Liu Chen: ???
Mid-chewing a sea cucumber, Liu Chen was a bit dazed by the statement. What was this? A windfall?
Liu Chen subconsciously turned to look at his mother’s reaction, only to see her engrossed in eating.
It was Shang Gulan who, after hearing Old Mr. Chen’s words, showed only slight surprise before inquiring,
“Then how do you plan for Liu Chen to take over? This child is studying food science at Shuimu University, and has some projects. Relying on him alone, his future career won’t be any smaller than yours.”
Old Mr. Chen sighed and turned to Liu Chen, who was sitting at the table, “Chen Chen, can I call you that?”
“Yes, Grandpa Chen, please,” Liu Chen said, placing his hands on the table and interlocking his fingers, looking seriously at Old Mr. Chen.
Old Mr. Chen nodded with a smile and continued, “I was thinking, you’ll definitely go to university, but I can sponsor you. We can’t let such a good resource like Shuimu University go to waste. You can ask your advisor about any research you’d like to do, and our Meili Brand can sponsor a part of it.
Of course, the sponsorship is conditional on you being able to join a project to learn. I believe that with your own strength, joining a project is only a matter of time. But we can get familiar with it earlier, and there shouldn’t be any problem, right?”
Liu Chen found these words quite appealing, not for other reasons, but because by joining the project team, he could smoothly monetize the recipes he possessed. After all…
He still had a D-rank mission pending.
Seeing Liu Chen not objecting, Old Mr. Chen continued,
“Whether you do it yourself or collaborate with your advisor, as long as you can prove your recipe is feasible, I’ll give you a production line. We’ll split the profits three and seven, with me taking three and you taking seven.”
Liu Chen narrowed his eyes. Old Mr. Chen was very clever. He was dangling the company to himself like a carrot, and to get this carrot, he would definitely strive to achieve results.
And if he achieved excellent results, even if Old Mr. Chen didn’t hand over the company to him, starting his own business and becoming successful would only be a matter of time.
Of course, all this was based on him having real substance. If the food he developed didn't sell well, it would also prove he lacked the ability to take over the company.
At that point, Old Mr. Chen would have grounds to let Chen Long take over.
“I accept your challenge, Grandpa Chen.”
Liu Chen thought about the five recipe cards in his bag and began to consider which one would be most suitable to start with.
Ren Mo, who was also sitting at the dining table, looked at the conversation between the old man and the young man with disbelief and turned to his mother, Ren Yuanying.
“Mom, I think I can also gain some experience. How about you invest thirty thousand yuan for me?”
Ren Yuanying nodded, “Sure. In that case, give me a detailed business plan, and I’ll see if it’s feasible.”
Upon hearing this, Ren Mo’s eyes widened in disbelief, and he asked,
“Mom, you’re actually planning to invest in me?”
Ren Yuanying put down the crab in her hand and wiped her hands with a napkin.
“You are my son. If you want to start a business, and I have the means, why wouldn’t I support you?”
Seeing that his mother was serious, Ren Mo opened his mouth and said,
“Lately, I’ve been taking photos with Sang Ling and posting them on Weibo. I find it quite fun, but I don’t like being in front of the camera.”
Liu Chen, who had just confirmed the plan with Old Mr. Chen, overheard the conversation between Ren Mo and his godmother. An idea struck him, and he looked in Ren Mo’s direction, offering a few suggestions.
“Ren Mo, you can work behind the scenes, like finding distinctive girls, helping them take photos, posting them on Weibo, taking advertisements, and then sharing the profits with them.”
In fact, the concept Liu Chen described was an early form of…
Ren Mo, who had been looking conflicted, was first stunned by Liu Chen’s words, then his eyes lit up in realization.
“Yes, yes! That’s exactly what I want to do! Sister Chen! How did you know what I was thinking?!”
Liu Chen shook his head,
“I’m just offering a suggestion. The specifics depend on you.”
After the meal, as Liu Chen was about to get up, Old Mr. Chen said,
“Chen Chen, don’t pay attention to what people online are saying. Just focus on doing what you’re doing well. As the saying goes, if you bloom, butterflies will come. Right, old sister?”
Liu Chen paused at Old Mr. Chen’s words,
“Grandpa Chen, online matters often depend on how you use them. If used well, they can even become free promotional support.”
Old Mr. Chen shook his head,
“I don’t understand the things your generation plays with. But looking at you, it seems like you have things under control. After the National Day holiday, talk to your advisor. Once you’ve settled things, I’ll have finance transfer the money to your card.”
“Okay, Grandpa Chen, I’ll do my best!”
…
At this moment, Hu Qian, who had spent the entire day shopping with her roommates, had just sat down with them at a buffet barbecue restaurant near the school.
