Material Recommendation

"Oh, okay."

Since he was already doing a good deed, he might as well see it through. Besides, the girl across from him was quite likable, so Zhou Feiyu readily agreed.

Three minutes later, Zhou Feiyu received another "thank you" card.

Well, fortunately it wasn't a good guy card. Zhou Feiyu absolutely hated those. Once upon a time, there had been a girl who went sightseeing with him, always appearing together as a pair. Yet when they returned, she told him, "You're a good person, but we're not suitable for each other." And that was the end of it.

Even now, Zhou Feiyu still couldn't understand it. Everything had been fine when they left, so why had she suddenly changed her attitude after they came back?

Back then, he had been quite confident that she would agree to be his girlfriend after the trip.

High-speed rail was undoubtedly convenient. He boarded at two in the afternoon, and before dinner, he had already crossed more than a thousand kilometers and arrived in Peng City.

After getting off the train, Zhou Feiyu and the tall, thin girl headed toward the station exit one after the other.

Only after leaving the station did they part ways, taking different subway lines in different directions.

At that point, Zhou Feiyu didn't even know her name. A faint sense of regret rose in his heart. Seeing her dragging a suitcase around by herself, she was probably single, wasn't she?

"Wang Wei, I'm in Peng City. Send me your location. I'll be there soon."

Following the address of Hua Long Technology Company that he had found online, Zhou Feiyu entered the subway line that passed through the area, then sent a voice message to his old classmate.

After sending it, he received no reply.

Zhou Feiyu didn't think much of it. He knew Wang Wei was extremely busy at Hua Long Technology, so he stopped worrying about it and decided to head to the company first.

An hour and a half later, Zhou Feiyu arrived outside Hua Long Technology's office park in Qianhai. The subway exit led straight there, so there was no need to search. He saw it the moment he looked up.

Wang Wei still hadn't replied. He was probably busy.

Zhou Feiyu checked the time. It was nearly seven-thirty in the evening, so he immediately called him.

The phone rang for quite a while before it was answered.

"Zhou Feiyu, damn it, don't tell me you actually came to Peng City to find me?"

Wang Wei's startled shout immediately came through the phone. Clearly, he was shocked by Zhou Feiyu's arrival. He hadn't expected him to actually come.

Zhou Feiyu said with a smile, "Enough nonsense. Hurry up. I'm at your company entrance. Find somewhere to eat first, and we'll talk over dinner."

Wang Wei hesitated for a moment before answering, "Then wait for me a bit."

That little while turned into half an hour. Only after the city lights had come on did Zhou Feiyu see Wang Wei's familiar figure appear at the entrance to the office park.

Wang Wei wore black-rimmed glasses. He was still as tall and thin as before, dressed in jeans, a white shirt, and a black down jacket—the standard outfit for practically everyone in tech.

What surprised Zhou Feiyu was that Wang Wei had brought two other people with him: a dark-skinned middle-aged man with a lean build, and a pale young man who was even thinner, practically a walking bamboo pole.

Wang Wei and the middle-aged man walked in front, while the pale young man followed behind.

"Two managers and one technician."

Zhou Feiyu immediately made his guess. Then he waved at Wang Wei to indicate where he was.

"Zhou Feiyu, honestly, I really didn't expect you to come."

The moment they met, Wang Wei again expressed his surprise before introducing them. "This is our R&D manager, Du Yu. This is our materials engineer, Zhai Zhigang, Engineer Zhai."

He pointed to the dark-skinned middle-aged man and the pale young man.

"Nice to meet you both!"

Zhou Feiyu smiled and shook hands with them, understanding the situation at once. It seemed that if he wanted the material introduced into Hua Long Technology, his old classmate could only make the introduction. He still had to get past these two.

Any company of a certain scale had strict procedures for procuring materials, including procurement processes, validation processes, quality processes, and more—especially for introducing New Material.

As a leading mobile phone ODM manufacturer, Hua Long Technology was naturally far stricter than ordinary companies.

Every material would ultimately be used in phones from major well-known brands, with shipments calculated in the tens of millions of units. Even an extremely minor issue could cause direct economic losses of hundreds of millions, not to mention indirect losses, which could reach billions or even tens of billions.

