Chapter 207 The Temperament of Science and Engineering Guys
Su Yuanshan realized he had spoken poorly and let out a few awkward laughs, sincerely admitting his mistake.
But he still stubbornly added, "At the macroscopic state, my comment contributes zero to the entropy of future event states—it doesn't even qualify as data, it's just noise, not even worth filtering."
"..."
"..."
Xi Xiaoding sighed. "You can even spout nonsense about information entropy while spouting nonsense... You're truly talented."
Su Yuanshan burst out laughing.
Still, it had to be said: Yuanxin's current research funding management was indeed quite casual—which was the advantage of having Su Yuanshan calling the shots.
Not only Chen Jing, but no one had any objections regarding how funds were arranged.
Yuanxin's accounts showed a surplus of over 1 billion yuan in RMB and over 2 billion USD—a terrifying fact: theoretically and practically, this money belonged privately to Professor Su Xinghe and Zhang Ke!
Yet these two shareholders behaved as if they didn't even know Yuanxin had any money. To this day, they only drew a basic salary each month.
Only last year did Professor Su Xinghe approve taking one million yuan home—and he was so embarrassed about it that he told the finance office it was just so his wife could feel a bit more secure, even suggesting it could be deducted from his salary if accounting found it troublesome...
As for Su Yuanshan, he was even easier to manage. Although he had the authority to approve expenditures, and even had a special "Yuanshan Office" budget category, he rarely ever used it and almost never carried cash.
All that money was poured directly back into R&D and expansion.
Furthermore, Yuanxin's virtual equity system had already started gathering feedback last year, and the "Yuanxin Holdings" shell company had been founded, with all shareholders being core executives and founders sitting in this very meeting.
Once Yuanxin finalized key international collaborations, Yuanxin Holdings would directly acquire Yuanxin Technology—and everyone present would officially become shareholders.
Meanwhile, salaries and benefits at Yuanxin were insanely good. Each core executive's take-home income was well into six figures yearly—Xi Xiaoding, for instance, had bought a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment in the provincial capital outright within a year, purely on his salary alone...
—Honestly, with a boss like this, who would have any complaints?
...
"Alright, today's meeting will end here for now," Chen Jing said, flipping through her notebook and looking around. "Feel free to add anything else."
She closed her notebook, raised her hands to shoulder level, clenched her fists, and did a quick stretching motion to loosen up.
The sound of chairs sliding back filled the room as people casually started chatting.
Since this wasn't a meeting for a critical or urgent project, the atmosphere after the official conclusion was very relaxed.
Scenes like the tense, urgent phone meetings Su Yuanshan had called before the New Year were rare.
"Oh, right, I remembered something," Chen Jing said, flipping open her notebook again and sitting up straight. "Yuru, the legal department should consider how to better audit and regulate internal corporate conduct."
The room, which had started buzzing with small talk, immediately fell silent.
Yu Yuru had been whispering some gossip to Tang Wenfang, but at Chen Jing's words, she froze momentarily, then quickly nodded with pursed lips. "Got it, President Chen."
Although Chen Jing had phrased it nicely—auditing and regulating conduct—since it was assigned to the legal department, everyone knew it essentially meant "prevention and crackdown" on corporate misconduct.
Chen Jing nodded and looked at the executives to her right. "Based on experience, marketing, procurement, and logistics are the three high-risk areas. This is Yuanxin's fourth year and a year of rapid development. Whether it's VCDs or mobile phones, our production will explode. So, the Special Zone office must be careful not to pick up bad habits from other companies. If anyone dares to engage in kickbacks or corruption in the supply chain, we'll kick them out immediately—no excuses."
Her tone grew increasingly stern.
Wan Yongliang immediately nodded in agreement.
Wang Rui then glanced at Su Yuanshan's side, smiled, and added, "President Chen is right. Our size is so big now that if we don't start controlling things, we could easily dominate upstream and downstream suppliers."
Chen Jing nodded lightly.
She wasn't speaking casually—before returning inland after the New Year, she had accompanied her brother to the Special Zone.
Since her brother had spent last year stationed there, building strong ties with surrounding companies, when she arrived, many firms that did business with Yuanxin had scrambled to invite her to meals.
Reluctantly, she had attended a few dinners under her personal name with her brother.
And she quickly realized—as Wang Rui had said—that Yuanxin had indeed become a giant in the domestic consumer electronics sector. This year, with the production surge in VCDs and mobile phones, Yuanxin might even surpass Changhong to become China's No.1 electronics brand.
Scale meant bargaining power—over both component suppliers and sales agents.
Thus, Chen Jing keenly sensed it was time to push forward an internal anti-corruption initiative at Yuanxin.
Of course, such a major move couldn't be decided by a professional manager alone. After returning last night, she had immediately consulted with Su Yuanshan and obtained his full support. She then chose to casually raise the topic today during the post-meeting discussions, assigning the legal department to lead it.
This way, she left a bit of room—giving those who had skeletons in their closets time to clean up. Otherwise, Chen Jing wouldn't hesitate to make an example of someone.
