"The small city of Leverkusen arose almost entirely because of Bayer, and before 1930 there was not even a city at all. Bayer's founders, Leverkus, named the region after him, giving rise to the city of Leverkusen today. ”

Zhou Nan had no interest in this history, and he would not even have wanted to come to Germany at this time if it had not been for Yannick's request. Because it has been two weeks since he left Arnhem, Audrey and Kelly are probably looking forward to Zhou Nan's return as soon as possible.

However, for the sake of the family's development, Yannick asked Zhou Nan to come to Leverkusen with him, and he could only come with him.

Investing most of the family's assets in Bayer means that the Hoffmann family will shift the family's focus from Hamburg to Bayer Leverkusen in the future.

After they have negotiated a partnership to take a stake in Bayer, they will also find a home for their family in Leverkusen, where the whole family will live in the future.

Of course, this does not include Zhou Nan, because Zhou Nan's future is in Switzerland. Eggs can't be put in one basket, and Yannick is already planning for a difficult future from now on.

The distance from Brussels to Leverkusen is almost 200 kilometers, and in terms of current traffic, it is of course more convenient to drive yourself.

Towards noon, the car drove into Cologne. North Rhine-West** has always been the strongest economic state in Germany, and it is Germany's traditional industrial state, which is far ahead in terms of economy and population.

Thanks to the existence of the Ruhr industrial region, no region will be able to match its economic status, both now and in a few decades.

However, in this era, it is also the most polluted area in Europe, and along the way, you can see large chimneys emitting black smoke from time to time. In the eyes of people in this era, the big chimney with black smoke represents industry and advancement.

Leverkusen is ten kilometers north of the city of Cologne, and Zhou Nan has never been here, even in another life, he has only passed by train, so he is also blind to this place.

However, Felix Hoffmann has lived here for decades, and as Bayer's most relied on chemist, his family also has a high social status here.

Yannick and Zhou Nan had already called him before they arrived, and he had sent his youngest son to wait for them at the door of a golf course between Cologne and Bayer Leverkusen.

This golf course is more famous here, and Yannick didn't have to make much effort to ask about the location of this course. Zhou Nan was relatively relaxed, and kept teasing John, who was a little depressed.

Felix Hoffman's youngest son is named Gross, and Zhou Nan's first impression of him is not his handsome appearance, but his neatly groomed mustache and bright appearance.

Driving a Mercedes-Benz 260D, he has a natural sense of superiority in every gesture, and with a crisp suit, he looks like a playboy.

In addition to being a little short in height, half a head shorter than Zhou Nan, he doesn't seem to find any defects in his body. It is conceivable that he must be very popular with women.

is the youngest son of Felix's second marriage, he is not yet thirty years old this year, but according to his generation, Zhou Nan wants to call him uncle. He obviously also knew about Zhou Nan from Felix, and he was also more affectionate to Zhou Nan, and as soon as they met, he put his arm around Zhou Nan's shoulders and said: "I heard that your musical talent is shocking, and I also want to see it, including my friends, who are looking forward to meeting a musician from the East." ”

Overall, Zhou Nan's first impression of him was not bad. Yannick also specially arranged for Zhou Nan and John to sit in his car, wanting them to have more contact.

They met not far from Felix's home, and some distance north they could see the Lynn River, with its towering towers and chimneys, and it seemed endless.

Gross said with some pride: "It's all Bayer's factory, but the pharmaceutical factory is much smaller than the chemical plant. ”

Of course, this small is only relative, relying on the monopoly profits of aspirin, Bayer's pharmaceutical factory has long been out of the initial start-up stage.

If it weren't for the war, other departments would have taken up too much R&D funds from the pharmaceutical company, and even if Felix was the chief scientist of the pharmaceutical company, Yannick wanted to take a stake in the pharmaceutical company, which was a luxury.

This negotiation mainly relied on Felix to pull the strings, and Yannick was able to take 15 percent of the shares with three million marks. And of these fifteen percent, at least three percent belong to Felix's family.

Even so, Yannick was willing. Because there was no international trade in this era, Yannick's wealth could not all be turned into the currency of other countries, and could only be used in Germany.

When Germany was defeated and the depreciation of the mark was obvious, it was safest to be able to turn funds into shares. In particular, this is still a pharmaceutical factory, and the safety is more guaranteed.

