"I don't need the head of the lab to have too many of his own ideas; he just needs to carry out my will."

"Therefore, education, IQ, and creativity are not important for this position. The most important factors are the candidate's personality, execution ability, and work attitude," Zheng Li continued.

Cheng Gang: "Okay, Chairman 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 general manager, responsible for personnel, finance, legal affairs, and other aspects of the company's operations.

Cheng Gang is a PhD graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, he worked as a researcher at Pfizer for several years.

He later discovered a disheartening reality: Asians in American biopharmaceutical companies could only reach the middle management level at best; the middle management level was their ceiling, and no matter how much they contributed, they could not be promoted.

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

Unfortunately, the research he chose had a very narrow range of applications in reality, and it did not offer much improvement over the products widely used in the field today. As a result, the company went bankrupt after burning through all its money.

Later, Cheng Gang joined Shunwei Capital, an investment company under Lei Jun, where he was the head of the biopharmaceutical sector.

Cheng Gang replied, "Okay."

When Cheng Gang first received Lei Jun's call, he was surprised that he was going to participate in the early stage of a biopharmaceutical company, and only as the second person in charge, mainly assisting others.

If he were thirty years old and had just graduated from his PhD program at Austin, he would have agreed, but he is now over forty, and he is resistant to Ray's request.

A top talent like him is not afraid of a mid-life crisis. With his resume, he would be more than qualified to work in investment research at a securities firm and earn almost as much as he would at Shunwei Capital. Alternatively, he could easily become the head of a laboratory at a domestic biopharmaceutical company.

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

What middle-aged people dislike most is uncertainty, until Lei Jun's words touched them:

“Cheng Gang, I understand your concerns. I assure you that if this venture fails, you will still be in charge of investment in the biopharmaceutical sector at Shunwei Capital.”

"Furthermore, I can see from our conversations that you are still unwilling to accept your previous business failure. I can also see that although you have settled into a simple life, there is still a fire burning in your heart."

“This is a great opportunity to help Zheng Li. I believe you, as a PhD in biology, know very well about endorphins, and you must also know how big the market is.”

Cheng Gang agreed. He thought to himself, "It is precisely because I am a PhD in biology that I am so hesitant. The scope of use of endorphins and their advantages over other commonly used analgesics are all unknowns."

More importantly, whether this thing can be mass-produced industrially is still unknown. It's not something that science and engineering PhDs will easily believe, as it's based entirely on someone else's words.

Therefore, Cheng Gang requested that he have a thorough discussion with the company's major shareholders before officially taking office.

It was in the KFC near the entrance of Jiangcheng University that Cheng Gang and Zheng Li had their first conversation, which completely impressed him. He realized that Zheng Li was a genius who could not be understood by common sense.

Zheng Li's business acumen and management skills may be ordinary, but his accumulation, talent, and intuition in scientific research deeply impressed Cheng Gang.

Regarding Cheng Gang's previous startup's flagship product, Zheng Li simply modified the molecular formula on the KFC table with his finger. After optimizing the molecular structure, the production cost decreased by at least 30%.

Cheng Gang sat on the beige chair in KFC and almost burst into tears. If he had thought of optimizing the structure of polypropylene earlier, his business would not have failed.

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

Cheng Gang shifted his focus back to the office in Suzhou. He understood Zheng Li's meaning: the company only needed Zheng Li's will in terms of scientific research.

Zheng Li: "After the first phase of talent recruitment is completed, the company will begin the patent registration process."

“You should personally handle the patent registration both domestically and internationally.”

Lei Jun chose Cheng Gang because of Cheng Gang's experience in pursuing his doctorate at America and working at Pfizer after graduation. Cheng Gang is quite knowledgeable about patent registration in the field of biomedicine.

......

According to sources within Jiangcheng University, Zheng Li, a student who published a paper in the main journal *Nature* at the age of 18, has taken a leave of absence from Jiangcheng University and left the school. Our reporter will continue to follow up on further details.

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

Subsequently, various media outlets followed up, all wanting to know Zheng Li's whereabouts.

Many media outlets, with ill intentions, hoped that Zheng Li had dropped out of Jiangcheng University and gone to America to study, in order to criticize the domestic academic environment and stir up another wave of public opinion: Why can't China retain talent?

When Xu Chenyang returned to Yenching University to teach after graduating with his PhD from Princeton, and then went back to America after teaching there for a while, the media at the time all followed this trend.

"Our reporter interviewed Professor Zhao Hui, Dean of the School of Mathematics at Jiangcheng University. Professor Zhao Hui stated that Zheng Li took a leave of absence to start a business. Furthermore, our reporter found on Tianyancha that Shunwei Capital, under Lei Jun, recently made a new investment, and the major shareholder of the newly invested company is Zheng Li."

"We then interviewed the media representative of Dami, who said that Lei Jun invested 50 million yuan in a company called Kechuang Bio under Zheng Li's name, holding a 10% stake."

"In other words, this company called Kechuang Biotechnology has reached a valuation of 500 million RMB after its first round of investment. Let's look forward to what surprises Zheng Li, who excels in his studies and then starts his own business, will bring us."

The Jiangcheng Metropolitan Daily's follow-up detailed report instantly sparked heated discussions across the internet. In 2019, Weibo was still largely a private domain for celebrities, yet the hashtag Lei Jun's 50 million investment in Zheng Li still made it into the top ten of the trending topics list.

"Others publish in Nature at 18, start companies valued at 500 million and have a net worth of 450 million, while I'm still lying in bed playing on my phone at 28."

"Just what kind of genius is Zheng Li? I really want to see how his brain differs from mine."

"A strong youth makes a strong nation. Thumbs up for our country having such young people!"

"I'm very curious that Lei Jun would invest in a biopharmaceutical company this time. He has mostly invested in internet companies before."

Lei Jun's previous investments include companies such as YY Inc. (YY Voice), UC, Duokan Reading, and Vancl, mainly internet companies.

After founding Dami, Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital and Dami jointly invested in many rice ecosystem companies.