Boss's Plan

Shen Qi discovered that Cheng Gong, Old Yan's Engineer Cheng, had used phosphorus oxychloride and oxalyl chloride, which was probably used in amide synthesis. Phosphorus oxychloride is a restricted-level highly toxic substance, but many organic reactions cannot do without it.

"Old Cheng, how many compounds does your lab produce in a year?" Shen Qi asked.

"We made more than 200 last year," Engineer Cheng said.

"Wow, impressive." Shen Qi had been observing since entering the lab, and only said these two sentences before leaving the lab with Old Yan.

After a while, Engineer Cheng came out and kept apologizing for the poor hospitality.

"On behalf of the School of Mathematics, I would like to invite the two brothers from the Chemistry Department to get together. Let's go find a place to eat, it's on me," Shen Qi suggested.

Old Yan skillfully drove to their center's upscale cafeteria— Diaoyutai.

The leaders have not been very busy recently, with no major international receptions, and the State Guesthouse is open to the public.

Shen Qi's car is registered at the State Guesthouse and has a pass.

In the private room of the State Guesthouse, Engineer Cheng was somewhat reserved. "Professor Shen, it's our first meeting, you're too kind!"

"Let's not stand on ceremony between classmates, Old Yan, you order." Shen Qi looked at Old Yan.

Old Yan skillfully ordered several signature dishes, showing that he was familiar with the place. He had learned a lot from Shen Qi, and his speech and behavior were somewhat different from his classmate Engineer Cheng.

In the lab and in the car, Shen Qi didn't observe Engineer Cheng's appearance too closely.

Shen Qi is now carefully observing Engineer Cheng. This lab manager from the outsourcing company is about 1.8 meters tall and quite handsome, no wonder he can find a young and beautiful girlfriend.

However, Engineer Cheng had some dark red spots on his face, which affected his handsomeness.

Most people who spend a lot of time in the laboratory develop these spots.

Old Yan to have freckles on his face, but after following Shen Qi, they disappeared. The reasons were twofold: first, the center offered good benefits, and Boss Shen was generous, often treating his employees to good meals; second, the workload in the center's Chemistry Laboratory wasn't heavy, so Old Yan spent more time daydreaming and smoking than doing experiments.

Engineer Cheng said that their lab produces more than 200 compounds a year, Shen Qi just saw with his own eyes that more than a dozen lab technicians were working overtime.

Shen Qi noticed a detail: when Engineer Cheng took off his down jacket, he was wearing a wool sweater with a peach-shaped collar underneath. The top button of the shirt under the sweater was metal, and the button was rusty.

The reason for the rust is not hard to guess: long-term use of acidic substances such as acyl chlorides resulted in a highly acidic laboratory environment that corroded the iron and copper buttons.

The food was served, and the three of them ate and chatted.

It's surprising to learn that all three are the same age, 29 this year.

Shen Qi was born in the second month of the lunar calendar, and was respectfully addressed as "Big Brother" by his two brothers who graduated from the Chemistry Department.

"My two brothers, the three of us entered Peking University in the same year and class for our undergraduate studies. It's fate that we can sit at the same table and drink together today. Come on, I'll drink this, you can drink as you like." Shen Qi downed his drink in one gulp, showing the demeanor of an elder brother.

"Brother Shen, what a coincidence!" After drinking, Engineer Cheng relaxed and was no longer as reserved as before.

"Brother Shen is truly a great brother, Old Cheng. No one can compare to following him." Old Yan knew that Old Cheng was having a tough time at the outsourcing company. The central Chemistry Laboratory was in need of a skilled chemistry lab technician, so Old Yan subtly hinted that he hoped Old Cheng would express his willingness to work for Brother Shen from now on.

All three had been drinking, and since no one could drive, Boss Shen would naturally arrange a driver; it wasn't a big problem. But Old Cheng seemed oblivious; no matter how much Old Yan tried to persuade him, Old Cheng just wouldn't pledge his loyalty to Shen Qi.

"Old Cheng, your lab has a dozen or so people, and you synthesize more than 200 compounds a year, averaging more than one sample a day. That's incredibly efficient, isn't it?" Shen Qi asked casually while they were chatting over drinks.

