Chapter 602: Good Gathering
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Near Jin Ling University.
Still that same old cafe.
Chen Yushan had been working in Jinling these past few days. After she received a call from Lu Zhou, they agreed to meet here. Lu Zhou was fulfilling his promise of treating her to food.
“Your laboratory director was contacted by the FBI?”
Lu Zhou took a sip of the coffee and nodded. “Yeah, I received his email this morning.”
“Then try to get rid of this situation as soon as possible.” Chen Yushan held the steaming cup of coffee and sighed. She said, “This is good for both you and Professor Sarrot.”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, “I don’t understand.”
Chen Yushan: “Don’t understand what?”
Lu Zhou: “The Sarrot Laboratory research project does not involve sensitive technology. Most of it is the more troublesome experiments from the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study… If the CIA or FBI is really investigating me, what can they possibly find?”
Chen Yushan: “They don’t have to find anything. Whether it is evidence or witnesses, they can fabricate it.”
Fabricate it?
Lu Zhou had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Chen Yushan looked at Lu Zhou and said seriously, “Anyway, I will help you contact some potential buyers. I’m sure there are many people that are interested in buying a Nobel Prize level laboratory, so it should be able to sell at a good price.”
Lu Zhou: “Thank you… Oh yeah, one more thing.”
Chen Yushan: “What?”
Lu Zhou looked at the coffee in her hand and asked curiously, “Speaking of which, aren’t you an iced americano kind of girl? Why did you get a hot coffee today?”
He was curious when ordering the drink.
He didn’t know why, but Chen Yushan suddenly blushed and stuttered, “I-I just wanted to change flavors.”
Lu Zhou was stunned by her reaction.
“Nothing… I was just curious. If you don’t want to tell me, it’s fine.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you…” Chen Yushan closed her legs and shyly looked away. She quickly said, “I have the thing, I can’t drink cold stuff.”
Lu Zhou: “…?”
Even though he didn’t know what she was talking about, he felt like the conversation just went to a strange direction…
…
After talking with Chen Yushan, Lu Zhou made a decision regarding the Sarrot Laboratory.
Honestly, he felt a mix of emotions when making this decision.
Even though he had always been very careful about not allowing politics to interfere with his research, it seemed to be impossible now.
Even if he didn’t take the initiative to find trouble, trouble would find him.
According to Chen Yushan’s suggestion, starting today, Star Sky Technology’s branch in North America would only retain the necessary management departments and relevant legal teams to ensure that their patent rights were still guaranteed.
As for the R&D department, it would be transferred to China or a country with a lower level of political governance.
They employed a professional to evaluate the assets of the Sarrot Laboratory. After that, Star Sky Technology released the news regarding the sale of the laboratory.
Just like Chen Yushan had expected, the day after the news was released, she received eleven offers for Sarrot Laboratory.
Among them were Lu Zhou’s partner, the Belgium Mobil Chemical company, and other international chemical giants, such as Nichia, Dow, and BASF. There was also his old rival Exxon Mobil, which had tried to compete with him on the lithium-sulfur battery positive electrode material project.
These companies all had material needs for their businesses, so their offerings were quite generous.
After comparing all of the offers, Lu Zhou chose the rich and powerful ExxonMobil.
The CEO of ExxonMobil made a special trip to Jinling, Jiangsu, to talk with Lu Zhou about this matter.
Actually, this CEO wanted to talk with Lu Zhou in Los Angeles.
However, Lu Zhou told him, “Come to me if you want, otherwise forget about it.”
The CEO immediately compromised.
Just like that, the negotiation location was set in Jinling.
With the help from Chen Yushan, Lu Zhou negotiated the original US$45 million offer to US$50 million.
Even though US$50 million wasn’t a lot, it was around the price of a private jet, but for Lu Zhou who just spent a lot of his money investing in stocks, this was still a decent amount of cash flow.
Even though Lu Zhou’s personal expenses weren’t that high, his total expenses were quite large.
Not only did he have to pay thousands of researchers, research assistants, and other researchers in the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, but there were also nearly a hundred ongoing money-burning research projects.
Especially for the carbon-based chip research as well as the Hall-effect thruster research… Those two were the bottomless money spenders. Even though the national research fund had relieved some of the financial stress, most of the patent-related research project was still funded by Lu Zhou alone.
In addition to the US$50 million, Lu Zhou also wanted to own the seemingly useless carbon-nanospheres patent.
Even though he didn’t have any plans of using this advanced technology, ExxonMobil stole this thing from him unfairly.
Now, it could finally return to its original owner.
Speaking of which, a minor disturbance happened because of this.
When Woods first heard that Lu Zhou was interested in the carbon-nanospheres patent, he didn’t want to sell it.
But after he saw that Lu Zhou easily gave up on this idea and increased the laboratory sale price by US$1 million, Woods immediately took the deal.
Useless patents were not worth anything.
Rather than letting this million-dollar increase delay the sale of Sarrot Laboratory, Woods would rather put it to good use. After all, in his opinion, a useless patent document was not worth a million dollars…
At last, the contract was finalized. The time for the signing of the contract was agreed to be at 8 pm at the Hilton hotel.
Woods had a painful expression on his face when signing.
However, the instant Lu Zhou signed his name, Woods’ painful expression suddenly disappeared, and he smiled as he put away his copy of the contract.
“Happy cooperation!” Woods warmly reached out his hand, showing the most pleasant smile ever.
“Happy cooperation. My workers are all very talented, so remember to treat them nicely. I might want to poach them someday… You seem to be in a good mood. It seems like my asking price was a bit low.” Lu Zhou let go of Woods’ hand and smiled.
“What do you mean? In fact, I’m very sad, very, very sad… But we all have to stay optimistic, right?” Woods laughed and patted Lu Zhou’s shoulder. He was too lazy to keep his act up, and he said, “Do you want to get a drink? I know a good bar nearby.”
Obviously, US$50 million was lower than ExxonMobil’s expectations, and to ExxonMobil, Lu Zhou had received the short end of the stick…
Well, that was ExxonMobil’s opinion.
Lu Zhou put away his copy of the contract and shook his head. He said, “No, thanks, I have plans tonight.”
“Date?”
“Experiment.”
Woods was helpless, and he said, “Okay then, it seems like you’re a joyless man… Honestly, my friend, with all the money you’re making, have you not thought about spending money on yourself and enjoy your life?”
Lu Zhou said nonchalantly, “I am enjoying life. I’m enjoying the experiments and their results.”
Woods shrugged and said, “How unfortunate is that… It seems like I’ll have to drink by myself.”
After the negotiations ended, Lu Zhou left Hilton with Wang Peng.
He sat in his black sedan and looked at the contract in his hand. He took out his phone and sent an email to Sarrot, who was waiting for the outcome of the negotiation.
[The negotiation is over. Your new owner is ExxonMobil.]
After three minutes, an email came back.
The email contained only two words.
[Thank you.]
Lu Zhou smiled and replied.
[You’re welcome.]
