Super Biological Empire Chapter 043: Gift of Inquiry

  Chapter 43: The Art of Giving Gifts

  Still along the coastal highway back to Haicheng, Duan Lei, who had a long-distance driving experience this time, was more familiar with the road and returned to Haicheng in less than 18 hours. Along the way, the excellent performance of Q7 and Duan Lei's abundant energy and physical strength were fully demonstrated, and he returned to Haicheng without any surprises.

  When they arrived at Haicheng, it was just after 9 am. Duan Lei first sent Li Er back home to take a nap, and he himself prepared to give the large pile of local specialties he had brought from home to his dormitory roommates, company employees, school teachers, etc. for them to taste.

  In the past, when Duan Lei returned home, due to being shy and the hassle of the Spring Festival travel season, even if he wanted to bring some local specialties back to school, it was really hard to do so. This time, driving back, Duan Lei simply let his mother help collect a large pile of local specialties in the countryside, letting his teachers and friends have a taste.

  As he watched a staff member at the municipal party committee compound's entrance help Lian'er carry several bags full of local specialties into the compound, Duan Lei finally drove away. Duan Lei had already made arrangements with Lian'er to have her and her parents set a time for him to formally visit them at home.

  Duan Wei was still a bit nervous about this, after all, he had quietly taken the girl away without saying anything, and if he didn't go to their house now, it would be hard to justify.

  Duan Lei, who was immersed in fantasies about meeting his future parents-in-law for the first time, had no idea what was happening at the Tang's house.

  ……?……

  When Liu Er pushed open the door of his home, he was shocked to find that both his parents were sitting in the living room and had not yet gone to work.

  "Dad and mom, why are you at home?" As soon as she saw her parents, Li Er became nervous and the bag of dried mushrooms in her hand fell to the ground with a 'thud'.

  Tang Xiangjun and his wife saw that there were staff following behind, and they didn't say much. Ding Yuan walked over to help move the bags into the living room.

  "Dead girl, you've finally deigned to return." Only after the staff left did Ding Yuan say with some resentment.

  "Mom, I'm just going out with classmates, okay?" Lian'er said with a hint of guilt, looking at her mother with pleading eyes.

  "What are these big and small packages?" Seeing her daughter still playing with herself, if it were in the past, she would have already exposed her. However, after seeing Duan Lei's information, she also calmed down a lot of resentment in her heart.

  "That's what we bought in the countryside, this is dried mushroom, purely wild, this is bamboo fungus, but it was picked by hand; This is Aunt Miao's wind-dried wild chicken, which can't be bought with money; This is Grandpa Duanlei's roasted mountain tea, although the appearance isn't great, the taste is very good, Dad will definitely like it..." Lui'er was eager to eliminate the bad influence of her running away from home, and kept taking out the local specialties she brought back from Duanlei's house, but unknowingly revealed a lot of information.

  Watching her own daughter behave like this, Ding Yuan could only exchange a bitter smile with her equally helpless husband, and it was clear that they both saw the same thing in each other's eyes: "Our daughter is beyond salvation."

  "Lui'er, who is Duan Lei?" Coldly and abruptly, Ding Yuan interrupted Lui'er's introduction.

  "Duàn Yuè?" Lì ér, who was still immersed in the joy of introducing various local delicacies, suddenly stuttered and looked up at her mother's questioning gaze, hesitantly saying: "He's an upperclassman... this time we're going to his hometown to play..."

  But seeing her mother's eyebrows getting higher and higher, Li'er, who felt guilty, spoke softer and softer, and could only look at her father for mercy.

  Feeling his daughter's pleading gaze, Tang Xiangjun helplessly shook his head slightly, his eyes darting towards Ding Yuan, hinting that the crux of the matter lay with her mother and he couldn't do anything to help.

  At this time, Lian'er reacted and thought that with the power of her family, how could she not know about Duan Lei's existence for more than half a year?

  "Duan Yue is our senior and also my good friend, he said that he wanted to find an opportunity to visit Dad and Mom." Seeing this situation, Li Er understood that her parents might already know about Duan Yue's existence, so continuing to hide it would be no better than openly acknowledging it.

  "You little scamp, hiding such a big thing from home! If your father and I hadn't been delayed by some things today and didn't go to work on time, would you still be keeping it a secret?" Seeing her daughter's admission, Ding Yuan couldn't help but get angry, but only lightly tapped Luo Er's forehead.

  "Aren't you worried that I'll oppose it?" Lì ér pouted, holding onto her mother's arm and coquettishly said: "In the past, you always praised Yang Fen saying how good he was, where would I dare mention other boys in front of you?"

  "So, next weekend you let this Duan Lei come to our home, I want to see what kind of boy he is, that can make our Li'er speak well of him?" As soon as Li'er mentioned Yang Feng, Ding Yuan's face was a bit embarrassed, and her originally tense face also relaxed, saying: "If he can't satisfy me, don't think about taking away our family's little princess."

  "Mom, what are you talking about? Who wants to get married? I'm willing to stay at home with you for the rest of my life." As soon as she heard her mother's straightforward words, Li'er's face turned red and she buried her head in Tingyuan's chest.

