Volume 4: The World of Great Conflict Chapter 0526 Money is Burning
After chatting with Han Guoren, Nan Yi took Fan Hongdou to Wenchang Food and Beverage Research Institute.
The research institute was originally affiliated to Wenchang Food Factory. It became independent at the beginning of the year and became an independent, self-financing research institution.
After changing into protective clothing and undergoing disinfection, the two entered the research institute.
There are not many researchers in the institute. There are only the director Du Yanjiu, three main researchers, and four apprentices who can't do much work.
Du Yanjiu was originally a technician in a large food factory in the north. His skills were just so-so, but his mind was very flexible. After the hawthorn slices and fruit jelly produced by Wenchang Food Factory became popular, he suggested that his own factory also produce them.
Unfortunately, his opinion was not accepted, and his girlfriend of three years broke up with him because she thought he couldn't make up 72 legs, so he ran to Wenchangwei to seek shelter.
This guy is very methodical in his work. He worked in Wenchangwei for nearly three months before he went back to resign. Before that, he had been using sick leave notes to fool the factory.
It is precisely because he has this method that he was able to become the director of the institute.
When Nan Yi and the other person entered the research institute, Du Yanjiu was "doing research" with the researchers on a pile of snacks on the table.
"Is it tasty?"
"It's not delicious. It's too sweet and a bit greasy."
"It's not soft enough. You need to add more leavening agent."
Listening to the conversation between the researchers, Nan Yi felt a sense of pride. It turned out that doing research was so simple, and he could also be a researcher.
So he also came over and asked, "Did you add potassium metabisulfite?"
"There's no need to add preservatives to biscuits. They won't sell well at all." Du Yanjiu replied, and then he realized something was wrong. He turned around and said, "Accountant Nan, I thought so."
"Fuck!" Nan Yi spat.
He understood what Du Yanjiu meant by "I said so". Doesn't it mean that he pretends to know when he doesn't?
“No preservatives in cookies?”
"No, the biscuits have been dehydrated. The bulk ones can be stored for three months without any problem, and the bagged ones with desiccant can be stored for a year without any problem." Du Yanjiu said simply.
"Oh." Nan Yi responded and asked, "Has the research on popping candy been successful?"
"You figured it out ten years ago. I've been cheated by you. The food factory thinks the production cost is too high and won't buy it. You came at the right time. Pay the money quickly. The research institute hasn't issued the high temperature allowance yet."
It would have been fine if Nan Yi didn’t mention the popping candy, but as soon as he did, Du Yanjiu got angry.
Nan Yi did not take Du Yanjiu's rude attitude as an offense, and asked kindly, "Which step is more costly?"
"Of course it's the step of injecting compressed carbon dioxide into the sugar. The food factory doesn't have a ready-made machine, so we have to buy it again. We can't buy it domestically, so we have to go abroad to buy it, which costs more than 200,000 US dollars."
"Got it. I'll talk to the food factory."
The research institute is responsible for its own profits and losses. Its only profit model is to research new snacks and then hand them over to food factories for production. The food factories will give the research institute a share of the profits based on sales volume at a fixed ratio, which is considered as patent royalties and will be paid for two years.
If the food factories do not buy into the research results produced by the institute, the institute will be at a loss.
However, this is an extreme case. In fact, under normal circumstances, it is usually the food factory that specifies the research direction, and the research institute accepts the order and conducts targeted research. There will be no situation where the research institute refuses to buy into the idea.
Popping candy is an exception, and this research direction was proposed by Nan Yi.
"Accountant Nan, would you like to try it?" Du Yanjiu said, picking up a piece of biscuit on the table.
"Thanks, but I don't need it. I want to ask you, has the formula of Nanba Children's Nutrition Oral Liquid been finalized?"
"It has been finalized long ago. It contains honey, hawthorn, red dates, calcium gluconate, lotus seeds, wolfberries, coix seeds, longans, a little bit of hydrolyzed protein, zinc gluconate, citric acid, ferrous sulfate as colorant, and sorbic acid as preservative.
It's sweet and delicious. As for its efficacy, it has the functions of immune regulation and digestion. You can make up other functions as you like. "
"What about the cost?" Nan Yi asked.