Afterward, the four of them found a nearby place to eat and chatted over dinner.

Naturally, Zhou Feiyu paid for the meal.

After a few rounds of drinks, the atmosphere between the four quickly became more familiar. They talked more freely, became more casual, and their voices grew louder.

Wang Wei served as the middleman, and he was also curious about the New Material his old classmate had mentioned. So he shifted the topic to Zhou Feiyu. "You've praised your material to the skies, but honestly, none of us care about that. We only care about the real thing. Did you bring it? If so, let Manager Du and Engineer Zhai take a look first."

"Of course I brought it."

Zhou Feiyu patted his backpack, opened it, and took out two pieces of white material roughly the size of A4 paper. He handed one to Du Yu and one to Zhai Zhigang.

The two reached out to take them and carefully felt them with their hands.

"A white material on both sides. Huh, it's pretty thin."

After feeling it, Zhai Zhigang peeled away the protective film on the surface and touched the actual material. He said instinctively, "This looks to be around 0.05 millimeters thick. Can it even pass testing?"

Du Yu also frowned. "It is thin. At this thickness, if it's assembled into a phone for testing, defects could easily appear. The entire display could end up failing."

They were not experts in researching materials, but both were experts in the application of mobile phone materials. They basically knew what issues different materials might have when used in phones.

"Let me see."

Wang Wei took the material from Du Yu and felt it as well. His heart immediately sank. Old classmate, aren't you making me lose face here?

Wang Wei was a project manager responsible for controlling project progress, so he wasn't directly involved in R&D or material validation. But after five years of experience, he could have transferred to the Research and Development Department and become a qualified R&D engineer.

He also understood some of the issues surrounding materials. Moreover, because he coordinated entire projects, his knowledge was even broader and more comprehensive than that of ordinary R&D staff. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to manage an entire project or serve clients properly.

If he didn't understand the technology himself, answered every client question with "I don't know," and relied entirely on other company departments to respond, then his only role would be that of a messenger. There would be no reason for him to exist at all.

Wang Wei forced out a smile and asked Zhou Feiyu, "Did you bring the wrong material?"

Its actual thickness couldn't be known without measuring tools, but Wang Wei knew that Zhai Zhigang had handled all kinds of materials for years and was extremely sensitive to their thickness.

For mobile phone materials, millimeters were already huge units. Many measurements went to two decimal places beyond zero, and experienced people could tell just by holding them.

"Don't worry. This is the material."

Zhou Feiyu had expected their reaction, so he wasn't flustered at all. He immediately said, "Talk is cheap! Manager Du, Engineer Zhai, you can test it. If it has any reliability issues, I'll eat all these materials!"

His words were firm and decisive, brimming with confidence.

Wang Wei, Du Yu, and Zhai Zhigang were all stunned. Good lord, there was no need to go that far, was there?

Wang Wei coughed and said, "Since that's the case, Manager Du, Engineer Zhai, please help test it. I've nearly been worked to death lately over selecting optical materials. They have to be cheap, high-performance, and can't use foreign materials. I'm practically pulling my hair out."

Du Yu couldn't help laughing. His previously serious face broke into loud laughter. "Serves you right. Who told you to be the project lead? If they don't come to you for price reviews, who else would they go to?"

He actually didn't take the material seriously at all. He had only come to dinner today to do Wang Wei a favor. Otherwise, a nameless material being recommended at the door wouldn't even have gotten a chance to meet him.

"Come, let me toast the two leaders. I'll leave the validation to you. Let's all work together to make this project successful. Don't worry about the material—it's absolutely top-tier, and it also has a huge price advantage."

Zhou Feiyu stood and toasted Du Yu and Zhai Zhigang.

Two hours later, Wang Wei and the other two, their faces flushed red, each hailed a cab and left. Zhai Zhigang took both pieces of material back with him. After seeing the three of them into their cars, Zhou Feiyu also hailed a cab and headed to the hotel he had booked.

"Hello, son. You've arrived in Peng City, right? Have you found somewhere to stay?"

As soon as Zhou Feiyu arrived at the hotel, he received a concerned call from his mother back home.