Chapter 203 Yuanxin "Gives In"
As they left the reception hall, the night wind, laced with cold, swept across their faces.
Tian Yaoming and Wan Yongliang were still immersed in the excitement brought by Yuanxin appearing in the lead story of the Xinwen Lianbo broadcast, whispering about how to gracefully and subtly deliver the message to customers that "the YX1201 is a leader-recommended product" when promoting the phones.
The main entrance of the administration building faced an artificial lake. On the left side of the lake was a trellised path leading to the cafeteria and dormitory area, and to the right, a path leading toward the laboratories. Past the laboratories and the plum garden lay the gravel paths where the leadership had strolled the day before. Following these paths, one could reach the joint lithography R&D center or walk around the entire Yuanxin campus along the lake.
Chen Jing and Su Yuanshan walked side by side. In the soft breeze, her voice floated lightly to him.
"I've always noticed your unusual concern for the mobile business. Now that we have the leader's endorsement, I can finally head home tomorrow with peace of mind."
"Mm, thanks, Sister Jing," Su Yuanshan said, his hands tucked into his coat pockets, fidgeting with the sunflower seeds he had grabbed from the cafeteria. He was hesitant to eat them because of the cold and the difficulty of disposing of the shells, so he simply let them roll around in his palm, making a faint rustling sound.
"I didn't really do anything," Chen Jing said softly. She paused and glanced at the plum garden not far away. "Walk with me?"
"Hmm?" Su Yuanshan looked toward the cafeteria, where the glow of lights and the muffled sounds of festivities still carried through the breeze. He smiled and nodded. "Alright."
Chen Jing gave a slight nod and turned toward the right. After a few words of instruction to Tian Yaoming, Su Yuanshan followed her into the plum garden.
It was almost 8 PM, and the sky had long darkened; even the stars were hidden behind the mist. Fortunately, the streetlights in Yuanxin were sensor-activated and glowed steadily through the night once darkness fell.
The streetlights outlined Chen Jing's figure, casting a halo around the ends of her hair.
"Since moving in last year, I've wanted to walk the whole way around the lake, but I finally have time to do it today," Chen Jing said, slipping her hands into her coat pockets like Su Yuanshan. She stopped beneath a plum tree, tiptoeing to sniff at a fully blooming wax plum blossom.
"Yesterday, the leader didn't even comment on this plum garden. It shows that even someone so important has a mind full of heavier concerns."
Su Yuanshan stopped about a meter behind her. He shifted his gaze from the back of her head to the distant outline of the lithography research center and chuckled softly. "He's burdened with the affairs of the entire nation."
"Yes, great figures have great troubles, and small figures have small troubles," Chen Jing said, staring at the plum blossom for a few seconds. Then, playfully, she plucked it, twirled it between her slender fingers, and tucked it between her index and middle fingers. She lifted it toward her temple, turned around, and beamed at Su Yuanshan. "How do I look?"
"Beautiful. But Sister Jing..." Su Yuanshan looked at the white flower, then at her delicate arched brows, and tilted his head with a smile. "It's best not to wear it. It's a white flower."
"Oh..." Chen Jing stuck out her tongue and quickly took the flower down, though she couldn't bear to throw it away. She continued to twirl it lightly between her fingers as she walked forward.
Beyond the plum garden was the willow grove. Bare willow branches, stripped of their leaves, stood quietly against the biting cold of the winter night. The breeze, carrying mist with it, swept through the willows and across the lake.
The lake rippled under the touch of the mist but only reflected the scattered points of light from the lamps along the shore.
Chen Jing clasped her hands behind her back, softly humming a lilting tune.
As she had said, she hadn't actually spent many days at the Tech Park this past year. Most of her time had been spent traveling, personally overseeing the establishment of Yuanxin's branch offices across various cities, supervising logistics, and negotiating collaborations.
Tomorrow, Yuanxin would officially break for the holidays. She would first head to the Special Zone to meet her brother and then return to the island from Hong Kong. It would be next year before they met again.
Tonight's Xinwen Lianbo broadcast had finally lifted the heaviest worry from Su Yuanshan's heart—and also from hers.
"What were you thinking just now?" Chen Jing continued humming but noticed Su Yuanshan had gone quiet, prompting her to glance back at him.
"I was thinking about how to build a Hall device on an atomic-layer crystal," Su Yuanshan answered absentmindedly, still following the thread of thought from earlier. Then realizing that wasn't exactly the best thing to say, he smiled and added, "And I was also listening to you hum."
Chen Jing didn't mind his distraction—if he weren't like that, he wouldn't be Su Yuanshan. Smiling, she stretched her arms behind her back, tilted her face slightly, and looked at his faintly apologetic expression.
"Have you heard this song before?"
