18 The Project

The door of the car opened.

The person who got out first was a young man with a long, beautiful body with strong arm muscles.

He had a sinful face with his chiselled jaw and those eyes which had a green shade in them. His hair was black and short.

But what attracted the most attention was the streak of green in his dense black hair.

It highlighted the young man's features to another new level.

From the driver's seat, another young man came out. He too had a handsome features but his looks seemed average because of his laziness to maintain himself.

It could be seen by the wrinkled shirt he wore. The shirt was of a well known company but it looked unidentifiable on him.

He had a muscular body too, with an aggressive air around him.

After seeing the appearance of the people who came, there was another wave among the students.

The aggressive young man looked at Duan Wei with a provocative look on his face, who in return gritted his teeth.

The spectators started looking between Fang Bai and the green-eyed young man, with an expression of gossip and uncertain expectations in their eyes.

Soon, another post soon spread on the forum, quickly gaining a large amount of comments.

"Everyone, let me satisfy your curiosity. The person who got out of the red car was Senior Chen Peng! He is a top star in the chemistry Department. He is another big heavy-weight in our University, followed by Senior Wu Cheung, who is from the Wu Family.

Following them is Senior Zhou Gen. He's also among the toppers in the Arts Department. He is the only one who could properly challenge Senior Duan Wei in the fight for a long time.

They both often get into fights with each other.

It is said that they became enemies because Senior Chen Peng and Senior Fang Bai were mortal enemies. They always stayed away from each other. They both seem to have old grudges between them. "

Standing near the gate, Fang Bai and Chen Peng quietly made eye contact with each other and looked away, one with a neutral expression, and the other with the same constant smile.

The spectators almost imagined sparks colliding between their eyes.

A normal looking student even managed to capture the moment of their eye contact.

Soon, a picture was posted on the forum in which both Chen Peng and Fang Bai were looking at each other with comical streaks of lightning drawn between them.

In order to make the meaning clear, they were specially labelled with "~bzz~ heavenly lightning".

While all the clamour was happening on the forum, in reality, there was nothing actually looking like at the moment.

It was just a calm scene of a beautiful summer morning with students happily chatting while walking towards their University on the first day of the new semester.

The only abnormal thing was the overly sweet smiles on the faces of a few boys and girls' faces who were quietly sitting on the benches on the side.

Those benches were specially prepared by the University for those students who had to wait for buses and other public transports.

Those young people even had their phones placed at suspicious angles.

There were also two girls who seemed to hold some notebooks and were drawing very devotedly into them.

Only if one could see the weird smiles on the corners of their lips and the expertly drawn young men in their notebooks who were entangled in shameful postures.

There was even a drop of shiny liquid at a corner of one girl's lips. The girl quietly wiped the drool drop with a handkerchief and again concentrated at the view in front of her.

'En, a picture of ddlb play, other with rabbit ears, ooh! One of them can also be a wolf… En, let's make him the red riding hood, and hehehe.... The Ultimate... pink cuffs, whips, chains and um… what else can I draw… Yes… Dildos, vibrators…'

Another drool drop was again formed in the same place. The girl quickly wiped it away.

The handsome men who were looking like they were about to get in a fight suddenly got chills up to their spines.

They looked here and there and soon found the source of danger.

They immediately realized what was happening and shivered visibly.

Their lips twitched and goosebumps formed when they witnessed the wretched smile on the girls' faces.

'I never knew girls could make such a face too.'

The girls realized that they were caught. Their faces turned into deep shades of red and they ran away.

Fang Bai was the first to react after that. He quietly pulled Duan Wei with his one hand and started walking to the University.

It was good to escape and avoid trouble before a new one arrives.

Tang Rong quietly followed the two.

Chen Peng and Zhou Gen also walked away silently. They first went to the canteen.

Tang Rong and the other two separated soon at a distance because both the Finance and Computers Department were quite a distance away.

Duan Wei and Fang Bai still walked together for some time until they separated too.

.

.

.

In a meeting room, a serious discussion was happening.

A middle aged man was talking seriously while standing in the elevated podium, simultaneously switching the presented slides on a holographic display with his fingers.

"Our newly created modern planting technology has been very much supported by the consumers. Various environmentalists have come forward to offer their support too.

This concept was well-thought to target the customers in the urban areas.

People are satisfied that they can now plant a large amount of plants just in their home balconies.

There was also a great increase in the sale of organic pesticides from our subsidiary company.

A huge profit of 1 billion dollars has been predicted after 3 months of sale."

There was a huge, wooden oval table with space to walk in the centre around which many old and young men and women were brainstorming for better ideas. They simultaneously clapped at the success of their company.

At the head of the table, a young man was sitting while observing the presentation.

"What is the percentage of houses who accept our technology?"

