Chapter 140 - By the Weiming Lake
From Li Mingliu, Su Yuanshan had learned an interesting saying. Although Tsinghua University and Peking University were neighbors separated only by a wall, their musical standards, particularly guitar skills, were worlds apart. The root cause lay in the gender ratio at each school — it directly affected how seriously the students practiced.
Simply put, at Peking University, where the gender ratio was relatively balanced, a guy could casually strum a basic piece like "Romance" and attract plenty of girls. At Tsinghua, even if a guy played "Recuerdos de la Alhambra," it probably wouldn't be enough. They had to practice a lot harder.
"Wasn't the usual jamming spot at the Triangle? Why is it by Weiming Lake today?" Su Yuanshan asked as he pedaled the bike.
Li Xiao said, "The Triangle is full of people memorizing English vocabulary today."
"..."
Li Xiao lightly patted his back, laughing. "Be honest, you've been at Peking University for a while now. Have you even toured the campus properly?"
"Not at all. The last time I saw Weiming Lake was when you showed me around last year."
"I think you've lost your mind," Li Xiao sighed. "Xiaoshan, you really need to find yourself a girlfriend. You can't go on like this."
"Don't start. At my university, the male-to-female ratio is 7 to 1. Where am I supposed to find one?"
"With your looks and talents? You seriously think you couldn't find a girlfriend if you wanted to? Wait... unless you don't like girls?"
Su Yuanshan almost swerved the handlebars. "Come on, Sis! Don't talk nonsense! I'm 100% straight!"
"Steel straight?"
"Uh... yeah, my orientation is absolutely normal!"
Li Xiao laughed heartily, "Don't worry. Even if you weren't, I wouldn't judge you."
"Hey!" Su Yuanshan was half-laughing, half-furious. "I'm only nineteen! It's totally normal not to be dating yet!"
"Not dating is normal. Not liking girls, that's not."
"You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"Getting angry because it's true?"
"A real man doesn't argue with women!"
Riding against the evening breeze, Li Xiao laughed gleefully, "Haha! Got you!"
Su Yuanshan squinted his eyes against the wind, smiling as they passed groups of students on the road. It had been nearly two years since he returned, and he realized he hadn't really enjoyed being young at all.
"You know," Li Xiao said, "even if you're a genius, you can't just live like an old man. I heard from my dad you're still designing CPUs?"
"My part of the project is done; otherwise, I wouldn't have time for physics."
"Impressive."
"Naturally."
They chatted aimlessly as they made their way around the lake, finally reaching their destination. Su Yuanshan stopped the bike about ten meters away from the crowd.
A group of male students were singing Cui Jian songs, accompanied by one of them strumming a guitar. Nearby, a circle of girls sat on the grass, hugging their knees, looking up at the stars.
"Is this it?"
Li Xiao nodded with a smile. "Yeah."
"You go ahead," Su Yuanshan said.
"What about you?"
"I'll just watch from over here."
He laid the bike down and sat casually on the curb, resting his chin on his hand as he mentally reviewed tomorrow's experimental procedures. Officially, he was following He Chunhua to work on Hall effect experiments, but privately, he was designing his own wet transfer experiment for graphene.
Graphene wasn't just a physics topic; chemical experiments were essential too. It meant he urgently needed to set up a chemical laboratory.
"By the way, Sister Xiao, what about those battery specialists you said you'd ask?"
Li Xiao sat down beside him and shook her head, "I asked a few seniors. Right now, everyone's still focused on nickel-zinc batteries. The Chemistry Department is only just starting a lithium battery project this year. Sorry to disappoint you."
Su Yuanshan sighed softly.
Li Xiao smacked him lightly, "I told you not to sigh."
"I have to. Lithium batteries are crucial."
Su Yuanshan didn't know much about the theory behind lithium batteries, but he knew their market potential — whether for mobile devices, electric vehicles, or energy storage, lithium batteries were fundamental. The annual market was worth hundreds of billions.
More importantly, while domestic companies and Western firms initially leaned towards safer lithium iron phosphate batteries, Japan and South Korea aggressively pushed ahead with ternary lithium batteries.
Su Yuanshan didn't know every technical detail, but he knew the saying: "Those who master ternary lithium will master the future." Even though ternary batteries had issues with heat resistance and a reputation for catching fire, their market share still soared past 70%.
Thinking about all this, Su Yuanshan pulled out his mobile phone and checked the signal — full bars. He called Chen Jing's dormitory.
"Sister Jing, about that chemistry lab I mentioned — could you start preparing it?"
On the other end, Chen Jing's voice was calm, "Sure. But it sounds like there's singing in the background?"
"Hehe, I'm by Weiming Lake," Su Yuanshan chuckled, then added, "Also, can you arrange campus recruitment aimed directly at Chemistry graduates? Lower the requirements slightly."
"Okay. But do you have a project leader yet?"
"That's the problem. I don't. There's a girl I know who would be perfect, but she's still too young — not ready for that responsibility."
Hearing this, Li Xiao pinched him.
Chen Jing laughed over the phone, "A girl?"
"Yeah. Professor Li Gaoliang's daughter. She's only a junior," Su Yuanshan said while dodging Li Xiao's glare. "If that doesn't work, we'll just poach a PhD with a high salary or recruit someone from outside."
"Got it. What's the budget?"
Su Yuanshan thought for a moment, "Since we'll start small and do reverse engineering, it shouldn't cost too much. Has the SEZ financial report come in? How's the cash flow?"
"The VCD factory shipped 500,000 units last quarter," Chen Jing said. "Orders are so strong they overwhelmed the production lines. We're sitting on around 600 million yuan in gross profit."
Hearing that, Su Yuanshan finally relaxed.
While he had expected strong VCD sales, he hadn't imagined it would be so hot that it overwhelmed production. This was thanks largely to Yuanchip's dominance over the complete machine market and its exclusive decoding chip. From the beginning, Yuanchip had boldly contracted Texas Instruments to handle mass production, which rapidly drove down costs.
Meanwhile, Sigma Designs, the only competitor with a similar decoding chip, found itself squeezed out. Patent barriers and complete system patents ensured that no one dared adopt Sigma's chip.
Thus, Yuanchip achieved de facto monopoly — any new chip manufacturer would be crushed by Yuanchip's cost advantage the moment they tried to launch.
Confident in VCD profitability, Su Yuanshan had dared to proceed with the EDA spin-off.
"Six hundred million — not bad! Let's earmark 100 million for the chemistry lab," Su Yuanshan said, grinning.
"Six hundred million? Wow, are you trying to tile the entire Great Wall in marble?" came an exaggerated voice behind him.
Startled, Su Yuanshan and Li Xiao turned to see a long-haired male student staring wide-eyed at Su Yuanshan's bulky mobile phone.
Li Xiao blinked, recognizing him immediately. "Senior Cheng?"
"Li Xiao?" The long-haired guy looked surprised, then grinned, "What are you doing here? Eavesdropping on this guy's boasting session?"
Li Xiao: "..."
Su Yuanshan: "..."
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