Reborn in the red age

At the launch of "Counter-Strike", more than 8,000 game discs and more than 2,000 graphics cards were sold. The profits from the game and graphics cards were just enough to cover all the expenses of the launch.

These are just small profits. The real profits come from the orders from various distributors after the media's extensive publicity, as well as the continued income brought by Lemon's global sales channels. That is where the real profits lie.

That evening, the press conference of "Counter-Strike" appeared in the evening report, and major news channels broadcast it for a long time.

Firmly following Qingfeng Li's request not to be afraid of spending money, Wu Simin even spent a large sum of money to rent an advertising slot on a giant advertising screen in Times Square, New York, which is known as the crossroads of the world.

On the giant video screen that Sony erected in 91, which is 23.5 feet wide and 32 feet high, the exciting game scenes of "Counter-Strike" are played in a loop.

The fierce battle scenes, realistic weapons and equipment, and cool game images attract the attention of tourists and passers-by from all over the world.

Since the country relaxed its immigration policy, America has basically been its first choice, and a large number of people have gone abroad through formal and informal means.

Especially the people from southern Fujian, who cannot go out through formal channels, start to escape. They worship Mazu in the morning and arrive at the dock in the afternoon.

As the world's largest city, New York has attracted a large number of foreign immigrants. Therefore, there are quite a few Chinese people in New York at this moment.

When the promotional video of Counter-Strike was first played in Times Square in New York, the Chinese people who saw it didn't think anything of it.

But when the logos of Lemon Company and Huaxin Technology and their capitalized Chinese names appeared at the end, the emotions of the Chinese people who stopped to watch were instantly ignited.

This is the first time that Lemon Company has used Chinese characters as the main advertising language. In the past, when Lemon Company placed advertisements, it basically used the English name as the main advertising language. At most, it would add a small bracket under the English name and type the Lemon Company's Chinese characters in small letters.

For Chinese people living in a foreign country, although they know that Lemon Company is a company from their own country, seeing the advertisement with English letters really cannot closely connect with the deep feelings for their hometown.

But when the Lemon Company displayed its name in eye-catching Chinese characters on the giant screen in Times Square, everything became different.

Those familiar Chinese characters were like the brightest stars in the night sky, instantly illuminating their deep attachment to and pride in their hometown.

When the Chinese people working in a nearby restaurant heard the news from outside, they put down their pots and pans and ran out of the restaurant to look at what was being played on the huge screen in the distance.

"Lisa, look! Those are the Chinese characters of our China. Companies from our country are advertising in New York's Times Square." An international student who took advantage of the weekend to come to New York's Times Square to see the world saw the advertisement on the big screen, pointed at the big screen, and excitedly said to his classmates.

The white girl called Lisa looked at the familiar LOGO on the screen. Although she didn't know what the Chinese characters meant, she understood that it was an advertisement for the Lemon Company.

Lisa looked at the gradually disappearing Chinese characters and said curiously, "I know, that's the Lemon Company in Hong Kong, but what's the logo that appears with the Lemon Company? It looks familiar."

"It's China Xiangjiang. The logo next to it is also the corporate logo of our China. It's Huaxin, the company that developed the Swift 95 graphics card."

It’s nothing to hear about Lemon Company, after all, Lemon Company’s strength in software is known to everyone in the world.

But when she heard the name Huaxin, Lisa immediately showed a look of disgust on her face: "Oh, shit, it turned out to be this thief company. It stole the technology of our American Graphics Card Company and came up with the revolutionary graphics accelerator card Swift 95."

"Impossible. Huaxin clearly developed its own technology. If it is true as you said, that Huaxin stole your Western technology, why has no company sued it, and why are they allowed to sell their products openly in the United States?" the international student from China retorted firmly.

Lisa snorted disdainfully, crossed her arms, and the disgust on her face became even stronger. "How can you foreigners understand? They must have their own tricks. Maybe it's hard to collect evidence, or maybe there's some shady deal behind the scenes. In short, I just don't believe that a Chinese company can develop such a powerful technology on its own."

