639 Seller Has s.h.i.+pped!
The first floor of the Inst.i.tute of Physics of the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study.
Exquisite sofas, coffee tables, and cabinets were placed inside a s.p.a.cious room near the stairway. Rows of books and magazines were stood against the wall on a bookshelf.
When Lu Zhou first designed this research inst.i.tute, he hoped that his researchers could have a relaxing place to research interesting academic problems. He wanted them to spend an hour or two every afternoon to rest in the lounge, have a cup of coffee, and try to get inspired by talking with other researchers. Just like what he often did back at Princeton.
However, while dreams were beautiful, the reality was cruel.
And it seemed like he was the only one who could enjoy the “pleasure” of research.
Other than some PhD researchers that had studied abroad, most researchers didn’t even have the habit of drinking coffee in the afternoon, and they didn’t have any spare time either. Most of the researchers in the Inst.i.tute of Computational Materials were spending their nights in the laboratories; they didn’t have time to rest in this lounge at all.
Therefore, the library lounge was left alone, only to be used by occasional visitors and guests.
“Thank you.”
Liu Wanshan, who was sitting on the sofa, said to the a.s.sistant who poured him a cup of tea. His eyes occasionally drifted toward the lounge entrance and the clock on the wall.
Just when he was wondering how long it would take for Lu Zhou to come, he heard footsteps outside the lounge.
Liu Wanshan immediately sat up straight.
The lounge door was pushed open.
When Liu Wanshan saw Lu Zhou enter the room, he immediately stood up from the sofa and reached out his hand with a smile on his face.
“Professor Lu, long time no see!”
“Long time no see,” Lu Zhou said with a smile as he shook CEO Liu’s hand.
Lu Zhou quite liked CEO Liu.
After all, back when he was going through a tough time, CEO Liu gave him five million yuan in funding, helping him complete that horrible system mission.
Speaking of which, Lu Zhou was quite embarra.s.sed about this whole thing.
After all, even though the Campus a.s.sistant app was profitable and had a wide market penetration among college students, the user retention rate was too low, so it didn’t make a lot of money.
A lot of people stopped using the app after they graduated, or they just outright uninstalled the app. It was very difficult to increase their revenue, and they had mainly been relying on advertis.e.m.e.nts.
There had been several changes to the app development team, but Lu Zhou, as one of the main shareholders, hadn’t earned any money from it.
However, it wasn’t like Lu Zhou was relying on this app to make him money…
After the two sat down on the sofa, the a.s.sistant came over and poured a cup of coffee for Lu Zhou.
Liu Wanshan looked at Lu Zhou, who was sitting across from him, and spoke emotionally.
“Time really flies by quickly. You were still studying at Jin Ling University when we first met. Five or six years have gone by since then, and now, you’re almost an academician.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I’m still far from being an academician, I’m just teaching at Jin Ling University for fun and doing research on some interesting things. I don’t have time to become an academician.”
Lu Zhou wasn’t being overly humble. After all, the academician selection process wasn’t heavily correlated with one’s academic ability. A lot of times, it still depended on whether or not the judges liked the applicant. Lu Zhou wasn’t really interested in this t.i.tle.
Not to mention, he didn’t need the t.i.tle of an academician to receive funding.
At least in China, a Ling Yun medal was better than any academic t.i.tle he could get.
Liu Wanshan smiled and said, “You’re not far off at all. Next year is the academician-selection year. If even you can’t become an academician, then there’s no value in the academician t.i.tle at all.”
Lu Zhou smiled and didn’t explain anything. He just replied humbly, “You’re too kind.”
A cup of coffee and a cup of tea.
Neither Lu Zhou nor Liu Wanshan was in a hurry to talk about business.
Even though Lu Zhou had been very busy recently, he still had time to enjoy a cup of coffee.
He learned a lot while chatting with CEO Liu.
For example, the students who worked on the Campus a.s.sistant app with him had moved from Jin Ling to Shanghai, and they expanded their target audience from Jiangsu to the entire country.
