Gu Zi accepted the tangerine Su Shen handed her, peeling off a segment and popping it into her mouth before breaking off another to feed him. "Have you two hit some kind of disagreement?" she asked.
In truth, Gu Zi had long suspected that Su Shen's partnership with Chen Yu wasn't built for the long haul. What surprised her was how quickly it was unraveling—only three or four years in, and Su Shen was already planning to break away. Clearly, irreconcilable differences had emerged.
Su Shen never kept his business affairs from her. Gu Zi was a perceptive woman, sharp and insightful, so he was comfortable discussing the details with her.
"Our company does have its own R&D department," he explained, "but we still primarily depend on imported appliances for sales. I believe it's time to invest more heavily in research and development, to build a strong domestic brand that caters to the mass market, especially the lower-tier consumers.
