Volume 6: The Great Change Chapter 0797 Nanshi Hi-Tech
"No, I don't like potatoes."
Smolensky took the chips from his own bowl and put them on Varisi's plate.
Vasily picked up a French fry, dipped it in ketchup, and took a bite. "I'm the opposite of you. I like potatoes very much. My father survived in Berlin on a bag of sprouted potatoes. It's the same for me. When it was the most difficult time, I only had two potatoes left, and they kept me going for five days."
"I am relatively lucky. Although my life has always been difficult, I have not experienced hunger very often."
Vasily spread his hands and said, "You are a lucky guy. I am an unlucky guy. I didn't end my wandering life until I was almost 30 years old."
After quickly eating a few more fries, Vasily wiped his fingers with a napkin, then took out a folded paper from his pocket, "Tonight, 200 million rubles will be sent to your Metropolitan Bank. This money is not a loan to you, but for you to help me exchange something."
Smolensky took the paper and unfolded it to look at it, his brows suddenly frowned, "Mr. Babanov, according to the above amount, not only will I not make any profit, but I will also suffer a lot of losses. The amount of aluminum alone is far more than the value of 500 million rubles."
Vasily nodded. "Yes, at first glance, this deal is indeed unfair to you. However, our Vasily Group never puts our partners in a difficult position. You might as well think about it again. This deal is actually very profitable."
Smolensky thought about it for a moment and figured out the trick.
Under the planned economic system of the Soviet revisionists, the monetary system was split into two halves: one half was cash currency, and the other half was transfer currency issued by the government to factories and mines in the form of subsidies, also known as non-cash.
Cash and non-cash cannot be converted into each other. In this way, the Soviet revisionists can suppress the demand for cash and prevent the amount of money from causing huge changes in production and prices.
The result is a phenomenon where the cash currency needed by the factory is often insufficient, but non-cash is extremely abundant. Naturally, cash becomes more valuable than non-cash.
In the past two years, the value of one cash ruble has been equal to 10 non-cash rubles, but legally, they are equivalent. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that whoever can exchange non-cash into cash can make money just like picking up money.
"Mr. Babanov, I don't have any channels to exchange non-cash rubles."
"Don't worry. I plan to go trout fishing in the suburbs tomorrow. You can come with me. I'll introduce someone to you. We'll meet at the door here at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
At the same time, in the National Department Store, known as GUM by the locals, Ueto Masami was strolling leisurely like a star. Some imported goods did not arouse her interest. Her eyes were only on the products produced in the Soviet revisionist country, such as nesting dolls.
When they came to a display window, Ueto Masami pointed at the chocolate in the window and asked, "Elena, is this chocolate delicious?"
Irina was Masami Ueto's secretary. She was born in Moscow and spent her childhood in Moscow. In the early 1980s, she followed her engineer parents who were transferred to Berlin. Later, her parents were unfortunately involved in the political struggle in East Germany and became victims. Irina was sent across the Berlin Wall by kind-hearted people and went to live in Milan. In 1986, she started working in the South Office.
Elena did not serve Nan for a long time, but she became Ueto Masami's secretary in just four years. It was obvious that her nationality and childhood experience of living in Moscow gave her a lot of points.
Similar to her, but not as fast as her in being promoted, there is also Alexi. At this time, Alexi is not far behind Ueto Masami and the others.
"It's very sweet. I loved it when I was a kid."
"Really? Then buy some and try it."
Ueto Masami bought two pieces, one for herself and one for Elena, while the others just watched.
They ate and walked at the same time, and it took them half a day to visit the huge GUM. When they walked out of the mall with their things and faced the Red Square, a breeze blew by, and the "Shopping Queen" label on Masami Ueto's forehead was blown away, revealing the "Iron Lady" label that was covered up.
"Alexei, take two people to find a suitable office location for us."
"yes."
"Elena, let's go back to the hotel."
The next day, outside Moscow.
The song "Evenings on the outskirts of Moscow" played on the car's tape recorder passed through the open car window and floated into the ears of the three people fishing by the lake.
