Chapter 120: Chapter 118: Lu Fan and Jiang Sifan’s Face-to-Face Conversation

「The next morning.」

Jiang Sifan woke up early.

Still in bed, Gao Lao asked groggily, "Sifan, doesn’t the symposium start at ten? Why are you up so early?"

Jiang Sifan hesitated for a moment, then explained, "I... I got up to review my notes."

"You’re working way too hard," Brother Ming lamented from the other bed.

In reality, Jiang Sifan had no intention of studying.

It was just that the thought of seeing Lu Fan later made him feel conflicted.

The last time he had seen him was at the police station.

Back then, Jiang Sifan had beaten up Lin Qiang and was taken to the station.

It was Lu Fan who had pulled some strings to get him out that same night.

The crucial part was that the university had given both Huang Hui and Lin Qiang a warning demerit.

He was the only one who escaped the school’s punishment.

Although Jiang Sifan didn’t know if Lu Fan had anything to do with the school’s decision, given that his father could get him out of a police station, he probably had connections at the university as well.

As the time drew nearer, Jiang Sifan grew increasingly anxious.

After much thought, he decided to ride his electric scooter to find Wen Wan.

Only when he was with Wen Wan could he feel a little calmer.

At that moment, Wen Wan was packing her notebook, getting ready to head to the cafeteria for breakfast.

As she came downstairs, she received a message from Jiang Sifan.

Jiang Sifan: [Are you up?]

Wen Wan: [I’m up.]

Jiang Sifan: [Great, I’m downstairs from your dorm. Let’s go get breakfast together.]

Just after sending the message, he looked up and saw Wen Wan walking toward him.

When it came to punctuality, Wen Wan was always a step ahead.

Jiang Sifan grinned. "You’re honestly the most punctual girl I’ve ever met."

After he said it, he suddenly realized his words might have been inappropriate.

Wasn’t he basically comparing Wen Wan to his ex-girlfriend?

For a moment, Jiang Sifan worried that Wen Wan would get angry.

But Wen Wan, in her innocence, just thought Jiang Sifan was praising her and blushed with a smile.

Seeing this, Jiang Sifan breathed a sigh of relief.

’Looks like innocent girls are pretty great sometimes. They don’t overthink things.’

During breakfast, Wen Wan noticed that Jiang Sifan seemed a bit down and understood what was going on.

She immediately comforted him, "It’s okay. Later, let’s just treat it like any other symposium. If there’s useful information, we’ll listen. If not, we’ll just kill time."

"That’s what I was thinking too." Jiang Sifan tried his best to maintain a relaxed mood.

Soon, it was almost time for the symposium.

Seeing this, Jiang Sifan led Wen Wan to the classroom.

The classroom for the symposium was already packed.

All the freshmen from the entire finance department were here.

Jiang Sifan glanced at the front rows and saw that very few seats were left.

That meant he could sit in the back with a clear conscience.

He looked at Wen Wan and asked, "Wen Wan, do you want to sit up front to listen, or sit with me?"

Wen Wan glanced at the front, then blushed and said, "Class President, let’s sit together."

"Okay. I think the symposium is going to be pretty boring, so it’s a good chance for us to talk about our grand entrepreneurial plan," Jiang Sifan said with a laugh.

Wen Wan was a little curious. "But haven’t we already started our business?"

"I’m planning to set up a studio and get some other students to help out. After all, if the two of us have to do the accounting for so many shops, we’ll work ourselves to death. We’ll be the boss and the boss’s wife!" Jiang Sifan said confidently.

Hearing this, Wen Wan immediately felt a little embarrassed.

Jiang Sifan noticed her expression, suddenly realized he had misspoken, and quickly said in embarrassment, "I didn’t mean it like that. I meant we’d be the bosses who pay salaries, so we wouldn’t have to work so hard."

Wen Wan nodded. "I understand."

Seeing that she didn’t seem upset, Jiang Sifan breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as he was thinking about a name for their studio, a middle-aged man in a suit walked in.

