Chapter 13
The plane slowly landed next to the jet bridge at Rongcheng Airport. Liu Yifan adjusted the brim of her hat and quietly and swiftly made her way through the VIP channel. As she reached the airport arrival gate, wondering who Zhou Ping'an would send to meet her, she glanced through the crowd and unexpectedly saw Zhou Ping'an himself.
He stood alone beside a sleek black luxury car, the driver remaining in the driver's seat. Zhou Pingan himself wore a half-worn jacket, with slight wear visible on the shoulders and cuffs.
Liu Yifan's eyes instinctively flicked to his wrist—there was nothing there, no watch to symbolize status or wealth. His entire person, from his attire to his demeanor, was incompatible with the valuable luxury car before him and the neatly uniformed driver inside. To be frank, his attire wasn't even fit to be the driver of this car.
Almost at the same moment when Liu Yifan saw him, Zhou Ping'an's eyes also locked onto her accurately.
Even though she was wrapped up tightly in a baseball cap, a mask, and ordinary casual clothes, Zhou Ping'an still saw her as a dense focal point. His eyes quickly scanned her gait—unusually steady—and the small sliver of her forehead and neck visible beneath the brim of her hat—tight, yet maintaining a sculptural grace.
He was curious about the purpose of Liu Yifan's visit. But what caught his attention even more was her current state: her deliberately simple attire, almost blending into the background, far from diminishing her presence. Instead, it was like the only bright spot outlined on a plain background, making her silhouette and aura, sculpted through top-tier resources and rigorous self-discipline, even more impossible to ignore.
Liu Yifan suppressed her surprise, took a steadying breath, and walked towards him. Zhou Ping'an's movements were free of formalities and hesitation. He reached out and took her light suitcase with perfect ease—a quick, routine gesture, like completing a routine—and neatly placed it in the trunk before opening the back door for her. The entire process was efficient and direct, without any unnecessary formalities.
She approached, and just as she was about to bend down to get into the car, she raised her eyes and met Zhou Ping'an's gaze closely. In those clear eyes, Zhou Ping'an saw a hint of fatigue and a rapidly gathering focus on him. At that moment, he felt an extremely slight, almost imperceptible trance.
He knew this face all too well. It had once been printed on a poster above his bed in his college dorm, flickering in the dim light of his computer screen late at night. It was the symbol of a clear yet distant dream from the ages of twenty to twenty-five. Now, this symbol, transcending time and screens, suddenly appeared before his eyes, within reach, carrying its real warmth and breath.
Even though her hat was pulled low and her mask covered most of her face, the light in her eyes that flashed when she looked at him told him with undeniable sincerity: This is Liu Yifan. Not an image, not a symbol, but a real person.
A pure feeling of admiration and admiration instantly overwhelmed all other distracting thoughts. He looked at her as if he were looking at a peerless piece of porcelain, once only visible from afar behind a museum glass case, now suddenly presented to him without warning, allowing him to examine its glaze and body up close and personal. The sense of unreality, mixed with a man's instinctive thrill of ultimate beauty, left him momentarily dazed.
He didn't have any inappropriate fantasies, but rather a sense of confirmation that "so this is really the case." Posters and screens were ultimately flat and distorted. The real her, with her meticulously refined, almost otherworldly brilliance and contours, truly lived up to the highest aesthetic standards he remembered.
This realization stirred a wave in his heart. All his previous investments and plans suddenly became incredibly concrete and worthwhile at that moment—all for the sake of preserving this vivid, ultimate beauty that he was witnessing right now, to the greatest extent possible.
In that moment of encounter, Liu Yifan clearly saw a flicker of trance in Zhou Ping'an's eyes. It wasn't the scrutiny or assessment she'd expected, but a gaze bordering on detachment, as if he were looking through her at a distant yet familiar figure. There was an indescribable sense of confirmation in that look, as if verifying a cherished fantasy.
This gaze startled Liu Yifan. She immediately realized that this wasn't a scrutiny of a strange female celebrity, but rather a confirmation of a "symbol" that already existed in his cognition. He wasn't looking at the present Liu Yifan, but at the image in his memory.
This discovery instantly dawned on her—in his eyes, she had never been a complex system to be evaluated, but rather a pre-determined aesthetic coordinate. All his investment and planning were simply an effort to preserve the perfect image he imagined for as long as possible.
This realization brought Liu Yifan a strange sense of relief, but it also solidified her resolve. She wanted to interpret this "King You of Zhou," the man who symbolized and quantified "beauty," a monster who used rational logic to worship sensibility.
"Thank you, Ms. Zhou." Her voice was calmer than expected, and she bent down and sat in the car.
Zhou Ping'an seemed to come back to his senses after hearing the thanks. He gently closed the car door, his movements still smooth, but with a subtle, almost imperceptible pause. He walked around to the passenger side and got in, choosing not to sit in the back seat with her.
The engine started up, its hum barely audible, and the car slid smoothly into the lane.
Liu Yifan gazed out the window at the rapidly passing streets of Rongcheng, her eyes occasionally grazing upon the silent figure in the front seat. He didn't turn back, but she could sense an invisible, focused pressure. She knew that from the moment she boarded the car, a silent, two-way game of gaze and decoding had officially begun.
