As a go-between, William helped Hua Xia University secure over a thousand exchange students from the top ten colleges in the UK. This also helped him gain a lot of fans among the university students in Hua Xia.
In addition to gaining an excellent fan base, William's actions also received great recognition from Hua Xia and the British media.
Compared to cooperation on the economic and trade level, cooperation in education seemed to have a more noble and pure motive. It also seemed to be more pretentious. Therefore, it had an excellent effect in establishing a public image.
In Li Mu's eyes, the three best ways for businessmen or philanthropists to establish a public image were education, medical care, and poverty alleviation. If one had to choose the most cost-effective way out of these three, it would definitely be education.
Li Mu chose the path of education for William and had been helping him along this path, bringing about great changes and improvement to William.
In the few days that he had been in Hua Xia, William's twitter followers had increased by nearly ten million. Among this new group of fans, at least 60% were Hua Xia fans, 20% were British fans, and the remaining 20% were fans from other countries.
In just a few days, William had become known to everyone in Hua Xia. Other than the special symbol of the Queen, who had a long standby time, no other British person had achieved such a high level of fame in Hua Xia since Margaret Thatcher left office.
Moreover, the impression that William gave to the people of Hua Xia was completely different from that of Margaret Thatcher. Although Margaret Thatcher was famous in Hua Xia, she was not popular. Instead, people relished the legendary story of her falling in the Great Hall of the People. They thought that she represented the entire British imperialism and apologized for the harm and suffering that she had brought to Hua Xia for a hundred years. As for love and worship, there was no such thing.
The difference between William and Margaret Thatcher was that he appeared in front of the Huaxia people with a completely positive image. Although he was a prince of the British royal family and the second in line to the throne, he was also a modest young man. He was a young man who thought about his country and other countries, and regarded education as his lifelong pursuit. This image was absolutely positive for most people.
When William ended his visit to the National People's Congress, the public opinion and William's praise excited the whole Windsor family. Even the Queen did not expect that Li Mu could push William to such an unprecedented height in such a short time.
If it had not been for Li Mu, the Windsor family would never have been able to let William reach such a height with their own ability. This was like the huge difference in the altitude limit between an airplane and a carrier rocket. The latter's altitude limit was a barrier that the former could never break through.
After helping William so much, Li Mu also had his own great gains. Taobao Logistics became the second private enterprise in Hua Xia that could really make the world look at it after Makino Technology. And Makino Technology's recognition in Europe had also climbed to a peak. This had played a huge role in paving the way for Taobao Logistics to go to sea and for Makino Technology to sweep across Europe.
Not only that, he did use the connections of William and the whole Windsor family to fight for more educational resources for Hua Xia.
More than 1,000 places for exchange students did not seem to be a lot, but for top universities such as Hua Xia, it was of great significance. If it was divided among ten universities, each university would have more than 100 places on average.
Therefore, when Li Mu and William left the National People's Congress together, the president of the National People's Congress was soon surrounded by a sea of phone calls.
…
On the way to the hotel with William, Li Mu said to him, "The business is done. In the next two days, I will take you around Yan Jing and enjoy the local customs."
William hurriedly said, "Mr. Li, I have troubled you."
Li Mu smiled and said, "We are friends. You don't have to be so polite."
As he spoke, Li Mu continued, "By the way, I have asked Ziwei to find an expert to appraise the few pieces of Hua Xia's collection that the Queen gave me. It seems that they are all very important cultural relics. It would be a waste to leave them in my hands, so I have asked Ziwei to contact them and prepare to donate them all to the Palace Museum. When the time comes, you can donate them in the name of the Queen."
"How can I do that …" William immediately said, "Those collections were given to you by my grandmother. You have absolute autonomy and decision-making power. If you decide to donate them to the museum, it should be in your name, not in my grandmother's name."
Li Mu said, "Look at you, child. Why are you so honest? The Queen gave Hua Xia's things to me, and I donated them to the country. It doesn't matter to me, but to the Queen, it doesn't look good. After all, you have to know that the reason why these collections flowed overseas was not through normal trade. They were looted from the country when the Eight-Nation Alliance Army invaded in the early years. If we trace the source, these things can't even be said to be donated to the museum. It should be returned to the museum."
Speaking up to this point, Li Mu paused and said, "Let me give you an inappropriate example. Your grandmother stole a box of treasures from my grandfather's house. Decades later, your grandmother took out a few of them and asked you to give them to me as gifts. We are friends in private, and I don't want to bring up old scores from decades ago. So there is nothing inappropriate about this. But if I directly donate them, and this matter is exposed, don't you think it is nonsense?"
