Chapter 321 The More Extraordinary You Are
As Su Yuanshan approached the lecture hall, he finally understood what He Chunhua had meant by saying there was a miscalculation. This invitation to give a speech was originally intended to focus mainly on academic topics, specifically graphene. Professor Li Chungang had hoped that Su Yuanshan, as the discoverer, could inspire the students of Peking University's physics department. It was also a gesture of goodwill in return—to give Yuanxin some positive exposure and leave a good impression. As for how deep the talk should go and the specific content, it was left up to Su Yuanshan to decide.
Now, standing at the door, he realized the reality. The lecture hall, designed to seat 120, now had at least 200 people crammed in. Even the aisles were packed with students. It was clear that, as a former exchange student, Su Yuanshan's reputation had preceded him. The students knew who he really was, and many had heard the legends.
Scanning the room, Su Yuanshan saw that the first two rows were filled with teachers. Among them was Wang Xin, who smiled and waved, indicating the two seats reserved for Su Yuanshan and Zhou Xiaohui.
He Chunhua took the podium for a simple introduction, briefly outlining Su Yuanshan's identity and achievements without going into detail about his position at Yuanxin. Then, he welcomed Su Yuanshan to the stage.
As the applause sounded, Su Yuanshan stood up and took a deep breath. He noticed Zhou Xiaohui gently tugging his sleeve, giving him an encouraging look. Su Yuanshan smiled to himself and walked up to the podium.
Since the prepared script was useless now, he didn't bother pretending. Without any notes in hand, he casually picked up a piece of chalk, feeling more natural with something to hold.
Looking out over the sea of faces—over two hundred people, all staring intently, many with expressions full of curiosity—he chuckled, squeezed the chalk, and said, "Sorry, I'm a little nervous."
Laughter rippled lightly through the audience.
"I actually prepared a speech last night," Su Yuanshan continued, grinning, "but I ended up drinking a little too much and messed it up."
The laughter grew louder.
"First of all, I want to thank the leadership of Peking University for giving me this opportunity to meet all of you. And secondly, thank you all for coming," he said, bowing slightly. "If you ever come to the provincial capital, I'll treat you all to a meal."
This kind of casual opening was something Su Yuanshan had carefully considered. He had thought for a long time that morning about what to say. Although this speech wasn't formal enough to be considered a major academic event, it was still his first official appearance—a chance to establish his public image and, by extension, that of Yuanxin.
Thus, he decided he wanted his future image to have a consistent tone: honest, humorous, approachable. No matter how powerful he might become in the future, Su Yuanshan hoped people would always see those qualities in him.
After the opening, Su Yuanshan used the chalk to sketch the atomic structure of graphene on the blackboard, then quickly summarized the discovery process and related experiments.
"That's all for the introduction to graphene," Su Yuanshan said, tossing aside the chalk and licking his lips. He had known even before arriving that about half the audience wasn't here for the science—they were here for the legend, for the story of Yuanxin.
"Next, let me tell you a bit about Yuanxin," he said, lifting his tea cup and taking a sip. When he spoke those words, the entire room visibly perked up.
"The founding of Yuanxin was actually a pure accident," Su Yuanshan said with a laugh. "Because of my family background, I developed an early interest in semiconductors and chip design, and also in programming."
"I once heard someone say, 'Interest is the best teacher.' I don't know if that's universally true, but for me, it certainly was."
"According to an old interview, there was a day when I wanted to design a chip, only to find that the existing EDA tools weren't good enough. So I coaxed my father and a few senior brothers into developing YXEDA with me. We were lucky. We got the support of Dr. Xi Xiaoding and many senior alumni from my alma mater."
"From there, Yuanxin slowly got on track. Starting with Chinese pagers, moving on to VCD chips, then mobile communication chips, then lithography machines, wafer fabrication plants, and now even more projects under negotiation. Along the way, many have said our success was luck..."
"I admit, luck played a role. But fundamentally, it was Yuanxin's vision."
"And where does vision come from?" Su Yuanshan paused, scanning the audience. He saw some students thinking deeply and others simply waiting for his next words.
"Vision comes from faith in science," he said calmly. "As a tech company, science is the only faith we hold."
