Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 233 Not for Sale? Then I'll Steal (6k views, please subscribe)

After hearing Lü Yao say the same thing, Rong Nianqing's eyes darted around her seat with a playful look: "Support?"

"Why did you think of having me support a panel manufacturer? We don't make high-end products, and the domestic screens are actually sufficient."

Lu Yao was certainly aware of this as well. Rong Nianqing's investment in the real economy was because some members of her family were too arrogant, so she made a move in the real economy, hoping to use the millions of workers as a protective shield for herself.

Therefore, Rong Nianqing herself had no intention of entering the high-end industry.

Lu Yao had already prepared his explanation: "The main reason I had this idea was because Mr. Shang from Xiaomi came over these past two days. He told me that Xiaomi might not have any new phone releases this year because Qualcomm's chip development is delayed."

"Later, after I learned more, I realized that our country's high-tech industry is heavily reliant on imports, which I think is a very serious problem. So I thought that if we had our own high-tech product lines, we could not only make a lot of money in the future, but also have more leverage."

Rong Nianqing nodded repeatedly as she listened, and after Lü Yao finished speaking, she agreed, saying, "I understand what you're saying. Not to mention high-tech products like mobile phones and computers, even high-end products like cars and home appliances are mostly imported."

"If we can develop our own high-end industries, we can definitely make a lot of money, but these things are not so easy to develop."

Then Rong Nianqing began to explain to Lü Yao.

This is due to both historical factors and differences in technological levels.

Most importantly, the poor quality and short lifespan of domestically produced products have long been a deeply ingrained, almost stereotypical, impression in people's minds.

Domestic products are considered garbage, while imported products are considered high-end.

This is the perception of most wealthy people, and the quality of many domestically produced products does indeed live up to this stereotype.

Rong Nianqing sighed, "Of course, I know that many of our domestic products have caught up with international advanced levels, but this ingrained impression is hard to change. With this ingrained impression, people are unwilling to pay for domestic products. If people don't pay, relevant companies and institutions won't have the money to conduct research and iteration in this area."

Lu Yao understood what Rong Nianqing was saying. In fact, China had long realized that it was better to have your own resources than to rely on your parents, so it had always been open to funding high-tech projects.

Behind that incident, there were very obvious signs of manipulation.

Since then, many high-precision products in China have had to rely on imports for their components.

After listening to Rong Nianqing's words, Lü Yao chuckled and said, "I know what you're talking about, but our situation is different. From last year to this year, our overseas mobile phone shipments have already reached ten million. As long as we continue to expand our scale, our domestic product line will be able to sell."

"If we invest the money we earn into the R&D of domestic manufacturers, wouldn't that create a positive cycle of funds? Moreover, as our self-developed technologies iterate and upgrade, it can also help us establish a competitive advantage in non-mainland markets."

High-end products in the Western world now follow a high-end strategy, generating substantial profits. Meanwhile, Dongda University, with its rapid development, also prefers imported goods due to its long-standing mindset.

Therefore, domestically produced goods cannot be sold in the country.

However, Lü Yao's approach was to rely on the underdeveloped world as a base and use their money to support domestic manufacturers.

Although people outside mainland China know that European and American goods are better, they are considered luxury goods to them, things that most people cannot afford even if they grit their teeth. But domestically produced goods are different.

Many of the mobile phones Rong Nianqing sold to non-mainland China were basic phones priced at 399 yuan, which would be considered undesirable by the elderly in China. However, in non-mainland China, these were considered high-end products.

As for smartphones from Samsung, Apple, and other brands, they are practically unsellable outside of mainland China.

Lu Yao continued to paint a rosy picture: "One characteristic of domestic manufacturers is that once a certain technical hurdle is overcome, the price of a product that was once very expensive will quickly drop to rock bottom. At that time, we can use our high-volume, high-priced products to pry open the market of our neighbor, India."

In a few years, India will surpass Tokyo University to become the world's most populous country.

However, due to the rampant caste system in India, most of the lower castes still live in poverty. Although this group has stronger purchasing power than non-Chinese groups, they still cannot afford high-end European and American goods. Therefore, affordable and high-quality domestic products have become the choice for most lower castes in India.

After thinking for a moment, Lü Yao said, "Actually, our ally Xiaomi announced its entry into India last year."

