Rebirth 05: From Coal Mine Owner to Mobile Phone Tycoon

To Lu Yuan's surprise, even after Xiao Liuzi left, the number of visitors to his booth remained completely unchanged, still zero. Could it be...?

Lu Yuan took out his Nokia phone, glanced at it, and stared at his reflection on the screen. He saw a man in his thirties with a forced smile, looking down at everything around him with an indifferent gaze.

This is truly a case of being blind to one's own shortcomings!

Lu Yuan was speechless. He didn't have a very approachable appearance either; in fact, he was quite intimidating. He put his phone away and clicked his tongue. "Well, all that time today was wasted." It seemed he was done being an interviewer; professional matters should be left to the professionals.

Next, Lu Yuan spent money to have a broker in the industry connect him with a telecommunications expert. At the same time, he also spent money to pay an agency to help him recruit employees.

He offered a high price of 2000 yuan for each person recruited, and a total of 20 people were to be recruited—20 people would be enough for a small to medium-sized R&D team.

……

Inside a private room at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Lu Yuan poured wine for a balding middle-aged man and said, "Engineer Lu, I've always admired people like you who do research and development. I didn't study much, only graduated from junior high school, and I suffered a lot in the struggles of society. You researchers are the truly intelligent ones."

He paused for a moment, then introduced himself: "I used to work in the coal mining industry, what we call a coal boss these days. As you know, those of us in the real economy prioritize safety, insist on having professionals do what they're good at, and are very generous with our paychecks, never delaying payments."

Lu Long clinked glasses with Lu Yuan, but he was still puzzled, unsure why Lu Yuan had called him over. He was a framework designer in Lenovo's mobile phone department; framework design involved studying the internal layout of mobile phones to determine how to achieve mass production and the highest cost-effectiveness.

In Huaqiangbei, "framework designers" are a dime a dozen; many young men with only a junior high school education dare to call themselves that and can even cobble together a knock-off phone. But this is completely different from a professional framework designer. A framework designer like Lu Long finalizes mass-producible framework solutions and is a core figure in the R&D team. He earns a base salary of 1 yuan plus high performance bonuses at Lenovo, but he's been having a lot of trouble at the company lately.

Internal strife is fierce at Lenovo. Even in a small R&D department, there are three framework designers who are all unwilling to submit to each other and are vying for project leadership. Recently, a new direct supervisor arrived, who is clearly an outsider giving instructions to insiders, and is suspected to be sent by a senior executive to "reap the rewards."

Lu Long is an honest man, not good at vying for power and profit, and is severely ostracized in his department. He's recently been thinking about changing jobs. Privately, someone from Gionee approached him, wanting him to become a research and development partner.

Just then, a friend came to his door, saying that a coal mine owner wanted to get to know him. This left Lu Long completely baffled: the coal industry and the telecommunications industry had nothing to do with each other, could it be that this coal mine owner wanted to get into the mobile phone business?

After a round of drinks, Lu Long was quite drunk. Seeing that the atmosphere was right, Lu Yuan took out a box of Moutai liquor, pushed it towards Lu Long, and said, "Director Lu, I won't hide it from you. I'm about to enter the mobile phone market and urgently need someone as talented as you to join me. If you agree, this Moutai and the money inside will be a small gift; in addition, I'll give you 2% of the company's stock options and a 50% raise on top of your current salary."

Here it comes, the real show is about to begin. Lu Long instantly sobered up a bit, looked down, and was immediately speechless: tucked into the crevice of the Moutai gift box was a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes, and underneath the cigarettes were two stacks of banknotes. He noticed with his sharp eyes that they weren't red RMB, but gray US dollars.

Lu Long was shocked. The exchange rate between RMB and USD was 1:8. Excluding Moutai and cigarettes, these two stacks of USD were equivalent to 16! He quickly pushed the gift box back—not that he didn't want it, but how could the coal boss's money be so easy to take? If he took the money but didn't participate, he would probably have to give back double what he had taken in.

Lu Yuan asked in surprise, "Director Lu, is my gift too meager? Are you not satisfied?"

Lu Long shook his head and said, "Boss Lu, I can't accept a reward without merit. It's not that the compensation you're offering isn't generous, it's just that I have elderly parents and young children to support, and I have to consider my family's future. I'm used to staying in this city, and it would be difficult to arrange things for my wife and children if I went to work in another city."

Lu Yuan replied, "My company is located in Shenzhen, so Director Lu doesn't need to worry about the location."

Lu's skin tightened. He wasn't exactly a top expert in the industry, so why was this coal boss so persistent? He could only bite the bullet and say, "Mr. Lu, for the long term, I'd like to find a stable, long-term job. It's not that I don't believe in your abilities, it's just that Gionee has already been in talks with me, and we've basically reached an agreement."

Lu Yuan understood that these were all excuses. Lu Long was afraid that he was just dabbling in the business, and would abandon it after three to five months or a year and a half. No matter how much he assured him, it wouldn't matter—many coal mine owners who switched industries thought that as long as they threw money at it and were hands-off managers, they would be fine. They never got involved in the operations, and once they lost money, they would hold the team accountable. It was really unscrupulous.

Moreover, Lu Yuan himself couldn't guarantee that he could support a non-profit R&D team in the long term.

But none of that is the main point. His expertise lies in getting key personnel in crucial positions, given his background in the coal industry. It's not that he doesn't want to find top experts, but those people are all in foreign companies. Getting them to come to a small startup founded by a coal mine owner is simply a pipe dream.

Lu Long was the best candidate he could contact.

With a smile, Lu Yuan pulled out ten $100 bills and stuffed them into Lu Long's hand, saying, "Director Lu, take this stack. Consider it my belated New Year's red envelope for my child."

After some initial refusal, Lu Long had no choice but to accept it—he was genuinely afraid that if he refused again and again, he wouldn't be able to leave the private room unscathed.

After Lu Long left, Lu Yuan took out his Nokia phone and called his second brother: "Second brother, help me investigate someone." He wasn't planning to take action against Lu Long, but since the person himself was difficult to deal with, he would try to find a breakthrough by looking at the people around him.

A few days later, the second brother came to report: "Eldest brother, Director Lu's child attends Chengdong Elementary School, and I heard that his grades aren't very good, always at the bottom of the class. Director Lu is busy with work and doesn't have time to tutor him; his wife only graduated from elementary school, so even if she wanted to tutor him, she couldn't. I asked around among other parents, and they say they're very anxious about their child's grades and are looking for a good tutor everywhere. Also, Director Lu's wife goes to beauty salons often, so she probably has some kind of appearance anxiety."

After reporting, the second brother asked again, "Brother Lu, should we find something on him that we can use against him?"

Lu Yuan waved his hand and said, "No, no, no, my strategy is to win him over like I would a leader. Listen to me..."