The Qi family hosted the dinner at the Binhai Grand Hotel, a long-established five-star hotel near People's Square in the city center. The cuisine was Huaiyang style.
The head chef had supposedly cooked for state banquets before.
Faced with a table of exquisitely prepared dishes, Yan Feifan finally understood the true meaning of culinary refinement.
Qi Xiuping's father was a mid-level manager at a reasonably successful pharmaceutical company.
He was talkative and witty, and he made the normally unsociable Yan Feifan feel right at home.
Yan Feifan also learned from him that times were tough for small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies.
Centralized drug procurement had caused prices to drop sharply.
Their own R&D capabilities were limited, and without highly competitive drugs, they could only rely on low prices to break into the market.
Low prices meant low profits, which in turn hampered R&D investment.
