hui designated, they soon found the super-massive iron ore deposit that Xiao Hei had previously identified. After preliminary estimates of the reserves, the scientists were immensely excited, but their excitement quickly turned to regret. This massive iron ore deposit lay more than nine thousand meters below sea level, and with current technology, mining these ores from such depths would be extremely difficult.
Thus, when *Starry Sky One* returned to Starry Sky Group headquarters, Chen Changsheng promptly sought out Liu Hui.
“Boss, here is the map from our recent seabed survey,” Chen Changsheng placed a detailed seabed survey map on Liu Hui’s desk.
Liu Hui took the map and saw that it not only showed the bathymetry of the areas *Starry Sky One* had traversed but also marked all the mineral locations previously discovered by Xiao Hei, complete with the specific resource type and approximate reserve quantity noted alongside them.
“Boss, we’ve struck it rich! You should have seen it—we found a super-massive iron ore deposit on the seabed. According to our preliminary estimates, the iron content in that deposit surpasses the combined total of all currently discovered iron ores in the world. Furthermore, in another location, we found a massive undersea oil field with over forty billion tons of petroleum. For comparison, Saudi Arabia, which holds the world’s largest known reserves, has only thirty-six billion tons. Moreover, about five hundred kilometers south of the Bering Strait in the Pacific, we discovered a never-before-seen, ultra-large deposit of combustible ice. This combustible ice deposit is located about one thousand meters below sea level, spanning an area one thousand kilometers long and eight hundred kilometers wide, with a thickness reaching five hundred meters. Preliminary estimates put the total reserves around four hundred trillion cubic meters—ten times larger than the deposit the Japanese discovered off their coast,” Chen Changsheng spoke animatedly, clearly euphoric.
“Combustible ice?” Liu Hui was already aware of the massive iron ore and oil field, but he hadn't anticipated discovering a super-massive combustible ice reserve.
Chen Changsheng explained, “Yes, combustible ice. Since the 1960s, people have successively found a burnable 'ice' in permafrost zones and deep oceans. Geologically, this combustible ice is known as methane hydrate, or clathrate, with the molecular formula $\text{CH}_4 \cdot 8\text{H}_2\text{O}$. One cubic meter of combustible ice can release 164 cubic meters of natural gas and 0.8 cubic meters of fresh water at standard temperature and pressure. Therefore, combustible ice is often found in deep-sea sediments where the water depth exceeds 300 meters, or in cold permafrost. In the deep sea, this natural gas hydrate maintains its solid state due to the immense pressure of the overlying water column, distributing from the seabed down to depths of about 1000 meters. Below that, the increasing geothermal temperature destroys its solid state, making its existence difficult.” He paused. “It is the most crucial future energy source for humanity!”
Liu Hui had never encountered combustible ice before, so he hadn't paid it much mind, nor had he instructed Xiao Hei to sense its properties. As a result, Xiao Hei missed such a vital energy source. It seemed he needed to strengthen Xiao Hei's training to sense more types of minerals in the future; after all, the vast ocean floor is an unclaimed super treasure trove, and whoever finds it first claims it.
Chen Changsheng finished his excited explanation only to suddenly adopt a dejected expression.
Liu Hui found this somewhat amusing and asked, “Director Chen, what’s wrong? You were just so enthusiastic a moment ago; why the sudden change in demeanor?”