21: Chapter 21: The Top-Tier Laboratory is Completed; Goal: To Acquire All Red Star Colleges!

The night of the move, the park's central courtyard was as bright as a city that never sleeps.

Fifty barbecue stalls were lined up, the smoke from the lamb skewers drifting all the way up to the third floor. Beer and ice melted all over the ground; whoever passed by just took what they wanted, and no one was keeping count.

Lu Chen was dragged over by Zhao Tiezhu.

"Boss Lu! If you don't have a drink with us, where are we supposed to put our pride!"

Zhao Tiezhu's face was already red as he shoved a beer glass, filled to the point of overflowing, into Lu Chen's hand.

Lu Chen took it, but before he could even take a sip, Lao Laitou squeezed over with a crooked waist, holding his glass high.

"Boss Lu, I, Lai Fusheng, would like to toast you."

"Today, after moving into that house, I called home. I told my daughter, 'Dad has finally lived in a house with a balcony in this lifetime.'"

He sniffled.

"My daughter cried for half an hour on the phone."

Lu Chen patted him on the shoulder.

"Work hard, there will be even better things in the future."

"I believe in your word, Boss Lu! If you say we're going to the moon tomorrow, I, Lai Fusheng, will be the first to sign up!"

Someone in the crowd shouted, "A toast to Boss Lu!"

Hundreds of glasses were raised simultaneously with a clatter, spilling beer all over the ground.

Lu Chen tilted his head back and downed it.

He set the glass down and, taking advantage of the rowdiest moment in the crowd, quietly slipped away.

Da Biao followed.

"Brother, not going to drink a bit more?"

"You help me keep an eye on things, don't let anyone drink until something happens."

"Where are you going?"

"The basement."

Da Biao understood instantly and unhooked the keys from his waist to hand them over.

Behind him, the barbecue stalls erupted in laughter again. Lin Dayong had somehow managed to get a large iron pot, set it up in the open space, and was stir-frying crayfish on the spot, with the workers lining up three rows deep.

This bustle had nothing to do with him anymore.

Behind the construction site's prefab housing was an inconspicuous iron door.

The key turned twice, revealing a vertical shaft behind the door. He headed down along a temporary steel ladder.

Fifteen meters.

The air turned suddenly cold, and the dampness pressed against his skin.

His feet hit hard rock, and he turned on his headlamp.

The beam of light swept across—the entire rock wall was dark purple.

The ore was piled in the corner, sorted into three stacks by size and stacked neatly. The largest ones were the size of a washbasin, their crystalline surfaces glimmering coldly under the light.

Da Biao had arranged for people to sort them, and not a single piece was missing.

Lu Chen stood still in front of the ore pile and opened the system panel.

tech points balance: 4217.

With over a thousand people's loyalty maxed out for a month, pouring in over a thousand points every day, plus the extra rewards from a few hidden achievements, he had managed to save up this amount.

He opened the tech store, his gaze locking directly onto a single line of text.

[Primary Solid-state battery Laboratory · Core Equipment Set]

Required tech points: 4000.

He tapped it without a second of hesitation.

White light poured out from the panel, and the entire underground space hummed and vibrated for a few seconds.

Four pieces of equipment materialized from the light simultaneously.

A high-speed centrifugal purification machine, a microstructure test bench, an electrochemical workstation, and a glove box operating system—silver-white, titanium alloy, covered in LCD panels—they slammed into reality one after another.

Cables connected automatically, and the indicator lights lit up one by one.

Blue light filled the entire underground space.

Lu Chen reached out and touched the casing of the centrifuge.

It was cold. It was real.

He had the blueprints. He had the ore. He had the equipment.

He stood in the middle of the four machines, the blue light reflecting on his face.

He was missing people.

tech points balance: 217.

Over a thousand people was far from enough.

Lu Chen turned off his headlamp and stood in the blue light for a long time.

He turned and went upstairs.

The next morning, at 7:30.

Third-floor conference room.

Lao Zhou, Da Biao, and Zhao Tiezhu sat in a row. Lu Chen stood in front of the whiteboard, his enamel mug resting on the corner of the table.

"The housing is finished. What's next?"

Lao Zhou tested the waters: "Take on that 2 million unit follow-up order from Xinghe? The issue of the component supply shortage..."

"We're not making data cables anymore."

The three of them froze simultaneously.

Lu Chen turned around and wrote three characters on the whiteboard.