Since she planned to settle in Beijing and not return to City C, and she almost couldn’t afford university because Hu Xingfa refused to pay her tuition, Hu Qian had tried on clothes all day but bought nothing.
The ones she liked were too expensive, and the ones she could afford, she didn’t like.
So, while the six girls in the dorm went out, their bags were placed at their feet, but Hu Qian’s feet were empty.
A plump girl with a few freckles, who was good friends with Hu Qian, sat next to her and couldn’t help but ask.
“Qianqian, you didn’t buy any clothes. It’s going to get cold soon. Do you have enough clothes?”
Hu Qian smiled awkwardly and explained, “I had a fight with my dad, so I don’t want to go back for Chinese New Year. I need to save my living expenses.”
The freckled girl blinked, “Oh, fighting with your dad, you’re silly! Just say a few nice words to coax your dad. That’s what I do. When I argue with my dad, I just coax him a bit, and then he’s fine with anything.”
Hu Qian listened to the freckled girl’s words, and her hand, which was hanging by her side, slowly clenched into a fist. At some point, she had thought the same way.
Looking at the freckled girl’s face, Hu Qian felt only annoyance.
The other roommates, seeing Hu Qian’s smile becoming increasingly forced, quickly changed the topic and started discussing the hottest topic online.
“Did you guys see that post about the most beautiful campus belle?”
The freckled girl’s attention was indeed diverted by this question, and she quickly said, “I saw it, I saw it. But they all say it’s a publicity stunt, aimed at promoting the new store location of that academic campus belle’s family.”
“Academic campus belle? Yes, is it the campus belle from Province S?” Hu Qian asked the first girl who spoke.
“What post? Where can I see it?”
The girl who was asked looked at Hu Qian with some surprise.
“Qianqian, why do I feel like you’re very interested in this academic campus belle? Do you know her?”
Hu Qian’s expression faltered at such a direct question, then she gave a wry smile and shook her head.
“How could I know her? It’s just that during the summer, our local TV station had an interview with her, so I was curious.”
The girl who asked realized,
“No wonder. I understand, I understand. Other people’s children, right? Here, I’ll send you the link on QQ.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Hu Qian clicked on the link in the QQ chat window on her phone and scrolled down. When she saw the link to the interview video, she didn’t click on it. Firstly, she had already seen Liu Chen’s hypocritical demeanor on that show, and secondly, her data plan couldn’t afford it.
Seeing the link to the video uploaded by Liu Chen’s verified personal account, Hu Qian hesitated.
In the end, she couldn’t resist and clicked on it. As a result, she spent 150MB of data to watch an advertisement for Liu Chen’s new store.
After watching the video, Hu Qian couldn’t help but complain.
“Why is this person like this? Isn’t this just an advertisement?”
However, her roommates were indifferent, “What does it matter? If it were me, I’d advertise my own business too. What a great advertisement! Besides, the person who posted this has been identified as a paparazzi studio account.
So, this matter was probably not planned by the academic belle herself. She was just going with the flow.”
Going with the flow my ass! How could that timid idiot Liu Chen possibly do such things!
Hu Qian held her phone, looking at the address Liu Chen mentioned in the video, and secretly memorized it.
…
The National Day holiday passed quickly. Her mother, Chen Long, and Old Mr. Chen flew back to City C.
Of course, before they left, Old Mr. Chen, through some unknown channels, managed to get Liu Chen notified by her counselor about joining an experimental group before classes started.
The main experimental direction was about a new type of additive. The advisor said that if this additive were developed, it could be marketed globally, with enormous economic benefits and the potential to earn US dollars.
Liu Chen’s responsibility was to sit in front of her computer in the office and input the data obtained from their experiments for archiving.
Liu Chen didn’t see any problem with this job. After all, although she was in the food science department, she was only a freshman and didn’t even know the basic laboratory operating procedures. If she were to be put into experiments just for sponsorship, she would indeed find it unreliable.
With her lab work, Liu Chen’s daily routine became reading books in her major, then eating breakfast. When she felt sleepy after breakfast, she would take a short nap for half an hour, and after waking up, she would rush to class, raising any questions she didn't understand during self-study.
On days when there were only two classes in the morning, she would go to the lab after class to organize data, often observing how the senior students conducted their experiments.
As a result, everyone noticed that the campus belle and academic prodigy, who had been the talk of the town during the start of the semester and military training, had quietly faded from the spotlight.
Only Liu Chen’s roommates knew that Liu Chen was now working in the lab. Although Liu Chen said she was just helping out and organizing data, for Tang Shengnan and Xiong Wan, this was already far beyond their reach.
Xiong Wan, upon discovering that Liu Chen was not a rich second generation and that the luxury goods were given by her godmother, felt that Liu Chen was no longer a competitor. She had recently become close with a senior student from the computer science department.