William's expression was a little awkward. He nodded and said, "If you put it this way, it is indeed a little inappropriate …"
"Yes." Li Mu said, "So, it is more appropriate for you to donate them directly. At most, we can make it sound like you asked me to be the middleman, and the three of us will do this together. But you don't have to feel pressured to make a decision. Communicate with your family first, and then decide."
William nodded and said, "Okay, I will call my family after I go back and get back to you as soon as possible."
Li Mu looked at the time and said, "Let's go straight to the restaurant. I have asked Ziwei to prepare the meal."
When the two of them were about to reach the hotel, Li Mu suddenly received a call from the president of the National People's Congress.
The first thing the president said on the other end of the phone was, "Li Mu, it has been less than an hour since you left, and I have received dozens of calls from the presidents of the major universities. There is only one purpose, and that is to get some of the exchange spots from us. I am really troubled now!"
Li Mu smiled and said, "Then according to our previous discussion, 20 spots will be reserved for the National People's Congress, and the rest will be distributed to the other nine top ten universities in the country."
The president grunted and said, "I definitely have no objection to this, but how to distribute it is a little tricky. Tsinghua University and Yanjing University want a little more, and so do the University of Science and Technology of China and Fudan University. How to distribute 80 spots to them and make them feel that it is fair is really not an easy thing to do."
Li Mu nodded and was silent for a moment. He said, "Come up with a set of algorithms. Make it logical so that they can't find fault with it."
The president hurriedly asked, "How do you think this algorithm should be set up? You are in the Internet business, so you are the most proficient in this kind of algorithm. I don't know much about this kind of high-tech technology, so I would like to ask you for advice. "
"You are too polite, president. This is not considered a high-tech technology at all …" Li Mu subconsciously expressed his humility, but the next moment, he realized that the president was probably digging a hole for him.
To be honest, even if the headmaster didn't know much about the Internet, he was at least a very logical, intelligent, and experienced person. It was impossible for him to be baffled by the allocation of a few thousand places. The reason why he called to show his weakness was actually very simple. He didn't want to offend anyone, so he wanted Li Mu to directly take out a set of algorithms, and then he just needed to execute according to his algorithm. If anyone was not satisfied, he could say that the algorithm was made by Li Mu. If anyone was not satisfied, he could say that the algorithm was made by Li Mu, and if anyone was not satisfied, they could go to Li Mu instead of Li Mu.
Therefore, Li Mu pretended to be confused and said, "President, I think you should think about this matter. After all, you know the education industry better than me, and you know the situation of our top ten universities with Hua Xia's signature."
"Don't say that, don't say that." The president smiled and said, "My brain is really getting old. It's not as fast as you young people, and it's not as logical as you in the Internet business. Moreover, you were the one who fought for these thousand spots. Why don't you just come up with a set of algorithms? What do you think?"
Li Mu felt helpless. It seemed that the president was trying to blackmail him. He did not want to offend anyone, so he pushed all this to him.
However, Li Mu did not mind. At his stage, he did not need to care about these details at all, and he was not afraid of offending anyone. Therefore, he said, "President, let's do it this way. Divide the comprehensive score of the other nine universities by 100. For example, Tsinghua University scored 90 points, so it will be counted as 09. Then divide the total number of their students by 10,000. If Tsinghua University has 35,000 students, then it will be counted as 35. Multiply these two coefficients together, and the result will be the comprehensive score. Tsinghua University will be counted as 315, and this score will be used as the standard for the allocation of spots."
As he said that, Li Mu added, "Use the same method to calculate the scores of all nine universities, and then add up their total scores. If the total score of the nine universities is 10 points, then Tsinghua University will be counted as 315 out of the remaining 80 points. Everyone will get the same number of spots according to the proportion of their scores. This way, we can take into account the teaching standards of these universities, as well as their total number of students."
"Good, good, good!" The president smiled and said, "This is a good idea. Then we'll do it this way! In this way, I believe no one will have any objections. "
Li Mu ridiculed, "I think you just don't want them to have any opinions about you, right?"
The president smiled and said, "This is indeed a good idea. I personally feel that it's very scientific and fair. But to be honest, I'm really under a lot of pressure. You don't know how influential these 1,000 spots are. Even the leaders of the Ministry of Education have come to help us. We're thinking that we're giving the spots to the top ten universities in the country, but many schools that are not in the top ten feel that these spots were fought for by William for all of Hua Xia's universities. Everyone will get a share, even if it's just one or two spots."
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