Du Zhaohui had originally planned to warn those two beggars, playing the bad cop so they would be more grateful when Xia Xiaolan invested in them.

But Xu Jing and Ma Hai were so poor they couldn’t even afford a hotel. Though Ithaca was small, Du Zhaohui couldn’t track them down while they stayed with fellow countrymen. This wasn’t Hong Kong or Pengcheng – Young Master Du’s influence didn’t carry much weight here, so he had to abandon this plan.

After spending two or three days in Ithaca, Du Zhaohui’s mood had improved considerably.

But as Xia Xiaolan said, he had to return to Pengcheng.

Pengcheng was now Du Zhaohui’s battlefield. If he didn’t go back to handle the pressure, he would lose without even fighting.

Let others take the Du family’s money easily.

Not a chance.

While Du Zhaohui boarded his plane, Xia Xiaolan was reviewing the materials Xu Jing had provided.

“These two have some skill.”

Unable to find major manufacturers, they had carefully sourced many alternative materials. According to their design, their English-Chinese electronic dictionary would outperform the English-German version in every aspect.

Electronic dictionaries had only recently appeared overseas, with the first version supporting only 3,000-word translations in storage.

Xu Jing and Ma Hai’s version doubled the word storage capacity, supported Chinese character display, and captured the most crucial advantage over traditional dictionaries – the ability to pronounce words correctly… Without this feature, why would anyone buy an electronic dictionary when paper dictionaries have more words?

Even English teachers couldn’t pronounce words accurately, so wasn’t it normal that students couldn’t read words properly? This was the reality in China.

“6,000 words with pronunciation and translation storage – enough for the college entrance exam.”

The electronic dictionary’s target customers were students, but not just students.

Xia Xiaolan had never doubted its market prospects.

Of course, once Xu Jing and Ma Hai’s electronic dictionary was successfully launched, companies would rush to produce similar products.

Influenced by future knowledge, Xia Xiaolan wondered about patent circumvention, but domestic manufacturers didn’t care about patents. When a product became popular, everyone would rush to copy it. They just needed to disassemble the electronic dictionary to understand its assembly – no one would pay patent fees.

This wasn’t just Xia Xiaolan’s problem – every manufacturer faced this challenge.

If you couldn’t fight your way through the chaos, your factory and products would vanish from the market. Maybe the technology couldn’t keep up, maybe marketing decisions were wrong – who knew which mistake would prove fatal? Those famous future enterprises all faced numerous crises. Their eventual success proved their entrepreneurs’ capabilities – Xia Xiaolan’s foreknowledge alone couldn’t guarantee complete dominance.

Fortunately, the electronic dictionary market was huge – this pie was big enough that even several competitors couldn’t fill it immediately.

Moreover…

“Xu Jing and Ma Hai’s product is several years ahead of my memories!”

Without access to Baidu in her reincarnation, Xia Xiaolan didn’t know everything.

She first saw an electronic dictionary in 1994, before her high school graduation. Considering her hometown was a inland small city in her previous life, it must have taken two or three years for electronic dictionaries to reach there after their launch.

Working backward, English-Chinese electronic dictionaries must have hit the market around 1990.

Wasn’t creating something three or four years early a huge business opportunity?

Of course, this assumed Xu Jing and Ma Hai could produce it and achieve mass production. Twenty thousand dollars wasn’t nearly enough – who knew how much those manufacturers had invested in research and development, but it was more than twenty thousand dollars.

Xia Xiaolan closed the materials.

In two days, she could discuss things with Xu Jing and Ma Hai.

Twenty thousand dollars was too little.

Forty percent equity was too little.

As the only major investor, shouldn’t she be in control? Was this just throwing money at Xu Jing and Ma Hai’s dreams?

While Xia Xiaolan was letting these two confused entrepreneurs stew, Xu Jing and Ma Hai were suffering, sleeping on the floor in their countryman’s dormitory without spare beds.

Even their New York basement had beds!

They showed up at Cornell University daily, hoping their presence would remind Xia Xiaolan that they were still waiting for her response.

Even Ning Xue recognized them and stopped Xia Xiaolan after class:

“I saw two familiar faces – weren’t they at the international student party? One surnamed Xu, the other Ma?”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “You’re right, they came to see me – Senior Xu Jing and Senior Ma Hai.”

“Be careful. I heard they’ve scammed many people. The Chinese international student circle in New York has a very bad impression of them.”

Ning Xue offered this kind of warning.

Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t dismiss others’ goodwill. Though she and Ning Xue had conflicting personalities, she never thought Ning Xue was a bad person.

“Thanks for the warning, but I’m curious – how did you know?”

It was natural – newcomers to the circle were warned to stay away from these two.

“You don’t believe me?”

Ning Xue frowned.

Xia Xiaolan shook her head, “No, I know you don’t lie. I trust you completely. I don’t trust others. If everyone condemns these two, why did Senior Li, who organized the student party, insist on inviting them? Shouldn’t they be isolated from the circle to prevent more fellow countrymen from being deceived?”

That was true.

Ning Xue hadn’t thought about this contradiction – it didn’t make logical sense.

“Are you suggesting someone deliberately isolated, ostracized, or even slandered Seniors Xu and Ma?”

Xia Xiaolan shrugged: “I didn’t say anything – it’s just speculation.”

Though Ning Xue was intelligent, she lacked experience in human affairs. Xia Xiaolan didn’t want her to be deceived. Perhaps being in a foreign country had lowered Ning Xue’s guard – Xia Xiaolan remembered she never used to follow others’ opinions blindly. When people misunderstood Xia Xiaolan when she first entered Huaqing, Ning Xue wasn’t influenced.

Ning Xue’s expression turned ugly.

Not angry at Xia Xiaolan, but feeling foolish.

She was also angry that Chinese international students weren’t united. They should help each other while studying abroad, and not engage in such behavior.

Xia Xiaolan made her point and stopped. Usually, Ning Xue lectured her, complaining about wasting talent and not studying hard. Who would have thought there’d be a day when she’d teach Ning Xue instead… For some reason, Xia Xiaolan found it quite satisfying.

“Am I some kind of bully who enjoys tormenting others?”

Xia Xiaolan examined herself for three seconds before leaving the classroom in good spirits.

It was time to give Xu Jing and Ma Hai an answer – at least she should go to New York to see their current progress.

Back at the Wen household, Hu Ying poked her head out from the kitchen:

“You’re back? A Miss Xiang called today, saying she wanted to bring something to you. She wasn’t clear on the phone, but I told her eight o’clock tonight would be fine – is that okay?”