Lu Fan, dressed in a well-tailored, dark gray suit, walked to the center of the lectern.

He smiled at the crowd and said, "Hello, everyone. My name is Lu Fan. I’ve founded a few companies, and I’m honored to have been invited by your professors today to come here and discuss my understanding and knowledge of finance with you all."

When Lu Fan stood at the lectern, a stir went through many of the female students in the audience.

They hadn’t expected the entrepreneur giving their lecture to be so handsome and composed.

He was just like a South Korean oppa from their fantasies.

Even some of the male students were surprised. Logically speaking, entrepreneurs over 40 were all supposed to be balding with beer bellies, having that typical "rich guy" look.

Seeing the students around him completely starstruck, Jiang Sifan was rather speechless.

Especially when he saw the girls at the table in front of him pull out their phones, open the camera app, and repeatedly zoom in to take pictures of Lu Fan.

He felt these girls were being way too shameless.

He was just some middle-aged uncle.

Did they really have to be like this?

Jiang Sifan looked up at Lu Fan, thinking, ’Does he spend all his time using this successful-man persona to reel in naive young girls?’

’If a girl asks for his WeChat later, he probably won’t turn anyone down!’

’Hmph! Scumbag!’

Seeing Lu Fan again did nothing to improve Jiang Sifan’s impression of him.

Meanwhile, this was the first time Wen Wan had seen Lu Fan. She first looked at Lu Fan, then turned to look at Jiang Sifan.

Jiang Sifan asked, puzzled, "What is it?"

"N-nothing," Wen Wan said with an awkward smile. "I just think you look a lot like your father. You have the same heroic spirit in your features."

"I don’t want to look like him. I look like my mom. It’s not good to be like him," Jiang Sifan retorted. "If he weren’t such a womanizer, always out fooling around, my mom wouldn’t have been so heartbroken. That’s why I swore when I was little that I would never grow up to be like him."

After hearing this, Wen Wan comforted him, "I think you’re great just the way you are now. You just need to be yourself~"

"Yeah," Jiang Sifan nodded.

At this point, Lu Fan had also noticed his son sitting in the back row with his daughter-in-law.

It seemed they weren’t interested in his symposium.

In order to show off some real substance,

he skipped the lengthy pleasantries and dove straight into "The Financial Logic of University Student Entrepreneurship." He combined case studies from his own early ventures to explain complex concepts like financing and risk control in a simple, easy-to-understand way.

The sound of pen tips scratching against paper rustled through the audience, and even the student counselor was nodding frequently in approval.

「During this time.」

Initially, Jiang Sifan had been dismissive.

But as time went on, he slowly began to feel that Lu Fan might actually have some real substance.

However, Jiang Sifan still thought he must have just prepared his homework in advance, which was why he appeared so knowledgeable.

Before long, Lu Fan opened the floor for questions.

A few girls eagerly raised their hands, wanting to ask a question.

Lu Fan answered them all one by one.

However, most of the questions the girls asked were relatively simple.

They posed no difficulty for him.

Seeing him handle everything so effortlessly, like a fish in water, made Jiang Sifan a little unhappy.

So, as soon as Lu Fan finished answering the previous girl’s question, Jiang Sifan’s hand shot up with a SWISH. Without waiting for the moderator to call on him, he stood up, his voice tinged with a deliberate coldness. "President Lu, I’d like to ask a question."

Lu Fan’s gaze fell upon him, a barely perceptible ripple flashing in his eyes. He then smiled. "Please, go ahead."

"You just mentioned that it’s difficult for small and micro-enterprises to get financing, but the market is now flooded with all sorts of credit products from banks and online lending platforms. So why do so many startups still fail to get loans? Is it a problem with the enterprises themselves, or are there loopholes in the services provided by financial institutions?"

Jiang Sifan’s question hit a sore spot, his tone carrying an obvious probing intent.

He himself had almost been derailed by financing issues when he started his own business.