Solid-state battery.

Lao Zhou stared for five seconds, then slowly turned his neck toward Da Biao.

Da Biao shook his head.

"Boss Lu," Lao Zhou's voice sounded like walking on broken glass, "we are an electronics contract manufacturer..."

"We were."

"Solid-state batteries—there are only a few companies in the world that can mass-produce them. Japan's Jingxia and South Korea's Xingxing have dumped hundreds of billions of dollars into it and are still in the laboratory stage. We are just a..."

"We have the ore."

Lao Zhou's mouth got stuck.

Da Biao added in a low voice.

"Those purple stones underground."

Lao Zhou looked at Da Biao, then at Lu Chen; the gears in his brain had clearly seized up.

"What purple stones?"

"You don't need to know what kind of stones they are."

Lu Chen tapped the whiteboard. "You only need to know... I have the technology, I have the raw materials, and I have the equipment. Now, I'm only missing one thing."

"Money?"

"People."

He picked up the enamel mug and took a sip.

"Solid-state batteries aren't about tightening screws or soldering wires. It requires people who understand materials science, electrochemistry, and equipment operation and programming. At the very least... professionally trained technical workers."

Lao Zhou slapped his thigh.

"That's easy to handle! Post on recruitment websites, throw money at them with high salaries, 985 and 211 science and engineering majors..."

"I posted it last night."

Lu Chen pushed his phone over.

Lao Zhou picked it up to look.

Views: 87,642.

Resumes submitted: 0.

Lao Zhou didn't believe it and refreshed it three times.

"Base salary of 15,000, and zero submissions?"

"Check the comment section."

Lao Zhou scrolled down, his face turning pale inch by inch.

"A contract manufacturer doing solid-state batteries? Hahahaha."

"An electronics factory recruiting materials science master's graduates? I might as well recruit astronauts."

He put the phone down and sighed.

"Elite university graduates either go to big corporate research institutes or go abroad for their PhDs. Our temple is too small; they don't think much of us."

He paused and lowered his voice.

"Besides, I've asked around... Tengfei Electronics has signed exclusive agreements with three universities in the city. Science and engineering graduates go straight to Tengfei for internships upon graduation; other companies can't even touch them."

The conference room went quiet.

Zhao Tiezhu muttered, "How about we poach from out of town?"

"Elite schools out of town will think even less of us," Lao Zhou said with a bitter smile.

Da Biao scratched his head. "Then what do we do? We can't have my group of security guards doing research, can we?"

Lu Chen didn't speak.

He took the phone back, closed the recruitment page, and opened another webpage.

List of local universities.

He scrolled from top to bottom.

Ranked first, Jiangcheng University, 985.

Ranked second, Jiangcheng Institute of Technology, 211.

All the way down.

He scrolled to the very bottom.

Ranked last.

Hongxing Vocational College.

Vocational college. Three-year program. Last year, it almost had its accreditation revoked due to insufficient enrollment.

Flagship majors: Electronic Information Technology, Applied Chemistry.

Graduate employment rate: Bottom of the province.

Lao Zhou leaned over and glanced at the screen, sucking in a sharp breath.

"Boss Lu, you wouldn't..."

"How many graduating students does Hongxing Vocational College have this year?"

"How would I know..."

"1,200."

Lu Chen stuffed his phone back into his pocket and stood up.

"Lao Zhou, get the car ready."

"...Where to?"

"Hongxing Vocational College."

Lao Zhou's voice cracked...

"You're going to a vocational college to recruit people to make solid-state batteries?!"

"Not recruiting."

He picked up the enamel mug and walked toward the door.

"It's a buyout. 1,200 of them, I want them all."

"Prepare 10 million in cash. We leave in half an hour."

Lao Zhou slumped in his chair, his lips moving for a long time before he managed to choke out:

"Boss Lu, can we not always start things off like this..."

No one answered.

In the hallway, only the sound of the enamel mug lid clattering remained, growing fainter and fainter.

Da Biao stood up and patted Lao Zhou on the shoulder.

"Let's go, Brother Zhou. You'll get used to it."

Zhao Tiezhu also stood up, walked two steps out, and turned back.

"Lao Zhou, does Hongxing Vocational College know Boss Lu is coming?"

Lao Zhou shook his head.

"Do those vocational students know they're about to start working on solid-state batteries?"

Lao Zhou shook his head again.

Zhao Tiezhu chuckled.

"That's going to be interesting."