In the first half of 2015, Lei Jun made a special trip to India, which resulted in the creation of the enduring classic "RUOK" song, which remained popular for ten years.

By 2017, Xiaomi had become the number one smartphone vendor in India, leaving local Indian smartphone manufacturers utterly defeated. This demonstrates just how vast the neighboring market is, and how easily Chinese manufacturers can dominate it.

of course.

You always have to be careful when doing business with Indians.

Because just three years later, Lei Jun was tricked by the Indians, who confiscated nearly a billion US dollars of his assets for no reason. This meant that Xiaomi had been working for free for so many years.

When Rong Nianqing heard Lü Yao mention the place next door, she frowned and said, "Are you serious? Do you know how bad it is next door? Even giants like Ford, Volvo, and Amazon have been badly burned by it. You want to enter that market?"

Losing a little money is no big deal.

But if you're really disgusted by it, it's worse than getting a "clean and hygienic" aloe vera drink from next door.

Lu Yao stroked his chin, pondering, "I believe there must be a way to circumvent this, it just depends on whether we can find it. For example, we could cooperate with locals and bring their families to China. Or we could put more effort into building relationships and speed up the payment process."

"If all else fails, then we'll just fly a big plane over there."

Technically speaking, as long as the mobile phone system can recognize the corresponding SIM card, it can be used normally. For China, it is almost not difficult for grey market phones to be registered on the network.

When Lu Yao talked about shady methods, he got really excited: "If you're worried about legal issues, just register a foreign company overseas, sell the semi-finished phones there, and have them assemble them simply abroad before shipping them out."

The final assembly procedure was even simpler than the last surgical procedure for the black armor of Astartes.

Anyway, once the goods are sold overseas, what happens there is none of our business. As for what happens to India... please! Even if this kind of thing is exposed, netizens will just applaud it!
Who knows, they might even be able to make a movie called "I'm Not a Cyber ​​Phone God" someday.

Seeing Lü Yao's high spirits, Rong Nianqing couldn't help but pinch her brow, feeling weary, and said, "Let's talk about it later. Let's focus on securing the non-mainland market first. The only market we can sell our feature phones for seniors is in non-mainland China."

"As for your question about investing in panel manufacturers, I will tell you after I finish my research."

This is quite promising.

When Rong Nianqing went to seek cooperation before, manufacturers such as BOE, CSOT, and Tianma Microelectronics talked to her about their important technologies in order to demonstrate their strength. Although their technology is still behind Samsung and LG, they have been making continuous technological breakthroughs in recent years.

If we put in more effort, we can catch up.

Rong Nianqing thought for a moment and then said, "As for what you said about developing and producing chips independently... I don't think it's very realistic without even doing any research. It would be too difficult for us to rely on ourselves alone. I have recently heard that there is a plan to purchase lithography machines from ASML. If we can really buy back the lithography machines, then our independently developed and produced chips will not be far away."

Lu Yao knew about this. The purchase plan had dragged on for many years, but eventually the contract was finalized and the money was paid.

But due to the international situation, or perhaps because it was all a setup, Asmail suddenly refused to sell, and wouldn't even refund the money.

They claimed the transaction failed due to force majeure and had nothing to do with their company.

So after hearing this, Lü Yao chuckled and asked, "Do you really think that thing can be sold?"

Rong Nianqing raised an eyebrow, then shook her head with a wry smile.

This is a true national strategic asset; how could it be sold so easily? Let alone the fact that it's just an idea right now, even if it were to enter the implementation phase, there are still too many uncertainties.

Lu Yao scratched his chin and said deliberately, "Buying is not very realistic, so how about we just steal it?"

what?
Rong Nianqing never expected that the word "steal" would actually come out of Lü Yao's mouth. This... this is too outrageous!

She said irritably, "Do you think a lithography machine is something that's easy to steal? That thing is big and sophisticated. Even if you took it apart and tried to steal it, you wouldn't be able to do it properly."

Lu Yao ignored him: "It's not easy to steal things, but what if we steal the design blueprints and the key components as well?"

Rong Nianqing sighed, speechless at Lü Yao's antics: "You really don't understand technology, do you? You're just daydreaming."

Lü Yao also laughed and said, "Well, I think we have so many talented people here. If we really want to set a trap, we might be able to steal this thing and then reverse engineer it."

