As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 19: Memories of Steel

"I don't need the head of the laboratory to have too many ideas of his own. He just needs to implement my will."

“So for this position, academic qualifications, IQ, creativity, etc. are not important. The candidate’s personality, execution ability and work attitude are the most important,” Zheng Li continued.

Cheng Gang: "Okay, Mr. Zheng."

Zheng Li is the chairman of Kechuang Biotechnology, responsible for the company's strategic planning and all scientific research matters. Cheng Gang is the company's general manager, responsible for personnel, finance, legal affairs and other company operations.

Cheng Gang holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating with a Ph.D., he worked as a researcher at Pfizer for several years.

Later he discovered a despairing reality: the yellow people in the US biopharmaceutical companies can only serve as middle-level managers at most, and the middle level is their ceiling. No matter how great your contribution is, you cannot be promoted.

After discovering this, he decided to return to China to start a business. With his top-notch education and experience, he easily attracted venture capital.

Unfortunately, the research results he chose had a very narrow scope of application in reality, and were not much better than the widely used products in this field. As a result, the company went bankrupt after burning through its money.

Later, Cheng Gang joined Shunwei Capital, an investment company under Lei Jun, and he was the head of Shunwei Capital's biopharmaceutical field.

Cheng Gang replied: "Okay."

When Cheng Gang first received the call from Lei Jun, he was surprised to be involved in the early stage of a biopharmaceutical company, and he was only the second-in-command, mainly assisting others.

If he was thirty years old and had just graduated with a Ph.D. from Austin, he would be willing, but he is now in his forties and he resists Lei Jun's request.

Top talents like him are not afraid of the mid-life crisis. With his resume, he is more than qualified to work in investment research at a securities company, where he will earn not much less than at Shunwei Capital. He is also more than qualified to be the head of a laboratory at a domestic biopharmaceutical company.

When he learned the specific information, he became even more resistant, as the company's major shareholders were too young and there were too many uncertainties.

What middle-aged people dislike most is uncertainty, until Lei Jun's words touched him:
"Cheng Gang, I understand your concerns. I promise you that if this business fails, the position of head of biopharmaceutical investment at Shunwei Capital will still be yours."

"Also, I can see from your usual chats with me that you are unwilling to accept the failure of your previous business. I can see that although you have been content with a dull life, there is still a fire burning in your heart."

"It's a great opportunity to help Zheng Li this time. As a doctor of biology, I believe you know a lot about endorphins. You must also know how big the market is."

Cheng Gang agreed. He thought to himself at the time that it was precisely because I was a PhD in biology that I was so worried about gains and losses. The scope of use of endorphins and their advantages over other commonly used analgesics were all unknowns.

More importantly, whether this thing can be mass-produced industrially is still an unknown. It depends entirely on what others say, and a PhD in science and engineering will not easily believe it.

Therefore, Cheng Gang’s request was to have a good talk with the company’s major shareholders before officially taking office.

It was in the KFC at the gate of Jiangcheng University that Cheng Gang was completely convinced by his first conversation with Zheng Li. He realized that Zheng Li was a genius who could not be understood by common sense.

Zheng Li's business talent and management ability may be ordinary, but his accumulation, talent and sense in scientific research have deeply impressed Cheng Gang.

As for Cheng Gang's main product, Zheng Li simply modified the molecular formula on the KFC table with his fingers. After optimizing the molecular structure, the production cost dropped by at least 30%. Cheng Gang almost cried on the spot while sitting on the beige chair in KFC. If he had thought of optimizing the structure of polypropylene earlier, his initial business would not have failed.

This conversation made Cheng Gang realize that the other party was a genius no less than Ma Yun, but Zheng Li's talent was reflected in scientific research. He decided to become Zheng Li's Cai Chongxin.

Cheng Gang turned his thoughts back to the office in Gusu. He understood what Zheng Li meant. The company only needed Zheng Li's will in scientific research.

Zheng Li: “In addition, after the first phase of the company’s talent recruitment is completed, we will start the patent registration process.”

"You should go and register patents in person both domestically and internationally."

The reason why Lei Jun chose Cheng Gang was because of Cheng Gang's previous experience studying for a doctorate at American University and working at Pfizer after graduating with a doctorate. Cheng Gang has a good understanding of patent registration in the biopharmaceutical field.

"According to an insider at Jiangcheng University, Zheng Li, a student who published a paper in the main journal of Nature at the age of 18, has taken a leave of absence from Jiangcheng University and left the school. Our reporter will continue to track the details."

A week after Zheng Li left school, the news was first reported by Jiangcheng Metropolitan News, a local newspaper in Jiangcheng.

Subsequently, various media outlets followed up, all wanting to know where Zheng Li had gone.

Many media outlets harbored ill intentions, hoping that Zheng Li had dropped out of Jiangcheng University and went to study in America, so that they could use this opportunity to criticize the domestic academic environment and trigger a wave of public opinion: why can't the country retain talent?

For example, when Xu Chenyang returned to Yenching University to teach after graduating with a Ph.D. from Princeton, and then returned to America after teaching for a while, all the media at the time reported this.

"Our reporter interviewed Professor Zhao Hui, Dean of the School of Mathematics at Jiangcheng University. Professor Zhao Hui said that Zheng Li took a leave of absence to start a business. And our reporter found out from Tianyancha that Shunwei Capital, owned by Lei Jun, recently made new investments, and Zheng Li is the major shareholder of the newly invested company."

"Then we interviewed the media director of Rice, who said that Lei Jun invested 50 million in a company called Kechuang Biotechnology under Zheng Li's name, accounting for 10% of the shares."

"That is to say, the valuation of this company named Kechuang Biotechnology has reached 500 million RMB after the first round of investment. Let us look forward to what kind of surprises Zheng Li, who is an excellent student and a startup, can bring us."

As soon as the follow-up detailed report of Jiangcheng Metropolis Daily came out, it instantly caused heated discussions across the entire network. Weibo was still the private domain of celebrities in 19, but even so, the entry about Lei Jun's million investment in Zheng Li still made it to the top ten of the hot search list.

"Others published articles in Nature at the age of 18, founded a company with a valuation of 5 million, and are worth 4 million, but I was still lying in bed playing with my phone at the age of 28."

"What kind of genius is Zheng Li? I really want to see the difference between his brain and mine."

"If the youth are strong, the country will be strong. Thumbs up to the country for having such youth!"

"I'm very curious that Mr. Lei would invest in a biopharmaceutical company this time. Most of his previous investments were in Internet companies."

The companies that Lei Jun has previously invested in include Joyy (YY Voice), UC, Duokan Reading, Vancl, etc., mainly Internet companies.

After founding Dami, Shunwei Capital, owned by Lei Jun, and Dami jointly invested in many Dami ecological chain companies.

(End of this chapter)