Chapter 193 1994, The Giants Strike
For a moment, Su Yuanshan found himself dazed.
The ACM-ICPC, the International Collegiate Programming Contest—of course he knew about it. Back in his past life, he and Ye Rudai had planned to participate in 1996. But realizing they were competing against students who had been training since high school for the International Olympiad in Informatics, they eventually gave up, only learning about the contest from the sidelines. When the results came out, they were both relieved—had they participated, they might have ended up embarrassing themselves.
Back then, it wasn't until 1996 that universities in Shanghai began hosting regional contests. Now, it seemed, the competition had arrived in China two years early.
"Our university is hosting the regional contest?" Su Yuanshan asked.
"Yeah," Professor Su Xinghe said with a smile. "This year, they managed to secure it. Next year we'll host the preliminary competition. Standard ACM rules: three-person teams representing each school. Due to the rush, the national preliminaries will be held at the end of January, and the top three teams will represent China at the world finals."
"Only three spots?" Su Yuanshan quickly recovered from his daze.
After all, it was still 1993. The ACM-ICPC didn't yet have big sponsors like IBM backing it. The event was still relatively niche, mostly played among Western countries.
Even so, China would later win a few world championships—
though once Russia joined, the North pretty much monopolized the trophies.
Thinking of all this, Su Yuanshan looked at his father teasingly.
"Dad, why didn't you recommend me?"
"The team selection isn't finalized yet," Su Xinghe said, chuckling. "Still forming the groups. You sure you want to join?"
He looked at his son with a mischievous glint.
"I'm not lying—everyone wants you on their team."
"...Forget it." Su Yuanshan shook his head firmly. "I don't have that kind of free time."
The ACM-ICPC emphasized teamwork. Without tight coordination, it was pointless.
Besides, with everything on his plate—including final exams—he really couldn't afford another commitment.
Su Xinghe laughed again. He understood completely. His son was so busy it was already absurd that he was even showing up for exams.
Su Yuanshan thought for a moment.
"Where's the training being held?"
"Probably in the computer lab," Su Xinghe said.
"Then I'll go have a look," Su Yuanshan said, grabbing his jacket.
His father looked at him, astonished.
"You're seriously going? Rain or shine? Haven't even started dating yet?"
"...Precisely because nothing's official," Su Yuanshan said with a grin.
"I should go check."
"And by the way," he added,
"ACM accepts sponsorships. I'll have Xinghai sponsor the world finals and Yuanxin sponsor the Asian regionals."
Throwing on his jacket, he left the house.
As he stepped outside, he realized—
Christmas was just two days away.
But back then, Christmas was still just... Christmas. Valentine's Day was the real lovers' holiday.
...
The computer lab was brightly lit.
Peeking in through the window, Su Yuanshan spotted Ye Rudai sitting at a computer, flanked by two male classmates, listening intently as a young computer science teacher lectured.
Su Yuanshan didn't recognize the instructor—
a sign that, thanks to butterfly effects, many things at his alma mater had already changed.
Seeing Ye Rudai's focused expression, Su Yuanshan's lips curled into a small smile.
Just as she liked watching him when he was concentrating, he also loved seeing her so serious.
But then he noticed—
one of the boys kept sneaking glances at her.
...!
At that moment, the instructor also noticed Su Yuanshan's head poking in through the window.
The teacher frowned slightly and gestured for him to leave.
Su Yuanshan coughed lightly and walked to the door, knocking politely.
"This isn't open lab time," the teacher said, blocking the doorway.
"Teacher... We're forming a new competition team. Professor Li Gaoliang recommended me to come observe," Su Yuanshan said, putting on his most innocent expression.
"Really?"
The teacher looked suspiciously at him—but seeing his young face and hearing Professor Li's name, he finally stepped aside.
Peering inside, Su Yuanshan saw Ye Rudai hastily covering half her face with her notebook, her eyes crinkling with laughter.
Clearly, she didn't believe a word of his story.
Su Yuanshan slipped on two plastic bags over his shoes, as per lab protocol, and swaggered into the room, seating himself next to her.
The boy sitting beside Ye Rudai immediately stiffened, growing visibly alert.
From the podium, the instructor said,
"I'll leave you to ponder this algorithm problem. I'll be back in half an hour.
Ye, help your classmates discuss it."
"Yes, Teacher," Ye Rudai said sweetly.
As soon as the teacher left and closed the door, Su Yuanshan pushed aside her keyboard, propped his chin on his hand, and gazed at her.
Ye Rudai mirrored him, propping her face in her hand, giving him a "you're hopeless" look.
"I'm just here to see you," Su Yuanshan said softly, ignoring the two boys.
"If you really want to train, you should just talk to Senior Brother Xi," Ye Rudai said, smiling.
