Jiang Yuanyuan's Shock and Gao Yuan's Vision

"Remember to treat me to hot pot. Would things have gone this smoothly without me?"

"Don't worry. Once we're done with this busy stretch, I'll treat you to Xiao Long Kan."

"Some old classmate you are. You don't even know I can't eat spicy food?"

"Uh, then I'll treat you to Pork Stomach Chicken Soup, or Chaoshan Beef Hot Pot. That work?"

"Hehe, that's more like it."

After leaving the bank, Jiang Yuanyuan warmly bid Gao Yuan and Cao Feiyu farewell, watching as they got into that battered old black Honda Accord.

"Yuanyuan, your classmate is really low-key. He's so rich, yet he drives that?"

Someone suddenly spoke behind her. Jiang Yuanyuan turned around and saw that her colleague, Liu Zhenru, had somehow come up behind her.

Jiang Yuanyuan frowned. "Neither of them is rich. Gao Yuan's family owns a small factory, so they're moderately well-off at most. As for Cao Feiyu, both his parents are intellectuals. They have quite a high social standing, but financially, they're probably just average."

Liu Zhenru's eyes widened at that. "So you didn't know? Your classmate has an incredible invention patent under his name. Director Lu approved a fifty-million loan with one stroke of his pen! It set a new record!"

Jiang Yuanyuan froze. She really had not asked about the loan amount earlier, since it involved someone else's privacy.

Yet she had never expected the amount to be so enormous. Even Jiang Yuanyuan, who had grown up in a privileged family, found it unbelievable.

After all, Gao Yuan had not put up any physical assets as collateral. He had only mortgaged an invention patent in his name. Jiang Yuanyuan could not understand it. What kind of invention could possibly be worth that much?

And if the bank was willing to lend fifty million, that meant the invention's actual market value was far above fifty million—at least a hundred million!

Filled with doubt, Jiang Yuanyuan knocked on the door to Director Lu's office.

Lu Yong did not try to hide anything. He was on the phone at that moment, reporting to a superior at the Head Office that the matter had been handled and that a fifty-million loan had been approved for Gao Yuan.

The Head Office leader was uncertain as well. He still had to call Imperial Capital and ask for the opinion of the person inside that High-walled Compound.

"Yuanyuan, did you need something?" Lu Yong asked cheerfully after hanging up. From his superior's tone, it seemed that he was fairly satisfied with how Lu Yong had handled things.

Jiang Yuanyuan said worriedly, "Why did you approve such a large loan for Gao Yuan? What if he can't pay it back?"

Lu Yong was taken aback, but quickly understood the situation. Jiang Yuanyuan was viewing the matter from the perspective of a young girl and had no idea how high the stakes behind it truly were.

The fact that someone influential in Imperial Capital was secretly lending assistance probably involved matters such as competition between major powers. After all, everyone knew the situation was becoming increasingly severe.

Lu Yong had not understood it before either, but after humbly seeking advice, he now fully grasped the devastating impact X Fiber would have on the entire chemical fiber industry.

Once this thing entered the market, at the very least, it would shake the foundations of the international chemical fiber giants led by North American DuPont.

At worst, it could bathe the global market in blood and completely reshape the industry!

Whenever Lu Yong thought of the storm of bloodshed X Fiber was about to unleash, his blood began to race!

With the kindly smile of an elder on his face, Lu Yong said, "Don't worry. Gao Yuan will definitely repay the loan on time. The new fiber he invented has tremendous market value. I've worked in credit lending for over twenty years—I have that much confidence."

The thoughts of a twenty-year-old girl were always simple. Hearing that, Jiang Yuanyuan was immediately delighted. "So Gao Yuan really is pretty smart, huh? His invention is actually worth quite a bit?"

Money?

Even the higher-ups had taken notice. It was probably about far more than just money.

With that thought, Lu Yong said to Jiang Yuanyuan very seriously, "If you have the time, get closer to your classmate Gao Yuan. His future is incredibly bright."

Fifty million!

A full fifty million!

On the drive back, Gao Yuan could not stop grinning foolishly. He could hardly believe he had secured such a huge sum of money.

As the old saying went, a penny could stump a hero. Although the money was borrowed and would have to be repaid someday, it had at least solved Gao Yuan's most urgent problem.

"Come on, let's find somewhere to celebrate." Gao Yuan said joyfully. "With this money, we can finally go all out and give it everything we've got!"

