Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

Chapter 239: Chapter 237: Lacking a Scholarly Atmosphere

Breakfast stretched all the way until eleven o’clock.

Xue Rui couldn’t help but marvel. ’Southerners really know how to live,’ he thought. ’To have come up with so many different kinds of breakfast foods.’

Lin Ruoxi ordered one of practically everything on the breakfast menu. Only after stuffing Xue Rui did she start eating herself.

To be precise, the young lady’s appetite was now quite a bit larger than his...

He didn’t know if her brilliant mind consumed more energy, but in any case, the young lady didn’t gain a ton of weight despite how much she ate.

Xue Rui chatted for a while with the old men at the surrounding tables. As people gradually began to leave the teahouse, a few businessmen exchanged cards with Xue Rui on their way out.

He wasn’t surprised. Anyone who could spend hours drinking morning tea on a weekday was either retired or a wealthy, idle boss.

Xue Rui looked at the stack of business cards in his hand. Most were from owners of traditional businesses, none of which had much to do with the product he was planning to make...

Still, it was a pleasant surprise. He’d managed to gather a lot of information just from some idle breakfast chatter.

"I’ve been invited to tour a factory. Let’s go take a look this afternoon," Xue Rui said.

The power bank market was currently a chaotic mix of good and bad, with knockoffs still dominating. But six months ago, Xiaomi had entered the fray, completely disrupting the market with its extremely cost-effective products. The entry of a major manufacturer would trigger a reshuffle, forcing a ton of smaller factories out of business.

Xue Rui roughly estimated, based on news he’d read, that at least eighty percent of power bank companies would go bankrupt in 2014. Many small and micro-enterprises were already on the brink of collapse, and business for their associated factories couldn’t be much better.

This was why a whole crowd of people had come flocking to him the moment he let slip that he was looking for an OEM for his product.

’14 was also a period of rapid price drops for battery cells. The market was flooded with surplus stock being sold off, which would drive down the cost of producing shared power banks even further.

...

「One day later.」

While touring the factory, Xue Rui received a call from Xue Jianfeng.

"Xiaorui, since when were you good enough to get into Qinghua or Peking University? Their admissions teams are here at our house," Xue Jianfeng joked.

"Dad, don’t pay any attention to whatever they’re saying." Xue Rui got it. ’So the admissions offices tracked him down to my house.’

"Who’s Lin Ruoxi? Are you two so close that she’s taking you with her to Qinghua or Peking University?" Xue Jianfeng demanded.

The people from the admissions teams said it all. Xue Rui is the provincial top scorer’s fiancé, and wherever he goes, Lin Ruoxi will follow.

’Since when was that a thing?’

"We’re just classmates," Xue Rui said, trying to laugh it off.

"Tell me the truth," Xue Jianfeng said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The recruiters next to him had mentioned the words "boyfriend" and "fiancé" more than once.

"Hello? Dad, can you hear me? My signal’s... breaking up..." Xue Rui held the phone far away, periodically covering the microphone to create the illusion of a bad connection before hanging up.

Xue Jianfeng’s eye twitched. ’Did he really think that little trick would fool me?’

"Mr. Xue, please try to talk some sense into your son. An opportunity like this is rare," Teacher Zhang said.

"And you can mention any conditions you might have," the recruiter from Peking University chimed in hastily.

Teacher Zhang was speechless. He and his rivals from the other university were like two kings who should never meet on the same mountain. While they sometimes competed at the same negotiating table, a situation like this was exceptionally rare.

The student in question wasn’t even here, and they were somehow having a meal at his family’s restaurant...

"My boy’s all grown up now. I respect his decisions," Xue Jianfeng said with a smile.

’As if Xue Rui would listen to me. He just made up an excuse to hang up. What good would my approval do?’

’I might as well just go along with what he wants. Let him go wherever he wants.’

Still, this was his first time meeting such highly educated people from the top universities. He had to treat them to a meal, to add a bit of scholarly air to his restaurant.

"The food’s coming right up, don’t even think about leaving!" Xue Jianfeng hurriedly called a waiter over to serve the dishes.

"No, we couldn’t possibly."

"Hey now, a fortune teller once told me this place lacks a certain scholarly air. You’re all my honored guests, my lucky stars!" Xue Jianfeng said with a straight face.

Teacher Zhang was momentarily speechless. ’Businessmen are all so superstitious,’ he thought. From the man’s attitude, it was clear he had no intention of letting them leave.

"Eat up, drink up. Just give me a shout if you need anything," Xue Jianfeng said, clamping a hand on Teacher Zhang’s shoulder.

Teacher Zhang’s eye twitched. ’This family is really something else...’

It was an offer they couldn’t refuse, so they had no choice but to stay for the meal. If they couldn’t close the deal here, they would have to rush to the provincial capital the next day to fight over other students.

"So what’s the verdict on your end? Got rejected too?" Teacher Zhang asked his rival casually.

"Yeah. They said they’re planning to go abroad," the recruiter from Peking University replied.

"Phew..." They both breathed a sigh of relief. ’At least my rival didn’t get her,’ they both thought.

...

After hanging up, Xue Rui thought, ’Finally, some peace and quiet.’

Yu Minlan asked, "Have they given up?"

’His phone was blowing up this morning,’ she wondered. ’Why has it suddenly gone silent?’

Xue Rui glanced at the photo Xue Jianfeng had sent him and immediately understood.

"Qinghua and Peking University probably recruit a lot of geniuses through special admissions every year. One or two students don’t matter. It’s just that Lin Ruoxi has the title of top scorer, and they’re both afraid the other will get her..." Xue Rui showed the photo to Yu Minlan.

