After Fang Bai finished his exams, he returned home, organized his study materials, and put them into a box.
"In this life, I probably won't touch these college entrance exam materials again. I'll just keep them as a memento."
His mood after the exams was different; he felt light and airy, as if he could fly when he walked.
Fang Bai's mother had specifically bought him a free-range hen from the mountains these past few days to stew chicken soup for him. The villagers hadn't intended to sell their egg-laying hens, but they ultimately succumbed to Liu Fengqing's monetary temptation.
During hotpot dinner that evening, his Fang Bai's parents didn't even ask him how he did on the exams. Instead, they told him to rest well and to be careful if he went out to play.
They believed their son would certainly have no problem with the college entrance exam and would definitely get into Shanghai Jiaotong University. His younger sister, Fang Tingting, looked at him with eyes full of admiration.
Her middle school exam results were above average, and she was still attending high school at Oubei No. 1 Middle School, which was close to home.
She felt that if she could get into an ordinary undergraduate program three years later, it would be excellent, far worse than her brother. She felt like they weren't from the same mother's womb; otherwise, how could her academic performance differ so much from her brother's?
Fang Tingting joked, "Big brother, I knew I shouldn't have revealed you were my brother. I feel like if I don't get into university, I'll ruin your reputation."
"It's fine, it's not my embarrassment." Fang Bai chuckled, not taking it seriously. "Who was it that wanted to drag me to her classroom to introduce me as her brother in front of her classmates? I said no, that one should learn to be low-key, but a certain someone pouted like a duck, looking very wronged."
Fang Tingting pouted again and rolled her eyes at her brother: "I knew I shouldn't have helped you take photos when you gave that speech. Otherwise, none of this would have happened, and now I'm so annoyed! When I don't do well on tests, my classmates compare me to you, and even the teachers tell me to study hard, making me feel like a pampered girl."
Fang Tingting's words were insincere; when she revealed their relationship, she was thrilled to see her classmates' surprised and envious expressions.
But she also felt it now: being Fang Bai's younger sister came with a lot of pressure, as teachers and students would compare the two of them.
"Study hard, and don't spend all day wandering around with a camera taking pictures. Be careful," Liu Fengqing sternly criticized her daughter.
Fang Tingting looked at her mother's expression, then lowered her head and replied, "Mm, oh, I know."
Fang Bai still reminded his sister to be careful and to remember to bring a security guard when she went out to take photos.
According to the original trajectory, his sister would still be able to get into a normal university and become a teacher after graduation, but it was hard to say for this life. If she really couldn't get in, then he would use connections and money to make it happen.
After the exams, Fang Bai planned to take advantage of Qin Shuyu still having a week before her holiday to go to Shanghai to relax for a few days, while also setting up the subscription certificate matters and inspecting factory land in Shanghai.
After dinner, the family returned home, sat on the sofa, drank tea, ate fruit, and chatted. Fang Bai told his Fang Bai's parents that he was going to Shanghai.
For this long trip, Fang Bai brought two million in cash.
Cross-region withdrawals were not possible, and even within the same city, different branches of the same bank did not allow reciprocal cash withdrawals. However, high-value remittances between different cities within the same bank were possible, though the handling fees were high and it was quite troublesome.
Inter-company transfers between different locations typically required fax or mail, and the recipient needed to provide a large amount of supporting documents, even calling the issuing branch for verification.
Xinghai Shopping Mall's purchases of electrical appliances were remitted to the appliance manufacturers in this troublesome manner.
"Go, be careful on the road, and bring an extra bodyguard," Fang Bai's parents reminded him.
"I'll have Da Kai and Brother Long come along; taking turns driving will also make it faster."
Fang Bai had told his Fang Bai's parents that his future career focus would be in Shanghai, and the family business would rely on them.
In the evening, he took a warm bath in the custom-made bathtub, feeling incredibly refreshed.
The entire second floor was renovated, with the original six rooms converted into a large living room and three bedrooms.
