Chapter 50: New Student Orientation

  New Life Begins

  Time is like flowing water, quietly passing away when people are not aware of it. Only this ever-changing world silently tells people that they have been here before.

  In the blink of an eye, the summer vacation of junior year flew by quickly. Looking at those tender freshmen and parents sending their kids to school in the campus, Duan Lei suddenly realized that he was already a senior. After entering his senior year, Duan Lei and Da Shan, these old veterans, looked back at the tender freshmen again, and a feeling of "the sea has changed since the mulberry fields" rose up in their hearts.

  Lily and Zhao Lin are both active members of the College of Liberal Arts, signing up to participate in their college's freshman welcoming activities, wearing work badges and volunteer T-shirts, busy as can be.

  Makka company has nothing much to do recently, Duan Lei is quite free; while the "Zhi Wu Rong" declaration of science and technology progress award has entered the final evaluation stage, Da Shan also has nothing to do. The girlfriends of the two are active members, busy with welcoming new students, and the two idle old slippery guys come over to follow them, taking the opportunity to comment on the new students.

  Passersby, freshmen from the class of 2023, looked at their seniors sitting on a long bench with nothing to do, and they couldn't help but feel envious and yearn for it. For these newcomers from all over the country, Hainan University is a sacred place in their hearts, and these seniors should also be the kind of elite that the media has been promoting, right?

  Little do they know, by the time they get used to university life, they will find that these seniors, despite their considerable achievements in academia and entrepreneurship, are essentially no different from ordinary students. They still can't help but rate beautiful girls who appear, still like to show off in front of the opposite sex, still have too much rustic air, and are fundamentally different from the old slickers in society...

  "Hey, Lao Da, what's the plan for the new semester?" asked Duan Lei, sitting with Da Shan on a long bench under the shade of trees in front of the teaching building, watching the crowd of people at the freshman reception.

  "What else can I do? Just muddle along." Da Shan pulled on a nearby willow branch and said casually, "What's up? Got another task for me to do?"

  After entering the fourth year, there are basically no more classes, and the school starts to let students go out to find internship units or arrange graduation topics for them. Using the phrase "letting goats loose on a mountain" to describe fourth-year students is most fitting.

  For students like Dashan who have no pressure to find a job and do not want to take the postgraduate entrance examination, life in the fourth year is leisurely but also quite boring. As the new semester has already started, Dashan still cannot find anything to do, he is considering that if all else fails, he will return to his hometown to participate in the management of the family business and kill time. However, he has just fallen deeply in love with Zhao Lin, and it's a bit hard for him to bear leaving her.

  Recently, he served as the liaison for the 'Pollution Control' project's application for the Science and Technology Progress Award, allowing Dashan to jump out of the narrow circle of school and come into contact with more people and things. Especially when the 'Pollution Control' project evaluation was blocked, Dashan needed to meet with many evaluation committee members and came into contact with many dark aspects of society, making him mature a lot in his dealings with others, which is something he couldn't learn from his family business. After all, during his training in the family business, he could only come into contact with some daily affairs, and some more troublesome things were handled by his elders and company veterans, so he had relatively little contact with the hidden aspects of business and society.

  For this reason, Dashan actually had the idea of venturing out for a few years and accumulating enough experience before returning home to take over the family business. After all, his father was only in his early forties, still in his prime. A more important reason is that he is the eldest son and grandson of the family, with first-in-line inheritance rights, so there's no rush for him to return home to fight for power and profit.

  However, Dashan still had some doubts in his heart because he knew that friends could spend money together, but making money and starting a business together was not very reliable. In this world, many intimate friends would become estranged due to various conflicts of interest, even becoming sworn enemies. Dashan understood that if he occasionally helped Duan Lei with something, the relationship between them would naturally become closer, but once they had more entanglements of interest, things might not be so good.

  So as soon as Duan Yue spoke up, Da Shan's response somewhat revealed some of his inner thoughts. Taking advantage of the boredom of senior year, doing something to pass the time and exercise oneself is also a good choice.

  "Our company has recently developed a plant that can purify pollutants in high-altitude areas, and we are looking for distributors to cooperate with. I wonder if your family's enterprise is interested?" Duan Yue saw that Dashan was also idle, so he thought of handing over the new variety of 'pollutant-purifying plants' to Lijia Enterprise for agency.

  Since entering the school, Duan Yue has been taken care of by Da Shan in many ways. He has always been grateful and thinking about how to repay him, but there hasn't been a good opportunity yet. This time, during the 'Pollution Control' project application process, although with the strong support from all levels of school leaders, Da Shan, as the liaison person, also ran around, busy in front and behind, making great contributions for the project to enter the final evaluation.

  According to Duan Yun's understanding of the Dashan family situation, the Meideng Group, operated by the Li family in the Northeast region, has enormous potential and is involved in industries such as mineral development, steel smelting, machinery manufacturing, logistics transportation, hotel catering, agricultural development, and many others, making it one of the more well-known private family enterprises in the Northeast region.

