nashuaworldcup Chapter 230 The First Night of Dawn
Chapter 230 The First Night of Dawn
Ten minutes after the event ended, the first news item was released from the press area on the second floor of Hall 3.
The news was broadcast on CCTV at 7:12 p.m. that day, lasting 90 seconds. In those 90 seconds, the anchor did not focus on the headline "Youngest Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering," but instead focused on the five squares, eight years, and the phrase "cannot be done."
"The global market for industrial simulation has long been dominated by four foreign companies. This afternoon, in Hall 3 of the National Convention Center, the Information and Electronics Division and the Technological Science Division of the Chinese Academy of Engineering held a special review meeting and approved the conferment of academician status on Su Chen, the chief speaker of Vilan Innovation. At the meeting, Su Chen announced that Vilan will, over the next eight years, develop China's first industry-grade general-purpose industrial simulation system under the codename 'Qiming'. The system is planned to cover five fields: CMOS, power devices, optoelectronics, quantum interfaces, and MEMS."
Those ninety seconds were broadcast by hundreds of local television stations across the country the following morning.
The front page headline of Caijing magazine reads: "Twenty-eight-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering." The subtitle reads: "Five squares, eight-year roadmap, Qiming's move."
The front page of the 21st Century Business Herald read: "The Fifth Company." The subtitle read: "Forty Years of EDA in China: Finally Stepping Out of Shen Shouhong's Office." The next morning, Shen Shouhong personally cut out this subtitle and tucked it into a forty-year-old work notebook on his desk.
CBN (China Business Network) dedicated an entire page to a single image—a map of China with six red dots representing Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Hefei, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen. The headline was simply: "Qiming Six." The subheading read: "Six Addresses of a Laboratory, Eight Years at Six Addresses."
Phoenix TV dedicated an entire late-night commentary to it.
Bloomberg China posted a message at 11 p.m. that night: "China's First Domestic Industrial Simulation OS Project Officially Launched."
The total number of push notifications from 36Kr, Huxiu, Jiemian, The Paper, and CBN exceeded 800 million before midnight that night.
A Weibo account named @GreyShirtEngineer—whose account profile states he worked for a state-owned electronics company for 31 years—posted a long Weibo post that garnered a total of 7.9 million likes, comments, and shares. The entire post consisted of only one paragraph:
"I saw Mr. Shen off on his journey in 1995. He said he would push open this door in his lifetime. Today he is sitting in the seventh row of Hall 3. He saw it."
The top-ranked comment under this Weibo post came from another account and contained only six characters:
"Open the door for your father."
These six words became the top trending topic the next day.
7:45 p.m., Banquet Hall, North Building, National Convention Center.
这一场宴席没有挂红绸,也没有摆鲜花,桌布是普通的浅米色,只在每一张圆桌的正中,放了一只素白瓷盘,盘心摆着两枚收敛曲线的列印缩样。一枚是华骁科技7月2日上午8点45纳米SoC量产那条96.4%的曲线。一枚是当天下午第二轮的99.1%。
Wan Shouzheng sat at the head of the main table. To his left was Dean Chen, and to his right was Shen Shouhong. Opposite Shen Shouhong sat Jin Wenwen, with Yao Wenshu to Jin Wenwen's left and Chen Zhenming to her right. At the second table sat the director of the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, representatives from Huaxiao Technology, AVIC MEMS, the founding team of Qirui Precision Measurement, and the deputy director of the state-owned research institute from Hefei, who had barely spoken at the review meeting.
Only five people attended the German table: two from Bosch, two from Italy and France, and one deputy representative from Infineon. Klaus Weber was absent; on his seat was a folded card with a handwritten message in both German and Chinese: "See you in Shanghai on August 12th." Lin Wei tucked the card away and placed it in her black-covered notebook.
Su Chen sat at the third table. He didn't go to the main table. Wan Shouzhen gestured to him, but he shook his head.
He left that chair for someone else.
Shen Shouhong.
At the third table, besides Su Chen, there were Su Zhao, Zou Xin, Lin Wei, and—an empty chair that was originally reserved for Shen Shouhong.
Shen Shouhong, carrying a cup of tea, got up from the main table and walked over.
He didn't bring anyone with him. He sat down in the empty chair, holding a cup in one hand and the back of the chair with the other.
He didn't say a single polite word.
"Su Chen," he said, his voice low, "I have something I want to say to everyone at this table."
Su Chen nodded.
"The Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, will be launching a project in the second half of this year called the 'Joint Laboratory for Space MEMS and Quantum Interfaces'," Shen Shouhong said. "I will be leading this project. This afternoon, after I heard you mention the third and sixth levels on the podium, I made a decision. I will leave the 'cooperative leadership' section of this project blank and await your reply tonight."
Lin Wei glanced down at the table. She sensed something was wrong, but didn't look up.
Su Zhao gently put down the chopsticks in her hand.
Su Chen remained silent for a few seconds.
He put the cup back on the table, then turned around to face Shen Shouhong.
"Mr. Shen," he said, "I was the one who said those two lines on the third and sixth floors this afternoon. The moment I said them, I knew that Wei Lan couldn't be distracted for the next eight years."
Shen Shouhong did not interrupt him.
"We've completed the first of Qiming's six levels," Su Chen said. "We'll begin the second level this year. As for the third and sixth levels, I'm mentioning them aloud so that everyone in that room who has waited for thirty years knows that this time, we won't have to wait another thirty years. But I also know that saying it aloud and putting it on the table are two different things."
He paused for a moment.
“To put it on your lips,” he said, “is the cost of one person’s reputation. To put it on the table is eight years, six cities, 1,200 engineers, and the next chapter of everyone in our lives.”
