18: Chapter 18 The Interview: Zhang Minghan's Shock

As soon as Zhang Minghan entered the study, Su Fan began to size him up. He was about 1.8 meters tall, tall and thin, wearing black-rimmed glasses. Although his clothes weren't new, they were very clean.

"Hello, Dr. Zhang, please sit, please sit." Su Fan greeted him politely. Zhou Xiaoxiao gave a warm smile, then closed the door and left.

The moment the door closed, Su Fan suddenly felt a bit unsure of how to start. He was a long-time shut-in, and being alone in a small room with another man felt a little awkward.

"Hello, President Su. I didn't expect you to be so young."

Zhang Minghan was also inwardly shocked. Ever since stepping into this villa, he had overturned his guess that this was an office location.

From the signs of daily life, this was clearly someone's home.

Being brought directly to a home for an employee interview gave Zhang Minghan a sudden sense of being valued.

Additionally, the youth of Zhou Xiaoxiao and Su Fan made him set aside any thoughts of contempt.

To be able to develop software like super god photo editing at such a young age, their future was limitless!

"You're too kind. I'm already 28, a few years older than you."

"You went straight through from bachelor's to doctorate, right?" Su Fan knew this information since it was on the resume, but he had to say something to break the ice.

"Yes, I studied for eight years. I'm 26 this year," Zhang Minghan answered politely.

"How about this: I won't ask you for a self-introduction. I have 10 professional questions here. If you can answer 3, you pass the interview with a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan."

"But if you can answer all 10, I'll directly offer you a monthly salary of 300,000 yuan."

Zhang Minghan's breathing quickened upon hearing this. He hadn't expected Su Fan to be so direct and straightforward, but this was exactly the kind of person he liked most.

Some companies interviewing technical staff insisted on those flashy, convoluted interview questions that made his head spin.

"Alright!" Zhang Minghan nodded vigorously.

Su Fan was well-prepared. He picked up ten sheets of A4 paper from under his hand, which he had just written shortly before.

He could now be said to be the most formidable battery expert on Blue Star, bar none.

Because since extracting the All-Solid-State Battery Technology, his mind held a vast ocean of knowledge regarding battery technology.

This knowledge included not only the technology for all-solid-state batteries but also all the prerequisite technologies for manufacturing them.

This included obsolete old lithium battery technology, semi-solid-state battery technology, and more.

If given enough time, he could hand-craft an all-solid-state battery by himself.

However, he was lazy and didn't want to do it. As a boss, how could he do everything personally? What would he need employees for then?

10 questions, 10 sheets of A4 paper; there was plenty of space to answer.

Zhang Minghan solemnly took the test papers and then buried his head in the work. Taking tests was what he was best at, and he was very confident in his professional knowledge. As long as it didn't go beyond the scope of his field, he wasn't afraid at all.

Su Fan quietly left the room; he didn't want to just sit there waiting.

Going downstairs, he found no one there, but faint sounds were coming from the first-floor study.

With nothing to do, he quietly walked to the study window and took a couple of curious peeks inside.

At this moment, Zhou Xiaoxiao was interviewing a young beauty who also seemed to be a recent college graduate, looking quite delicate and refined.

Su Fan remembered this young beauty; he had seen her photo on her resume.

A Ningcheng local, she also went to school locally, graduating from Confucius Normal University.

What surprised him was that she hadn't taken the postgraduate entrance exam, even though Confucius Normal University had the highest postgraduate exam rate in the country.

After a few glances, Su Fan went back to sit on the sofa out of boredom. After waiting for about three minutes, a knock suddenly sounded at the door.

Su Fan knew this should be another interviewee.

So he opened the door and invited her in. This was also a beauty, though she was dressed relatively sexily. Su Fan also remembered her; she was from the Ningcheng Medical College.

He led this interviewee to the first-floor balcony, where there was a table and chairs for resting.

Zhou Xiaoxiao also soon finished interviewing the little beauty from before. After coming out and seeing her off, she greeted Su Fan and led the next interviewee into the study to continue the interviews.

Su Fan was very bored, so he simply went back to his bedroom on the third floor.

The difficulty of those 10 questions was progressive. They didn't exceed the scope of the field, but starting from the fourth question, the difficulty would sharply increase.

If Zhang Minghan only wrote three questions, it would take about half an hour.

If he wrote all ten, it would take about three hours.

Therefore, Su Fan planned to check the third-floor study in an hour.

Returning to his room, Su Fan opened the super god black technology system.

Other things hadn't changed, but the influence points column was constantly shifting. It currently stood at 158,886,666, a very auspicious number.

He looked at the black technologies in the system for a while, his eyes green with envy.

Finally, he helplessly closed the system and called out the Red Queen, asking her to report the current balance in his accounts.

super god photo editing and cute pet paradise were being maintained by the Red Queen. He was too lazy to manage them; he just wanted to lie back and collect money.

"Dear Master, currently, after deducting the platform's cut, the cumulative revenue from super god photo editing and cute pet paradise is 538 million."

Su Fan nodded. Five hundred million—that was enough for now.

Because he paid well, the cleaning company promised to send extra staff. By this afternoon, they could have every corner of the entire factory area cleaned.

Tomorrow, he could have the water, electricity, and internet technicians enter the factory for maintenance, replacements, and installations as needed.

The decoration inside the factory office building was almost brand new, and the office desks and chairs were quite complete. After all, second-hand furniture wasn't worth much; the bank had put it on an auction site but hadn't sold it before Su Fan took over.

Tomorrow, he'd have Zhou Xiaoxiao take the newly recruited administrative staff to purchase office computers, printers, and other office and living supplies. Formal operations could begin the day after tomorrow.

He'd worry about those things later. He'd play some games for a bit, then go see how far Zhang Minghan had progressed.

...

In the third-floor study, Zhang Minghan was working on the questions, drenched in sweat. He felt the first three questions were manageable, but from the fourth one onwards, the difficulty spiked, and he had to put all his effort into thinking.

For the sake of his future compensation, he had to get all ten questions right.

Between a monthly salary of 100,000 and 300,000, there was a twofold difference—2.4 million less per year.

He needed more money now!

While Zhang Minghan was writing furiously, Su Fan quietly came to the study window. Seeing the person inside working hard on the answers, he smiled with satisfaction.

As long as one wasn't a fake doctorate, these ten questions could be solved at the level of a Shuimu University PhD.

He knew Zhang Minghan's mother had uremia, so he was giving him this chance to earn a high salary.

Another two hours passed, and Zhang Minghan successfully finished the questions. He took the test papers and checked them twice more, then went out, ready to hand them in.

It was already seven in the evening. Su Fan and Zhou Xiaoxiao were eating dinner on the first floor.

There were three portions of takeout in total, one of which was for Zhang Minghan.

When he saw Zhang Minghan coming out of the study with the test papers, Su Fan called him down.

Zhang Minghan reached the first floor. Seeing Su Fan and Zhou Xiaoxiao eating, he felt a bit embarrassed. He felt he had taken too long on the questions and it was already dinner time for them.

"Come, sit."

"This portion is for you. I wasn't sure what you like, so I didn't order anything spicy, and I left out the onions and cilantro."

Su Fan pointed to the seat next to him and said with a smile.

"Thank you, President Su. I'm not hungry yet. These are my answers; please take a look." Zhang Minghan handed the papers to Su Fan and then sat down nervously.

...