Du Yanjiu raised the biscuit in his hand again and said, "10 milliliters equals two biscuits."
"That's great. It won't be long before you become an internationally renowned food researcher. How about giving you an English name, DuPont?" Nan Yi said playfully.
"DuPont, I'm still Ford, Accountant Nan, forget about the empty ones, just don't forget to give me the practical ones."
"Sitting in a row and sharing fruits is a fine tradition of Wenchangwei. You will get everything that is yours. The formula of the oral liquid will be further refined and sublimated to a higher level. After the New Year, this product will be ready for release."
Du Yanjiu asked confusedly: "How to refine? How to sublimate?"
"You can add expensive medicinal ingredients to the formula, such as ginseng, ganoderma lucidum, and deer antler. It's up to you. Just make the oral liquid look expensive and justify its high price."
After Nan Yi finished speaking, he left with Fan Hongdou.
"How much?"
Du Yanjiu's voice followed.
“A root of ginseng is passed down through three generations, and even when the great-grandson is old, it is still there.”
"Swindler!"
…
On the third day after returning to Wenchangwei, Nan Yi and Fan Hongdou spent their time wandering around their own vegetable garden.
On the fourth day, two little Japanese kids, a boy and a girl, came to the village.
"Men Saner Sang, he's not dead yet?"
"I won't die for now. Hurry up. I'll be going back to Tokyo after signing the contract. I still have a bunch of things waiting for me to deal with."
There were two long bloody marks on Men Saner's neck. Needless to say, they were definitely the work left by Emma.
"Why rush? The Earthly Ox Day is still a few days away. We still have time to ship the eels back and put them in Aichi Prefecture's bubble water."
In ancient times, there were soaked crabs, and now there are soaked eels.
When it comes to eels, the ones from Aichi Prefecture are the most expensive. Like lake crabs, they are a calling card of Japanese eels.
The first batch of eels officially farmed by the Kenzo Group has reached the shipment date. Most of them will be sold directly to Yamanomi and transported to Aichi Prefecture to soak in water for a few days, turning Wenchang products into Aichi products.
A small portion was kept for the group to find Japanese customers and used to build its own eel brand.
As for why they do this, it is actually very simple. The eels produced in Wenchang cannot be sold at a high price for the time being. The price is several times lower than that produced in Aichi, but the quality is not different. The quality of eels produced in Wenchang is even higher than some eels produced in Aichi.
"There's no need to rush. There are a lot of things to collect, not just eels. Move aside, Mr. Ge, let's study the details of the contract." Men Saner pushed Nan Yi away and talked directly to Ge Cuizhu.
Nan Yi, who was pushed aside, did not disturb Men San'er and the others from talking about business. He found a seat and waved to the school beauty.
The school beauty immediately placed a refrigerator on the table next to Nan Yi, opened the box, and took out a golden box that looked similar to a cosmetics box.
Nan Yi opened the box, picked out a few black round beads and put them into his mouth.
Then, he bared his teeth and his heart trembled.
"Uncle Nan, you've made a fortune. You can even afford to eat such expensive caviar." Men San'er, who was talking about the contract with Ge Cuizhu, looked up and said when he saw the box next to Nan Yi.
"You know nothing, Auntie. Try it and tell me, how much do you think it's worth?"
Nan Yi closed the box and slid it towards Ge Cuizhu.
"Nan Yi, I recognize this thing. It's quite expensive, more than one hundred US dollars an ounce." Ge Cuizhu picked up the box, looked at it and said.
"Try it. I can't appreciate the taste. To me, this box is worth at most 5 yuan."
Ge Cuizhu followed her instructions, opened the box, took a little to taste, and said, "It's delicious, but the price is too expensive. I don't think it's worth it."
"Aunt, your taste buds are better than mine." Nan Yi gave a thumbs up and said, "Sturgeon is the next target of the Reclamation Group. In the past two years, life has become better all over the world. The demand for caviar is increasing, and the speed of wild sturgeons being caught is getting faster and faster. In a few years, they will become endangered fish.
In the near future, the main source of caviar will become farmed sturgeon.
Kenzhi Group and Yama no Mi can cooperate on sturgeon farming. Kenzhi Group will be responsible for technical breakthroughs, while Yama no Mi will use its good relationships with major Japanese restaurants to build its brand. The two parties will work together to create a top caviar brand.