Fang Bai arranged a large master bedroom with a bathroom and walk-in closet for his Fang Bai's parents.
The first floor was made into a parking garage, and Fang Bai's mother used the second-floor rooftop for growing vegetables, while his sister grew some flowers.
The current living environment was acceptable, but the surrounding area was a bit poor.
In a few years, after their own land was developed, they would develop a high-end residential community, build a riverside villa and a large flat, and then move to a new place.
After showering, Fang Bai returned to his bedroom and lay on the bed, calming his mind to plan his upcoming ventures.
Besides setting up the subscription certificates for early next year, in terms of industry, he now had two choices.
The first industry was industrial valves.
They can control the flow of various fluids such as air, water, steam, various corrosive media, sludge, oil, liquid metal, and radioactive media.
Industrial valves are needed in the petroleum industry, chemical industry, energy, sewage, metallurgy, and other fields, especially in downstream industries like oil and gas, energy, chemicals, and refining, where their application accounts for 70% of the market.
In his previous life, Fang Bai was most familiar with this industry, and in this life, he still wanted to dabble in it and help his father-in-law realize his dream.
He planned to establish a research and development center in Shanghai to study industrial valves made of special materials for extreme environments.
Currently, high-end industrial valves for extreme environments such as ultra-high temperature, ultra-low temperature, ultra-high pressure, vacuum, and nuclear applications are entirely monopolized by foreign countries and are also key industries supported by the state.
The market for mid-to-high-end industrial valves is enormous, offering great potential.
An LNG ultra-low temperature valve costs twenty million per unit, with a channel diameter of only one or two meters and a weight of several tons, yet it is less complex than a high-end machine tool.
There are many industrial valves worth hundreds of thousands or millions, and even thirty years later, they will still be expensive. There's no way around it; few domestic valve factories do it well.
The demand for these million-level high-end valves is still quite large because the design life of a valve is only 18 months, so demand is very stable.
Large demand, low management difficulty, high single-unit profit—Fang Bai liked to engage in this industry.
The second industry was construction machinery and equipment.
For example, excavators, bulldozers, loaders, tunnel boring machines, concrete mixers, etc.
These equipment industries were just starting in China. For instance, the later-stage Sany and Xugong were both founded in 1989, and Zoomlion would be established next year.
Domestic companies have always been unable to compete with Caterpillar CAT and Komatsu KOMATSU. The two English logos seen later are the logos of these two companies, especially Caterpillar, with annual revenues exceeding fifty billion USD.
The timing for Fang Bai to enter the construction machinery industry was just right.
He just wanted to overturn these two giants.
There are also other industries that are good, but it's not advisable to spread oneself too thin at once. Being able to do well in these two industries is already very impressive; as long as he becomes an international leader, being the richest person in China is not a problem at all.
Of course, Fang Bai was not only looking at the money; breaking foreign technological monopolies in these two industries would bring tremendous changes to the country, and his own social status would also greatly improve.
In the coming years, some industries could also be highly profitable, such as VCDs and DVDs, but Fang Bai didn't want to spend too much effort on these industries that would decline in a few years. Besides making quick money, they had no use for his future plans, unless he wanted to develop in the direction of integrated circuits and chips.
According to the functions of Fang Bai's Middle Finger Golden Finger, there are many other suitable industries for him, such as automobiles, instruments, and tools, followed by home appliances, mobile phones, and computers.
After comprehensive analysis, he concluded that pure mechanical categories were best, as the Golden Finger could exert its maximum effect, allowing him to surpass international giants relatively easily in the design and manufacturing of products.
Therefore, he first chose industrial valves and construction machinery.
In other industries, if the proportion of pure mechanical components in the product is low, the Golden Finger's effect would be smaller.
Of course, if there is an opportunity in the future, Fang Bai will also venture into other industries.
After sorting out the industries he planned to enter, he felt passionate and excited, as a new industrial path was officially setting sail.