Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 63 Let the Bullets Fly for a While

Chen Daohua and his sister exchanged a glance and quickly reached a silent understanding.

Chen Jing looked at Su Yuanshan quietly for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled, revealing a small, delicate dimple at the corner of her mouth.

"Then it's settled."

Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded, reaching out his hand once again:

"Looking forward to working together."

This time, Chen Jing also extended her hand confidently. Their handshake wasn't the fleeting kind — they held it for two full seconds.

She smiled and said:

"Young Su General Manager, I hope we'll continue to learn from you in the future."

"No, it's us who will have to rely on President Chen from now on," Su Yuanshan said sincerely as he let go of her hand.

"In fact, this afternoon, one of my senior brothers will be coming over to invest in setting up our electronics factory.

I'll introduce you when he arrives — maybe we can arrange for both factories to be located together for mutual support."

"May I ask what kind of electronics you are going to produce?" Chen Jing asked curiously.

"I'll tell you after we sign the contract," Su Yuanshan teased with a smile.

"It's not really a secret — I'm just afraid that once you see what we're working on, you'll lose interest in making motherboards."

The siblings froze for a moment, then burst into laughter. Clearly, they didn't really believe him.

...

Originally, Chen Daohua and his sister had planned to return to the island right away.

However, after learning that Su Yuanshan's senior brother was coming, they decided to postpone their trip and stayed in Shenzhen.

That afternoon, Su Yuanshan and Liang Xiaoliang went together to the airport to pick up Wang Rui and several other employees from Yuanchip.

Wang Rui was another of his father's postgraduate students.

After graduating from Electronics Tech, he had been assigned to the provincial Red Light Machinery Factory.

This time, among the one hundred prototype chip sets produced by Yuanchip, ninety-three prototype units were successfully built with Wang Rui's help.

However, his involvement had stirred resentment within the Red Light factory, so Wang Rui simply quit and joined Yuanchip full-time —

after all, working under his mentor, there was no fear of not getting his degree certification.

Compared to Jiangyin's factory director Jiang Qingchuan, who was a pure tech guy, Wang Rui had a stronger "brotherhood" aura —

he looked more like a seasoned negotiator than a technician.

"Xiaoshan!"

"Young Su General Manager!"

After shaking hands with everyone, Su Yuanshan teased Wang Rui:

"Senior Brother, you know, Xiao Shouping and the others are some of my department's best talents.

I'm just loaning them to you temporarily."

Wang Rui was thirty years old this year — right in his prime, with both experience and energy.

He had a natural flair for camaraderie, and on the way from the airport, he had already bonded with Xiao Shouping and the young recruits.

Throwing an arm around the slight-shouldered Xiao Shouping, Wang Rui laughed heartily:

"Haha! That's not up to you, Xiaoshan.

If Little Xiao and the others are willing to stay, don't blame me for poaching them!"

"Right, Little Xiao?"

Xiao Shouping, no taller than 1.68 meters and wearing thick glasses, looked like a shy little brother under Wang Rui's arm.

Pushing up his glasses, he grinned and replied:

"Well, that depends on whether Brother Wang can provide enough beautiful girls."

"No problem!" Wang Rui laughed.

"I hear there's no shortage of factory girls around here."

Amid laughter and jokes, the group left the airport.

Since one car wasn't enough for all of them, Su Yuanshan and Wang Rui hopped into a taxi, following behind Liang Xiaoliang's vehicle.

That night, Liang Xiaoliang gathered all his staff and booked two private rooms at the Hao Ke Hotel in downtown Shenzhen.

The banquet was meant to welcome the Yuanchip headquarters team and the Chen siblings.

...

Two days later, after finalizing the cooperation agreement with Chen Daohua, Su Yuanshan stayed for an additional two days to complete the registration process for the new electronics factory.

Only then did he return to Hong Kong.

Thanks to the swift efficiency of Pan Xiaojun and Sun Xihui,

the Xinghai Hong Kong branch was quickly established —

they even hired a cleaning lady by the time Su Yuanshan returned.