"In the past century, we suffered humiliation because we neglected science. That should never happen again."
He lowered his head, looking at the lecture table. It was old, worn down by years of use, the surface covered with faint scratches.
"And now, most advanced technologies are still in the hands of Western countries. Therefore, I encourage you all: if you have the chance, go abroad and see the world."
"Of course, I hope you'll come back afterward."
There was no applause, no stir. Because of his special status, no one dared interrupt.
Su Yuanshan knew that, in this era, openly talking about patriotism wasn't exactly fashionable.
The mainstream mindset among students was to yearn for "freedom"—to dream of a "paradise" life in the West. Even among academics, certain unhealthy sentiments were beginning to spread.
Su Yuanshan squinted slightly, then grinned. Maybe he was being too heavy-handed?
Still, he took a slow breath, looking at all the proud young faces before him.
"Someone once told me something I found very meaningful," he said quietly.
"The more extraordinary you are, the more your fate is tied to your country."
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Chapter 322 Not Good at Lying
After the lecture hall fell into silence for a few seconds, Su Yuanshan smiled and said, "So as not to take up too much of everyone's time, I won't spend more effort trying to sound poetic." Many people were still thinking about his final sentence, "The more extraordinary you are, the more your fate is tied to your country," but seeing him abruptly end the speech, they quickly began clapping.
According to international custom, speeches that included a report segment usually ended with a Q&A session. The plan for today's event was two hours: Su Yuanshan had spent nearly a class period introducing graphene, leaving about an hour for questions. As the applause was still ringing, He Chunhua stood up and began collecting small slips of paper passed from the back rows.
At this time, there were no wireless microphones, so students would usually write their questions on slips of paper—otherwise, they would have had to shout. To avoid an awkward silence, He Chunhua quickly brought a thick stack of paper to the podium.
Su Yuanshan supported himself with one hand on the microphone while flipping through the slips, scanning for interesting questions. Suddenly, a question caught his eye: "Student Su Yuanshan, regarding your final sentence, 'The more extraordinary you are, the more your fate is tied to your country'—were you referring solely to personal achievements?"
Su Yuanshan picked up the slip and thought to himself, Who sent this one up so fast?
"I'll answer this one first," Su Yuanshan said, reading the question aloud. Then, holding the slip up, he asked, "May I know who wrote this?"
A young man sitting behind He Chunhua stood up. Judging by his age, about twenty-four or twenty-five, he should be a graduate student.
"My name is Yan Jianming. I'm honored my question was selected," he said.
"Thank you, Senior Yan. Please have a seat," Su Yuanshan replied with a nod, pausing briefly before continuing. "My final sentence wasn't just about personal academic achievement. It also includes academic standing and influence. On that point, Professor Wang Xin here probably has more authority to speak than I do."
With Su Yuanshan's words, many turned to look at Professor Wang Xin.
Wang Xin hadn't expected Su Yuanshan to drag him into the discussion, but he smiled and nodded graciously.
Su Yuanshan went on, "Although I haven't studied abroad, I still know a bit about the situation of Chinese scholars overseas, even those who have received world-class honors. In the Western academic world, there are countless scientific associations—for physics, chemistry, biology—and tens of thousands of scientists participate."
"But the fact is, there isn't a single Chinese scientist holding a leadership position in any of those associations."
"In the scientific community, not only do Chinese scientists face severe ceilings, but if you broaden it to all Asians, the same pattern holds."
Su Yuanshan's tone grew more serious. He glanced around, pursed his lips slightly, and said, "I can even say bluntly—this involves racial discrimination."
As soon as he said this, a wave of murmuring swept through the hall.
Several professors exchanged glances, surprised by how directly he had spoken.
Fortunately, this was a small, non-public lecture—otherwise, Su Yuanshan's comment could have carried serious political implications.
Because while Su Yuanshan himself was young and his formal identity not yet prominent, the entity standing behind him—Yuanxin—was already qualified to speak out. On a larger scale, Su Yuanshan was effectively representing thousands of engineers and tech workers on the mainland, speaking up for overseas Chinese and Asian scientists.
"I just encouraged everyone to go abroad," Su Yuanshan continued, "and I still think you should. Only by seeing the world can you truly understand it."
