Chapter 111 - Stay Vigilant
After cheering for the engineers through the glass window, Su Yuanshan's group left in the car.
At this point, Li Mingliu's main tasks were complete.
He would likely lead his team to withdraw within a week.
Qu Hui and Shen Haoran's teams would stay longer, probably another month or two.
On the way back, Xi Xiaoding tapped Su Yuanshan's arm and asked, "I noticed that Engineer Zheng seems serious about going to Hong Kong.
But didn't you say earlier that manufacturing over there isn't sustainable?"
"It's not sustainable in the long term," Su Yuanshan said.
"Land prices are rising crazily. Industrial workers can't even compete with nannies and taxi drivers for wages."
He paused, pulling out his briefcase and rummaging through it.
"Xiaohui, do you have Sun Jie's report?"
"I have it here," Zhou Xiaohui said, handing him a folder containing about ten sheets of paper.
The title read: "Analysis of Hong Kong's Semiconductor and Electronics Industry".
Right beneath the title was a quote that had become popular among Hong Kong's electronics companies:
"To manufacture a new electronic product, it takes 8 months in the U.S., 5 months in Japan, but less than 3 months in Hong Kong."
Xi Xiaoding glanced at it and raised his eyebrows, "That impressive?"
Su Yuanshan smiled, "Free port status, no import/export taxes, access to global markets...
Of course it's impressive."
Originally, when Su Yuanshan asked Sun Xihui to look into getting land, the initial feedback was that land was possible but extremely expensive.
Later, sensing Su Yuanshan's real interest, Sun Xihui did a thorough investigation into Hong Kong's semiconductor and electronics industries.
The results were both shocking and sobering.
Even by the end of the 1980s, Hong Kong still had around 1,500 electronics factories.
Electronic products made up nearly a quarter of Hong Kong's total physical exports.
At that time, Hong Kong's industrial parks like Tai Po and Yuen Long were buzzing with semiconductor-related companies.
Even as late as the year 2000, Zhang Rujin, after leaving TSMC, would try to set up a semiconductor fab in Hong Kong — but by then, land speculation had driven the market crazy, and the local government foolishly rejected him, costing Hong Kong a chance to save its tech sector.
Back in the 80s and early 90s, however, Hong Kong was still a vibrant electronics hub.
"Capital is cold-blooded," Su Yuanshan said quietly, reading over the report.
"It only chases the highest profits.
In a place like Hong Kong, where land is scarce and quick-money industries dominate, it's inevitable that finance, real estate, and import/export will crush manufacturing."
Xi Xiaoding nodded, but frowned a little, "Then you still want Engineer Zheng to go?"
"It's not ideal, but it's a short-term solution," Su Yuanshan said.
"In the mainland, our equipment imports are heavily restricted.
But in Hong Kong, we can still acquire what we need freely — at least for now."
He glanced out the car window at the autumn scenery and added thoughtfully,
"I'm not just worried about Hong Kong's future.
I'm also worried about what level of blockade we'll face."
Xi Xiaoding turned to him, surprised.
Su Yuanshan smiled faintly, "Right now, direct military technologies are obviously off-limits.
But even for civilian technologies, the closer they are to cutting-edge, the tighter the restrictions will be."
He didn't mention it, but he was already thinking ahead.
Even companies like Huawei would, in the future, struggle to survive under bans and sanctions.
That was why he needed to remind the lithography machine project team now — not to get too complacent about their small success.
They needed to stay alert.
"Stay vigilant," Su Yuanshan said softly.
"We can't afford to relax."
Just then, Zhou Xiaohui chuckled, "Don't worry, Xiaoshan.
With you keeping an eye on things, how could anyone slack off?"
Su Yuanshan shook his head, looking out at the slowly darkening sky.
Three days later, the freshmen at the University of Electronic Science and Technology officially registered.
As special admissions students, Su Yuanshan and Sun Guoqiao were allowed to start immediately.
The first-prize winners, however, would have to wait until next year.
After dinner, Su Yuanshan leaned on his desk, reading a letter with a small smile.
It was from Ye Rudai.
She was a little upset, complaining that she thought they would be classmates, but now she would be his junior instead.
Still, she expressed admiration for Su Yuanshan's decision to major in physics, and vowed to surpass him in programming.
Su Yuanshan looked at her familiar handwriting, which was gradually becoming as graceful as he remembered from his past life, and carefully tucked the letter away in his drawer.
That night, he attended his first class meeting and picked up his schedule.
The first semester was all basic courses, no deep technical classes —
it would be an easy, slightly boring semester.
It was clear that if he wanted to get ahead, he would have to study independently.
In the following days, the process engineers from Huajing arrived at the lithography machine project site, and Li Mingliu's team withdrew back to Yuanchip.
At a small internal welcome ceremony, Su Yuanshan clapped his hands and laughed.
"Senior Li, you and Xiao Shouping are off to Shanghai next."
Looking at Gao Xiaodi, who had stayed behind to manage the IC design team, Li Mingliu laughed, "Fine by me!
Let me go to Shanghai!"
Gao Xiaodi rolled his eyes, "You guys went out having fun, while I stayed behind training newbies!"
"Haha!
Then switch — I'll stay and you go to Shanghai?"
Gao Xiaodi immediately shook his head like a drum, "No way. I can't handle SRAM design yet."
Everyone laughed.
In truth, Gao Xiaodi's logic design skills were top-notch — that was why Su Yuanshan had insisted on keeping him for the upcoming CPU project.
Su Yuanshan grinned, "High Master, you won't be leading the X86 big team."
"Why not?!" Gao Xiaodi protested.
"Because X86 architecture is too complex.
It has many addressing modes and complicated structure.
And at this stage, we'll mostly be working on architecture and module design."
Su Yuanshan smiled, "We'll be collaborating with Cyrix's team.
They've been reverse-engineering and designing for years — we'll have to learn from them first."
At this, Gao Xiaodi reluctantly accepted it.
Still, he couldn't help asking, "You're leading the big team yourself?"
"Yes," Su Yuanshan said.
"I'll be in charge of the MMX instruction set and overall architecture."
Upon hearing this, Gao Xiaodi finally relaxed.
If Su Yuanshan himself was leading the project, that was reassuring.
Su Yuanshan smiled.
He had originally wanted to start directly from the P6 architecture — the same as the Pentium II — but after careful thought, he decided that the team couldn't keep up yet.
They would start by building something similar to the Pentium MMX core.
It was safer.
At the same time, they could quietly prepare for the future.
The world was about to change.
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