Mensaner, I bought two boxes of caviar in total, please remember to reimburse me. I won’t ask you to pay for the air freight.”
"Once the cooperation is settled, reimbursement will be made according to the share ratio." Men Saner said lightly.
"Oh, you really have become a businessman."
"Of course I must."
"Then you guys continue to negotiate the contract. After that's done, we'll talk about the caviar. And you can come to my place for lunch."
"Just some watermelon rind salad."
"I didn't buy watermelons, but I got water chestnut vines."
"That's fine."
After leaving the village committee, Nan Yi took Fan Hongdou to the river bank. When they reached the reed marsh, they could see a lot of snakeberries growing on the river bank, in clusters.
Nan Yi picked a snakeberry and said to Fan Hongdou, "Pick the ones with black tips and incomplete seeds. These ones have been bitten by insects and are the sweetest."
As he spoke, Nan Yi blew on the snakeberry to blow away the insects crawling on it, then he picked it up with his hands and threw it directly into his mouth. He took a bite, and the sweet juice burst in his mouth.
Fan Hongdou followed suit and threw one into her mouth. After taking a bite, she squinted her eyes and said, "Godfather, it's so sweet."
"Isn't it? This is a good thing. It can be used to treat many diseases. It is also called snake grass. If you are bitten by a snake, you can mash it and apply it to the bitten area. It is also very effective for abscesses and has a good anti-cancer effect.
Artificial cultivation is easy, and Godfather will have people conduct in-depth research. If the economic benefits are good, we can plant a few thousand acres first to try it out."
“Sell it as fruit?”
Fan Hongdou picked a few more snakeberries and threw them into her mouth.
"As a fruit, it is not worth the price. Snakeberry is so widespread that you can see it everywhere. So let's plant it as a medicinal herb. It's hard to say now. Let's wait for the research results to come out. We can pick some and soak them in salt water before eating. Don't eat too much, or you will get diarrhea."
"Uh-huh."
While Nan Yi and Fan Hongdou were picking snakeberries, more than 2,700 kilometers away in the mountains of Northeast China, two people were squatting on the ground with magnifying glasses in their hands, carefully observing a wild soybean.
"Wang, have you discovered it?"
"Eva, I see, there are no cyst nematodes on this one either."
"It seems that we have successfully found the gene that can resist cyst nematode disease. Wang, we will first take samples and send them back to the research institute, and then set up camp here for further observation."
Eva unloaded her bag from her back, dug out two wild soybeans from the soil with tools, put them into a strange-shaped container, and then called a person standing not far away to her side, "Qiao, send someone to escort this back to the institute as soon as possible. Wang and I are going to camp here for a long time, so prepare supplies."
"Yes, Professor Eva."
Qiao responded and took the vessel solemnly.
Coincidentally, at the Hutoupo Beach on the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province, a man was staring in a daze at a plant in the reed marsh that looked like a reed but had ears of bluish-white color.
This plant is very peculiar. It blooms, bears fruit and ears at the same time, and the fruit has long thorns.
"Chen, this should be a wild sea rice." said a foreigner named Yang.
"Yes, Yang, this wild sea rice is comparable to the wild rice we found in northern Australia. I wonder how it tastes."
"You can try."
"No, we can't destroy it. Let's look on the ground to see if there are any fallen seeds."
After having dinner at Wenchangwei, Nan Yi and Fan Hongdou crossed the border and went to Xiangkeng.
At eight o'clock in the evening, Nan Yi was sitting in the study room of No. 2046 Repulse Bay looking at the financial statements of Shennong Nanliang. When he saw that Fan Shengzhi Research Institute had spent 112.7 million US dollars so far this year, he shuddered.
"Research is a damn expensive business."
However, when he thought about the fact that Fan Shengzhi now had 27 branch research institutes around the world, had sent out 103 field scientific research teams, and needed to maintain 13 helicopters and 12 scientific research aircraft, Nan Yi felt that it was reasonable.
“Just hang in there. After ten years and spending tens of billions, you will eventually see a return.” Nan Yi stamped the report heavily and signed each funding application form.
That night, Nan Yi was so heartbroken that he couldn't sleep.