He set the slip aside and selected another.
This question was also quite interesting: "What is Yuanxin's vision of the future?"
After reading it aloud, a young man, about Su Yuanshan's age, shyly stood up but was too embarrassed to even announce his name.
"Thank you, classmate," Su Yuanshan smiled, "but I can't answer that."
The hall fell silent again, everyone waiting for him to explain.
Su Yuanshan chuckled, "It's not that I don't know. I just think you wouldn't be satisfied with clichés about the internet society or a world full of robots—you want to know Yuanxin's vision based on our actual technology, right?"
Several voices in the audience replied simultaneously, "Yes!"
"So I'm sorry," Su Yuanshan said sincerely. "Because that touches on Yuanxin's future industry plans. And... I'm really not good at lying. So, once again, I apologize."
"But I would love to hear what all of you think about the future. If you're interested, feel free to email me."
He turned and wrote his email address on the blackboard.
Su Yuanshan politely declined Professor Li Chungang's invitation for another dinner and returned early to the courtyard residence.
Entering Chen Jing's office, he found her sitting at her laptop, nibbling on a cookie while staring intently at the screen.
Su Yuanshan pulled over a chair and sat next to her desk, stealing a cookie for himself. "What's Wang Dongsheng's take?" he asked casually.
"For him, this is like a pie falling from the sky," Chen Jing said, pushing aside her laptop. Resting her elbows on the desk and tilting her head at Su Yuanshan, she smiled faintly. "Anyone with a brain wouldn't refuse."
"And how was your speech today? Nervous?" she teased.
"There's no way I'd be nervous. Come on, it's me we're talking about," Su Yuanshan said with a smirk.
"Yeah, right," Chen Jing said, playfully rolling her eyes before turning serious again. "By the way, Fujitsu's people will arrive tomorrow. Are you planning to meet them?"
"Hmm..." Su Yuanshan frowned.
The fact that Fujitsu was coming so quickly suggested that Sony had already been in touch with them.
He always prepared for the worst-case scenario—he trusted that Sony would treat Yuanxin as a valued ally because of mutual benefits, but he also knew that old loyalties between Japanese companies could make Sony and Fujitsu form their own little alliance.
Two countries, four companies—the national interest would always come first.
Besides, having Fujitsu involved would help smooth over political hurdles for tech export approvals.
After thinking for a moment, Su Yuanshan shook his head. "Forget it. I won't go. Honestly, I'm not good at handling these kinds of business social events."
Chen Jing laughed.
She had worked with Su Yuanshan long enough to understand him completely.
When it came to technology, Su Yuanshan had endless patience—you could see it in how he kept nurturing those money-burning R&D teams.
But when it came to business negotiations, he was the complete opposite:
either get it done quickly, or don't bother.
"Alright, I'll go instead. But Xiaohui has to come with me," Chen Jing said.
"Of course. She'll go with you.
Tomorrow I'm meeting with the mobile carrier CEO," Su Yuanshan said.
If the cash flow was tight, it was time to collect some debts.
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Chapter 323 Daily Necessities Are Expensive
To promote the widespread adoption of domestic mobile communication base stations, Yuanxin's Mobile Communications Division had been working non-stop from the beginning of the year until last month. Specifically, Li Yinan, who was responsible for the base station division, had been so busy that his feet barely touched the ground—he was needed for technical negotiations, for solving technical challenges, for everything. That was also one of the reasons why Li Yinan eventually gave up on the NEWBEE Laboratory. After all, a person's abilities and energy have limits.
The result of such rapid expansion was that the mobile company now owed Yuanxin a significant amount for base station equipment. Su Yuanshan didn't even need to pull out a pen; a rough mental calculation showed that the amount had exceeded one billion yuan. Moreover, the payment deadlines had already passed, but the mobile company still hadn't paid up...
When Chen Jing heard that Su Yuanshan was going to collect the debt, she pursed her lips into a smile. These days, there was a saying: "The debtor is the master"—especially when the debtor was a state-owned monopoly like the mobile company.
Chen Jing asked with concern, "Does the mobile company even have money?"
