Chapter Sixty-One: The Hands-Off Master

After chatting for a while on the rooftop of the office building, the two finally made their way down and returned to what used to be the office of the former electrical appliance factory. The workspace here was quite open; on each floor, only a few rooms bore the names of different departments, while others were locked and sealed.

Pushing open the door to the factory director’s office, they found that all personal belongings had long since been removed, leaving only a large filing cabinet and a complete set of office equipment. The director’s office itself was enormous, at least a hundred square meters. Although the décor was not extravagant, it was nonetheless meticulous. The room was divided into three areas: a business section for receiving guests, a workspace for handling affairs, and a separate rest area partitioned off as its own room.

Xie Han and Meng Nan made themselves at home in the rest area, slumping comfortably onto the sofa. After all, this place now belonged to them.

“Tsk tsk, take a look at this office—what do you think? This will be the future general manager’s office. Satisfied?” Xie Han smiled at Meng Nan. To be honest, even Xie Han felt a surge of excitement standing in such a grand office; he couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to work in a place like this.

Meng Nan was certainly pleased. Compared to the tiny, less-than-ten-square-meter office he’d had before, this was beyond comparison. He said, “The work environment is great. Han, do you have any plans for reorganizing the entire factory?”

Meng Nan quickly entered work mode. After Xie Han had approached him the day before, he’d only needed half an hour to consider before handing in his resignation. He expected it would be approved within a day or two. Once that was done, the reorganization would become a priority.

Xie Han was not cut out for management or planning; that much he knew. His intention was only to provide the technology, leaving the marketing and other issues for others to handle. He shook his head, then pulled a core chip set from a post-apocalyptic rice cooker out of his pocket and held it up to Meng Nan.

“Do you know what this is?”

“A chip set?” Meng Nan, having once managed a department in a major appliance company, naturally recognized such things. But to identify exactly which appliance this chip set belonged to was beyond him. He took the chip and examined it briefly, then gasped in astonishment. “How could there be such a sophisticated appliance chip? What kind of device does this belong to?”

Seeing Meng Nan’s tense yet expectant gaze, Xie Han knew that people like him were most easily swayed by things like this. He smiled and said, “What if I told you this is a chip set for a rice cooker? Would you believe me?”

Xie Han’s words felt almost earth-shattering—at least to Meng Nan. After all, rice cookers were such simple devices that they didn’t require any kind of advanced chip set—usually just a basic circuit board. But now Xie Han claimed this was a rice cooker chip set? How could Meng Nan not be shocked? This chip set was so precise that even many high-end CNC machines might not use anything so advanced.

“That’s impossible…” Meng Nan firmly denied it. “You’re not just pulling my leg, are you? Let me see… Tsk tsk… The integrated transistors here are almost as advanced as a computer processor, aren’t they? Is it for a computer? But it doesn’t quite look like one. Han, you’re really giving me a tough puzzle.”

Xie Han had known Meng Nan wouldn’t believe him. He smiled slyly. “Do you know why I dared to acquire this factory even though I know nothing about management? Because I have this. Meng, imagine a rice cooker that can cook a meal in three minutes, using only a tenth of the electricity of current models, and costs the same as a mid-range rice cooker. Wouldn’t you want to buy one?”

“Well, that goes without saying!” Meng Nan replied. “If such a rice cooker existed, I’d be first in line to buy it.” Suddenly, realization dawned on him. “Wait—you’re not telling me this chip set is for that kind of rice cooker, are you?”

Xie Han nodded. “Exactly. The rice cooker I’m talking about is built using this chip set. The technology inside is the most advanced in the world.” He looked at the stunned Meng Nan. “You know, what we’re about to produce will be the world’s most advanced rice cooker. Soon, we’ll be making even more kinds of appliances. The rice cooker is just the beginning.”

“But…” Meng Nan hesitated, glancing at the chip set. “Wouldn’t this make the manufacturing cost of the rice cooker skyrocket? I don’t think anyone domestically can make a chip set this precise.”

Xie Han laughed. “You don’t need to worry about the chip set. As I said, our rice cooker will sell for the price of a mid-range model and still bring us huge profits.” He took out the manufacturing documentation for the rice cooker and handed it to Meng Nan. “All we need to do is make the rest of the components, then install this chip set at the end, and the product is ready to ship.”

The true core of the rice cooker’s technology lay in that chip. Xie Han wasn’t worried about anyone stealing their technology, since the intelligent program embedded in the chip was still beyond the reach of current technology to crack.

These manufacturing documents might not have meant much to Xie Han, but to Meng Nan, even leafing through a few pages was enough to leave him deeply shaken. The technology described represented the pinnacle of rice cooker design. Not only could they manufacture such a device, but simply patenting the technologies described would make them billionaires. “Han, tell me honestly—how did you get such confidential material?”

Xie Han had expected this question. “Meng, there are some things that don’t need to be explained. Do you understand?”

Meng Nan nodded and finally changed the subject. “Judging by these documents, I don’t think the factory’s current production lines can handle it.”

“That’s easy to solve,” Xie Han replied. “Whatever we can’t produce ourselves, we’ll outsource to other factories and just handle the final assembly. Given our lack of capital, that’s the only way for now. Our priority is to consolidate the factory’s best resources and find a way to offload the useless ones. Meng, I’m putting you in charge of everything related to the factory. Handle it as you see fit—I won’t interfere.”

Meng Nan was taken aback. “How can that be? It’s your factory!”

Xie Han shook his head. “Meng, I have plenty else to keep me busy—especially with the chip. So I’m leaving the factory to you. Trust yourself—you can definitely do it.”

Xie Han’s hands-off approach left Meng Nan both helpless and resigned. He sighed and said, “Alright, for the sake of my ambitions—and the dreams we talked about on the rooftop—I’ll give it my all. But Han, when it comes to major decisions, you’ll still need to give some direction.”

With Meng Nan’s agreement, Xie Han knew his affairs in the present world were settled. Next, he would have to focus on getting the manufacturing side up and running in the post-apocalyptic world. Without the chip, all his efforts in the present would have been in vain.