Tech startup: I really do make mobile phones!

Chapter 37 Half a Han Dong Man

Under the red flower-lined phoenix trees at the entrance of Nanshan Industrial Software Park, Zhao Tiezhu squatted beside his motorcycle taxi, munching on a roasted sweet potato he had just bought, his eyes fixed on the white-shirted crowd entering and exiting the patent agency building not far away.

Doorway.

"Sister Sasha! Thank you for bringing me the corn, I'm starving!"

When Xiao Zhou, wearing a blue overall dress, came out munching on corn, Zhao Tiezhu immediately tossed half a sweet potato into the green belt under the tree, wiped his mouth, and quickly went to meet her again.

The little girl spoke with a Handong accent.

Zhao Tiezhu knows the language of Handong!

"Hey girl!" he called out in a Handong accent, his voice as loud as a street vendor collecting scraps on a tricycle: "Excuse me, do you sell iced water in this park?"

Zhou, who was munching on corn like a little hamster, was startled at first. Then, the blue ribbon in his hand came loose, and his name tag fell to the ground with a thud.

Seeing his chance, Zhao Tiezhu quickly stepped forward to help pick up the employee badge, taking the opportunity to glance at it.

Employee ID ignored
Zhou Xiaoyu!
front desk!

In a split second, Zhao Tiezhu knew he hadn't made a mistake in contacting the wrong person.

If you want to find out about someone in a company, the receptionist is always a living archive.

The visitor lists they see when signing for packages every day, the titles they jot down while answering the phone, and even the gossip leaked by colleagues in the break room—all of this is kept in the ears of these young receptionists.

"Thank you!" Xiao Zhou took back his work badge, then stuffed another corn kernel that had fallen into his palm into his mouth, his cheeks puffed out like a hamster's: "Mmm. There's a convenience store on the right ahead."

Zhao Tiezhu didn't move, but smiled kindly at her.

"A Handong accent? We're practically from the same hometown! My mother is from Handong, just like you!"

Zhao Tiezhu's mother really was from Handong.

But he learned his Handong dialect from Lao He, a scrap collector who pedaled a tricycle in North China, so Xiao Zhou always felt that he spoke strangely, like those scrap collectors shouting on the streets of his hometown.

When Xiao Zhou heard Zhao Tiezhu say that he was half a Han Dong person, he was stunned for a moment.

"Really? My hometown is in the west of Handong City!"

You have to understand, it's not easy for Xiao Zhou, a first-generation college student who came to Shenzhen from his hometown in the Northwest, to meet a... well, half a fellow villager.

"Absolutely!" Zhao Tiezhu slapped his thigh: "When my mother took me to visit relatives in Handong when I was a child, I often secretly stole fried dough twists from that fried dough twist shop at the bridgehead on the west side of the city!"

"Hey hey!"

When it came to food, Xiao Zhou's eyes suddenly lit up, and he snapped a corn cob against his teeth.

"Is it Wang's Fried Dough Twists? Their fried dough twists are dipped in icing sugar, so crispy they crumble! When I was little, I once stole some crumbs from the counter, and my grandma chased me for three blocks!"

Zhao Tiezhu, a carefree fellow who could claim to be from the same hometown as anyone, quickly struck up a lively conversation with Xiao Zhou, a naive college graduate who had just started working, with just a few simple words.

Having laid the groundwork for establishing relationships, Zhao Tiezhu began to get down to business.

He suddenly leaned closer and lowered his voice: "Sis! I want to ask you about someone—do you know Lin Junfeng from your company?"

Xiao Zhou slowed down his corn-eating motion: "Director Lin? What do you need him for?"

To avoid appearing too deliberate, Zhao Tiezhu acted very casually.

"Actually, it's nothing serious!"

Zhao Tiezhu took out a brand new pack of soft tissues from his pocket, pulled one out, and wiped Xiao Zhou's hands after he finished eating corn.

"Our company wants to apply for a patent, and we heard that Director Lin is an expert in this field, but..." He scratched his head, "I'm just afraid of being scammed, so I want to find out more about him first!"

Xiao Zhou didn't take the tissue: "I have tissues." But the wariness in his eyes softened a little.

"Director Lin has two master's degrees from the US. He used to fight lawsuits against big companies in Silicon Valley. He's really impressive! He's also very handsome. Many of the older women in the company like him."

Zhao Tiezhu obtained the part of the information he wanted. As for the part about how handsome he was and how many of the older women in the company liked him, that was irrelevant information and he ignored it.

