Breakfast was a warm and friendly affair, shared with his mother. For the past three days, Huang Xuan had maintained the image of a well-behaved child, though he hadn't been able to convince his shrewd mother to lift her supervision of his bank card. However, he had managed to secure a small allowance of about 5,000 yuan, which was far from enough to cover the fuel costs. For now, he continued to defer the payment of electricity fees to his cousin, hoping it wouldn't be brought up anytime soon.
The immediate problem was that the four generators only produced a bit over 20,000 kilowatt-hours daily. Although the electricity available at the Fuxin construction site was substantial, it could only be used during non-working hours, which was a mere drop in the ocean compared to Lorin's needs. Huang Xuan couldn't think of any solutions and suggested using the power from his house, but the "great" Mr. Lorin sternly rejected the idea.
According to Lorin, while power companies might take an interest in the flow of electricity, as long as the bills were paid on time, this concern was as light as a feather. However, if unpaid electricity was stolen, the passion and weight of the response would be as heavy as Mount Tai. For safety's sake, Lorin refused to steal electricity. Moreover, the sudden spike in electricity usage at home would undoubtedly attract the attention of the butler. As they discussed this, Huang Xuan slapped his forehead, realizing that completing this task was as unlikely as Yang Guifei slimming down with diet tea.
In the midst of his frustration, his phone rang, and he answered with a somewhat annoyed tone, "Who is it?"
"Huang Xuan? It's your Uncle Deng." Director Deng had a knack for being friendly, but Huang Xuan, feeling irritated, didn't bother with pleasantries and asked bluntly, "What do you want?"
Apparently unbothered by Huang Xuan's tone, Deng Liwei replied with a sense of urgency, "Do you still have the programs you sent me yesterday? There's a company interested in buying them. Would you like to discuss it?"
Huang Xuan switched out of his game and held the phone between his head and shoulder, asking, "Who are they, and how much are they offering?"
Director Deng was taken aback by how quickly Huang Xuan got to the point. He had expected the son of President Zhang to be more concerned about his program, but despite his confusion, he replied kindly, "It's Lianyou Company. They've developed a few office systems for us before. The company is fairly established, and they said the price is negotiable."
Huang Xuan checked "Shared Sky" and saw that his programs, "Encryption One" and "Encryption Two," had only a few sparse downloads and reviews. He switched back to his game and said, "I'm not in a position to go out right now, so let's talk over the phone."
"Alright," Deng Liwei agreed. "What terms are you thinking?"
"I was thinking 5…" Huang Xuan was about to say 500,000 but quickly changed his mind and dragged out his response, "Hmm… Uncle Deng, you know I'm not well-versed in these things. What do you think is fair?"
There was a long pause before Deng Liwei spoke again, "They want to meet you in person. The terms are negotiable."
"I'm under house arrest by my mom," Huang Xuan used his mother as an excuse, continuing to play his game. "Why don't you just ask them to make an offer?"
After another two minutes of silence, during which Huang Xuan grew increasingly impatient, Deng finally said, "I spoke with them. They're offering 1.2 million for the full rights."
The offer was twice what Huang Xuan had expected, so he had no objections. However, realizing that the programs were taken from a more advanced timeline, he added to avoid any potential issues, "1.2 million is fine, but it only covers the current version. Any updates or modifications have to go through me." After a moment, he added, "Uncle Deng, I don't know much about these things, so could you make sure they understand that they can't modify the program or use it for anything else?"
After a brief hesitation, Deng covered the phone. Huang Xuan, now bored with his game, turned it off and waited. A few minutes later, Deng's voice returned, "They've agreed in principle. When would you like to sign the contract?"
"Let's do it at noon," Huang Xuan replied quickly, eager to get it over with.
"Alright," Deng agreed without further ado. Huang Xuan stood in place, thinking for a moment before putting down the phone and returning to his computer.
The contract was signed at a nearby café. The other party was slightly surprised by Huang Xuan's age, but after a flurry of compliments, Huang Xuan was riding high on praise as he signed his name and walked away with a pre-tax payment of 2 million yuan.