"Metropolitan Bank, Smolensky; Komsomol, Khodorkovsky." Vasily gave a brief introduction and stared intently at the water.
The Vasily Group has been in Moscow for quite some time. Although the Vasily Bank has never been opened, it does not mean that the people in the group have been idle.
The gimmick of 500 tons of gold and the 200 tons already lying in the vault of the Foreign Trade Bank were like stamens attracting bees that were desperate for nutrients. With the man in love and the woman in mind, Vasily easily found his place in the social scene in Moscow.
Officially, Vasily was the president of the Vasily Group and decided the direction of 500 tons of gold; privately, Vasily was a Jew and it was easy for him to get close to the extremely active Jewish cooperative traders. Many of the goods that the traders exported for profit went through the channels of the Vasily Group.
Oil, steel, coal, aluminum, and even food, business skills are hidden in every pore of the Jews.
Smolensky was excited when he saw Khodorkovsky. He knew that in 1987, the Communist Youth League adopted a financial system - under certain conditions, the league organization could mix cash and non-cash. Using this new system, Khodorkovsky established various youth science and technology centers and turned non-cash into cash by holding various activities.
Moreover, Khodorkovsky pioneered the use of non-cash to exchange for specialty commodities such as logs, and then worked with export companies to convert these logs into US dollars.
The Vasily Group plays the role of an export company, and the logs exchanged by Khodorkovsky initially went to Luban Forestry, and since last year it has been connected with Guo Fuxi's company.
Smolensky knew very well that with Khodorkovsky as a channel, the 200 million rubles given by Vasily could be magnified to 2 billion non-cash rubles. All the 2 billion non-cash rubles could be used to exchange for bulk commodities. After deducting the demand quantity on Vasily's list, a lot of profit could still be left. Although the bulk of the profit would go to Khodorkovsky, in the end, no less would definitely belong to him.
Without intending to fish, Smolensky and Khodorkovsky discussed the details of their cooperation.
Shanghai, Fang Mansion.
Yan Du was conducting a safety check on a man who claimed to be Tong Jue, a former researcher at the MICS Institute of Ergonomics. After confirming that Tong Jue had no dangerous goods on him, he rubbed his face to make sure he was not wearing a simulation mask, then took out a camera and pointed it at Tong Jue's face.
Only after receiving the reply "no suspicion", did Yan Du resume his demeanor as a butler and serve Tong Jue some fragrant tea.
The Fang Mansion is not the Imperial Palace, so there is no need for such strict inspection procedures. However, Tong Jue is a special case. He has to stay in the Fang Mansion for a few days to track and study Nanwu Wei's sitting habits.
MICS made a breakthrough in ergonomic research, so Albert, the director of the institute, appointed Tong Jue to come to Shanghai to establish a company called "Da Vinci" to produce ergonomic chair accessories, and to show their research results to the big boss Nan Yi. Nan Yi then sent someone to customize a chair for Nan Wuwei.
In the study room of Fang’s Manor, Nan Yi was checking the research results of various research institutes under the Nan family.
Nan Yi is a superstitious person. He believes in high technology. As long as it is labeled as high-tech and suitable for him to get involved in, he will invest without hesitation. Although there are very few research projects with returns in recent years, he will never be soft-hearted when approving budgets.
At present, among all the high-tech research and development that Nan has invested in, only biotechnology has brought real big returns. Not to mention the pseudo research project of Viagra, just take Lipitor [atorvastatin] which is about to complete the process and will be on the market. With this drug, the 20-year patent period is more than enough to recover all the high-tech investments that Nan has made so far.
×The hepatitis C specific drug that was transferred to the Third Biopharmaceutical for research has produced results. The specific drug named DAA is being sent to the Glorious Peacock in Mumbai for secret clinical testing.
When Nan Yi saw the DAA information, he stood there in deep thought.
After Third Biopharmaceutical submitted the report on the successful development of DAA to the Information and Policy Committee, 90% of the committee members opposed DAA's application for a patent and listing. Among them, 80% said that they would continue research based on DAA until a new drug that cannot cure hepatitis C but can inhibit it was developed and then put on the market; the remaining 10% said that DAA should be shelved directly, and its listing would not be a good thing for Third Biopharmaceutical.