  Although she had thought about it a thousand times in her heart, wanting to spend the rest of her life with Duan Yu, Lü'er still felt a little shy in front of her parents. As a 19-year-old girl from a good family, talking about marriage and wedding was still somewhat embarrassing.

  "Alright, bring Xiao Duan over and let Mom and Dad take care of things for you." Tang Xiangjun also knew that his daughter was now devoted to Duan Lei, so he wouldn't say anything unpleasant.

  "Alright," hearing her father's words, Li'er knew that things were settled then.

  In this small family, although many things are handled by the mother in daily life, once the father makes a decision, it means that this is the final conclusion.

  Originally, Lui Er still had some worries about how to bring up the matter of Duan Yue with her parents, but she never thought that things would be resolved so easily.

  Actually, there are many things in this world that we will have a lot of worries and fears before doing them, but after the event, we will find out that it's actually very simple.

  ……?……

  Everything that happened at the Tang's house was unknown to Duan Yue, who was busy driving between school, company and base, delivering big and small packages of local specialties to his classmates and colleagues. He gave them fruits like mangoes, lychees, longans, etc., as well as snacks like pine nuts and dried fruit leather to share and eat. He also handed over the cured meat, wind-dried wild chicken, and various wild mushrooms he had brought from home to Jin Xin, who would use them to make extra dishes for everyone in the base's kitchen.

  As the base expanded in scale, more and more employees were recruited. Duane built a large canteen within the base to solve the problem of meals for company employees. After all, the base was far from the city, and there was only one small village around it, making it difficult for employees to have high-quality dining environment and quality.

  As for the cafeteria, Jin Xin had many comrades-in-arms who were cooks in the army and also had chef certificates. Through Jin Xin's connections, several cooks were brought over, and a few more aunties were hired locally in Cai Village, and a simple cafeteria was set up.

  As the company's scale continues to expand, Duan Lei needs to consider more and more problems. Before, he only worried about R&D, production, and sales, but now Duan Lei really feels a bit overwhelmed. This is why Duan Lei insists that his father come to Haicheng to help him manage the company's finances and daily affairs.

  As it is now, the security and logistics within the base are all shouldered by Jin Xin, which makes Duan Lei feel slightly more relaxed. Of course, Jin Xin's management skills growing day by day through practice is also an important reason why Duan Lei can let go.

  At this time, Duan Yue finally understood the true meaning of 'one good man and three helpers', that one person cannot do everything alone.

  Actually, Duan Yue was thinking of bringing Da Shan into the company, but as the eldest grandson of the family, he naturally had to return home to inherit the family business and make the Li family prosperous; another reason is that Duan Yue did not want a simple classmate relationship to become a superior-subordinate relationship, which would be very awkward.

  ……?……

  When he was at home, Duan Yue had already set aside the best part of the local specialties and packed them into six boxes. After returning to Haicheng, Duan Yue would send these gifts to Zhang Jiu, He Yuanzheng, Li Jie, Zheng Kaiming, Xiong Yiping, and Gu Yuliang's homes one after another, also letting them taste the flavor of their hometown.

  Since Duanyue's enrollment, Zhang Jiu has been paying extra attention to him. It was also with Zhang Jiu's great help that year that Duanyue, who had no money at the time, was able to defer his tuition payment and eventually secure a loan. In the three years at Haida, Zhang Jiu is the best counselor in Duanyue's heart, without exception, because he is approachable, can put himself in students' shoes, and is not someone who likes to point fingers or speak in grandiose terms.

  As for He Yuanzheng and Li Jie, they both provided a lot of help to Duan Lei at the beginning of his entrepreneurship. It was precisely because of their help that Duan Lei was able to accumulate the first batch of funds in a short period of time and push 'Zhilv' into the market.

  The other three people were in contact with Duan Lei more after he started his business, and they made great contributions to the development of 'Maca Biotechnology'. Without their help, 'Maca Biotechnology' would not have developed so rapidly.

  Of course, these people also gained a lot of benefits in the process of contacting and interacting with Duan Yucai. In a strict sense, it can't be said that anyone owes anyone. For example, Li Jie, He Yuanzheng and others have gained a lot economically; Zheng Kaihong and others have also made achievements in politics, and both sides are winners.

  However, in a society like China that values personal relationships, if you want to achieve greater success, it's not just about having enough capability, but also having sufficient connections.

  If it weren't for the strong support of Zheng Kai and Xiong Yiping, how could the 'Zhiwu' project be sent to Haida as a key project and participate in the evaluation of the 'Science and Technology Progress Award'? If it weren't for Gu Yu Liang's acquaintance with Cao Shao Kun, the operation of the experimental base would not have been so smooth, and it was treated as a key enterprise by the local government and given special care.

  ……?……

  If Duan Yue gave these people money or expensive gifts, the relationship between them would become distorted and even constitute bribery for those in power, which would undoubtedly lead to awkwardness. As for sending local specialties from his hometown, it can express goodwill and maintain as well as deepen the relationship between both parties, a win-win situation.

  Sometimes, handling interpersonal relationships can also become a very important and crucial subject.