"That's how private companies are. 'Efficient' is a nice way of putting it; to put it bluntly, it's about exploiting employees." Old Cheng, his face flushed from drinking, explained some specific details about his company and the current state of the organic synthesis outsourcing industry.

Organic synthesis outsourcing has provided many job opportunities for Chinese chemistry students, making Organic Chemistry the major with the highest employment rate in chemistry. Many chemistry students, even those whose major is not organic, are desperately trying to get into organic chemistry.

However, this only indicates the highest employment rate, not necessarily the best compensation.

Old Cheng said that their company's business structure is that overseas-returned PhDs do management, and these returnees basically don't go into the lab. Local PhDs handle the implementation, which means designing the specific synthetic routes and optimizing the reaction steps, turning five steps into three steps, and three steps into one step. This is the work of local chemistry PhDs.

The specific laboratory synthesis procedures were carried out by graduate and undergraduate students.

Graduate and undergraduate students come to Old Cheng's company. Yes, it's true that they have a good chance of finding employment. Right after graduation, they undergo a short training period and then go into the lab to work on synthesis.

Old Cheng complained that with this kind of work model, the graduate and undergraduate students who do the actual operations have all become organic laborers.

They also can't retain talent. They finally train a skilled worker, but once the worker has mastered the skills, he jumps to a company with better pay.

Shen Qi asked, "May I ask, did you design your own strategic plan, or did you come up with it from somewhere else?"

"The company has some foreign consultants, right? More than 90% of the strategic plans are provided by foreigners. Even I, the head of the lab, am basically just a senior laborer, following the plans to synthesize materials, year after year, day after day," Old Cheng said.

"I graduated with a master's degree in chemistry from Yenching Chemistry Department. I know very well that the most time-consuming part of Organic Chemistry is route design. But unfortunately, private company bosses won't give me much time to research routes. What they want is efficiency—to synthesize samples as quickly as possible and deliver them to customers."

"In my lab, there are a dozen or so people, half of whom are new. I teach them synthesis step by step. Last year, we synthesized more than 200 compounds. It's normal to have several projects running at the same time. We only get one day off a week, and overtime is the norm. I'm not afraid of hardship or fatigue, but we do the hardest, most tiring, and most dangerous work. The papers and patents belong to foreigners and returnees, which makes me very frustrated." Old Cheng said, sounding displeased.

"Then what's the point of doing this?" Old Yan said indignantly.

"Actually, it's all the same no matter where you jump, all crows are black." Old Cheng shook his head helplessly, then said enviously, "Old Yan, you're really good. I saw your paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, about Benzodiazepine. Our lab has worked on these kinds of compounds."

Shen Qi then asked, "Old Cheng, if I outsource a project to your lab, and only give you the route, similar to the paper you saw by Old Yan, the Benzodiazepine group project, how long would it take you to produce samples after you receive the route?"

Old Cheng: "It depends on the specific details of the outsourcing contract. The compounds in Old Yan's paper are quite complex; we can probably finish them in about a week."

"Impressive, impressive." Shen Qi had to admire the efficiency of private enterprises. In this industry environment, they have to be efficient, otherwise they can't survive.

Old Cheng seemed to have a sudden realization. "Brother, you're not thinking of outsourcing the project to me, are you?"

Shen Qi smiled noncommittally, then asked, "Brother Cheng, you're quite familiar with the outsourcing industry, aren't you?"

Old Cheng nodded. "I studied organic chemistry in graduate school, and I've worked at the same company for five years without changing jobs. I've basically figured out everything about this industry."

Shen Qi smiled and said, "It's good, it's good."

Old Yan remained silent for a while, observing intently.

Old Yan understood. Shen Qi had just said in the central laboratory that from now on, we should only design routes and do cutting-edge research; that's what chemists should be doing.

It seems Brother Shen wants to outsource all the work following the route design... Old Yan suddenly realized that Brother Shen was starting to look for external resources. He was getting down to business and needed people who were quite knowledgeable about external resources and the outsourcing industry, not just a few senior lab technicians.