Chapter 20

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“First thing’s first. I could give your company the sole right to manufacture and deal the T-1.” The first sentence Zhang Heng uttered put Li Jianguo at ease right away. “My terms are actually far from complicated. I’d only like you to put your connections to work and have the FDA approve the T-1 as soon as possible, and eventually release it to the market.”

“No problem with that. We of the Li Group still have quite a bit of influence after all.” Li Jianguo nodded right away.

“Secondly, I’d like you to make use of your connections and build an offshore company in the Bermuda Islands in my name. Of course, while I’d like you to just take care of the procedure for me, I want a company that is entirely my own from the inside-out.”

“Why not set it up here at home?”

“I have my own reasons. Can you just tell me if you can get that done?” Zhang Heng looked straight at the older man’s eyes.

“Deal.” Li Jianguo didn’t bother arguing after hearing Zhang Heng’s words. None of that would be of any problem to him after all.

“Thirdly, the release of this new drug into the market will definitely have the government hounding us. As such, I’d like you and your company to serve as the spokesperson for the new drug. I’ll wash my hands clean from any dealings with the authorities. I’d be willing to give you 60 percent shares in this. As for how much the authorities will be taking out of this, I’d let your company see to that.”

“Only 60 percent of the sales of the shares?” Li Jianguo looked troubled. He knew well that the national authorities would want a piece of the shares of sales of such a drug, and they would definitely not settle with just 20 to 30 percent. The conventional way of doing things said that said authorities would want more than 50 percent.

But, then again, the government also wouldn’t let such a loss to him remain uncompensated. There would definitely some sort of preference, privileges, and leanings given to his company in the future. However, if Zhang Heng was only willing to give him 60 percent, then he would only have about 10 percent to gain after 50 percent was taken away by the government.

The reason why the government would want a piece of this was something that both Li Jianguo and Zhang Heng knew very well. The government wouldn’t allow such an epoch-making drug to stay in the hands of private persons, and they would definitely want a piece of the pie.

However, that wasn’t to say that the authorities would just dismiss Zhang Heng with a sum of money and take away all rights regarding the drug. No scientist would have been willing to work in Huaxia otherwise. The best deal Zhang Heng could get out of it was simply the right to manufacture and sell the drug, but the authorities would nonetheless buy away part of the company’s shares as they took away the formula, turning the company from a private one into a government-linked company. That would be their way of ensuring that all technologies regarding the T-1 remained within Huaxia.

Simply put, Zhang Heng would need to hand the formula of culturing the T-1 to the Huaxian government.

Zhang Heng had been prepared for a long time when it came to that aspect. That wasn’t to say that he had changed his mind and wanted to just hand everything over to the government, resigning himself to the role of a nanny. He simply saw fit to bear some losses at the moment.

Being penniless and powerless meant that he had to get himself someone powerful to back him. As mentioned before, there was no way the government would allow the T-1 to stay in the hands of private persons. The only way Zhang Heng could profit from selling the T-1 drug, yet ensure that he wouldn’t be swallowed whole by others, was to have the government back him.

However, this was the only time he would do such a thing. Once he got his starting capital, the sky would be the limit.

That was why Zhang Heng didn’t want to register his company in Huaxia. He knew all too well just how headstrong the Huaxian government could be with their systems and methods. The only way a monopoly enterprise could grow was to be established in a capitalist environment. Only by setting up his company offshore, could he grow his company into a goliath.

The very reason why he went out of his way to show the Li Group just how potent the effects of the T-1 Virus was, was because he feared that some unscrupulous jerks among the upper echelons of the government would get greedy, getting their hands on the drug by killing him outright. There was simply nothing he could have done if he ended up dead. However, with the Li Group serving as a witness to the drug’s effects, he deemed that he would be safe, as there was no way any of those unscrupulous people could just get rid of the Li Group entirely after all.

In actual practice, the possibility of him getting assassinated was really very small, as someone capable of developing a drug like the T-1 would be regarded as a treasure to the nation. But, then again, he saw fit to be cautious, which was why he involved the Li Group in the first place.