This time, Huang Xuan made sure to open a new bank account. Once the transfer was confirmed, he headed directly to the Fuxin construction site, determined to spend the money quickly—preferably before his mother found out.
Li Shenggang had been running errands for Huang Xuan these past few days. In the real estate company, he was a nobody. Not only did he not know the boss, but his direct supervisor barely recognized him. Despite his efforts to be ingratiating, he had no connections and worked harder than anyone else for less reward. But now, a single phone call had turned his luck around—the boss even knew his name. Determined to seize the opportunity, Li was eager to please.
So, despite the absurdity of Huang Xuan's demands, Li Shenggang had been working tirelessly, even risking the wrath of the project supervisor to ensure the site's electricity was used. He had long realized that relying on his colleagues wouldn't get him anywhere. If he could latch onto the Huang family's young master, all those colleagues would be left in the dust.
Huang Xuan, of course, couldn't begin to fathom Li's thoughts. But when he saw that two more generators had been added to the site and that over 20,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity had been drawn from the site over the past two days, he found Li's shifty eyes a bit more tolerable.
Lorin had likely managed to absorb over 50,000 kilowatt-hours through the energy chain. Although this was far from the 10 million needed, it was at least a start. Watching the six vibrating generators, which looked like they were on a high, Huang Xuan shouted over the noise, "Did you spend all the money I gave you on renting generators?"
"Yes," Li Shenggang blinked and replied, "All 250KW units, working well."
"What about the fuel costs?" A generator's fuel expenses were higher than its rental price, and the money Huang Xuan had given him was honestly just a deposit.
"We'll cover that from the site's budget for now," Li responded without a hint of embarrassment. Naturally, Huang Xuan felt no shame either, but seeing Li's nonchalant attitude made him worry about the consequences of entrusting this man with his money.
Waving his hand dismissively, Huang Xuan couldn't stand the noise any longer. He covered his ears and shouted, "I've got some more money here. How many more units can we fit on this site?"
"As many as you want," Li's voice was barely audible over the roar. "From here all the way to the foot of that mountain is our land. There's plenty of space."
Looking out, Huang Xuan estimated that it was over a kilometer to the mountain's base, which was still undeveloped and covered in greenery. Satisfied, he nodded, "Over the next couple of days, calculate the cost of generating electricity."
"A single generator costs 3,800 yuan per day to rent, and it consumes around 65 liters of fuel per hour. The cost per kilowatt-hour comes to about 1.6 yuan or more, but I've talked with the folks at Shangcheng Technology, and if we rent more, they'll give us a discount." Li rattled off the numbers clearly, and Huang Xuan understood right away. He didn't need to do the math to know that generating 10 million kilowatt-hours at this rate would cost 16 million yuan. While the electricity from the site was cheaper, it only provided a few thousand kilowatt-hours daily, which wasn't much help.
If the generator units operated for 20 hours a day, the cost would be 8,400 yuan daily. In just two days, Huang Xuan had already racked up nearly 100,000 yuan in debt. At the current scale, running six units for a month would cost 1.5 million yuan. Calculating this in his head, Huang Xuan couldn't help but smile wryly. What a mess.
"Rent 10 more units," Huang Xuan said through gritted teeth. "I'll transfer 200,000 yuan to the site's account. Pay off what we owe them and tell them to wait a couple more days for the rest."
"Understood." Li didn't ask why, just complied. He patted his dirt-stained yellow suit, pulled out a small ledger from his pocket, and handed it to Huang Xuan, saying, "Here are the accounts for the past two days, Mr. Huang."
Although he couldn't make sense of the accounts, Huang Xuan pretended to carefully flip through the dozen or so pages. His mother had always taught him that the power of supervision didn't lie in uncovering hidden issues but in the act of supervision itself. He hadn't paid much attention to this advice in the past, but now that he was spending his own money, Huang Xuan found himself putting it into practice.