Chapter 362
“Of course, I still remember I owe you two cup noodles,” Jiang Chen recalled their past.
“Don’t mention it.” Yang Yuan rubbed his nose out of embarrassment, “I always said that I will treat you to lobster. Now that you are so well off, I’m so embarrassed to say it.”
“You, you are Jiang Chen?”
Jiang Chen noticed that the girl beside Yang Yuan looked at him in excitement, stars were shining in her eyes.
Jiang Chen felt that he had seen her before, is it an illusion? Whatever.
“That’s right.” Jiang Chen laughed and turned to Yang Yuan, “Is this your significant other?”
Because Jiang Chen’s generation is defined by the single child policy, during university, they casually referred to each other as brothers, while their girlfriend as brother’s significant other.
“I am Su Fei, a fan of Little White,” Su Fei said while blinking her eyes.
“Mhmm.” Yang Yuan’s expression was somewhat awkward.
Jiang Chen sensed that he didn’t want to speak too much on this as he diverted the topic.
“It’s rare to see you, how about I’ll treat you to dinner.”
“No, no, I said I would treat you.”
“It’s okay! I’m just repaying for the two cup noodles,” Jiang Chen interrupted Yang Yuan.
He could see that Yang Yuan’s economic situation was not too great. He only wanted to find a way for them to catch up, if he burdened his old friend, it would be against his original intention.
“Oh… Okay.” Yang Yuan saw Jiang Chen’s intention and nodded.
…
They arrived at a restaurant by the sea. From the exterior design, it was easy to see the luxury of this restaurant as well as the extravagance of the price. Yang Yuan’s expression was unnatural when he looked at the servers in suits. But with how happy his girlfriend was, he didn’t have the heart to tell Jiang Chen to change a place.
When he saw Jiang Chen didn’t look “pained” or dissatisfied, he finally felt relieved.
He was worried that Jiang Chen would have the idea that “I haven’t seen you for a long time and you want me to pay for a big meal,” but the worry seemed extraneous. He also had a headache due to the wayward and extravagance of his girlfriend, but he couldn’t bring out the courage to restrain her.
Yang Yuan was obviously facepalming. Jiang Chen was not stingy to the point where he wouldn’t pay for a meal.
On the dinner table, other than Ayesha not speaking too much, the other three had a great conversation. Su Fei continually proposed a toast to Jiang Chen to demonstrate her energetic side, but at the same time subconsciously or consciously began asking about his private life. However, Jiang Chen managed to divert the questions smoothly.
Jiang Chen has seen too many similar situations.
Although he didn’t know why his old friend would like a woman like this, he still had his own boundaries. Therefore, he maintained his distance with Su Fei. Seeing that her attempt to get close was unsuccessful, Su Fei put her attention on Ayesha and tried to befriend her. But to her warmness, Ayesha’s was unmoved.
Yang Yuan seemed to be slow in this area as he didn’t sense anything. After downing a few beers, he began chatting about what happened after graduation.
Because he was drunk, Yang Yuan dragged him to the balcony of the restaurant. With the refreshing sea breeze sweeping across their face, they continued to chat.
It didn’t take long before the conversation changed to “the start of the company”. Jiang Chen selectively skipped the sensitive topics and summarized the process of creating Future 1.0 and only spoke about the details of when the company started to become successful.
“Damn! The prom queen of the business school, Xia Shiyu, you managed to date her! Wow, this Brother Chen title is certainly deserving.” Yang Yuan exclaimed in a loud voice laced with drunkenness.
“What do you mean? “Jiang Chen joked, “She is the CEO of my company. But… our relationship might be a bit different.”
There weren’t as many concerns when men spoke to each other.
“But isn’t that your S.O?”
Jiang Chen was a bit awkward, “Uh, she is too.”
“… So corrupted.” Yang Yuan took a long time to process his words before he punched Jiang Chen on the shoulder.
“Ahem, we like each other, it is not being corrupt. Let’s not talk about this… Speaking of you, what’s going on with Su Fei.”
Yang Yuan let out a sigh.
“Nothing’s going on. Just like this.”
“I feel like I have seen her before.”
“She is also a graduate of Wanghai University, two years younger than me. I only asked her to come abroad at the end of last year, you probably have seen her in school.” Yang Yuan said nonchalantly.
“I see… Could be.”
“I originally thought that I got a metal bowl (Referring to a stable job), but I didn’t even take a scoop out of it before I lost the bowl. I should have just signed when PetroChina interviewed me.” There was regret in Yang Yuan’s words.