  Due to his good relationship with Dashan, Duan Lei specially learned about some situations of Meideng Group through some channels and found that they are quite good in terms of scale and control over the industries they involve, and their strength is not weak. In addition to the good relationship between him and Dashan, Duan Lei was very willing to establish a good cooperative relationship with Meideng Group and develop the business of Makka Company in the Northeast region.

  At that time, Duan Lei had only developed a 'pollution-tolerant' plant suitable for the Yellow River Basin in southern China and did not have pollution-tolerant plants that could grow in the cold northern regions, so he had to put his cooperation plans on hold. All along, Duan Lei has been taking out time and energy to modify some plants commonly found in high-cold areas, hoping to cultivate pollution-tolerant plants that can adapt to low-temperature climates, in order to expand the market for pollution-tolerant plants nationwide.

  After months of hard work, Duan Lei finally overcame many technical difficulties and successfully transformed the larch trees distributed in Northeast China and Siberia into pollution-absorbing plants. After the research results came out, the first partner Duan Lei thought of was Dashan's family business - Meideng Group.

  "Is there a new product being developed that can withstand low temperatures?" Upon hearing this, Oyama was overjoyed.

  Over the past few months, as the project team's liaison for the 'Pollution-absorbing Plant' science and technology progress award application, Dashan has transformed from a novice who knew nothing about the 'Pollution-absorbing Plant' to a half-expert. He is quite clear about the amazing effects of the 'Pollution-absorbing Plant' as well as its good market prospects, and he understands that this is a great project that can bring huge benefits to distributors. However, based on Dashan's understanding of the 'Pollution-absorbing Plant', this evergreen plant native to southern tropical and subtropical regions is not cold-resistant, even after being modified by 'Maca Biotechnology'. They still cannot adapt to the harsh climate in northern China.

  According to the experimental data, the lowest tolerance temperature of 'Zhiwu Rong' is around minus ten degrees Celsius. If the temperature is a little higher, the growth of 'Zhiwu Rong' will be significantly inhibited, and it may even wither and die. It is precisely because of this that although 'Zhiwu Rong' is claimed to be cultivable in the Yellow River Basin and southward, the main distributors of 'Maca Biotechnology' have only reached Donghai Province, and further north, they are almost scarce.

  "Now we have developed a new pollution-tolerant plant, which is modified from the 'Camphor Tree' commonly found in your northern region. It can withstand temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees and fully adapt to the cold climate of the north." Duan Lei nodded and said: "I know that your family's company also has agricultural extension business under its umbrella, so I'd like to give you the distribution rights for the north."

  It can be said that due to the inability to withstand low temperatures, the promotion of 'pollution-tolerant elms' has only reached half of the provinces in China, and there is still no sign of 'pollution-tolerant elms' in the other half of the country. In order to open up this huge market, Duan Lei naturally started developing pollution-tolerant plants that can adapt to low-temperature climates, which is also the starting point for Maca Biology's global strategy.

  Our country has a vast territory, with great differences in climate and temperature between the north and south. If we can promote pollution-tolerant plants across the country, it will not be difficult to promote them globally in the future. Duan Lei also did some analysis on the growth characteristics and adaptation range of pollution-tolerant plants when promoting them domestically, preparing for their global promotion in the future.

  The Li family's Meideng Group has a subsidiary that engages in the procurement and sales of major agricultural products such as soybeans and corn, as well as the sales of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, and other agricultural materials. Although its annual turnover is only tens of millions, it is already considered a good partner. Moreover, the Li family has developed for hundreds of years in Northeast China and has extensive connections with local governments, which helps to promote 'Jiezi Song'.

  "This shouldn't be a problem, I'll arrange for someone from the group to come over and get in touch with you, as for the cooperation method, it's the same as other distributors, no need to make it special." Da Shan nodded and said.

  Duan Yue was aware of some situations within the Meideng Group, which didn't exceed Da Shan's expectations. After all, since Duan Yue started his own company, Da Shan had stopped avoiding talking about his family in everyday conversations. In Da Shan's view, although the Meideng Group's total assets were already in the tens of billions, this was the result of the Li family's efforts over several generations. With Duan Yue's future development potential being immeasurable after earning hundreds of millions with a revolutionary product within half a year, there wasn't much worth keeping secret about his own family situation anymore.

  "Boss, aren't you being too laid-back, not wanting to take care of anything?" Duan Lei said with a smile as he saw Da Shan pass on the 'Pollution-Free Pine' promotion project to an employee in the group.

  "I don't know about your company's promotion model for pollution-treatment plants?" Da Shan threw away the willow branch in his hand and said, "As long as we get the cultivation powder from your company and follow your technical guidance, we can cultivate qualified pollution-treatment plants. For distributors, isn't the only challenging part of the work just sales? With the amazing effect of pollution-treatment plants and our family's connections in the north, it won't be too difficult, so for me, there really aren't many challenges."