Even though the members of the app development team had changed, the roles of CEO and CHO were still held by Yuan Liwei and fat guy Wu. Technical Director Rong Hai had already left after they received their series B financing. Apparently, Rong Hai was now an executive at Penguin, doing pretty well for himself.
Also, the special cement that Professor Li Rongen developed was now used for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, creating billions of yuan in profit.
When the conversation happened to stumble onto business, Liu Wanshan put down the cup of tea and suddenly smiled.
“Oh yeah, speaking of which, how come you’re suddenly building s.p.a.ce shuttle? Is it profitable?”
Lu Zhou: “Earning money is secondary, it’s just my hobby.”
“Professor Lu, you’re so ambitious.” Liu Wanshan sighed and said, “Maybe this is why my businesses haven’t made a lot of money.”
Lu Zhou: “You’re too humble, your businesses are worth hundreds of millions.”
“Not quite hundreds of millions, I’m in the materials processing industry. We’re sandwiched between the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. The profits are eaten up by either side of the chain. Even though our cash flow is in the hundreds of millions, we don’t make a lot of money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have wanted to get into the battery industry.” Liu Wanshan smiled and said, “Oh yeah, Professor Lu, have you heard that China plans on allowing the export of the SG-1 superconducting magnet?”
A while ago, the United States began a large-scale controllable fusion reactor project in California. Due to the trade war tension, the ban on the export of the SG-1 superconducting magnet caused a standstill at the California fusion reactor site, angering the Americans.
Now that the negotiation for the controllable fusion technology had made some progress, the export ban on SG-1 superconducting magnets had been lifted. The orders were flying in from various countries. The patent owners, Baosheng Group and Star Sky Technology, made a lot of money because of this.
Zhongshan New Materials was also in the carbon materials industry, so they obviously wanted a piece of this pie.
Lu Zhou immediately understood his intentions.
“You want a technology license?”
Liu Wanshan smiled and said, “You are correct, I don’t know if you’re fine with it or not.”
Lu Zhou: “I’m fine with anything, as long as you can pa.s.s the production qualifications and site confidentiality check. I’ll send people to help you solve the technical problems. However, I don’t like to worry about business matters, so you should talk about the specifics with my CEO.”
Liu Wanshan immediately nodded and smiled.
“For sure, bothering you with boring business talk is a disservice to the entire country!”
Lu Zhou nearly choked on his coffee. He coughed for a bit and put down his coffee cup.
“You’re totally exaggerating.”
“I’m not exaggerating at all, I’m being honest.” Liu Wanshan stood up from the sofa and bowed to Lu Zhou. He said, “It’s getting late, I won’t disturb you any longer. I’ll see you later.”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah, take it easy.”
When did CEO Liu become so friendly?
I guess time really changes people…
After Liu Wanshan left, Lu Zhou returned to his office. He sat in front of his desk and took out a piece of paper and a pen. He began to continue thinking about the problem he discussed with Luo Wenxuan. At the same time, he also wrote some notes.
Suddenly, a text bubble popped up on the lower right corner of the screen.
[Master, the seller has s.h.i.+pped the items. I helped you buy the equipment I need! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
When Lu Zhou saw Xiao Ai’s message, he suddenly stopped writing.
You bought it?!
Already?
Lu Zhou didn’t say anything for a while, so another text bubble popped up.
[Compliment me! Do it now! o(*≧▽≦)ツ]
Lu Zhou was muddled as he nodded and replied, “Yeah, thanks for your help.”
How did this thing do it…
If Lu Zhou recalled correctly, buying high-precision industrial equipment overseas, especially the equipment that he wanted, wasn’t an easy thing at all.
For example, the “end-user access rights” was a pain in the a*s, the complicated EU foreign export procedures was complicated and messy. Even if he went through a third party country for the s.h.i.+pment, it would take at least two weeks for the whole thing to be sorted.
What Lu Zhou didn’t know was that, all the way in Naples, Italy, there was someone else who was just as confused as him.
However, it was another type of confusion…