Chapter 511: Grasping with Both Hands
Chen Jing asked with a smile, "So, what are your plans next?"
Having read affirmation and trust in their eyes, Zhu Yuanxin finally let go of his tension. He took a moment to think, then picked up the teacup and took a slow sip.
"Actually, I had some thoughts before the New Year, but they weren't fully formed."
"Let's hear them," Chen Jing said.
"My idea is to work on two fronts," Zhu said, using a popular political phrase of the moment: grasping with both hands. "On one side, we'll explore partnerships with universities—art schools, industrial design programs, and even IC design faculties—to build joint teaching and research programs. If necessary, we can push for the creation of dedicated design departments focused on electronic products. This would strengthen our domestic talent base and gradually scale up the size and quality of our design team."
"On the other side, we must continue to attract international talent and absorb top-tier global design thinking. If we can't achieve that through recruitment or headhunting, we can establish overseas design companies as a strategic move."
Su Yuanshan was already nodding enthusiastically. "Anything else?"
"For now, just those two." Zhu spread his hands and smiled awkwardly. "And even those are still in the idea phase…"
"No, Old Zhu—those are very mature ideas." Su Yuanshan looked at him with obvious delight. His eyes gleamed with affirmation.
Chen Jing really hadn't misjudged him.
Yuanxin's future would rest on a semiconductor foundation—but from there, it would grow into a vast flagship company involved in countless sectors of electronic products. Only Su Yuanshan himself knew how many product categories that meant in the years to come, and just how crucial product design would be.
Zhu also had the right awareness—he clearly understood the gap between China and the rest of the world in design aesthetics. Taste had to be cultivated, and that took time. Right now, much of China's design philosophy was still engineering-driven—where function and finish came first.
Only the long-established giants like Sony, Toshiba, and Apple had true design mastery. They had elite designers who could, with one spark of insight, craft products that consumers fell in love with at first glance.
Yuanxin couldn't expect Su Yuanshan to personally "cheat" the aesthetic of every new product.
"Alright. At tomorrow's internal working meeting, you'll be officially promoted to vice president in charge of the design center," Su said plainly. "When you get back, organize those two proposals and present them formally at the next quarterly executive meeting. Chen won't block you."
"Alright, got it!" Zhu did his best to contain his excitement, but he couldn't help asking, "Not at the executive board meeting?"
Su smiled faintly. "The board doesn't discuss specific operations—only strategic direction."
…
The next day, the year-end business meeting began as scheduled. Though many board members were also present, the topics were entirely different—this was a review session focused on performance reports and operational summaries.
After that came Yuanxin's annual New Year gala.
Compared to previous years, this year's event was far more formal. The format was similar, but there was a new addition: a celebrity performance segment. Only one performer took the stage—Yang Yingying—but that alone was enough.
That night, as expected, Su Yuanshan couldn't avoid being toasted repeatedly at the banquet. But unlike past years, there were no old friends like Ding Lei or Pony Ma joking about him and Chen Jing anymore.
After all, Su Yuanshan was getting older now—and his identity had only grown more prestigious.
Once the gala ended, employees began preparing for the Spring Festival holiday, and Yuanxin Holdings' first general shareholders' meeting officially convened.
Among the 61 shareholders—beyond the rotating executive directors—everyone else had limited voting rights. They couldn't influence share structure or personnel appointments.
At the meeting, Xi Xiaoding formally announced that Yuanxin Holdings would become the sole parent company of Yuanxin Technology. He also unveiled the initial equity distribution plans, including the allocation of incentive stock options.
After the meeting, it was time for Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing to take over fully, personally managing each individual's equity contracts.
This was the true "profit-sharing" moment.
…
Su Yuanshan's office.
"If we go down this path, going public is going to be really complicated in the future." After they handed out the final equity agreement, Chen Jing let out a long sigh. "Give it a few more years, and we'll basically be a collectively-owned enterprise."
"So what? Let it be collectively owned. As for listing…" Su Yuanshan paused, then suddenly grinned. "Jing-jie, if we don't let Wall Street have a slice of the pie, you think the moguls over there will lose their minds and push for the Lighthouse Nation to sanction us?"