"They definitely have it... Look at how expensive their network access fees are," Su Yuanshan said disdainfully, curling his lips. "Access fees are nothing but robbery! They are a drag on technological progress. Whoever came up with that idea should be hanged."
"Pfft..." Chen Jing couldn't help but laugh. She didn't know exactly where access fees originated, but she knew it wasn't invented domestically—since countries all over the world were charging them. China was merely following the trend.
"You should be thankful," Chen Jing said, smiling. "Wireless communications technology was originally military-use. The fact that it's available for civilian use now is already an incredible step forward."
Su Yuanshan had been about to continue mocking those "capitalists," but Chen Jing's mention of "military-use" made him freeze. "Uh... now that you mention it, I just thought of another business opportunity," he said.
"Hmm?"
"Global Positioning System—GPS," Su Yuanshan said, narrowing his eyes and speaking softly. "We have to find a way to secure patent licensing first."
GPS was the quintessential example of military technology being converted for civilian use. Initially, the Americans treated it as a national treasure. But after several unfortunate incidents—particularly the 1983 incident when a South Korean airliner was shot down by the Soviets due to navigation errors—the U.S. decided to open GPS to civilian use, albeit with Selective Availability (SA) to lower its accuracy.
In this aspect, the U.S. had indeed acted like the "beacon of the world."
Meanwhile, in 1991, the Soviets also began opening up their GLONASS system for civilian use, without applying SA restrictions or charging users.
Competition spurred progress.
The U.S. promptly canceled the GPS terminal export licenses, truly launching GPS into global civilian life.
By 1996, the U.S. even issued the National GPS Policy (PDD), formally promoting GPS applications and strengthening the civilian satellite navigation industry. They promised to deactivate SA within ten years.
In the coming years, GPS technology would find its first major market not among specialized professional users, but in the automotive sector.
Because only expensive cars could absorb the extra cost of installing what was then a multi-thousand-dollar system.
But for Su Yuanshan, the real value wasn't in car navigation systems—
Alright, maybe he'd make some money upstream through chips—but the critical part was embedding GPS into future mobile operating systems.
Since he planned to create a new Yuanxin-level Android ecosystem, GPS was absolutely essential.
And beyond that, the push notification alliance he envisioned for the future would also depend on it.
Chen Jing hadn't expected Su Yuanshan to immediately connect GPS to the future of mobile operating systems. But when she heard him mention GPS, her eyes lit up.
Even though she hadn't deeply studied GPS before, her long professional experience and trust in Su Yuanshan allowed her to instantly recognize the future importance of positioning systems—especially because Su Yuanshan had once boasted at a high-level meeting that "AI + positioning" could enable autonomous driving.
Right now, AI wasn't ready yet, but positioning systems were within reach.
And with the Cold War winding down, global economic recovery was accelerating.
As people got richer, they would naturally start buying cars.
"This could work... but don't we also need a map system?" Chen Jing asked.
"Of course. If we want full navigation, we need maps too. But that's not a problem. Once we have the chips, these industries can grow gradually," Su Yuanshan said with a sigh. "Jing Jie, this era is really incredible... It's like gold is lying everywhere, waiting to be picked up."
"..."
"Hehe, I'll go back and prepare the ledger. Tomorrow, time to collect the money!" Su Yuanshan said, standing up.
"Good luck," Chen Jing said, blinking.
Watching Su Yuanshan leave, Chen Jing leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes to rest, and smiled faintly.
She had been at Yuanxin for a long time now, handling the business side, and only she truly knew how expensive the basics were—salaries, R&D, infrastructure...
Since last year, Su Yuanshan had been throwing money around like a madman.
One technology park built in the east, a new production line established in the west, with project after project starting up, seemingly without any concern for immediate profitability.
Thankfully, he had managed to sell the EDA division at a good price.
Otherwise, Yuanxin's cash flow would have broken into pieces long ago.
And he never asked about the company's finances—he just kept spending.
Now, he was actually thinking about debt collection... that was definitely an improvement.
As for the mobile company's overdue payments, Yuanxin had been generous this year, offering a payment term of six months.
But now, even the second payment cycle was overdue, and the mobile company had only paid for the first month's shipments.
If Su Yuanshan went to collect tomorrow, he could at least recover about 200 million yuan.
