Just as Liu Yutong was lost in her memories, Professor Xu Yangeng suddenly glanced over at their table.
He first spotted his daughter Xu Yi, and then his gaze shifted to the young girl sitting beside her.
The moment he saw what she was wearing, his eyes lit up instantly.
After years of going around begging for funding, he had developed a keen eye for spotting wealth.
With just one look, he could tell this girl came from a wealthy family.
From the expensive wristwatch on her wrist, to the earrings on her earlobes, and the outfit she was wearing—it looked custom-made.
This was definitely a big catch!
Xu Yangeng didn’t hesitate for a second. He waved at his wife and headed straight for Liu Yutong’s table.
When Xu Yi saw her parents walking over, her face turned pale in an instant.
Her first reaction wasn’t to greet them—it was to tug at Liu Yutong’s sleeve, urging her to leave quickly.
“Classmate Liu, let’s go. I’m done eating.”
“Hold on.” Liu Yutong pressed her hand down gently.
Xu Yi was frantic: “You don’t understand—my parents are really not normal lately. They see anyone and think they’re rich, and they want to borrow money from everyone they meet. I’m afraid they’ll latch onto you. They really will latch onto you, the kind you can’t shake off no matter what. Please just go, I’m begging you!”
As she spoke, there was a tone of shame in her voice.
After all, she had only just met Liu Yutong. If her parents came over and started begging for money, how would that look to her new friend?
As their daughter, she knew her parents all too well.
They had become two research beggars. They saw everyone as a potential wealthy benefactor, hitting up anyone and everyone for funding, with no regard for time, place, or person. They didn’t even spare the cafeteria ladies or the students. It was utterly shameless.
She didn’t want to be embarrassed like this.
“It’s fine.” Liu Yutong waved her hand.
By then, Xu Yangeng and Zhou Wanqing had already reached their table.
Xu Yangeng first gave Liu Yutong a full once-over, his gaze moving from her watch to her earrings, from her clothes to her shoes, blatantly and without any attempt to hide it.
After confirming he hadn’t misjudged, a smile—one he thought was warm and friendly—spread across his face as he greeted her.
“Xiao Yi, is this your classmate?”
Xu Yi bit her lip and said nothing.
In fact, she didn’t want to talk to her parents at all.
“Hello, Uncle. Hello, Auntie. My name is Liu Yutong. I’m a friend of Xu Yi’s.” Liu Yutong stood up on her own and greeted them politely.
“Good, good, good. Hello, Classmate Liu, hello, hello!”
Xu Yangeng nodded repeatedly, then eagerly took the folder from his wife’s hands and placed it in front of Liu Yutong.
“Classmate Liu, since you’re Xiao Yi’s friend, I won’t beat around the bush. Take a look at this—it’s a project my wife and I have been researching for years. It’s about the core three-electric system for new energy vehicles, covering batteries, motors, and electronic control. Let me tell you, the prospects for this project are incredibly bright. In the future, new energy vehicles will dominate the roads—gasoline cars will be phased out sooner or later. Whoever masters the core three-electric technology will lead the entire industry. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…”
“Dad!”
Xu Yi finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. She shot up from her seat, cutting him off.
Her voice was so loud that students eating nearby turned to look.
Xu Yangeng’s words died in his throat, and he looked at his daughter awkwardly.
“Dad, haven’t you had enough!” Xu Yi’s whole body was trembling—from anger, and from hurt.
“All these years, you’ve gone around looking for investors. You’ve asked so many people—has anyone given you even a single cent? Not one! Everyone treats you like con artists, like lunatics! And do you know what people at school say about me? They call me the daughter of a madman, the daughter of a fraud! No one even dares to be friends with me anymore—who would want to be friends with someone whose parents are like lunatics!”
“Today, I finally made a new friend. I brought her to campus for a meal, and here you go again with this routine! Can’t you just be normal? Can’t you just be an ordinary father, sit down and have a meal with my friend, have a chat, instead of pitching your nonsense that nobody believes the second you meet someone! You’ll even borrow a few hundred bucks, and you won’t even spare my friend. You—you really embarrass me!”
“Please, for once, think about how I feel, okay!” She screamed those last words, completely hysterical.
She had been holding all of this in for a very long time.
Today, she couldn’t hold it back anymore. It all came pouring out.
Zhou Wanqing stood beside her husband, watching her daughter fall apart. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she only let out a sigh and lowered her head in guilt.