"It's definitely worth celebrating. We should also discuss how to allocate the funds. We can't manage things as roughly as your father did when he ran the factory. Every department needs a financial budget."

Cao Feiyu nodded in agreement, but when he turned his head, he saw Gao Yuan making a call. Smiling, he said, "Are you planning to ask Jiang Yuanyuan out? If you knew you were going to do this, you should have arranged it at the bank. Calling her now seems a little deliberate."

Nani?

Gao Yuan looked at Cao Feiyu suspiciously and asked, "Who said I was asking Jiang Yuanyuan out?"

Cao Feiyu froze. "You ungrateful brat, didn't you just promise to treat her to hot pot? And you've forgotten already?"

Gao Yuan frowned. "We can talk about Jiang Yuanyuan later. The person I actually want to invite is Dr. Xu Qingzhou. Dr. Xu is incredibly talented. If he could help us with R&D, that would be perfect."

Sigh~

Cao Feiyu helplessly covered his forehead. Other people invite a few girls to celebrations to liven things up, but you only want to invite a man? What kind of sense does that make?

Thus, by evening, no one knew whether Jiang Yuanyuan had been treated to hot pot, but three grown men had settled into a Chaoshan hot pot restaurant.

And honestly, the three smelly men had hit it off remarkably well. They were all carnivores who disliked vegetables, so they ordered a table full of meat. The only vegetarian dishes were a pitiful plate of frozen tofu and some garland chrysanthemum.

After three rounds of drinks, the three of them became more and more animated.

"Seriously, now that you have the money, how do you plan to develop things from here?" Dr. Xu Qingzhou asked earnestly.

Gao Yuan smiled. "I plan to take the route of light assets and heavy R&D."

Light assets? Heavy R&D?

Dr. Xu Qingzhou's eyes immediately lit up. "I studied materials science, so I don't understand management, but the way you put it sounds rather interesting."

"It's simple," Gao Yuan said. "We only handle R&D and leave production to other factories as contract manufacturing. That lets us make the most of China's industrial supply chain advantages."

"You both know how brutal this trade war has been. I see all sorts of experts constantly analyzing and predicting things online, and their viewpoints seem fairly reasonable. But in my view, the West's intentions are actually very simple. They just want to kill us."

Sigh~

Dr. Xu Qingzhou and Cao Feiyu frowned at the same time. Gao Yuan's judgment of The other side of the Pacific seemed far harsher and more realistic than that of ordinary people.

After a brief pause, Gao Yuan continued, "But since the West has already decided to go for the kill and has used every shameless, despicable trick it can, why have we managed to hold on without collapsing?"

"Is it because we have a large population?"

"Obviously not. India has a huge population too, and a younger one at that. But I dare say that if Indians were put in our position today, they wouldn't be able to withstand even one blow. They'd drop straight to their knees."

"We have trump cards in this world, and one of the most important is our complete industrial supply chain."

"On July 24, 2020, someone online pointed out that the North American authorities had backed a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia in order to obtain that country's Lithium Ore resources. Such behavior was obviously shameless."

"Before long, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Group and a tech idol who had become immensely popular in recent years, publicly replied, 'Hmph. In this world, America can overthrow whoever we want.'"

"Arrogance. Pure arrogance mixed with utter irrationality. The moment he said that, countless netizens exploded. You have to understand, not only in North America but even here in China, Musk had a huge number of fans. People admired him, saw him as an internationalist, and imagined Musk leading humanity out of the Solar System. But in truth, Musk was a white supremacist deep down."

"I saw many netizens online say they were shocked, that their entire worldview had shattered. But I wasn't surprised at all, because before Musk, Zuckerberg—the man once hailed as China's son-in-law—had already displayed the hypocrisy and fickleness of white people to the fullest."

"Once upon a time, Zuckerberg even went to Imperial Capital, jogged through the smog in the morning, spoke broken Chinese, and did everything he could to ingratiate himself. But the moment he realized he could no longer gain anything from us, he would immediately and without hesitation stab us in the back."

Dr. Xu Qingzhou nodded and continued Gao Yuan's point. "As early as 2010, when David Fincher was filming The Social Network, he had actually foretold Zuckerberg's despicable nature. It's just that at the time, we all thought it was only a movie and never took its plot seriously."

"Yeah. Sometimes you have to admit that artists like directors and writers often see issues from a sharper angle." Gao Yuan shrugged. "Anyway, Musk and Zuckerberg are really the same kind of person. But Musk still ultimately chose to put his factory in China. Why?"

