No Money Was a Small Matter, but Values Were a Big One

Wu Chen understood her confusion.

Using an intelligent model to predict a drug's potential did sound fantastical.

And he didn't care whether she believed him.

Once he had built a validation model, if she wasn't willing, it would be easy enough to find another teacher at the university to work with.

Hangzhou's traffic wasn't so congested in 2008. After they reached Xiaoshan, the car noticeably picked up speed, and before long they arrived at the Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory.

Jiang Hongyue was already waiting outside the factory.

When he saw his daughter park the car and walk over from a distance with Wu Chen, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Why did the two of them look so well matched?

Jiang Nan was a beautiful girl from Jiangnan, standing 1.68 meters tall without shoes. With her long, straight chopstick legs, she looked almost 1.75 meters tall.

Wu Chen, meanwhile, was 1.84 meters tall, with a well-proportioned build and a composure in his bearing rarely found in young people.

As he turned and lowered his head to speak to Jiang Nan, the morning sunlight shone from behind them, glimmering through their hair. The scene looked like something out of a youth film.

"Judging by the look of things, their conversation must be going pretty well, right?"

Jiang Hongyue couldn't help taking a closer look at Wu Chen.

He wasn't an old-fashioned person.

Besides, his daughter was almost twenty-five and had never been in a relationship, which made him a little anxious. He had even secretly wondered about her sexual orientation.

Her close female friend, Jiang Nan, who worked at Dijing University had made him particularly nervous.

Fortunately, it had turned out to be a false alarm.

Now that he looked at him, Wu Chen seemed all right, and he had left a good impression on him last time too.

His height, looks, and bearing were all a match for his daughter, and he had a respectable job.

He didn't seem to have much money, but the Jiang family did. Luxury cars and a big villa were no problem.

The only question was whether Wu Chen would be willing to marry into the family.

"Teacher Jiang, the future belongs to artificial intelligence. You should be bolder in imagining how technology might develop."

"I've never doubted that technology will advance, but drugs aren't code. There's no room for the slightest mistake. Simulations alone aren't enough."

"I mean simulation data can be used to determine a direction."

"Sorry, I only trust real experimental data."

Unlike the heartwarming scene Jiang Hongyue had imagined, Wu Chen and Jiang Nan's conversation hadn't been going very well at all.

But both conducted themselves respectably in public, so no one could tell they were arguing in low voices.

When they reached Jiang Hongyue, they both stopped talking at the same time and resumed their calm expressions.

Wu Chen met Jiang Hongyue's eyes and couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about the way he was looking at him.

Had he heard him arguing with Jiang Nan and decided to beat him up?

Then he would lie down on the spot and scam him out of an 89-square-meter apartment with three small bedrooms.

But Jiang Hongyue merely held out his hand and smiled. "Xiao Wu, thanks for making the trip so early."

"It's no trouble. If I can reach a deal with you, Factory Director Jiang, it'll be a win-win situation."

Wu Chen shook Old Jiang's hand.

So he wasn't going to beat him up. What a shame.

Without wasting any time, the group chatted as they made their way to the workshop's office area.

After putting on blue cleanroom suits and shoe covers, they went to the quality inspection room in the packaging workshop.

Jiang Hongyue pointed to the end of a production line that had been stopped. "This is the aluminum-plastic blister packaging line for vitamin C tablets. We usually rely on people to keep an eye on it, checking for missing or damaged tablets, damaged packaging, and so on..."

He rattled off a long explanation, but Wu Chen didn't understand much of it.

The operational setup, however, was simple enough. They just had to connect the Little Jiang No. 1 camera beside the production line and hook it up to a nearby computer to see the inspection results.

While Wu Chen was configuring the equipment on the computer, Jiang Hongyue quietly pulled Jiang Nan aside.

"Nannan, how much industry funding does a lecturer at your university need in the first year again?"

"Eighty thousand yuan."

Jiang Nan said.

