Just then, Li Lili, the study committee member, walked over holding Lin Ruoruo's homework notebook. "Lin Ruoruo, you haven't finished your homework."
With that, she handed the notebook to Lin Ruoruo. "I'll take it to the teacher after school this afternoon."
Lin Ruoruo looked up at Li Lili. "Th—thank you, Li Lili."
Li Lili smiled brightly. "It's nothing. You'd better hurry up and write, there's still time."
With that, she returned to her seat at the front row podium, right by the lectern.
Catching Xu Lai's inquiring look, Lin Ruoruo softly explained, "She helps me often."
Xu Lai smiled at Lin Ruoruo and said nothing.
...
After evening self-study, Xu Lai brazenly attached himself to Lin Ruoruo just like at noon.
"Ruoruo, let's walk together."
Lin Ruoruo kept her head down, offering neither an answer nor an objection.
The two left the teaching building together. When they reached the school gate, Xu Lai smiled and waved at Lin Ruoruo again. "Ruoruo, goodbye."
"B—bye," Lin Ruoruo said in a voice as soft as a mosquito's hum.
Right after that, she walked into the small alley.
That burly girl followed closely behind her.
The next day.
At the gates of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School.
Xu Lai had been waiting there for a long time.
As soon as he caught sight of a somewhat slender figure walking out of the alley, he greeted her with a broad smile.
"Morning, Ruoruo."
"Good morning." Lin Ruoruo raised her head slightly to glance at Xu Lai, then immediately lowered it again.
"Here, I brought this breakfast for you. Take it." As he spoke, Xu Lai handed the bag in his hand to Lin Ruoruo.
Lin Ruoruo pouted, hesitated for a long time, but still took the bag from Xu Lai's hand.
"Th—thank you."
Xu Lai chuckled. "Alright, hurry inside, you're going to be late."
Lin Ruoruo looked at Xu Lai in confusion. "A—aren't you going in?"
Xu Lai smiled and shook his head. "I have some things to do today, I asked for leave."
"Oh," Lin Ruoruo acknowledged. Her lips moved, and after a brief hesitation, she softly said, "Then I'm going in first."
She wanted to ask what Xu Lai was going to do, wanted to tell him to be careful.
Yet none of it passed her lips.
Watching Lin Ruoruo enter the school, Xu Lai strode quickly toward the Alphard that had been parked nearby waiting for him.
The car soon arrived at the hotel where Xu Lai had been staying recently.
After getting out, Xu Lai entered the hotel and came back out in less than 10 minutes total.
He had changed into a custom-tailored Saint Laurent suit, making him look like a completely different person compared to Xu Lai the student.
Just as he was about to get into the car, Xu Lai happened to see Li Lili from his class and two other classmates walking over. After offering a gentle, smiling nod of acknowledgment, he got into the car, and the driver started the engine and drove away.
Li Lili and her two classmates were completely stunned, taking a full minute to snap back to their senses.
"Was that... Xu Lai just now?" Li Lili spoke first.
"Seems like it. Looks like him, but then again, doesn't."
"Mmm—his vibe is totally different."
The three of them chimed in one after another.
Inside the Alphard:
"President Xu, Professor Li from Tongxie Hospital, whom you asked me to book earlier, has specifically cleared out a whole day on the 6th of next month. Do you think this time works, or should we reschedule?" the middle-aged man in the car asked.
"Let's make it the 6th. No need to change the date," Xu Lai answered flatly, then paused to think before asking another question. "By the way, has there been any progress in the research and development of communications technology recently?"
"There are no significant technological breakthroughs yet, but Professor Chen and Professor Zhang have asked twice already, wanting to make additional investments," the middle-aged man answered cautiously. In front of Xu Lai—even though he was much older—he was someone who had witnessed Xu Lai's growth every step of the way, and he knew Xu Lai's swift and decisive methods.
"Well, did Old Chen and Old Zhang submit a progress report with their request for more funding?" Xu Lai asked again.
"Yes, the relevant materials are all prepared."
Hearing the reply from Shen Yi, the middle-aged man, Xu Lai said no more. Instead, he slowly closed his eyes and waited for the car to reach its destination. It took a good half-hour to drive from Jiangcheng No. 1 High School to Jiangcheng Silicon Valley, and by the time Xu Lai arrived at Xulin Science and Technology Park, it was already approaching 1:30 in the afternoon.
Shen Yi spoke up, "President Xu, I had people reserve a spread at a nearby restaurant. Should we grab a bite before starting the meeting?"
"No need. I'll just say a few words and leave." Xu Lai had the air of a completely hands-off boss.
In fact, after the company got on track, Xu Lai had gradually retreated behind the scenes to become the ultimate decision-maker, leaving daily operations primarily to CEO Shen Yi.
And Shen Yi... thinking back to 10 years ago when he was approached by a child and convinced by a "grand, sweeping discourse" to become the employee of an 8-year-old boy, he felt nothing but sheer adoration for the 18-year-old youth sitting before him, treating every single decision he made as an imperial decree.
