Leaving the Marching Ant Company, Gao Zhendong's face remained dark.
After returning from his last visit, he knew they were walking into a slaughter. But even then, he underestimated Zhao Min.
He had assumed that, even if Marching Ant acted like a lion opening its jaws wide, the licensing fee wouldn't go higher than 12%. But Zhao Min had wrung 13.1% out of them.
It was only a 1.1% difference, but on the scale of their annual smartphone sales, that tiny margin translated into billions in technical licensing fees.
He didn't know the exact terms of Marching Ant's deals with the other Chinese companies, but he was sure Samsung got the worst deal.
Now, all they could do was recoup the cost from users.
The new phones would see a 13% price increase. But since most smartphones were already selling for several hundred dollars, and considering current consumer spending trends, the bump was still within an acceptable range for most customers.
"Tell the PR team to release the announcement," Gao Zhendong said after getting in the car. "We've officially reached a licensing agreement with the Marching Ant Company. Our new flagship—the S11—will be unveiled two weeks from now."
"Understood," the female assistant beside him nodded.
The news of Samsung's cooperation with Marching Ant spread like wildfire.
Foreign media were still reacting when Chinese online platforms were already in a frenzy.
The internet was ablaze with debate.
For many netizens, the Marching Ant-Samsung cooperation was like a slap in the face. Some people in China had long been critical of Korean companies, especially Samsung. Now that Marching Ant—China's tech darling—was working with them, the backlash was swift.
Some users expressed deep disappointment, accusing the company of betraying national sentiment.
Others, however, defended the decision.
After all, this was a globalized world. Business was business. Even Chinese companies relied on Samsung's screens and memory chips. Strategic cooperation between tech giants was not unusual.
The arguments raged on, but within the Marching Ant Company, everything remained calm. They ignored the noise and focused on their work.
These kinds of complaints? They'd long gotten used to them. In a few days, public attention would move on, and everything would settle.
Anyone who thought about it rationally would realize that this kind of cooperation was perfectly normal. Besides, with the current licensing deal, Marching Ant was making the money—not the other way around.
In her office, Zhao Min hung up the phone, her fingers tapping lightly on her desk with a pen.
Now that Samsung had licensed the smart assistant, the mobile phone market had entered a phase of fierce competition. But Marching Ant Company was taking a different path—letting others fight while they quietly collected profits.
That was the true king's strategy.
She glanced at the smart speaker on her desk and spoke: "Mo Nu, is the boss available right now?"
At the current Marching Ant headquarters, every floor and function was managed by AI.
The entire Ant Colony Building was one large intelligent system—connected to Chen Mo's personal AI assistant.
The voice-controlled assistant, Mo Nu, had been with Chen Mo from the start. Her capabilities were unmatched. Though other departments had their own AI tools, only Chen Mo could fully use Mo Nu's true intelligence.
"President Zhao, please wait. I'll check," Mo Nu responded.
Moments later, Chen Mo's voice came through the speaker:"You're looking for me?"
"There's something I want to discuss."
"Come to Building 1, Lab 3 on the third floor. I'll show you something too."
Zhao Min's brows lifted with curiosity. "Is the holographic projector ready?"
She knew Building 1 was where Chen Mo stored his deepest secrets. Any time he said he had something new to show her, it was guaranteed to be groundbreaking. At this point, she was half-convinced that Chen Mo might be an alien.
"You'll see when you get here," Chen Mo replied, keeping it mysterious.
"Still playing coy," Zhao Min muttered, but stood up and left her office.
Zhao Min rarely set foot in Building 1—she could count the visits on two hands.
Inside, everything was handled by intelligent machines. From production to testing, she was surrounded by robots—no human presence, just a sense of immense technological power.
Every time she walked into this place, she felt like she was stepping into the future.
Sometimes, she worried—just a little—that the scenes from sci-fi movies where AI rebels against humanity might actually come true one day.
After passing several authentication gates with Chen Mo's direct authorization, she reached Lab 3.
"You're just in time," Chen Mo greeted her. "You guessed right—the holographic projector is ready."
On the experimental table sat a circular device, about the size of a laptop, with a sleek silver metallic finish. Tiny laser projectors and precision components were embedded throughout its surface—it radiated cutting-edge sophistication.
Built through Mo Nu's designs and 3D printing, this prototype had cost over two million to make.
Zhao Min already knew he was working on this technology, but even she was surprised it had finished so soon.
"Is it functional?" she asked.
"It just came out of the oven," Chen Mo said with a smile. "I'm about to test it now."
He turned to the speaker. "Mo Nu, initiate the holographic projection."
At his command, the projector lit up, casting beams of light upward.
A moment later, a little girl in a white dress appeared—hovering in the air, fully three-dimensional and slightly translucent. She had the gentle look of a classical princess—adorable and elegant.
It was Mo Nu's visual avatar.
Zhao Min's eyes widened in amazement. She slowly walked around the table, studying the projection from all angles.
It wasn't a flat image—it was a real 360-degree hologram, lifelike enough to make someone mistake it for a ghost if they didn't know better.
She had seen such things in science fiction, but to see it in real life? It left her stunned.
"Brother Mo," Mo Nu said, "the device is stable. The only current issues are some color inaccuracies and slight blurring. Once those are optimized, the realism will improve. Alternatively, adding multiple projectors to provide multi-angle illumination could also help."
"Log the data. I'll start optimizing the color parameters," Chen Mo nodded.
Holographic projection like this was, in essence, a three-dimensional light phenomenon, not unlike a mirage—but on a whole other level.
Unlike two-dimensional projections on a flat surface, this was a true volumetric display, visible from all angles.
Its applications were vast—entertainment, museum exhibitions, military maps, microscopy, even subsurface detection.
This technology was a ticket to the future. Whoever mastered it would lead the next technological wave.
"What do you think?" Chen Mo asked.
"It's incredible. How long until it's market-ready?"
"Not too long," Chen Mo replied confidently.
"Right," Zhao Min said, finally remembering the reason she'd come. "There's something I came to tell you."
"Oh?"
"The Rothschild family from Europe wants to work with us on mobile phone business. Their heir—Alexander Rothschild—has personally requested a meeting with you."