Chapter 220 Yuanxin Needs to Make a Living Too
Su Yuanshan and Li Yinan walked along the pathway leading to the newly established Pandora Laboratory.
Although the general layout of Yuanxin Tech Park wasn't exactly according to the original land-use plan, the functional zoning of the buildings had changed significantly.
Starting from the main administrative building at the front gate, with the artificial lake as the center, the left side housed the cafeteria, dormitories, and sports grounds, while the right side, centered around the laboratory buildings, had been expanded with several new "broad-sense" laboratory facilities along the lake.
With the addition of costly greenery and flowering trees, the working environment at Yuanxin had become extraordinarily good. No wonder the CPU team back then had been so reluctant to move to Shanghai—they even used the word "exile" to describe it, showing just how spoiled and naïve these young engineers were.
"Want to take a look inside?" Su Yuanshan asked Li Yinan, planning to find Xi Xiaoding.
Li Yinan glanced at the three-story building hidden among the trees and gave a shy smile. "Better not. The people inside are even harder to deal with than me."
Su Yuanshan laughed heartily. "Actually, I always thought you would join President Xi's group. Inside, you could work quietly on next-generation mobile communications data algorithms."
Li Yinan shook his head. "I prefer technologies that can be commercialized quickly. That way, I get a real sense of accomplishment."
Su Yuanshan nodded in agreement. He believed Li Yinan was being honest.
Since joining Yuanxin, this genius teenager had become much more grounded than in his previous life. Probably because, unlike at his former employer, here even geniuses were kept in check.
At Yuanxin, even if you didn't count Xi Xiaoding, there were plenty in his lab whose intelligence matched or surpassed Li Yinan's. And in terms of sheer work ethic, people like Li Mingliu were role models for him.
Not to mention, the boss Su Yuanshan himself was another mountain.
Thus, Li Yinan performed admirably. His focus was pragmatic: not chasing distant dreams, but solving immediate problems one by one.
This approach not only rapidly brought technological benefits to Yuanxin but also allowed him to deeply root himself in a field, eventually becoming a top expert.
In a way, his path was the optimal choice for a tech developer within a company.
The two parted ways at the pathway. Li Yinan glanced around, hopped onto one of the many "unlocked" bicycles scattered around the campus, and pedaled back toward the dorms along the lakeside.
These unlocked bikes were actually quite interesting—Yuanxin's campus was massive, and with the artificial lake separating sections, the farthest walk between dorms and work areas could be about a kilometer.
At first, employees brought their own bikes, but as the workforce grew and "less careful" individuals increased, so did incidents of smashed locks and broken bikes.
Thus, the administration simply deployed two hundred unlocked bicycles for free use within the park—no locks allowed, no monopolizing bikes, and no riding them out of the park.
This policy was hailed as the number one "people's welfare project" at Yuanxin that year.
...
"Senior Brother, you're in good spirits. If I have half your energy at your age, I'll be thrilled," Su Yuanshan joked as he pushed open Xi Xiaoding's office door.
Xi Xiaoding was multitasking: eating lunch while staring intently at a computer monitor.
"You're making it sound like I'm old," Xi Xiaoding said, leaning back with a grin after setting aside his lunch box.
"I didn't mean that." Su Yuanshan observed that Xi still looked young—at least, he wasn't noticeably balding yet. Or maybe the thinning had just barely started.
"I just walked around with Li Yinan. He said the people here are even harder to deal with than he is. Senior Brother, don't raise a lab full of monsters."
"By the way, what are you working on?"
"We have two groups," Xi Xiaoding explained. "One, mainly my graduate students, working on YXLAB. The other... we're dabbling in neural networks. There's little international reference for that right now, meaning we're not behind. But as algorithms get more complex, even workstations—and even minicomputers—are struggling to handle them."
He paused. "When are you getting us a mainframe?"
"How about a supercomputer?" Su Yuanshan teased.
Xi Xiaoding beamed. "That'd be even better. Isn't the university's supercomputer almost ready? You should talk to President Zhou and convince him to build the supercomputing center here at Yuanxin."
"Forget it. That supercomputer center is Zhou's legacy project—something for his great-grandkids to brag about. No way he'll let it go to Yuanxin," Su Yuanshan said, plopping onto the edge of Xi's desk.
Xi Xiaoding smirked. "What's up? You wouldn't come here for nothing."
"When is Senior Brother He Ziyuan coming back?"
He Ziyuan was Xi's friend, who had gone abroad in 1982, earned his Master's and PhD at Berkeley, and later joined IBM. Xi's decision to go to IBM had been influenced by him.
"Probably later this year," Xi said after some hesitation. "I'm not great at chip design myself, but I know Old He is the real deal."
"Good. Once he's back, Yuanxin will treat him well," Su Yuanshan said with a grin. "At the very least, we'll give you face."
Xi laughed and shook his head. "That's all you came to ask?"
"Not just that. Mainly I needed to confirm—if he doesn't come, we'll have to build a DSP team ourselves. Right now, there's practically no domestic expertise in that area. Tsinghua's trying, but they don't have enough funding."
Xi Xiaoding sighed. "For a complex processor like that, you need hundreds of millions of yuan and years of effort to reach international standards... No single university can manage it alone."
"Exactly..." Su Yuanshan sighed too.
In the past, whenever he heard about some breakthrough made with minimal funding, he would feel a surge of pride.
But later he realized—those "breakthroughs" were usually only good for exhibitions. Actually bringing them to market and competing globally was another story entirely.
This led to the common mindset in China: "Do the biggest things with the smallest budgets."
But you get what you pay for. Persisting with that mentality only led to endless internal competition.
Yuanxin wasn't following that path. From day one, Yuanxin was about "spend big, do big things." Only by doing that could they hope to overtake on the development curve.
"Also, we might need your help with some communication data algorithms," Su Yuanshan said, smiling. "Progress at Tian Yaoming's team is a bit slow. You know how it is—with cutting-edge algorithms, breakthroughs often depend on individual brilliance. Throwing more people at it doesn't help."
"New algorithms... luck plays a big role too," Xi Xiaoding said thoughtfully. "Alright, I'll have a chat with Old Tian."
"Thanks, Senior Brother."
They chatted a while longer. Before leaving, Su Yuanshan even took Xi's lunch box to toss it out.
Then he headed toward the lab.
Although Su Yuanshan fully supported Xi Xiaoding's Pandora Lab, not everyone was entirely thrilled—especially Tian Yaoming, who had jokingly complained once already.
It was widely known that building next-gen communication systems required serious mathematical talent.
Naturally, Tian Yaoming wasn't about to complain directly to Xi Xiaoding—but he had no problem venting to Su Yuanshan.
And while Su Yuanshan absolutely wanted Pandora to become an extraordinary lab, he also didn't want it to become a black hole that sucked up all the top talent—
even if Xi Xiaoding's direction was absolutely the right one.
Friends, if you enjoyed the novel, you can subscribe to my Patreon channel.
Until November 30th, get 40% off your subscription and the purchase of the novel.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1