Of course, according to Yuanxin's original plan, they weren't too afraid of the mobile company delaying payments.
Su Yuanshan had initially even hoped they would delay, as long as the money was used to expand infrastructure and networks.
"Looks like he finally realizes how expensive daily necessities are," Chen Jing murmured to herself as she returned to her work.
...
Back in his office, Su Yuanshan had just sat down when his phone rang.
"Xiaoshan, are you at your computer?"
"Senior Brother? I just sat down," Su Yuanshan said, a little surprised.
Xi Xiaoding knew he was traveling and usually didn't call him.
"Good. Open your email. I sent you an attachment... uh, with your slow connection, you might need a while to download it."
"What is it? Software?"
"No, it's a driver.
Specifically, a virtual communication tunnel driver," Xi Xiaoding said, laughing heartily. "Try it and you'll see."
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Chapter 324 A Storm Is Brewing
Su Yuanshan opened his email client, skimmed through the body of the message, and immediately let out a snort of laughter. It was just a VPN, after all—no need to act so mysterious about it. Then he recalled that after the tech park had set up its internal network and gaming forums, someone had posted asking to join the intranet, and a big shot from Pandora Lab had replied, "Interesting, could consider it." Now it seemed they really had followed up on that.
Opening the attachment, Su Yuanshan saw that it wasn't large—due to storage limitations and slow network speeds, coding practices were still strictly focused on compactness and efficiency. It took about twenty minutes to download the file. Inside, there was a technical document explaining the protocol.
Su Yuanshan wasn't an internet protocols expert, but he could tell the tunneling protocol wasn't PPTP—the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol famously developed by Microsoft, later abandoned due to poor encryption and replaced by L2TP and IPSec. According to the documentation, the protocol was temporarily named DTP (Deep Tunneling Protocol), and in theory, it was slightly more advanced than PPTP. The Pandora Lab team took internet communication security very seriously, especially because they knew Yuanxin needed constant and secure communication with its overseas branches.
From the documentation, DTP was designed as a classic Access VPN: client to gateway connection.
After connecting to the VPN server, Su Yuanshan opened a small network file viewer bundled in the attachment. After a long wait, a file popped up labeled "Welcome to Pandora." Curious, he played around with creating folders, modifying files, and realized with a chuckle that with a bit more work to add file transfer capabilities, this would basically be a cloud storage client. Add an operating system layer on top and you'd have a cloud server. Add a public network proxy and you'd have a VPN tunneling service for internet freedom.
He grinned and opened EM (Email Messenger) to chat with Xi Xiaoding about the experience.
Without a doubt, this technology was ahead of its time. Although the tech park was already applying for fiber access, the reality was that backbone networks were slow and most personal internet users were stuck on 56K modems.
"I actually think we should push this westward. Aren't you close to Gates? See if you can bundle the protocol into their next-gen OS," Su Yuanshan said. Xi Xiaoding agreed—the idea was good but hamstrung by the weak infrastructure. Forget dreams of ADSL for now; even ISDN would be a huge leap.
"Alright, I'll talk to Senior Brother Chen Haoming, and you reach out to Microsoft. The earlier a protocol standard is set, the better. If Gates refuses, we'll open-source it and post it to the Linux community. Let's see how anxious he gets."
"He'll definitely be anxious," Xi Xiaoding replied with a laugh. "Rumor has it—their next OS is supposed to be revolutionary. But the kernel is unstable, and they're still squashing bugs like crazy. DTP would be a perfect fit for remote office work. If Gates refuses, he'll just be driving enterprise users into Linux and Classic Mac OS arms."
Su Yuanshan was stunned for a second.
Damn, Senior Brother was impressive—he could even dig up insider gossip like that?
But thinking about it, it made sense. Microsoft had enlisted thousands of testers for Windows 95. Leaks were inevitable. Even if people didn't share specifics, offhand grumbles were common.
...
In the days that followed, aside from "debt collection," Su Yuanshan stayed busy in the capital handling various "activities."
Truthfully, even his debt collection at the mobile company was more about maintaining relationships than actually getting money. He had jokingly mentioned the payment, and the mobile company had readily promised that funds would arrive by the end of the month.
