Chapter 139 - The Low-Key Exchange Student from Peking University
Currently, the legal representative of Yuanchip was still Su Xinghe, so the final signing of the "spin-off" agreement had to be handled by him. When Qu Hui, who had been clinging to the Tech Park, learned that the split was official, she cried her eyes out in front of Su Yuanshan and Xi Xiaoding, saying she felt abandoned, completely ignoring the fact that she was now a future billionaire.
When it came time to distribute shares to the EDA department, Su Yuanshan had given it a lot of thought. In the end, together with his father and uncle, they decided they couldn't be too generous — after all, shares had to be sold to related enterprises later — but they couldn't be too stingy either. After the spin-off, the EDA team would no longer enjoy Yuanchip's future growth dividends. So ultimately, they decided to allocate 10% employee shares to the EDA team.
After the split, Jiang Wanchao, Qu Hui, Zhu Jianting, and Pan Xiaojun became shareholder representatives on the board of directors.
In early April, the newly renamed Zhiyuan EDA participated independently for the first time at CeBIT in Hannover, showcasing their brand-new mechanical CAD and 3D PCB model export functions. In the PCB design field, this was billed as the final blow against low-end competitors.
As for Yuanchip, they didn't really have any flashy new products at the moment. They continued heavily promoting microcontrollers, the CC programming language, and the YX architecture. Chengdu Electronics High-Tech, on the other hand, somewhat recklessly brought a few assembled PCs to the exhibition… and unsurprisingly, compared to HP, Dell, and Compaq, their machines looked pathetic. While they didn't return home in complete disgrace, it was still rather embarrassing.
However, everyone who followed Yuanchip closely knew that this apparent quietness was deceptive. This was a company that had already created miracles — if they dared spin off their cash cow EDA division, they certainly had something else up their sleeves.
What no one knew was that Su Yuanshan had already quietly arrived in Beijing in March to start his exchange program at Peking University.
Inside the physics laboratory at Peking University, He Chunhua looked up after recording the last set of data. It was already 7 PM — time to eat. As he stood up, he saw that young figure still sitting at the monitor, eyes fixed on the data.
"Xiaoshan, let's go eat," he called.
"Oh, not really hungry yet…" Su Yuanshan muttered, quickly sketching out two sets of comparative data.
But as soon as his concentration broke, his stomach growled loudly. He smiled bitterly, "Alright, maybe I am a little hungry."
He Chunhua chuckled softly. When Su Yuanshan first came over, he had been extremely low-key. None of his classmates knew who he really was; they just knew he had transferred in from UESTC with some connections. But He Chunhua knew better — he had been a classmate of Jiang Wanchao from the Applied Physics Department.
While Jiang later switched to programming, He Chunhua had stayed the course and was now a third-year PhD student. Like many proud Peking University students, He Chunhua had initially harbored doubts about Su Yuanshan. He assumed Jiang had exaggerated because Su Yuanshan was his young boss.
So when Su Yuanshan entered his advisor's lab, He Chunhua quietly tested his programming skills — asking him to help write small programs for data comparison, or to review integrated circuit design plans.
And then… He Chunhua realized that this guy was monstrously talented, to an almost inhuman degree. He honestly deserved to be dissected for scientific research.
The two of them left the lab together.
"Brother He, if I want to transfer a crystal from a copper substrate to a silicon substrate, what copper etchant would be best?" Su Yuanshan asked.
He Chunhua blinked, "Can't you just use tweezers?"
"Not really," Su Yuanshan said with a smile.
Over the past month, he had been working quietly in the lab of the physics titan Professor Li Chunguang at Peking University, learning how to operate experimental equipment and the procedures for various experiments.
Of course, he hadn't recklessly revealed his work with graphene — he was merely doing related experiments, such as Hall effect experiments, low-temperature crystal behavior studies, and superconductivity tests.
He Chunhua thought for a moment, "You'd better ask someone in the chemistry department. Also, with so little information, I can't even guess what you're trying to do."
Su Yuanshan nodded, smiling.
Indeed, he was actually working on wet transfer methods for graphene. It made sense that He Chunhua was confused.
"Alright, I'll ask someone in chemistry another day."
By now, the main cafeteria would have been picked clean. They headed toward the campus restaurant instead. After dinner and some light discussion of experiments, they went their separate ways.
Su Yuanshan looked up at the sky and found a secluded spot to pull out his bulky mobile phone and send a pager message to Li Xiao.
She quickly called back.
"Finally decided to page me, huh?"
"Hehe..." Su Yuanshan laughed awkwardly. Ever since he arrived at Peking University, he had only seen Li Xiao once — he'd been practically living a hermit's life between the lab, the cafeteria, and his dorm.
"Got a minute? I need help with an experiment," he said.
"I have time, but not sure I can help, BOSS. Where are you now?"
"Outside the Remote Sensing Building," he replied.
"Wait there, I'll find you."
Su Yuanshan stuffed the mobile phone back into his backpack. Carrying a mobile phone around campus felt too conspicuous; he still thought of himself as a student.
Soon, Li Xiao appeared, pedaling her worn-out ladies' bicycle. She wore a long white dress, looking effortless and fresh.
Su Yuanshan waved to her.
Li Xiao screeched to a halt in front of him and flipped her hair, sending a whiff of shampoo fragrance into the air. "Hop on. Tell me about this experiment of yours."
"Chemical vapor deposition," Su Yuanshan said.
Li Xiao looked surprised, "You? You've been doing physics experiments — now you want to steal work from us chemists?"
"...," Su Yuanshan smiled wryly, "Get real. I'm just thinking about whether Yuanchip should build a chemistry lab someday. So I want to check if anyone here can actually do this kind of experiment."
Li Xiao bit her lip, "No way. They say only the Chinese Academy of Sciences can pull that off right now."
She handed him the bike and jumped onto the back seat herself.
"So where are we going?" she asked.
"North side of Weiming Lake. There's a music festival going on near Tsinghua."
"Ugh, I'm trying to talk serious business here!" Li Xiao protested.
"But chemical vapor deposition is for growing crystals — what kind of crystal are you trying to make? Don't tell me you discovered a new material."
Clutching his shoulders, she looked exasperated.
Su Yuanshan was exasperated too.
College students at this time...
They still didn't know what "intense competition" really meant.
They still had time to indulge in poetry and romance.
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