DLWAV CH80

The next day, after going through untold hardship and finally fixing its own connection and crawling back online, Milk Dumpling: “…”

Even though Qin Xiuyan was only frying steak in the kitchen at the moment, and Ao Ruizhe was merely standing behind him with his arms around him while chatting, in Milk Dumpling’s eyes, how was this scene any different from the two of them openly flirting right in front of it—

In the very next second, as if he had just heard something that pleased him very much, Qin Xiuyan turned his head, looked at Ao Ruizhe, and stole a kiss from the corner of his lips.

Milk Dumpling: “…”

This was openly flirting right in front of it!!!

Almost at the same time, there came a soft click…

It… disconnected again.

Out of sheer anger.

It happened so quickly that even Ao Ruizhe failed to react in time.

So Ao Ruizhe chose to tighten his arms around Qin Xiuyan’s waist, cup his chin, and deepen the kiss…

Yet the facts proved that people who behave inhumanly when they go out will sooner or later get struck by lightning… no, actually, their luck had always been very good.

Because just then, Ao Ruizhe’s phone rang. The call was naturally from Professor Liu, who sounded so excited he was almost trembling. “Student Xia, the sample of the new thermal insulation material has been made, and just as we expected, the performance of this insulation strip far surpasses that of the top thermal insulation strips currently ranked among the best in the world.”

“I’ve already had someone go file for the patent.”

“Student Xia, after electronic displays, you’re about to create yet another legend!”

Ao Ruizhe smiled too.

“I understand.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“For the next few days, Professor Liu, you can get some good rest.”

“And then we’ll immediately begin another new project.”

Professor Liu was already completely unshaken by now. “Alright.”

The only question was whether the new project would be in solar power materials, low-carbon cement, or electric toothbrushes.

—After all, among the core technologies controlled by Xiafeng Group, only those few were still areas outsiders had never managed to surpass.

What Ao Ruizhe had not expected was that a few days later, Mr. William, Magellan’s representative, came looking for them again.

“Mr. Xia, Professor Liu, please have a taste of the wine freshly produced this month from my boss’s vineyard.”

“It was with this very wine that my boss’s vineyard was selected just two days ago as one of the ‘Top Ten Wineries in the Americas.’”

Ao Ruizhe and Professor Liu readily accepted the glasses he handed them.

Professor Liu said, “The fragrance is refreshing and penetrating, the taste mellow and smooth. It truly is an excellent wine.”

Mr. William immediately smiled and said, “Perfect. I brought over more than a dozen cases of wine with me. If Professor Liu and Mr. Xia like it, I’ll have someone deliver them all over in a while.”

Xia Ruizhe immediately smiled too. “Then many thanks, Mr. William.”

As he spoke, he raised his wine glass again.

“Mr. William’s Chinese is truly excellent.”

“That’s because I’ve already worked in China for more than ten years. In fact, I’ve long since treated China as my second homeland, and my colleagues all call me a China expert now.”

…

Only after the wine had been tasted did Mr. William finally grow serious.

“The truth is, I didn’t come today only to invite Mr. Xia and Professor Liu to taste fine wine.”

He said, “I heard that Mr. Xia and Professor Liu have developed a new kind of thermal insulation material?”

Then he explained, “Magellan was not spying on you. It’s just that we have a friend working at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and after he saw the patent application you submitted, he mentioned it to us.”

“We just thought that with those eight electronic display patents setting the standard beforehand, how could the new material developed by Mr. Xia and Professor Liu possibly be anything ordinary?”

“So when the World Intellectual Property Organization wanted to borrow our laboratory to test the samples you submitted, we agreed right away.”

Ao Ruizhe raised an eyebrow.

He didn’t care whether it had really been the World Intellectual Property Organization that took the initiative to borrow Magellan’s lab, or whether Magellan had deliberately arranged for the samples to be tested in their facilities.

There was only one thing he was curious about—

“Isn’t your company in the phone business? Why this sudden interest in insulation materials?”

Mr. William smiled. “That’s right. Before this, Magellan hadn’t even paid attention to the thermal insulation materials industry at all.”

“And generally speaking, once a major company has secured its position in one industry, it usually won’t lightly cross over and charge into another field.”

Because fighting on two fronts meant that limited funds would be split, limited talent would also be split, while the number of competitors would effectively double.

At that point, even the tiniest mistake on their side could lead to their technological updates falling just one step behind rival companies, which in turn could make them lose their advantage in their original field.

And then if their competitors swarmed in all at once, they could very well lose everything.

So before this, even though Magellan had already grown into one of the world’s top mobile phone companies, it had never rashly entered other industries.

Mr. William continued, “But now the situation is different.”

He smiled. “Because we believe that without the new technology in Mr. Xia’s hands, rashly entering the thermal insulation materials industry really would be unwise.”

As he said this, he raised his glass and clinked it lightly with Ao Ruizhe’s. “But if we do have the technology in Mr. Xia’s hands, then that’s not rashly entering the thermal insulation materials industry anymore—that’s parachuting straight into first place in the industry.”

Hearing this, both Ao Ruizhe and Professor Liu couldn’t help laughing.

Mr. William pressed while the iron was hot. “Mr. Xia, Professor Liu, since we’ve already had one pleasant cooperation before, why not sell the exclusive patent usage rights of this new thermal insulation material to us as well?”