"Starting today, I have," Su Yuanshan replied with a smile. "What song is it?"
"Oh... You can call it Yuanxin Tech Park," Chen Jing said, blinking playfully before turning back around.
Because of that, she didn't see the subtle stiffening of Su Yuanshan's gaze at that moment, nor the faintly bitter smile that curled at the corner of his lips.
Scarborough Fair—how could he not recognize it?
Su Yuanshan pretended not to understand her renaming of Scarborough Fair to Yuanxin Tech Park and silently followed behind her.
...
By 10 PM, the cafeteria was still bustling.
When Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing, covered in frost and mist, reappeared at the cafeteria, Ding Lei and the others, already somewhat tipsy, pulled them back into the festivities.
The tables were steaming with food; it wasn't clear how many rounds of reheating had already taken place.
"President Shan, President Chen, you're back?" Ding Lei and Pony, arms slung around each other's shoulders, greeted them with rosy faces and mischievous smiles.
"Get lost. We're talking business," Su Yuanshan said bluntly. He knew better than to humor these guys—if you gave them an inch, they'd drown you with liquor.
"You can kick us out, but there have to be rules. Right, Sister Sun?" Ding Lei turned to Sun Xihui—at this table, only she and Tian Yaoming were still upright. Xi Xiaoding, Qin Weimin, and the others had already been thoroughly drunk.
Sun Xihui, cheeks flushed, propped her head on her hand and blinked at Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing. "Then punish them."
Chen Jing: "..."
Su Yuanshan: "..."
"You heard her. Sister Sun said punish them," Ding Lei said gleefully, grabbing a bottle of baijiu while Pony grabbed a bottle of red wine. With a mischievous glance at each other, they started pouring simultaneously.
Red wine into the tiny thumb-sized glass, baijiu into the tall wine glass.
"Two choices, dear bosses," Ding Lei said with a sly smile. "Small glass, alternating drinks; big glass, normal drinking—you pick."
"...Damn it!" Su Yuanshan's eyes almost popped out.
"Senior Brother Ding, you're going too far. President Chen has to catch a flight tomorrow!"
"Heh heh, up to you," Ding Lei said, smiling at Chen Jing. "See? Pony here thoughtfully poured you red wine into a tiny glass."
Chen Jing looked up, her beautiful face smiling sweetly. "Pony was led astray by you."
"I'm so wronged I'm worse off than Dou E!" Ding Lei patted Pony's shoulder, laughing. "Everyone knows he's the sneakiest one."
"Get lost," Pony said, pushing up his glasses and moving the tiny glass of red wine forward. "I'm sincerely hoping President Chen and President Su will just sip the wine for show."
Chen Jing playfully narrowed her eyes. "Truly sneaky."
Everyone laughed.
As more people joined the commotion, Su Yuanshan stared at the brimming tall glass of baijiu, sincerely tempted to pour it over Ding Lei's head and disinfect his acne.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chen Jing reaching toward the small glass of red wine.
"You guys are really gutsy," Sun Xihui said with a slight sway of her head, chuckling lightly. "Aren't you afraid they'll gang up later and make things hard for you?"
As she spoke, Sun Xihui picked up the small glass of red wine in front of Su Yuanshan, raised it toward Chen Jing, and bent her arm slightly.
"President Jing, let's do it together!"
"Alright, Sister Sun," Chen Jing responded.
The two women, with a playful glance toward the crowd, linked arms and downed the drink in one go.
"Aww..." A collective sigh of regret echoed from the crowd.
"You guys..." Su Yuanshan shook his head with a smile, raising the large glass of liquor in front of him.
He knew there was no escaping tonight—getting tipsy (or flat-out drunk) was practically a ritual at every annual dinner.
At the TJ branch, Motorola (Mainland China) headquarters.
Cesar declined Jared and Liang Renbing's invitation to go to the bar. He needed to organize the results and intelligence gathered during this trip with his secretary, so Motorola could accurately position itself for the mainland market.
Over the past few days, he had visited several major cities' mobile company directors and had even met senior officials at headquarters. He was pleased with the open attitude displayed by this state-owned enterprise.
It meant that any company entering the mainland market would be given a fair chance to compete.
And fair competition? Motorola never feared that.
"Looks like we need to accelerate our product line deployment here," Cesar said, staring at a market research report produced jointly by the mobile company and a well-known HK survey firm.
The report predicted that by 1994, the mainland's handheld mobile communication device market would grow by two million units.
Two million units—even if Motorola captured half of that, it would mean close to one billion USD in sales!
And Cesar even believed the report was slightly conservative—because it didn't fully account for the rapid pace of mobile base station deployment.
As for Yuanxin Technology, Cesar believed they were no match for Motorola in handheld mobile devices. Of course, he had used a Yuanxin phone before and admitted that the design and craftsmanship were quite good.
