Protect Vermilion Bird! (Bonus Chapter)

Protect Vermilion Bird! (Bonus Chapter)

After hearing that last sentence, Rao Huiling and Yu Bei immediately felt awkward.

But Luo Yao had been right earlier. What the Synopsys Big Three wanted to control was indeed the entire chip industry chain. They could have figured that out too, but Luo Yao's mind worked faster than theirs.

Seeing the discomfort on Director Lin's face, Yu Bei could only hurriedly continue, trying to ease the awkwardness caused by Luo Yao's words.

"In the near future, the Big Three are very likely to restrict the use of authorization passes in order to control the entire industry chain."

"The previous inability to log into Synopsys accounts was a very good example."

"They were already testing it."

The conference room was extremely quiet. Everyone looked at Director Lin without speaking. Bored, Luo Yao took a sip of water, then set it down when he realized it was tea.

It was tea.

So bitter.

"We already understand the situation, but you should also be aware that replacing EDA Software requires major investment, produces slow returns, and carries risks when new software is adopted. With all those factors combined, very few chip design companies are willing to replace software that is still working perfectly well."

"We need to have a proper discussion with those design companies. We'll notify you once we have a result!" Director Lin looked somewhat displeased. He stood up, clearly preparing to see them out.

Rao Huiling had wanted to continue, but Yu Bei stopped her.

"Alright, Director Lin. Sorry to disturb you today. If other companies have any questions, Director Lin can contact me at any time."

"Fine. Take care."

After they left East Capital Investment Committee, no one spoke once they got into the car.

"I think Luo Yao was right. Director Lin obviously can't even do the math, yet he said we were worrying over nothing!" Rao Huiling said indignantly.

"It's fine. If Director Lin won't work, we'll go find people from the East Capital Investment Committee and the Science and Technology Innovation Committee. There'll always be a way to handle it," Yu Bei comforted her.

"For now, let's deal with our own matters. Has the data migration work been completed?"

Rao Huiling thought for a moment and said, "There's still two-thirds left, but it'll be done soon."

She glanced through the rearview mirror at Luo Yao, who was sitting silently in the backseat. Thinking he had been discouraged, she comforted him. "Luo Yao, don't take what happened today to heart. We'll always find a way to get Pangu EDA online."

"I wasn't thinking about that. I was wondering how someone as stupid as Director Lin became an executive?" Luo Yao said with a serious expression, making Rao Huiling's blood pressure rise.

"Luo Yao, don't ever say that in front of Director Lin. He'll refuse to cooperate with us in the future."

"Then... I'll try."

"You promise! Otherwise, I'll dock your pay!"

In the end, Luo Yao yielded to the threat of having his pay docked and promised Rao Huiling that he would not call Director Lin stupid in front of him.

When they arrived at the Huaji campus, Rao Huiling did not let Luo Yao rest. She took him to various product meetings and had him meet people from the testing, marketing, development, and R&D departments.

Near the end of the workday, Rao Huiling did not forget to tell Luo Yao to come back for more meetings the next day.

She had realized that Luo Yao needed some training—for example, how not to call people stupid during meetings.

As the technical president, Rao Huiling could only guide Luo Yao as much as possible, trying to help him become a normal leader. But reality clearly did not go as she wished.

Luo Yao still corrected people whenever they did something stupid.

At almost the same time.

A refined middle-aged man in Hua Nation's capital received a message through a confidential channel.

"Vermilion Bird" had performed well. His thinking was logical, and he could accurately judge the current situation.

A gratified smile appeared on the man's face.

Vermilion Bird here referred to Luo Yao.

In order to protect Luo Yao, the authorities had sent quite a few people to guard him. Among those who had followed them into East Capital Investment Committee were people like that.

Every day, they reported Luo Yao's condition to the Refined Man, including his daily work, intelligence test scores, the people he had interacted with, and more.

The man quickly replied with a message.

Protect "Vermilion Bird."

After replying, "Received," the person in charge of reporting began patrolling the area around the Luo family villa with the others.

After making a round, they suddenly noticed something moving in the distance.

They quickly gestured to one another and spread out to investigate.

"Ah! Who are you? What right do you have to grab me?!" the man shouted angrily after someone seized him by the collar.

"Who are you, and why are you here?"

The captured man said viciously, "I work here. I live here!"

"This is where executives live. Tell us who you really are!"

Seeing that the other party was familiar with the area, the man hurriedly said, "I really do live up ahead. I just saw that the scenery here was nice and wanted to take a look."

Clearly, the person holding him was not so easily fooled. After taking his photo, he sent it to Peng Xun.

When Peng Xun saw him, he found the man oddly familiar. After checking the employee database, he discovered that the man was Rong Jinke. He had previously been in the Genius Base, but after Luo Yao did not recruit him into the laboratory, he had stopped showing up for work.

"Sorry, President Peng, but we need to take this man back for questioning."

How could Peng Xun dare stop them? He quickly said, "Alright, no problem."

