"Of course there is no problem. As long as there is a good product, we are willing to invest heavily." Zhang Li smiled slightly and continued, "As for your remuneration, we can double it for you!"

To Xu Qiang's surprise, Zhang Li immediately agreed to his conditions after learning that he knew more about perfume.

"That's 100,000 yuan, it must be written in the contract!" He Yonghong interjected at this time.

"We have already cooperated once, don't we have enough trust?" Zhang Li raised her eyebrows and continued, "I have already said that as long as the product you develop is really good, I will not lose a penny of the money!"

"Do you want perfume of this quality?" Xu Qiang picked up the bottle of domestic perfume on the table and asked Zhang Li.

“We want a better product…”

"It's not easy to judge the quality of a perfume. Everyone has different preferences for smells, so there is no best perfume." Xu Qiang paused and continued, "Personally, I think a good perfume has many characteristics, such as the color purity, fragrance retention time and diffusion, etc. These all have certain requirements..."

"Hearing you say that, I feel more and more that you can develop good perfume products." Zhang Li's eyes lit up immediately after hearing Xu Qiang's words, and then said: "Also, I want to ask, do you make natural perfumes?"

"As for natural perfume... this is difficult and costly." Xu Qiang pondered for a moment, then continued: "To make natural perfume, you first need to collect natural raw materials, such as flowers, fruits, animal glands, etc. These raw materials usually have unique aromas and flavors. Then, the collected raw materials are refined to extract their aroma components. This process may include fermentation, distillation, solvent extraction, etc. Finally, the extracted aroma components are blended to create a unique aroma and taste..."

Xu Qiang obviously understood the production process of natural perfume, but he only understood it because he had never actually made this kind of perfume in his previous life.

The reason is very simple. Compared with synthetic perfumes, natural perfumes are absolute luxury goods and require very high costs. Some of the raw materials include ambergris, musk, etc., which are as expensive as gold. In addition, the production of natural perfumes is difficult and has a long cycle. It may take several months to half a year to produce a batch of perfumes. This means that it is impossible to put it into the ordinary civilian market on a large scale.

Even in later generations, the vast majority of wealthy Chinese people still used ordinary synthetic perfumes, and those who could afford natural perfumes were either rich or noble.

"Then can you help me make some? Not much, just a few bottles will do." Zhang Li said to Xu Qiang with expectant eyes.

"Director Zhang, if our cooperation is successful this time, after I get the bonus, I can help you make a few bottles. However, it takes a long time to make natural perfume, so you have to be patient." Xu Qiang said with a smile.

It is not possible to mass-produce natural perfume, but it is not a problem to make a small amount of natural perfume in the laboratory. Zhang Li is a very important person to Xu Qiang, so as long as he can make money, he is willing to please this fashionable woman in front of him.

"That's great." Zhang Li nodded and said, "Then you and I will go to Changzhou tomorrow and sign the contract directly."

"Okay!" Xu Qiang nodded in response.

Xu Qiang did not expect that this time things would go so smoothly. He expected that the other party might bargain, after all, the labor fee this time was a full 100,000 yuan, but he did not expect Zhang Li to agree so readily.

But if you think about it carefully, it makes sense.

After all, Zhang Li is the leader in charge of township enterprises. She should be very clear that if these township enterprises are allowed to develop a product themselves, the capital and manpower costs invested will definitely not be a small amount, the cycle will be long, and they may not succeed in the end. If you calculate it this way, it is more cost-effective to pay Xu Qiang 100,000 yuan in labor fees.

In fact, many Chinese people today do not understand the value of patented technology. They just think that scientific researchers and ordinary workers are the same and put in the same amount of time. In fact, technical personnel even have more free time sitting in the office. Therefore, good product technologies these days cannot be sold at a high price. This led to the saying "Those who make missiles are not as good as those who sell tea eggs."

Even Mr. Zhong Shan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an expert in air defense missiles, a pioneer and technical leader of low-altitude air defense missile weapons, and a core figure in the development of the imitation "Hongqi No. 1" and the completely independently developed "Hongqi No. 7", was evaluated by people as "following Zhongshan, we are all paupers; even if we are paupers, we have to work hard", which shows that the commercial value of scientific and technological workers in this era is really seriously underestimated. However, the practice of Changzhou is actually a real recognition of the commercial value of scientific researchers, and the way of cooperating with them can even be described as simple and direct, that is, paying money on one hand and delivering products on the other.