The smile on Xu Yangeng’s face slowly faded.
After a moment of silence, he quietly took the folder back.
“I’m sorry, Xiao Yi.”
“It’s Daddy’s fault. I’ll stop talking.”
Then he turned to face Liu Yutong and gave a slight bow.
“Classmate Liu, I apologize for the spectacle. Enjoy your meal. I have some things to take care of, so I’ll be going now.”
Zhou Wanqing also nodded at Liu Yutong, forcing a faint smile before preparing to leave.
Just as they turned around, Liu Yutong suddenly called out to stop them.
"Professors, please wait a moment."
Xu Yangeng stopped in his tracks, turned around, and looked at Liu Yutong with some confusion.
Liu Yutong pointed at the stack of documents in their hands and asked, "Could I take a look at that?"
Xu Yangeng was taken aback for a moment and instinctively looked at his daughter.
Xu Yi was also stunned, her eyes red as she looked at Liu Yutong and shook her head at her.
"Classmate Liu, you..."
"I want to see it," Liu Yutong said.
Xu Yangeng hesitated for only a second before quickly handing the documents over to Liu Yutong, a faint glimmer of hope welling up in his chest.
Liu Yutong took the documents, opened to the first page, and began reading carefully.
The pages were packed with technical jargon and formula derivations.
Things like battery cell voltage characteristic curves, SOC estimation algorithm flowcharts, vector control block diagrams for permanent magnet synchronous motors...
And then... she couldn't understand it.
Not at all.
Most of the content was far beyond the scope of what she had studied.
A moment later.
She closed the documents and looked up at Xu Yangeng.
"Professor Xu, about this project of yours—how much R&D funding would it roughly require?"
Xu Yangeng almost reflexively answered, "For a complete prototype vehicle development, from start to finish, it would take about two hundred million."
"Of course, you could also do it in stages instead of investing all at once. If we start with the battery system first, that's cheaper—eighty million would be enough. If eighty million is still too much, we could start with the BMS software system. That's the cheapest option—thirty million to get started. Once we have a demo, we can take it to venture capital firms, and the subsequent funding rounds would flow more smoothly..."
Liu Yutong raised her hand to interrupt him: "Professor Xu, I'm not going to invest in you."
The moment those words left her mouth, the expression on Xu Yangeng's face froze instantly.
But he quickly recovered. He was long accustomed to this kind of situation—so accustomed that even his disappointment had grown fleeting.
"It's fine, it's fine."
"Classmate Liu is still young after all. A big decision like this naturally has to be discussed with family. It's perfectly normal if the adults at home don't agree. Uncle understands, he really does."
He figured that a wealthy young lady like Liu Yutong, though well-dressed and well-off, was still just a student in the end. The real financial power surely rested with her parents, and she likely had no authority to move large sums of money on her own. So it was only natural that she couldn't invest in them.
Neither the couple nor Xu Yi herself had ever once considered that this girl, who appeared to be nothing more than a rich heiress, was actually a self-made, hidden female richest person in the country.
"Professor Xu, the reason I'm declining to invest isn't because your research direction is flawed, nor because I don't believe in the new energy sector. On the contrary, I'm extremely bullish on it."
Xu Yangeng's head shot up, a light rekindling in his eyes.
"Then... then why?"
"Because you two don't actually understand what it means to build a business."
Xu Yangeng: "..."
His face slowly reddened.
Not from shame, but from feeling offended. Here was a young girl who looked even younger than his own daughter, telling him he didn't understand entrepreneurship?
Do you even know what entrepreneurship is?
Do you know what we've been through all these years?
"Classmate Liu, we've been doing research for over a decade. We know exactly what we're doing. When it comes to technology, we have absolute confidence."
"At the end of the day, building a business is just turning technology into a product. What's there not to understand?"
Liu Yutong: "Is that so?"
"Then let me ask you both a question—what do you think matters most when starting a business?"
Xu Yangeng answered almost without hesitation: "Money, of course. With money, everything is easy."
If he had money, he wouldn't have had to sell his house and car. He wouldn't have had to humble himself and go begging, scraping and clawing for funds like a beggar.
If he had money, he could stay in the lab with peace of mind, pouring all his energy and talent into his research. It wouldn't be long before he could produce a finished product.
But after hearing his answer, Liu Yutong shook her head.
"Professor Xu, you're wrong."
"In my view, money has never been the real issue when starting a business."