But Yuanxin had made a huge mistake!
They relied too heavily on their affiliated Yuanxin Trading channels, thinking that controlling sales terminals would secure the market...
Naive!
Even someone like Cesar, who only studied mainland businesses from a research standpoint, knew that in a country undergoing economic transition, any business related to public utilities—services tied to the national economy and people's livelihoods—would always have government influence.
Thinking they could challenge the mobile companies—or more accurately, the Posts and Telecommunications Bureau—just through sales channels was laughably naive!
Still, underestimating opponents was the gravest mistake any business strategist could make.
Thus, Cesar and the Motorola Mainland team carefully analyzed why Yuanxin had opted for retail channels instead of operator channels.
The reasons they concluded were:
First: Yuanxin indeed had massive sales channels—an undeniable advantage that likely boosted their confidence.
Second: Yuanxin had achieved massive success selling pagers and VCDs through retail, which naturally strengthened their belief in their channel strategy.
Third: Yuanxin had recently secured base station contracts, a new business that would consume significant resources and attention.
Lastly: they "chickened out"—too afraid to compete directly with world-renowned brands like Motorola, Siemens, and Nokia.
Considering all these factors, it was understandable that Yuanxin, with limited production capacity, chose to slowly release products through their channels.
—But did they really believe people would ignore mobile company products tied to the postal service and instead shop at malls like capitalists?
Closing the report, Cesar stretched lazily and grinned at his assistant. "Henry, should we have the front desk send up some drinks?"
"I'm fine with anything, sir," Henry replied, visibly happy as well—it meant vacation time was near.
Just as Cesar reached for the phone to call the front desk, the phone rang.
"Cesar, something just happened," Liang Renbing's voice sounded urgent over the line. "The lead story on Xinwen Lianbo just showed Yuanxin's mobile phone."
"Hmm?" Cesar froze slightly. He initially thought it was an advertisement, but he quickly realized the word "news" meant national broadcast.
"Liang, you mean your country's national news, the one that airs everywhere?"
"Yes, the one with the highest viewership."
The next day, when Su Yuanshan woke up, it was already noon.
He had no recollection of how he got back last night—it could have been Sun Xihui, Chen Jing, or even Tian Yaoming... Anyway, someone had delivered him safely to the dormitory.
Fighting through a headache, he showered, changed clothes, wrapped the scarf Sun Xihui had brought him around his neck, bundled himself up tightly, and finally pressed the elevator button.
It was drizzling lightly outside, with occasional snowflakes in the air, cutting against his face like tiny knives.
Chen Jing had already flown out at 10 a.m., and Sun Xihui had also left the tech park early in the morning.
Su Yuanshan grabbed a casual meal at the cafeteria—today was the last day it would operate, and most of the cold dishes were leftovers from last night.
After finishing lunch, he paged Li Xiao and learned that she had gone home already. So he called Fu Zhenhua to drive him back to the Electronics Institute.
"Brother Fu, did you get a red envelope yesterday?" Su Yuanshan asked, rubbing his hands in front of the car heater as they drove.
Fu Zhenhua, concentrating on the road, answered cheerfully, "I did! And I even won a big prize in the raffle."
"Oh? Congratulations! How much?"
"Ten thousand yuan," Fu Zhenhua turned and grinned sincerely at Su Yuanshan. "Thank you, President Shan."
"No need to thank me. At Yuanxin, what's ours is everyone's."
Fu Zhenhua just smiled silently and kept driving.
He had initially been responsible for the entire transportation support group, but later realized it affected his duties too much. So he kept only the title of deputy leader and focused mainly on being the personal driver for Su Yuanshan, his father Su Xinghe, and Chen Jing.
Thus, his salary ranked among the highest in the logistics department.
Over the past year, his life had transformed thanks to Yuanxin. His family's house back home had been renovated, his daughters were well cared for by his wife, and his parents' health had improved. Most importantly, his family now held their heads high.
"I plan to use that ten thousand to buy a mobile phone," Fu Zhenhua said, knowing Su Yuanshan enjoyed small talk. "Of course, I'll buy a Yuanxin one."
"You should be getting a work-issued one. Why buy another?"
"Yeah, I'll be issued one for work," Fu Zhenhua said, skillfully avoiding a pothole, "but I want to buy one for my wife."
"Your wife's still in your hometown, right? Will there be signal?"
"I asked Leader Li. He checked the location and calculated coverage—he assured me there would be signal. Told me to buy without worry," Fu Zhenhua laughed. "Our Yuanxin team is full of geniuses!"
Su Yuanshan chuckled at that.
The "Leader Li" Fu Zhenhua referred to was Li Yinan, the technical head responsible for base station deployment—truly a top expert.
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