“Alright, 60 percent it is then!” Li Jianguo gritted his teeth. But, then again, despite the fact that the profit he would actually gain was a measly 10 percent, the actual sum of that money would definitely be higher than the total of his current assets nonetheless. “But umm, Little Zhang. What about dealership? Give it to the authorities or keep it ourselves?”

“Dealership of the T-1 will definitely not be given to authorities. They could have inside sales, at most. As for sales to the public, I’ll hand everything to you, Uncle Li.” Zhang Heng spread his hands and said, “One way or another, I’ll let you handle the manufacture, sales, and whatnot with the drug. I only want the money to come in.”

Li Jianguo felt the weight on his shoulder being lifted entirely after seeing that both parties had reached an agreement. He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, Little Zhang, it looks like you wanna be the hands-off type then. But, given that you and your team have developed such a drug, I’m afraid your days of quiet will be numbered.”

Zhang Heng shook his head and wore a bitter grin. “Oh right, now that you mention it, I guess I’ll have to add another requirement. Please do your best to protect my privacy. That applies when you deal with the authorities as well. Never leak any information regarding my identity or that of my team, deliberately or otherwise. The WHO, Nobel Prize Foundation, or whatever, whenever people from such organizations want to contact me or do a press release or whatever, I’ll have your people take care of it, Uncle Li. I’ll stay out of any of that.”

“Woah, hold on…” Li Jianguo’s eyes were thrown wide open. “You’re telling me to keep your name a complete secret? Why did your team bother to develop such a drug in the first place then?”

“We want money.”

…

The two of them went on to discuss the details regarding their deal, and Li Jianguo walked him through any aspect that Zhang Heng wanted to know more about. Zhang Heng wasn’t afraid of Li Jianguo setting him up. He needed to start somewhere after all.

After getting his starting capital, he could then make use of all the advanced technologies provided by the Dimensional Star, a practically bottomless resource. Any one of those technologies could cause a huge commotion in the world when released, and the profit gained from the T-1 was but an appetizer to the main course.

His goal now was to build a company that could steer the flow of global cash. That was the only way he saw that he could make use of technologies from multiple planes to resist that ultimate disaster that would hit humanity someday.

Zhang Heng handed the data regarding the T-1 Virus to the Li Group after signing the contract. He left all the messy procedures regarding patent application, registration with the government authorities, and whatnot to Li Jianguo. The older man was feeling very pleased with himself at the moment. He quickly labeled the stack of data as top-secret and took a flight to Jingzhou personally.

No one would have guessed that the T-1 was actually some leftovers resulting from the T-Virus’ development, and Zhang Heng deemed it unthinkable to have anyone else gain control over what the T-Virus was truly capable of. He could only rest easy being the one in control of things.

Zhang Heng had other things to do after settling all of that; he had to play video games.

Yes, game time! Yurianne of the Dimensional Star told him that he needed to go on a compulsory mission every three months, and he had only little more than 20 days to spare before he had to proceed with the next mission. Having acquired data of the T-Virus, his next mission would definitely be to acquire high technology from other planes. Judging from the experience from his first trip, the next mission might very well be to choose one amidst the remaining three.

There were three plane options remaining—the ‘Dead Space’ plane, the ‘Alien’ plane, and the ‘Prototype’ plane. The next least difficult plane to challenge would be that of ‘Dead Space’. As such, Zhang Heng downloaded the entire franchise of ‘Dead Space’ from Steam, and the first two series of the franchise were going on sale, with the bundle costing him only 37 yuan.

‘Dead Space’ was a world-renowned game developed by Electronic Arts Inc., simply known as EA. The franchise was so popular that it spawned a slew of other media products, including animation series, comics, and novels. All of that proved to be quite a challenge to Zhang Heng to process. He played the games as he researched background information regarding the setting of the game, while having to read the novels and comics at the side as well.

Since he didn’t want to miss out on even a single potential lead, he went out of his way to even print hard copies of all information he was able to scour. When his hands got all tired from playing the games, he would then commit all of that data to memory.

Be it for taking on an upcoming disaster that would wipe out humanity or not, he needed to take it all very seriously, even if he was only doing it for the sake of surviving the whole ordeal.