Investment Project

Janna was innocently chased out.

However, after calming down, Mr. and Mrs. Erwin politely invited the bluebird into their home, leaving her a prime "bird spot" on the solid wood carved sofa in the parlor.

Seraphine bounced over, wanting to sit with her, but was glared back by her father.

"Li Wei, can you explain this?" Mr. Erwin still regarded the bluebird as Li Wei's avatar. "What exactly is going on?"

He was very puzzled.

How could an ordinary apprentice who was diligently soldering circuit boards last night become a tough Zaun brawler exchanging bloody blows with Aubrey this morning, and then transform into a noble spellcaster, one in a million, in the afternoon?

This was unscientific.

To this, Li Wei explained, "Because I am the chosen one, enlightened by the goddess Janna and granted extraordinary power."

This explanation was... quite scientific.

In Runeterra, no reason could more scientifically explain Li Wei's astonishing transformation overnight.

"Goddess Janna... alright." Erwin tentatively believed it.

After all, Li Wei's "bluebird transformation" spell was genuine. Even if the goddess wasn't real, there must be some powerful figure behind him.

However, why was this Janna-chosen one not out preaching, but instead coming to him for business?

This matter was truly strange in every way.

Erwin maintained a polite facade, but in his heart, he didn't want to get too involved with Li Wei.

Asking a mortal to do business with a mysterious mage... wasn't that like a mouse and a cat dividing a cake, or a tiger and a pig doing sharing—you provide the meat, they provide the stomach, you provide the money, they provide the gun?

Partnering in business? Did he look stupid?

Erwin was indeed not stupid.

But the problem was...

"Dad!" His precious daughter had already defected. "Please take a look at our project proposal!"

Without Li Wei even needing to speak, Seraphine couldn't wait to promote their business plan to her father.

"Dad! Trust me, this project is different from the others. Even I can see that this plan will definitely make a lot of money in the future!"

Erwin: "..."

It was over, completely over.

He wasn't afraid that his daughter didn't understand business.

He was afraid that his daughter understood nothing, yet was being fooled into thinking she did, and with a rush of blood to the head, wanted to invest, wanted to "start a second business."

Sigh... the old father now firmly believed that he definitely had to find a son-in-law with good character and high intelligence in the future.

"Alright, I'll take a look." Erwin took the project plan with the feeling of going to the execution ground.

"Portable Pocket Cassette Player—"

"Walkman?"

It wasn't some water-into-oil scheme, some land-traveling device, or some outrageous project like cutting a path through the Northern Mountains to build a highway to Noxus.

This project called "Walkman" actually looked like it could make money.

Moreover, it was close to the business area of ​​Erwin's Hextech audio factory. As long as the relevant technical problems were solved, it would not be difficult to realize product production and business transformation.

But were these technical problems so easy to solve?

Erwin himself made Hextech audio equipment. Of course, he had fantasized about making the audio equipment smaller, so that it could be easily carried, allowing users to enjoy music anytime, anywhere.

During a duel between experts, there was no need to carry bulky audio equipment. A pocket-sized Walkman could solve the problem. How great, how marketable!

He had similar ideas, and so did others.

But there was no technology to make it.

If Li Wei only provided ideas and didn't talk about technology, then he was still here to scam money.

So, the more shocking part for Erwin came:

"Pocket cassette technology, miniaturized batteries, microprocessors, related Mithril circuit designs..." The main technical data required to realize the product were basically integrated into this project proposal.

Although the time for preparation was short and the document only briefly disclosed a few superficial details, Mr. and Mrs. Erwin, as knowledgeable technical experts, could see the weight of this information.

This kid Li Wei...

He actually mastered core technology!

And there were many high-tech technologies that had not yet begun to be scaled up for market application!

"May I ask, who is Professor Viktor, who wrote this project proposal?" Erwin realized that this Viktor was no small figure.

"He is Professor Jayce's colleague, Headmaster Heimerdinger's student, the number two inventor of Hextech's core, a lifetime honorary professor at Piltover University, and the deputy leader of the Hextech Application Research Task Force."

"He is still at the school, doing specific technical preparation work for this project. As long as you are willing, you can go see him at any time. Of course, he will definitely come to see you later."

"Hiss." Erwin gasped.

"Seraphine?"

"Hmm?" Janna twitched slightly.

"Where exactly did you go before?"

"Piltover University, Dad, didn't you already know?"

Erwin: "..."

This project might actually be worth pursuing!

Erwin was somewhat tempted: "However..."

"These terms of splitting the shares three to seven are a bit too overbearing, aren't they? This Walkman project certainly has potential, but if I sign a contract like this with you, wouldn't I be handing over control of my factory?"

Of course, what Li Wei wanted was control of the factory.

He was even planning to turn this factory into a temporary base for the Wind Takers.

"It's a reasonable price, Mr. Erwin."

"Although you'll only have 30% of the shares left, I can guarantee that the profit dividends you receive from those 30% in the future will be ten times higher than your current annual revenue."

"Heh." Erwin chuckled, "Spouting about profit dividends ten times your revenue, Li Wei, did you even think about how big that number is when you were bragging? Or are you unable to distinguish between revenue and profit?"

"Frankly speaking, the Walkman project alone is far from enough to achieve the pie in the sky you're painting."

"Unless Professor Viktor can come up with an even more valuable project..."

Of course, there were more valuable projects.

But could this small audio factory really digest the Steam Golem, Hextech Mechanical Limb, Laser Cutting Device, Gravity Field Generator... these black technologies?

Between research and development turning into production, the products successfully launching, and starting to generate profits, who knew how many twists and turns there would be.

Li Wei wanted to make quick money now.

"So what I'm bringing to the table, besides the Walkman, is another project."

"What?" That wasn't written in the documents.

"No need to write it down, you'll understand as soon as I say it - the second project I want to cooperate with you on is..."

"The publishing, distribution, and tape sales of music to go with the portable pocket-sized tape player."

The concept wasn't difficult to understand.

Before Hextech was invented, Erwin's business was traditional phonographs and records.

Now, the tape business Li Wei was talking about sounded similar to the record business.

"That business isn't that profitable."

"We record companies only make a processing fee; the bulk of the money goes to the music copyright holders..."

"That's why I said," Li Wei revealed his trump card, "what we're doing is the publishing, distribution, and tape sales of music—"

"In other words, from writing the songs to selling the records, we'll do it all ourselves."

"Do it all ourselves?" Erwin was slightly stunned, "Handle the music creation ourselves too? Who has that kind of ability?"

"I do!" Seraphine jumped out excitedly.

"Huh?" The old father's eyes widened:

His daughter was born with superhuman musical talent and certainly had the potential to become an idol.

She had been staying at home these years with nothing to do, and she had indeed written a lot of songs. Although most of them were just angsty teenage pop songs, they sounded pretty good and had the potential to become popular.

But...

"You're using my daughter's songs to make money off me?"

"You bastard! What kind of sweet talk did you feed my daughter?"

"Dad!" Seraphine pouted aggrievedly, "What are you saying? I'm doing this willingly!"

"Mr. Li Wei and I have already agreed that from now on, we'll both..."

"Both what?!" The old father instantly exploded, "No way, I absolutely disagree!"

"Ahem, Mr. Erwin," Li Wei explained, "What Seraphine means is..."

"We're going to debut as a music duo."

"Seraphine will be responsible for the performance and singing on stage, while I'll be responsible for the 'creation' of the music behind the scenes."