"Lisa, you are biased. There is no evidence and you can't slander them like this," the foreign student said with a red face, angered by her attitude.

The two were originally good friends, but now they were at loggerheads over whether Huaxin Company had plagiarized in Times Square.

No matter what the final result is, these two little sisters from two different countries should go their separate ways from now on.

This is not just an exception, but a general reaction from the American people after Lemon Company included Huaxin in its advertisements.

People are saying everywhere that Huaxin is a thief company that stole technology from American semiconductor companies.

But no matter how harshly the white gentlemen curse, their bodies are indeed very honest.

Early the next morning, all stores selling Counter-Strike and Swift 95 graphics cards were crowded with customers.

The game discs were fine. Lemon Company had made sufficient preparations. The machines in the domestic factories were running on a large scale. The burned discs rolled off the production line like water, were put into domestically printed packaging, and were shipped to all over the world in batches.

Graphics cards were not a good deal. Since Huaxin did not communicate with graphics card manufacturers in advance, they did not have much inventory. Faced with the overwhelming demand in the market, the inventory in various stores quickly ran out.

Seeing the imbalance between supply and demand in the market, card dealers quickly began to limit sales and stockpile goods. On the one hand, they announced the price increase of graphics cards, and on the other hand, they tried to contact Huaxin to purchase video memory chips.

Huaxin also received Li Qingfeng's notice. Faced with the manufacturers who came to buy, they directly and unreasonably increased the price of video memory chips by 20%, using the same tactics on foreign semiconductor companies that they used on domestic ones.

For a time, those American companies that were accustomed to calling the shots and manipulating prices in the global market were caught off guard by Huaxin's sudden countermeasures.

Faced with Huaxin's arbitrary price increases, those American graphics card manufacturers complained about Huaxin's unethical behavior, but had to accept the price with a pinch of their noses.

Since the late 1980s, foreign semiconductor companies have often relied on their technological advantages and market monopoly to arbitrarily raise prices for domestic companies, restrict supply, and treat the domestic market as their ATM and dumping ground.

Now, Huaxin's move was like a loud slap in the face, making them feel the pain of domestic enterprises being strangled. Sitting in the office, listening to Xu Yuanming's report on the foreigners signing contracts, with a look of despair on his face, Li Qingfeng couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.

Li Qingfeng leaned back in his chair, folded his hands behind his head. No matter what, he finally got rid of his anger.

In the past, in order to survive in the international arena, we have always been cautious and have always considered the American side in everything.

It feels so good to be able to let go of myself and no longer care about America’s reaction.

Looking at the proud Li Qingfeng, Xu Yuanming couldn't help but say: "Teacher Li, this time you arbitrarily raised the price and gave America a big slap in the face. It can be regarded as an offense to America. Our Huaxin's life will be difficult in the future."

"Since I stopped meeting with people from Wall Street, Huaxin has already offended America. It is destined to be targeted, so I don't care about slapping them in the face again," Li Qingfeng sat up straight and said with a smile.

Xu Yuanming still said worriedly: "They will definitely use more means next time, including technology blockade, patent lawsuits, and even prohibiting foundries from manufacturing our next generation of chips. All of these are possible."

"It doesn't matter. Let them do whatever they want. Once Huaxin becomes big, it will inevitably experience these things. It is better to experience them earlier than later. They will force us into a dead end, so we can burn our boats and build our lithography factory."

Xu Yuanming hesitated for a moment and asked the question he had been thinking about for a long time: "How confident do you think our photolithography factory is that it will succeed?"

"It's half and half. After all, there are precedents for lithography machines to explore, but there are no precedents for lithography factories for us to copy. We need to grope our way forward on this road by ourselves."

“What if our lithography plant project fails?”

"Even if it fails, it can also serve as a reminder to domestic companies. First, it can let everyone know which paths are blocked in the exploration of the semiconductor field. Second, it can remind them not to have unrealistic fantasies about the United States, always thinking that the United States will not go all the way. You must know that imperialism has no bottom line."