Perhaps domestic production capacity cannot keep up now, but in a few years, domestic production capacity will experience a huge explosion. At that time, Dongda University, which has the technology to manufacture traps, might actually be able to come up with something.

After all, ASML's president initially dared to boast that even if the design blueprints were given to the University of Tokyo, the university wouldn't be able to develop a lithography machine within ten years; but after a few years, ASML's president stopped boasting and even began seeking cooperation.

In fact, China's chip manufacturing industry will break through the 28-nanometer chip mass production process in 2015, then break through the 14-nanometer chip process in 2019, and start trial production of the N+1 process in 2020. After adopting DUV multi-exposure technology, the performance of domestic chips will be close to 7nm. However, mass production is limited by the lack of EUV lithography machines.

If they could actually steal the EUV lithography machine design data, then given Tokyo University's hacking capabilities, there would be some merit to their claim.

As for whether stealing this thing is illegal... do you think your foreign laws can govern my Southeast Asians? Besides, there really are people stealing this thing; it was exposed back in 2024.

So, although Lü Yao was talking about it in a joking tone, he was already plotting how to steal it.

Forewarned is forearmed, without prejudging the waste.

He refused to believe that he couldn't steal it after planning for three years in advance.

Rong Nianqing didn't understand what Lü Yao was thinking. After chatting with Lü Yao for a while, she suddenly realized, "Wait! You asked me to get into physical businesses last year, whether it was mobile phones or cars. You weren't just waiting for me to get into this, were you?"

"If you want me to make panels or even chips for mobile phones, what do you want me to make for cars? And what's next with smart homes?"

Lu Yao immediately laughed it off, "How could that be! What kind of person do you think I am, President Rong! My information network is not as extensive as yours, how could I possibly think of so many things?"

Rong Nianqing glanced at Lü Yao suspiciously, then quickly stopped dwelling on the question and asked, "How's it going on your end lately? I've seen you've been really fiercely battling Tencent. Especially that article, 'Leave your work to WeChat, leave your happiness to MiTalk,' it was really ruthless." Although Huasheng Life has internal emails, forums, and communication software, WeChat, due to its extremely high penetration rate and the unique nature of its blend of work and life, is often subconsciously used when the company needs to contact someone.

Company email and work communication software are only used for tasks that require documentation.

Many employees also have private WeChat groups to communicate with each other.

Therefore, WeChat's positioning on people's phones gradually became distorted, and it stopped offering any surprises.

So even she thought that article hit the nail on the head.

Lü Yao laughed and said, "The article is indeed very good, but I didn't write it. It was posted by a netizen."

Rong Nianqing smiled and said, "Then this is probably what they mean by 'the righteous receive much help'."

Lu Yao sighed deeply and said, "So what if there's a lot of help? This kind of unofficial news can't affect Tencent in the slightest. That article has been incredibly popular since it appeared. MiTalk's user base has grown by nearly 20 million. But Tencent hasn't reacted at all."

Silence is the greatest contempt.

Since Lü Yao launched his attack on Tencent, apart from attacks from state-run media outlets like Computerworld, Tencent has never directly responded to Shangnan Guang'an's provocations.

This is actually a very wise approach.

Whether it's praising or criticizing the penguin, given its status, it's an honor for Shangnan Guang'an.

Therefore, the penguin has not responded to Lü Yao's provocations.

This made Lü Yao very upset. Although the strategy of "having the penguin endorse him" has been achieved to some extent at this stage, this kind of forced "endorsement" is much less effective.

Lu Yao held his head, somewhat discouraged, and said, "I feel really bad that I couldn't really screw over the penguins!"

Seeing Lü Yao's discomfiture, Rong Nianqing felt a strange sense of satisfaction. She suppressed a laugh and said, "Alright, haven't you screwed over Penguin enough? If I were one of Penguin's people, I'd have a headache just looking at you."

"As for failing to achieve the expected goal, that's quite normal. Even Zhuge Liang made mistakes sometimes, let alone you."

Lü Yao pursed his lips.

It's a pity he's not the real Zhuge Liang, otherwise he would have unlocked Zhuge Liang's strongest form—"Monday morning quarterback"!
"Alright then, I won't bother you any longer."