The car finally stopped at the entrance of a slightly dated industrial park on the outskirts of Rongcheng. Unlike the grand science and technology park Liu Yifan had imagined, the walls here were even a bit mottled, and the security booth at the entrance also exuded a casual sense of age.
"We're here." Zhou Ping'an got out of the car first with quick movements. His old jacket looked extremely harmonious against the gray background of the industrial park.
Liu Yifan followed him into the gates of Anping New Materials Battery Co., Ltd. The factory was small, its several buildings looking quite old. The cement floor was clean, though inevitably showing signs of repairs. A faint, indescribable industrial odor hung in the air. She had imagined a cutting-edge tech company would be bright and futuristic, but this place felt more like a pragmatic, even somewhat outdated, large workshop.
She couldn't help but turn her head, with just the right amount of amateur curiosity and confusion, and softly asked Zhou Pingan who was walking beside her: "Mr. Zhou, this place... is not quite what I imagined. I've also been to many science and technology parks when filming, with glass curtain walls, space capsule designs, green plants and coffee bars everywhere... This place looks... quite simple." She cleverly avoided words like "shabby" or "poor", but the meaning of her question was clearly conveyed.
Zhou Ping'an continued walking, his gaze sweeping across the factory. His tone was as flat as if he were stating a law of physics: "Well, we've only been in business for a little over three years. Initially, we had little money, so we had to spend every penny carefully. All the money went into R&D and the necessary equipment, so naturally, we had no time to focus on the storefront."
He led her through the factory to the adjacent, even older, "Anping High-Energy Molecular Experiment Center." The hallway was dimly lit, and traces of repairs from pipes could be seen on the walls. Some of the laboratory equipment bore the wear and tear of years of use. The air was filled with the distinct scent of chemicals, ozone, and old instruments.
The level of "simplicity" here is even greater. Liu Yifan's confusion deepened. She found it difficult to connect what she saw with a technology giant that could attract Weihua's huge investment.
Zhou Ping'an seemed to see through her thoughts. He stopped in front of a closed laboratory door and suddenly asked a seemingly irrelevant question: "What do you think is the most important thing for a group like Weihua to invest in?"
Liu Yifan was slightly stunned and answered after thinking: "It should be... technological prospects and market potential?" This was her judgment based on common sense.
"What else?" Zhou Ping'an asked with a sharp look.
“Well…the strength and integrity of the team?” she added.
"These are necessary but not sufficient conditions." Zhou Ping'an shook his head, his tone firm. "What they value most is the barrier. It's an absolute technical barrier that others can't replicate or circumvent in a short period of time."
He raised his hand, his knuckles gently tapping on the old doorframe, making a dull sound. "Money can build beautiful factories, recruit top talent, and even buy temporary technology. But it can't build a true, original barrier that grows from the ground up."
He turned his gaze to Liu Yifan, his eyes calm but filled with an undeniable strength. "In the first half of last year, it was here that we achieved a breakthrough in the most fundamental molecular anchoring technology. Based on this, everything that followed was possible."
He paused, his gaze finally landing on the bright white tri-fold phone in Liu Yifan's hand, his tone becoming more specific and impactful:
"Weihua is willing to buy a 35% stake in this factory at a valuation of 15 billion. It's not because they have too much money to spend, nor is it because they are attracted by these old factory buildings and equipment."
"What they're buying is what's inside this wall, which is a generation gap that others might not be able to catch up with even if they spend 30 billion and five years."
"For example," he nodded slightly, pointing to the phone in her hand, the bright white one, "the battery of the phone you're using right now, its core cell and energy architecture, was one of the things born within this wall."
Liu Yifan's fingers subconsciously tightened around the cold phone. In an instant, the device she relied on daily, the device she was so used to, suddenly felt as if it had taken on a tremendous weight.
An unprecedented, incredibly concrete realization struck her—what she held in her hands wasn't just an ordinary consumer product, but the crown jewel of a vast technological empire, the tangible proof of its 15 billion dollar valuation! Its very birthplace was surprisingly this seemingly unremarkable, even somewhat shabby factory complex right before her.
She raised her head, her gaze sweeping across the slightly shabby corridor once more, past the dedicated R&D staff, and finally back to Zhou Ping'an's calm face. Her previous confusion and surprise now gave way to a profound shock and respect.
She nodded deeply, her voice soft but powerful, "I understand... This is truly a barrier that's powerful enough to change the rules. It's completely changed my usage habits."
At this moment, Zhou Ping'an's image in his mind became clearer and clearer: a creator who had built an ultimate barrier with ultimate rationality, and thus gained ultimate freedom... All his paranoia and madness originated from this, and were also achieved by this.
An indescribable sense of trust has quietly taken root in this world full of contrasts, built with old factories and a valuation of 15 billion.
Zhou Ping'an didn't seem surprised by her understanding. He just said "hmm" lightly and continued walking forward.
Liu Yifan hurried to catch up, and a part of his heart had already made more thorough preparations for the upcoming "national" journey.
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