Chapter 118: Master's Lineage (2) |
While Zhou Qihong was speaking with Wei Hongsi and Gu Shiming, a different sort of lively commotion was unfolding on the other side with Liu Guanhong, Feng Weixu, and the others.
It started when Feng Weixu mentioned the “Six of Hearts” group chat during his conversation with Dai Mengqi. As soon as Liu Guanhong heard it was an unfamiliar group, she asked, “Why haven’t you added me?”
Feng Weixu said, “This is just a casual chat group for us current students.”
Liu Guanhong replied, “Oh, so you’re forming little cliques now. Fine, have your cliques, but not including me—what’s your agenda?”
Jiang Haiyang teased, “Professor Liu, this is a student group.”
“Call me Senior Fellow Apprentice,” Liu Guanhong said, reaching out to give Jiang Haiyang a knock on the head, then added, “Call me Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice!”
“Why?” Jiang Haiyang ducked away, clutching his head and laughing. “You’re two ranks lower than the Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice.”
Liu Guanhong planted her hands on her hips. “I’m the teacher’s first female disciple. Who here objects?”
“Alright, alright, you’re the Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice.” Jiang Haiyang clasped his hands in a mock bow. “But you’re a professor. Don’t go messing around with us students, okay?”
After saying that, she pointed at Feng Weixu and Zhao Hongquan in turn. “You two will graduate next year. Are you going to leave the group yourselves then?”
Wu Jie said, “The Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice has a point.” Seeing several people turn to look at him, he couldn’t help shrinking his neck.
Liu Guanhong then said to Dai Mengqi, “You’re the only girl in the group, aren’t you? Aren’t you afraid they’ll bully you?”
Dai Mengqi replied, “That’s right! Who’s the admin here? Hurry up and add the Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice!”
Seeing two traitors emerge in the blink of an eye, Jiang Haiyang had no choice but to reluctantly pull Liu Guanhong into the group.
It wasn’t that they had any real rift with Liu Guanhong, but psychologically, they truly felt there was a difference between students and teachers—certain topics, like complaining about the school, would be awkward to discuss with her around. Besides, there was already a large Master’s Lineage group chat; it wasn’t like they had nothing to talk about.
But the more they refused Liu Guanhong, the more she wanted to join. Normally, doing research and mentoring students was exhausting; only when she was with the teacher and these junior fellow apprentices did she truly feel relaxed.
Once she entered the group and saw everyone’s nicknames, Liu Guanhong couldn’t help laughing.
Four of Hearts was Wei Hongsi, and Queen of Hearts was Zhao Hongquan—both used phonetic puns.
(Note: In some places, the Q in playing cards is called “Circle.”)
Jiang Haiyang was Straight Flush, which was easy to understand. His name all had the “water” radical, forming a “flush”; Jiang, Hai, Yang went from small to large, creating a progressive relationship.
Feng Weixu’s was even simpler—the radicals in his name were two dots, three dots, four dots. Hmm, just a small straight, yet still acting so cocky.
Dai Mengqi’s Square Seven also used a phonetic pun, but with the English “Diamond” plus the Chinese character for seven.
Wu Jie’s Spade J was a bit abstract—Jie and J were a phonetic match, and maybe Wu corresponded to Spade? She hadn’t quite figured that one out.
Liu Guanhong thought for a moment and changed her nickname in the group to “Leopard Nine.”
When Jiang Haiyang saw it, he laughed, “The Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice’s nickname is quite domineering, but you can’t just change it arbitrarily.”
Liu Guanhong let out a disdainful snort. “Would I do something without reason?”
Jiang Haiyang thought to himself, Didn’t you just do that? But after a moment’s thought, he figured out the origin of Leopard Nine—all three characters of her name had exactly nine strokes—so he gave a thumbs up and said, “Impressive!”
Liu Guanhong’s mouth curved slightly as her fingers moved lightly, and she sent five big red packets in the group.
Everyone immediately switched to red packet grabbing mode, and after snatching them, they spammed the group with “Grand Senior Fellow Apprentice is mighty” emojis.
Just as they were all laughing and having fun, they saw the teacher walking over, so they put down their phones and started chatting with him.
As Zhou Qihong’s direct disciples, they actually didn’t get many opportunities to gather with the teacher like this over a semester. Academician Zhou was simply too busy, so he didn’t take on many students—far fewer than other doctoral supervisors. It was estimated that in another three to five years, Liu Guanhong’s students would surpass his.
On the other side, only Gu Shiming and Wei Hongsi remained. Zhou Qihong left them some space to discuss matters within Zhiwei Technology.
Gu Shiming said, “Director Dai plans to hold a general shareholders’ meeting next Monday afternoon to discuss and decide on some issues. The review of your ‘Psychological Virus’ prevention project is also on the agenda.”
Wei Hongsi nodded, not too surprised. When he met Director Dai yesterday afternoon, he had already hinted at this.
Gu Shiming continued, “Although Director Dai holds controlling interest in Zhiwei, it’s not absolute control. Besides Director Dai, Zhiwei has seventeen other shareholders, big and small, holding over 45% of the company’s shares. Many of these people have now become the biggest obstacle to the company’s development.
“Two years ago, they wanted the company to go public, but Director Dai firmly vetoed it. The past two years, Director Dai wanted to increase R&D investment, but they also strongly opposed it, demanding that profits be distributed as dividends.”
This was all news to Wei Hongsi, so he asked with some confusion, “Don’t they know that a tech company’s Long-term Development relies heavily on R&D investment? If Zhiwei doesn’t do well, it won’t benefit them either.”
Gu Shiming sneered, “People are short-sighted. Besides, most of those shareholders are older—they can’t see that far ahead, and they don’t want to. They don’t see Zhiwei as their own company; they only see it as a goose that lays golden eggs. If they can’t share the eggs, it’s meaningless to them. They don’t care at all about the goose’s health or even its survival.”
Wei Hongsi frowned and asked, “I heard many of those shareholders started the business with Director Dai. They’re like that too?”
“People who once shared the same ideals will eventually take different paths, or even opposite ones, as time goes on. Besides, some shareholders were kicked out of the management team by Director Dai precisely because of conflicting business philosophies.”
Gu Shiming looked at Wei Hongsi. “I’m telling you this because I want you to know that Director Dai plans to use the review of your project as an opportunity to resolve some issues that have been dragging on for a long time. Think it over carefully—for the project presentation at Monday’s shareholders’ meeting, do you want to do it yourself, or have someone else present for you?”
Wei Hongsi thought for a moment and said, “Given the situation, I’ll do it myself.”
Gu Shiming gave a look of approval. “Then prepare well. If necessary on Monday morning, I’ll take you to meet Director Dai first.”
“Alright.” Wei Hongsi nodded.
He knew that this choice would inevitably mean facing more pressure, but if he didn’t go to the shareholders’ meeting and see for himself, he would definitely regret it later.
The teacher had just said he wanted Director Dai to be his External Advisor—now was not the time to back down.
