novelslam Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Three days after the exhibition ended, Hardcore Innovations released its review.
The title is "A Dark Horse at 1999 Yuan: In-Depth Review of the Hongyuan F2 Working Edition".
Su Chen saw the notification on his phone at eight in the morning. He had just walked into the office and hadn't even had a chance to sit down yet.
The article is quite long and includes many pictures, indicating that the reviewer, Li Hao, clearly put a lot of effort into it.
The article begins by stating a clear conclusion: "In the drone market priced under 2,000 yuan, the flight control performance of the Hongyuan F2 working version is the best I have ever seen, bar none."
Next are the detailed test data—hovering accuracy, wind resistance, control response latency, image transmission quality, automatic return-to-home accuracy, and one-key surround stability. Each item was compared with three competing products in the same price range, and the results were unsurprising—the F2 Work Edition completely outperformed it.
At the end of the article was a comment that made Su Chen smile slightly: "What surprised me most about this machine wasn't any particular parameter, but its overall level of completion. Its flight control tuning had clearly undergone very meticulous optimization; this level of performance is usually only seen in products costing four or five thousand yuan or more. I'm very curious about how Hongyuan achieved this."
Su Chen forwarded the article link to the company's internal group and then continued with his work for the day.
Two days later, the video report from Yuchen.com was also launched.
The video title is even more direct: "The Dark Horse in the Corner of the Exhibition: What Makes This Little-Known Factory's Flight Controller So Strong?"
The video is eight minutes long and includes Su Chen's speech at the forum, the F2's flight demonstration at the exhibition, the full recording of the "Zero-Based Challenge" session, and Su Chen's core views on the "Small and Medium-Sized Commercial Aerial Photography Market" in an interview.
The video garnered over 200,000 views within three days of its release.
This data is quite astonishing for a video from a vertical industry media outlet.
The comments section exploded.
"A flight controller costing only two thousand yuan can achieve this level of performance? Who wrote the software algorithm?"
"I ordered one after watching the video, and it really is stable."
"This Su Chen is twenty-three years old? Just graduated? Seriously?"
"I flew over it at the exhibition, and it's definitely the most stable one I've ever handled in its price range, bar none."
The combined effect of the two articles began to appear.
In the first week after the exhibition, F2's on-the-ground sales orders increased by more than 50% compared to before the exhibition.
Many orders came from provinces that the ground sales team had not yet covered—customers contacted Hongyuan's official website to leave their purchase intentions after seeing the online reports.
Su Chen sat in his office looking at the data summary compiled by Zhou Ming, a slight smile playing on his lips.
The seeds planted at the exhibition are sprouting.
But the good news isn't all.
Four days after the exhibition, an article from a drone industry media outlet caught Su Chen's attention.
The title is "Safety Hazards of Low-Cost Drones: Who is Responsible for the Skies?"
The article did not directly name Hongyuan, but it discussed throughout the article that "drones under 2,000 yuan have poor flight quality, are prone to crashing, and pose a threat to public safety," and cited several incidents of people being injured by low-priced drones as evidence.
The article's conclusion is clear: "The market needs stricter quality standards, and low-priced drones should not be sold to users who lack professional training under the guise of 'commercial use'."
After reading the article, Su Chen didn't say anything, but looked up at Zhou Ming.
Who is the author of this article?
Zhou Ming had clearly already checked: "A self-media account called 'Yifei Zhihang'. I checked, it wasn't very well-known before, with less than 10,000 followers. But this article was reposted by several big accounts, so it got a lot of traffic."
Who shared it?
One of them is the official Weibo account of Tianying Technology.
Su Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.
Tianying officially reposted a negative article that alluded to low-priced drones—the intention couldn't be clearer.
The Flying Eagle II, priced at 2299 yuan, has just been launched, and the media exposure of Hongyuan is seriously threatening its sales. Tianying's response strategy is clear—since it can't compete on product quality, it will focus on public opinion, using the concept of "safety" to suppress lower-priced competitors.
"Should we respond?" Zhou Ming asked.
Su Chen thought for a few seconds.
"No statement will be issued, and no rebuttal will be released."
Zhou Ming was somewhat surprised: "No response?"
"Yes. We responded with our products."
Su Chen stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and wrote three lines:
I. Release the "F2 Working Version Flight Safety White Paper", disclosing all safety design details: low battery automatic landing, disconnection return to home, electronic fence, and out-of-line alarm.
Second, we invite Hardcore Innovation and Yuchen.com to conduct an "Extreme Condition Flight Test"—a safety test under conditions of strong winds, low temperatures, and signal interference, with the entire process recorded on video.
Third, the F2 working version's random inspection pass rate data is published on the official website—this data, with the support of system gain, far exceeds the industry average.
"They attack us for being 'unsafe,' so we'll make 'the safest' our new selling point." Su Chen drew a line under the word "safe" in red on the whiteboard. "They want to use a propaganda war against us, but they'll find themselves helping us get a free kill."
Zhou Ming and Zhang Lei exchanged a glance—both of them saw that familiar, calm, almost happy light in Su Chen's eyes.