"...I don't know," Chen Jing answered honestly, shaking her head. "Not listing means we don't have to disclose any financials. We can conceal decisions and strategic moves. But that's a double-edged sword—lack of transparency breeds suspicion and scrutiny. And of course, it limits our ability to raise capital…"
"And for most companies, raising capital is critical." Su Yuanshan's eyes lit up. "But since Yuanxin has made it this far without raising a single cent from outside investors, we won't be short on money going forward either."
"That's hard to say. With the coming semiconductor investment cycle—and us choosing to double down on chip manufacturing—" Chen shook her head again, worry flickering in her eyes, "We're now involved in chip design, photolithography, even packaging and testing… Honestly, when I saw how fired up Dr. Zhang was the other day, he looked like a man on a mission to build an empire."
"Dr. Zhang is a factory-building maniac. He gets antsy if he's not building something." Su chuckled at the thought of Zhang Rujin, who was set to return to the Special Economic Zone the next day—his new focus being a dedicated flash memory production line.
"That's exactly the issue. If we do enter a semiconductor winter... Xiao Shan, you know better than anyone what that means. Every time, there are companies that don't make it—shut down, sold off for pennies."
"That's why—Jing-jie—this is exactly why we're building the Flash Memory Alliance!"
In a typical semiconductor downturn, it was the memory chip makers who got hit the hardest.
Because memory chips had narrow applications.
But the flash memory market Yuanxin was preparing to enter? It wasn't just for PCs.
The digital era, by most historical timelines, wouldn't fully arrive for another four years. But with Yuanxin solving the storage and power challenges early, that era would come sooner than expected.
Even the coldest semiconductor winter couldn't stop a rising trend.
In fact, Su Yuanshan was worried it wouldn't come.
Because every winter was a reshuffling.
In the previous timeline, the victor of that reshuffle was Samsung.
This time—it would be Yuanxin.
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Chapter 512: The Invitation from Li Gaoliang
On the 28th day of the lunar calendar, it was officially the start of the Spring Festival holiday.
Last year, Chen Jing had returned to the island with her brother for the New Year. This year, she had no plans to go back. Thanks to Yuanxin's private jet, she was able to fly to the Special Economic Zone with Jiang Qingchuan and others to celebrate with Chen Daohua—who had bought and renovated a home there and was planning to bring their parents over. But the elderly couple, used to life on the island and still skeptical of the mainland's development, had yet to agree. The Chen siblings were still trying to persuade them.
It wasn't just Chen Daohua—Jiang Qingchuan, Li Mingliu, and Zhang Xiaolong had all bought homes in their respective cities. The only obstacle now was transferring their household registration—a notoriously difficult task in either Hushi or the SEZ.
Still, there was good news. Both cities were preparing talent-attraction programs, with preferential policies for high-tech professionals.
But to the top figures at Yuanxin, household registration didn't matter much at all.
Its biggest impact was schooling for their children. But most of the core team were late to marriage and late to parenthood—the classic "get rich first" generation, now deeply committed to that lifestyle. By the time their kids were ready for school, Yuanxin would already have its own school built.
Indeed, seeing Yuanxin expand its factories and campuses everywhere, the provincial leaders had finally grown impatient. They began dropping hints, encouraging Yuanxin not to forget its roots—and urging it to start building that school.
To be fair, their thinking made sense.
If Yuanxin were to build a "children's school" near its headquarters, coupled with support from its academic parent institution, the University of Electronic Science and Technology, it would form a complete talent pipeline—creating a near-perfect local talent ecosystem for a semiconductor empire.
…
"The provincial leaders sure have it all figured out. Aren't they worried Yuanxin will turn into an incestuous academic pool?" Su Yuanshan joked from the couch at home.
Unlike his slouchy posture, his father, Academician Su Xinghe, sat upright in proper form.
"Watch your mouth," Zhang Xiuyun, his mother, had no interest in his outside status. She gave his head a light smack and handed him a peeled apple. "Eat more fruit. You and your dad both act like fruit is poison."
"Mom… I was serious. It's called academic inbreeding. Ask Dad."
Su Xinghe chuckled and nodded. "It's true. That's why in the West, it's generally discouraged for students to stay at the same school for graduate studies or to teach."
