Chapter 1091: Daily Life

Because they were personally raising the children, Wang Yan and Wei Lan stayed home all day, working remotely online. Even when going out for a stroll, they only did so while the children were asleep, taking a brief breath of fresh air downstairs.

The house was still quite lively; the cat and dog were very active, finally having someone to keep them company. Occasionally, the two children would take turns crying and making a fuss, creating a very heartwarming scene.

Of course, this was only possible because Wang Yan had boundless energy; otherwise, just caring for two children would leave one physically and mentally exhausted, as looking after kids is truly tiring work. Only he could watch the children, tease the cat and dog, prepare three meals a day, handle work tasks, and simultaneously provide what was termed "emotional value" to Wei Lan. Anyone else would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

However, if it really were someone else, they wouldn't burden themselves with raising the children personally; nowadays, maternal and infant services are quite mature...

It was an ordinary day: Wei Lan was in the study, petting the dog while handling the company's daily operations. Wang Yan was working in the living room, petting the cat while keeping an ear on the children.

The dog favored Wei Lan because it had spent the most time with Wang Yan; every morning, Wang Yan would practically scare the life out of it, so if possible, the dog tried to stay as far away from him as it could.

The cat was quite different; since it didn't go out for running exercises but instead practiced parkour inside the house and hadn't been rigorously trained by Wang Yan, it naturally felt closer to him...

"Ding-dong..."

The doorbell rang.

A window popped up on Wang Yan's computer screen showing the surveillance feed from outside the door; after taking a glance, he stood up, spoke into the air at a normal volume, and said, "Open the door."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the door lock clicked as it engaged, and the door swung open.

"Wang Zong, this smart home system is very convenient," Zhao Fu said as he walked in with a young man, stopping at the entrance.

"Come in; no need to change shoes, we don't stand on such formalities."

Zhao Fu didn't stand on ceremony; he brought the young man inside with him, and immediately afterward, the door automatically closed.

Wang Yan went to the side to boil water for tea, while Zhao Fu and the young man set down the items they were carrying.

"There are a few documents here that require your signature in person. Let me take a look at the children," Zhao Fu said, then walked over to gaze at the two little ones in the crib.

"They've grown; looking at their eyebrows and eyes, they clearly take after you, Wang Zong. As for their features, they resemble President Wei, very beautiful. They truly have inherited the excellent genes of both you and President Wei."

Wang Yan flipped through the documents, which all concerned the construction site; the accounts there were too large, requiring his personal review.

As he signed, he replied, "There's nothing particularly excellent about it; they're our own children, after all. Why did you come in person? You could have just sent someone to run an errand."

"I happened to have nothing else to do, so I came over to see the children; they'll be turning one month old soon, are you planning to hold a celebration?"

"Forget it; there's no real need, and everyone is tired."

Wang Yan had already scanned several documents and finished signing; he beckoned them over, saying, "Come, have some tea and chat. You sit as well; no need to be so polite."

The young man nodded, sat down nearby, took out a package, and said, "Wang Zong, this was sent over from the Optical Laboratory; I happened to run into it, so I brought it along."

"Good. Have some tea," Wang Yan said, pouring a cup of tea and handing it over.

At that moment, Wei Lan walked out: "President Zhao is here."

Zhao Fu nodded with a smile: "President Wei is recovering well."

"Thank you." Wei Lan smiled politely, went to get some water, and said, "You two chat; I still have a meeting to attend."

Zhao Fu truly had nothing urgent to do; his main purpose in coming to the house was to see the children, and additionally to discuss company matters with Wang Yan. These company matters fell into two categories.

The first primarily concerned the construction of the Main District, which was currently Zhao Fu's key focus; he handled almost everything related to that area. Since winter had arrived, outdoor construction work had halted, but interior work on buildings that were already completed could still proceed. Preparation of various materials could also be arranged in advance.

Zhao Fu had performed excellently; the project's progress was quite smooth, even exceeding expectations by a wide margin. Mainly, whenever construction was possible, they operated twenty-four hours a day in shifts; since that area was rural, there were no issues of disturbing residents. In fact, the local people very much hoped to be disturbed, as it represented vitality on land they had grown weary of.

