CH 15

Shen Dai briefly introduced himself, and then started the report speech.

Although the teacher told him not to be too nervous, he did not dare to be relaxed at all. He was almost all prepared for this moment. The golden masters sitting under the stage not only determined the budget of the project team, but also very likely to become an investor in his own independent project in the future, he is very grateful to the teacher for giving him this opportunity.

The discomfort caused by too many alphas gathered in one room was overshadowed by excitement the moment he picked up the microphone. His eyes unconsciously found Qu Moyu, who was sitting in the first row. As expected, Qu Moyu was looking at him, only looking at him. After sensing his gaze, he nodded lightly. Shen Dai received great encouragement, he straightened his chest, took a deep breath, showed a calm smile, and started his speech. He switched to the ppt and occasionally read the prompt words in his hand. From a very professional point of view, he explained their scientific research achievements and future plans in the past year in as simple and easy-to-understand language as possible.

Qu Moyu stared intently at the handsome and tall young man on the stage. He was confident, generous and eloquent. His fair skin was brighter and full of moist lustre under the spotlight. His eyes were clear and full of rich knowledge. The tailored dark blue suit perfectly outlines his physique, which is looking like somewhere between an adult and a teenager.

The whole speech lasted for about 40 minutes, and as the time went on, Shen Dai felt a little tighter in his chest. Although alphas in public places will control pheromones and put stickers on them. But when there are too many of them and the space is not well ventilated, a lot of pheromones will inevitably be mixed. Shen Dai drank water frequently and finished the speech while keeping his mind awake.

And the real challenge may have just begun, because in the next moment, he has to answer investors’ questions.

A shareholder was the first to ask the question Qu Moyu had asked him in the morning, and Shen Dai explained his answer. Someone asked when this upgraded extraction method could be put into use and when the market returns could be seen. Shen Dai also patiently explained their plan according to the content given by the teacher. The South African mine has attracted widespread attention from investors. Shen Dai was well prepared. He asked his teacher to record a video in the mining area two days ago. The teacher introduced the current prospecting situation and future prospects of the mine. The teacher appeared on the stage so it is more convincing.

Suddenly, Qu Chengchen raised the pen in his hand, and then turned on the microphone in front of him, and Shen Dai was also ready for his question.

“Hello, Shen Gong.” Qu Chengchen nodded with a smile, and then scribbled on the scrap paper in front of him with notes written on it with a pen, “Your speech was well done. I have summed up a few questions for you to answer.”

“Please speak.”

Qu Chengchen said solemnly: “You mentioned in your speech that your team has tried a new chlorination method in the decomposition of concentrate. This chlorination method can improve the efficiency to a certain extent in the traditional pretreatment, but it is not suitable for a budget this large. Pretreatment is a step with a relatively low technical threshold. The acid method, alkali method or chlorination method used in various countries are similar in time, cost and loss. I am very concerned about rare earth. I definitely am not as well understood as you, but in my opinion, it is not worth spending money on improving the pre-processing method. The Group expects you to be more innovative, more efficient, and lower-loss extraction technology. I hope you can explain this.”

“Your question is very valuable. At first, we hoped to realise our ideal in the extraction process in the most cost-effective way, but then we encountered many obstacles. If we do not do well enough in this step of decomposing the concentrate, wit will affect several subsequent steps. If this problem is explained from a professional point of view, one is that it is very time-consuming, and the other is that it is difficult for non-professionals to understand. To put it in a popular analogy, it takes a little time in the early stage to sharpen the axe faster. I can chop more wood later.”

“This explanation sounds quite reasonable.” Qu Chengchen glanced down at the draft, “Second question, the method commonly used in the world to separate single rare earths is still ion exchange, but in your research, the solvent method has completely replaced it. Ion exchange, solvent method is indeed higher than ion exchange in extraction efficiency, but the disadvantages are also obvious. At present, the most effective separation of ultra-high purity single rare earth and heavy rare earth is ion exchange chromatography, which is also the reason for your research. The main reason for the lack of progress in the field of heavy rare earths. Professor Liu is very confident in the breakthrough of heavy rare earths, and has done this research for about three to five years…” Qu Chengchen smiled, his tone was somewhat contemptuous, “Vision. I can only use this word to describe it. But the reality is, why do we use the ready-made ion exchange method and spend billions of investment and research funds to study the improvement of the solvent extraction process on heavy rare earths? From a commercial point of view, the input-output ratio is very poor.”

Scientific research is about investing a huge amount of money in the early stage to bet for a huge return. This is something that every investor understands. Of course, it is also common for investors to spend real money and not see the money back. However, the results of Shen Dai’s group last year were not bad, and it can even be said to be the best among several research groups, but Qu Chengchen didn’t say anything during the first two groups of speeches. So, he can’t help but to feel surprised.

Such a question is difficult to answer. It is like a person throwing stones into a well, and throwing a hundred stones trying to fill it up, but when he throws fifty stones, he becomes impatient, and Shen Dai has to convince him to continue throwing the rest in.

