Chapter Four: One Battery Buys a Neighborhood

Lin understood. “Turn technology from beyond this age into a process this age can chase.” “We don't sell miracles. We sell a ladder ten years long.” They registered Wildfire Technology that night. Lin recruited Han Zhixing, a battery researcher Zhou had rescued from Cloudrest Tower. Zhou showed him neither Refraction nor a perfect product. He provided a cell and deliberately imperfect manufacturing plans. After the third test, Han's hands shook. “This isn't falsified. Can it truly be mass-produced?” “On an old line, at seventy-eight percent yield.” “The best domestic plants—” “Which is why I need your laboratory. Publicly, you conceived the process in the fire.”