"But a school still needs to be built. There'll be a marriage boom over the next year or two… and right after the turn of the century, a baby boom. At that point, schooling becomes a real issue."
Su Xinghe said, "That's still years away. For now, we'd just be building a kindergarten?"
Su Yuanshan nodded. "Exactly. Start with a kindergarten and nursery, prioritize convenience for Yuanxin employees. Actually, over in Hushi, Dr. Zhang's already planning to build one. Many engineers coming from the island brought their families, so children's education is a real concern."
Zhang Xiuyun nudged Su Yuanshan. "You talk so big. When are you going to think about your own future?"
"Huh?" Su Yuanshan blinked—was he really being nagged about this at 22?
"Might be a few more years," he said, scratching his nose with a grin. "Mom, don't forget—I just graduated."
"But you're already an associate professor," she shot back.
"Cough…" Su Xinghe quickly cleared his throat. "Let's not go around flaunting that."
"I know! You think I can't keep my mouth shut?" Zhang Xiuyun gave her husband a look, then glanced at the clock. "What should we eat tonight?"
Watching his parents, Su Yuanshan felt a wave of warmth in his chest. He stretched out lazily and grinned. "Mom, whatever you cook, I'll eat…"
"Great, we're having noodles."
"Wait, nooo—"
…
In the end, dinner wasn't eaten at home.
Given the current status of father and son, just being able to sit down and have a quiet chat was already rare.
As soon as people learned that Su Yuanshan was back, the phone calls started pouring in. In the end, it was Dean Li Gaoliang who took advantage of being their upstairs neighbor—he and his wife came down themselves and dragged the family to their place for dinner.
The pretense was to thank Su Yuanshan for taking care of Li Xiao.
Su had intended to politely decline, but as soon as Li Xiao was mentioned, he felt a pang of guilt. After all, he'd "lured" her to Japan, and now she wasn't even home for New Year's…
…
"Old Su, Xiao Shan, have a seat."
At Li Gaoliang's home, though only the older couple lived there, they had prepared a full table of appetizers. Once the three men were seated, Mrs. Li pulled Zhang Xiuyun into the kitchen to start cooking.
"Uncle Li, you're too kind," Su Yuanshan said as he sat down, trying to guess what this visit was really about. He glanced at his father, who remained entirely unfazed.
"White or red?"
"Uh… I don't really drink liquor."
"Alright then. Your dad and I will have some white, and you can have red." Li pulled out a bottle of wine from the cabinet. "Li Xiao brought this back last year. Said it was expensive, told me not to drink it all at once—don't mind the open bottle."
"Uncle, don't say that. I've got no palate anyway. All wine tastes the same to me."
Hearing that, Li and Su Xinghe exchanged glances and laughed.
"Yeah, you really have no interests aside from tech," Li teased.
The three chatted over drinks, and before long, the conversation turned to Su's newly granted associate professor title.
"Xiao Shan, you're about to become an associate professor. Normally, you'd have to wait two years before leading a project. But since you've already broken the rules, the university's considering breaking them all the way. You already have a lab—seems a waste not to use it," Li smiled. "So, what's your plan? Supervise some graduate students?"
"Depends how the university arranges things," Su replied while chewing on some beef. "This year, I'll be mostly in the Special Economic Zone. And frankly, in applied physics, I'm still a student myself. Any student I took on would just be fumbling around in the lab on their own."
"How about taking IC design students instead?" Li asked, his eyes twinkling.
"Hmm? What do you mean, Uncle Li?"
Li glanced at Su Xinghe and said with a smile, "I mean, why not supervise students in circuit and systems design?"
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Chapter 513: Someone Is Blocking President Xi's Path
At the table sat two deans: Li Gaoliang, dean of the School of Electronic Engineering, and Su Xinghe, dean of the School of Computer Science and Engineering.
Though they belonged to different colleges—one focused on hardware and circuitry, the other on software and systems—their disciplines often overlapped. One such crossover was in the area of logic circuit design.
Su Yuanshan had studied computer science in his past life, yet he was still able to master integrated circuit design.
But… why was Li Gaoliang asking him to supervise graduate students in integrated circuit design?