Compared to the heavy atmosphere on the corporate side, the R&D folks were much more relaxed. After an initial pause, they even turned it into a technical discussion...
Qin Weimin nudged Su Yuanshan. "But how would we investigate?"
"You'll have to ask Sister Yuru," Su Yuanshan said with a grin.
Yu Yuru also smiled. "It's basically the same anti-corruption methods applied to corporations: audit to catch embezzlement, and analysis and complaints to catch kickbacks."
Xi Xiaoding asked, "Behavioral analysis?"
"Uh... more or less," Yu Yuru said. "We'll have to consult with criminal investigation experts. That's not exactly my specialty."
"It's simple," Su Yuanshan said casually. "Mainly analyze feedback data from a person's contacts."
He looked across the table at Wan Yongliang. "For example, Old Wan here is a VP—he's in charge of marketing, sales, and brand operations. Huge power in his hands."
Wan Yongliang coughed and laughed, "President Shan, don't use me as an example! You're tarnishing my spotless reputation."
Su Yuanshan just chuckled. "Let's say Old Wan meets an advertising rep one day, and shortly after, the brand operations team signs a deal with that ad agency. It's reasonable to conclude that Old Wan played a key role in that decision. But that alone doesn't imply wrongdoing. We need to analyze if Old Wan has a pattern of directly influencing brand operations."
The brand operations director, Xiong Bohong, who had just been promoted, joked, "VP Wan doesn't directly interfere in our department."
At that moment, Xi Xiaoding thoughtfully said, "So we're talking about analyzing someone's usual working habits, their contact network, maybe even their spending habits..."
He paused, then chuckled, "That's going to be a huge amount of data."
"That's why it's called big data," Su Yuanshan said, smiling.
"Big data?" Xi Xiaoding blinked, then nodded slowly. "If we have enough data samples, we could use neural networks for processing, generate algorithms, and predict behavior..."
"Deep learning," Su Yuanshan added.
Qin Weimin laughed. "Next step, artificial intelligence?"
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan nodded again.
Xi Xiaoding smiled at Su Yuanshan. "Once we fully enter the internet era, there will be plenty of digital footprints, and we'll have massive behavior datasets. Looks like we'll usher in a boom for neural network algorithms?"
Su Yuanshan laughed. "Yes... a huge boom!"
Chen Jing: "..."
Everyone else: "..."
Turning a legal discussion into deep learning and AI predictions—this was exactly the kind of "science and engineering guy" vibe Yuanxin was known for.
These were the same people who could take a conversation about wedding toasts and end up discussing statistical margins.
"Interesting. I'll give it some thought," Xi Xiaoding said finally.
"Take your time," Su Yuanshan said, beaming at him, then turned to Chen Jing. "The Xinghai CRM user system already has a retail customer database capable of supporting over ten billion client profiles. Those customer records are first-class confidential assets and our greatest treasure. We must protect them."
Chen Jing nodded firmly. "Understood."
As noon approached, the first meeting of the year finally came to an end.
The next morning, Su Yuanshan personally escorted Sun Xihui to the airport, and along the way, he also saw off Li Mingliu and Wang Rui.
In the afternoon, Su Yuanshan visited the Joint Lithography R&D Center.
He wasn't there to chair a meeting—just to extend New Year greetings on behalf of his father to the partner organizations, and to announce this year's funding commitments.
Over the past year, these researchers—well-fed, well-compensated, and well-subsidized by Yuanxin—had truly come to embody a certain old saying.
Le bu si Shu—"So happy in Shu they forgot to return"—except reversed: Happy in Shu, forgot home.
...
At the end of February, Su Yuanshan accompanied Ye Rudai back to school, and officially checked in himself—since during the university's general assembly, it had been formally announced that his father, Su Xinghe, would become the founding dean of the new School of Computer Science and Engineering.
Su Yuanshan had now become a figure known to virtually everyone.
The only ones who might not know about him were those senior students completely absorbed in their circuits, oblivious to the outside world.
As such, he found it impossible to linger on campus. After secretly slipping a mobile phone to Ye Rudai, he left as quickly as he could.
By the end of March, Su Yuanshan received an invitation from the Caotang Society, asking him to join them for a gathering coinciding with the Qingming Festival—an ideal time to take a hike and enjoy the spring weather.
...
"Qingcheng Mountain is the most serene under heaven—serene it is, but a bit deserted," said Shi Dazhu, smiling at Su Yuanshan as they walked up the mountain path.
Already in his thirties, Shi Dazhu looked even sturdier than Su Yuanshan.
"Yeah, the country's just trialing the five-day workweek, and the traffic here isn't exactly convenient yet. Unless it's a major festival, it's bound to be quiet," Su Yuanshan said, glancing back at the others climbing the hill. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he smiled. "I have to head back home with my dad for ancestral rites during Qingming, otherwise, there would actually be more people around today."
The reason they chose Qingcheng Mountain, near the provincial capital, for this year's gathering was largely to show Su Yuanshan some respect.
Or to put it bluntly—Su Yuanshan was the "local host," and most members were still too broke to afford more extravagant trips.
