Chapter 95
Yi Yan got home before 5 p.m. His wife, Qi Yi, checked the time and asked, "You're home so early today."
"We're on holiday," Yi Yan said as he took off his shoes.
Qi Yi handed over her youngest daughter, asking, "How many days off do you have?"
"One month, and the Spring Festival holiday will start early." Yi Yan hugged his youngest daughter and kissed her.
Upon hearing "one month," Qi Yi's heart skipped a beat, but seeing her son doing his homework at the dining table, she refrained from asking further and decided to wait until he fell asleep.
However, while eating, Qi Yi couldn't help but let her mind wander. They said it was a holiday, but could it be... she'd been fired?
It's no wonder she thought that way; even the most relaxed "newspaper reading" department in public institutions doesn't have such a long Spring Festival break. Moreover, during this period, Yi Yan didn't seem to be in good spirits when she came home from work; she looked very tired and had mentioned that her experiments weren't going well.
Could it really be...?
Qi Yi felt a heavy weight in her heart as she thought about the mortgage. They had discussed it for a long time, hoping their child could attend a good school in a good district, and since Yi Yan's annual salary could indeed cover the mortgage payments, they finally decided to buy a two-bedroom apartment here last year, planning to upgrade later when their child was older and they had more savings. The down payment was 1.25 million yuan, and now the mortgage was over 2.8 million yuan. If Yi Yan really lost this high-paying job…
Qi Yi was preoccupied with worries and had no appetite.
Yi Yan's phone rang. He swiped to open it and saw a notification from his director in the work group. He glanced at it a couple of times and then stopped chewing.
Qi Yi noticed something was wrong and asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." Yi Yan put a piece of food on his wife's plate. "Our director told us that we have to go to the research institute again tomorrow."
Qi Yi's heart sank further. Could tomorrow be the official start of the paperwork...?
Yi Yan felt a heavy weight in his heart. The director's notice was about year-end bonuses, asking everyone to come to the research institute again tomorrow to discuss the matter. He had a feeling that the year-end bonuses would probably be reduced or even canceled tomorrow, since the results this year were indeed not as good as in previous years, with no effective progress for as long as seven or eight months.
Moreover, the boss's funds are probably almost exhausted.
He wasn't entirely sure how much the research institute had spent on the vacuum energy project over the past two years, but he could guess it had been around several billion yuan. Especially in the last two months, every experiment he conducted felt like the budget was crying out in despair.
Therefore, he can understand and accept that his year-end bonus is reduced or even canceled.
There's a saying online that describes the typical mindset of working people: "With a monthly salary of 3,000, I'm the boss's father; with a monthly salary of 10,000, I can tolerate the boss scolding me; with a monthly salary of 30,000, overtime is as natural as breathing; with a monthly salary of 50,000, the company is my home."
Over the past few years, my job at Zhixing Research Institute has been impeccable. The salary is high, the benefits are great, and the boss is never picky and is very considerate. Not to mention people like Shan Yan who originally admired Ji Zhixing, even those who came simply for the high salary now consider Zhixing Research Institute their home.
Moreover, they have long regarded the vacuum energy project as their life's work. Seeing that they may never be able to get a foothold in it, a great deal of disappointment and anxiety has accumulated in their hearts.
The project was stuck in a bottleneck for a long time, but Ji Zhixing never shifted the blame onto them, nor did he ever try to cut their salaries. Instead, everyone felt guilty and thought they had failed Ji Zhixing's high regard and the high salaries offered by the research institute.
Therefore, Yi Yan felt that he would have no objection to whatever arrangements the director made for the year-end bonuses tomorrow.
The next day, Yi Yan arrived at the research institute with this feeling, and he could tell from the expressions of the others that they had similar thoughts.
Once everyone, including Zhu Ren, had arrived, he announced the start of the meeting.
When Yi Yan saw that Ji Zhixing wasn't there, he became even more certain of his guess. Ji Zhixing was probably embarrassed to see them because he felt he had to reduce the year-end bonus. As the boss, he was still too thin-skinned.
Just as I was thinking this, I heard the director clear his throat and speak.
"I've asked everyone to come here again today to discuss adjustments to the year-end bonuses. As you all know, our research institute is privately owned and hasn't applied for funding from any foundations; also, because the projects involve energy, we haven't accepted any external donations as a precaution..."
Upon hearing the director mention the funding issue, Yi Yan thought to himself, "Just as I expected."