"Uncle Li, saying this in front of my dad… that's a bit awkward, isn't it?" Su glanced at his father. Seeing that his dad remained calm and unmoved, he knew instantly that the two old men had cooked this up together.
"Forget all that, just answer me—can you do it or not?" Li Gaoliang grinned as he placed a chicken leg into Su's bowl. "Hand on your heart."
"Uhhh…"
Su Yuanshan thought, Across the entire world, there's probably no one more qualified than me.
In his previous life, he had worked in semiconductor design for more than 20 years, and with the five bonus years from this new life, he already had 30 years of experience under his belt.
What student could he not supervise?
"It's not that I can't, Uncle Li. But seriously—why do you want me to take on circuit design students? I don't even have time to lecture. And honestly, if someone wants to learn chip design, we could just throw them into one of Yuanxin's project teams. In less than a year, they'd be working like pros. Why me?" He turned to his father with a bitter smile. "Dad, don't just sit there smiling—what are you two scheming?"
Su Xinghe chuckled. "There's no scheme. It's just that your Uncle Li believes our country still lacks strong talent in chip design. And that's where the demand will grow rapidly. As for you—you have the talent and the credibility. So we were thinking: what if you led the effort to establish a dedicated major for large-scale integrated circuit design within the School of Electronic Engineering?"
He emphasized the word "major" twice for clarity.
The meaning was obvious.
Su Yuanshan took a bite of chicken and slowly chewed.
As he gnawed on the meat, he looked over at Li Gaoliang, whose once-full head of hair had turned into a shiny "Mediterranean" bald spot over just a few years. His scalp gleamed like his eyes—bright, determined, full of purpose.
There was no doubt: Li had a plan.
Among those close to Su Yuanshan at the university, his IC design skills were no secret.
If Su could be convinced to supervise a batch of students in this discipline, and they successfully passed through rigorous practice at Yuanxin, then it would be easy to formalize an entire academic track devoted to integrated circuit design.
And even if things didn't go that far, with both Su and Yuanxin as backers, there'd be no worry about job prospects for students in this field.
In essence, they'd be training specialists for Yuanxin.
Su Yuanshan pursed his lips and frowned slightly. "Uncle Li, I'm not opposed in principle. I can do it. But this isn't your university or mine. My promotion to associate professor was already a special case, thanks to the graphene breakthrough. It had real academic weight."
"But taking on students in integrated circuit design—that might be pushing it. I may have the skills, but to others, I look like someone who's never attended a single class in that field."
"Easy fix. Publish one paper in an IEEE journal and I'll personally grant you a master's and PhD." Li Gaoliang said it with a straight face.
Su Yuanshan stared. "Wait, what? Uncle Li, what are you doing?"
"Heh, great accomplishments require breaking a few rules. You've got the ability, so what's there to be afraid of?" Li replied casually. "Right, Old Su?"
Su Yuanshan turned toward his father, certain he'd oppose such an unorthodox approach—his dad had always been the rigid type.
But to his shock, Su Xinghe nodded.
Su Yuanshan was stunned. "Dad… are you feeling okay?"
Su Xinghe furrowed his brow, then relaxed again. He didn't say anything—just shook his head.
Su Yuanshan looked to Li Gaoliang again.
Li chuckled. "It's nothing. Mainly… someone is blocking President Xi's nomination to the Academy."
Su Yuanshan froze—then his expression darkened deeply.
Because Xi Xiaoding was such a powerhouse, Su had never paid much attention to his promotion efforts. He had known that the university was lobbying for Xi's membership in the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
And in Su Yuanshan's view, there was no question that Xi deserved it. He had all the qualifications. The only thing he lacked was age—he wasn't "old enough."
But the Academy of Engineering wasn't like the Academy of Sciences. To join, you had to lead and complete engineering projects that had made a significant societal and industrial impact.
"What's the reason for blocking him?" Su asked, already regaining his composure.
"If President Xi gets in, then what about Qin Weimin? Tian Yaoming? And let's not forget your high-profile Flash Memory Alliance. Should Li Mingliu get in next too?" Li Gaoliang's tone was half joking, half bitter.
Su Yuanshan exhaled slowly.
He understood now—Yuanxin's dazzling success in semiconductors had rattled some cages. There were people afraid the rising tide would crash into their old turf.
