Chapter Forty-Four
Around midnight, the elderly finished their dinner and went back to their rooms to sleep.
Zuo Xutong stood on the second-floor corridor, gazing out the window. Night had fallen, and moonlight poured onto the thick snow, casting a pale blue glow. All was silent except for the slow, rhythmic rustling of a shovel scraping against the snow. A few distant barks drifted in, quickly swallowed by the darkness.
She followed the sound of shoveling snow and saw Peng Kun standing alone in the yard, his shovel stubbornly rising and falling in the cold wind. The night was cold, and he was only wearing a tracksuit; his figure looked particularly lonely in the empty yard.
Seeing this scene, her heart ached, and tears welled up in her eyes unexpectedly. She subconsciously tilted her head back, but the tears still streamed down her cheeks.
If the company cannot restore its cash flow and goes into bankruptcy liquidation, how will it support the dozens of people in the nursing home?
She raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, turned around and went downstairs, walking straight to his side.
"What are you planning to do next?" she asked directly, her voice trembling slightly in the biting cold wind.
Peng Kun stopped and stood there, leaning on his shovel.
“I’ve put the house in Nanshan Manor up for sale,” he replied calmly.
Zuo Xutong was stunned. After a long while, she forced herself to remain calm and asked, "You must... have other houses, right?"
Peng Kun did not answer, but looked down at the snowdrift he had just shoveled at his feet.
"Is that your only property?" she asked, her eyes wide with astonishment.
The wind whistled through the snow-laden branches, swirling up a few snowflakes that landed on his slightly graying temples. He still didn't look up, and said in a low, slow voice, "Don't even mention a house, even if I have to sell the company, I can't let the nursing home close down."
Only after he finished speaking did he realize the other person's identity; saying such things to a subordinate was practically a disguised way of persuading them to resign.
He chuckled self-deprecatingly, his voice betraying his weariness: "I'm meeting an investor tomorrow night. If things don't work out this time, I'll write you a letter of recommendation. With your abilities, you'll definitely find a new job easily."
Hearing him say that, her nose tingled, and she almost burst into tears again. Fortunately, the dim light in the courtyard concealed her distress. She raised her hand to smooth her hair, trying her best to calm herself, and blurted out, almost unconsciously, "Can I go with you?"
Peng Kun looked up, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes. She wasn't the company's CTO, so she shouldn't have made such an overstepping request.
Seeing his hesitation, she quickly explained, "I want to witness my destiny with my own eyes."
Peng Kun didn't have high hopes for this roadshow. Tianjie Capital has extremely strict requirements for its investee companies, and prefers companies with independent intellectual property rights. Startups like theirs, which lack core technologies, have no bargaining power at all.
He couldn't help but smile bitterly. Her fate? It wasn't hard to predict.
"We'll leave at seven tomorrow morning," he said.
Tianjie Capital is located on the 33rd floor of a skyscraper in Longjin City's most bustling financial center, overlooking the entire city. As a leading investment institution in China, Tianjie Capital boasts strong financial strength, with an investment portfolio spanning multiple popular sectors such as chips, artificial intelligence, and biopharmaceuticals, managing dual-currency funds of hundreds of millions of US dollars and billions of RMB.
The company's key figure, Li Xiangdong, is ruthless, decisive, and insightful. He always manages to find value in unexpected places and is known as "Tianjie's Midas Touch." When the industry was generally pessimistic about the gene testing sector, he defied public opinion and invested heavily in Zhenran Biotechnology. Ultimately, Zhenran achieved a key technological breakthrough within three years, its market value increased more than tenfold, and it became a unicorn company, bringing substantial returns to Tianjie.
The person being presented to this roadshow was Mr. Li, the CEO of Tianjie Capital.
Peng Kun was dressed very formally today, in a dark brown cashmere suit, a dusty blue shirt underneath, and a dark striped tie, the colors blending seamlessly. Such exquisite taste in clothing is truly rare on him.
Zuo Xutong also put a lot of effort into dressing up. She found her best winter clothes in her wardrobe: a black wool coat, paired with an apricot round-neck undershirt. Her hair was neatly tied into a low ponytail, making her look dignified, composed, and mature.
Guided by the receptionist, the two entered a starkly styled conference room. The walls were white, the screen gray and anti-glare, and a long, imitation ebony table stood in the center. The entire space was monochromatic, with the only splashes of color being the logos of several companies that Tianjie had invested in, hanging on the wall.
The meeting was scheduled for 8:00 a.m. They arrived 10 minutes early and sat in the meeting room for a full 50 minutes before the door was finally opened.
Li Xiangdong was not tall, wearing an obviously expensive gray down jacket, blue jeans, and a pair of high-tech sneakers—a rather casual outfit. His middle-aged male assistant, however, was dressed in a suit and gleaming shoes. Despite being quite late, his pace remained unhurried, and his face showed no sign of apology. After a perfunctory handshake and small talk with the guests, he went straight to the head of the conference table.