Although state-owned enterprises’ salary was lower compared to foreign companies, the stability was undoubtedly a plus. Even if it were operating at a loss and heavily subsidized, the government would not allow the workers who worked diligently to contribute to the country to lose their job. Just from this point again, it was more virtuous than working for the capitalists.
“A metal bowl (1)?”
“Yes, in the first year of my masters in Australia, I already signed with Rio Tinto. But this year, the mining industry was not looking pleasant, combined with the oil price plunging, Rio Tinto immediately began laying off people. So I, unfortunately, became a casualty.”
[Certainly unlucky… ] Jiang Chen said in his mind.
“Does PetroChina not want you anymore?”
“Of course they do, why not? I am a master student who studied abroad majoring in resource exploration. With my family connection, I will be promoted in just two years.” Yang Yuan was still confident with his own ability.
“Then why don’t you go back?” Jiang Chen glanced at him.
A bitter smile surfaced at Yang Yuan’s face.
“I want to go back, but…” As he spoke, Yang Yuan turned to look at Su Fei in the restaurant.
That girl was dissecting the lobster in excitement while chatting with Ayesha.
Jiang Chen instantly understood his bitterness.
“She didn’t want me to go back. From her perspective, now that I finally acquired immigration status, it would be a waste if I let that go. Whenever I talk about going back, she would cry and threaten to break up with me…”
“Is it good like this?” Jiang Chen asked.
To be honest, Jiang Chen didn’t like Su Fei’s personality. He didn’t know what was attractive about this type of girl. But since Yang Yuan likes her, he couldn’t say anything.
“What could I do?” Yang Yuan’s bitterness deepened.
“Do you love her?”
“Mhmm.”
He didn’t know that the engineer was such a devoted person. Back then, Jiang Chen just thought he was unexpressive, he didn’t think he had this quality.
“… Then try to satisfy her, though it might be an endless pit.”
Yang Yuan let out a sigh, “I know. I just want to wait until tomorrow, if the market picks up again, there will be demand for employment.”
Jiang Chen fell into deep thought as he listened to Yang Yuan’s words.
To be honest, he happened to be worried about molybdenum. Other than molybdenum, niobium ore, tungsten ore and even rare metals all have a big gap in the wasteland. But based on what Oliver said, those ores would be hard to obtain in any country, so Jiang Chen had the idea to extract them himself.
Pannu Islands’ ocean resources were extremely vast and rich. While no oil and gas existed in its territory, the mining deposits underneath the sea were yet to be explored. It would be hard to believe if there were not a single bit of deposits in the vast ocean territory. Since iron and aluminum had a low cost, Jiang Chen didn’t mind paying. But for rarer metals, if he were to buy, it would certainly pain him.
As to how to extract the ores from the seafloor, Jiang Chen already had an idea in mind, though it still remained in the research phase…
Could the deposit distribution of the apocalypse be the same as the modern world?
Jiang Chen never thought about this before. Because the history of the two worlds was completely different, he selectively ignored the possibility of using the information from the future to his advantage.
Lottery? The amount and number might even be different. Suck up to future leaders? Pac never existed. Music? That’s more absurd. Would India’s pop music be popular in China? If not, then the music from PAC would be the same.
But mining resources were different! It would not change because of human activity. Therefore, the mining beds dug clean before the war may not have even been drilled or explored yet.
The more Jiang Chen thought about it, the more he wanted to hit himself for not thinking about this earlier. Selling ores and oil location would be much more profitable compared to gold! Just that it would be hard to explain the source…
“Speaking of this, I happen to have a job, are you interested?”
Yang Yuan shook his head.
“I don’t know tech at all. Thank you, but I will not bother you.”
Yang Yuan was an honest person, he knew he didn’t have any ability in that area.
“Who said I wanted you to go to Future Technology? Asking an exploration major to do tech, it would be asking for trouble.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes. “I am talking about Future Mining, are you interested?”
“Future Mining?” Yang Yuan was shocked.
“That’s right,” Jiang Chen said affirmatively.
Although he could just hire a headhunter to do it for him, he trusted the people he knew more. As to technology, the one thing he never lacked was technology.
“Are you being serious?” Yang Yuan put on a stern expression.
“Of course. But do you know anything about sea exploration?”
When he talked about his major, Yang Yuan immediately turned ecstatic.
“Yes, my professor at the university is researching sea exploration, whether it is space mining deposits or space oil deposits, I have studied both.”
“Then let’s do this, I will go back to Xin and register Future Mining… Mhmm, I will also register one in Australia.” Jiang Chen nodded.
“What, you haven’t registered that company yet?” Yang Yuan facepalmed.
(1) Metal Bowl – A stable job from a state-owned enterprise.