"Since Professor Su has become dean, it's only right to report back to the ancestors," Shi Dazhu chuckled.
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan laughed along.
They continued climbing, occasionally stopping at pavilions to rest and chat about anything and everything. By noon, they finally reached the summit.
"Right now, holidays are too short, infrastructure is lacking, and people's money is still tied up buying appliances," Su Yuanshan said, standing at the peak, surveying the distant rolling mountains. He counted off on his fingers the factors limiting tourism development. "But once these improve, tourism will definitely become a big industry."
"Yeah, but who knows how long that will take."
"It should be soon—at the root, it's all economic factors," Su Yuanshan said, thinking about how just five years later, China's "Golden Week" holidays would cause a national travel boom...
After resting at the summit and taking a group photo, they began their descent—there was no accommodation at the top, so it was a "touch and go" visit.
Though nominally a casual gathering to strengthen bonds, everyone knew the real topic they needed to discuss was the upcoming Las Vegas tech exhibition.
Back in January, PlayStation had officially launched at CES, releasing alongside thirty-plus new games.
Among them, eight games were from China.
In just under three months, Chinese game developers had begun to taste success.
Notably, Giant High-Tech's shooting game Future Warrior—although it had been late in licensing the Quake engine—stood out by creatively developing a "Hell Mode" with endlessly repeatable challenge maps, greatly extending playtime despite fewer levels.
In later terms, this was essentially the prototype for "repeated dungeon grinding."
This clever design made Future Warrior a breakout hit. Su Yuanshan privately marveled—Giant High-Tech's boss really did have a sharp instinct for human nature.
However, although PlayStation had a great launch, things weren't so smooth for Yuanxin.
First, the Voodoo chip's production yield remained low, and even Meijie couldn't help. They had to just sit and wait.
Then, the Quake development team—perhaps feeling competitive after seeing Future Warrior—insisted on further polishing Quake, determined to release only a perfect product.
As a result, both the graphics card and the game release had to be postponed to April—a far cry from the prime timing of January's CES.
Now, with production issues resolved and the game ready, it was a matter of waiting for the right market moment.
Meanwhile, several domestic game companies were planning to port their PlayStation-adapted games to PC. They needed to collectively discuss strategies for entering the desktop gaming market.
"In my opinion, the gaming industry shouldn't even bother with computer expos or electronics expos," said Qiu Bojun, resting at a pavilion during their descent. Someone lit up cigarettes, passing them around.
Puffing smoke, Qiu Bojun joked, "Especially PC games. What are they? They're primarily software targeting individuals. At expos, game companies are treated like the stepchildren of the industry."
Everyone roared with laughter.
Not only in China but even abroad, game companies' booths at CES were notoriously tiny and shoved into obscure corners.
It really felt like they were the unloved stepchildren.
Thus, in 1995, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) had emerged in the U.S.—the world's first professional game exhibition.
"Actually, we're lucky. Our foreign peers suffered this marginalization far longer," said Shi Dazhu. "Back in January at CES, I met some Western game developers who were full of complaints."
"So you guys want to organize a dedicated gaming expo?" Su Yuanshan asked.
Shi Dazhu shrugged. "Of course we'd love to. But in China, it's impossible right now."
Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded. "True. Whether it's venue conditions, public awareness, or market size, the domestic gaming scene just isn't ready."
"Exactly. But just because we can't host our own expo doesn't mean we can't participate," Shi Dazhu said, licking his lips. "I heard the West is already planning a professional gaming expo. Our domestic game companies are too small to have a voice, so we'll need to form an industry association to participate collectively. That way, whether it's securing booth space or better positioning, we won't be totally at their mercy."
Su Yuanshan immediately agreed. "That's a good idea."
"Then it's settled!" Shi Dazhu and Qiu Bojun exchanged glances, laughing. "After seeing us eat meat this year, plenty of folks back home are itching to join the feast."
"Yeah, just be careful not to let the association turn into a bureaucratic mess... And policy-wise, you'll need to officially affiliate somewhere. Otherwise, you might get labeled an illegal organization," Su Yuanshan warned.
The conversation then shifted to the future of the software industry and the prospects of the internet. Yet given the current state of China's internet infrastructure, they could only gaze longingly at the vast ocean ahead.
...
After the Caotang Society gathering, Su Yuanshan turned his full attention back to the joint launch event for Voodoo and Quake.
After entering the workforce, Su Yuanshan had rarely found time to play games—especially large-scale ones.
But that didn't stop him from wholeheartedly agreeing with a famous statement:
—Games drive the advancement of computer hardware.
It's no exaggeration: without gaming, desktop computers would never have developed as rapidly as they did.
In the later years, the only "everyday home environment" that could make a computer feel underpowered was gaming.
The so-called "graphics card crisis" was no mere joke.
And it was exactly this demand for compute power that allowed Nvidia to rise—transforming GPUs, originally seen as graphics-only chips, into key players in deep learning and supercomputing.
Thus, as a future hardware supplier, Yuanxin might choose not to directly invest in gaming, but ignoring it altogether would be sheer foolishness.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1