Chapter 292 A Hostile Visitor
Wang Dongsheng held a master's degree in engineering. He had started out as a technical expert before later shifting into finance — which was precisely why BOE could pull off moves like renting out its office buildings and factory floors to stay afloat.
Su Yuanshan wasn't really asking him how big his ambitions were.
He was asking: how much money would it take to realize those ambitions?
Wang Dongsheng swallowed hard.
Once he confirmed that Yuanxin's interest was genuinely fixed on LCD panels, Wang had spent the past few days before Su Yuanshan's arrival repeatedly discussing strategies with his leadership team.
Clearly, Yuanxin hoped to cooperate with BOE — but what kind of cooperation would it be?
Joint R&D?
A new jointly-owned factory?
An equity investment?
Or… outright acquisition?
The entire BOE senior staff was both excited and anxious, their emotions a tangled mess of hope, fear, and doubt.
"Due to funding constraints, our progress has been limited," Wang Dongsheng said after composing himself.
Thinking back to his earlier conversation with Duan Yongping, he was thankful he had told the truth.
"We've mainly been doing reverse analysis and basic lab experiments.
There's been no real technological breakthrough yet.
But since we started early, we've accumulated some groundwork."
Su Yuanshan nodded and asked,
"When did you start?"
"At the beginning of this year.
Last year, we visited Japan and South Korea and found that both countries were heavily investing in LCD panels.
According to the Japanese companies' classification systems, they're already building second-generation production lines, with substrate sizes reaching 370mm by 470mm."
"Hmm..."
Su Yuanshan nodded again.
He only had a surface-level understanding of LCD technology — he knew the general industry landscape, but not the technical specifics.
He vaguely recalled that LCD panel generations were classified by substrate size.
At this point, due to cost and manufacturing limits, LCDs were mainly used for small electronics —
primarily mobile phones.
In fact, it was the booming mobile phone market that made LCDs so crucial, whereas companies focused on TVs and monitors, like Sony, still underestimated them — assuming it would take another twenty years before LCDs could seriously challenge CRTs.
Except for Samsung.
Sometimes, when Su Yuanshan "reviewed" the memories from his past life, he couldn't help but marvel at Samsung's meteoric rise —
especially Samsung Electronics.
Once they decided to enter semiconductors, their famous counter-cyclical investment strategies kicked in.
More terrifyingly, they never missed a single major industry explosion — and they did it all remarkably well.
Memory, flash, mobile phones, LCDs... everything except, perhaps, electric vehicle batteries.
Compared to other giants, Samsung's rise under Lee Kun-hee was almost miraculous —
as if he'd been a time traveler.
"If BOE fully commits to the LCD industry, do you have the confidence?" Su Yuanshan asked after a few seconds, looking directly at Wang Dongsheng.
Wang's pupils contracted sharply.
Fully commit?
Abandon all their current businesses?
What did that mean — Yuanxin was planning to build an entire LCD production line?
Wang Dongsheng took a deep breath.
"What do you mean by fully commit?
Are you planning to build a panel factory?"
"President Wang still hasn't answered my question," Su Yuanshan said calmly.
"Do you have the confidence?"
"Of course I have confidence!" Wang Dongsheng responded almost without thinking.
"At the very least, domestically, every mobile phone, every pager, every calculator — every single LCD panel has to be imported!
President Shan, you must be even more aware of this than I am..."
"Good."
Su Yuanshan nodded.
"Here's the situation.
In mid-October, Sony's senior leadership will come here.
They'll join us in discussing breakthroughs and production strategies for LCD panels."
"Of course, Sony's technology isn't great either — they underestimated this field.
But with Sony's involvement, we might be able to acquire some Japanese know-how and build up a panel factory faster.
At that point, we'll talk about cooperation again.
What do you think?"
Wang Dongsheng took another deep breath, clenching his fists without even realizing it, then said in a low voice,
"Alright."
"But," Wang added carefully,
"may I ask — how does Yuanxin envision this cooperation?"
Su Yuanshan didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked,
"How do you hope it will work?"
Wang Dongsheng licked his lips, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally said,
"We've looked into it.
Building a basic LCD panel factory would cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars —
if we scale it up even a little, it could rival the cost of a semiconductor fab."
"We've only just completed our restructuring this year.
We only just shed the burden of losses...
And we're still partially owned by the banks, thanks to debt-to-equity swaps."
Su Yuanshan smiled faintly.
"Your shareholders are your problem to handle.
As for the money...
That's negotiable."
"Here's the idea — depending on how things develop,
either Yuanxin and Sony will directly take stakes in BOE,
or we'll establish a new company,
with Yuanxin and Sony providing most of the capital,
and BOE transferring over the personnel and core structure —
so we can quickly build production capacity."
"I hope President Wang will give it some serious thought."
"I will!"
Wang Dongsheng agreed without hesitation.
...
Su Yuanshan came and left swiftly, not even staying for lunch.
Wang Dongsheng stood watching the departing Passat, clenching his fists briefly before relaxing.
"Director, Yuanxin didn't come here with good intentions…"
It was his deputy, Wang Dongxu, who spoke — an old hand from the days of the Electron Tube Factory.
Wang Dongxu was deeply attached to 774 Factory and couldn't help but feel uncomfortable after hearing Su Yuanshan's aggressive proposal.
Now that Su had left, he finally voiced his concern.
"Haha, they're not a charity," Wang Dongsheng said with a wry smile, turning back toward his office.
"Of course they're not here out of kindness."
"But what caught me off guard —
was that they managed to pull Sony into this."
"Still," he continued, "LCD panels really do have huge potential.
I wasn't entirely sure before, but after seeing Yuanxin's involvement, now I'm certain."
"Old Wang — you didn't believe me before," he teased.
Wang Dongxu scratched his head awkwardly.
He had been through the rough years with 774 Factory and wanted nothing more than to quickly turn things around.
When Wang Dongsheng insisted on investing their precious funds into LCD research, Wang Dongxu had been skeptical —
the field was deep and dangerous.
Even if they succeeded technically, they wouldn't have the money to build a factory.
Hadn't they heard?
Building a plant could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars —
money BOE didn't have.
But now, with Yuanxin stepping in, everything was different.
Even if Wang Dongxu didn't particularly like private companies,
he couldn't deny it —
Su Yuanshan's instincts were impeccable.
Yuanxin had never once made a losing bet.
Get 30% off on my Patreon and enjoy early access to new chapters.
You can also purchase the next 100 chapters of the novel directly from my Patreon page.
Hurry up! The promotion ends on January 2, 2026.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1