It was only after seeing Yuanxin's level of support that the mobile executives realized just how generous Yuanxin had been. Compared to earlier times when companies had to take loans just to build a base station, Yuanxin was practically a national hero.
While traveling around the capital, Su Yuanshan deeply understood why future policy-sensitive enterprises would move their headquarters there. No matter how advanced the internet became, only in the capital could you access the freshest, first-hand information.
During this period, Su Yuanshan also met with Fujitsu representatives.
But compared to Sony, the Fujitsu side was much more cautious.
Their vice president, Koizumi, greeted Su Yuanshan warmly but exuded underlying wariness.
Five days later, Qin Si returned to the capital.
Su Yuanshan personally went to pick her up at the airport.
...
Qin Si brought two white assistants with her this time.
She herself looked even more cosmopolitan, almost like a model walking out of an international runway as she exited the terminal.
"President Shan, I heard you snatched up a courtyard house in the capital?" Qin Si teased after getting into the car, removing her sunglasses and revealing sparkling eyes.
"Heh, we had to demolish a few to make room," Su Yuanshan said, crossing his legs casually. "But be warned—you might come away empty-handed this trip."
Qin Si smiled. "Mm, Xiaohui explained everything. Even if we can't secure any big wins, it's important that Starsea Venture Capital establishes a public presence here. It will benefit our future negotiations with the government."
Last month, Qin Si had returned for the software expo and set up offices in both the special economic zone and the provincial capital. The provincial capital office had no ties to Yuanxin. This trip to the capital was specifically because of BOE.
Even though, from a purely commercial perspective, neither Qin Si nor Chen Jing were optimistic about BOE's future—or the future of LCD panels—they trusted Su Yuanshan's instincts absolutely.
They were both smart enough to recognize just how often Su Yuanshan's vision had proven prescient. Especially remembering how Starsea Hi-Tech had been brilliantly inserted into Silicon Valley, stunning the entire tech world.
"By the way," Qin Si added, "we're setting up an office here in the capital too."
"That's necessary," Su Yuanshan agreed. "We're not like the West. Different rules here."
"Mm," Qin Si said, then pursed her lips and hesitated for a few seconds before speaking softly. "I've heard some rumors in the investment circle. I'm not sure if I should tell you."
Su Yuanshan looked at her seriously.
He saw a flicker of concern flash through her eyes.
"What rumors?" he asked.
"The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation has been negotiating with the West for several rounds now. Word is, the accession talks might conclude soon," Qin Si said.
"And then?" Su Yuanshan asked, his voice calm.
"And then... rumor has it, some parties are pushing to revive the BATU Agreement."
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Chapter 325 The Revolution Is Not Yet Complete
After a brief moment of excitement and joy, Wang Dongsheng quickly sobered up. BOE's situation was a bit different. During the process of state-owned enterprise reforms, one recurring issue was the undervaluation and loss of state assets. The reason was simple: for enterprises burdened with continuous losses and massive debt, the state had three choices—keep pumping in money to sustain them, let them collapse entirely, or restructure through corporatization.
For non-critical, non-public service SOEs with "civil service-like" structures, if employee buy-in could be secured for reform, the state could finally offload a long-standing burden. So, for those SOEs "stuck in the mud," some level of asset loss during reform was practically inevitable—how could you abandon your burden and still expect to make a profit? There was no such thing as a perfect deal.
That had been the case with Factory 774 last year. And now, only one year later, BOE's valuation had already multiplied several times over. If things continued like this, it could lead to serious problems for Wang Dongsheng personally.
"We need to think very carefully about this," Wang Dongsheng said, not blinded by the allure of the two hundred million in potential investment. He looked around and finally turned to Su Yuanshan. "President Shan, we're still a company fresh out of restructuring."
"I know," Su Yuanshan replied, already anticipating Wang's concerns. He understood that corporate reform hadn't yet reached its peak and that nearly all examples so far had come from long-term loss-making SOEs. So, even if audits eventually occurred, they rarely touched these types of companies.
In fact, the biggest state asset losses usually came from people who deliberately destroyed previously healthy enterprises to sell them off cheaply for personal gain.
