My son is a reincarnated soul; I overheard his inner thoughts and became the richest man.

Lin Wan is extremely efficient.

Two days later, the news came back.

"Mr. Chen, I've made contact. Zhou Hai is indeed teaching at the University of Science and Technology of China. I extended your invitation to him, but he initially declined, saying he didn't want to be mistreated in a company again."

"But after much pleading and invoking our old classmate relationship, he finally agreed to meet. However, whether it will work out depends on how you negotiate."

"As long as they're willing to meet, that's fine."

Chen Feng made a quick decision: "Book me a plane ticket, we'll go to Hefei tomorrow. You should come too, it's easier to talk when old classmates meet."

The next afternoon, in Hefei.

Inside a private room of an elegant Anhui cuisine restaurant.

When Chen Feng and Lin Wan arrived, a middle-aged man wearing a gray jacket and with slightly messy hair was already sitting there drinking tea.

"Old Zhou! Long time no see!"

Lin Wan greeted her with a smile.

The man looked up, saw Lin Wan, and a simple, honest smile appeared on his face: "Beautiful Lin, it's been so many years, you still look so radiant."

After exchanging pleasantries, Lin Wan introduced, "Old Zhou, this is my current boss, General Manager Chen Feng."

"Mr. Chen, this is Zhou Hai."

"Professor Zhou, I've heard so much about you." Chen Feng extended his hand humbly.

Zhou Hai stood up, shook hands, but his expression was somewhat indifferent: "Mr. Chen, you're too kind. I'm just a teacher."

The three of them sat down, and the food and drinks were served.

After a few drinks, the atmosphere warmed up a bit.

Seeing that the time was right, Chen Feng put down his chopsticks and got down to business.

"Professor Zhou, I apologize for bothering you this time, but I am truly eager to find talented individuals. I plan to establish a hardware research and development center and would like to invite you to come out of retirement and take charge of the overall situation."

Zhou Hai sighed and waved his hand: "President Chen, Lin Wan should have told you about my situation. I'm really not suited to working in a company. I've had enough of office politics and rushing to meet KPIs. Teaching at a school may be poorer, but I feel at peace."

"I understand your concerns."

Chen Feng smiled at him, "But when I do business, I prefer to be simple and direct."

"First, let's talk about compensation."

Chen Feng held up two fingers. "Professor Zhou's current salary is only two or three thousand a month, right? With all the subsidies, it's at most three thousand five."

"If you come to work for me, your starting salary will be 300,000 yuan a year! In addition, you'll receive project bonuses for every product you develop. These bonuses could be several times more than your salary."

Three hundred thousand!

Zhou Hai's hand holding the wine glass trembled slightly, and a few drops of wine spilled out.

In an era when housing prices in Hefei were still below 2,000 yuan per square meter, an annual salary of 300,000 yuan was simply an astronomical figure.

"Secondly, let's talk about the environment."

Chen Feng pressed on, "I know what you hate. Here, you're in charge of the R&D center. Nobody will interfere, and there's no office politics. I only care about the results; as for the process, that's entirely up to you."

"I can even give you two million in start-up funding for research and development. You can buy whatever equipment you want and hire whatever people you want."

"at last..."

Chen Feng took out the Rio PMP300 from his bag and placed it on the table. "What I want to make is not the kind of knock-off product that follows the trend. What I want to make is a Chinese brand that can defeat this product and even go global."

"I imagine this would be more challenging for a technician than teaching, right?"

Zhou Hai looked at the small box on the table, then at Chen Feng's ambitious eyes.

After a long while, he took a deep breath, put down his wine glass, and looked at Chen Feng with a wry smile: "President Chen, I have to admit that the conditions you offered are hard for anyone to refuse."

"hehe."

Chen Feng smiled and leaned back. "So, Professor Zhou agrees?"

Zhou Hai didn't nod immediately, but cautiously asked, "Before agreeing, I need to know exactly what President Chen wants me to do. If I'm not capable enough, this money will be a hot potato."

Chen Feng gave him an appreciative look.

This person is not only technically skilled but also principled; he's a reliable candidate.

"Actually, it's not some insurmountable difficulty, it's just this."

As he spoke, Chen Feng pointed to the silver-gray Rio PMP300 player on the table.

Zhou Hai reached out and picked it up, examining it from all angles.

"MP3 player?"

As someone in the industry, he recognized the true nature of this thing at a glance.

Chen Feng nodded and said, "That's right. This thing can download songs directly from the Internet and store them in the chip, which is much more convenient than a Walkman."

"I would like to ask Professor Zhou to come out of retirement and develop our own MP3 player."

"Professor Zhou led a team at BBK Electronics and is now a doctoral supervisor at the University of Science and Technology of China. Making such a small gadget shouldn't be a problem for him, right?"

Zhou Hai pondered for a moment and nodded: "The principle behind this thing isn't complicated; the core difficulty lies in integrating the decoding chip and the storage medium. I've been paying attention to it before; its storage is a bottleneck."

At this point, Zhou Hai's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something: "However, I heard that Toshiba of Japan recently developed a 1.8-inch micro hard drive with a large capacity. If we could apply that technology to this, it would definitely be a breakthrough."

Upon hearing this, Chen Feng was overjoyed.

I knew I hadn't chosen the wrong person!

Zhou Hailian knew about Toshiba's micro hard drives, which was one of the core technologies that enabled Apple's iPod to dominate the market.

"It seems Professor Zhou already has a plan, which makes things much easier."

Chen Feng pressed his advantage, "So, Professor Zhou, are you willing to board this ship?"

Zhou Hai nodded firmly without further hesitation: "Since President Chen is so sincere, it would be ungrateful of me to keep making excuses."

"However, I have a question. How many people are in our company... no, our current hardware R&D department? I'd like to have a better idea of ​​the numbers."

Upon hearing this question, Chen Feng touched his nose, and the smile on his face became somewhat subtle.

"Well... cough cough, to be honest, the company hasn't been registered yet, and for now, the R&D department only has you as our main general."

Well...

Zhou Hai was stunned, his mouth agape, unable to utter a word for a long time.

So he's a lone commander?

Seeing the atmosphere become a bit awkward, Lin Wan quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "Old Zhou, don't be fooled by the fact that the company isn't registered yet; we have plenty of funds. If President Chen is going to do this, he's definitely aiming to become an industry leader."

"The rest, such as registering the company and recruiting staff, are minor matters and can be handled in a little time."

Do you know the game "Legend of Mir"?

Lin Wan lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "That game is one of President Chen's businesses. Let me give you a sneak peek, this one game alone is making tens of millions in net profit every month."

"What? 'Legend of Mir' belongs to President Chen?"

Zhou Hai stared wide-eyed at Chen Feng in shock.

Although he didn't play games much at school, he knew that this game was incredibly popular recently, and many students skipped class to go to internet cafes just for it.