Especially in academia, where prestige was like gold.
But clearly, men like Su Xinghe and Li Gaoliang weren't about to just roll over.
If someone blocked President Xi's path, then they'd find another route.
Xi was already the youngest full professor in the country; there was no higher academic title left for him.
But Su Yuanshan still had room to grow.
If he really wanted to enter academia, then they would push him forward instead.
Realizing this, Su Yuanshan said, "Uncle Li, I said I wouldn't ask who it was… but who was it?"
Li Gaoliang burst into laughter. "Didn't you just say you wouldn't ask?"
"I'm curious…"
"Use that curiosity for research," Su Xinghe interrupted, smiling. "I don't like the idea of you standing out too much at your age. But when someone tries to stomp on you, you have to fight back."
Seeing that his father also wasn't naming names, Su started mentally flipping through his "little notebook," trying to guess who in the school might have opposed President Xi's nomination. After all, even Principal Zhou had supported it!
If someone could block it even with Zhou's backing, they had to be very powerful.
In the end, Su thought, he'd just wait to see who the university ended up recommending instead.
Just then, Zhang Xiuyun poked her head out of the kitchen. "You guys done talking yet? I'm about to serve dinner."
"We're done, Mom." Su called back, then turned and nodded to Li Gaoliang.
"Uncle Li, get that PhD cap ready for me. I'd love to see who dares challenge me in the field of integrated circuit design."
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Chapter 514: The Architecture Meeting
"Dad, the academic circle is really starting to…" Back home in the study, Su Yuanshan set down a cup of tea in front of his father before sinking into the couch. He held back for two seconds but eventually swallowed the expletive he had in mind.
Su Xinghe blew on his tea and smiled at his son. "You talk like there was ever a time when academia was clean and pure."
Su Yuanshan scratched his head. In his previous life, he had never mingled in academic circles. Although Ye Rudai became a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology after returning to China, she had little ambition and rarely brought it up. As for his father—he was already retired by then, and their conversations hardly touched on the matter.
"Maybe calling it factionalism is a bit much… but everyone has their circles, their friends. The world doesn't revolve around Yuanxin. And when I think about it, it makes sense. If the university always promoted Yuanxin people, then they might as well rename it to 'Yuanxin Affiliated University.'"
His father, unusually playful today, had Su Yuanshan laughing. "If we really do set up a customized academic track, we might as well call it 'Yuanxin Technical Vocational School'—that has 'community college' written all over it."
"Haha, so sometimes it's okay to take a step back. And Dr. Xi himself doesn't mind either."
"Of course he doesn't…" Su Yuanshan replied seriously. "President Xi embodies the true spirit of an engineer and scientist—indifferent to fame and obsessed with technology. Especially since he's working in a vast, uncharted field. Pandora Lab is the fastest flagship in this ocean, leaving all those foreign labs behind. That kind of joy—of being far ahead of your peers—isn't something people blinded by titles and honor can understand… not that they have the strength or opportunity to."
Su spoke with visible disdain.
Su Xinghe smiled faintly. Youth, after all, came with its fire. His son had probably forgotten how he once pushed him to pursue every kind of professional recognition.
Yes, children always forgot the things they said. But parents remembered every word—and reflected on them often.
"Xiao Shan, how's Yuanxin progressing lately?" Su Xinghe changed the topic. After all, there was no need to dwell on such matters—his son's abilities were beyond doubt. There was no need to worry.
"Well... how do I put it? The future is bright, but the road is winding." Su gave a catch-all answer to brush off the question.
…
As an adult, the experience of Spring Festival changed depending on your role in life. And Su Yuanshan's role was… unique.
From New Year's Eve onward, he didn't get a moment of personal time. Like everyone else, he was sucked into the social obligations of the season. In terms of enjoyment, he honestly preferred tinkering in his lab or writing papers in peace.
After the New Year, Ye Rudai came to the provincial capital—but only got to enjoy two days of vacation before Yuanxin officially resumed operations.
Luckily, she didn't enjoy being idle either. As soon as break started, she took up station in President Xi's lab, reconnecting with her Silicon Valley contacts via internet.
Su Yuanshan, for his part, holed up in the Yuanshan Lab and officially led his team for a few days.