As Xu Lai and Shen Yi walked into an office building, a synchronized shout of "Hello, President Xu!" echoed through the entire lobby of the building.
Clearly, it was a welcome ceremony arranged in advance by Shen Yi.
With a smile, Xu Lai waved to acknowledge them and stepped into the elevator, heading straight to the 56th floor.
Aside from the chairman's office, this floor also housed an executive meeting room.
As for the rest of the space, Xu Lai had made it clear back when they were building the science and technology park that he had other plans for the vacant space on this floor, but the time wasn't right yet.
Walking into the meeting room, more than 30 senior executives of the group were already waiting there. Seeing Xu Lai walk in, they stood up one by one.
"Chairman."
"Chairman."
"Everyone sit. There's no particular agenda today. I've been back in Jiangcheng for a while now and haven't visited the headquarters yet, so I just came by to take a look," Xu Lai signaled for everyone to sit, then took his seat in the chairman's chair.
Afterward, Shen Yi handed the advance-prepared communications engineering R&D progress report to Xu Lai.
At the same time, based on the number of attendees at the executive meeting, Shen Yi had printed out over thirty copies and motioned for the secretary behind him to distribute the materials to every executive. After all, the executives present were all people who had followed Xu Lai from scratch; most of them were only in their 30s, and the oldest among them—Shen Yi—was only 45.
What's more, almost all of these executives had been personally recruited by Shen Yi from their respective universities, yet the recruitment lists had been provided to him by Xu Lai in advance.
For instance, senior executives like Director Zhang, Director Wang, and Director Huang were already out there conquering new territory for the group.
Many, many years later, when media outlets interviewed these executives about their success, they would all shed tears of old age, saying that the person they admired and thanked the most was Xu Lai.
Ahem, but I digress.
Upon reading through the entire progress report, Xu Lai was pleasantly surprised to find that the progress was a full two years ahead of previous schedules. At this rate, the new communications technology could be successfully commercialized in two years at the latest.
"The R&D progress of Communications Engineering Technology No. 1 is impressive. Sister Feng, please get in touch with the two veteran professors at the lab and work out a subsequent funding budget report as soon as possible to ensure the entire R&D process isn't affected by capital issues," Xu Lai said to one of the female executives after finishing the report.
The female executive, Feng Ying, was the company's CFO, only 34 years old.
With her capable professional attire and sharp gaze, one could tell at a glance that she was a rigorous god of wealth.
"Understood, President Xu. I can have it finalized within a week."
Xu Lai nodded slightly, clearly showing high approval of Feng Ying's capability. He then shifted the topic: "Is there any progress on Project No. 9?"
"Capital is also being gradually invested to start the R&D. Aside from recruiting top domestic talent in related fields, we are currently actively recruiting more talent from abroad. Right now, the project's advancement faces multiple obstacles, including technological barriers and patent protection, so progress is relatively difficult."
Shen Yi gave a brief report on the progress of Project No. 9.
Xu Lai nodded and offered no comment on the matter. "Direct other routine work reports to President Shen. He will chair the rest of the meeting; I won't be attending."
With that, Xu Lai stood up and left the executive meeting room.
Riding the executive elevator down alone to leave, Xu Lai experienced multiple pauses on the way down that left the elevator packed with employees. Glancing around, he guessed they were probably all college graduates who had just entered society, and since Xu Lai himself rarely visited headquarters, none of them recognized him.
"Hey, I heard our company's big boss is insanely young. I wonder if it's true?" One of the young women broke the silence in the elevator first.
"I've really never seen him. His photo isn't even in the internal network's leadership directory—we only know his name is Xu Lai."
"Xu Lai? Damn, I have a classmate I haven't contacted in years with that exact name. Which Xu is it?" another young guy chimed in to ask.
"Which Xu? Bro, did you graduate from college? You can't tell the difference between Xu and Xu?" someone mocked.
"No, I know the difference between the two Xus, but our company's industrial park is called Xulin Science and Technology Park," that person explained.
Only then did everyone react.
"Oh yeah. Xu? Could it be that the boss messed up when entering it on the computer during business registration?"
Hearing someone say that, the entire elevator burst into laughter, while Xu Lai remained silent.
How could there be a mistake?
Xu Lai's housekeeper had also arrived in Jiangcheng from Jinling. Uncle Fang, the housekeeper, had packed up all the items Xu Lai commonly used in Jinling—both from home and the office—and reinstalled everything in Xu Lai's office and villa in Jiangcheng.
As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, Uncle Fang, who had been waiting there, hurried over to greet him.
"President Xu, everything has been arranged."
Xu Lai nodded, said nothing more, and walked straight toward the Alphard waiting at the entrance of the office building.
A short while after the car drove away, one of the guys who had ridden down in the elevator with Xu Lai finally spoke up: "Holy crap, was that President Xu actually the chairman?"
The others caught on as well.
"It really was President Xu! I've seen that older gentleman before; he's been having people decorate the chairman's office these past few days."
"Ah, I actually rode the elevator with President Xu." Someone even started fangirling.