University research funding came in two types: industry funding and government funding.

Government funding was money requested from the state. The application process was complicated, but it was also a symbol of research capability.

Industry funding, on the other hand, was money teachers obtained from companies, and it was generally included in their academic-year evaluations.

It was a mandatory requirement for those below the rank of associate professor, and repeatedly failing to meet the target could result in dismissal.

Of course, things weren't as strict in 2008 as they would be in later years, so people weren't under as much pressure.

Jiang Nan naturally didn't have to worry about industry funding. After all, money from her family's factory was simply a matter of moving it from one hand to the other.

So she asked, "Dad, has a teacher from our university come looking for sponsorship?"

Jiang Hongyue shook his head.

"No, I was wondering if Teacher Wu might be having trouble. He doesn't know the people or the place here, after all, so raising funds can't be easy."

With that, he gave his daughter a meaningful look.

Only then did Jiang Nan realize her father was worried about Wu Chen.

And from that look, she immediately understood what he meant.

After all, ever since she graduated with her doctorate at the end of last year, she had been pressured to get married in every possible way over the New Year.

But this was only the second time her father had met Wu Chen!

And she wasn't interested in him at all, okay?!

"Dad, what are you thinking? Right now I just want to focus on my work, and I barely know him. Our values don't match either!"

Jiang Nan said, exasperated.

"Your values don't match?"

Jiang Hongyue was taken aback.

Having no money was a small matter, but values were a big one.

If two people couldn't even agree on their outlooks, how could they build a life together?

So he hurriedly asked what had happened.

But after hearing her out, Jiang Hongyue let out a long breath of relief.

"Nannan, I hate to say it, but you're far too old-fashioned. This is the age of the internet. He works in the field, so predicting drugs with a computer might not be impossible. Just look at how impressive Silicon Valley is! Besides, Xiao Wu also studied abroad for his doctorate, so it's perfectly normal for his thinking to be a little ahead of the times..."

"He came back early without getting his doctorate. He's still a teaching assistant, and there's no industry funding requirement for him."

Jiang Nan interrupted Jiang Hongyue irritably.

Her father was good in every other way, but he had a blind trust in foreign countries. Otherwise, Lavrov and Wang Hongfa wouldn't have fooled him.

"What? He didn't get his doctorate? What happened?"

Jiang Hongyue was shocked again.

He had thought Wu Chen was a genius like his daughter.

And generally speaking, failing to get a degree meant someone had gotten into trouble.

That kind of son-in-law wouldn't do!

But Jiang Nan only knew that Wu Chen had withdrawn from school early. She didn't know the specific reason.

While father and daughter were whispering together, Wu Chen finally finished configuring the equipment.

He called out, "Factory Director Jiang, Teacher Jiang, everything's ready on my end. We can start testing."

"Oh, good."

Jiang Hongyue answered and walked over to him.

But now, Wu Chen no longer looked as agreeable to him as he had at first.

Sure enough, he really hadn't been himself lately. He had been far too hasty, actually thinking of marrying his daughter off so soon.

It wasn't as if his daughter lacked suitors. What was he in such a hurry for?

At that thought, Jiang Hongyue suddenly patted Jiang Nan on the shoulder.

"Daughter, even if you never get married, your mother and I will take care of you for the rest of your life!"

Jiang Nan turned to look at her father, unable to understand why he was suddenly saying this when he had just been trying to set her up with Wu Chen.

But she was still touched.

"I don't need you to support me. I can work and earn money for you to spend. And if I meet someone I like who's right for me, I'll get married too."

Jiang Nan said.

With those words, she brought Jiang Hongyue to the verge of tears.

But Wu Chen, listening to them nearby, was only baffled.

They had called him over first thing in the morning, and he had thought they were in a hurry.

Yet here they were, putting on a touching father-daughter act?

Besides, he remembered that something had happened to the Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory later on.

Forget supporting Jiang Nan in the future-Jiang Hongyue would have trouble even feeding himself.