Chapter 128: A New Product Idea—Adhesive Hooks
Wei Zetao looked a little embarrassed. "Mr. Yang, I still need to look into that. Information about overseas trade fairs requires contacting specialized international agencies to inquire.
Even asking a simple question costs money, so I need your approval before we proceed."
Yang Wendong nodded. "Alright, go ahead. If it helps us promote the Rubik's Cube, it's worth the cost."
In this era—or rather, in the era before the internet—gathering international information was time-consuming and resource-heavy. Unlike in his past life, where one could simply search Google or Baidu to find global event calendars or mass-email thousands of contacts, here even sending a single letter came with significant cost. Typically, only major corporations could afford this level of correspondence.
And if they didn't know the specific target city, they had to rely on information brokers, who in turn would search locally or through their networks—an expensive process.
"Alright, I'll take care of it," Wei said.
"Good," Yang confirmed.
—
At a factory office in North Point:
"This thing is impossible to solve?" said a man in his forties as he twisted a Rubik's Cube endlessly in his hands, only to make it more jumbled. After a while, he sighed and gave up.
A colleague nearby laughed. "Old Wang, you've been fiddling with that for half an hour. Give it up. I played with it for three minutes and knew I had no chance. It's obviously some kind of complex mathematical structure."
Old Wang paused, set the cube down, and sighed. "It's that ten-thousand-dollar reward… For folks like us, sure, we make a bit more than the average worker, but ten grand? That would take years to save.
If I had ten thousand dollars, I'd put a down payment on a luxury flat in Admiralty right away. Wouldn't you, Brother Wah?"
"Of course I would," Wah replied, leaning back in his chair. "I'd also like to marry Xia Meng. But dreaming doesn't get you anywhere.
If you really want that money, better odds come from betting on horse races than trying to solve that cube."
"It's that hard?" Wang asked, frowning. He knew the odds of winning on horse bets—and they weren't great.
Wah reached out. Wang handed him the cube, and Wah said, "The ten grand isn't just for solving it once by luck. You have to come up with a method that guarantees you can solve it from any scrambled state. Think about how difficult that is."
He started twisting the cube rapidly. Wang watched him, getting a headache just from seeing the pieces spin. "Guess I wasted four bucks then."
"It's just four bucks," Wah laughed and tossed the cube back.
Wang glanced at it again, then sighed and pocketed it. "Forget it. I'll go place a bet on horse number 8 tonight. I've got a feeling it's due for a win."
"Number 8?" Wah perked up—he clearly followed the races closely. "Going for an underdog pick?"
"Exactly," Wang grinned. "If I'm going to gamble, I might as well aim for a big return. What's the point of betting a hundred bucks to win twenty?"
"True enough. Bold thinking," Wah said, giving him a thumbs-up. "I'm in. Let's go together tonight."
"Deal."
—
In an apartment near the University of Hong Kong, two identical-looking young women were inside. One was cooking, while the other sat playing with a Rubik's Cube—her fingers twisting it with practiced, yet still uncertain, motions.
"Careful, hot!" the younger sister called out, carrying a bowl of braised pork, wincing as she hurried across the room.
"Couldn't you have waited for the plate to cool down?" the older sister, still focused on the cube, got up reluctantly to make room. But catching a whiff of the food and seeing the glossy pork, she smiled. "Yujie, your cooking's getting better."
"Of course! I've been taking cooking classes lately," Bai Yujie grinned. She then noticed something and frowned. "Yushan, you've got a white hair."
"Huh? Where? Pull it out—now!" Bai Yushan said instantly, clearly sensitive about it.
"Hold still," Yujie said, approaching. She carefully parted her sister's thick black hair, found the stray white strand, and plucked it. "It's just one. Nothing unusual. Lots of young people get one or two. Don't freak out."
"Still, it's not good," Yushan muttered. She sat down, took a bite of the braised pork, and added, "I've probably been stressing too much over this cube."
"You're just too stubborn," Yujie said as she scooped rice into two bowls. "You should be more like me. When I can't solve something, I just stop trying. There's so many fun things in life—why fixate on this one toy?"
Yushan took her bowl and replied, "I don't play with it just for fun."
"Then for the ten grand?" Yujie teased.
"Not exactly, though that is tempting," Yushan said, shaking her head. "This thing has some really deep mathematical principles. It's so complex it gives me a headache."
Yujie thought for a moment and said, "There are plenty of difficult math problems in the world. Some come with million-dollar rewards. Are you going to chase all of them?
You're smart, but some problems require an Einstein-level brain."
Yushan replied, "But the person you invited last time—he solved it easily. No matter how it was scrambled, he restored it in seconds.
And I can't even reliably restore one side. I haven't found a consistent method. The gap between us is too big."
"True…" Yujie frowned. If no one could solve it, it wouldn't matter. But the fact that someone could—and so quickly—was a hard pill to swallow for someone as competitive as her sister.
After a moment, she stood up and grabbed a newspaper from the sofa. She handed it to Yushan. "Look at this. The company behind the cube came to our campus for marketing. It's obvious they're using us for publicity."
"Of course," Yushan said as she glanced at the paper. "But they didn't lie, and they showed respect to our school in the ad."
She continued, "Actually, that just proves this company—Deli—is confident that no one at our university, or even in Hong Kong, can solve it."
"Deli? I thought it was Changxing Industrial?" Yujie took back the paper, squinting at the fine print. "That's not what I remember seeing..."
Bai Yushan laughed and said, "That's not strange at all. A lot of companies have subsidiaries. Totally normal."
