Chapter 224 Pony and the Meeting of Great Minds
At that moment, Su Yuanshan felt the wonder of the world.
The Yuanxin R&D center now had several thousand people, and he truly could no longer call each employee by name. Even the initial one-on-one onboarding meetings with senior leadership had evolved into department head meetings instead.
Su Yuanshan opened his mouth, intending to call Zhou Xiaohui over to check when this person had joined, but then he realized she had already gone downstairs to have lunch.
So, he turned to his own computer, entered his username and password into the OA (Office Automation) system, and logged into the server.
This OA system was the continuation of Xinghai's CRM system — and together with the ongoing development of BPM (Business Process Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, Xinghai would soon become a true giant in commercial software, even a monopoly-grade player.
Su Yuanshan searched for the name Zhang Xiaolong and quickly retrieved the employee's information through the LAN server.
Zhang Xiaolong, graduate student at Central China University of Telecommunications.Joined Yuanxin's Mobile Communications Division as an intern in January.Proficient in C language, skilled in communication protocols.Tends to clock in at the very last minute.Three evaluations: A, A-, and B+.
Just a few lines painted the picture of a man who, in another world, had created Foxmail — good enough to rival Microsoft — and later would lead WeChat itself...
"Performance evaluations... a double-edged sword," Su Yuanshan muttered, smiling wryly. "His scores have dropped — passion is declining."
Currently, students graduating from universities, including graduate students and vocational college students, were still assigned jobs by the government. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Yuanxin kept them on an internship system until official graduation. Thus, the performance evaluation system started back at Jiangdu Tower was retained — it helped adjust formal employment positions and retroactively adjust internship salaries based on performance.
This retroactive salary system had played a huge role in helping Yuanxin retain a large number of excellent graduates.
Now, Zhang Xiaolong's performance decline probably meant he hadn't fully adapted to a working state yet.
That said, achieving an A rating during the first month was already very impressive — indicating he was capable of leading a team in technical challenges.
Above A, there was only A+, and in the past two years, only two interns had ever gotten that: Li Yinan and Guan Tao, who was now leading the neural network research group under Xi Xiaoding.
Closing the employee information tab, Su Yuanshan replied to Zhang Xiaolong's email, asking him to come to his office after 5 p.m.
...
After lunch, Su Yuanshan lay on the sofa, preparing to take a nap. Staring at the ceiling, he couldn't help but reminisce about the old days at Jiangdu Tower.
Back then, every noon, the office sofa was always "overbooked" — Sun Xihui and Yang Yiwen used to fight over it for their midday naps.
Later, after Yang Yiwen left, Sun Xihui brought in Yu Yuru; after Sun left, Zhou Xiaohui and a few other girls continued the tradition.
He could always glance through the frosted glass window and see the workstations buzzing outside.
He was a real presence among the team, even considered a "god-level" figure—whenever anyone had a technical issue they couldn't crack, they'd shamelessly come straight to him.
At the same time, he had been self-learning university-level physics courses.
He vividly remembered how excited those senior brothers were, scrambling over each other to teach him everything they knew.
Thinking of those lively scenes and comparing them to his current, spacious but obviously quieter office, Su Yuanshan sighed deeply.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Xiaohui asked, turning around while tidying up his desk.
"Sister Xiaohui, do you think you were happier back at Jiangdu Tower or here at the tech park?" Su Yuanshan asked, resting his hand behind his head.
Leaning against the desk, Zhou Xiaohui thought for a moment. "Jiangdu Tower."
"Same here. I felt happier back then too. Why do you think that is?"
Zhou Xiaohui frowned slightly after pondering for a few seconds. "Maybe... because the bigger Yuanxin gets, the more things we have to worry about?"
"And if we set that aside?" Su Yuanshan pressed.
"Then... it feels a bit too quiet now," Zhou Xiaohui said, glancing around and smiling. "Back at Jiangdu, it was lively all the time. Logistics, finance, legal — we were like a big family, and all girls too. Especially when Sister Sun and Yiwen were around, the logistics side was like a non-stop musical."
"Yeah... it's gotten a bit lonely," Su Yuanshan muttered, tugging the blanket over himself. After a moment, he asked, "Pass me my phone."
Taking the phone, Su Yuanshan dialed Pony's number.
...
"President Shan?" Pony answered, clearly surprised — Su Yuanshan had almost never called him directly.
"How's the progress?"
"The core functions have been ready for a while," Pony said, a little excited. "But if we want to forward data through servers, we have to solve server capacity and security issues. It's a bit of a headache, but we've found several solutions. We're moving fast—almost ready for the beta version."
"Good. I have an idea," Su Yuanshan said, staring at the ceiling. After a pause, he spoke softly, "Next step, implement group chats."
"Group chats?" Pony sounded puzzled.
"Yeah. Group chats. For example, put a bunch of us into a group. Whenever someone sends a message, it's delivered to everyone simultaneously—just like a real group conversation."
There was a long silence on the line.
Su Yuanshan checked his phone. "What's wrong?"
Pony finally sighed and said, "President Shan... if I said 'great minds think alike,' would you think I'm kissing up?"
Su Yuanshan blinked, then burst into laughter. "You thought of it too?"
"Yes! In fact, anything email can do, our EM (Enterprise Messenger) can do. The difference is, EM is positioned as a real-time communication tool focused on handling information. Once you add server storage and handshakes for forwarding... simple invitations, greetings, casual chat—emails become redundant..."
"But group chats would push our servers and databases harder—especially handling concurrent data. That's why it's just been an idea in my head so far," Pony finished with a laugh. "Didn't expect you to think of it too."
"Since we both thought of it, let's make it a target," Su Yuanshan said, narrowing his eyes. "Don't be afraid of the technical challenges."
"If we assume an optimistic future for the internet, then handling high-concurrency data streams will be a fundamental capability. Starting now will just be good practice for the future."
"Also," he added, "you can coordinate with President Xi's lab. Check Yuanxin's patents and tech lists—you might find something useful."
...
Before Su Yuanshan could even relax after hanging up, his phone rang again.
Seeing the caller ID, he immediately answered.
"Xiaoshan, you free?"
It was Wang Rui's voice—excited.
"Yes, Senior Brother. What's up?"
Su Yuanshan immediately sat up straight.
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