"Therefore, in order to conserve cash flow, this year's year-end bonus may have to be implemented in a different way..."
Yi Yan thought that they would probably receive some food, oil, and other New Year's goods as a substitute for the year-end bonus, and the others thought the same thing. However, everyone had already prepared themselves before coming, so they were all calm and wouldn't be too surprised by what the director said later.
Zhu Ren glanced around discreetly, nodding inwardly. Having sat in an office for decades, he had a certain ability to judge people. He had preemptively criticized them for so long, yet no one showed any dissatisfaction; it seemed everyone still had feelings for the research institute.
After so much "suppression," it's time for "elevation." Zhu Ren dropped a bombshell: "So, this year's year-end bonus will be... a house."
Everyone thought something must be wrong. Either their ears were broken, or...
"Director, you..."
Are you sure you're not wrong?
Are you kidding me?
How are you feeling mentally?
Does the boss know about this?
Seeing everyone's bewildered expressions, Zhu Ren truly empathized; he had the same look on his face yesterday.
Seeing Ji Zhixing stunned into silence upon opening the email yesterday only fueled Zhu Ren's curiosity. Ji Zhixing, having risen through the ranks and seen much of the world, couldn't possibly be so speechless.
Zhu Ren did not cross the line to peek at the emails, but he couldn't help calling Ji Zhixing several times. However, Ji Zhixing did not respond for more than ten minutes—because he was communicating with the system in his mind.
The system responded quickly: "This is the mission reward you received when you leveled up to level four."
Ji Zhixing's mind went completely blank: "But isn't the mission reward a house?"
The system is innocent: [Please check the historical information, host. It's a "full ownership" property.]
Ji Zhixing quickly scrolled through the mental chatter and saw the message: "[Friendly Reminder: This task's reward is a property with full ownership rights.]"
"What does 'large property rights' mean?" Ji Zhixing asked.
"Large property rights" generally refers to the ownership of a house obtained by the developer, while the ownership of a house obtained by the buyer is called "small property rights." There is no essential difference between the two in terms of the actual exercise of rights; the distinction is mainly based on quantity.
Good heavens! He didn't even pay attention to those three words when he saw them, so... his reward for leveling up to level four was all the houses in Phase 3 of Four Seasons Cloud Top?!
[Yes, as the host instructed, we would notify you once the formalities were completed. Now, all 128 units in the four buildings of Phase III of Seasons Cloud Top have been handed over and fully furnished, and all formalities have been completed.]
Good heavens! Ji Zhixing was dumbfounded, unable to believe it.
As the premier luxury residence in the province, Seasons Cloud Top reportedly has a minimum unit size of 366 square meters in both Phase I and Phase II, with a price exceeding 30 million yuan, while the largest unit is priced at over 100 million yuan.
He now owns four buildings, so how much money would that be in total? Since obtaining the learning system, his mind hadn't been this chaotic in a long time. He struggled to calculate for a long time before he could roughly come up with a few digits.
So, when his funds were almost depleted, he received real estate worth nearly 10 billion.
Are his great-great-grandchildren doing well? Do they still have money to spend? Do they still have food to eat? The old ancestor Ji Zhixing, who had been living off his grandchildren for years, couldn't help but worry about their lives once again.
It took Ji Zhixing more than ten minutes to finally accept this fact. When he came to his senses, he found that the director was still standing in front of him with a worried look on his face.
"You're finally back to your senses." Zhu Ren felt a sense of relief when Ji Zhixing's eyes finally focused on him. "What... is this?"
"This is..." Ji Zhixing was a little embarrassed to speak for a moment. It was too extravagant!
Seeing that Ji Zhixing hesitated for a long time without being able to explain himself, Zhu Ren asked anxiously, "May I take a look?"
“Yes, that’s fine.” Ji Zhixing nodded.
Zhu Ren eagerly picked up the few sheets of paper on the table and read them quickly, then he was out of breath.
"This...this is..." Zhu Ren's hands trembled violently, "Is it what I saw?"
Ji Zhixing nodded slightly; he, like the director, had just been unable to believe his eyes.
Zhu Ren looked at the documents in his hand, then at Ji Zhixing in front of him, and even pinched himself before he dared to be sure he wasn't dreaming.
After learning that the gift came from family, Zhu Ren still had some doubts, but he accepted the reason. No matter how approachable Ji Zhixing was, he was still the boss, and this wasn't something he could pry into.