Seeing that Xiao Zhou was off guard, Zhao Tiezhu continued.
"A lawsuit?" Zhao Tiezhu feigned surprise. "Then why did he come back to China to work as an auditor?"

"What auditor?" Xiao Zhou laughed, revealing two shallow dimples. "He's the head of the audit department, and also an advisor to several listed companies! Last month he even helped someone with a patent lawsuit, getting them to pay him tens of millions in damages."

Zhao Tiezhu grew increasingly surprised as he listened, crumpling the tissue in his hand into a ball. This kid named Lin Junfeng was no honest man; Brother Chen had thought he was just an ordinary auditor, but it turned out he was a patent litigation swindler.

This kind of person is definitely not a simple character. The fact that Brother Chen didn't intend to agree to let him invest is actually a good thing.

"Hey sis, take my advice," he said, stuffing the pack of tissues back into his pocket, "None of those guys in suits in the office are honest! Don't let that kid fool you."

Zhao Tiezhu recounted how he was swindled by an insurance salesman in a suit.

Xiao Zhou laughed heartily upon hearing this, saying to himself, "How could that be! How could Director Lin possibly be interested in me!"

Finally, Zhao Tiezhu didn't forget to thank Xiao Zhou, who had provided him with crucial information that day.

"Come on! I'll treat you to a meal at a restaurant today!"

Xiao Zhou glanced at the small women's watch on her wrist: "But I have to go back in half an hour."

"enough!"

Zhao Tiezhu led Xiao Zhou to a relatively clean hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the park.

After leaving the restaurant, Xiao Zhou said, "Brother Tiezhu looks several years older than me!"

Zhao Tiezhu puffed out his chest and spoke without hesitation.

"Girl! You're right, he's only a few years older than you!" In reality, he's just over 18 on his ID card.

Then, he tricked Xiao Zhou, a naive 25-year-old college graduate, into calling him "brother," even though he was 18.

There's nothing we can do about it; Zhao Tiezhu just doesn't look old!

Yes! He's already old, so why should he look older? He already looks very mature.

If it weren't for his mature appearance, Widow Tian would have had reservations if she had known his age beforehand, and their relationship wouldn't have developed to this point.

Zhao Tiezhu is also a man with an "ageless appearance".

At least when he was forty, he still looked about eighteen.

When I dropped Xiao Zhou off at her company, a group of motorcycle taxi drivers were squatting under a bright red phoenix tree, smoking.

"Driver! Speed ​​up, we're heading back to Longgang!"

As soon as Zhao Tiezhu got on a motorcycle taxi, he saw an Audi A4 stop in front of the building where the patent agency was located, and three men in navy blue jackets got off.

The man in the middle, carrying a briefcase, seemed somewhat weak in presence. It felt as if the two people behind him were subtly "protecting" him, or perhaps "monitoring" him.

"Who are these people? Are they government officials?"

"Let's go!" The motorcycle taxi driver took one last puff, stubbed out his cigarette, and the engine noise drowned out Zhao Tiezhu's mutterings.

He stared at the backs of the three men and suddenly felt that the navy blue jacket was more eye-catching than a regular suit, especially the fleeting national emblem buckle on the belt of the man as he got out of the car.

Forget it! What business is it of ordinary people like us if it's a government matter?

"Driver! Speed ​​up, back to Longgang! Brother Chen is waiting for news!"

The fragrance of phoenix trees in the park wafted in the wind, and Zhao Tiezhu took out his phone to send a message to Chen Mo on QQ.

Don't ask why it's not SMS. The answer is that 30MB of data costs 5 yuan, which can be used to send over 100 messages on QQ chat, but only 50 SMS messages.

"Brother! That guy surnamed Lin isn't an auditor; his motives are highly suspicious!"

When Zhao Tiezhu's phone screen lit up again, the lock screen showed a family of four: an old man with a white headscarf and his three children in front of a cave dwelling.

Unlock the * key!

Chen Mo: "Got it! The prototype battery has been made ahead of schedule. Come back quickly and help me with two days of full-temperature cycle testing!"

Chen Mo has already conducted a day of safety testing on the air-conditioning lithium battery. Now, he needs to conduct multiple full-temperature-range cycle tests to obtain a preliminary performance report.

The gaseous lithium battery solution provided by the system has been fully validated.

Chen Mo was filled with anxiety about whether this groundbreaking new form of gaseous lithium battery could make the Orange 1 phone take off, and he couldn't care less about Lin Junfeng's investment.

(End of this chapter)