One look at Guan Houyi's expression told Yan Xiao that he had definitely gotten the wrong idea.
He could hardly blame him, though.
If they only heard the name, most people would indeed immediately imagine a "blacklight lamp" as a lamp that emitted black light.
Even Yan Xiao himself had instinctively assumed that a "blacklight lamp" emitted black light when he saw the title "Catching insects with blacklight lamps" in the system.
To keep Guan Houyi's imagination from wandering any further, Yan Xiao explained what a blacklight lamp actually was.
"Then what's a high-voltage insect-catching grid?" Guan Houyi asked his second question.
The first thing that term brought to his mind was a high-pressure water gun, the kind used to wash cars...
To give Guan Houyi a clear idea, Yan Xiao simply took out his phone and pulled up a short video Lin Fangxin had sent him.
He tapped play and handed it to Guan Houyi.
The video had been recorded inside the car.
Because the Mercedes-Benz had excellent soundproofing, none of the crackling sounds of insects being electrocuted made it into the recording.
The sound was Yan Xiao's snoring...
But the footage left Guan Houyi stunned.
Sleeping in the car at night with fireworks going off outside-now that was something...
Once the first video ended, Yan Xiao said, "Take a look at the next video. Just swipe left."
Guan Houyi slid his finger across the screen and tapped play.
Then he was dumbfounded by the insect carcasses covering the ground.
"This...?"
"That's right. What you're looking at is the result of running the 'blacklight high-voltage insect-catching grid' for one night. When we finished weighing them, the insects came to a total of 11.62 kilograms."
"What?!" Guan Houyi nearly jumped to his feet.
He had studied agricultural management in college, so he knew what catching 11.62 kilograms of insects meant.
It smelled like money...
"Did you invent this yourself?"
"Yes, it's my own invention. But I don't know how to write the patent documents. I looked up a lot of information, but I still couldn't make much sense of it," Yan Xiao admitted.
"No problem. That's easy enough. I'll walk you through it."
Guan Houyi gave Yan Xiao a detailed explanation of how to write a patent application and what it needed to include.
Yan Xiao discovered that applying for a patent for the "blacklight high-voltage insect-catching grid" required more than just listing the basic equipment components.
He also had to explain things like how it worked.
Most importantly, he could no longer use that "high-voltage rat trap" as one of the device's components.
Damn it, what a pain! After grumbling inwardly, Yan Xiao immediately opened the system.
To his surprise, his Study Coin balance had risen to 5,219.
It might have something to do with the experiment.
Yan Xiao vaguely remembered seeing a "Black Light Insect-Killing System patent" in the system before. It had apparently cost 5,000 Study Coins.
Since he had enough Study Coins, there was no reason to hesitate.
He entered the Patent Mall and found the "Black Light Insect-Killing System patent," only to discover that its price had dropped to 3,800 Study Coins.
It got cheaper?
After thinking it over carefully, he understood.
Since he had already built something similar, the system probably no longer charged him for the knowledge it considered him to have mastered.
He happily clicked to confirm payment.
The manual and application documents for the "Black Light Insect-Killing System patent" immediately appeared in Yan Xiao's mind.
"Uncle Guan, I think I understand how to write the patent documents now. Thank you for your guidance," Yan Xiao said, then prepared to take his leave and go home to work on the application.
But Guan Houyi asked, "Would you be interested in selling this patent?"
"That depends on how I'd be selling it." Yan Xiao wasn't opposed to Guan Houyi's suggestion. After all, he had developed the invention to make money, but he certainly wouldn't sell it outright.
"Your patent has plenty of practical applications. I'd suggest licensing it. If you're interested, I can help market it for you," Guan Houyi said.
"Licensing works. You can handle the negotiations for me. What I have in mind is a royalty arrangement, where I get a certain share of the profit for every unit sold. Of course, I can split that income with you."
"All right, I understand what you're after. Once the patent is approved, I'll start looking for customers right away."
After some more discussion, the two finally settled on a tiered revenue split.
If the annual royalty total was below one million, Yan Xiao would get eighty percent and Guan Houyi twenty percent.
For the portion above one million but below five million, Yan Xiao would get seventy percent and Guan Houyi thirty percent.
For the portion above five million, Yan Xiao would get sixty percent and Guan Houyi forty percent.
Their negotiations left Guan Zhiyuan utterly bewildered.
Is this really my dad and my classmate?
Why does it look like two seasoned businessmen talking?
With the deal settled, Yan Xiao said goodbye and left. Guan Zhiyuan told Guan Houyi he was going with him, then headed out amid his father's scornful remarks about how he should "take a look at Yan Xiao."
"Big Yan, aren't you getting a bad deal with that split?" Guan Zhiyuan nudged Yan Xiao with his elbow.
"No. I think Uncle Guan made quite a few concessions," Yan Xiao replied.
"My dad made concessions? Didn't you invent the thing? Can't you sell it to whoever you want?" Guan Zhiyuan couldn't understand what Yan Xiao meant at all.
"Because I don't have any customers. The 'blacklight high-voltage insect-killing grid' may be valuable, but there are still plenty of alternative ways to kill insects.
"For example, conventional pesticide spraying or poison bait.
"Besides, this product uses new technology. There's never been anything like it on the market, so whether people will accept it is still up in the air.
"Even if they do, promoting it will require a company with a strong presence in agriculture.
"I don't have any of that. Your dad could actually have pushed my share much lower."
"I still don't get it." Guan Zhiyuan showed no embarrassment whatsoever.
"That's fine. Just know that your dad's already doing me a pretty big favor."
"Then that's all right."
The two returned to Yan Xiao's house and immediately began their tutoring session.
Once again, they worked until three in the morning, and Guan Zhiyuan finally finished studying the entire high school math curriculum.
Yan Xiao took out a college entrance exam math paper, tossed it to Guan Zhiyuan, and told him to complete it.
Then he returned to his room, turned on his computer, and began transcribing the patent documents from his mind.
To make the whole patent look a little more impressive, he even created a separate illustration.
After working until past eleven that morning, Yan Xiao finally finished transcribing the complete patent documents.
The transcription itself hadn't actually taken that long.
But finding the software and learning how to use it had been agonizing.
Especially when drawing the circuit diagrams for some of the components in the "high-voltage grid insect-killing device," he had felt the software developers' malice all too keenly.
With everything finished, Yan Xiao emerged from his room.
The midday sunlight was just right.
On the table were the exam paper Guan Zhiyuan had left behind and a note from him.
The contents hadn't changed much, either.
It just asked Yan Xiao to check his answers and said he would be back that evening.
Yan Xiao went through Guan Zhiyuan's paper and found the results genuinely encouraging.
Aside from some difficult problems, Guan Zhiyuan could now get the vast majority of the easy points right.
In short,
Passing shouldn't be much of a problem...
Before you continue