Chapter 25 All Good News

Chapter 25 All Good News

Pan Xiaojun had lunch at Yuanxin and met a bunch of people—surrounded by programmers, all university graduates, he no longer dared to call himself a tech guy. Nor did he dare, as he used to at Jiangyin Factory, proudly declare, "I'm just a vocational school graduate." Instead, he humbly admitted that he only had some superficial knowledge of similar software, and thus had been lucky enough to join Yuanxin.

That afternoon, Su Yuanshan completed the compilation of a small tool he had been working on. He took a Protel project file he had copied from the university and mounted the tool onto Yuanxin's system. The project loaded smoothly, even though parsing the circuit diagrams made it a bit slow.

But as long as seamless conversion was possible, what did a little slowness matter?

Su Yuanshan planned to use this small tool as his entry for the upcoming programming competition—unless all the judges went blind, there was no way he wouldn't win the special prize.

There was still about a month and a half left before the final submission deadline. Unexpectedly, the competition had sparked an early boom in a whole industry—at least in the provincial capital. Several new computer training centers sprang up, advertising under slogans like "Taught by UESTC and Provincial University Faculty." Business was reportedly booming. Even the Youth Palace, which had previously only taught Pascal, had started teaching C and C++. This development was a bit beyond Su Yuanshan's expectations.

By late July, on the 22nd, Professor Su Xinghe finally returned from Beijing after staying there for over a week.

...

"Dad!"

Su Yuanshan hadn't gone to the airport to pick him up, but the moment he heard his father had arrived home, he dropped everything and grabbed a motorcycle taxi to rush back. By the time he got home, Su Xinghe had just finished showering and was happily eating watermelon under the fan.

"You ran home?" Su Xinghe laughed when he saw his son arrive drenched in sweat. He handed him a slice of watermelon and wiped his son's forehead with the towel around his neck.

"I took a motorcycle taxi, but I ran upstairs. It's so hot, just moving a little makes you sweat." Su Yuanshan took a big bite of watermelon and asked eagerly, "How did it go?"

Su Xinghe had been busy in the capital for days, and calls hadn't been convenient. Only when he boarded the plane had he sent a brief update. Judging by his father's tone, Su Yuanshan knew it had to be good news.

Su Xinghe finished wiping his son's sweat and tucked the towel behind his neck again, smiling. "You usually act so steady, like an old man. Why are you so impatient today?"

"..."

"I know exactly what you want to hear." Su Xinghe looked at his son, feeling deeply moved. The speech Su Yuanshan had prepared for him not only left a profound impact on the Ministry of Machinery and Electronics officials during the evaluation meeting but was later sent into internal references for higher review. They had been waiting anxiously for news.

"Aside from the discussion about the export date for Yuanxin EDA, everything else was pretty much finalized. The Ministry approved UESTC and Yuanxin to pilot a new model of scientific research collaboration, though with some restrictions on the results."

"What kind of restrictions?"

"The results will be distributed based on the proportion of investment. But no matter what, Yuanxin retains the right to use all results."

Su Yuanshan frowned slightly—that wasn't quite what he had hoped for. His ideal setup was simple: Yuanxin would invest the money, universities would provide the manpower, and any results would be bought back by Yuanxin directly. Researchers would gain honor and large bonuses, while Yuanxin would monopolize the profits.

But Su Yuanshan quickly relaxed. Given the ongoing ideological debates about socialism versus capitalism, being able to secure such cooperation at all was already a great achievement. Moreover, allocating results based on investment proportion meant the government would likely increase project funding, reducing the financial pressure on Yuanxin, which was desperately poor at the moment. Overall, it was very positive news.

Su Xinghe added, "When the new School of Electronic Engineering is established next year, I'll probably be the department head."

"That's good. Vice deans get buried in administrative tasks; department heads stay at the research frontline. Looks like you'll be getting your full professorship and Ph.D. advisor title this year too."

"And," Su Xinghe continued with a chuckle, "President Zhou submitted another request that got approved: Yuanxin will become UESTC's official internship base."

Su Yuanshan's eyes lit up—this wasn't just good news; it was a lifeline! Although in the future job placements would be self-arranged without need for introduction letters, right now, internships still operated through school referrals—mostly to public institutions.

Having official internship base status meant Yuanxin would have access to a steady stream of "cheap labor" and talent reserves.

"And... your speech was sent into internal references. We didn't get a formal notification, but based on the comments from Ministry officials, it seems our viewpoints were well-received. That means the 908 Project you've been worrying about might get accelerated. We also heard that Huajing has been lobbying hard, even setting up a special team stationed in the capital."

Hearing this, Su Yuanshan exhaled deeply.

He didn't want to save Huajing for Huajing's sake. It was because Huajing's central research institute housed hundreds of the country's top semiconductor talents. If they couldn't soon access advanced technologies and production lines, it would be a huge loss for the entire industry.

"Lastly," Su Xinghe said, "the teaching materials have been handed over to the Ministry's publishing house. According to the discussions with the Ministry of Education, it looks like Yuanxin EDA will officially become standard course software. The only pity is... the selling price to universities might be a bit low."

Su Yuanshan burst out laughing. "Hahaha! No problem. I thought we'd have to give it away for free. Selling it at all is already an unexpected bonus."

**

By the end of the month, as newly recruited employees gradually arrived at Yuanxin through campus hiring, more good news came from Jiangyin.

Zhongxin Electronics—the pager factory—had, under Wang Chaoxin's lightning-fast operations, completed a major structural shift. Originally just a pager manufacturing plant, it had now been reorganized into a subsidiary under the newly registered Zhongxin Electronics Corporation, which became the new parent company. They began actively expanding into chip design and various component sales.

Wang Chaoxin's maneuver was brilliant—even Su Yuanshan had to admire it.

This way, Zhongxin Electronics, although still 51% controlled by Yuanxin, now had its own "offspring" and diversified its operations. It was no longer just a production plant for Yuanxin but a semi-independent company capable of standing on its own.

Su Yuanshan was delighted to see the birth of such a self-driven and ambitious company.

At the end of the month, Uncle Zhang returned to the provincial capital, bringing with him three thousand Chinese-character pagers.

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