The middle-aged man again made some swipes in the screen and soon presented a real time graph with a happy smile on face said, "Sir, it's 50%".

The young man was still unfazed. "Why aren't the other 50% accepting the idea?"

A box at the corner was opened where the most accepted and used reasons were written along with the percentage of people using them.

"Sir, the people say that it will be a time-waste to grow crops at home. There will be no-one at home to manage them and the plants will die."

The young man spun his pen for some time.

'Boss does not seem to be satisfied.' The middle-aged man thought.

The young man then stood up and straightened his suit.

Everyone's attention shifted to him.

"Team, we managed to create a technology that gave optimum conditions for the plants to grow - mostly crops and other health beneficial plants like aloe vera."

The young man walked around in the space between the table, his actions calm and confident.

"Now we have another target. Can we make the plants take care of themselves?"

The people around sucked in their breaths, their hearts saying 'it's impossible'.

The man still continued.

"Or, can we create something which is also cost-effective as well as it fulfils our demands too? We already know the concepts of drip irrigation, a helper robot, a drone or anything.

"They can easily be afforded by the rich people. But, the rich people have their own gardens and gardeners. They don't need our system at all.

"The ones we are targeting are the middle or lower class working families in the Urban Cities. These hardworking people can barely make up with their rents and other school fees.

"They can afford our plant system, and those people who have some elder or any family member at home can easily manage to take care of the plants. But the people who have everyone working at their homes can't.

"Talking about need, Yes! Everyone in the town needs fresh vegetables. Who doesn't want juicy vegetables grown and taken care of by themselves at home?"

There was a deliberate pause.

"So now, team, we have another mission : A very cheap tool or system that can take care of the plant without human supervision."

After he finished speaking, everyone in the board was mesmerised by his speech. But they knew that there was another challenge ahead of them.

They were still motivated, because their CEO Fang Junjie, the young man in front of them, had taken similar difficult decisions before.

And whenever they thought anything was impossible, the young man would always prove them wrong.

A woman who was about 30 years old, stood up.

"Sir, I have an idea." Everyone's attention quickly gathered on her. The woman was flustered by the attention but still stood straight.

The earlier speech had made her quite motivated and her prime objective was the goal the CEO gave to them.

"Go ahead." Fang Junjie gave her an encouraging smile. He always supported his team whenever necessary. Team leadership quality was necessary to be a good leader. He did not want to be a stupid 'Boss'.

"Sir, w-we can create a joint system. Like, for an entire colony. If individual people can't afford it, then what about the whole colony?

"We can create a huge system that spreads all over the people's homes, like the gas pipeline does. Since there's really a want, a need among the people for their home-grown vegetables, then they can accept it. Through the pipeline, there will just be a small mouth to eject the pesticide, water, any other requirement.

"Since our home-grown system will be famous, the vegetable sellers and vendors are likely to lose their jobs or lower their income. They can be instead employed to manage the discharge of water or pesticide at different timings.

The only challenge is the adaptability of people."

After saying this, the woman was flustered. She knew that the plan may not be good, but she really wanted to contribute to the team.

After this, Fang Junjie, who was leaning against the table, slowly stood up.

"First of all, a big round of applause for Mrs. Lu. She deserves it for her good thinking skills, and the will to participate with the team."

Everyone including Fang Junjie clapped. Mrs. Lu's face was red. She shyly said 'thanks'.

She quickly sneaked a look at her wife, Lu Jia who was smiling and clapping with a proud look on her face. Her claps were the loudest.

She blushed more and looked down.

After a few seconds, the applause ended. Fang Junjie started speaking again.

"Now, let's talk about the flaws. One of the flaws, as Mrs. Lu herself said, was adaptability. And others were like management, wages etc.

"But, ladies and gentlemen, we need the real statistics before we can judge if a plan is good or not. Before actually applying it, we are not the gods to predict the accurate future.

"So, Mrs. Lu, I don't care what department you are from, you have to go and do a real-life research of a lower level of the plan. The whole project will be under you. You should first go and make a proper report of the advantages and disadvantages.

"After that, the company will provide a minimum amount of funds required for the plan. Do you accept it? Are you willing to take up the challenge?"

"Y-yes" Mrs. Lu stood up under the envious eyes of her peers. The light in her eyes was firm.

"Good, now everyone else, I believe that you also have the firm will to contribute to the company, to our team. You didn't come up with a plan today doesn't mean that you are lesser than others.

Hell no.

You all are intelligent and great people in your own fields.

"I think it's already lunch time. So you all must be hungry and have low energy. I give you all one day to come up with your own plan with your own detailed analysis and cost estimation.

I believe in you all. Now the meeting is adjourned. Thank you."

Fang Bai walked out of his meeting room.