  Dashi's analysis was quite thorough, and the promotion project of 'Pollution-free Chinese Fir' would not be a problem for him. In Dashi's view, why Duansong was willing to hand over this project to Meideng Group was simply because of their good relationship, giving his own family a favor.

  Can't help but say, Dashan has figured out the operating logic of 'Makabiology' very clearly, so Duan Yue didn't continue on this topic. As long as it's settled with Dashan, the next thing is for Duan Bingyi to negotiate a cooperation agreement with the representative of Meideng Group. After half a year of operation, 'Makabiology' has formed standardized procedures in the production and sales of powder cultivation, as well as cooperation models with distributors, so it can just proceed according to routine.

  The production technology and process of 'Zhi Wu Zhang Zi Song' powder have been sorted out and handed over to the production workshop, and can be produced after finding a partner. Especially after Duan Bingyi took charge of Maca's daily affairs, whether it was procurement of raw materials, product sales, financial management, or personnel management, there was a mainstay, and the company's operation became more organized. Many things were decided by Duan Lian, and the subsequent details were handled by Duan Bingyi. Under this circumstance, Duan Bingyi's experience as a county magistrate gave him an extremely meticulous management level, making Maca no longer as chaotic as before.

  …………

  "Isn't the basketball team still playing in the A games this year? With this spare time, it's better to pay more attention to the new students' situation and find a few capable team members. Otherwise, it might be tough to watch this year," said Duan Lei with a smile.

  After the main players of the basketball team graduated and left school, the team fell into a state of disconnection. If there are no good new players joining, the team's performance in this year's university league will be dismal. Now that Dashan is not even taking care of his family business and feels bored, Duan Lei teases him about it.

  "These past few days, I've already gotten the athletic special talent student materials from the admissions office. The other majors are fine, but basketball is as terrible as ever." Da Shan shook his head and said: "After the new students finish military training, we'll be holding a school-wide new student basketball competition to see if we can find one or two good seeds among the ordinary students."

  "I had forgotten, you also debuted in the Newcomer Basketball Game" As soon as Daxiong said this, Duanyue remembered the events of three years ago.

  In the Hai Dac basketball team, apart from sports students, occasionally good players can still be found among ordinary students. Because Dashan himself was not a sports student at first, he entered Hai Dac with his high school grades and entered the coach's vision through the freshman basketball game, becoming a member of the Hai Dac basketball team. Now, Dashan puts his hopes on the freshman basketball game, which is also a normal thing.

  "If you're not busy, come over and take a look, help me keep an eye on things." Dashi also knew that Duanyuan had been quite idle recently, and threatened: "If we can't find suitable team members, I'll definitely drag you to join the school team and go with us to compete in matches."

  To say, Duan Yu's height was only 177 cm before, and his figure was slightly thin. Although he often did physical labor and exercised, the strength of his body was not bad, but because he didn't have good basketball skills and his height was not enough, he wasn't cut out for playing basketball. However, everything changed greatly after that incident of being knocked unconscious by a brick during the third year of college.

  Duanyi's height increased by 10 cm within a year, reaching 188, barely meeting the average height of university basketball league guards. Of course, it's not that having reached this height means Duanyi has the ability to represent the school team in competitions, but rather, over the past few months, contact with Duanyi has given Dashan the idea of letting him join the school team.

  As the successor of Bagua Palm, Daxiong has been studying and practicing hard since he was a child. His skills in Bagua Palm have made some progress, which makes him superior to ordinary people in terms of strength, physical coordination ability, and reaction speed. It is also because of his martial arts foundation that Daxiong can rely on his less-than-two-meter height to become the most powerful center forward in the university league. However, Daxiong found that Duanyue was practicing some kind of mysterious skill, completely suppressing himself in all aspects, and that kind of formidable strength really made Daxiong speechless.

  Over time, Dashan has intentionally or unintentionally found Duan Lei to play basketball together. After Dashan's careful observation, Duan Lei indeed has the basic strength to join the school team. If he can spend more time on basketball, relying on his current physical quality and muscle control ability, becoming a formidable super guard is just around the corner.

  So, although he knew that Makka Company had a lot of things to deal with every day, Oyama's idea of pulling Sanpei into the school team did not change and instead became even stronger.

  "Alright, if nothing comes up at that time, I'll come over to help out." Looking at Dashan with an expression of 'you won't agree and I won't give up', Duan Lei appeared somewhat helpless, nodding his head and saying: "As for joining the school team, let me think about it some more."

  "This is no problem." Seeing Duan Yue's attitude soften, Da Shan knew that his purpose had been initially achieved.

  As long as Duan Lei spends some time with the basketball team, can't he just watch the basketball team sink like this? After all, he has been hanging out with the basketball team for a long time. Dashan is quite looking forward to it, and Duan Lei's skills are much higher than his own. If he practices basketball seriously, what kind of shocking effect will it be?

  In Dashi's opinion, Kung Fu plus basketball is a great combination.