Chapter 298 Because of You
During the National Day holiday, Yuanxin also observed a five-day break. However, certain departments with their own tasks operated on a rotating schedule. Additionally, some employees chose not to return home for various reasons and remained in the tech park, albeit off-duty.
As a result, the cafeteria was much quieter than usual—but there were still quite a few people dining.
What surprised Su Yuanshan was that he happened to run into Xi Xiaoding in the cafeteria.
"Senior Brother, you didn't go home?" Su Yuanshan and Zhou Xiaohui picked up their trays and sat down next to him.
"I went back for a bit, but then my sister said she wanted to take my mom traveling," Xi said with a wry smile. "Luckily I didn't go—heard it's packed to the brim at the scenic spots."
"Uh… yeah, that sounds about right. But are you okay with the two of them traveling alone?"
Xi Xiaoding's father had passed away three years ago. He had originally planned to emigrate permanently, settle down in the West, and bring his mother and younger sister over later. But after joining Yuanxin, his plans took a wildly different turn. Now his home was in the provincial capital, and his sister had even been accepted into Provincial University—she had scored high enough for Fudan, but chose to stay close to home.
Oh, and she was a liberal arts student.
"Heh, as long as you don't flaunt your wealth and stick with tour groups, it's usually pretty safe," Xi said, putting down his chopsticks and wiping his mouth. "Besides, you've seen my sister—she's a lot tougher than me."
"Uh… Xiaomu definitely has a strong personality," Su Yuanshan chuckled, thinking about Xi's sister.
In the local dialect, "strong" could be roughly translated as "fierce."
...
The next day, Su Yuanshan finally gave himself a proper break and spent the day at the Electronics Institute's home. On the afternoon of the fifth, he went to pick up Ye Rudai from her return to campus.
It had been nearly a month since they last saw each other, but there wasn't the slightest sense of unfamiliarity—thanks to the fact that Ye Rudai, while working on the research project assigned by Xi Xiaoding, spent a lot of time online using EM, constantly chatting with Su Yuanshan.
October was already moving into late autumn, and fallen ginkgo leaves covered the campus, painting everything in golden hues—like a throne made of sunlight.
Walking together on campus, the two of them looked like the perfect golden couple.
"Is your internet connection fast enough? If it's not, I'll ask Academician Su to pull some strings," Su Yuanshan said, hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, smiling as he looked at Ye Rudai's rosy-cheeked profile.
Ye Rudai quickly shook her head.
"It's fine… I'm using Professor Xi's internet access card right now."
"My dad's card is way better than Xi's though," Su Yuanshan teased.
Because of infrastructure limitations, even elite tech schools like the Electronics Institute had strict bandwidth controls.
After all, there wasn't much to go around—and if they didn't impose limits, no one would get access.
Even with the restrictions, the internet was still painfully slow.
"..."
Ye Rudai knew better than to take Su Yuanshan's words too seriously.
She simply kept walking beside him and said softly,
"I heard ISDN commercial access will be rolled out soon.
Once that happens, internet speeds will improve a lot.
Does that mean China's internet industry is about to enter a period of rapid growth?"
"Mm… not quite."
Su Yuanshan smiled and shook his head.
He knew Ye Rudai had become increasingly focused on the internet—not at all like the programming-obsessed girl he remembered from before.
Ye Rudai raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?"
"Because internet development is inseparable from the number of computers in circulation.
And the number of computers is closely tied to the economy..."
Su Yuanshan narrowed his eyes slightly, lost in thought.
Thanks to his rebirth and Yuanxin's butterfly effect, China's internet industry was blooming much earlier than in his past life. Infrastructure and related technologies were developing faster too.
Take ISDN, for example—a 128k digital line that allowed simultaneous phone and internet use.
In his previous life, it didn't become widely available until after 1997.
By then, the West had already moved on to DDN and was about to enter the ADSL era.
But now, ISDN was clearly ahead of schedule, with plans for commercial rollout next year. The government was also actively pushing DDN.
Yet as Su Yuanshan had said, infrastructure wasn't everything.
You still needed internet-enabled devices for users to actually access the network.
"Sigh," Ye Rudai exhaled.
Her current research, given to her by Professor Xi, was about link analysis on internet webpages. If China's internet sector didn't take off, her work would be practically meaningless within the country.
Su Yuanshan knew what that sigh meant and smiled.
"Don't worry. Aside from the chip design work that Yuanxin is doing,
China is still falling behind the West in almost every field.
Going abroad—even just for exchange—is still worth it."
"Mm, I know," Ye nodded.
She wasn't against the exchange trip to UPenn that Xi Xiaoding had arranged for her.
But she still had her own private thoughts.
After a pause, she looked at Su Yuanshan and asked hesitantly,
"Is China's strength in chip design… because of Yuanxin and you?"
"Uh… are you buttering me up?"
"Maybe."
"Well, I guess I'll reluctantly accept that compliment," Su Yuanshan laughed.
"When it comes to chip design, I really do have a knack for it.
Not to brag, but in terms of CPU architecture,
I blow the Western teams out of the water—three blocks ahead, at least."
"Pfft…" Ye Rudai giggled.
"Really?"
"Absolutely."
"You say it so confidently, I can't even tell if you're joking or bragging anymore."
"Heh, sometimes you have to hype yourself up a bit!
Otherwise, how are you going to survive in the semiconductor world?"
"Uh-huh…"
...
The two of them kept chatting and strolled around campus until the sun began to set.
Just as twilight painted the sky, Su Yuanshan's phone rang.
"Xiaoshan, do you play chess?"
It was Xi Xiaoding's voice, sounding cheerful.
Su Yuanshan paused.
—That was a question Xi had already asked him once before.
He didn't believe for a second that Xi had forgotten.
So… if he was asking again, did that mean the AI was ready?
"Has the AI finished learning?"
"Yup. It just finished training.
I played a few rounds already—lost every single one.
Want to give it a try?"
"..."
Su Yuanshan looked up at the sky, then at Ye Rudai's curious expression.
Reluctantly, he shook his head.
"Not today.
Besides, I'm terrible at chess…
Shouldn't you bring in a real champion to test it?"
"We already did.
We invited national chess champion Gu Xiaochun.
We'll know the results tomorrow."
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