Chapter Three: You Block the Chips; I Buy the Rules

The audience erupted. “Fabrication!” Cheng lunged for the console, but his microphone muted itself. Chenzhou walked onto the stage. “Regulators can inspect the one-time fuse logs. Cloud records can be erased. Those cannot.” Several manufacturers stood. None wanted YaoCore to use their factories for its next staged accident. Regulators entered the hall and sealed the controller server. Han Zheng finally spoke. “What do you want, Mr. Lu? Money, a position, or an end to the embargo?” “I came to buy something.” Wanqing displayed a court document behind him. “Five years ago, YaoCore spun off a bankrupt subsidiary named Spark Microcontrol. It owns joint rights to the early recovery protocol and twelve compatible-controller patents.