"Because of our complete industrial supply chain. In the automotive field, our weaknesses are engines and transmissions. But Tesla makes electric cars, which happen not to need engines or transmissions. So looking across the entire world, there is no production base more suitable than China. Even if Musk is a white supremacist, he can only hold his nose and establish himself in Shanghai."

Cao Feiyu frowned. "Then I don't understand. If Musk means us no good and may very well harm us after becoming bigger, why let him in? Isn't that inviting a wolf into the house?"

Gao Yuan thought for a moment. "It doesn't rise to the level of inviting a wolf into the house. At most, it's the catfish effect."

"We made a lot of investments in electric vehicles in the past few years too, but in the end, car companies only chased government subsidies. They cheated the state out of plenty of money, yet failed to produce genuinely competitive products."

"You have to understand, automobiles are the largest industrial cluster on Earth, providing employment for hundreds of millions. In traditional gasoline and diesel engine fields, it's difficult for us to catch up to those international giants. Even if we could, it would take far too long."

"But we can overtake on the curve. What we cannot achieve in gasoline and diesel engines, we can achieve with electric motors."

"Before entering China, Tesla's battery supplier was Panasonic of Japan. But beginning in the first half of 2020, Panasonic was pushed out by China's battery giant CATL. Besides that, many more component companies benefited as well."

"Market share is always limited. When CATL took Panasonic's business, Panasonic was furious enough to cough blood. As electric vehicles become more common, ZF, which makes transmissions, Bosch, which makes fuel injection systems, and Denso, which supplies engine components, will all suffer."

"No matter what, electric vehicles and traditional cars are two different tracks. Clearly, the electric vehicle track is more favorable to us. The world bustles for profit; the world scurries for gain. Musk came here to do business, and we let him in to do business. Everyone gets what they need."

After picking up a slice of beef brisket and eating it, then draining his beer, Gao Yuan said with a trace of drunkenness, "Back to textiles and apparel. In Jiangsu-Zhejiang alone, there are countless related factories. The supply chain is already very mature."

"We don't need to make every last cent. There's nothing wrong with sharing some with upstream and downstream factories, as long as we ensure our product moat is high enough and our profits are high enough."

"And as everyone knows, many shrewd factories have already moved to Southeast Asia. I just want them to see that staying has its own benefits too."

Gao Yuan explained his plan. The advantage of using existing production capacity for contract manufacturing was speed. It saved them the time needed to build their own factory, allowing them to receive goods immediately.

It also eliminated management costs. Building a factory and managing thousands of workers to keep them working in an orderly fashion were entirely different things. The latter was extremely troublesome.

As for the drawback, it was mainly the cost.

But for a high-profit industry, that was not a problem. Apple did not own its own factories either, yet Apple was the most valuable company on Earth. Wasn't that simply because Apple's profits were high enough that it did not mind giving part of them to contract manufacturers?

Gao Yuan spoke confidently, while Cao Feiyu and Dr. Xu Qingzhou nodded repeatedly in approval. There was no doubt that Gao Yuan was not the type to make decisions on a whim. He had considered these steps and details for a long time.

"It's getting late. Let's talk about serious business." Gao Yuan raised his hand and glanced at his watch. "If Dr. Xu doesn't mind, I'm still short a director of R&D."

"Full-time would naturally be best. But if you don't want to give up your iron rice bowl at the National Laboratory, you can work part-time instead. You could come to the factory and guide our work in your spare time. In any case, Dr. Xu, I'm truly desperate to have someone as talented as you."

That night, Dr. Xu Qingzhou suffered from insomnia for the first time in a long while. He replayed Gao Yuan's words at the dinner table over and over. There was no doubt Gao Yuan was a madman who supported Entry Theory, but Dr. Xu Qingzhou liked this madman!

In someone else's hands, X Fiber might be a tool for making money. But in Gao Yuan's hands, it could very well become an immensely destructive weapon.

Sigh~

With a sigh, Dr. Xu Qingzhou tossed and turned in bed.

"I'll work part-time with Gao Yuan first," Dr. Xu Qingzhou finally decided. "I can't ignore my parents' feelings. If they find out I resigned from the National Laboratory and went to work for a private enterprise, they'll definitely be deeply disappointed."

This was a four-thousand-word chapter, and it was hard to split apart, so I uploaded it all at once.

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