Spring Festival

February 6, New Year's Eve.

After getting up that morning, he called Lu Xuedong. Lu had already returned to China, landing at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport a little after four in the morning. He was now taking a train back to his hometown in Qin Province.

They chatted for a few minutes, then Huang Weichang came in carrying a plate of cai guo. "A-Yuan, my mother made these. Are you going to the office today?"

"I'm not going. Brother Chang, go take a look and see how the computers are coming along. Also, find a sign-making company to make a signboard and some lettering."

"What name should it have?"

Huang Xiuyuan tore a page from his notebook and wrote: Huang's International Investment Fund Company (Shanmei Branch).

"This is the name."

"Okay."

Huang Xiuyuan gave him a few more details, then told him to call if he had any questions. With the Spring Festival approaching, he could have the sign company come after the fifth day of the new year.

Task in hand, Huang Weichang drove straight into town.

After eating the cai guo, Huang Xiuyuan called Career International, one of China's major headhunting firms, and asked them to find some people.

The positions included a president, managers, and finance staff, as well as the specialists Huang Xiuyuan had specifically requested: intellectual property lawyers, patent registration and operations staff, chemical engineers, materials researchers, and others.

He wanted more than thirty mid- to high-level professionals in one go. He negotiated the fee down to 25%. Career International typically charged 25% to 33% of a candidate's annual salary for mid- to high-level positions, usually between 40,000 and 150,000 yuan per person.

After exchanging emails and faxes and talking by phone, the two sides settled on the general details. Once they had reached an agreement, Huang Xiuyuan wired a third of the advance payment—100,000 yuan.

Career International's Pengcheng branch couldn't afford to wait, with the Spring Festival so close. They immediately sent someone out to secure the big contract.

At noon, just after he had put up the Spring Festival couplets and the character for good fortune, someone from Career International arrived at his doorstep after driving down from the highway.

"Hello, Mr. Huang. I'm Xu Yaomin, a business manager at Career International. Here's my card."

The man wore a well-fitted navy suit and a slick, shiny pompadour. His smiling expression made him look like a sly fox.

"Hello, Manager Xu. Let's talk inside."

Once they were indoors, Huang Xiuyuan brewed tea and added a few specific requirements. Using the printer at home, they soon finalized the contract. Then Huang Xiuyuan sent the remaining 200,000 yuan of the advance payment to Career International's account via an overseas transfer.

Xu Yaomin promised to arrange for the first group of applicants to come over around February 15, though he didn't dare guarantee it.

The main issue was that Huang Xiuyuan's company hadn't even been established yet. On top of that, it was going to be based in Shanmei, a small company in a fifth-tier city—a prospect that would put a lot of people off.

Xu Yaomin could only say that he would do his best to make the arrangements.

Huang Xiuyuan wasn't too concerned. He hadn't set the bar especially high.

Even the highest-ranking position, president, paid only 80,000 yuan a month, plus a certain amount of stock options. By contrast, the engineers and researchers would earn between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan a month, along with stock options, R&D incentives, and patent royalties.

In China in 2008, those salaries were already quite good. Once the company had stable profits in the future, he would improve the benefits further.

For now, Huang Xiuyuan could only make do.

He watched as the people from Career International drove away.

Back inside, he felt an increasing urgency to find a capable manager to help him deal with all these odds and ends.

He barely had time to catch his breath before his mother, who was in Shu Province, called and talked with him for more than half an hour. She reminded him about meals and the New Year's Eve ancestor worship, and told him that starting on the third day of the new year, he would need to visit relatives to offer New Year's greetings.

Just thinking about it made his scalp prickle. But his parents weren't home, so he had to handle it all himself.

First, he gave New Year's cash to the seven employees at the recycling plant and told them to come back to work on the sixth day of the new year.

He ate the New Year's Eve dinner alone, went to the ancestral hall to pay his respects, then returned home to set off firecrackers to welcome the new year. Before he knew it, it was past two in the morning.

After sleeping in, he got up and took advantage of the first day of the new year, before friends and relatives came by to exchange greetings, to search online for domestic laboratory construction firms and lab equipment suppliers.

The recycling plant's shabby lab was nowhere near good enough for developing new materials.

He had already asked Huang Sixiao to help find a new site for the lab. There were now three possible locations, and once the Spring Festival was over, he would go inspect them in person.

For now, he was looking into laboratory construction firms and equipment suppliers while also considering what facilities and equipment the lab would need.

Based on the funds he could use, he had transferred a total of 31 million US dollars into China. The exchange rate was almost at its highest point since 2008, at around 7.16.

After being converted into yuan, the 31 million US dollars amounted to 221.96 million yuan. The balance in the offshore company account came to about 40.25 million US dollars.

He budgeted around 100 million yuan for setting up the Materials Laboratory, and that was only for the first phase.

With funds limited for the moment, he had to make choices and strike equipment he didn't currently need from the procurement list.

Many of the laboratory's basic facilities were essential. For example, the preparation area needed a Class 100 clean room, and there would even have to be vacuum chambers for experiments.

As for the equipment, he made a rough list of what he had confirmed they would need, including a high-resolution X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and Hall-effect measurement system.

The budget gave him a serious headache. He had to make sure every yuan went where it was needed most.

Using the companies' quotations as a reference, he revised his plans more than a dozen times. He provisionally set aside around 30 million yuan for construction, around 60 million for equipment purchases, and another 10 million as a contingency fund. He wrote up a simple proposal.

That settled the one-hundred-million-yuan budget.

Next, Huang Xiuyuan negotiated with the companies over the internet and by phone.

The equipment side moved quickly. Three suppliers agreed to handle all the equipment and instruments he needed, and they arranged to come to Shanmei on February 13 to sign the contracts.

The two laboratory construction firms, however, both needed to inspect the site in person. Only after seeing its condition could they come up with a firm proposal and quote.

Huang Xiuyuan arranged to meet them in downtown Shanmei around February 18.

He wrote all the scheduled work down in his planner to make sure he didn't miss anything.

In 2008, with the festive mood still running high, New Year's visits and greetings, gongs and drums, and firecrackers continued to fill the land with noise.

On the third day of the new year, his older sister, who had married and moved to Haifeng, came to offer New Year's greetings with her husband and young daughter.

Then other friends and relatives came by, and he also visited several relatives' homes.

By the sixth day of the new year, things at home had finally quieted down. The recycling plant resumed normal operations, and Huang Xiuyuan went over to give the employees a New Year's red envelope as a token of good wishes. Then he left the remaining matters to Uncle Xiao.

It seemed he was destined to be a workaholic. Before he had even stepped through his front door, his phone rang.

It was Lu Xuedong, who had come all the way from Qin Province. He'd arrived early to report for work and was already at Shanmei Passenger Station.

"Brother Chang."

"A-Yuan." The burly Huang Weichang jogged over.

"Start the car. We're going to Urban Passenger Station."

Without asking why, Huang Weichang got straight into the car and drove toward Shanmei Passenger Station.