Chapter 41: Building the Laboratory

After leaving Tianqi Company, Du Qiu visited several instrument manufacturers and purchased some laboratory instruments, having those in stock delivered directly.

By the time he returned to the company, it was already later in the afternoon, and the company seemed quite busy.

Liu Yaofeng was directing quite a few people in the placement of some Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining centers.

“Boss, Tianqi Company has delivered the machining centers you talked about, and there’s a batch of equipment that just arrived. Are they the experimental instruments you mentioned on the phone?

Also, President Sun has gone out to talk business, and Manager Yuan has gone to the industrial park to handle the registration,” Liu Yaofeng reported to Du Qiu as he saw him return.

At this moment, several other people came over to greet Du Qiu.

“Dr. Du, I have also joined the company.”

“Right, working under Dr. Du is exciting indeed.”

…

Liu Yaofeng explained with a smile, “Boss, these guys hadn’t found a new job yet, and since we needed people anyway, I mentioned it to them, and they were all willing to come.”

Among them, two were electronics engineers from Du Qiu’s original team, and several others were from different groups within the R&D department, including hardware engineers and software engineers.

Du Qiu shook hands with each of them, smiling, “Welcome to Dream Technology. The company is just starting, and the treatment can’t be as high as Luxing Technology for now, but I believe we will soon surpass Luxing Technology.”

Liu Yaofeng led the applause, “Our boss has already signed the first contract. We’re sure the company will thrive.

Didn’t you see the client company even delivered the equipment to us for testing? Let’s put our best effort into this!”

Seeing everyone applaud, Du Qiu nodded, appreciating that Liu Yaofeng had quite the leadership charm.

Indeed, everyone has their talents; it just depends on whether they have the opportunity to showcase them.

“Liu Yaofeng, you get them to set up and test these CNC machining centers quickly. Everyone should come to the meeting room later, and I will go over the design of the supporting hardware in detail.

You all digest and familiarize yourselves as soon as you can. Once the components arrive tomorrow, you can start working.”

After giving instructions, Du Qiu then said to the software engineers, “Zhao Haibin and Wu Xinghuo, come with me. Our software still needs to be commercialized and generically packaged.”

He walked with them towards the office building and noticed that in just one morning, the place had taken on a completely new look.

Clearly, Yuan Minhua had arranged for a cleaning company to tidy up, and some temporary signs had made the whole office building very well organized.

The first floor was the domain of the sales and after-sales departments, taking advantage of the street front to directly receive customers.

The sales department didn’t need that much space, so one large room was directly used as the company cafeteria, where meal delivery could be arranged.

The second floor housed the administrative, human resources departments, and public meeting rooms, among others.

The third floor was the R&D department, divided into software and hardware sections.

The fourth floor was for the senior leaders, the finance department, and Du Qiu’s personal laboratory.

Since the former auto repair shop had fewer office staff, apart from the useful office furniture that Yuan Minhua kept, she added some more, which hadn’t arrived yet.

The whole company was still at the very beginning, both full of vitality and a bit disorganized.

In a conference room, Du Qiu asked Zhao Haibin and Wu Xinghuo straightforwardly, “How much do you know about CNC control software?”

Zhao Haibin shook his head, “I haven’t had any contact with it. I went directly to Luxing Technology after graduation.”

Wu Xinghuo said, “I’ve worked with it before, even used that G code programming.”

“Good, Wu Xinghuo, you take the lead for now, familiarize yourself and Zhao Haibin with the CNC control software in the workshop, especially the operation interface and how to conveniently install the packaging software into the equipment control center.”

“Dr. Du, I heard from Liu Yaofeng that you have already developed a brand-new set of CNC control software?” Wu Xinghuo eyes were filled with admiration.

He knew all too well how complex a CNC control software is, and the domestic ones took at least teams of more than a hundred researchers.

Yet, Dr. Du completed it alone in just a few years; that’s real software genius.

“Yes, you need to write the peripheral programs well, and the installation and import interface must be user-friendly and easy to understand so that our after-sales engineers, and even the customers themselves, can easily load the program into the machining center.”

“Dr. Du, you’re amazing. We will study hard and work hard,” Wu Xinghuo said.

Afterwards, Du Qiu led them to move some of the laboratory instruments that had arrived to the personal laboratory on the fourth floor.

Du Qiu’s personal laboratory occupied one-third of the fourth floor.

He divided the laboratory into two parts: one for researching catalysts and molecular replacement agents, and the other for material research.

Magic City was already Tang Country’s largest industrial city with a full range of industrial products, plus the rapid development of emerging industries in Southern Jiangsu.

Except for some highly sophisticated equipment he couldn’t buy, Du Qiu was able to purchase all the instruments needed to carry out his research on catalysts and molecular replacement agents.

He couldn’t wait a moment longer to build a preliminary laboratory, so he could start working on the catalysts and molecular replacement agents from his dreams.

These two types of chemical agents were one of the key processes in purifying alien civilization elements in the dreams. Coupled with the high-speed separator, it allowed supermachines to purify various elemental substances on a large scale.

Du Qiu was unsure of the cost to implement such production technology in reality, but regardless, it was worth researching.

He planned to use most of the time in his upcoming dreams to study the production processes for various material purifications, mastering as many catalyst and molecular replacement agent formulas as possible.

Out of the knowledge points Du Qiu had previously recorded, only about twenty different catalyst and solvent formulas were noted from that purification program.

After confirming, about eight of those solvents could be prepared on Blue Star.

Among the experimental materials arriving in the afternoon, the raw materials for three of them were included.

Du Qiu couldn’t wait to start the experiments.

Only by obtaining the respective catalysts and molecular replacement agents as soon as possible could Du Qiu potentially use extraterrestrial technology’s material purification production techniques from his dreams.

With this technology, it would be possible to select the most suitable new materials for large-scale production and application in the real world from thousands of materials.

The fact that an alien civilization produced these materials indicated their value; however, just because they suited alien usage doesn’t mean they would suit humans on Blue Star.

Other materials might just be the basic components of higher-tier materials, and even if Du Qiu obtained them in reality, they might be useless without knowing the higher-tier materials.

Therefore, memorizing more in the dreams and conducting more experiments in the laboratory were crucial for obtaining truly usable new materials.

Time flew by as Du Qiu was focused on his experiments.

It was past nine in the evening when Yuan Minhua knocked and entered the room.

“President Du, why haven’t you eaten yet? This food is all cold.”

“Oh, is it that late already? I got busy and lost track of time,” Du Qiu said as he checked his phone and realized how late it was.

“Do you want me to order another meal for you?” Yuan Minhua asked.

“Oh, no, I’ll just take this fast food back with me and heat it up to eat.”

While packing up, Du Qiu jokingly asked, “Why haven’t you left work yet? Don’t you need to cook for your family?”

Yuan Minhua’s face showed a bit of discomfort as she smiled and said, “I’m full enough for the whole family. I had some paperwork to sort out from the registration, so I stayed a bit longer.”

“Aren’t you already married?” Du Qiu asked, surprised, as he remembered hearing that Yuan Minhua was having a wedding, but he wasn’t familiar with the specifics.

“Umm…” Yuan Minhua hesitated, then bit her lip and said, “It’s not something to be proud of, but I might as well tell you.”

Yuan Minhua composed her thoughts and slowly revealed her story.