At this point, Mr. William himself paused first, because strictly speaking, their previous cooperation could hardly be called pleasant.

After all, if Frank’s representatives and Nuovo’s representatives hadn’t arrived at exactly the right time, they would probably have already spoken aloud all the threats they had been planning to make to Ao Ruizhe and Professor Liu.

So Mr. William simply decided to lay his cards on the table. “Of course, if Mr. Xia is dissatisfied with that form of cooperation, we can change the arrangement. For example, Magellan can invest the capital to establish a brand-new thermal insulation materials production company, and then Mr. Xia can join through a technology-for-equity stake. We are willing to give Mr. Xia twenty percent of the shares.”

“Not only that, we can establish the company in China.”

After all, it was common knowledge that Chinese people loved their country more than people from many other nations.

Of course, the most important reason was that the best thermal insulation material manufacturer in the world right now was Engel Company in their M Country, and Engel had always maintained a very good relationship with the government. So if the company were set up in their own country, it would be hard to guarantee that they wouldn’t resort to some underhanded tactics.

Since Mr. William had already laid things out so frankly, Ao Ruizhe naturally had no reason to refuse.

He only said, “Twenty-five percent of the shares.”

“I want twenty percent, and the remaining five percent will go to Professor Liu.”

Then he also raised his own glass and clinked it against Professor Liu’s. “You’ve worked hard during this time.”

Naturally, Professor Liu did not refuse either, even though the reward Ao Ruizhe was giving him was ten times what he himself had privately estimated.

At worst, he would simply work even harder for Ao Ruizhe in the future.

Hearing this, Mr. William did not haggle any further. He raised his glass as well. “Then let us wish for a pleasant cooperation.”

Magellan moved quickly. Two days later, they purchased a well-run mid-sized thermal insulation materials production company in neighboring Zhaoshi.

The very next day, they bought up all the land surrounding that company.

Ten days later, just as the foundation of the new factory had barely been laid, the first batch of thermal insulation materials was already produced.

That very evening, a photograph of Magellan’s vice president standing together with Ao Ruizhe at the gate of the newly established First Thermal Insulation Materials Production Company of China, performing the ribbon-cutting ceremony, shot straight to No. 3 on China’s Weibo hot search and No. 4 on the trending list of TWS, the biggest social platform in M Country.

Coincidentally, that very day, the Xia family was holding a grand banquet at Xiada Hotel, the largest hotel owned by the Xia family in Qianshi, to celebrate the eighth anniversary of Xia Yuanzheng and Su Yiyue’s marriage.

Of course, celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary was only the pretense. Their real purpose was to show off the Xia family’s strength to the outside world, intimidate those who were stirring restlessly, and conveniently inform everyone that they were preparing to take revenge.

—Because just yesterday, Xiafeng Group’s stock had officially climbed back up.

One could imagine just how lively the banquet was.

So there was no need to guess just how twisted Xia Yuanzheng’s face became the moment he saw that trending topic.

And the guests present couldn’t help freezing for a second too.

After all, this time, they hadn’t even had the chance to pity Ao Ruizhe yet.

—Did people really think the thermal insulation materials industry was small?

The construction industry, aircraft and ships, refrigerators and storage compartments, industrial kilns, and many other fields all depended on thermal insulation materials.

Last year alone, China’s thermal insulation materials market had already exceeded 170 billion yuan, while the global thermal insulation materials market had reached 1.1 trillion US dollars.

Xiafeng Group’s Tianguang Insulation Materials Company was the largest producer of insulation strips in the country.

Last year, Tianguang Insulation Materials made a net profit of 5.5 billion yuan, accounting for 22% of Xiafeng Group’s annual income.

If the sudden emergence of those eight electronic displays had merely torn a little skin off Xiafeng Group, then the establishment of this First Thermal Insulation Materials Production Company of China was like forcibly chopping off one of Xiafeng Group’s arms.

—And before they had even fully recovered from their shock, their secretaries had already investigated the entire matter and sent all the details to their phones.

Anyone with a brain could tell that Magellan had not gone and bought that mid-sized thermal insulation materials company for 900 million yuan at a 60% premium, then spent another 400 million buying up all the surrounding land, just because it had more money than it knew what to do with and had decided to help Xia Ruizhe spar against the Xia family out of charity.

There could only be one reason—Xia Ruizhe must have invented a more advanced thermal insulation material, and Magellan had seen the business opportunity in it.

Which meant that the Xia family was about to suffer again.

Wait—

“Again?“

That’s right. Ever since Xia Ruizhe fell out with the Xia family, it seemed that the supposedly weaker Xia Ruizhe had only been living better and better, while the Xia family, who had acted so arrogantly from the very start, kept tripping and falling.

At that thought, they no longer knew whether they should keep feeling sorry for Xia Ruizhe—or start feeling sorry for the Xia family instead.

Sure enough, the very next day, advertisements for the First Thermal Insulation Materials Production Company of China appeared in streets and alleys all across the country.

Their slogan was that they produced the best thermal insulation materials in the world, and their quoted price was only sixty percent of the price of the best insulation strip produced by Tianguang Insulation Materials under Xiafeng Group—

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