Xu Yuanming opened his mouth, but seeing that Li Qingfeng was determined, he did not try to persuade him, but just nodded silently.

He knew that what Qingfeng Li said was right. The law of the jungle is the rule of this world. If Huaxin wants to become the one that eats meat, it must have the courage and determination to burn its boats.

After bidding farewell to Li Qingfeng, Xu Yuanming returned to Huaxin and called several veteran scientists of Huaxin, including those from the independent lithography factory, to the conference room. He told them that the cold winter was coming and that everyone from top to bottom must be prepared for a protracted war.

Most of the people in Huaxin are the older generation of domestic R&D personnel. Since they graduated from university in the 1950s and 1960s, they have been facing the technological blockade of Western countries and various difficulties in the external environment.

In the crude laboratory, with a love for science and a sense of responsibility for the country's science and technology cause, they groped forward bit by bit and laid the initial foundation for China's semiconductor industry.

Faced with the impending blockade, there was no fear in their eyes, only determination and resoluteness.

Xu Duanyi from the photolithography factory was the first to express his opinion: "Our generation has gone through a lot of hardships. We were able to come up with something while eating steamed bread and doing research and development. Now we have money and equipment, so there is no reason why we can't come up with something."

"Old Xu is right. Foreign technological blockades cannot scare us. It's just a blockade. They have been doing it for decades. What's the big deal? We will break through as many defense lines as they set up. I don't believe they can set up blockades for us indefinitely." Academician Wang lit up a long-lost cigarette and said firmly, waving his right hand.

With the chief technical officers of the two lithography factories speaking, the others naturally would not refute and they all spoke up to agree, and the atmosphere in the conference room was warm and firm.

While Huaxin was mobilizing all the resources, the weekly sales data of "Counter-Strike" was also compiled.

In just one week, a total of 500,000 game discs were sold worldwide, including through Lemon's own channels and channels of cooperating game distribution companies.

The biggest obstacle restricting the sales of "Counter-Strike" does not come from the game itself, but from the fact that graphics cards are simply unavailable. As card dealers have limited inventory and they have teamed up to hype up graphics card prices, graphics cards are now in short supply worldwide.

Before the game was released, low-end graphics cards sold for more than 200 yuan, but scalpers dared to offer them for 500 yuan in the market, almost doubling the price. Even so, the supply still could not keep up with the demand, which was quite similar to the crazy trend of when Apple mobile phones were first launched in later generations and people paid a higher price to buy them.

After the press conference, Wu Simin, who still stayed in the United States, noticed the market players' pursuit of "Counter-Strike" and immediately took advantage of the opportunity to carry out the plan of making the game competitive.

The media was invited to hold a press conference in the name of Lemon Company, announcing that Lemon Company would host the first World Counter-Strike Championship in China on May 1997, 5.

The first place prize is $100,000, the second place prize is $80,000, and the third place prize is $60,000.

As soon as this news came out, the world was in an uproar.

Electronic game competitions were not the first to be initiated by Lemon Company. As early as 1972, someone held a competition called "Interstellar Space War Olympics" at Stanford University. However, the scale was very small, with only more than people participating, and the prize was just a one-year subscription to a magazine.

This is the first time that there has been a global e-game competition with such generous prize money.

Once this news came out, it added fuel to the already hot-selling graphics cards, and the price of graphics cards in the hands of scalpers rose by another 10%.

When the news that the World Game Competition would be held in China spread back to China, Li Qingfeng's phone was bombarded with calls again.

It’s a world-class competition, and it has a huge impact on the city.

Although this competition is not a serious one, anyone with a discerning eye knows that no matter how serious it is, as long as it is a world-class competition, it can attract global attention and spread the city's influence around the world.

In addition to the influence, it will also bring huge economic benefits. With so many foreigners coming here, do they want to try the local food? Do they want to stay overnight?

You've finally come here, you can't just watch the game, right? Do you want to go shopping? Do you want to buy some local specialties to bring back when you leave?
This is all money, and it is foreign exchange. (End of this chapter)