Chapter 66: I’ll Show Support for Your Venture

“Ah? Scolding me?” Du Qiu wore a wry smile.

“Your company is in the Magic City, and I’m also here. Why didn’t you invite me for the opening? Are you looking down on this old man?”

Upon hearing this, Du Qiu realized what was happening and immediately replied, “Teacher, my company is a small operation; we currently only have a few dozen employees and didn’t hold any grand opening ceremony. Otherwise, how could I possibly not invite you? Having you attend would be an honor we couldn’t even hope for.”

Indeed, Du Qiu was right: Ding Youlun had many students who, after entering the industry, encountered situations where they wanted their teacher to step in for various events, but Ding rarely agreed.

“Oh, you have the ‘Heavenly System,’ and you didn’t seek other investments?” Ding Youlun was somewhat surprised. Refusing Xue Ningmei’s investment is one thing, but there could be others.

With venture capital, Du Qiu’s company definitely would not be small.

“I don’t like venture capital entering the company. Such companies are not created to do things but to make money.”

“In this impatient society, it’s not easy to give up on money for the sake of doing good work.”

“Teacher, the main thing is, what I’m doing may be very valuable. If I were to seek venture capital now, it would be too cheap for them.”

“Exactly, that’s the Du Qiu I know! Haha…”

Through the conversation with his mentor Ding Youlun, Du Qiu finally understood that it was the sale of his company’s product to an enterprise in Xicheng that caught the attention of Academician Xu Bingchang.

Xu Bingchang happened to be the chief engineer’s teacher at that company, and it was his five-star review that made the company eagerly sign the order.

Xu Bingchang found the software astonishing and regarded it as the best evaluation for CNC system control in China!

Xu Bingchang learned that Du Qiu was the developer from the company’s R&D engineers on site; knowing that Du Qiu was Ding Youlun’s student and had met him before, he praised Ding publicly during today’s ministry review meeting.

“Let me tell you, if it weren’t for the fact that I haven’t finished the conference in the capital, I would immediately fly back to the Magic City to see your software in operation.”

“Teacher, how much longer will you be in the capital for the meeting?”

“I’ll be in the capital all this week and won’t be back until next week.”

“That’s great. My company is participating in the CNC machine tool industry trade show held in the capital during the May Day period. We’re preparing to debut there; we’ve set up a little challenge arena.”

“Oh? That’s great, I’ll swing by and show some support. By the way, what’s this little challenge about?”

“My software can enhance the machining precision of the same hardware. So I’ve prepared two machines from Fanuc, one running the original Fanuc software and another running mine.”

“Haha, nice. That’s a true Du Qiu move! I’ll definitely come and witness it.”

“Teacher, I might not be able to make it to the capital…”

“No worries, you focus on your work. Seeing the software is enough for me.”

Du Qiu was momentarily lost for words—so the software was more important than himself.

After ending the call, Du Qiu realized it was already nine o’clock and decided to pack up and leave.

Stepping out of his lab, Du Qiu noticed the lights in the finance office were still on.

The finance office is a large room divided into two sections: the finance manager’s office inside and the finance department’s staff office outside.

Du Qiu walked in and saw that nobody was in the outside office, but the door to the inside office was still open.

Clearly, Qin Yun was working overtime.

Approaching the doorway of the inside office, Du Qiu saw Qin Yun focused on her computer.

“Knock knock knock,” Du Qiu tapped on the doorframe.

Qin Yun looked up and saw Du Qiu, “You’ve finished your experiments?”

“Why are you working overtime on your first day? Did you leave Xiao Yu with Liuli?”

“Oh, I’m preparing an asset appreciation and preservation plan, and Liuli is free tonight.”

“Asset appreciation? We’ve been spending money lately; do we even have money for that?”

Du Qiu was surprised since his company didn’t have much money left, considering the promotion expenses he had just allowed Rein Leinar to cover. He was even hesitant about purchasing a scanning tunneling microscope, which alone would cost a good one or two million and that’s for a domestic model.

“Of course, we have money,” Qin Yun explained, “even though the company is just starting and has expenses, there’s also income. You just invested an additional 5 million, and our sales department had a great start today—the company from Xicheng sent over part of the advance payment before closing, about 2 million.”

Oh, that’s very proactive of the company to make a payment.

“Wait, two million advance payment? Isn’t it only for two models, and the other eight still need validation?” Du Qiu suddenly felt something was off compared to what he had discussed with Sun Hongming.

“No, the contract sent back by Manager Chen clearly states that their factory intends to replace all of their CNC systems with our software.”

Qin Yun said this as she was about to fetch the contract fax.

“No need to get it, I understand now.” Du Qiu didn’t expect Chen Tao to expand the scope of the contract when he rushed to sign it. That’s good news.

“Just with these few million, you’re planning an appreciation and preservation plan? I might spend two million tomorrow.”

“Ey, aren’t you setting your sights too high? Isn’t a few million money? But yes, your experimental equipment really is expensive!” Qin Yun complained, then paused, “Wait, what? You’re spending 2 million tomorrow? On what?”

“It’s a device for manipulating atoms, called a scanning tunneling microscope, and it’s about that price. I’m still considering when to buy it.”

“Is this equipment very important to you?” Qin Yun inquired.

“It depends on the progress of my research. If everything goes smoothly, I should be needing it soon.”

Du Qiu had indeed made some progress on his research into the crystal pillow’s white lines in the afternoon.

He preliminarily concluded that it was something similar to the chip circuits on Blue Star.

However, this was definitely not an electric circuit.

That was what puzzled Du Qiu.

“Hmm, if possible, give me a week to allow this money to appreciate a bit.”

Du Qiu smiled, “True to form as a senior accountant, knowing how to appreciate and preserve the company’s funds. Hiring you was a real steal for the company.”

Qin Yun blushed a little, “I also learned this from an advanced course I took at the shipyard.”

“Alright, wrap up and let’s call it a day. I’ll take you home.”

“Oh… alright.”

……

……

After Du Qiu dropped Qin Yun off at her home, he didn’t immediately leave. Instead, he parked his car opposite Qin Yun’s residential building and took out his mobile phone to open the Vigilance Network APP. He immediately saw the red dot on his car but, in addition to that, there were three green dots and another red dot on the screen.

Du Qiu’s expression changed instantly.

The three green dots represented the alarm watches given to Qin Yun and two others, while the red dot was located in Qin Yun’s living room.

Clearly, someone had planted a bug in Qin Yun’s house.

Du Qiu was about to get out of the car when he saw a man leave the building’s entrance.

It was Chen Han Sheng, whom he had briefly met the day before at the “Style” coffee shop.

Zhang Mingliu’s suitor.