"So what do you plan to do with these properties?" Zhu Ren asked. He was mainly concerned that the research institute's funding was already tight, and Ji Zhixing certainly couldn't live in so many houses. Either sell or rent them out, which would at least help support the research institute.
Ji Zhixing thought about it. After all, this was the wish of his great-grandchildren, and he didn't really want to sell it unless absolutely necessary. Besides, he still had nearly 1.4 billion in hand, which could last him for a while.
As for renting, it always feels like too much of a hassle.
Seeing that Ji Zhixing couldn't figure out how to handle the situation after thinking it over and over, Zhu Ren said, "Then take your time to think about it. I'll go back and continue dealing with the year-end bonus."
"Wait!" Ji Zhixing called out to Zhu Ren, suddenly realizing how those houses could be put to good use.
"How about we skip the year-end bonus and give out houses instead?" Ji Zhixing suggested.
Zhu Ren sighed. He had guessed the second half of what he was going to say after hearing the first half: "Zhixing, let me offer some advice, this isn't how you run a business." What's the difference between this and being a philanthropist?
However, Ji Zhixing did not think he was being overly kind.
"I remember we had a resettlement allowance, right?"
Zhu Ren nodded. When he drafted the tiered salary plan, he consulted many companies. Regarding the settling-in allowance, different companies had different methods. Some paid it in a lump sum upon joining the company, some paid it after a certain number of years of service, and some paid it upon purchase of a house based on the purchase contract. The amounts varied, ranging from tens of thousands to millions of yuan.
His initial plan was to pay a lump sum after three years of employment, with amounts ranging from 500,000 to 3 million.
Ji Zhixing calculated the time: "That means the resettlement allowance will be issued in the first half of next year."
It is said that a stable home leads to a prosperous life, and the purpose of providing settlement allowances is precisely to ensure that talented individuals have no worries about their future and can devote themselves wholeheartedly to their work.
"Then why not just do it all at once and give them houses directly?"
If he didn't own properties like those in Four Seasons Resorts, he wouldn't have had to put on a show of wealth when his finances were tight. But now he has 128 vacant properties; why not use them instead of a resettlement allowance?
Zhu Ren still felt that Ji Zhixing was being too extravagant: "Can a settlement allowance of a few hundred thousand or a few million be compared to a house worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions?"
However, Ji Zhixing did not consider this matter from a monetary perspective: "Director, do you remember when Professor Yan gave us four students a hundred million?"
"I remember." Zhu Ren nodded; he roughly knew what Ji Zhixing wanted to say.
“Professor Yan’s reasons back then are my reasons now,” Ji Zhixing said.
Professor Yan did this primarily because he felt that the old model of distributing research benefits in universities was a form of hidden exploitation of master's and doctoral students. The effort put in by master's and doctoral students was unbalanced with their rewards, which led many master's and doctoral students to be perfunctory and just get by when studying and conducting research.
Every year, universities produce so much scientific research output, but most of it has no practical commercialization value, which is a huge waste—a waste of time, resources, and funding.
If master's and doctoral students can obtain sufficient economic benefits from scientific research, then the research output of universities will definitely be more valuable. Therefore, his initial distribution of 100 million yuan was precisely to use this as an opportunity to initiate a new trend in the distribution of benefits from university research.
Ji Zhixing now shares this plan. He has always felt that researchers' salaries are generally too low, far below what their contributions deserve. That's why he initially offered high salaries, hoping his research institute would set a precedent for salary reform.
Perhaps giving away houses worth tens of millions of yuan seems a bit exaggerated compared to the current industry salary level, but Lu Xun's theory of "tearing down the roof before opening the window" makes a lot of sense. With such a high standard, other research institutes will not find it so unacceptable to give researchers a raise of tens of thousands of yuan.
For him now, money is readily available whenever he wants, so he's even more eager to use it to do something meaningful.
Of course, this is also because Yi Yan and his team deserve it.
The achievements we have today are not solely due to his efforts. Compared to Zhu Ren, he understands better how much everyone has sacrificed over the past two years; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe it as painstaking and painstaking work.
Zhu Ren stopped trying to persuade them. He couldn't persuade Old Yan back then, and he certainly couldn't persuade Ji Zhixing now. Of course, he admired their idealism.
"I understand, I'll do as you say."
A note from the author:
I'll break through the bottleneck tomorrow!
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