Chapter 144 - Mobile Phone
Ye Rudai never imagined that Su Yuanshan would personally come to the gate to meet her, and she immediately relaxed. Since they met more than a year ago, they had kept in touch consistently. It might be a stretch to say they exchanged a letter every month like clockwork, but they truly had been hardcore pen pals.
Su Yuanshan's personality, his hobbies, even his way of speaking, matched her preferences so perfectly. However, the more she learned about Su Yuanshan and about Yuanchip, the more she felt the gap between them. That was why she had been so nervous when she called him yesterday — what if he turned out to be completely different from the person he seemed in his letters? That would have been unbearably awkward.
Fortunately, not only did he not reject her, but he also behaved exactly as she had imagined.
It seemed the old saying was true: even emperors have poor relatives.
From a distance, Su Yuanshan waved at Ye Rudai.
He then led them to the earliest dormitory building and arranged for the two girls to share a double room. Afterward, he took them to the administrative department to issue temporary ID badges and meal cards.
Seeing how attentive Su Yuanshan was, Ye Rudai's parents were reassured. After politely declining Su Yuanshan's invitation to dinner, they headed back into the city without even staying for the evening meal.
Later, Su Yuanshan took the two girls to Xi Xiaoding's office. When Xi heard Su Yuanshan introduce them as his "friends," his expression became extremely complicated.
"Welcome," Xi Xiaoding said, smiling at the two anxious girls. "Don't be nervous, and don't be too formal. Hmm... Go next door and find Senior Sister Liu Su. Tell her about your backgrounds, and she'll know how to assign you."
"Thank you, Professor Xi," Ye Rudai and Yu Shuyun said simultaneously, bowing politely.
"Hehe, no need to be so polite," Xi Xiaoding said, his gaze eventually settling on Ye Rudai. She looked to be about eighteen, with a delicate face flushed slightly red from either nerves or excitement. Wearing a white blouse and a long black skirt, she looked elegant and quiet.
Nodding to himself silently, Xi Xiaoding smiled and said, "Hurry along. If you have any questions, feel free to find me. Or him."
After watching the two girls leave, Xi Xiaoding spun his chair around, intertwined his fingers, and looked at Su Yuanshan with a teasing smile.
"You little rascal, stuffing your girlfriend into my team?"
"Ahem... She's not my girlfriend yet. And both of them are first-prize winners in programming competitions."
"Tch! You think I'm blind?" Xi Xiaoding gave him a disdainful look, then smiled. "But honestly, it's fine. Maybe someday that little girl will be the boss's wife..."
Su Yuanshan rolled his eyes. "You're so full of it."
Xi Xiaoding laughed heartily, "Alright, I'll keep an eye on them for you. Anything else?"
Su Yuanshan said grumpily, "Can't I just come visit you for no reason?"
"Of course you can."
Su Yuanshan didn't stay long in Xi's office, since it was almost time to get off work. He simply waited for Xi so they could leave together and naturally took Ye Rudai and Yu Shuyun to the cafeteria for dinner.
After eating, he gave the two girls a full tour of the Tech Park. It wasn't until seven in the evening that they finally parted ways. Su Yuanshan then went alone to his lab.
The following days didn't go quite as Su Yuanshan had expected.
He had thought Ye Rudai's arrival would bring a touch of sweetness to his life. Instead, reality proved once again that imagination often strayed far from reality.
In Su Yuanshan's mind, he had hoped that Ye Rudai had come to rekindle their past feelings. But from Ye Rudai's perspective, getting a chance to intern at Yuanchip — especially under someone like Xi Xiaoding, where nearly everyone else was a graduate student — was an incredible opportunity.
Thus, after the first couple of days where she still had time to stroll around with Su Yuanshan, she and Yu Shuyun became like high school seniors preparing for their college entrance exams — giving it everything they had, treating every member of the research team as a mentor, desperate not to embarrass Su Yuanshan.
Su Yuanshan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
But he couldn't intervene either. He couldn't just play the domineering boss and forcibly pull Ye Rudai over to his side — if he dared, she would probably turn around and leave immediately.
So, whenever they bumped into each other at the cafeteria, he would gently remind them to take care of their health. They were here to intern, not to kill themselves.
Ye Rudai always replied:
"Seize every minute!"
Time flew, and before he knew it, July's last day had arrived.
In the middle of the night, a call from across the Pacific woke Su Yuanshan.
"BOSS, celebrate! We did it!" Howard's voice was crystal clear, instantly shaking off Su Yuanshan's drowsiness.
Realizing what Howard's "success" implied, Su Yuanshan immediately sat up in bed and asked in a deep voice, "You're using the engineering sample now?"
"Exactly!" Howard laughed gleefully. "Under the same conditions, our signal attenuation is better than Ericsson's and Nokia's!"
"Awesome!" Su Yuanshan punched the mattress in excitement. "Where are you now? Have you informed Carly and the others?"
"I'm in the lab. You're the first one I called."
"Hehe, alright. Notify Carly immediately. It's 4 a.m. here... I'll call you again in five hours."
After hanging up, Su Yuanshan couldn't sleep. He washed up quickly, opened his computer, and posted a message on the internal forum announcing that their mobile baseband chip had successfully passed testing.
After clicking send, he stood by the window, looking out over the dark Tech Park, his heart surging with excitement.
Passing the baseband chip test meant that Yuanchip and Xinghai would become the sixth entity in the world capable of producing and manufacturing GSM mobile phones!
The five ahead of them were Sagem, Ericsson, Siemens, Nokia, and Motorola — all towering giants with deep foundations.
Compared to them, Yuanchip was just a rookie.
But Su Yuanshan knew the current GSM phone market was still primitive — as long as a phone was more compact than a "brick phone," it sold. Concepts like features, aesthetics, ergonomics, and battery life barely factored in yet. Everyone was still just solving signal issues.
And starting from last year, after Sony taught Yuanchip a hard lesson with VCDs, they had established a professional design department in the SEZ. When Tian Yaoming and Howard took the risk for a final tape-out last month, the design department had begun collaborating with the communications team to create outward designs for the new phone.
As the dawn light slowly spread, Su Yuanshan looked at his watch, then stepped out and knocked on the door next to his room.
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