Sail across the sea

Chapter 410 Just click it
Gao Fan had Yun Zhongming's contact information. After hanging up with Xu Yun, Gao Fan made a long-distance call directly to Yun Zhongming's office.

"Hello, is this Chief Engineer Yun? This is Gao Fan. Do you remember me?"

When the call connected, Gao Fan greeted the other party cheerfully.

"It's Xiao Gao, of course I remember you. The technical ideas you gave us last time were a great help. Just the other day, a colleague mentioned you to me, asking what you're up to now, and saying that the institute should try to recruit you."

Yun Zhongming laughed on the other end of the phone, clearly pleased that Gao Fan had called him.

Gao Fan said, "Okay, okay, I'll go over now. Chief Engineer Yun won't stop me from coming in, will he?"

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Am I not like an honest child?"

"...It doesn't seem like it. Xiao Gao, you should be graduating next year, right? What's wrong? Has something happened to your studies?"

Yun Zhongming genuinely cared about Gao Fan.

Two years ago, when Gao Fan was helping out at the institute, Yun Zhongming solemnly expressed his intention to recruit him, but Gao Fan firmly refused.

Later, Yun Zhongming also paid attention to Gao Fan's affairs and knew that he had been applying for exemption from courses at the school. In the past year or so, he had accomplished a lot and was doing very well in Maolin.

The fact that someone like this suddenly wants to go to the Maple Forest Research Institute can only mean one thing: he has encountered some insurmountable obstacle, such as offending some minor official, and needs to find a place to lay low for a while.

This is a good thing. As long as Gao Fan hasn't done anything illegal, Fenglin Police Station can provide him with protection. I believe no one will dare to come here and cause him trouble. A talent like Gao Fan, once he's here, won't be able to leave. Fenglin Police Station's protection isn't something he'll accept for nothing…

As Yun Zhongming was daydreaming, Gao Fan said, "Chief Engineer Yun, can't you just wish me well? I said I was going to Fenglin Institute, not to seek refuge with you, Chief Engineer Yun, but because I heard they're doing business with the Japanese. I'm afraid you guys don't understand the cutthroat world of business, and I happen to be a businessman myself, so I want to help you negotiate with the Japanese and try to get a good deal out of them. Would you welcome that, Chief Engineer Yun?"

"Doing business with the Japanese?" Yun Zhongming didn't react for a moment, then realized that Gao Fan must be referring to the Moriya Company, so he asked, "What, did Xu Yun tell you about this?"

“When Xu Yun first started working on i-line photoresist, he discussed it with me,” Gao Fan said.

Yun Zhongming understood immediately. So Xu Yun's information was obtained from Gao Fan. With that explanation, things actually made sense.

Xu Yun was just an ordinary student at the University of Science and Technology of China. There was no reason why his teachers couldn't access the same classified information he could. Bi Liansheng had inquired about the photoresist issue with Xu Yun's supervising professor, who was also baffled, stating that he hadn't seen any internal documents on the subject.

Gao Fan is a mysterious figure. During his interactions with him, Yun Zhongming could sense that Gao Fan possessed a great deal of highly classified and secret technical information that Yun Zhongming had never even heard of before.

Yun Zhongming therefore suspected that Gao Fan belonged to a secret department, a department with such a high level of secrecy that even the Fenglin Police Station's confidential department had no right to know about it.

It makes perfect sense that such a person provided Xu Yun with some technical information and helped Xu Yun propose a research approach for i-line photoresist.

"So, Xiao Gao, I only have one question: can we cooperate with Sen Gu?" Yun Zhongming asked meaningfully.

“Cooperation is entirely possible,” Gao Fan said. Before Yun Zhongming could respond, he added, “However, Chief Engineer Yun, I strongly suggest that you wait until I arrive before considering cooperation with Sen Gu. Otherwise, the good hand I’ve carefully planned might be ruined by you.” Gao Fan’s words were rather hurtful.

Yun Zhongming really wanted to hang up the phone. All he needed was for Gao Fan to confirm that the technology had nothing to do with Sen Gu. When did it become your business to worry about negotiations, you little brat from another unit?

However, Yun Zhongming's past experiences with Gao Fan made him dare not ignore Gao Fan's warning.

Gao Fan made it very clear that this was a carefully planned scheme, and he had foreseen this situation two years ago. If that's the case, then going to negotiate with Sen Gu without listening to Gao Fan's advice might indeed be inappropriate.

"I'll consult with my superiors about this matter," Yun Zhongming finally said.

Two days later, Yun Zhongming welcomed Gao Fan to his office, and Bi Liansheng also came after hearing the news.

"Moriya Co., Ltd. has expressed its willingness to pay 1 million yen to buy out our i-line photoresist and KrF photoresist technologies. The buyout means that we cannot license this technology to any other company in the world, but this does not include cases where the technology is produced in China and sold only in China."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Yun Zhongming introduced the terms offered by Moriya Company.

"1 million yen, which is about 160 million yuan, right? That's quite a sum," Gao Fan chuckled.

Bi Liansheng said, "The Japanese initially asked for 1000 million yen, which we firmly refused. They then gradually conceded to 1 million yen. Now there are some disagreements within the institute. Some colleagues think that the price is still too low and that if we negotiate further, the other party might continue to concede."

"Some other comrades felt that we should stop while we were ahead. They only felt that our technology was somewhat inspiring to them, and they were not determined to win. If we kept asking for an exorbitant amount, we might piss them off and they would just leave."

"You mean, the Japanese side believes that our technology has inspired them in some ways?"

"Yes, that's what they said during the negotiations."

"Does this mean that you revealed some technical know-how to the other party?"

"That's for sure. Don't worry, Xiao Gao, we know how to keep things confidential. We only touch on the technical details during negotiations; we won't be foolish enough to reveal everything to them," Bi Liansheng said confidently.

Gao Fan didn't know what to say. Ultimately, these people still lacked an understanding of the Japanese intelligence analysis capabilities.

The other party is not a novice, but an international fine chemical giant with extensive experience in photoresist development. They must have also been involved in the technology Fenglin is researching, but encountered obstacles at some key stages and thus gave up.

To demonstrate the value of its technology, Fenglin revealed some fragmented technical details. Based on these details and his own past development experience, Senya was naturally able to deduce the technical approach Fenglin had chosen.

This is a route that Moriya may have explored but abandoned due to a lack of confidence. Now that we know that Maple Forest adopted this very route and ultimately developed a qualified photoresist, it proves that this route is feasible.

This information alone is worth 1 million yen, which means that Moriya can boldly invest in this technological route.

With Moriya's technological strength, as long as they dare to invest, a technological breakthrough is just around the corner.

(End of this chapter)