Chapter 116: Tea Leaves

Chapter 116: Chapter 116: Tea Leaves

To be precise, Jiang Hua lacked investment.

As a student in the Department of Economic Management Engineering, Jiang Hua was also looking for another way out. He had a hunch that with the advancement of transportation, this kind of cross-regional reselling wouldn’t last long, even if it were legal. It was only good for making a quick buck. To build a long-lasting business, one needed technology and a brand.

It wasn’t hard to corner Jiang Hua, as he went out almost every week. When they spoke in a quiet corner off-campus, the young man’s cheeks flushed slightly as he stumbled through his future plans to Deng Yuyuan. He wanted to start an automation business and had already befriended some like-minded science majors. They planned to do research and development together and then implement their ideas once government policies became clearer.

Deng Yuyuan looked at him with a half-smile, silently acknowledging that he was a talent with great foresight. The automation boom was an industry trend that would remain lucrative for decades.

Currently, automation had already achieved results abroad, while domestically, most work still relied on manual labor. There was a massive untapped market for automated machinery. From a current perspective, they could start with civilian machinery and light industry. For example, designing automatic cutting machines for garment factories, improving packaging and sealing machines for food factories, and creating simple automatic paper-feeding devices for printing plants.

Light industry was currently the main force for generating foreign exchange through exports. Improving efficiency would directly create profits, so factories would have a strong willingness to pay. Moreover, the technical requirements for this type of automation weren’t excessively high. As long as they could eventually upgrade from one-off sales to providing long-term technical service packages, there was a high probability of establishing a machinery brand. Once they accumulated enough capital, they would have enough to continue upgrading their technology and move toward the artificial intelligence of later generations.

However, this direction of entrepreneurship had a fatal weakness: it burned cash.

Research and development always burned money, not to mention they still needed to buy foreign machines to study. Furthermore, in this day and age, buying foreign machines required connections; otherwise, there wouldn’t even be a channel.

Jiang Hua’s days were very fulfilling. On weekdays, he curried favor with the wealthy students in his class, and on weekends, he continued to earn extra money. His current progress was that he could exchange a few words with those wealthy peers.

"Spend the next few days learning about tea," Deng Yuyuan said, pulling a few elegantly packaged boxes of tea from her bag. "Ten-year-old Wuyi Rock Tea. Promote it as a commercial product. I can guarantee that this is high-quality goods that are hard to find even with connections. Moreover, the tea-roasting masters who processed these leaves are all highly experienced veterans."

Produced by the farm system and grown after Deng Yuyuan purchased the Spiritual Spring, these tea leaves possessed an extra touch of natural spiritual energy compared to ordinary tea.

Jiang Hua looked at the tea Deng Yuyuan handed him with doubt and surprise. If what she said was true, the importance of these few boxes of tea was unquestionable. Gift-giving was common, but the most important aspects were value and uniqueness—both of which were very difficult for Jiang Hua to get his hands on.

Compared to tobacco and alcohol, tea had more elegance. Tobacco and alcohol were too blunt, tainted with the vulgarity of worldly socializing. Tea, however, especially rock tea of this vintage, represented business upon the first sip, human connection in its tasting, and sophistication in the ensuing conversation.

She paused, her gaze clear and cold. "As long as someone is a tea lover, it’s hard for them not to get hooked. You don’t need to say much. Just tell them it’s Zhengyan Old Collection that a friend managed to get from an old tea farmer, and invite them to taste and critique it."

It would be even better to present it to an older gentleman, but unfortunately, Jiang Hua had no connections. He could only give it to his wealthy peers first, hoping that by some stroke of luck, a willing fish would take the bait.

Deng Yuyuan never considered starting with the Wei Family, even though they had consistently shown her a friendly attitude. If she became too deeply involved with the Wei Family, it would be difficult to maintain her distance later. Besides, debts of gratitude were hard to repay.

Jiang Hua’s Adam’s apple bobbed. After a long moment, he took the tea and asked, "Why? Why are you helping me?"

Deng Yuyuan looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Because I want to buy shares. Consider it pooling our resources for a joint venture. To be honest, I think highly of you. If you guys can secure the technology in your hands later, I can invest in you."

The way Jiang Hua looked at Deng Yuyuan had already transformed into the way one would look at the God of Wealth. He gave her a deep bow and jogged briskly back toward the school.

After Jiang Hua left, Deng Yuyuan went to find the girl with a limp to chat and casually ask how her recent sales had been.

Deng Yuyuan’s own experiments had made significant progress, overcoming a major technical challenge in radio technology. Her report had already been submitted by her mentor, so she had given herself a short vacation to relax. The only issue was that her mentor increasingly valued her, viewing her as a rare, forward-thinking talent. She could endure hardship, had a high Combat Power to protect herself, and was incredibly smart. He had the idea of taking her under his wing to delve deeper into their field.

Deng Yuyuan naturally couldn’t ask for more. However, following the progress of her experiment, she had been given her own exclusive laboratory. The content of her upcoming research would inevitably involve confidentiality issues, which was not ideal.

Bai Miaomiao’s boyfriend had been expelled during this period. The reason was academic fraud—no one could successfully replicate the experiment based on his data, and it was ultimately discovered that the data he submitted was suspected of being fabricated.

Gathering her thoughts, Deng Yuyuan chatted with the limping girl selling big bowls of tea until it was time to close up. She conveniently helped the girl move her stall back before heading to the Wei Family’s home to pick up Tuantuan.

Ever since the Wei Family started picking up and dropping off Tuantuan, Chu Tiankuo had developed a heightened sense of crisis. In his compressed time, he took even better care of Tuantuan. Deng Yuyuan didn’t understand this competitive behavior, but she thoroughly enjoyed the results. Everyone had their own motives, and anything could be fake, but the only truth was that Tuantuan was happy every day and was being raised to be healthy and chubby.

The atmosphere at the Wei Family’s dining table today was a pie chart of complex emotions—seventy percent solemnity mixed with thirty percent sheer speechlessness. Deng Yuyuan waited until the children finished eating and left the table before taking the initiative to ask what was going on.

Surprisingly, it was about Wei Yin.

After Mr. Wei came home from work one day and bumped into Wei Yin entangled with a strange man, the family had felt relieved that Wei Yin finally knew to try dating someone new. They planned not to expose her new relationship, but instead to observe secretly as elders.

...And then they discovered that the object of Wei Yin’s entanglements was not just one person. She swapped them out every few days, and each one was uglier than the last.

The Wei Family’s expressions grew increasingly grim until they held a family interrogation. Upon learning Wei Yin’s intentions, they were hit by a wave of speechlessness. However, looking at Wei Yin’s resolute expression, as if she were determined to turn over a new leaf, the Wei Family felt her idea was viable and decided they could support it.

After all, if spending tens of thousands of yuan could buy back Wei Yin’s brain, it was a worthwhile deal.

The problem was that even the Wei Family couldn’t find a suitable boyfriend candidate on such short notice. So, they wanted to ask Deng Yuyuan if she had met any handsome and talented male students at Jinghua University who would be suitable to recommend to Wei Yin. Ideally, he should come from a poor family but have lofty ambitions, be tall and handsome, and look like a perfect match standing next to Wei Yin.