"No, what right do you have to arrest me?! I'm going to sue you!"

"Because you trespassed into an executive residence."

"What kind of executive is Luo Yao?! You must have made a mistake!" Rong Jinke resisted with his entire body, but he was still dragged into the car.

Even after getting into the car, Rong Jinke was still thinking.

Luo Yao's IQ was only a little higher than his. What gave him the right to become a Huaji executive? How long had Luo Yao even been there?

Today, he had merely happened to see Luo Yao appear nearby, but he had never expected that Luo Yao actually lived here!

Rong Jinke was furious and anxious. He had no idea what punishment awaited him.

Would Huaji fire him?

Completely unaware of this, Luo Yao went to work as usual the next day.

After three consecutive days of meetings, Rao Huiling took Luo Yao to Shannon Laboratory, where Luo Yao finally met Wu Tianming and Wang Ye, who had been thoroughly indoctrinated by the confidentiality agreement.

The moment Wang Ye saw Luo Yao, he began complaining. "Boss, do you know I'm dreaming about the confidentiality agreement now? It's seriously brainwashing!"

"Can you tell us what the project actually is now?" Wu Tianming also looked utterly lifeless.

Luo Yao did not speak and looked at Rao Huiling instead. She said, "Yes. Come in." She gestured for them to follow her into the laboratory hall, then gathered the geniuses who had been staring blankly into space and said:

"Shannon Laboratory was established for one reason only: to hope that, under Luo Yao's leadership, everyone can carve out a future for Huaji and Hua Nation's chip industry."

Sergei raised his hand, and Rao Huiling gestured for him to speak.

"Why Luo Yao instead of someone else? Is it because his IQ is high?"

Rao Huiling paused before answering, "Because Luo Yao developed a complete set of EDA Software that can rival Synopsys."

"What?!"

In an instant, the people in the laboratory erupted.

"President Rao, are you joking? Developed by one person?"

"Without downstream user data or foundry data, how did Luo Yao pull it off?"

"That's absolutely impossible!"

Wang Ye and Wu Tianming were even slower to recover.

Luo Yao had created a complete EDA suite by himself?!

Was this a joke?!

But Rao Huiling had announced it personally. Wang Ye and Wu Tianming knew that no matter how much Huaji favored Luo Yao, it could not possibly lie for him about something like this.

"Unbelievable. President Rao, can we see the software?"

Rao Huiling shook her head. "The complete software isn't available yet, but you can access some of its functions. Those are also the parts you'll need to iterate on later."

Sergei and the others became excited, urging Rao Huiling to arrange it quickly.

"Luo Yao, I'll leave this to you. You'll be responsible."

Luo Yao nodded and distributed the code for the modules that needed to be upgraded among the laboratory staff.

Since each module had too much code, Luo Yao assigned two or three people to each module. As a result, he only distributed three modules.

"Damn! Boss, looking at your code is making my vision go black. Why don't you just let me do grunt work instead?" Wang Ye said with a mournful face.

"No rush. Just take your time understanding it." Luo Yao knew that Wang Ye and the others could not possibly understand the meaning of his code all at once. But for ordinary people, coding required constant practice. Otherwise, the only way was to increase their intelligence.

With modern technology, that was simply impossible.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed. Under Luo Yao's leadership, the talents at Shannon Laboratory finally understood the architecture of the modules he had given them.

"Boss, you really are the smartest person here. How did I never think of a method like yours?" The laboratory staff had become used to calling Luo Yao Boss after Wang Ye and the others, and now everyone called him that.

"If you have time for that, you might as well read two more lines of code." Luo Yao looked coldly at the speaker, frightening him into quickly slipping away.

Just as Luo Yao was about to reply to a message from the technical department, he felt his phone suddenly vibrate.

Luo Yao answered the call, and Rao Huiling's voice came through.

"Luo Yao, something happened. Sanhua Enterprise, which produces DRAM storage chips, has been barred from using Synopsys!"

Luo Yao asked in confusion, "They only banned one company?"

"Yes. Sanhua recently stepped up its production of DRAM storage chips and officially began production three months ago. The total investment for the first phase of the chip project was 38 billion yuan."

"The cause may be that Sanhua filed a complaint against Synopsys, claiming that Synopsys software had monopolized pricing."

"For now, they've only cut off its EDA access. I heard Synopsys has sent people to negotiate with them. If they don't agree to the price increase, there may be further action."

"Director Lin wants us to get there as quickly as possible and see whether there's any way to help Sanhua resume production."

"If we can't, Sanhua will agree to Synopsys's terms and accept the increased prices!"

Rao Huiling sounded anxious, but Luo Yao was not.

He merely found it somewhat ridiculous.

So stupid!

Since when had Hua Nation's companies ever feared threats!

Now that the winds had risen, opportunity had arrived!

His Pangu EDA could finally go online.

P.S. There'll be more bonus chapters today! Please vote and keep reading to support me—the better the numbers, the more bonus chapters this little author will release!