Although Shen Dai was well prepared, he was also annoyed by Qu Chengchen’s deliberately making things difficult. He glanced at the draft paper. Although it was far away, he couldn’t see anything clearly, but it was full of them. After he answered this, there were more tricky ones. Waiting for himself, at this time, he felt more and more suffocated in his chest, and his body was a little hot. He took a deep breath again, calmed down, and replied without being humble or arrogant: “Mr. Qu, ion exchange method is indeed the most mainstream separation method at present. The teacher has seen the ceiling of the ion exchange method. We are very optimistic about the prospect of a solvent extraction method. It is also the most important research direction of our group. Once successful, whether it is light rare earth or heavy rare earth, it can achieve great efficiency improvement, and the return will be amazing.”

“But judging from the performance of the past three years, your progress in the field of heavy rare earths is very limited, and the numbers in the financial report are really ‘amazing’. Only light rare earths are studied in the solvent extraction process.”

Qu Moyu’s face darkened, he glanced at Qu Chengchen across a few people, but unfortunately Qu Chengchen couldn’t see it.

Shen Dai wiped the sweat from his forehead: “We…”

“Chengchen.” Qu Moyu also turned on the switch of the microphone at some point, and the low voice was slightly distorted in the amplifier, accompanied by some noise, but he couldn’t stop the displeasure in his tone, “This piece of rare earth extraction and the relationship with your chemical department is limited, and even the first group of non-ferrous metals is not as curious as you are.”

Qu Chengchen said with a smile: “Because there is nothing wrong with the speeches of the first group, I have no doubts. I am not curious, but feeling responsible to the shareholders.”

“I know more about rare earth research than you. Professor Liu has solid theories and data to support her judgement on pre-processing and her investment in solvent methods. Their plans have been professionally evaluated, and every report in the financial report has been backed up. A single expenditure can also stand up to accounting and auditing.” Qu Moyu’s eyes were bright and dark. Deep and dark, “You have a low reserve of professional knowledge, so there will inevitably be many things you don’t understand, but you should be aware of the group’s risk control. Be confident in their abilities.”

“Risk control is to control risks, which means that risks do exist. I really don’t know much about rare earths, which makes you laugh, but I think what I have raised are reasonable questions. After all, as shareholders holding original shares, they spend every cent on this. I have a share of the money as well.” Qu Chengchen sneered, “Isn’t answering questions the point of an investor meeting?”

“Your doubts have been questioned many times by people who are countless times more professional than you in the process of budgeting.”

The two brothers looked at each other slowly with a few people in the middle. Under this provocation, the pheromone of resistance was quietly brewing in their bodies.

There was silence in the conference hall. The two brothers of the Qu family have been fighting openly and secretly since childhood. It is not news for a long time, but it is relatively rare for them to be at each other’s throats in public. When they noticed that the two secretly released pheromones, everyone was like a formidable enemy.

When two S-class Alphas start fighting for information, the surrounding alphas must also release pheromones to protect themselves.

Yan Mingxiu, who happened to be sitting between the two, immediately opened the pheromone barrier to isolate them from their influence on him. Most of those shareholders and executives are alphas, and they are also forced to release pheromones, lest they be spit out by the pheromones of the three S-class Alphas.

Yan Mingxiu stood up with a gloomy face and walked outside of the conference hall.

For a time, the concentration of alpha pheromones in the conference hall increased rapidly. Shen Dai only felt like an invisible hand was strangling his throat, and his whole body stinged like an electric shock, and the blood on his face faded. He grabbed the lecture table and began to tremble.

Qu Moyu was the first to notice Shen Dai’s strangeness, and he immediately withdrew the pheromone.

Qu Chengchen also went down the steps, and he made an apologetic look: “I’m sorry, it affected Shen Gong.”

“Shen Gong turned out to be an omega?” a shareholder said in surprise, “I really can’t tell.”

“There are still omegas in the research institute?”

There was a lot of discussion in the audience.

Shen Dai strongly bowed: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He walked off the podium with his weak legs, ran out the side door, and went straight to the bathroom.

It’s over, something’s wrong, the body’s reaction… he thought.

A tall and strong bodyguard-like man stood at the door of the bathroom, stopped Shen Dai: “I’m sorry, please wait a moment.”

“I can’t wait!” Shen Dai’s face was terrifyingly pale.

The bodyguard looked at him as if he was about to faint at any time, and hesitated for a moment: “Would you like me to call someone for you…”

Shen Dai pushed away the bodyguard and rushed into the bathroom, then bumped into a tall figure walking out, who grabbed his arm.

Shen Dai looked up and saw that it was Yan Mingxiu. His legs were so weak that he could barely stand, and he fell straight down.

Yan Mingxiu frowned: “Aren’t you going to be in heat?”

“Please… help me.” Shen Dai was so anxious that he wanted to hit the wall. Why did he always encounter this embarrassing situation? Three years ago in the laboratory, this time in the office building, he could have delayed it by taking the medicine. It had been a few days, but just now, his body had been hit by a large amount of alpha pheromones, and it had completely become disordered, and he fought back in place during the estrus period.

“I won’t help you, I have a wife.” Yan Mingxiu said helplessly, “My bodyguard will guard the door, and I will call the security department to deal with it.”

“It’s too late.” Shen Dai trembled, “Call Qu Moyu for me, please.”

Only Qu Moyu can save him, this is his deep-rooted belief.