"Comrade Xu Qiang, I can't quite understand. When we were chatting before, you said that you were just from a rural area in Jiangxi Province. Before you started working, you had never even been to the provincial capital. So how did you know about perfume?" Zhang Li asked puzzledly.

"There is an old saying that goes, 'You can find your golden house in books.' I personally love reading books, and later I learned English. It just so happens that our factory's information department has a lot of foreign-language materials and books, most of which are professional technical publications. This is how I get some basic information on foreign products and technologies." Xu Qiang smiled slightly, and then said, "In addition, most of my previous salary and income were used to buy various reference books. As for the principles of perfume production, I found them all from books..."

"That's really amazing. I also like reading, but I only read business and fashion magazines." Zhang Li smiled and continued, "It seems that I will have to learn more from you in the future..."

"That's not necessary. People have different preferences. It's painful to learn something you don't like. Besides, we have our own division of labor. Technology is my specialty, and you are definitely much better than me in managing a business. The essence of cooperation is to learn from each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses. I hope we can have more opportunities for cooperation in the future." Xu Qiang said.

"There are definitely opportunities." Zhang Li nodded and said, "We have hundreds of township enterprises in Changzhou. It is estimated that by next year, the total number will exceed a thousand. If we want to seize the market, we need good products. So as long as your team can continue to provide good products, we can cooperate for a long time."

"Don't worry, our Comrade Xu Qiang is a top chemical expert in the country. If he can't handle a product, others will have trouble doing it even more!" He Yonghong interjected at this time.

"You can't say that. There are always higher mountains than other mountains. China is so big, there are so many masters hidden and crouching tigers. I am nothing." Xu Qiang said modestly.

"Comrade Xu Qiang is too modest." Zhang Li looked at Xu Qiang approvingly and said, "I personally attach great importance to this perfume project. If we sign the contract, I wonder how long it will take Comrade Xu Qiang to produce the first sample?"

"About a week." Xu Qiang said after thinking for a while.

"Can it be done in a week?" Zhang Li's eyes suddenly lit up when she heard that.

"Don't get me wrong. One week is just the time it takes to successfully synthesize the perfume in the laboratory. If you want to mass-produce it, you will need a lot of equipment and related technical processes." Xu Qiang paused and continued, "And after the new product is launched, you will need market research and consumer feedback to improve the process and reduce production costs. So the whole process will take at least three months."

Xu Qiang also pays attention to efficiency when making money. The income standard he currently refers to is the dye factory he works in Jiangxi. His income from working outside must not be less than that of the dye factory.

Nowadays, the dye factory can make a net profit of about 1,000 yuan a day on average. Correspondingly, the 100,000 yuan reward given to him by the CZ Municipal Government is equivalent to the total profit of the dye factory for more than three months. If the time is too long, Xu Qiang feels it is not cost-effective.

In fact, Xu Qiang already had several ready-made perfume formulas in his hands, but he would not hand them over immediately. If he did so, on the one hand, people would doubt whether the formulas were stolen. On the other hand, Xu Qiang had received the money and needed to make a good show. The longer the time dragged on, the more the other party felt that the research and development of this product would be more difficult, and the more they would feel that it was good value for money.

“It would be great if we could mass-produce perfume in three months,” Zhang Li said excitedly.

"That depends on the work efficiency in Changzhou." Xu Qiang smiled and continued, "Perfume production requires a lot of equipment, but fortunately, most domestic products are readily available, such as water purification equipment, low-temperature cooling tanks, filters, filling machines, etc. In addition, the production workshops are also very demanding and must be kept clean and tidy for a long time without any pollution..."

"Can you provide a complete list of equipment?" Zhang Li said seriously.

"After we sign the contract, I will provide you with an equipment list within a week. The main thing is to calculate the power and production capacity of the equipment. Our team needs to design and calculate, but you can build the factory during this time." Xu Qiang thought for a while and then said, "In addition to the factory, we also need a laboratory, which is used to test the products at any time. Perfumes are products with very high quality control requirements, and there must be no omissions."

"Okay!" Zhang Li nodded in response. (End of this chapter)