If it were a leisurely pursuit of growing vegetables and flowers, having a garden to decorate and play in at will, then most Chinese people would likely harbor such pastoral sentiments. But if one digs in the earth merely to survive, then farmers probably do not like it; if they can be clean, no one wants to be dirty, and if they can be light and easy, no one wants to be tired.

How wonderful things are now: the land has been requisitioned, the houses too, everyone has been relocated together into two-and-a-half-story small homes for each family. In the future, the government will also arrange employment, and the earnings will be higher than before. So what if there is a bit of noise now?

According to the current construction schedule, they expect to move in and begin operations by next autumn. Housing and a small portion of office space have already been completed; including decoration, formaldehyde removal, and so on, the entire process from construction to occupancy takes one and a half years.

The main reason is that most of the office buildings are not skyscrapers but rather extensive three-to-four-story Shao Shao Hongda structures; although they follow ancient architectural styles, in terms of construction difficulty, they are naturally easier to build than high-rises. With ancient architecture experts on-site providing technical support, there are no major problems.

Of course, the Main District construction also includes high-rise buildings; those have longer construction periods and belong to the category of wonders.

As for the other part of company affairs, that concerns international matters abroad.

There have always been disputes in this area; the foreign devils now seize every opportunity to condemn the Long Teng Group. As for the sanction packages, those were imposed long ago. Internationally, the Long Teng Group does not have a single partner.

These matters are trivial; Wang Yan is not afraid of sanctions at all. Even if everything were banned, isn't Sha Qiang Shen Wan still selling hot worldwide? Moreover, it's getting hotter, with sales climbing rapidly. The foreign devils cannot stop the sales of Sha Qiang Shen Wan. Those with money buy from the official website, waiting for intercontinental express delivery across the ocean; those whose funds are not so sufficient but still want to consume it will try every possible means to purchase smuggled goods.

Nowadays, the smuggling business has already matured; although Sha Qiang Shen Wan has only truly emerged for less than a year, routes to various countries have already been perfected. The domestic acquisition network has also formed on a significant scale.

There are even rumors of people mixing flour with medicinal herbs to roll into pills and selling them to fool the foreign devils; such incidents are not isolated cases...

After chatting and joking like this for over half an hour, Zhao Fu left with the young man, and Wang Yan's home returned to its previous state, both noisy and quiet.

When Wei Lan came out again, she saw Wang Yan holding a very crude lens, using a camera to snap photo after photo of the two children along with the cat and dog.

These research people had considered everything quite thoroughly; not only did they bring the lens, but they also provided a camera, since the camera interface was different and the lens couldn't simply be screwed on to shoot directly.

There was nothing special about it; it was just an ordinary full-frame camera costing a few thousand yuan, and it was brand new.

"Is this the achievement from the optical project team you mentioned?" Wei Lan leaned in to look at the crude lens and asked skeptically, "Will it work?"

"If they sent it over to me, it certainly works; they know I understand photography, otherwise they wouldn't have sent me this prototype. Instead, they would have directly sent someone over to give me lessons, teaching me how to distinguish the quality of lenses and where the advantages of this particular lens lie."

While speaking, Wang Yan clicked away, taking several photos of Wei Lan. Wei Lan cooperated fully, squatting between the two children and happily making hand gestures.

As soon as Wang Yan finished shooting, he walked over to the side to transfer the photos to the computer.

She followed him over, watched from the side, and said, "Just producing lenses isn't very profitable, right? You need to have your own cameras; only a complete ecosystem will work, correct?"

Having previously considered how lucrative being a pet blogger could be, Wei Lan had researched various photography equipment and thus had some concept regarding cameras.

After all, she was now a big boss; while Wei Lan wasn't clear exactly how much revenue lenses generated, she knew this wasn't a mass-market product, so profits would definitely be limited. Standing from the perspective of a company owner, the first thing that came to her mind was developing a complete ecosystem, because only in this way could profits be maximized, making it worthwhile to pursue.

