Initially, Xu Jing and Ma Hai didn’t necessarily start this project to make big money.

Many students today still have passionate dreams. When they see something good, they want to make it available for Chinese people to use – such people are everywhere.

Bringing advanced technology and concepts back to the country is precisely the purpose of the government sponsoring students to study abroad.

However, as the development costs for the English-Chinese electronic dictionary kept increasing, Xu Jing and Ma Hai couldn’t possibly bring this product to fruition relying solely on themselves.

Xu Jing and Ma Hai were quite straightforward in their thinking – in their design, the dictionary’s display screen and keyboard were integrated, following the English-German version’s design in America.

This aspect could be improved.

“This is one-way English to Chinese, right? You can input English words to find Chinese meanings, but you can’t input Chinese words to look up English…”

Xu Jing felt embarrassed, though Xia Xiaolan wasn’t trying to make things difficult – she was just pointing out future directions.

Any product evolves generation by generation. Seeking perfection in the first generation isn’t just technically unfeasible – manufacturers who try this are seeking their doom! Take future electronic product manufacturers – could they not produce higher-performance computers and phones? Even with the technology in hand, they can’t release everything at once. Otherwise, what selling points would they have for their next products?

Xia Xiaolan was initially quite satisfied.

It was just that the basement environment was too awful.

Ma Hai, being impatient, said, “Classmate Xia, we’re not deceiving you. The technology is mature now. As long as we have follow-up funding, you’ll see a mature prototype in two months at most!”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “I never said you were frauds. If I had believed Xiang Li, I wouldn’t have come here with you. To be honest, does this place look suitable for discussing business?”

Ma Hai suddenly felt awkward.

It was an underground garage with poor ventilation. Two men living there weren’t particularly mindful of cleanliness – there was a strange odor.

It was already remarkable that Xia Xiaolan stayed this long. Even Xiang Li had pinched her nose in disgust during her last visit.

“You’re right, let’s talk upstairs, let’s go upstairs!”

“Come on, I’ll take you to the law firm.”

Since they were discussing investment, it was better to standardize the procedure.

Xu Jing and Ma Hai both said hiring lawyers were expensive, but Xia Xiaolan wasn’t concerned: “I’m spending big money already, why would I pinch pennies?”

She had consulted Wen Mannie by phone last night. Wen Mannie also suggested drawing up a formal contract, and if she decided to invest, she could meet Wen Mannie at the law firm.

Now Xia Xiaolan was taking these two to the law firm.

It wasn’t going to be as Ma Hai suggested – 20,000 dollars for 40% shares or even 15,000 dollars for 40% shares.

“60,000 dollars for 60% of the shares?”

Was that extra 20% of shares worth anything?

Nobody else was willing to invest in their project at all!

Xu Jing and Ma Hai had been discouraged by others so much that they had little confidence in themselves. Whether this product could succeed was still unknown, yet Xia Xiaolan was unusually generous.

They asked for 20,000 dollars, and Xia Xiaolan offered 60,000.

Had dollars suddenly become worthless, or was Xia Xiaolan so rich she treated money like paper?

How much was 60,000 dollars in Chinese currency? At the official exchange rate, it was just over 200,000 yuan! Ordinary people couldn’t even exchange 210,000 or 310,000 yuan for 60,000 dollars at banks… The official exchange rate was just for show – banks didn’t even offer currency exchange services for ordinary citizens.

For dollars, one had to go to the black market and exchange gradually.

With good luck, you might get one dollar for six or seven yuan. With bad luck, it would cost eight nine, or even ten yuan for one dollar.

Conversely, if Xia Xiaolan gradually exchanged these 60,000 dollars back in China, she could get over 420,000 yuan.

“So much money, all for us?”

Xia Xiaolan tapped the table, “This is the agreement I had the lawyer draft. You two should read each clause carefully before deciding whether to accept this 50,000-dollar investment.”

“First, we need to register a company in New York. Second, we need to avoid others’ patents as much as possible and apply for our patents. Third, when the finished product reaches market-ready standards, you have the right to priority purchase of the remaining shares, valued at 1,000 dollars per 1% share…”

The complex agreement made Ma Hai’s head spin.

Neither of them studied law or had much interaction with lawyers.

Xu Jing grasped the key point: “Once the electronic dictionary is produced, you want to push us out?”

Xia Xiaolan shook her head, “Keep reading, there’s more content.”

Xu Jing and Ma Hai had two choices.

One option was to follow the 1,000 dollars per 1% share scheme, selling the product completely to Xia Xiaolan before production, and she would pay an additional 40,000 dollars at the current price.

In other words, she would pay 100,000 dollars to buy out the finished product. If these two could keep research and design costs under 100,000 dollars, whatever remained would be their profit.

With a one-time buyout, whatever Xia Xiaolan did with the English-Chinese dictionary wouldn’t concern them anymore.

The second option was to return to China with Xia Xiaolan to set up a factory, with the three of them cooperating to produce the electronic dictionary. At that point, their shares would be diluted, because Xia Xiaolan had money to continue investing while these two didn’t. With only technical contribution as their investment, Xia Xiaolan wasn’t dependent solely on them – how could she possibly let them keep 40% of the shares?

At that time, they would need to renegotiate shareholding ratios.

The unfair part was that when Xia Xiaolan sold her shares, she could do so at market price, not at the current rate of 1,000 dollars per 1%.

The 40% owned by Xu Jing and Ma Hai could only be sold to Xia Xiaolan at the current price unless she suddenly lost her mind and didn’t want to buy – only then could they sell to others.

But Xia Xiaolan had autonomy – she could sell to whoever she wanted. Having invested 60,000 dollars now, if she could find a buyer, she was free to sell for even 600,000 dollars!

“This isn’t fair! You’re just a capitalist!”

Facing Ma Hai’s accusation, Xia Xiaolan smiled and nodded:

“Of course, I’m a capitalist. Business is business, friendship is friendship. If I weren’t a capitalist, do you think these 60,000 dollars would fall from the sky? Senior Ma, right now you two need funding, while I’m not exclusively dependent on your technology. I just need to know the technical direction of the English-Chinese electronic dictionary – I could find others to develop it. Honestly, if I returned to China to find people, those electronics factory technicians, with proper motivation, would need far less than 60,000 dollars to replicate your current progress, maybe even produce a finished product!”

“You… you…”

Ma Hai couldn’t complete a sentence for a long time.

They thought she was just a delicate rich classmate, but she turned out to be like a sesame-filled tangyuan – white on the outside, black on the inside. This agreement left him and Old Xu with no escape route.

Seeing Xia Xiaolan’s smile now, Ma Hai found it terrifying. If it weren’t for maintaining his dignity as a man, he would have shouted “Mom, help! I want to go home!”

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t embarrassed at all, “Though I’m a capitalist, I’m very conscientious. Right now, if I were to exclude you and develop this product myself, you couldn’t do anything about it, could you?”

Oh, these two simpletons – showing her all the materials when seeking investment, did they think she couldn’t understand them—