Now the two rivals were sitting at the same table. They must have had a simple conversation and gotten a feel for each other’s situation.

With that, the pressure on the admissions offices was gone, and so was their sense of urgency.

They didn’t really want Lin Ruoxi; they just didn’t want the title of "National Top Scorer" to fall into their rival’s hands.

He had underestimated the prestige of the "top scorer" title, while Yu Minlan had overestimated the value of a genius.

With a population of over a billion, the one thing China didn’t lack was geniuses. Weren’t the papers always full of stories about child prodigies skipping grades? It’s not like many of them went on to make outstanding contributions in their fields.

Lin Ruoxi, on the other hand, had just followed the standard curriculum. Earning the top scorer title at eighteen or nineteen might even seem less impressive to some than the accomplishments of those grade-skipping prodigies.

A genius simply has investment potential; they don’t guarantee a return.

Otherwise, people would have started screening kids’ IQs in kindergarten.

It takes more than just being smart to be successful. There are plenty of geniuses who end up accomplishing nothing.

...

The group arrived in front of the Hongxin Electronics Factory. It wasn’t a large facility; compared to the major factories they’d seen before, it had the distinct feel of a small workshop.

"President Xue, welcome to our factory. My name is He. I’m both the factory director and the owner," a middle-aged man said, hurrying forward to greet them with a technician in tow.

He was still a bit surprised when he saw them; the visitors were ridiculously young.

’But it didn’t matter,’ he thought. ’As long as they have money. The market is slow right now, and a lot of factories have no orders to fill. Whether President Xue loses money or not is none of my business.’

"Boss He." Xue Rui shook his hand and noticed how rough the man’s fingers were.

With small factories like this, many owners had started from the very bottom, clawing their way up to where they were today. It wasn’t unusual to see them on the production floor.

Xue Rui was all too familiar with this routine: tour the production line, listen to a technician explain the advantages of their manufacturing process, and finally, talk numbers...

The group toured the factory, and the mind-numbing process made Xue Rui want to fall asleep.

As they were leaving, Xue Rui inquired about their pricing. Boss He said they could discuss the specifics after giving it some thought.

Xue Rui found this perfectly normal; they would need to do some research before daring to give a quote. If they just threw out a number on the production floor and it was significantly higher than the client’s expected price, they could easily scare him off.

He was a layman when it came to specifics, his knowledge was of the industry as a whole. For the technical details of production, he relied on Lin Ruoxi.

"What do you think?" Xue Rui asked.

"It’s acceptable," Lin Ruoxi said.

Xue Rui nodded slightly. It seemed the quality of this small factory’s contract manufacturing was decent, not as bad as he had imagined.

He glanced at Lin Ruoxi, only to find her gazing at the toiling workers on the assembly line.

Though he liked to say, "you earn more once you lose your conscience," he was, in fact, still influenced by the young lady.

’Sometimes,’ he would think, ’with the information advantage I have, I could just make a few quick bucks and be set for life.’

For example, these shared power banks were quick money. Once the sharing economy bubble reached its peak, he could just sell off the business and fleece the venture capitalists.

’Labor-intensive industries make their money off the backs of their workers,’ he mused. ’Maybe I can do my part, within my means, to take better care of them.’

’Since I don’t know how to choose, I’ll just pick the factory that treats its employees the best. If the price is higher, so be it. I can afford the premium.’

"President Xue, it wasn’t easy for you to come all this way. It’s about lunchtime, let me treat you all to a meal. We can talk while we eat," Factory Director He offered.

Looking at the workers who were just breaking for their meal, Xue Rui said, "Don’t trouble yourself. We can just eat here at the factory."

’This client is pretty down-to-earth,’ Boss He thought. ’Or maybe he just wants to check out the employee cafeteria?’

He decided to take Xue Rui to the factory cafeteria, which was where he usually ate as well.

The employee cafeteria wasn’t large, but it was bright and clean. The hygiene standards seemed to be up to par.

When Yu Minlan saw Xue Rui go to get his own food, her jaw dropped. This was the same guy who usually needed help tying his own shoelaces, and now he was getting his own food?

"Boss Xue, why are you getting food yourself?" Yu Minlan whispered.

"I was afraid they’d give us special treatment," Xue Rui said.

If he was going to inspect the employees’ living conditions, he naturally had to see if he was eating the same food as the workers. Otherwise, there would be no point.

Xue Rui carried his tray and found an empty spot to sit.

He noticed that many workers were greeting Factory Director He, so he figured this was a common sight.

The food quality was decent, too. He took a bite and found it was a little better than his school cafeteria’s food.

Xue Rui saw a middle-aged man next to him and struck up a conversation. "Hey there. Still working hard at your age?"

Lin Ruoxi, sitting next to Xue Rui, was drawing a lot of attention.

Factory Director He had wanted to sit next to Xue Rui, but with no seats left, he had to sit a bit further away.

"Can’t be helped. Farming back home doesn’t pay the bills," the man said with a cheerful laugh.

"Kids completed their ’mission’ yet?" Xue Rui asked casually.

Lin Ruoxi’s eyes widened. She whispered, "Do you know him?"

"Nope," Xue Rui said.

"Then how did you know his kids have a ’mission’?" Lin Ruoxi asked.

"Hahaha," the man chuckled, amused.

Xue Rui poked the young lady’s nose. "You don’t know? There’s a mysterious organization in this world that assigns everyone a mission the moment they’re born."

"Ooh, do I have a mission too?" Lin Ruoxi asked.

"You do, of course you do. Getting married and having kids, that’s the mission," the man said with a laugh.