But in reality, the revenue from selling lenses is actually quite decent. If they cover all focal lengths and create mounts based on popular camera brands, they could still earn several hundred million yuan a year. However, this amount of revenue is somewhat negligible for the Group.

Wang Yan fiddled with the computer, enlarging the images, observing various details, and judging the merits and flaws of this lens, which was somewhat of an accidental byproduct.

He smiled and said, "Whether it makes money or not, we must do it; we need to master the technology ourselves. Moreover, there are many applications: industrial lenses, lenses for satellites, and so on; we have needs for all of these. There are also mobile phone projects; these technologies can be applied to mobile phone photography as well. Now that results have emerged, we can spin off this project and establish a dedicated imaging company; that is certainly feasible."

"Selling cameras is a byproduct, and the profits will also be counted in the hundreds of millions. Pumping this money back into research will make our funding quite ample; it's essentially free money. It can also provide quite a few job opportunities; isn't this the responsibility of a large enterprise like ours?"

"Your awareness is truly high." Wei Lan gave a thumbs-up. "Shall I arrange this immediately?"

"Establish a 'Long Teng Imaging' company and transfer this project team over..." Wang Yan nodded and immediately began assigning tasks.

"Good, I understand; I'll have people handle it right away. By the way, aren't there also monitors? Didn't you say results came out for those too? Those sell even better than lenses; should we establish another company for that as well?"

"You're even answering before I ask. It was reported yesterday; they said they took the right path and achieved overtaking on a bend, surpassing..."

Why did they take the right path? Naturally, it was because of a few key sentences he inadvertently spoke, which the research experts happened to comprehend. And if they hadn't comprehended? Then he would simply inadvertently speak a few more sentences.

However, these things are still at the laboratory stage; producing finished products with reliable quality will still take some time.

But the advantage is there; taken out, they are all highly competitive items.

For instance, this hand-crafted lens currently in Wang Yan's hands boasts top-tier image quality, and most importantly, it is very lightweight. As everyone knows, the better the lens quality, the heavier the lens, since they are all made of metal materials, jokingly referred to by enthusiasts as fitness equipment.

But this lens achieves superior image quality while significantly reducing weight. If truly mass-produced, it certainly won't feel as substantial as metal materials, nor allow one to feel the weight of money in hand, but being lighter and having better quality is indeed true.

Ultimately, development must trend toward portability.

For people with special requirements, Wang Yan says it's no problem; he has always respected consumers. He can offer choices and launch custom services. As long as the money is sufficient, having people hand-craft gold lenses is not impossible.

However, these matters are not something Wang Yan, the boss, needs to worry about; the future general manager of the imaging company will naturally enrich the product line and launch various targeted products.

Wei Ge Ge went to arrange personnel to establish the company, while Wang Yan also held a video conference with the project team members to settle upcoming matters.

After finishing the discussion regarding lenses, he turned to contact the project team actually researching the imaging system. Now that there were achievable results, naturally, the side with results took priority; merging the two project teams to produce the camera as well.

This was indeed unexpected, as Wang Yan had not planned to make cameras; he only intended to create mobile imaging and various Gao Jingjian imaging systems. Now that commercially viable lenses had been developed, they might as well sell them first. Anyway, it was just competing for rice bowls with the Japanese and the Germans.

So he chatted with the project team again, sharing some of his ideas regarding scientific research technology, and the experts consequently had new ideas...

At the same time, he selected the person responsible for the imaging business and issued his instructions. Nothing else, just that the selling price must be high. Long Teng lacks no prestige, and the vast number of consumers greatly recognize this prestige.

For no other reason than selling at a high price, there are still plenty of people buying.

Either don't do it, or if doing it, make it expensive.

Especially since cameras are niche consumer goods, they do not require too many users to offer approval.

This is unlike phones, computers, tablets, and the like; in those cases, multiple product lines are inevitable, aimed at gaining user recognition and acceptance, thereby conducting activities to enrich the ecosystem. On this point, one need only look at Huawei to understand. People's habits are hard to change; if products remain unaffordable, that would be even worse, which is why Huawei's product lines are so extensive.