For a biopharmaceutical company, a specific drug that can completely cure a disease is not considered a good drug. Only a drug that patients cannot live without can be considered a good drug. This ensures that a drug can bring profits to the company for decades and maximize benefits.
After thinking for a while, Nan Yi sent an email to Erlanger, asking about the feasibility and time budget required to develop a new drug based on DAA.
Nan Yi is still evil at heart. He is not satisfied with the forecast made by the Intelligence Committee that DAA would have a revenue of $50 billion. A revenue of $50 billion is simply not enough to calculate a profit of $20 billion.
With Viagra and Lipitor, Third Biopharmaceuticals has mastered the ability to generate its own blood and does not need Nan's continued investment. As long as Erlanger replies to Nan Yi in less than three years, he will shelve DAA and wait patiently for news of the successful development of new drugs.
Nan Yi skipped the DAA and glanced at the report on memory transplantation into the hippocampus. He quickly pressed PageDown to switch pages. Memory transplantation was a super long-term research project, and it might not produce any results until the day he died. If he saw the amount of money invested, he was worried that he would vomit blood.
Yan Qingning's membrane protein research has produced results, but it is not yet known how the results will be applied. Third-party biopharmaceuticals have not conducted in-depth research on the target effects of drugs, and currently do not have the ability to develop targeted drugs well.
The research on snake venom is progressing well. The snake venom protein for beauty purposes has been decomposed and the finished product will be available soon. Research on tumor inhibition, anticoagulation, hemostasis and analgesia will also produce results in the next one to three years.
Erlanger was very disgusted and had always wanted to kick out Third Biopharmaceutical's beauty research team, which had already conducted very in-depth research on hyaluronic acid and botulinum toxin and could translate it into results at any time.
Nan Yi made a decision after a brief thought. The beauty research team was transferred to Buer Pharmaceutical. The technology and patents were controlled by Buer Pharmaceutical, but the production was in cooperation with New Miracle Group. Future products nominally belonged to New Miracle Group.
Just as Nan Yi was looking at the information about Fan Shengzhi's 40th Research Institute, Nan Ruoyin came behind him with a banana in her hand and seeds spitting out from her mouth.
"Dad, do you want one?" Nan Ruoyin handed a thick banana to Nan Yi.
Nan Yi glanced at Nan Ruoyin's hand and pointed at the thinner one, "I want that one."
Nan Ruoyin said with a smile: "No, there is only one left."
"Then take your time to eat. The one in your hand is the last one on earth."
"It should be said that this is the last one now. There will be more in a few months." Nan Ruoyin put the banana that Nan Yi pointed at on the table and said, "Dad, can the yield be increased this year?"
Nan Yi picked up the banana, peeled it and took a bite. "It's difficult. The island is too small. There is only a small area suitable for growing bananas. The area that can be expanded is very limited. It is impossible to transplant it to other places. As soon as it is planted, Fusarium will come to visit."
"What a shame! Gros Michel bananas are much tastier than Mandarin bananas."
"We can't help it. The 40th Research Institute has not yet developed a method to resist Fusarium wilt. We are lucky to find the only remaining Gros Michel banana." After biting off the remaining banana, Nan Yi asked again, "Are wild bananas delicious?"
"The taste is similar to the Gros Michel banana, but it's too troublesome to spit out the seeds, and there's too little pulp." Nan Ruoyin said, taking another bite of the banana in her hand and spitting out the seeds one by one.
"Oh, why are you back so late today...By the way, you are flying to Mumbai."
"Yes." Nan Ruoyin looked at her watch, "Dad, I don't want to chat with you anymore. There is still an hour left. I'm going to pack my luggage."
"Um."
After Nan Ruoyin left, Nan Yi continued to look at the information.
The 40th Institute has already developed apple-flavored and mango-flavored bananas, and is currently working on watermelon-flavored and pear-flavored ones, but it is still unclear when they will be successful.
At the end of the information, there is a predictive analysis provided by researchers from the 40th Institute. If the asexual reproduction method of bananas is not changed, the current Chinese banana may become extinct.
