Chapter 13
Ma Yan has been working for more than ten years since graduating from university, and this is the first time he has seen such a simple office environment.
Inside the empty, self-built farmhouse, there were several sets of desks and chairs, each with a computer and monitor. The desks were height-adjustable, and the computers on them were top-of-the-line, but compared to the empty room, they looked even more incongruous and shabby.
Xia Ke herself felt that it was a bit rudimentary, but there was nothing she could do. The office building hadn't even been put out to tender or started construction yet, and it was still overgrown with weeds. She could only make do with the empty room at home.
She offered words of comfort.
"The environment is rather basic right now, please bear with it. It will be much better once our office building is completed."
Since the boss had said so, what could the employees say? They could only obediently nod. Although they had anticipated that the conditions would be tough before they came, they really didn't expect it to be this bad.
"Okay, you guys go ahead and get busy. Call me if you need anything."
He didn't act like a boss at all.
After Xia Ke left, everyone in the room looked at each other in bewilderment once again. Xia Ke had recruited a total of eight R&D personnel, two accountants, one HR person, and one assistant.
There were only eight people in the research and development team sitting in the room. Among them, Ma Yan was the oldest and most authoritative, and he also had the most work experience. He was appointed by Xia Ke as the leader of the research and development team.
Because of the confidentiality of the data involved in the work, the finance and human resources departments were not in this room and were arranged by Xia Ke to be in other places, while the assistant stayed by Xia Ke's side to handle some miscellaneous tasks that she couldn't handle.
"How about everyone introduce themselves first?"
Ma Yan, the oldest person in the room and also the team leader, naturally took on the responsibility of breaking the ice for the team.
The voices introducing themselves rang out one by one.
After listening to everyone's introductions, Ma Yan's head was spinning even more. Of the eight people they recruited, the other seven, besides him, were all recent graduates.
Anyone who has worked knows how difficult it is to mentor newcomers with no work experience, let alone seven.
He was already exhausted enough when he was mentoring a newcomer...
They really didn't know anything and had to be taught everything!
Ma Yan remained silent for a moment, then roused himself.
For the sake of the high salary, he can overcome any difficulty the work may be.
Afterwards, Ma Yan explained some work precautions to everyone and familiarized them with the office computer. The morning was over by then.
Xia Ke's assistant is named Liu Yun. She is about the same age as Xia Ke and has several years of experience as an assistant. On her first day of work, she was wearing a shirt and trousers, with her hair tied in a high ponytail. She looked like a capable person.
Liu Yun's most pressing task right now is to follow up on the bidding process for the company's industrial park project.
Xia Ke explained the current situation and future plans of the park to Liu Yun.
Liu Yun is a worldly person, but she was still shocked by the fact that the new boss spent 30 million to acquire a piece of land in the mountains and planned to continue investing in building an industrial park.
In any case, this means the new boss is wealthy, so there's no possibility that the promised high salary won't be paid.
Liu Yun left, leaving Xia Ke alone in the room.
When she received the employee yesterday, the system notified her that the task was completed, and her points balance finally reached 40.
What is the system's next task?
"Congratulations, host. Your startup is gradually getting on the right track. However, the company's products are too limited, which will restrict the company's development. Now, a task is issued: please develop a new product for your company. The reward for successful completion of the task is 50 points."
"You're really generous this time, giving me 50 points in one go."
Xia Ke opened the system store while sighing.
"The points reward is determined based on the difficulty of the task."
Even without the system saying anything, Xia Ke knew that this system task would be difficult to complete when she heard about the 50-point reward.
But this task also falls within her needs.
Her staff are in place, and the team is basically complete. They definitely need to be given something to do. It was agreed when the space ring data was submitted that it would be entirely entrusted to researchers in the Flower Country for study, and could not be authorized to any other entity or individual, including Xia Ke herself.
Xia Ke knew the importance of the matter and naturally agreed without hesitation.
Therefore, her employees certainly cannot research space rings, but they can engage in other research and development.
In her spare time, Xia Ke had browsed the system store countless times. She could find everything in the store with her eyes closed, and now she had accurately found the cheapest item in the store.
Flying carpet.
Then they quickly placed another order.
Spend 35 points to unlock the purchase right, remaining points: 5.
They spent 80 million to purchase research and development materials for the flying carpet product, and then spent another 80,000 to purchase ten finished flying carpets at full price.
After making the purchase, Xia Ke complained to the system while holding the items in her arms, "System, the things in your mall are too expensive. Can't you give your poor host a discount?"
Previously, the Space Ring could be sold for such a low price of 5,000 because its purchase price was only 1,000 and there were no other costs besides delivery and labor. Now, the Flying Carpet System sells for 8,000 each, with 80 million in research and development materials. Add to that the research and development costs, labor costs, material costs, and other miscellaneous expenses, and the cost of this product is probably skyrocketing.
With higher costs, she naturally has to raise the selling price accordingly, otherwise she'll lose money.
If the price is high, fewer people can afford it, and if she sells less, she earns less and doesn't have money to buy new product development materials.
It's a vicious cycle.
The system is silent and playing dead.
Xia Ke found it boring and stopped bothering the system.
After lunch, she took the research and development materials and physical sample of the flying carpet she had bought through the system to the research and development team.
"Your next task is to use this information to create a flying carpet that can be mass-produced."
"Here, these are the finished products and instructions for your disassembly reference. If you need more, just ask me."