As the weather warmed and spring winds began to blow, the calendar turned into March.
…
"Yezi, you're picking up your diploma the day after tomorrow, right?" Su asked, apologetically, from President Xi's office.
"Mm. If you need to go, go." She shared a desk with President Xi now, working like his part-time secretary—which, fortunately, caused no jealousy from Xia Xiaoxuan, who either hadn't noticed or didn't care.
"Once I get the diploma, I'll head back home for a short visit, then fly from the provincial capital to Japan, and transfer from there to San Francisco," she said, reciting a well-planned itinerary.
"Ah… I guess I'll head out this afternoon then?"
"Sure, why not? Since when did you get so clingy?" Xi Xiaoding, sitting nearby, chuckled. "Didn't you two already have enough time together this Spring Festival?"
"Ahem… Senior." Su Yuanshan rolled his eyes.
Sure, he'd been married to Ye Rudai for decades in another life, and knew her like the back of his hand… but in this life, their relationship was still politely restrained. He hadn't yet had the chance to get "reacquainted."
"Alright, I'm off then. Email me." Su stood up and, after a pause, added, "I might try to swing by Silicon Valley in the second half of the year."
"Mm. I'll wait for you."
…
Su Yuanshan boarded a flight to Hushi.
As the date of the Flash Memory Alliance summit approached, things began to heat up across the board.
Although the theme focused on next-generation storage—specifically flash memory—Yuanxin didn't just want to give empty promises. They planned to present a full slate of real products and visionary roadmaps, helping companies truly sense that the digital age was knocking.
In the Special Economic Zone, the design center and manufacturing team were working overtime on a concept phone capable of playing MP3s. At the same time, the battery division was conducting final tests on a polymer lithium battery tailored to that phone.
Meanwhile, Hushi's tech park was going full throttle to crack next-gen flash memory architecture.
Su Yuanshan had come to Hushi specifically to attend a technical and results meeting led by Li Mingliu.
"I've got a paper on flash memory architecture. If you want it, publish it under your name," Li offered with a grin as they met in his office.
Su hadn't hidden the fact that he needed to publish an IEEE paper—after all, flash memory was the area where Yuanxin currently had the clearest path to publication.
Li's team had already published two IEEE top-journal articles and three secondary-tier papers.
"Tsk, feeling generous?"
"You just have to finish writing it."
"No thanks. I'm not into gilding lilies." Su smacked his lips.
Li didn't catch the phrase at first, but then chuckled. "The whole thing was based on your initial concept. I doubt you could write something better to follow it up."
"Haha, maybe not—then again…"
After the jokes, Su grew serious. "Li, you're the real expert on flash now. If I wrote something, it would be gilding a lily—or worse."
Li understood Su's pride well. He smiled faintly. "You just have your sights elsewhere."
"That flattery… fine, I'll take it." Su grinned. "I'm going to approach my paper from the processor architecture side. That's where I still have an edge."
As the chief architect of the Thunder and Tenglong series CPUs, Su still had a unique advantage in that domain.
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Chapter 515: The CPU Must Accelerate
After a few minutes of small talk, the two quickly shifted to the main agenda.
Li Mingliu handed over the materials prepared for the next day's architecture meeting. He knew Su Yuanshan claimed to be "not as good" as him when it came to flash memory, but he was also very aware of reality. As he had joked earlier—Su Yuanshan wasn't "inferior," he was just "not interested."
Everyone at Yuanxin knew: almost every major direction in the flash memory department had been mapped out by Su Yuanshan himself.
And all of them had proven to be the right moves.
Because everyone also knew that Su Yuanshan's decision-making always started with a single premise—technology first.
So to say he didn't understand flash memory was to fundamentally misunderstand who Su Yuanshan was.
…
"Our main bottleneck now is this—our theory is sound," Li Mingliu said, lips pressed into a tight line. Once they got into technical matters, his tone turned serious. "We're trying to store three bits per cell. For now, let's call this structure TLC, or Triple-Level Cell. Theoretically, it's feasible. But in practice, there are far too many technical hurdles—especially charge leakage and maintaining voltage states."
