Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

Chapter 240: Chapter 238: Getting Married Is a Mission

"Getting married and having kids is a mission? Nobody ever told me that," Lin Ruoxi said, stunned.

She sometimes heard the villagers use the word "mission," but she always thought it referred to work. ’It actually means getting married?’

"That’s because you’re not old enough yet," Xue Rui said.

He’d been through the pressure to get married before. The way they went on about it, you’d think not getting married was a mortal sin.

Hearing Xue Rui’s words, Yu Minlan was suddenly struck by a wave of sadness. Her parents were the same way.

They wouldn’t let her date when she was in school, but now that she had graduated and found a stable job, they were nagging her every day to find a boyfriend.

’She wasn’t prepared at all! Did they expect a boyfriend to just fall from the sky?’

The girl’s eyes sparkled. "Then when... can I do the mission?"

Xue Rui’s heart skipped a beat. ’How on earth did the conversation end up here?’

’Wasn’t the girl basically asking: When can we get married? When can we have kids?’

’How was he supposed to answer that?’

While Xue Rui was silent, Lin Ruoxi murmured, "Hmm, the legal age for marriage is twenty for women and twenty-two for men."

She did a quick calculation. If they followed that rule, by the time she was of age, Xue Rui would only be nineteen and a half, still two and a half years away from being able to marry.

"Er..." Xue Rui chose not to answer.

’Going by Lin Ruoxi’s timeline, that was way too soon.’

"Hmm, I’ll wait for you," Lin Ruoxi said.

After saying it, she felt it wasn’t quite right. ’I haven’t even successfully wooed Xue Rui yet. I’m not in that much of a hurry.’

Xue Rui’s brow twitched. ’Is this girl already planning when they’ll get their marriage license?’

An older man nearby was amused by the two of them. "Little lady, where I’m from, people have kids at seventeen or eighteen."

"Huh?" Lin Ruoxi was shocked. To her, that sounded like they weren’t following the rules.

Xue Rui wasn’t too surprised. He could tell from the man’s accent that he was probably from the Yun Gui region, where it was common to marry early in some places.

Xue Rui made small talk with the people around them to build some rapport. He deliberately chose older people to talk to; the edgy young guys who had just joined the factory were busy staring at Lin Ruoxi, and he had nothing in common with them.

After chatting for a while, Xue Rui changed the subject. "So, what’s this factory like?"

"The food and accommodations are better than other factories, but business is bad. There haven’t been many shifts lately, so there’s nothing to do after work," someone complained.

"There’s still a long time until the New Year. I’m thinking of switching to another factory," someone else said in a low voice.

Xue Rui listened for a while. He noticed the workers weren’t complaining about the factory’s environment, but rather about the lack of overtime, which meant less income...

Xue Rui nodded to himself. ’If the manufacturing quality and employee treatment are both good, then there’s nothing for me to complain about.’

Factory Director He was listening from a distance. ’So, Xue Rui really is here to investigate the workers’ living conditions,’ he thought. ’Usually, only high-profit foreign companies have humanitarian requirements for their supply chains. This Xue Rui is still too young. It’s hard to make money when you have a conscience.’

Xue Rui carried his tray over and sat with Factory Director He. "Boss He, your cafeteria environment is very nice."

Factory Director He suppressed his excitement, thinking, ’This is basically halfway to a done deal.’

"I’ll have someone draw up a quote later for President Xue’s consideration," Factory Director He said sincerely.

"No rush. There’s something else I want to discuss with you," Xue Rui said.

So many companies were going bankrupt at the time, so it should be easy to find relevant professionals. However, it would still be a bit difficult for him to find them on his own.

’It would be better to invest in this small electronics factory. In the future, it would gain experience manufacturing many new types of electronic products. With large amounts of capital entering the market, it would be a surefire business.’

They went to the office and negotiated for quite a while. Factory Director He never imagined that Xue Rui wasn’t just looking for a manufacturer, but also wanted to invest in his factory.

"This factory belongs to me and my wife. I have the final say." Factory Director He stood up and shook Xue Rui’s hand.

Not only did Xue Rui have orders, but he also wanted to invest.

Over the next few days, Xue Rui found a firm in Shencheng to handle the many complicated procedures on his behalf: the investment agreement, capital contribution procedures, and so on.

Xue Rui invested 10 million, acquiring 40 percent of the shares in Hongxin Electronics Factory. However, the shares were registered under Lin Ruoxi’s name, while Factory Director He remained the legal representative of the company.

Being a boss wasn’t easy. It wasn’t that he couldn’t build his own factory, but the paperwork and routine inspections could really tie a person down. It was better to invest in someone else’s.

After signing the contract, Factory Director He felt a great sense of relief. He had been planning to sell the factory, but he never expected someone to invest at a time like this, and bring orders with them.

"Ms. Lin, a pleasure doing business with you." Factory Director He extended his hand, wanting to shake hands with his new partner.

Lin Ruoxi hesitated and looked at Xue Rui. She had never shaken hands with another man before.

Xue Rui nodded. ’How old is the guy? You can’t just leave him hanging there with his hand out.’

Factory Director He gave an awkward laugh and politely grasped Lin Ruoxi’s fingertips for a brief shake.

As it turned out, the factory wasn’t very large. The R&D department only had a few people.

Factory Director He found a few more people Xue Rui needed from related industries. Xue Rui and Lin Ruoxi interviewed them personally and signed their employment contracts.

