"What you just said made me feel like you were insulting me," Xing Baohua said with a grin.

"Go on with your work, I have things to do here. If I'm not here this afternoon, go directly to Director Xue's office," Director Liu instructed Xing Baohua as he left.

"Alright, Director, see you later." Xing Baohua had just stepped out with a smile when he met Hou Liwei coming in. His expression changed instantly, and he gave Hou Liwei a disdainful look.

He snorted coldly, turned around, and headed towards the cafeteria.

I found the cafeteria manager, who was rather broad-shouldered—no, really broad-shouldered.

The cafeteria manager took the note from Xing Baohua, glanced at it briefly, then looked up and asked, "So you're Xing Baohua!"

"It's me, Director," Xing Baohua replied with a smile. He didn't have any cigarettes on him, so he couldn't offer the other person one.

"The ingredients you requested are currently unavailable in the canteen. The canteen isn't a supply and marketing cooperative or a vegetable market where supplies are always readily available. Besides, what we have isn't enough for you. Figure it out yourself." The canteen manager handed the slip back to Xing Baohua, then turned away with difficulty, ignoring Xing Baohua.

"Director, how about we order a smaller amount of mutton?" Xing Baohua didn't think he had offended this person and was deliberately withholding the meat. He assumed the canteen was indeed ordering according to plan, and besides, these were all ideas he had come up with on the spur of the moment, so it was indeed his fault for not informing them beforehand if the canteen hadn't prepared.

"No means no, not even half an ounce. You'll have to figure it out yourself." The cafeteria manager waved his hand and left.

Xing Baohua looked at the list and sighed; it would cost money to buy these.

Oh well, what can I do? He suddenly wanted hot pot. I'll have Xu Shuai go to the supply and marketing cooperative later. We also need to get two bottles of red wine.

Back at the shop, I saw Liu Quan busy disassembling the amplifier casing, preparing to resolder the chip.

"Xu Shuai, go to the supply and marketing cooperative and the butcher shop again and get four or five catties of mutton. We'll have hot pot tonight," Xing Baohua instructed.

"The cafeteria doesn't have it! We'll have to go buy it, and they might not have it for lunch," Xu Shuai said.

“Go to a few more places, it’s not like we’re short of meat coupons and money. Here’s fifty for you, bring back two bottles of red wine from the supply and marketing cooperative.” Xing Baohua pulled out five crisp, brand-new ten-thousand-yuan bills from his pocket.

After giving instructions to Xu Shuai, Xing Baohua sat down next to Liu Quan and looked at the documents for a while before saying, "Brother Quan, have you thoroughly studied the documents here?"

"I've basically touched through everything, there aren't any major problems, but I'll still need to look at your drawings before I can actually solder the boards," Liu Quan said.

"Let's put together some parts and get another sound system. You'll have to work hard these next couple of days," Xing Baohua said to Liu Quan.

“Okay, I see you have three chips, why don’t you just turn them all into speakers?” Liu Quan said.

“There’s a rather expensive chip, and it would be a waste to use it in the audio system. I haven’t decided where to use it yet, so let’s just get another audio system to tide us over for now,” Xing Baohua said with a sigh.

"How can you just get by like this? Who's going to buy it now?" Liu Quan asked curiously.

"Who else could it be? The factory, of course. It's all because of that $30,000. The factory's probably going to eat us up," Xing Baohua said. This was something he'd thought of during his handshake and conversation with Factory Director Li that morning. He'd been thinking about it in Su Ya's office, even while walking, but he hadn't come up with a solution.

"This...this is allowed? Isn't the factory being too domineering?" Liu Quan asked in surprise.

"They are a bit domineering. The factory wants to take all of this foreign exchange remittance. I estimate they'll give us a portion of the converted currency. I don't know how much, but I'll go to the factory this afternoon to discuss it," Xing Baohua said.

"Wouldn't we be at a huge disadvantage? Maybe I should go ask my uncle," Liu Quan said worriedly.

"No need, the factory manager wants to eat now, and no one can stop him. Let's go over this afternoon and see what happens. You gather the parts. Solder the motherboards as soon as you can do it yourself. I'll handle the chip part last," Xing Baohua said.

Xing Baohua hadn't figured out how to negotiate with the factory yet, but he definitely needed to retain some of his funds. He couldn't just let the factory rip him off for nothing. Factory Director Li had already stated the conditions; if he didn't comply, he'd face dire consequences. How could Xing Baohua possibly resist?

This is not the time to be stubborn; you have to be flexible. Sometimes, compromise doesn't mean giving in.

Then we need to negotiate, negotiate for funding, to develop ourselves.

He had already planned to use this money to replace his old recording machines. He intended to produce test records.

The current playback source is indeed a bit lacking. If Petermont were to sell this equipment there, he might have to place the order through a makeshift company. Therefore, he needs to build a good reputation for distributing demo discs.

Xing Baohua has already decided on a name for the entire audio system: Voice of China, or VFC for short.

For this brand to succeed, it needs to improve quality. Xing Baohua can handle the initial equipment development himself, but as technology advances, the quality requirements will become higher, requiring him to recruit a team. He simply can't manage this entire system engineering project by himself.

Lunch with Su Ya in the cafeteria attracted a lot of attention. Xing Baohua's recent exploits have been frequently heard from others. It's normal for him to attract attention, mainly because the things Xing Baohua has been up to are so sensational.

After lunch, the two went to the archives room. They still had some time before their afternoon shift. They could rest there for a while.

Fortunately, Liu Juanjuan came home for dinner. After Su Ya closed the door and poured water for Xing Baohua, she pulled up a chair, sat down, leaned against the table, rested her chin on her hands, and looked at Xing Baohua.

Su Ya blinked and said, "Let's go to People's Park this weekend. How about we go boating together? I've never been boating before!"

"Stop thinking about playing all the time. I'm a junior manager in a department, how can I have time to play?" Xing Baohua said with a sneer. Actually, he was just lazy. As someone who had been through it all, he knew all too well the consequences of going out with women.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!