"Alright, I'll go back and discuss it internally," Wang Dongsheng said, rising and offering a polite farewell. Su Yuanshan also stood up, smiled at Chen Jing and Qin Si, and said, "I'll walk President Wang out."
Maybe it was Su Yuanshan's technical background that made him seem less commercial, but Wang Dongsheng always found it easier to talk with him. He felt less pressure compared to dealing with someone like Chen Jing.
The two strolled out of the courtyard slowly. Su Yuanshan remained silent, waiting for Wang Dongsheng to speak first. Wang suddenly recalled something that Duan Yongping had once told him: if Su Yuanshan has his eye on you, it's best to be honest with him.
Just before they reached the gate, Wang stopped.
Su Yuanshan stopped as well.
"President Shan…"
"Yes, Old Wang?"
"Why doesn't Yuanxin directly take a stake in us?" Wang Dongsheng asked, his gaze fixed on Su Yuanshan. "If Yuanxin were on our shareholder list, we'd have much less pressure dealing with government and bank investors."
"Ah, that..." Su Yuanshan shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged casually. "What if I told you it's because I'm broke—would you believe me?"
Wang Dongsheng was stunned.
"I'm not lying. Yuanxin has made a lot of unplanned investments this year. The LCD panel project, for instance, was totally outside of our original roadmap. I had originally planned to just build a lab and work on catching up technologically. But after we surveyed the market, we realized that if we stayed in the lab for another three years, even if our products caught up technically, we'd miss the notebook panel boom entirely."
"So, after learning that you had a solid technical base and forward-looking vision, I started pushing the project more actively. And you know, building a new LCD panel production line takes hundreds of millions of dollars—plus we still need to bring in technology, fund R&D... all that money..."
Wang Dongsheng's smile turned bitter. "Seems like we're dragging Yuanxin down."
"Not at all. With great power comes great responsibility." Su Yuanshan coughed lightly, a bit embarrassed. "Yuanxin's had a rough year, but thanks to the semiconductor recovery and the internet boom, Starsea Venture Capital made a bit of profit. So, it's better for the investment to come from them."
Wang Dongsheng let out a long breath. That made sense. Though Starsea and Yuanxin were both Su Yuanshan's ventures, a company like Yuanxin had to maintain clean books and couldn't just shuffle funds freely.
"Also, this will be Starsea Venture's first large-scale test investment," Su Yuanshan added with a grin. "Anyway, no matter how you see it, you can treat it like a card you've been handed."
"If BOE really accepts the Starsea investment, will that two hundred million be in cash?"
"Of course. It's meant to enhance your influence," Su Yuanshan said firmly. "Just don't—please don't—use it to improve worker benefits..."
Wang Dongsheng burst out laughing. "The revolution's not yet complete—who has time to enjoy life?"
"Exactly. The revolution's not yet complete, comrades must continue to struggle."
…
After seeing Wang Dongsheng off, Su Yuanshan returned to the office. Inside, he saw Qin Si holding up a necklace to Chen Jing's neck, checking the fit. The price tag was still on—clearly a gift from abroad.
Feeling jealous, Su Yuanshan teased, "Sister Qin Si, where's my gift?"
"A grown man like you still asking for gifts?" Chen Jing rolled her eyes, now that no one else was around.
"You've been to the West too—did you bring me back anything?" Qin Si laughed, tearing off the price tag and handing Chen Jing a compact mirror. "Looks good, it suits you."
Chen Jing turned her head left and right, grinning. "Thanks, it's cute."
"Ah..." Su Yuanshan sighed dramatically, plopping into a chair with a smirk. "Back to business—I'm heading back to the provincial capital tomorrow. The rest is up to you two."
When he mentioned business, Chen Jing set down the mirror. "Then host the monthly meeting for me when you get back. I'll have An'an send you the report—it's already prepared. Just read from the script."
"Uh…" Su Yuanshan hesitated. "Can I have Old Wan do it?"
"Nope." Chen Jing shook her head immediately. "Old Wan's not suitable… Old Duan could do it. When are you promoting him?"
"..."
Seeing how decisively Chen Jing had dismissed her own trusted aide, Su Yuanshan couldn't help but feel a little stunned.
Though… Duan Yongping did seem like a strong candidate.
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