"Professor Xi is busy. And this new teacher—they've had experience with ICPC abroad."
"No wonder," Su Yuanshan said, nodding, glancing at the blackboard.
"Looks easy to you, right?"
Ye Rudai gave him a mock glare.
Scratching his head, Su Yuanshan chuckled,
"Okay, okay, I won't brag."
She laughed despite herself.
She knew that when it came to programming, Su Yuanshan was so good even Professor Xi praised him.
In his eyes, there probably wasn't any problem that was truly difficult.
When she first joined the training, she had imagined—
"If only Su Yuanshan could join us...
we'd definitely win."
But she knew that was unrealistic.
He was just too busy.
At that moment, the boy beside her nudged her.
"Ye, can you take a look at my idea?"
Without thinking, Ye Rudai leaned closer to look at his screen.
The boy didn't move over or tilt the screen—
giving the impression that they were very close.
Su Yuanshan's instincts immediately flared—
this punk was clearly interested in her.
He opened a computer himself, and while Ye Rudai quietly discussed the problem with the boy, he casually pulled up C++ and coded a solution.
In ICPC, creativity, algorithms, and design ability were key.
Because it was still the early days, there wasn't a massive database of problems yet—
contestants were judged more on comprehensive ability.
"Babe, check this out for me," Su Yuanshan said once Ye Rudai finished discussing with the other boy.
"Don't mess around, Xiaoshan," she said, laughing.
But still, she leaned over.
Su Yuanshan stood up.
"Take my seat," he said.
Ye Rudai sat down and quickly became absorbed in reading his code.
When she realized Su Yuanshan's hand had lightly rested on her shoulder,
it took her two full seconds to react.
Her body stiffened slightly.
Then, near her ear, his voice whispered:
"Declare your allegiance.
If you agree, nod."
Biting her lip, her heart pounding wildly,
Ye Rudai hesitated—then quickly gave a tiny nod.
Immediately she turned to glare at him shyly.
Su Yuanshan smiled, pulling up a chair beside her.
"I actually wanted to do this properly," he said.
"Pick a nice day, prepare a proper confession...
But you know what they say—no day like today."
He glanced toward the two oblivious boys, deciding not to make a scene.
Grabbing Ye Rudai's notebook, he scribbled:
// "I don't want to finish everything I'm working on only to lose the person I love."
Ye Rudai's heart melted.
Blinking back tears, she took the pen and wrote underneath:
// "Dummy, I won't leave."
// "You promised."
// "I did!"
...
Su Yuanshan didn't stay much longer—
out of courtesy to the two poor boys.
Over the next few days during exams, he properly and officially dated Ye Rudai.
Though when he suggested she come home with him, she refused flatly—
even warning him not to tell Professor Su Xinghe,
because she wouldn't be able to face him afterward.
Laughing, Su Yuanshan told her,
"Too late.
My dad already knows.
And he's very pleased."
"And you know what?
Forget dads.
Forget emperors.
No one gets to decide who I love."
As the first snow fell, the calendar flipped past December.
1994 had finally arrived.
On New Year's Day, Su Yuanshan took Ye Rudai to a movie.
Then they each returned to their respective busy lives.
January 10th.
The first day of CES in Las Vegas.
Su Yuanshan received a call from Wang Rui.
On the other end, Wang Rui told him:
both Siemens and Motorola had unveiled multilingual mobile phones—including Chinese.
And Motorola officially announced they would build a dedicated mobile phone factory in Tianjin.
...
In the Yuanxin conference room, Su Yuanshan, Chen Jing, Uncle Zhang Ke, Market Director Wan Yongliang, and Telecom Business Manager Gao Mingcheng gathered.
Wang Rui had flown to CES to showcase Yuanxin's mobile phones and base stations.
"I could predict Motorola adding Chinese," Zhang Ke said.
"They got burned badly on pagers.
But Siemens jumping on the bandwagon?
That surprised me."
"Happy New Year..." Su Yuanshan muttered, massaging his temples.
Facing Motorola and Siemens head-on didn't scare him.
But everything depended on historical momentum.
Yuanxin had risen rapidly—leveraging historical windows and executing with pinpoint precision.
But now, history was rolling forward again.
Without Yuanxin's disruption in his previous life,
foreign companies hadn't cared if Chinese consumers could even read the phone menus—
everything was English only.
Buy or leave.
Thus, it wasn't until close to 2000 that China got its first all-Chinese mobile phone.
Their attitude was clear:
Arrogance.
And Su Yuanshan had assumed that arrogance would persist.
But now, the giants had taught him otherwise.
Yuanxin's biggest advantage—Chinese localization—was gone.
Now they would face the giants directly.
More than ever, Yuanxin needed to awaken a nation.
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