"He was too young. I'd heard of Yuanguang before and knew he was only twenty, so of course I expected him to be young.
But when I saw him in person, I was still surprised all over again."
Jiang University's graduation ceremony was the same as usual. There was nothing much different during the day: the president gave a speech in the morning, then the university leaders moved the tassels.
After the tassels were moved, everyone took photos.
Chen Yuanguang was naturally chosen as the student representative to speak. They had a ready-made poster boy right there.
That afternoon, they had specially invited Lei Jun to hold a Luojia Forum at the Wanlin Art Museum.
Graduates who wanted to attend could register with their counselors. There were five hundred audience spots in total, first come, first served.
When the university contacted Lei Jun, he agreed readily. He was very interested in Chen Yuanguang, and he was already planning to return to Jiang City around that time. Xiaomi had a major R&D headquarters there.
He could spend an afternoon chatting with a junior, show off a little in his old stomping grounds, then take a photo together and post it on Weibo to ride the wave of attention. It killed several birds with one stone.
Chen Yuanguang agreed just as quickly. He had been eager to establish a connection with Lei Jun. He had plenty of futuristic technologies waiting to be monetized, and he was counting on Lei Jun to invest. Why not fleece a ready-made tycoon?
"Senior Brother is young too. The only difference between us is that you were a doctoral student while I was an undergraduate."
As a former webnovel author, Chen Yuanguang was best at shooting the breeze and boasting in all kinds of group chats. Flattery rolled right off his tongue.
Lei Jun immediately burst into laughter, his eyes narrowing into slits. "Haha, Junior Brother, you really know how to talk. You've got me over the moon.
"I never expected that not only would Junior Brother excel at research and write great novels, but you'd also be so good at praising people!"
That was the advantage of flattering big shots. At first, Lei Jun had called him Yuanguang. After Chen Yuanguang buttered him up a little, he became Junior Brother.
Once he acknowledged their senior-junior relationship, how could he easily refuse when his junior brother later came asking for help?
The host quickly steered the topic back on track. "You two really are kindred spirits, admiring each other as heroes.
"We all know that Yuanguang published two papers in Nature and one in a Nature sister journal during his senior year."
Most of the audience consisted of undergraduate graduates, though there were also master's and doctoral graduates.
"If I could publish two Nature papers, wouldn't every university in the country be begging me to join them?"
"If you had two Nature papers, you could get into the Young Thousand Talents Plan whenever you wanted."
"For Chen Yuanguang, the Young Thousand Talents Plan, Changjiang Scholar, and National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars are all easy picks. He's going to MIT for his PhD next. Who knows how many Nature papers he'll have published by the time he graduates? He'll be able to collect titles at will."
"The gap between people is just too huge. And I read his papers—their substance is solid. They aren't the kind of papers padded out by leaning on some Nobel Prize-winning big shot."
Many people who had done research and understood the difficulty began whispering among themselves.
The host continued, "President Lei was also a top student in university. He completed four years of undergraduate coursework in just two years.
"Everyone here is a graduate, but as Jiang University students, we should maintain the habit of lifelong learning. So I'd like to ask you both: do you have any secrets to studying?"
At that, Chen Yuanguang remembered a technology from the future that he could make use of. He had used Knowledge Download Technology to quickly master relevant material.
This technology could download learning content directly into your brain. Learning merely meant awakening those memories.
Its precursor was Learning Acceleration. Its basic principle was also to stimulate relevant areas of the cerebral cortex, thereby increasing learning efficiency.
Tracing it back even further, it was Prenatal Education. During infancy, sound alone could stimulate areas of the brain, while adults required stronger stimulation.
This technology was crucial to the entire world. Especially in China, where degree worship was extremely severe, it would be a money-making weapon the moment it was unveiled. Parents would definitely pay for it.
Lei Jun answered first. "I don't have any secrets. It was entirely diligence. I was exceptionally diligent in university. While others used their time dating or strolling the streets, I spent all of mine studying.
"Back then, there were computer labs. Our computer science practical work required computers, but computers were scarce at the time, and I couldn't afford one. Whenever I needed a computer, it often wasn't my turn. So I would first write out the program I wanted to make on paper. Then, when I got access to a computer, I only had to type it in, run it, and debug the bugs. It was much more efficient."
After Lei Jun finished showing off, Chen Yuanguang had no desire to do the same. He was still thinking about the prerequisite technologies for Learning Acceleration and the difficulties of reproducing it in the modern era.
So he gave a simple answer. "I don't have many study secrets. I mostly rely on reading enough material."
That was not wrong either. It was just that his "reading" meant downloading the material directly into his brain. Others walked to their destination; he took a plane.
"The study secrets President Lei and Yuanguang mentioned both come down to diligence. Indeed, only sufficient diligence can produce achievements beyond what ordinary people can accomplish.
"President Lei's company recruits quite a few people from Jiang University every year. Have you ever considered poaching Yuanguang for your company?" the host egged him on.
Everyone in the audience pricked up their ears.
Lei Jun had clearly done his homework. "The first time I heard Junior Brother's name was at the beginning of the year, when I saw it on Jiang University's official Weibo account.
"At the time, I just thought he was impressive and didn't pay it much mind.
"This time, he published another Nature paper, so I asked one of our colleagues who studied chemistry. He roughly explained Junior Brother's work to me, and I thought, isn't this all computer science?
"It's an outstanding application of computer science in chemistry and biology. Junior Brother is a top-tier computer scientist, exceptionally skilled in algorithms.
"I came to the Luojia Forum this time hoping to see whether I could recruit Junior Brother. This could be considered Boss Zhipin in action.
"Except I'm the one being chosen.
"I would be delighted to have Junior Brother join Xiaomi. As for the specific salary, all I can say is that it won't be lower than 2.01 million yuan!"
Lei Jun was extremely shrewd. He knew that Goose Factory was helping fuel the buzz behind Chen Yuanguang's popularity, and that this Luojia Forum would surely receive all kinds of publicity afterward.
So he wanted every sentence to be promoted again and again. The Boss Zhipin he mentioned had received investment from Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital starting from its A+ round. Shunwei Capital had solely funded the A+ round, investing several million U.S. dollars. In the Series B round, Shunwei and Today Capital invested again, putting in tens of millions of U.S. dollars in total.
All told, Shunwei had invested no less than thirty million U.S. dollars in Boss Zhipin.
The 2.01 million yuan figure was also very clever. Huawei had recently launched its Genius Youth Program, and the first person it recruited had an annual salary of 2.01 million yuan, which the media had widely reported.
With that one statement, Xiaomi cleverly rode the popularity of both Huawei's Genius Youth Program and Chen Yuanguang. Later, when Xiaomi launched a similar Genius Youth Program to reverse its image of lacking technology, it would simply seem like going with the flow rather than an obvious imitation.
Chen Yuanguang did not realize any of this onstage. "Thank you, Senior Brother, for thinking so highly of me. For now, I still want to spend a few more years in academia. Perhaps I'll take a look at industry later on, and when that time comes, I'll need Senior Brother's guidance."
His answer was steady and unremarkable. The main thing was not making any mistakes.
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