Although the girl had learned a lot online, much of which was paid knowledge bought from industry insiders, there was no guarantee it was all suitable for the market.

Xue Rui and Lin Ruoxi went to the R&D department. He planned to give the team his requirements, guiding their development toward products that had already been market-proven.

At that moment, the team was in a heated discussion.

"If we have to add this port, the cost will increase significantly," one of them said.

"Indeed. It’s the first time I’ve seen it in all my years in the industry. It seems to be a newly released interface, right?"

"The problem is, who’s going to use it? Are there any products out there that use this kind of port right now?"

The team was arguing over a Type-C port, and they were all in complete agreement against it.

Xue Rui wasn’t surprised. The port had indeed just been created, and there were no products on the market that used it. Even if they made it, there would be no users.

When they saw Lin Ruoxi come in, everyone immediately fell silent. They knew that not only was she part of the R&D department, but she was also a company shareholder.

Xue Rui cleared his throat twice. "You only need to implement the charging pins. It won’t add much to the cost, and more and more devices will definitely use it in the future."

No one said a word, but they were all thinking, ’A classic case of an amateur trying to boss around the professionals.’

Xue Rui estimated that in another year, many devices would start using Type-C ports. At that point, the first wave of people to upgrade their devices would have cables that didn’t match their friends’, forcing them to use special cables or adapters—a significant pain point.

All he had to do was popularize the port ahead of time. When the time came, he could capture a segment of dedicated users and also boost their brand recognition.

Xue Rui planned to make more than just this one product; he also had ideas for USB power strips with built-in charging ports, and more.

It would likely be the first USB power strip on the market.

Right now, the power strip market was still monopolized by a few major manufacturers. Xiaomi hadn’t entered the scene yet. He had already prepared the product design in advance; the module was highly versatile and could even be used separately to create a multi-port power adapter.

The girl took out a prototype she had prepared earlier, giving the team a concrete starting point to brainstorm from.

"The product’s shell must be simple and elegant, with no superfluous design elements. This type of product is meant for the desktop," Xue Rui said.

For these low-tech products, the competition came down to who paid more attention to detail and who could better solve the user’s pain points.

While it might not be profitable in the long run, he could still get a piece of the pie early on. He had a first-mover advantage.

"A power strip with built-in charging ports?" someone asked in surprise.

He pictured the power strip at his home, cluttered with a bunch of charging bricks. If it had three built-in USB ports, it would be much tidier.

"Mhm, Xue Rui designed all of this," Lin Ruoxi said, looking at him with eyes full of admiration.

The team plunged back into discussion. They suddenly felt that the unfamiliar port from before wasn’t all bad; it seemed to have many advantages.

"It’s reversible, just like Apple’s latest Lightning port. It’ll probably become widespread in the future," someone muttered.

Xue Rui discussed the general requirements and R&D direction with the team.

"President Xue, many of these ideas could be patented, like that modular snap-fit interface," someone suggested.

Xue Rui considered it for a moment. "I’ll look into it later."

Xue Rui discussed things with the team for a long time, only stepping outside for some fresh air when it was time to get off work.

"Hey? Isn’t that President Lin? She looks kind of familiar," someone said, holding up their phone.

"What? Let me see."

"Scored 745 on the college entrance exam, the top scorer..."

Xue Rui raised an eyebrow and searched for it online.

The first thing he saw was Lin Ruoxi’s college entrance exam score, along with an ID photo taken at some unknown time...

’Of course, something like this would be reported by the media.’

Many people online were still discussing where Lin Ruoxi would go, speculating which of the Qingbei universities she would choose.

Xue Rui didn’t think much of it. The view count wasn’t high, and everyone would forget about it after a while. ’Maybe she’ll be mentioned once a year after the college entrance exams?’

At that moment, any trace of arrogance had vanished from the eyes of the R&D team. Neither of these two young people was simple.

Xue Rui’s phone buzzed. It was a WeChat message from Gu Muxue.

Gu Muxue: Xiaorui, have you submitted your university application? I’m coming home with Aunt Ren in a few days. [Grinning emoji]

Xue Rui had seemed very, very busy lately, occasionally sending her photos and updates about work procedures.

Because of that, she usually just chatted with him in the evenings.

Xue Rui replied: You’re coming back to Hedong? Then I’m not going back for now.

Gu Muxue: [Angry emoji] Why?

She tilted her head. Xue Rui’s words made it sound like he was avoiding her, and her heart suddenly lurched with panic.

Xue Rui: I need to avoid my creditor.

Gu Muxue: You jerk! Pay up! [Cursing emoji]

She felt much more at ease. Xue Rui was still his same old self, always joking around with her.

’Maybe Xue Rui really is that busy?’ She didn’t pester him to hang out; she just wished school would start soon.

Xue Rui replied: I’ll be back in a few days.

He had pretty much finished up everything he needed to do there. Factory Director He could handle things like procurement, and he couldn’t help much with the R&D anyway.

When Gu Muxue saw that Xue Rui was coming back, her heart filled with joy.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on the feeling. Xue Rui had been acting so busy every day, but as soon as she said she was coming home, he said he was coming home too?

’Could it really be such a coincidence?’

Xue Rui stuffed his phone in his pocket. ’She’s so considerate. I should go back and spend some time with her, and I have some paperwork to take care of anyway.’

Suddenly, he received another message. It was from Qiu Mengze: "Xue Rui, when are you coming back? Should I check out the computer market first?"