The trip from Jinling South to Xucheng East Station takes only an hour.
Wu Shengyu pushed his suitcase out of the high-speed rail station, then took out his phone and used Fast Taxi to hail a business-class vehicle.
’The Lighthouse Country has similar ride-hailing apps, too. I think one is called ’Uber,’’ he thought. ’Clearly, the internet here in Hua Country is developing just as fast as in Europe and America, if not faster.’
In the few days since returning to the country, he had tried Group Buy services, food delivery, e-commerce, and courier services. Every one of them had exceeded his expectations.
Although the Lighthouse Country had these kinds of apps, they couldn’t compare to their domestic counterparts in Hua Country when it came to delivery speed and user-friendliness.
The market in Hua Country was bigger, and more capital was focused on it. Often, when a brand-new industry emerged, tens, hundreds, or even thousands of companies would spring up at once.
After a brutal and bloody struggle for dominance, the survivors would have pushed prices and services to their absolute limits.
’It’s like a goddamn cage match!’
’The competitors from Europe and America don’t stand a chance!’
「Three minutes later.」
After checking the license plate, Wu Shengyu got into a BMW.
The driver confirmed the last few digits of his phone number, started the trip, and sped off toward Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.
"Are you an employee at Orange Technology?" the driver, a man in his thirties, asked, noticing Wu Shengyu staring out the window.
"Why do you ask?" Wu Shengyu turned to look at the driver.
"The most famous companies in Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park are, first, Orange Technology; second, Pinbei Mall; third, Orange Pay; and fourth, Today Technology. They’re all star enterprises here in our Xucheng. I heard a few small companies moved in before, but they all moved out. Now it’s just these four."
The driver explained with a proud expression.
Although Chen Yansen wasn’t a Xucheng native, he had been a student at Xuyuan. In the eyes of the locals, that made him one of their own.
"I’m going for an interview," Wu Shengyu said with a slight smile, not telling the whole truth.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck!" the driver replied with a cheerful laugh.
They made small talk, and in less than twenty minutes, the taxi drove into the Science and Technology Park and stopped in front of Building 9.
"Here we are. Orange Technology is in this building right in front of us. Across from it is Pinbei Mall’s headquarters, and next to that are Orange Pay and Today Technology."
The driver rattled off the names as if they were his own family treasures, clearly very familiar with the area.
After all, he often drove employees from Orange Technology, Pinbei Mall, and Orange Pay to the high-speed rail station. He’d learned the basics from chatting with them now and then.
"Thank you," Wu Shengyu said with a nod as he opened the car door.
"Wait a moment, I’ll help you with your luggage." The driver was extremely helpful. This was a business-class vehicle; the fare was higher, so the service was naturally better.
「Meanwhile.」
Chen Yansen received a message from Wu Shengyu and walked to the window, just in time to see him getting out of the car and the driver bustling about with the luggage.
He had poached over 70 chip design engineers like Wu Shengyu in one go from companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices, and NVIDIA. They included both Chinese and Western engineers.
His Spiritual Power score of over 100 made it easy for him to ’persuade’ these high-end professionals in the chip industry.
Of course, this ’persuasive power’ wasn’t compulsory. Chen Yansen had contacted over 130 chip engineers from his list, but only those 70-odd had agreed to return to Hua Country.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered recruiting domestically, but if he wanted to design a top-tier chip product that could compete with Qualcomm, poaching was the only way.
In 2012, Hua Country’s domestic chip design industry was still in its infancy. It could only handle industrial chips with process nodes of 32nm or larger. Creating highly precise components like mobile phone processors, communication basebands, and memory chips was a major struggle.
Chen Yansen pushed open his office door, took the elevator straight to the first floor, and as he walked into the lobby, he came face-to-face with Wu Shengyu, who was just about to enter.
"Mr. Wu, welcome back to the country. And welcome to Orange Technology’s chip design department as our lead engineer."
Chen Yansen extended his right hand as he spoke.
"Mr. Chen, hello. Thank you for your confidence in my abilities. I don’t think I’ll disappoint you."
Wu Shengyu instinctively looked up. He was inwardly shaken when he saw Chen Yansen, but he recovered quickly and hurriedly shook his outstretched hand.
Although he had seen a photo of his new boss beforehand, he hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be even younger than he’d imagined.
He stood tall at 1.86 meters, his posture straight, a faint smile on his face, and an incredibly powerful aura.
He had met Paul Jacobs, the CEO of Qualcomm, but Paul’s presence wasn’t as heavy as Chen Yansen’s. It was so intense that he felt a sense of pressure.
In an instant, he cast aside any thought of underestimating him.
"You’re among the first to report for duty. The company has arranged a two-bedroom apartment for you in the city, along with a 500,000-yuan company car. If there’s anything you need to adjust to in your daily life, you can ask our colleagues in the administration department for help. For now, let me show you the chip design department’s office."
After these brief instructions, Chen Yansen led Wu Shengyu into the elevator and they headed up to the seventh floor.
Prior to this, he had already purchased a full suite of electronic design automation software, including logic synthesis tools, HDL development tools, algorithm architecture design tools, automatic place-and-route tools, and physical verification tools.
He had also confirmed with Wu Shengyu and the others the high-performance servers, storage systems, dedicated switches, and high-resolution monitors they would need for the chip design process, ensuring that their work could proceed smoothly.
Chen Yansen wasn’t afraid to spend money!
He knew that once their proprietary chip was successful, the hardware profit margin for Orange Mobile Phones would jump to the next level. This would allow him to pay higher salaries to frontline workers, after-sales service, operations, management, and sales staff.
And only then could he obtain more Human Dao Fire!
As for building Hua Country’s own chip and advancing its chip manufacturing industry, that was just a load of crap he used to fool people like Wu Shengyu.
For those who could be swayed by emotion, he appealed to a greater cause.
For those who were extremely rational and only cared about money, he would just throw cash at them—offering 1.5 or 2 times their annual salary—and keep throwing it until they accepted the offer.
...
...
「Hang City. The CEO’s office at the headquarters of GeekCar.」
Hu Weiyi sat at her desk, thanking Cheng Weixing profusely with a bright smile. "Thank you so much, Junior Brother Cheng. Once I get through this busy period, I’ll treat you to a meal."
"Don’t mention it, Senior Sister. The bike-sharing track has a lot of potential. With the boss’s business instincts, I’m sure he won’t pass up on your project."
Cheng Weixing replied with a smile.
He had previously heard from Gao Weilin that the boss was interested in investing in the bike-sharing sector. That was why, as soon as Hu Weiyi approached him, he recommended Senlian Capital to her.
"Then I’ll contact President Chen first," Hu Weiyi said. She was indeed very curious about Chen Yansen.