Now he was deliberately throwing out a tough question to see if Lu Fan was all talk and no action.

After hearing the question, Lu Fan just smiled.

He then wrote a few words on the blackboard, turned to the students, and said, "This is a very practical question. The core of it lies in ’information asymmetry’ and ’risk matching’."

He first gestured for Jiang Sifan to sit down, then continued, "First, small and micro-enterprises generally lack standardized financial statements. A startup team around a university campus, for example, might not even have complete transaction records, making it impossible for financial institutions to accurately assess their repayment ability."

"Second, bank credit products are designed for mature companies. The interest rates and repayment periods don’t match the cash flow of a startup. You might need flexible capital that you can borrow and repay at any time, but banks prefer long-term, stable loans."

"But it’s not an unsolvable problem. For instance, student entrepreneurs can use the university’s startup incubator for endorsement and apply for government-guaranteed startup loans. These loans are subsidized by the treasury and have lower thresholds."

"Additionally, many banks now offer tax-based loans. If a team can maintain standardized financial and tax records, they can apply for low-interest loans based on their tax credit history. This is far more reliable than blindly turning to online lending platforms."

These words seemed to hit Jiang Sifan’s situation right on the nose.

Indeed, when he was raising startup capital, he hadn’t looked into the university’s guidelines and policies.

If he had just spoken to his student counselor about his venture, he might have been able to use the university’s startup incubator to get through his difficulties.

But Jiang Sifan seemed unconvinced. His fingers tightened around his pen, and he immediately stood up again. "Then let me ask another question. You say financial and tax records are important, but for a team like ours that does tax outsourcing for small businesses around campus, many of our clients are sole proprietors. They think filing taxes is a hassle and that underreporting can save them money. How are we supposed to balance client demands with compliance risks? What’s the financial logic behind that?"

The question was both tricky and highly relevant, causing the students in the audience to turn and look at Jiang Sifan.

They knew their class president had recently started a business.

It’s just that many of them were still in the ’go to class and have fun’ stage and didn’t have much of a concept of entrepreneurship.

So after Jiang Sifan finished asking his questions, they were all filled with admiration.

Even the student counselor shot him an appreciative glance.

A flicker of gratification passed through Lu Fan’s eyes, but his tone remained steady. "The core of this issue is the trade-off between short-term benefits and long-term value. From a financial perspective, compliant tax and financial records are, in essence, a company’s credit assets."

He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the two words "Credit Assets" on the blackboard. "A sole proprietor might think underreporting taxes saves them money now, but in the long run, the lack of financial and tax records will cause them to lose opportunities for financing, bidding on projects, and even expanding their business. This is the value of credit assets."

He looked at Jiang Sifan and guided him, "As a tax outsourcing team, your core competency isn’t helping clients save on taxes, but helping them build credit assets."

"You can run the numbers for your clients: compliant tax filing might cost them a few hundred more now, but a year later, they can use their tax credit history to apply for a low-interest loan of over a hundred thousand to open a new branch or buy equipment. That’s far more valuable than the few hundred they’d save."

"At the same time, you must build a risk firewall. Resolutely refuse clients who are unwilling to be compliant. This is not only to protect yourselves but also a process of filtering for high-quality clients."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Sifan had a sudden epiphany. Lu Fan’s answer not only resolved his practical dilemma but also pinpointed the core problem his team was facing.

He had indeed compromised on compliance issues before in order to retain clients.

By now, many students in the audience were already whispering among themselves, "What President Lu is saying is so practical!"

"It’s way more useful than what’s in the textbooks."

Lu Fan, meanwhile, looked at Jiang Sifan with a gentle gaze and said, "This student’s questions are very insightful. I can tell you’re truly thinking about the practical problems of entrepreneurship. If you have any more specific questions, we can talk again after the symposium."

Jiang Sifan pressed his lips together, didn’t respond, and silently sat back down in his seat.

Jiang Silu was right. He really had been biased against Lu Fan.