March came, and with it, the arrival of the spring breeze.

Starting from newspapers in the South, waves of news reports flooded across China.

When Beijing's newspapers and television stations publicly championed the banner of "deepening reforms,"

everyone with a bit of political instinct understood:

the era of the market economy had officially begun.

A new age was on the rise.

"Young Su General Manager, here's the list of interns reporting in this year."

"These are the departmental staffing requests."

"NEC has scheduled a visit in a week.

The government is taking it very seriously — they'll be sending a newly established investment promotion team to join us for the reception."

"And Huajing has requested a meeting with you too."

...

As Zhou Xiaohui handed over a thick stack of documents,

Su Yuanshan lay back in his chair with a long, drawn-out sigh.

"Sister Xiaohui, guess how old I am this year?"

"Eighteen."

"Exactly... only eighteen!" Su Yuanshan twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Other kids are either studying or chasing girls.

And here I am, buried in this mountain of responsibilities.

Fair or not, you tell me?"

Zhou Xiaohui covered her mouth, chuckling:

"That just proves you're more capable than others."

"Wrong. It proves you're useless," Su Yuanshan retorted without missing a beat.

But Zhou Xiaohui, already used to his playful sharp tongue, didn't get angry.

She just smiled sweetly:

"Yes, yes — and now you're going to say that if I were more capable, I could help you, right?"

"Seems like my tricks from 'Saint Seiya' can only work once,"

Su Yuanshan said with a chuckle.

He casually flipped through the intern list and shook his head.

"Take this list to Logistics.

Have them reorganize it.

Sort everyone by major, then match them to the departmental needs."

"For each person, assign a preliminary rating.

After their internship, reassess their skills.

Those with high scores in both categories are the talents we need to keep."

"As for interactions with foreign companies,

if the government is involved, hand it over to my dad and my uncle.

I'll only handle pure technical exchanges."

"And Huajing is an old friend — no need to stand on ceremony.

The more formal you act, the more distant it becomes."

At that moment, the direct phone line on Su Yuanshan's desk rang.

He answered it as he continued speaking to Zhou Xiaohui.

"Two pieces of news,"

came Xi Xiaoding's calm voice on the line.

"One good, one bad. Which one do you want first?"

Su Yuanshan raised an eyebrow, quickly sat up, and handed the documents to Zhou Xiaohui.

"Let me guess," he said, tapping his fingers lightly on the desk.

"The good news is — you're calling me on a cordless phone prototype, right?"

"Correct," Xi Xiaoding finally chuckled.

"Engineering sample.

How's the sound quality?

I'm standing about 40 meters away from the base station, out on the lawn."

"Pretty good," Su Yuanshan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"And the bad news?

Let me guess — something to do with EDA?

I just can't tell if it's government interference or market competition."

Xi Xiaoding's voice returned to a steady calm:

"I got word that yesterday, Synopsys finalized its new chip design functions.

They've already given it to TI for beta testing."

"And from what I've heard...

it's almost an exact copy of our methods."

"Even a blind man could see that they must have copied our algorithms — maybe even our source code."

Su Yuanshan inhaled deeply.

"And what's your thinking?" he asked.

"We can't sue yet. They haven't officially launched the product.

But the moment they try to sell it —

even if the lawsuit drags all the way to the Supreme Court —

we'll definitely win."

After a few seconds of silence, Su Yuanshan suddenly laughed:

"Looks like counterfeiting is indeed humanity's basic instinct."

"It's not about copying," Xi Xiaoding said calmly.

"It's about timing.

We have just one week left before CEBIT.

Right now, our merged project management feature isn't enough of a lead."

Even over the phone, Su Yuanshan could almost see Xi Xiaoding frowning on the other end.

He shook his head and chuckled:

"Don't panic.

Let the bullets fly for a while."

"What do you mean?"

"Let them get busy first," Su Yuanshan said, still smiling.

(End of Chapter 63)

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