Chapter 279 Advanced Thinking
Listening to the man who introduced himself as Vander calling from Cavendish Lab, Su Yuanshan felt like he had stepped into a surreal moment.
Cavendish Laboratory — the most prestigious physics lab at Cambridge University.
At that time, Cambridge — the same place celebrated in Xu Zhimo's famous farewell poem — held almost mythical status in China. People often spoke of Oxford and Cambridge with awe.
But Su Yuanshan knew that when it came to the natural sciences, those two old aristocrats had already begun to decline. In modern times, the natural sciences were firmly dominated by the Ivy League universities of the Lighthouse Country.
Still, Cavendish remained legendary.
This doctoral student named Vander was calling Su Yuanshan to discuss two things: first, he had successfully replicated the laboratory preparation of graphene described in Su Yuanshan's paper; second, he wanted to ask Su Yuanshan about experimental methods for studying the properties of graphene. Of course, he didn't forget to congratulate Su Yuanshan and express his personal belief that the paper was highly valuable and that graphene had immense potential.
After chatting with Vander for a while longer, Su Yuanshan hung up, smiling slightly. Although Vander hadn't said it outright, Su Yuanshan could guess that Vander's advisor, Ernest, must have been the one who had reviewed his paper.
...
"Looks like it's basically a sure thing now — just a matter of how long it will take," Su Yuanshan thought as he laid back with his hands behind his head. Although he looked relaxed, excitement buzzed in his mind. In his previous life, because of his major, he had no real chance of publishing in Nature, but that didn't mean he didn't know how difficult it was.
Unable to sleep, he rolled over and turned on his computer.
He checked his email — no message yet about a second-round review.
He chuckled at himself.
"Of course... no way it would be that fast."
Since he already had the computer open, he decided to browse the web.
He logged into Yahoo and, despite the painfully slow internet speed, began clicking through the directory of listed websites.
Yuanxin's 163 project had already been indexed and ranked quite highly. Su Yuanshan clicked through one site after another, evaluating them from an ordinary user's perspective.
He realized that, purely in terms of being a portal, the site built by the Internet Center team truly stood out.
Just as he was about to close the browser, his eyes froze on Yahoo's web address.
"Holy crap!"
...
The next morning, Su Yuanshan met with Chen Haoming in his office.
"Senior Brother, we need to build an indexed directory website," Su Yuanshan said almost as soon as Chen sat down.
Chen, who had just picked up his teacup, was stunned for a second — he had been about to start the conversation himself.
But he quickly caught Su Yuanshan's drift and thought it through carefully.
After a few seconds of contemplation, he said, "You mean something like Yahoo?"
"Exactly."
"I overlooked something," Su Yuanshan sighed and chuckled self-deprecatingly. "I've been so focused on building the foundations of the internet that I forgot — the real foundation right now is access points. Actually, access points are part of the foundation too."
Chen immediately fell into deep thought.
After a while, his eyes gradually lit up with excitement.
"I get it now.
Websites are popping up like mushrooms after rain, but how can ordinary users find them?
We clearly need a site that guides users, categorizes content, and points the way."
"Exactly! That's what I realized when I browsed Yahoo last night," Su Yuanshan said with a smile. "Right now, while Yahoo is still in its infancy, we need to get ahead and stomp them down."
"Alright! I'll start working on it immediately," Chen said confidently. "At the end of the day, it's just indexing. Honestly, Yahoo's current setup is basically manual labor — scanning domain registrations every day and listing whatever's new."
Su Yuanshan nodded.
"Yes. But despite how primitive it is, we can't deny it provides an important service for users. It's incredibly helpful."
"True," Chen agreed. "But if we go this route... Carly might not be thrilled."
He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "With the internet boom, companies in Silicon Valley are starting to be categorized more clearly: internet companies, software companies, hardware companies... Carly, being from AT&T, is naturally more comfortable with hardware and semiconductors."
"Xinghai already straddles commercial software and semiconductors. Now if we start a web portal division..."
Su Yuanshan wasn't sure if Chen was intentionally hinting at internal politics, but what he said was accurate. Carly did lean more conservative, preferring traditional industries.
But that didn't mean Xinghai couldn't push into the internet space.
"It's fine," Su Yuanshan said with a chuckle. "Every company has its own development path.
No rule says a company can only do hardware, or software, or websites.
Those who don't venture into new fields — it's not because they choose not to, it's because they can't. They lack the vision, the energy, the technology, or the people."
"But we have all of that — both Xinghai and Yuanxin.
Since we already know the internet will explode like something out of a science fiction novel, why not try?"
"As for Carly..." Su Yuanshan smiled, "I trust she won't object.
She's not stupid.
She might specialize in semiconductors and hardware, but that doesn't mean she can't see the future of the internet.
What you're proposing would only make Xinghai more valuable — she'd be thrilled."
Chen thought about it and nodded.
They continued chatting about Xinghai's current situation.
Su Yuanshan encouraged him to move boldly, particularly with the community projects — they had to build them up properly.
"An internet company's reputation is critical," Su Yuanshan said. "Especially now when the scene is still small."
"Yes, we've recruited a lot of people this year... and many of them were found through online communities," Chen said with a smile.
...
About two hours later, after sending Chen off to meet Qin Si, Su Yuanshan went to find Qin Weimin and the others.
The night before, Qin Weimin, Tian Yaoming, Howard, and Claude had partied at the bar until nearly one in the morning, knocking out seven or eight people.
Even by morning, they still reeked of alcohol.
Outside Qin Weimin's office, Howard spotted Su Yuanshan and waved enthusiastically.
"Hi, President Shan!" he called in awkward Chinese.
"Good morning," Su Yuanshan replied with a chuckle, sniffing at the air. "Why aren't you guys in the conference room?"
Inside, Qin Weimin, Tian Yaoming, and Howard were gathered around a coffee table, each holding a pencil and notebook, deep in discussion.
"We had a spontaneous idea," Howard said with a grin.
"What idea?"
"Howard proposed a method to integrate graphical computing units," Qin Weimin said with a smile. "Although I'm still not convinced there's much future for integrating GPUs into mobile chips."
Su Yuanshan was stunned. He stared at Howard, wide-eyed.
"You know about GPUs?"
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