Chapter 66: Terms of the Deal
Chapter 66: Terms of the Deal
Xiaoyu was carefully reading the documents Zhao Min had given her. During this period, she had learned a lot by following Zhao Min. Since she was studying management in school, Zhao Min only needed to give a few pointers, and Xiaoyu could grasp the meaning.
What she lacked most was experience. Much of the knowledge she learned in school was theoretical and not very useful when applied to company management.
Zhao Min let her do many things herself, learning from the beginning and exposing her to everything. Although it was tiring, it was also very fulfilling.
While Xiaoyu was looking at the documents, a young woman from the front desk stopped at her workstation with two middle-aged men.
“Xiaoyu, these two gentlemen are here to see the Chairman.”
“Oh.”
Xiaoyu put down the documents and looked up to see two familiar faces. One was the middle-aged man who had visited their rented apartment the night before, and the other was Yao Yi, the top official of Binhai City, whom she had seen once before with Zhao Min.
“Hello, we met last night,” Li Chengzhi greeted Xiaoyu with a smile.
“Hello, Sir.”
Xiaoyu quickly stood up from her seat. The sudden arrival of the top official almost scared her. There had been no notice or warning.
“Hello,” Yao Yi also nodded slightly.
“May we see your Chairman? We had an appointment last night,” Li Chengzhi said.
“He’s upstairs conducting an experiment. Please wait a moment; I’ll inform the President first.”
Xiaoyu walked toward Zhao Min’s office. When Li Chengzhi came to their rented apartment last night, she didn’t even know his name. She hadn’t expected him to come to the company today.
A short while later, Xiaoyu followed Zhao Min out of the CEO’s Office.
“Secretary Yao, hello.”
After stepping out of her office, Zhao Min hurried forward to greet him.
“General Manager Zhao, today I am here in a private capacity, not for work, so no need to be so formal. The main person today is Mr. Li here,” Yao Yi said, pointing to Li Chengzhi beside him.
“Hello, Mr. Li.”
Zhao Min looked Li Chengzhi over, smiled, and shook his hand.
“Hello. Last night, I made an appointment with your Chairman to meet today. Could you take me to see him?” Li Chengzhi said calmly.
“Just a moment.”
Zhao Min took out her phone and dialed Chen Mo’s number. After all, anyone who could have the top official accompany them privately must be significant.
He mentioned last night, and then she thought about how all the negative articles about Legion Ant Company had disappeared overnight. It seemed everything was becoming easier to explain.
“Chairman, there’s a Mr. Li who wants to see you.”
“Bring him to my office area. I’ll come out once I finish this experiment.”
After hanging up, Chen Mo stared at the instrument, closely watching the data changes. Improving the purity of the Carbon Crystal wasn’t difficult, but it required patience.
From the start until now, he had failed more than eighty times.
But fortunately, there had been some progress. Temperature, pressure, and timing all affected the purity of the Carbon Crystal. Even a slight error in these conditions would result in insufficient purity or even destroy the material.
He was still experimenting, but he was getting closer to the correct answer.
“Ink Girl, report the data,” Chen Mo said.
“Pressure 1316.25 KPa, temperature 1403 K, 120 seconds remaining until the set time.”
“Good.”
Chen Mo began to wait intently. Two minutes later, the instrument automatically stopped running. He eagerly took out the pieces of Carbon Crystal and transferred them to the adjacent instrument to test their purity.
Ten minutes later, Chen Mo sighed and straightened up.
As expected, the purity had improved, but it still wasn’t sufficient to be used as a battery.
“Ink Girl, record the other data.”
“Okay, Brother Mo.”
Chen Mo tidied up the instrument, took off his lab coat and gloves, and then left the Laboratory. When he returned to his Office, Zhao Min, Li Chengzhi, and the other two were already sitting on the sofa in the Office.
“We meet again,” Li Chengzhi stood up and shook Chen Mo’s hand, then pointed to Yao Yi. “This is my friend Yao Yi, also the top official of Binhai City. He’s here today in a private capacity to verify my identity. Is that sufficient?”
Li Chengzhi found it amusing that he needed a top official to help confirm his identity. To complete the task quickly, he had to find someone influential; otherwise, Chen Mo wouldn’t believe him, and it would be troublesome.
After some polite conversation, Zhao Min spoke up: “Secretary Yao, since it’s rare for you to visit, shall we go have some tea together today? In a private capacity.”
“Sure,” Yao Yi agreed immediately.
They all understood what would happen next. There were some things they shouldn’t know, so they gave the two some space.
After the three left, Chen Mo and Li Chengzhi got down to business.
“Mr. Chen, have you thought it over? We won’t take it for nothing. If you have any conditions or questions, feel free to state them. If you’re unwilling, we won’t force you.”
Li Chengzhi had no choice but to come see Chen Mo. Smart Assistant hadn’t been patented, and the authorities didn’t know the technology, so they came to inquire. After all, this technology could accelerate the country’s research progress in Artificial Intelligence.
“Giving you the technology for Smart Assistant isn’t out of the question,” Chen Mo thought for a moment and said.
Chen Mo’s words brought a smile to Li Chengzhi’s face.
As long as Chen Mo agreed, other conditions could be negotiated. With this technology, research in many areas, especially Artificial Intelligence, could progress faster. In scientific research, time was more valuable than money.
“But it’s not for free. After all, I’m a businessman,” Chen Mo said.
“I said from the start: fair trade. Even workers get paid; we can’t take it for nothing,” Li Chengzhi laughed heartily.
“Then I’ll state my terms. First condition: I want two years of tax exemption,” Chen Mo also grinned.
Hearing this condition, Li Chengzhi’s face twitched. Although he wasn’t an expert in math, he knew the annual revenue of Legion Ant Company from Smart Assistant sales.
The annual tax amount was definitely not small.
“I’ll bring this condition up with my superiors,” Li Chengzhi said.
“The second condition is that Smart Assistant, including any derivative products developed from it, can be used for research. But it cannot appear on the commercial market for five years. If it enters the commercial market after five years, we will charge a certain patent licensing fee. Those are the two conditions.”
“No more?” Li Chengzhi asked.
“That’s all. There’s one more non-condition: do you have any well-qualified retired personnel you could recommend to work as security for the company? Their wages will definitely not be low.”
He had been thinking about the company’s security for a long time. The company’s personnel needed protection. Now that the company was developing so quickly, it was inevitable that some envious individuals might cause trouble, so security needed to be strengthened.
Many of those well-qualified individuals were hired by security companies. With such a good resource available now, there was no reason not to use it.
“Alright,” Li Chengzhi nodded. “I’ll report your conditions when I get back. Next is another matter: as mentioned yesterday, are you interested in joining the Academy of Engineering?”
“Not for now. I prefer researching freely. Today I’m studying software, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll get inspired and start researching Aphrodisiacs,” Chen Mo laughed.
Li Chengzhi’s eyelids twitched, and he looked at Chen Mo speechlessly. “Then I’ll report your conditions. I’ll come back when I have news.”
“Looking forward to your good news,” Chen Mo said.
After seeing Li Chengzhi off, Chen Mo returned to the Laboratory and continued his experiments.