"What kind of black magic is this?"

Lily curiously asked as she couldn't understand why the baby wanted to be in Xiaoyun's arms rather than her own mother's arms.

"Who knows. Maybe the baby just misses her father." Yuqi commented as she picked up her piece of fish with her chopstick.

"You know, you all used to act up just like Ziling when we brought you all back home from the hospital."

Leyan suddenly pointed out as Xiaoyun headed back over to the baby's room to put the baby back into her crib.

"Really?" Yueyue asked in shock.

"Yes, really. You can ask Shuli. You guys always started crying near dinner time when I already fed you all earlier."

Seeing Shuli nodding her head, all three of Leyan's daughters felt a little embarrassed to have such a thing be revealed.

"Mom!" Yuqi voiced her complaint.

"Okay, okay... Now I think about it, it seems like all the babies fall asleep faster in Xiaoyun's arms than in our arms."

"Both Bingbing and Wenwen fall asleep much faster when it's Xiaoyun's turn to put them to sleep," Shuli added.

"Does Xiaoyun have some sort of special ability then?" Nami questioned.

"Maybe."

"What are you all talking about?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he finally came back from putting Ziling into her crib.

"Honey, what are we going to do when you're gone? Ziling is really going to miss you when you're going on that trip."

Despite Leyan's attempt to guilt-trip Xiaoyun into a trap, he rejected it as he took a seat and picked up his chopsticks again.

"Nothing is changing it. I mean, Yongyi grew out of it. And both Bingbing and Wenwen had grown out of it, too.

I'm sure Ziling will probably grow out of it by the time I'm leaving... Worst-case scenario, the baby will stop crying once it gets tired."

"I guess..."

---

The next day.

As Xiaoyun woke up extra early today, he immediately went over to the main entrance to grab the morning newspaper.

After putting it onto the coffee table, he went over to the kitchen. Then started cooking breakfast as he waited for his wives to wake up.

"Honey? Why are you up so early today?"

Leyan curiously asked as she entered the kitchen first, her eyes still looking a little sleepy with her hair all fuzzy.

"Just felt like it. You can go back to sleep if you want."

"I'm going to go check on the babies."

With Leyan gone from the kitchen, the next person didn't come into the kitchen until an hour later.

"Hm? Where's Leyan?"

Shuli curiously asked as she entered the kitchen, wearing a whole suit that covered from the shoulder down to her ankles.

"She's checking the babies... Go wash your face first before you eat this nice breakfast I had cooked up today."

"Okay..."

A few minutes later...

"Babe? Why are you up so early?"

As Yuqi's voice traveled into Xiaoyun's ear, he quickly turned around as he carried a plate full of dumplings down onto the table.

"I just felt like waking up early today. Anyway, take a seat. I'm almost done with cooking breakfast."

Yuqi didn't think too much about it as she poured herself a bowl of porridge before taking a seat.

But then, her eyes suddenly caught sight of the newspaper. She immediately picked it up as she read past the headline.

"Xiaoyun... Don't tell me this is how you're planning to boost the military index."

"The only way I could do it without losing any money."

In the newspaper was a picture of Kate and Anna, both standing in front of what seemed to be a massive factory behind them.

There was even a bit of dried blood on the building's wall. But what was important was the words behind them.

It was the name of a chip manufacturing company. The only semiconductor manufacturing foundry in all of Guangdong province.

"Xiaoyun, do you even know how much we could have sold this company for?" Yuqi questioned, her voice clearly sounding irritated.

"All I know is that thing has been sitting idle and is a dead asset. We might as well give it to someone who is willing to invest in it."

Yuqi fell into silence. She knew exactly what he was talking about. It was one of the problems with many of the factories across Guangdong.

They had a bunch of land assets that the military had cleared, but they lacked the workers and the capital to restart them.

To put it plainly, no one wanted to pay for things that didn't have immediate returns and a piece of technology that seemed so out of touch.

"You could have at least told the treasury department about it rather than just giving it to them in secret," Yuqi argued.

"Well, it isn't really secret if it is in the newspaper now... Oh, let me go turn on the TV right now."

As Xiaoyun turned on the TV, the sounds of the morning programming immediately traveled into the kitchen.

"Good morning, it is eight o'clock, and you're watching the Morning News. I'm your morning new's archor, Li Bai.

Today's breaking news was the biggest transaction that had occurred between the government and the private sector.

More specifically, the transfer of a pure-play semiconductor foundry in Shenzhen to Anna & Kate incorporated..."

"Can't wait for the free money." Xiaoyun excitedly stretched out his elbow as he headed back over to the kitchen.

"How are you so certain it's going to boost the military index by 500%?" Yuqi questioned, her voice clearly still doubting his plan.

"Because two companies make up for 90% of the military index. I already have another news item lining up..."

"What is it? Just tell me."

"Read the newspaper. Or you can wait for the news anchor to say it."

The ambiguous answer left Yuqi a little annoyed once again as she went back to eating, waiting for the news anchor to say it out loud.

"Why's the TV on so early in the morning?"

Yueyue curiously asked as she entered the kitchen, her face barely looked awake as she was still wearing her pajamas.

"Because of his genius idea to make a company become a multi-billion dollar company in a single day."

Yuqi's answer only confused her even more, but Xiaoyun signaled her to take a seat and eat breakfast instead.

"She's just upset about my genius ideas being kept secret from her. She'll get over it eventually."

"Hmph!"

"Xiaoyun! Can you go wake Tianci up? Ziling is hungry!"

As Leyan's loud voice came out of the baby's room, Xiaoyun immediately got up from his seat and headed upstairs.

---

Noon.

"Boss, this isn't fair."

Xiaoyun was sitting in his office chair as three foreigners stood across from his desk. It was the three Russians who were angry about the news headline.

"Yeah, why would she get free stuff like this? How could we compete against a drone monopoly like this?"

"Your Chinese is getting a lot better."

The sudden compliment confused them a little, but it didn't address their anger as the oldest of the three finally spoke up.

"Mr.Governor, you told us to come here today wasn't just to listen to our complaint, was it?"

"I have a special request for you guys... How far have you guys gotten with the helicopter?"

All three of them looked to each other for a second, then looked back at Xiaoyun as the youngest spoke up.

"We are able to make one that flies properly and has a gun turret mounted on the side. But we still haven't finished the rocket system."

"How about the tank? Joseph, are you done with the medium tank? Has the military given enough feedback yet?"

"Um... The tank is really close to finishing testing. But mass-producing the engine is still a slight problem."

"How about the plane? You guys made any progress with the air force?"

"We did! We got a flying plane with a jet engine ready."

"What's stopping it from being on the news then?" Xiaoyun questioned as he noticed the frown on the middle Russian's face.

"The... We can't figure out the weapon system. The engineers and the electricians said we don't have enough materials."

"Is it electronic components?"

"Yeah, that." The youngest immediately answered. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Well, I have a perfect asset for you guys. I found these camera sensor fabs and High-end memory and storage fabs.

These should be able to address most of the supply constraints you're facing. And it's free, you don't have to pay money for it."

"That's too good to be true." The oldest argued.

"It is. You still have to pay for the workers and the repair cost. But once you get it running, it's all yours."

Seeing them still doubting the offer, Xiaoyun gave them one last push over to the finish line.

"You know, those things happen to be the key parts of making a drone. It would break the so-called monopoly—"

"We'll take it, sir."