Chapter 173 Stealing My Own Results
Su Yuanshan slept soundly until 9 a.m. the next morning.
When he got up, he saw Qin Si, who he hadn't seen for a while, sitting on the sofa organizing reports.
"Good morning, Sister Qin Si," he greeted.
"Breakfast is porridge and eggs. Yang Yiwen made some pickled vegetables—but her skills are pretty mediocre," Qin Si said, setting down her pen and smiling as she stood up. "I'll heat it up for you."
"That would be fantastic," Su Yuanshan replied.
Qin Si chuckled and shook her head.
By the time Su Yuanshan finished washing up and returned to the dining room, Qin Si had already reheated the porridge and was peeling the eggs for him.
Holding his chopsticks, Su Yuanshan tilted his head and smiled as he watched her—compared to two years ago, she looked noticeably more mature now. Unlike Yang Yiwen, who still looked youthful with a little makeup, Qin Si now exuded the calm elegance of a grown woman.
"Hmm?" Qin Si noticed him staring and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Nothing," Su Yuanshan said with a grin. "It's just hard to connect this gentle, domestic side of you with the terrifying superwoman negotiator everyone's afraid of."
Qin Si laughed softly.
She placed the peeled egg onto a plate, wiped her hands with a napkin, and sat down next to him, smiling warmly.
Su Yuanshan felt a bit awkward under her gaze. He quickly rubbed his eyes, then scratched his nose. "Did I not clean up properly?"
Qin Si shook her head with a smile. "Yesterday, Chen said that sometimes we treat you like a myth."
"Hmm?" Su Yuanshan paused, immediately understanding the meaning behind those words. "Did Senior Brother Chen have issues with yesterday's meeting?"
"Not exactly," Qin Si explained, still smiling. "He just finds it hard to understand why we trust you so much. After all, he's only been with Xinghai for a year."
Su Yuanshan nodded thoughtfully. "Having a critical mind is a good thing. It shows that Senior Brother Chen has the potential to be a leader. If he was only capable of blind obedience, at best he'd be a tech manager—and the kind who manages fewer and fewer people over time."
"But this time," he added seriously, "the software division at Xinghai needs to execute my instructions without deviation."
He paused for a few seconds, then smiled again. "It's not because I want to control Xinghai's operations. It's because, now that we've taken the step into the Internet, we must walk it firmly and correctly."
"Mm..." Qin Si nodded with a knowing smile.
Just like she had told Chen Haoming before, she had been handling all of Xinghai's investments in Silicon Valley from the beginning. Su Yuanshan had given her great autonomy—essentially free rein—with only occasional comments or suggestions buried in his reports, pointing out a few companies worth watching.
And over the past two years, every single company that Su Yuanshan had pointed at had become a rising star.
Such an almost terrifying accuracy in investment foresight had inevitably turned Qin Si into a huge fan of Su Yuanshan.
A devoted one.
"By the way, Sister Qin Si," Su Yuanshan said with a teasing smile, "doesn't that count as tattling on Senior Brother Chen?"
"Tch..." Qin Si snorted. "Don't think so little of Chen. He's just a bit stubborn sometimes."
"Stubbornness is a good trait," Su Yuanshan nodded seriously. "For someone in tech, if you're not stubborn, you won't go far."
Qin Si laughed and nodded. "Once this hurdle is over, he'll understand that Yuanxin and Xinghai didn't get this far on luck alone. You have no idea how nervous he was when he realized the Big Three suddenly became competitors. After all, Xinghai is still tiny and doesn't have a solid foundation yet. Although in the past two years, we've built good relationships with several IT giants thanks to EDA, now that EDA is gone, the next step will be much harder."
"Not to mention," she added, "in Silicon Valley, aside from getting acquired, there's no such thing as true friends."
Su Yuanshan agreed wholeheartedly.
They chatted for a while about the companies they had already invested in and identified a few projects they needed to follow up on. Meanwhile, Su Yuanshan finished his breakfast.
Sitting back on the sofa, his expression turned serious.
"How's the situation with Lintron?"
"It's tricky," Qin Si said, her expression becoming grave. "Lintron has only been around for a year. Their valuation isn't high, and they haven't produced anything truly valuable yet... They're surviving solely based on Lin Bencheng's accumulated technical reputation. I can't offer too high a price either—it would make people think they have hidden wealth. Speaking of which, do they?"
Su Yuanshan smiled and pondered.
Building an R&D center in Silicon Valley at this stage was a bit premature, given Yuanxin's development trajectory. But two issues forced Su Yuanshan to act early.
First, in three years—or maybe even sooner—the political relationship between China and the West would shift dramatically due to tensions between Japan and Taiwan. After that, setting up an R&D center would become extremely difficult.
Second, Su Yuanshan needed to take Cyrix's existing research back to China. Once Yuanxin announced its new CPU, it might stir up resentment and scrutiny from certain individuals or departments.
Currently, Yuanxin and Cyrix's joint development posed no legal issues.
But because Cyrix hadn't yet secured Intel's full patent authorization, they technically couldn't license any related technologies to Yuanxin.
Or rather, even if they did, the licenses would be invalid.
Thus, if Su Yuanshan took Cyrix's research back now, it could technically be framed as "stealing" classified technology from his own majority-owned U.S. company.
Absurd, wasn't it?
Why was he so determined to take Cyrix's results now?
Because he wanted both Yuanxin and Xinghai to blossom simultaneously—both companies would possess MMX technology and produce CPUs under the codename "Thor."
Safety had always been Su Yuanshan's first principle.
That's why he was a bit anxious about setting up the R&D center quickly.
Legally speaking, there was nothing wrong with Yuanxin establishing a research center in Silicon Valley.
An investment of over twenty million dollars, and promising to create over two hundred jobs, was a major contribution under any circumstances.
Once the center was established, it would not only attract top Silicon Valley talent to Yuanxin, but also facilitate collaboration between Yuanxin and Xinghai.
According to international convention, the fruits of any foreign R&D center belong to the parent company.
Even the shameless would have to admit that.
But right now, Su Yuanshan lacked both the team and the leadership needed to run this new center.
Yuanxin couldn't spare the manpower.
Nor could they spare a strong enough leader.
Su Yuanshan had briefly considered poaching people from Saint-Gobain Peak Laboratories, but since they were about to negotiate a partnership with TI (Texas Instruments),
it would be incredibly awkward to be poaching senior researchers from TI at the same time.
Even the most easygoing Vincent would blow up.
Thus, recruiting Lin Bencheng's team had become Su Yuanshan's best option.
After all, Lin's original plan in founding Lintron was to leverage his IBM contacts and technical background to cobble together some products, partner with big corporations, and eventually get bought out at a premium—
then retire happily.
That was the typical playbook for engineers from Taiwan staying abroad.
The only surprise was that, even after a year, Lin Bencheng still had a bit of fight left in him...
"No problem," Su Yuanshan said, licking his lips and standing up with a smile.
"I'll go talk to him myself."
"You help arrange it. For now, I'm going to check on Cyrix."
"Got it," Qin Si said.
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