Shen Shouhong nodded.
"I'll put them on the table first," Su Chen said. "I'll put the five cubes on the second layer first. I'll keep an eye on the third and sixth layers every day when I'm at work. But in these eight years, I haven't been distracted."
He raised his head, his gaze falling directly on Shen Shouhong's face.
"Mr. Shen, I cannot accept the project on space MEMS and quantum interface tonight."
After saying this, he picked up the cup again, held it with both hands, and bowed slightly to Shen Shouhong.
"sorry."
No one at the third table said a word.
Shen Shouhong held his cup of tea, staring at Su Chen for a long while. Then, he suddenly smiled.
That laugh was soft, slow, and slightly damp.
"Okay," he said. "Okay, I've been waiting for you to say that."
He raised his teacup.
"You said 'Eight years without distraction,'" he said. "That sentence is more valuable than the fact that you took on this project."
He and Su Chen clinked their glasses together.
The clinking of glasses was very soft.
Wan Shouzheng, sitting at a table away, was holding a cup, preparing to stand up and say a few opening remarks. He saw the two cups at the third table lightly clink together, and he put away his prepared opening remarks. He revised his draft and stood up from his seat.
"Everyone," Wan Shouzheng said, "the path of Qiming takes eight years to map and eleven years to implement. Looking at the people at this table today, I want to say something from the bottom of my heart—even Mr. Su Chen's lifetime may not be enough to walk the path of Qiming."
He paused for a moment.
"But there's one thing I can guarantee," he said. "Whoever leaves this room today will have someone else take their place."
He raised his glass.
"Sit down for him, and keep pushing this door open for him."
All seventy-two people in the room stood up at the same time.
When Shen Shouhong stood up at the third table, his hand trembled slightly. Su Zhao instinctively reached out to support him, but Shen Shouhong gently pressed her hand down.
"No need," he said. "I can stand."
He stood up straight.
Wan Shouzheng raised the cup high.
"Enlightenment," he said.
"Qiming." All seventy-two people returned together.
The cry of "Qiming" wasn't loud, because the banquet hall itself wasn't large. But when that cry came from all seventy-two mouths at the same time, the chandeliers in the North Building banquet hall swayed slightly.
Before the party ended, Shen Shouhong called Su Chen aside into the corridor.
There was no one else in the corridor, only the 11 p.m. lights casting long shadows on the floor tiles.
Shen Shouhong did not mention that project again.
He took out a very old brown paper envelope from the inside pocket of his suit. The seal of the envelope was yellowed and there was a crease on the corner.
"This is a letter from 1995," he said. "I was thirty-nine years old that year. It was an internal report in which I proposed developing my own EDA. After I submitted it, it was returned. I didn't burn it."
He handed the envelope to Su Chen.
"I wrote another letter in 2003," he said. "And another one in 2008. I didn't burn any of them. Today I'm giving you the one from 1995. I'll keep the other two for myself, until—"
He paused for a moment.
"Once I've finished walking through the second level of Qiming, I'll give you the letter from 2003," he said. "Once those two lines from the third level actually grow from the paper onto the table, I'll give you the letter from 2008."
Su Chen accepted the envelope with both hands.
He didn't open it.
He knew he couldn't open the envelope tonight. If he did, he wouldn't be able to sleep, and he wouldn't be able to chair the board meeting at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.
He pressed the envelope to his chest and bowed slightly.
"Mr. Shen," he said, "I delivered that letter from 1995 to where it was supposed to be."
Shen Shouhong did not ask where "the destination" was.
he knows.
He simply placed his hand on Su Chen's shoulder for two seconds, then turned around and slowly walked back to the banquet hall.
Su Chen stood in the corridor, not moving immediately.
Lin Wei walked out of the banquet hall through that door. She saw him still standing there. She didn't go over, but instead handed him the black-covered notebook from a distance.
Su Chen walked over, took the notebook, and tucked the envelope between the first and second pages.
The line of text on the first page is still there.
Open the door for your father.
On the second page, he wrote the second line with a pen.
On behalf of Mr. Shen, I placed the letter from 1995 on the table.
He closed the notebook.
Lin Wei did not ask him what he had written.
They walked side by side from the north banquet hall corridor to the main entrance on the first floor. A gentle night breeze blew on the steps outside. It wasn't raining in Beijing in August, but it was a little chilly.
Lin Wei handed him a cup of hot water.
"Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock," she said. "The board meeting."
"I know," he said.
"XCMG has already submitted the site selection plans for the Qiming Lab in six locations," she said. "Shanghai Zhangjiang, Beijing Zhongguancun, Chengdu Tianfu, Hefei High-tech Zone, Hangzhou Future Science City, and Shenzhen Guangming."
"I'm switching from Hefei to Changfeng," he said.
Lin Wei glanced at him.
"Changfeng?"
"Hefei High-tech Zone is too crowded," he said. "Qiming would be overcrowded if it were to join. I visited the Changfeng area once in 2018. There's enough space, good communication, it's close to the University of Science and Technology of China, so people can come in and go easily."
Lin Wei wrote this down in her notebook.
"Anything else?"
"Chengdu Tianfu will be replaced with Xinglong Lake," he said. "Zhangjiang, Zhongguancun, Future Science City, and Guangming will remain unchanged."
Lin Wei wrote down another one.
She closed her notebook and glanced up at Su Chen.
How many hours are you going to sleep tonight?
Su Chen thought for a moment.
"Three," he said.
Lin Wei did not speak again.
She took the cup of hot water back, took a small sip herself, and then handed it back to him.
The two stood on the steps, neither of them saying another word.
In the distance, along Chang'an Avenue, the lights of night cars slowly flowed from one side of their feet to the other.