With the other funds, except for a small part of the resettlement of the family business, Yannick decided to let Zhou Nan take it to Switzerland. With the help of General Falkenhausen, the money will be turned into gold or foreign currency, but even the general is not sure how much it can be exchanged.

It is obviously impossible to exchange all of the three and a half million, and hundreds of thousands have already done their best. Otherwise, Yannick wouldn't have had to hurry up and turn these funds into shares.

Although the relatives have been relatively estranged, now that they have a relationship of interest, the Felix family is still very enthusiastic about Yannick and Zhou Nan. Their whole family has a lot of respect for Yannick, a millionaire relative, and even Zhou Nan has a lot of light.

Negotiations are going very well, and the Bayer family is now holding on. Although they have a big family, almost all of their funds are now occupied by the war, which has greatly affected the operation of the factory.

Everything had to make way for war, and now all the chemical products and most of the medicines in the factory were requisitioned by the state, and only a small part of the products could be exported in exchange for a small amount of working capital.

Three million marks, at the current exchange price, can be exchanged for a whole ton of gold, which is not a small amount of money for a branch pharmaceutical factory of Bayer.

Zhou Nan was not involved in business negotiations, but came to Leverkusen with the main task of finding a house for the Hoffmann family.

In this regard, Felix's family also helped contact many houses, but Zhou Nan was not satisfied.

In his vague memory, the Ruhr area would be bombed by the Allies in the future, and there was Bayer's factory, which was of course the main target of the Allied bombing, so Felix's house near the pharmaceutical factory was not safe.

Yannick and Zhou Nan had already agreed that the house they were looking for must be far away from cities and industrial areas, and not densely populated, so as to avoid becoming a target for Allied bombing.

In the end, it was the Bayer family who found out about Yannick's request for the house and sold one of their family's holiday villas on Lake Dinn to Yannick.

It is a holiday house in the countryside, about twenty kilometres from Leverkusen, which is not only far from the crowds but is only connected by a dirt road.

Between the lake and the city, rolling hills and the Black Forest, most of the land here belongs to the state government, and only a few plots of land have been developed into villas for the wealthy.

The house of the Bayer family is a typical German style, a two-storey building made of red brick, with eleven bedrooms, two dining rooms, two living rooms, and a large ballroom.

Together with the two hectares of land attached to the villa, the house is sold for 150,000 marks. The price is quite high, in Hamburg, a villa in the center of the city will not cost more than 50,000 marks, and the price of an apartment where ordinary people live is only a few thousand marks.

Although the price is a little expensive, it is suitable for the Hoffmann family. Because there are two hectares of land, you will not starve yourself if you grow some crops here in the future. From '45 to '48, the whole of Germany was not going to have a good time, and most of the people were starving.

Yannick was busy negotiating business, but Zhou Nan, through the workers' federation, found a group of construction workers to build two cellars in the villa.

From the beginning of '39, Germany basically went into a planned economy, the whole country was almost unemployed, and the state would guarantee that everyone would have a job. Those who did not have jobs were recruited into construction teams to build roads in Germany and throughout Europe.

Throughout World War II, Germany built more than 300,000 kilometers of high-grade roads that could circle the equator ten times. In this era, no other country has such advanced road construction as Germany.

Two cellars, one was built next to the house, and the other was arranged by Zhou Nan to be built in a hill two hundred meters away from the villa.

In Germany in this era, cellars were a must-have for almost all families, and even the state supported all families to build cellars, which could not only preserve food, but most importantly, serve the war.

Therefore, almost all of the current cellars have relatively mature specifications and standards, and it only took a week for two cellars to be built.

The cellar located next to the house has a more obvious entrance, however, the cellar away from the house is designed to be hidden. After it was built, Zhou Nan also deliberately covered the entrance to the cellar with soil and transplanted a piece of turf on it.

On June 10, Yannick's contract with Bayer was finally signed. Zhou Nan also cleaned up all the houses here, and Caroline and them could move in directly if they came.

Yannick was going back to Hamburg to pick up his family, but he made a detour and returned to Arnhem with Zhou Nan.

During this period of time, Zhou Nan will start working hard for his immigration, and after Yannick settles his family, the immigration plan will begin.

Zhou Nan's heart was full of apprehension, although he had a pass issued by General Falkenhausen, he did not know whether the governor of the Netherlands, Seth Inquart, would directly approve these applications.

In Zhou's impression, Seth Inquart was a relatively stubborn nationalist, and after the war, he was sent to the gallows.