“I have a meeting at nine o’clock,” he said expressionlessly, flicking his sleeve and glancing at the Patek Philippe on his wrist. “I can only give you 15 minutes.”
Peng Kun was long accustomed to the cold shoulder of capital. He pulled a printed document from his briefcase, handed it to Li Xiangdong, and calmly said, "Mr. Li, this is our company's HFC-300 hydrogen fuel cell product solution, rated power..."
“No need to show me this,” Li Xiangdong interrupted him without looking up, waving his hand and saying, “Let’s get to the point.”
Peng Kun took a deep breath, silently put away the materials he had spent two days and two nights preparing for this roadshow, and without showing any emotional fluctuation, he succinctly introduced: "We are just getting started. We have already assembled a core R&D team and are preparing to start with basic materials, focusing on catalysts, membrane electrodes, and bipolar plates..."
Li Xiangdong interrupted him impatiently again, frowning as he asked, "Just tell me directly, what are your technological advantages? What core barriers have you broken through?"
Peng Kun's last hope was also dashed. As a startup, they had no core technology whatsoever.
He was speechless for a moment.
A small clump of snow silently hit the French windows. His gaze drifted over involuntarily. Under the sunlight, the snowflakes quickly melted into a clear stream that slid down the glass.
The conference room fell silent; the air seemed to freeze. Li Xiangdong raised his arm, bracing himself on the armrest, just about to get up and end this pointless meeting.
At this moment, Zuo Xutong, who was sitting next to Peng Kun, suddenly stood up and shouted, "We have it!"
Everyone looked at her in surprise.
“We have core technology.” Zuo Xutong repeated himself, taking out a transparent sealed bag from his coat pocket, inside which was a dark gray membrane electrode assembly.
"This is our latest ultra-low platinum film electrode sample. Compared with the platinum loading of 0.3 mg/cm2 of mainstream products in the domestic market, we have reduced the platinum loading by more than 70%, which has significantly reduced the production cost of the stack. Moreover, while reducing costs, the power density reaches 1.4 times the industry average, and the performance is significantly improved."
Peng Kun stared at her, dumbfounded, not understanding what she was talking about. Li Xiangdong's expression changed slightly, and he leaned forward a little, seemingly very interested in the thin film in her hand: "As far as I know, the cost of platinum catalysts is indeed a key bottleneck for the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cells. To what extent have you verified its durability?"
"After 2,000 hours of accelerated durability testing, the performance degradation is less than 2%." Zuo Xutong said, taking out the original patent certificate from his backpack and handing it to Li Xiangdong with both hands: "This is the relevant patent certificate."
Li Xiangdong sat up straight, took the certificate and examined it carefully, then asked, "Did you develop all of this independently?"
“Yes,” Zuo Xutong nodded, then took out several thick research logs and pushed them in front of Li Xiangdong. “In addition, the experimental data are all electronically backed up and stored on the hard drive.”
Peng Kun then realized that she had already developed the Sheng Guang project that he had previously stopped.
Li Xiangdong put down the patent documents and opened the R&D log in front of him. Significantly reducing the platinum loading means a sharp decrease in fuel cell production costs. Currently, domestic companies still heavily rely on imported membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), especially for high-performance applications. If a breakthrough is achieved in this technology, not only will domestic market share be easily within reach, but it also has the potential to allow domestically produced MEAs to enter the global market.
Zuo Xutong's technological achievements, developed over six years, undoubtedly impressed this investor who values hard technology.
Li Xiangdong glanced through the research and development log and was about to close the notebook when he was suddenly drawn to a line of English text on the title page: "We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it."
Li Xiangdong stared intently at the line of English text, his fingers unconsciously gripping the page, as if someone had pressed the pause button. He recalled the most painful failure of his investment career.
Several years ago, he spearheaded an investment in a popular tourist attraction. Unexpectedly, a once-in-a-century torrential rain triggered flash floods, severely damaging the attraction's infrastructure. The company had invested 200 million RMB, suffering enormous losses. This sudden disaster made him acutely aware of the absolute power of nature. In recent years, he has often pondered what humanity can do in the face of unforeseen events. A single rainstorm can destroy years of hard work in an instant; how should humanity cope with the increasingly frequent extreme weather events?
Li Xiangdong closed his journal, his eyes slightly shut, his mind filled with the horrifying scene of the scenic area after the flood receded that year: collapsed guesthouses halfway up the mountain, thick mud on the asphalt road, uprooted trees, swollen animal carcasses, and survivors who had lost their loved ones... He broke down in tears.
After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and said decisively, "I will invest 80 million in you."
Zuo Xutong breathed a sigh of relief; the company was saved, and the nursing home was saved. Before she could even rejoice, Li Xiangdong added two more words: "US dollars."
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