Judging people by their clothes and what they spent was a habit most people shared.
For instance, someone driving a luxury car must be rich.
Someone wearing a suit and an ID badge must be an agent.
Someone delivering packages must be a courier.
But in reality?
The person driving the luxury car might be a chauffeur,
the person in the suit might be a senior executive at some major corporation,
and the person delivering packages might well be Liu Xiangdong, the man who claimed he had no idea his wife was beautiful.
Li Yang of Xingxing Mould Factory was an ordinary, worldly man.
When he saw Yan Xiao's commanding presence and Lin Fangxin's exceptional looks and bearing, he figured these two kids might be rich heirs or something.
"What can I do for you?" Li Yang opened.
"Well, we're students at Jida University. We're here about a patent." Yan Xiao deliberately started with something vague yet impressive-sounding.
"A patent?" Li Yang asked in confusion, frantically trying to recall whether his factory had infringed on anything.
After thinking it over, he figured a factory this backward couldn't possibly have stepped on that particular land mine.
"That's right. Our university has a patent, and we'd like to work with a mould factory. Our professor gave us a list of manufacturers we could approach.
Yours was our first stop."
Once Yan Xiao finished, Li Yang understood. Crisis averted...
"So what can we do for you?"
"Here's the situation. We're planning to purchase equipment housings in bulk, but..." Yan Xiao deliberately paused.
Only when he saw anticipation gradually enter Li Yang's eyes did he continue, "But we need to assess each mould manufacturer's production efficiency and product quality.
So we need you to provide us with a sample first.
We'll score it based on production time, speed, and precision,
then choose the manufacturer that offers the best overall value."
As he spoke, Yan Xiao pulled a large stack of documents from his backpack and laid them on the desk.
Even Lin Fangxin was stunned.
Li Yang picked up the documents and began reading.
There was a nondisclosure agreement, bidding documents, design drawings, and other materials.
He soon finished going through them.
Of course, he only skimmed the agreement.
He focused mainly on the bidding documents and design drawings.
Once he finished, he had a pretty good idea of what was involved.
"Could we sign a preliminary agreement? A procurement agreement, I mean?" Li Yang asked.
Yan Xiao shook his head. "That's impossible. We won't sign an agreement with any company before the bidding results are announced.
If that doesn't work for you, we'll try somewhere else."
With that, Yan Xiao made to leave.
Li Yang hurried to stop him. "Hold on, hold on. I was just asking. We'll take part in the bidding."
Yan Xiao picked up the bid documents. "Once you're finished, just send it to this address."
Lin Fangxin stole a sideways glance from beside him.
The address Yan Xiao had written was none other than that of Jida University's Electronic Technology Laboratory.
Oh dear...
After they left Xingxing Mould Factory, Lin Fangxin couldn't help asking, "How did you prepare all that?"
"I didn't have a choice." Yan Xiao sighed. "I actually wanted to find a small factory and have them make it directly, but with a small factory, first, there's no guarantee they'll finish on time, and second, I honestly don't trust the quality.
But if we went through the normal channels at a big factory, they couldn't get it done in less than two weeks.
And that's assuming those big factories were willing to make a single unit.
So I had no choice."
"But lying is wrong."
"There's nothing wrong with it. This is the real world." Yan Xiao shook his head, but his thoughts turned to his previous life. If you'd met those clients who ate and drank on your dime, took your gifts, put you through endless hoops, and still refused to give you the job, you'd think I was an angel by comparison.
Not wanting to put all their eggs in one basket, Yan Xiao and Lin Fangxin visited three more mould factories.
One explicitly turned them down on the spot.
The other two signed bidding agreements.
By the time they returned to the city, it was already evening.
Yan Xiao took Lin Fangxin home, then bought a large pile of snacks at the supermarket before heading home himself.
The moment he opened the door,
he saw Guan Zhiyuan haunting the living room sofa yet again.
Guan Zhiyuan brightened when he saw Yan Xiao. "Yan, I already had my dad work things out with the school."
"Work what out?" Yan Xiao had no idea what he meant.
"Not having to go to school before the Gaokao. Xicheng District's second mock exam results are out. Based on my ranking, my score is already close to the top-tier university cutoff!"
"You're that damn good?"
"Of course! I'm a born genius! Only the sky can measure my heights!" Guan Zhiyuan boasted.
"How did you do in each subject?" Yan Xiao asked.
"My math, physics, and chemistry scores were among the best!"
"What about the other compulsory subjects?"
"The less said about those, the better." Guan Zhiyuan sighed in embarrassment.
"Cut the crap. Let me see your score report." Yan Xiao held out his hand.
Left with no choice, Guan Zhiyuan handed it over.
Math: 135;
Chemistry: 98;
Physics: 95;
Chinese: 79;
Politics: 78;
English: 41;
Total: 521.
Twenty-nine points below the top-tier university cutoff.
A seriously lopsided performance...
"Next, memorize all your politics textbooks, then keep memorizing the material for Chinese. Those two subjects are the easiest to improve in. As for English, just do what you can. Memorize some vocabulary and so on."
After setting out Guan Zhiyuan's study priorities, Yan Xiao went back to his room to rest.
He had been running around all day, after all, and was utterly exhausted.
As soon as his head touched the pillow, he fell sound asleep.
The next morning, Dean Shang Hong'an woke him with a phone call, telling him to come to the university to complete the paperwork.
Yan Xiao reluctantly got out of bed,
washed up and ate breakfast,
and arrived on campus at ten sharp.
He first met with Wu Xiaohong to explain the situation. This delighted Wu Xiaohong, who was especially pleased that Yan Xiao treated him as one of his own.
Afterward, Yan Xiao went to see Shang Hong'an.
There was another round of small talk, praise, and efforts to win him over before his senior, Wei Yujian, finally took him to complete the paperwork.
The two left the teaching building
and went to the admissions office.
The staff member there was very efficient.
After having Yan Xiao sign a few times, the staff member told him, "All done. The paperwork is complete. Your records can be transferred this week. Congratulations on becoming a member of Jida University."
Yan Xiao thanked the staff member.
Then he left with Wei Yujian.
"Want to have lunch together?" Wei Yujian invited him.
"I'm meeting someone at noon, so I need to go back to my school. Let's do it another time." Yan Xiao declined his invitation.
"Sure, go take care of things. We're at the same university now anyway. There'll be plenty of chances to meet up," Wei Yujian said casually.
After saying goodbye to Wei Yujian,
Yan Xiao went to the Strongest High School Class.
Today was the day Haidian District's second mock exam results were released, and he and Lin Fangxin had agreed to wait for them together.
After all, a week's worth of meals was riding on it.
When Yan Xiao arrived at the school, he found Lin Fangxin refreshing the Haidian District Education Bureau's official website over and over.
"Are you that worried I'll rank above you?"
"Please." Lin Fangxin turned around and pursed her lips. "I'm definitely coming first. I felt much better about this exam than the first mock."
"Want to raise the stakes? We could extend the meals to a month, or even until the Gaokao is over." Yan Xiao tried to tempt her.
Unless Lin Fangxin got full marks.
No,
even with full marks, she could only tie with him at best.
"Fine! It's settled, then. One month! The winner gets to pick any place they want!"
"Deal!"
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