"Ohh, makes sense," Bai Yujie said as she folded up the newspaper. "But I still don't get how he did it. I saw it with my own eyes—he solved it in two minutes, no matter how the cube was scrambled. My brain just couldn't process it."
"When you first told me, I didn't believe you," Bai Yushan shrugged. "Then someone else told me they saw him solve the Rubik's Cube when you two were… 'out together,' and I had to believe it."
"What do you mean, 'out together'? Don't say it like that!" Bai Yujie quickly grabbed a piece of braised pork and plopped it into her sister's bowl. "Eat some meat and stop talking nonsense."
"You think a bite of pork is going to shut me up?" Bai Yushan grinned. "I heard he's pretty good-looking, too."
"He is, I suppose." Bai Yujie thought for a moment. "He told me he didn't go to college, but when we talked, I felt like his language skills were really good. He used idioms and expressions fluently—just like a university student.
Even more surprising was his perspective on things. Honestly, he had a sharper mind than a lot of people at our school."
"Well, you don't have to go to school to learn," Bai Yushan said after a brief pause. "You know there are plenty of Chinese entrepreneurs who are completely illiterate and still built empires.
People like that keep learning on their own, work hard, and eventually catch up. Matching the level of an average college student isn't out of the question.
They're rare, of course, but with enough people in the world, there are bound to be some like that."
"I get it," Bai Yujie nodded. "But Mr. Yang is still so young—he's about our age—and he comes off more mature than Dad."
"Which is perfect, isn't it?" Bai Yushan smirked. "You've always said you like men who remind you of Dad."
"There you go again!" Bai Yujie reached out, tickling her sister's ribs. "You wanna talk nonsense? Take this!"
"Haha! Okay, okay, I surrender!" Yushan's laughter rang out as she squirmed away. "Alright, I was wrong!"
"Serves you right." Bai Yujie pulled back, then added more seriously, "Still, it's amazing to think someone our age could be that capable."
"It is," Bai Yushan agreed, settling down. "That's probably just raw talent. Like singing or drawing—some people are just born gifted."
"Gifted?" Bai Yujie looked thoughtful.
"Think about it," Yushan said, smiling. "Even if you lived for ten thousand years, could you come up with Einstein's theory of relativity on your own?
I'm not talking about learning it—I mean discovering it from scratch."
"Me? Discover relativity?" Bai Yujie laughed. "No way. Even in a hundred million years."
"Exactly. But someone figured it out in just a few decades—that's talent." Bai Yushan chuckled. "One of our professors once said, 'The difference in talent between humans is greater than between a human and a dog.'"
"Crude—but true," Bai Yujie admitted with a laugh.
Yushan added, "That same professor also said a lot of what we learn in school is useless. Like math—elementary-level math is more than enough for most people. The rest? Most folks never touch it again.
Out in the real world, people just learn what they need. Want to sound cultured? Learn a few classy phrases. No need for all that classical Chinese and essay writing we did in school. It's way more efficient that way."
"Yeah, that's pretty logical," Bai Yujie nodded. "Still, it's impressive."
"Well, you wouldn't be interested if he wasn't impressive," Yushan teased.
"You keep it up and I'll pin you to the couch and tickle you again," Bai Yujie warned with a glare.
"I'm your older sister—show some respect!" Yushan shot back.
"Hmph!" Bai Yujie puffed her chest. "But I'm stronger."
"A girl being that strong might never get married!" Yushan teased—but her voice got noticeably quieter.
They were an unusual pair: the older sister loved math and the arts; the younger one was more into sports and physical activity.
Still, neither was extreme—after all, they'd both gotten into the University of Hong Kong.
After a while, they sat on the couch watching TV. But of course, Yushan was soon fiddling with the Rubik's Cube again, much to her sister's dismay.
Whenever she ran into a problem she couldn't solve, she would obsess over it.
Wanting to distract her, Yujie asked, "So have you decided yet—are you going to study in the U.S. or the UK?"
"Hmm…" Yushan put the cube down and turned to her sister. "Not sure yet. I'm planning to visit Columbia in New York next month. I'll decide after that.
But…" she trailed off.
"But what?" Yujie noticed her hesitation.
"Professor Chen told me to think carefully," Yushan said. "She said with my grades, I could already get a great job at a major bank or company here in Hong Kong.
If I go overseas for grad school, I might miss some key opportunities—ones that could be more valuable than a higher degree."
"That makes sense," Yujie said thoughtfully. "Dad always said a degree is just a foot in the door. After that, it's all about personal ability.
With your top marks from HKU and Dad's help, you could probably get into HSBC easily. Going abroad would just be icing on the cake."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too," Yushan agreed. "Unless I plan to stay overseas, a foreign degree isn't that much better than a top local one.
Besides, Dad's plan is for us to work elsewhere for a few years after graduation, then come help with the family business. In that case, studying abroad becomes even less necessary."
"True," Yujie nodded. "But since you have the chance to go to the U.S. or UK, you should at least go enjoy it. Travel, see the world."
"Mm." Yushan didn't say more.
They turned back to the TV.
—
Changxing Industrial.
Knock knock knock…
Wei Zetao was reading a report when he heard the knock and looked up. Seeing it was the boss, he quickly set down the file, stood up, and smiled. "Mr. Yang, what brings you here?"
"I just stopped by to check in with Old Zhou about recent production updates. Figured I'd swing by." Yang Wendong smiled. "And I have something important to tell you."
"Please, go ahead," Wei said quickly.
Yang pulled out a piece of paper and placed it on the desk. "This is our company's next product: adhesive hooks. Take a look."
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