Cameras don't need to be that complicated; two product lines are sufficient. One is expensive, and the other is even more expensive...

The project team that developed the lens was very confident, stating that by March, they could resolve production issues and address various focal lengths for prime lenses. Relatively speaking, zoom lenses with large apertures are more difficult, but the problem isn't significant. Delaying another three months, they could also launch them successively.

The currently envisioned pricing starts at fifty percent higher than Leica. Exactly how much higher depends on actual production costs, with additions made accordingly. Anyway, this price condemns it to be a toy for the few; it won't sell many units, so making a little profit is enough.

As for camera research, the difficulty lies in the camera's CMOS; this thing must be designed, fabricated, and manufactured in-house, which is where the challenge resides. The remaining stabilization systems, autofocus systems, and so on are relatively minor issues.

This is something that can incorporate artificial intelligence; the two foundational pillars allowing the company to earn money while standing tall are Sha Qiang Shen Wan and artificial intelligence, so naturally, its own advantages must be leveraged.

But this again involves various chip issues, where no breakthrough has been made yet. However, procurement is possible in the early stages; although perfect adaptation isn't achievable, it still utterly crushes the various technologies of existing camera brands.

A life with cheats... no, these are all things Wang Mou learned and memorized himself, so he thanks his living father with a clear conscience...

"Aiyo, is it time for the once-a-month drama-watching relaxation session again? What are you watching? Ode to Joy 3?"

Wei Ge Ge plopped down beside Wang Yan. "I've seen this one; it's not interesting. If you're willing to watch, we might as well invest in it. Nowadays, there's no shortage of good ideas, only money. As long as we're willing to invest, whatever you want to watch will be available; producing something specifically for us to watch ourselves isn't out of the question."

Why was Wang Yan watching these? Naturally, because news from his living father had arrived on schedule again.

"Ode to Joy: He Minhong: Another Life."

Upon first viewing, his long-sealed memories were suddenly awakened; he had thought it might allow him to return to his original world. Because he had never known whether those worlds were merely paused or had ceased to exist, serving only as a stage built for him alone.

But precisely because his memories were awakened, he was certain there was no such person as He Minhong. So he Baidu-ed it and realized this was already another story, completely unrelated to the previous Ode to Joy...

Hearing Wei Ge Ge's words, Wang Yan raised an eyebrow. "Aiyo, my boss lady, you're certainly wealthy and powerful."

"Are you insulting me? Son, hit your dad."

Wei Ge Ge picked up their second son from Wang Yan's arms and guided the little hands to strike Wang Yan's body.

The little fellow was teased into laughing at Wei Ge Ge.

But the eldest daughter in Wang Yan's armpit became unhappy, so Wang Yan manipulated the eldest daughter to strike Wei Ge Ge's body instead.

"Miss, we father and daughter are of one heart, ah, du du du du du du... ha... ha..."

And so the eldest daughter became happy too...

Ah Mao and Ah Gou watched curiously from the side, also happily twisting back and forth, jumping up and down, creating a momentary bustle.

Life at home nowadays was just like this: always momentarily lively, then momentarily quiet, all arriving very suddenly.

Wei Ge Ge yawned boredly. "Do you think it looks good?"

"It doesn't look good."

"I said it doesn't look good! Then why are you watching it with such enthusiasm?"

"Boredom. Since I started it, I might as well finish it; just killing time and relieving mental stress."

"Are you sure it's relieving mental stress? Not stimulating it?"

"Just maintaining normalcy. You know, my mindset has always been good, and my emotions have always been stable."

"That's true; I haven't heard of any other big boss like you who personally takes care of the children and cooks three meals a day for his wife."

"From your tone, does that mean it's not so good? Then I'll go to work tomorrow."

"I just feel it's unreal."

"Do I need to find two more women for it to feel real?"

Wei Ge Ge slapped Wang Yan's body. "You just try it, and I'll perish together with you... ah, phooey, I'll get the state to rule in my favor."

"Put your heart at ease; I definitely won't cause trouble for the state." Wang Yan laughed heartily, pulling Wei Ge Ge into his embrace. "Watch the drama, watch the drama..."