"In theory, we need to detect eight distinct voltage levels. That means our controller chips and wafer manufacturing processes both need to advance in sync. And the higher the transistor density, the worse charge leakage becomes. Our goal for this year's kickoff meeting is to figure out how to tackle that problem."
Su Yuanshan quietly read through the technical report while listening.
To be honest, had he not been following Li Mingliu's team closely this whole time, it would've taken him a serious effort to make sense of the documents.
"Same as I said before—you guys are the experts in flash memory now."
"Even an average person can become an expert with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. That's the 10,000-hour rule," Li added casually.
Li blinked. "Wait—who came up with that?"
Su paused. Right… that phrase hadn't become popular yet. It wouldn't enter the mainstream for another ten years.
"Just treat it like I made it up. If even an average person can master a field with enough effort, then your team—working twelve-hour days—is well past that threshold."
"I don't really have other hobbies," Li smiled. "Gotta get a head start somehow."
"When did you get so modest?"
"Only in front of you," Li said honestly.
"..." Su was momentarily speechless. "Anyway, flash memory's in your hands now. I'll go back and see if I can come up with any... weird tricks."
Li: "..."
…
The next day, Su Yuanshan wasn't able to offer any groundbreaking suggestions. But instead, the lively discussion from Li Mingliu's team left him feeling inspired.
Someone suggested that if current technology couldn't solve the density and leakage issues, maybe the solution lay in the controller chip itself—using algorithms to program and optimize each cell to minimize data interference caused by leakage.
Another idea was to stop worrying about process node limitations and just go ahead and finalize the TLC architecture—because at the moment, everything was still based on simulations.
And as everyone knew, the more complex the chip, the deeper the uncertainty in the results.
That's why engineers often joked: "Paper designs always look good, but you only really understand the problem once you tape out."
You could have a perfect schematic and a flawless simulation, but the moment your design hit the fab… all kinds of issues might explode into view.
After the meeting ended, Li Mingliu approached Su Yuanshan to ask: What do we do next?
Only then did Su understand why Li had been so determined to get him to attend the meeting in person.
Clearly, Li was leaning toward pushing ahead with the TLC architecture and doing a test tape-out.
Su's response?
"Let's wait a little."
…
"Old Li's a bit much sometimes. Senior, don't go copying him," Su Yuanshan said with a grin.
After attending Li Mingliu's meeting, Su paid a visit to Gao Xiaodi. Naturally, the topic drifted to Su's recent activities.
"What's up with Old Li?" Gao asked. As a fellow alumnus of the same university, Gao was more casual around Su and sprawled lazily on his desk while watching him with raised eyebrows.
He and Li Mingliu had worked together for a long time. Gao knew all about the close bond between Su and Li—closer even than his own relationship with Su. Back in the day, Li didn't respect many people, but he respected President Xi and Su Yuanshan.
Now, although Li technically outranked Gao, they ran different departments and were both in leadership roles. Since they were both based in Hushi, they actually had a decent working relationship.
"He wants my support for a test tape-out of the TLC structure," Su said.
Gao blinked, then burst into laughter. "That's bold, no doubt about it. He's trying to tape out before the design's even fully finalized?"
"You could say it's 80% baked… But the timing isn't right. Better to save our money and time for now." Su grew serious. "How about your department?"
Although Su had intentionally been fostering the CPU team's independence, that didn't mean he wasn't watching.
In his eyes, the CPU department's performance since last year's release hadn't met expectations.
So part of the reason he had accepted Li's invitation to the flash memory conference was to send a warning—quietly.
"We're doing fine, I guess?" Gao replied, unsure what Su meant.
If he was talking about architecture, everything was on schedule. They were refining and adjusting the microarchitecture, with plans to release a new iteration around National Day.
Next year would be a node upgrade year, alongside a major architectural overhaul. The department already had contingency plans.
"I mean the performance report," Su clarified.
Gao looked sheepish.
After last year's CPU launch, Su had a long talk with him and gave full support for building a sales network.
It was clear that Su intended for the CPU division to become a standalone business unit.
But now, several months had passed, and aside from the initial batch of strong orders, sales had plateaued.
After all, Gao was an engineer by trade—not a businessman.
Su sighed. "Senior, we need to pick up the pace on market development."
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