Nan Yi was quite interested in this prediction. The extinction of the Chinese banana was not bad news for Shennong Nanliang. The 40th Research Institute had been studying the wild banana tree. If they could produce results, they would be able to make a fortune by selling branches or seeds.
Bananas originated on the island of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean. The environment and climate of this island are very suitable for the growth of bananas, and there are many wild banana trees on the island.
However, wild bananas are different from the bananas people eat. What Nan Ruoyin was eating just now was a wild banana, which has more seeds and less flesh, similar to a pomegranate, with densely packed seeds. The difference is that in pomegranates, you eat the seeds, the more the better, while in wild bananas, you eat the flesh, and a thick banana has only a little flesh.
Naturally, not many people like to eat this kind of banana, so although bananas were discovered thousands of years ago, they have never been popularized to other parts of the world.
It was not until the 19th century that French naturalist Nicolas Baudin accidentally discovered that some local bananas were a little different when he was traveling in Southeast Asia. The troublesome seeds in the flesh had disappeared. He brought this seedless banana back to the botanical garden and tried to grow it.
From then on, mankind began its delicious journey of bananas. This mutated seedless banana was named Big Mike or Big Michelin. After people discovered its wonderful taste, it quickly spread around the world.
In order to completely replicate the seedless mutant gene of the Gros Michel banana without affecting the taste and yield, the banana trees are planted using asexual reproduction, which is simply planting cuttings. If you trace back to the origin of all the Gros Michel banana trees in the world, they actually all come from the earliest mutant banana tree.
That is to say, if a virus is effective for one banana tree, it will be effective for banana trees all over the world.
It was this characteristic that caused the Gros Michel banana to not survive for long.
In the 1950s, a fungus called Fusarium wilt sneaked into banana plantations around the world. After entering the soil, it directly infects the roots and vascular system of banana trees, making it impossible for bananas to absorb water and nutrients from the soil and complete transportation. Ultimately, banana farmers could only watch their bananas wither and die.
A few years later, all the Gross Michel banana trees in the world died, and were replaced by the Chinese banana, a banana variety found by British "explorers" in southern China in the early years.
In fact, the Hua banana and the Gros Michel banana have the same origin, but the Hua banana is the offspring of sexual reproduction. No one takes care of it, so it has to withstand strong winds and rainstorms in the wild. After two or even more mutations, its survival ability [anti-virus ability] is very strong, but no one takes good care of it, so naturally the taste is worse.
Although the survival ability of the Chinese banana is stronger than that of the Gros Michel banana, they are still brothers. The Chinese banana has the same problems as the Gros Michel banana, so it is reasonable that the Chinese banana is in danger of extinction.
However, Nan Yi remembered that when he traveled through time, he had not heard of the banana crisis, so even if this prediction was reliable, it would still be a relatively distant thing.
"It seems unlikely that we can make money from selling seeds or branches. It is more reliable to focus on improving and developing a variety of tastes."
After pressing "PageDown" a few more times, Nan Yi started to look at the information of the original Voyeurism Interest Group, now Meerkat Technology.
Meerkat Technology has separated the research team of the Money Tree project and established a new company "Lemon Tree" in Binjiang, Hangzhou. In the short term, this company will focus on the research and development of traffic probes, and its long-term development goal is smart cities.
Nan Yi gave instructions to Lemon Tree President Hikvision - to try to get a certain customer to use the probes they provided to create a miracle of over 10 billion in revenue from a single probe.
The highest principle of Lemon Tree is to burn itself to illuminate its customers, to eat coarse food itself and let its customers enjoy the best food.
" If Meerkat Technology wants to make great progress, it must make breakthroughs in lens-related technologies, otherwise facial recognition and bone analysis will be in vain." Nan Yi stroked his chin and thought to himself, "I have to contact Akio Morita to see if I have what Sony wants. Sony doesn't seem to be short of money, so what is it lacking..."
After thinking for a while, Nan Yi sent an email to the Nanban Office, asking it to investigate Sony's financial situation and send him a copy of Sony's financial report as soon as possible.