“Ma Yan, you will lead the Flying Carpet project. If you are short of people or materials, just let me know and I will have Manxiang recruit people and buy materials. This project is very important to the company. If it succeeds, I will give you a bonus. If you can develop derivative products based on this information, the bonus will be tripled.”
"By the way, these documents are company secrets and cannot be disclosed. I will have Manxiang sign a confidentiality agreement with you later."
Manxiang's full name is Du Manxiang. She is one of the HR personnel recruited this time, and is mainly responsible for salary disbursement and signing some HR-related contracts.
Speaking of contracts, Xia Ke thought that her company needed to hire a legal counsel, otherwise it would be costly to always ask external lawyers to help draft contracts, and they would not be convenient or reliable to use.
Remember this, I'll tell Manxiang later.
Xia Ke appeared and disappeared as soon as he finished speaking, leaving Ma Yan and his team members staring at each other in disbelief.
"What the heck did the boss just say?"
"Flying carpet".
"Given the Space Ring, the product our company is currently selling, I have reason to believe that the flying carpet the boss mentioned is the one from Aladdin's lamp that can take people to the sky, right?"
"Why don't we just take a look and see?"
Upon hearing this, the remaining seven people gathered around Ma Yan's table to study it.
When the flying carpet actually took flight according to the instructions, the makeshift office erupted in a chorus of "wows."
"I want to go up and give it a try."
"Me too! Me too!"
Looking at his energetic colleagues, Ma Yan smiled slightly. It's good to be young; they're full of curiosity and passion for everything.
However, he was also quite curious about what it would feel like to ride the flying carpet.
After the eight members of the R&D team boarded the flying carpet and took a test flight in the office, they were all so excited that their faces turned red.
"Although it's a blanket, it supports the weight very well. You don't feel like you're sinking in when you step on it. It's just that there's no railing around it, so it makes me feel quite insecure."
"I feel that three meters is not the upper limit of the flying carpet's flight height. I want to go out and try how high the flying carpet can fly and how fast it can reach."
This statement was met with unanimous agreement from the research and development team.
To develop a product, you must know its specific functions and data.
So at noon that day, the people of Hongqi Village were so frightened by a loud scream that their hands trembled.
"What's wrong? What's wrong!"
"What happened at someone's house? Why are they shouting so loudly? It's terrifying!"
The villagers, still asking around in confusion, heard the continuous screams coming from all directions.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and found that it was coming from right above their heads.
"What is that?"
"Whose bed sheet got blown into the air while they were hanging it out to dry?"
"But there's no wind here."
"Wait, I see someone up there!"
"Oh my God, there really is someone up there, a young man. How did he end up in the sky?"
"Quickly, quick, go save them!"
Looking at his subordinates in the sky, their noses and tears a mess, Ma Yan deeply felt how difficult it was to lead a team.
Ten minutes ago, they decided to go out and test the flying carpet's altitude and speed.
The test was conducted next to the vegetable garden in the backyard of the Xia family's house.
At first, everything was fine. The boss brought ten flying carpets, which was more than enough for each of them to test one.
But now, that guy in the sky was having a brain fart and trying to push the flying carpet to its limits. Before he could stop him, he and the carpet flew high into the sky.
Ma Yan watched his subordinates shoot out like cannonballs and grow smaller and smaller black dots, then rubbed his forehead and shook his head.
Alright, now we know the maximum speed and height of the flying carpet.
Work is suspended; let him figure out how to explain it to his boss.
Xia Ke was also drawn out by the screams. After hearing Ma Yan's explanation, she thought that the child in the sky was really fierce.
Wei Qingyu felt that she had learned a lot during this time. First, there was a spatial ring that could travel through space, and now there was a flying carpet that could fly into the sky. No wonder the organization raised Xia Ke's security level so high.
But is it really okay for a person to fly that high without any safety protection?
"Do we need to carry out emergency rescue?" she asked Xia Ke, who was also looking up beside her.
What are you trying to save? The person is hundreds of meters in the air.
Xia Ke shook her head, "It's okay, don't worry about it, he'll come down on his own."
She had read the instructions for the flying carpet. Once the flying carpet was more than five meters high, a protective shield would rise around it to prevent people from falling off. Now, all she had to do was wait for the people in the air to calm down and press the descent button on the flying carpet to safely return to the ground.
Sure enough, the people on the ground didn't have to wait long before the flying carpet floated back to the ground, wobbling and swaying.
When the people from Hongqi Village arrived at Xia Ke's backyard vegetable garden, they saw the young man who had just been in the sky tumbling and crawling down from a floating blanket. Before he could even stand up, he started vomiting violently.
After he calmed down completely, Xia Ke asked, "How are you feeling?"
The young man's name is Xu Chengyu. After failing the civil service exam and postgraduate entrance exam after graduating from university, he started looking for a job, and Hongqi Piao was his first job.
College students who haven't experienced the harsh realities of society often get into big trouble. Xia Ke didn't intend to argue with him; she was only concerned with the flying carpet riding experience.
"Too fast, too high, too exciting." Xu Chengyu's eyes were still wet with tears, making him look incredibly pitiful.
Xia Keke didn't sympathize with him. If he hadn't been so audacious as to insist on testing the limits of the flying carpet, he wouldn't have made such a racket that he alerted the whole village.
"Next time you test the flying carpet, be mindful of your limits. Don't go too high or too fast, or make too much noise."
Ma Yan hurriedly agreed.
Seeing that nothing was wrong, Xia Ke went back to her room.
Xu Chengyu, Ma Yan, and the others were surrounded by villagers who asked what this thing that could take people to the sky was.
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