Chapter 23: A New Field of Leeks (Edited)

Murphy furrowed his brow; he was completely clueless when it came to business warfare, but he couldn't help but feel that this move was truly cunning.

"Well, how about this? We don't have to be entirely inflexible," Murphy suggested, "I can give up up to 20% of the shares, not for public trading, just to transfer the shares. They won't have a say in the company's operations and decisions, but they can share in the profits generated by Future Cloud Medicine. However, they must exchange these shares with their research institutions."

"Before, in the plans you gave me for the construction of research institutions, Weyland had a few decent ones. They were planning to close them down because they weren't profitable. Give me those research institutions, and I'll give them the shares."

"Well... those research institutions are indeed good, but in terms of Future Cloud Medicine's profit potential, exchanging shares for these few research institutions might not be the best deal."

"It's not just about the math," Murphy wasn't too concerned about it, "Money that hasn't been earned in the future is essentially an empty promise, right? We're not spending a dime and getting several research institutions that we need. Isn't that a great deal?"

Moreover, in the future, he would have multiple sources of income, not just Future Cloud Medicine.

"Alright, I'll go talk to them again," Patrick agreed, "And I have some good news as well. The clinical trial approval in the United States is entering the final stage; we used some strategic donations, so it should be approved soon."

"Great!" Murphy exclaimed happily, "Oh, by the way, I have some good news to share with you too."

With that, he took out a vial of a beautiful potion and placed it on the table.

"What is this?"

"It's something that can make people more beautiful. Pour out a bit and try it on your face."

The main use of the beauty potion was actually internal consumption, but it also had some effect when applied externally, although it only affected the areas where it was applied.

And that was precisely what Murphy valued.

If one bottle of potion could make a person look more attractive overall, then why bother with all those face masks, eye creams, hair conditioners, essential oils, and leg creams?

And if he didn't differentiate them into so many categories, how could he profit from them?

Patrick, curious, took the potion and dropped two drops onto his hand, then applied it to his face. After a moment, he felt a slight tightening and tingling on his face, but it quickly disappeared.

He was puzzled and looked at Murphy, "What's next?"

"Look in the mirror yourself."

Patrick's office didn't have a mirror, so he glanced at his reflection on the glass cabinet door. At first, he was confused, but then his face was filled with shock.

Who was this handsome young man who looked like he had become twenty years younger?!

Fortunately, he still had his bald spot, so he recognized himself.

But upon closer inspection, the facial features seemed to be his, just more finely tuned. The overall contours were the same, but everything looked more pleasing.

More importantly, the skin was tight and smooth, even better than when he was young!

Patrick couldn't help it; he immediately called his assistant to bring a mirror.

The female assistant, seeing Patrick's expression, was stunned and couldn't bear to leave. She really wanted to know if her manager had gone for plastic surgery. If he had, she would spare no expense to get the same treatment.

Staring at himself for a long time, Patrick couldn't bear to look away. He was lost in the beauty he saw.

Like most men, he also cared about his appearance, but in the absence of social pressure, most people didn't bother much about it.

"Alright, Patrick, you can take it home and admire yourself later."

Patrick finally managed to put the mirror aside, "This is terrifying! This thing is like a devil!"

"Whether it's a devil or not, do you think it can make money?"

"It can! It definitely can!" Patrick got excited, "Can we mass-produce this thing?"

Murphy shared his thoughts with Patrick, including ideas for various skincare products like masks and creams. Finally, he said, "Currently, the production volume of this essence is not high, but like the original White Medicine, its effects are outstanding. We can also add other ingredients to increase production."

"What's it called?"

"Let's call it Beauty Essence."

"What's the current production volume?"

Murphy calculated, and on average, Alex could produce about eight to ten liters of the beautiful potion per day. If they diluted it by about five times, it would still have excellent effects, and each facial mask would require about 0.02 milliliters of the essence.

With ten liters of essence, they could produce five hundred thousand masks, which, at the current price of high-end masks, would generate millions of pounds in revenue.

"It should be enough for now!" Patrick was excited, "If we can launch this mask, perhaps the difficulties of White Medicine won't be a problem, and we might even be able to support it until the clinical trial is over!"

Murphy nodded, "If you think it's feasible, go ahead and do it. Buy a cosmetics factory or something and start producing the products."

...

On the other side.

Malfoy Manor.

After having lunch, Lucius summoned a short wizard to his side.

"How did it go?" Lucius asked.

"Papad scared out of his wits, he dared not go back. But we still found the barn, although it had been burned down, there was nothing left, and we searched for a long time but found no clues."

"What? You still found nothing?!" Lucius was getting angry.

A few days ago, he had sent Papad to "negotiate business" with the troublemaker, and Papad had been beaten so badly that he was unrecognizable. Moreover, he had the audacity to insult him despite knowing who he was.

That was just too arrogant!

Lucius felt that the young man needed to pay the price for his audacity.

However, the people he had sent out afterward had been like headless flies, working for days without any results.

Papad had obtained a fake name from Alex, and there was no such person as Peter Parker in the British wizarding world!

The name he used when renting the Muggle barn was also fake.

The trail had gone cold.

"Please listen to me, my lord. The barn is a dead end, but we did some investigation on this Alex Wood. He's gone into hiding, but we asked his former employer, Slag, and he provided an interesting lead."