Rong Nianqing smiled and said, "How could it be a disturbance? Let's have dinner together later. Xiao Yu will be coming over tonight too."

Lu Yao was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "I have something to do later, next time, next time for sure."

After saying that, he turned and slipped away.

Rong Nianqing watched Lü Yao's retreating figure as if he were fleeing, and couldn't help but chuckle.

After a while, Rong Nianqing picked up her phone and sent a message to Hu Xiaoyu: "I arranged to have dinner with Lü Yao for you, but he said he has something to do later. Next time, I'll definitely do it next time."

Hu Xiaoyu, who was already at the airport, grinned when she saw the message. When will it be next time?

but……

Hu Xiaoyu suddenly laughed.

The fact that he avoids her means that he still cares about her. If one day Lü Yao suddenly becomes able to interact with her casually and playfully, it would mean that she is no longer that important to him.

So Hu Xiaoyu picked up her phone and replied, "It's okay, then next time."

There will be a next time.

Most definitely.

……

At the end of May, just two days after President Shang returned home, he suddenly called and said that President Lei wanted to schedule a time to have a good talk with Lü Yao.

Lu Yao was waiting for this, so he readily agreed. Not long after hanging up, President Lei called directly. Lu Yao had heard that Mandarin with a Xiantao accent quite a bit when he was studying abroad.

Especially after the launch of Xiaomi's "Suqi" (a type of instant noodle), social media was filled with spontaneous promotion from Xiaomi fans. During that period, some netizens even joked that Lei Jun (Xiaomi's CEO) should lay off all the people in Xiaomi's marketing department and keep only two people from Douyin (TikTok's Chinese version).

On the phone, Mr. Lei said in his thick Xiantao accent, "Oh, Mr. Lü, hello! Actually, when you invited me to the press conference last time, I really wanted to meet you, but on the one hand, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go, and on the other hand, I just couldn't get away from here."

Lü Yao laughed and said, "I understand."

Xiaomi's sales of the Xiaomi 4 and Xiaomi 3 combined last year were very high, which boosted Xiaomi's valuation and allowed it to raise a lot of money.

However, the problems associated with large corporations also began to take root within Xiaomi. Especially from the second half of this year to February or March of next year, many aspects of Xiaomi's supply chain encountered problems, and Xiaomi's partnership system also experienced many issues. In addition, the flagship models that were undergoing transformation were slow to find a breakthrough, and there was a lack of confidence within the company.

So Lei Jun was actually in a terrible predicament during this period, but even more terrible things were yet to come.

However, the gift that Lü Yao asked Shang to give to Lei Jun this time can greatly alleviate Xiaomi's anxiety about its transformation in the high-end mobile phone market.

Mr. Lei immediately followed up, saying, "Mr. Lü, when are you free? I'd like to come over and discuss this in detail when it's convenient for you."

Lü Yao smiled and said, "I'm always available whenever President Lei wants to come. Just let me know when you're coming."

Unexpectedly, Mr. Lei said directly, "I'm already in Shangnan."

what?
Lu Yao was indeed surprised; he never expected that President Lei would be in Shangnan when he made the call.

Lei Jun truly lives up to his reputation as a master of emotional expectation management. He always manages to deliver an "emotional blow" when you least expect it. Whether it's the "last time for 3499" in the future or the sudden 529,000 from Xiaomi's Ultra, he always manages to provide unexpected emotional value.

It's the same this time.

Even a scumbag like Lü Yao was pleasantly surprised by President Lei's unexpected arrival: "What are you doing in Shangnan? I'll come pick you up!"

Mr. Lei quickly laughed on the phone, "No need, no need, I'm almost at your company."

It's clear that Mr. Lei is really anxious.

After chatting for a couple more minutes, Lü Yao hung up the phone, changed all of his plans for the day, and went downstairs to wait for President Lei to arrive.

Lu Yao didn't bring many people with him, but he called Zhu Junyan and Lin Yongzhen, and the three of them waited downstairs at the company building.

In just over ten minutes, the business car carrying General Manager Lei arrived at the company building parking lot. Lu Yao and the others immediately went over to greet him. After General Manager Lei got out of the car, he immediately showed a warm and humble attitude and bowed when shaking hands with Lu Yao, holding Lu Yao's hands with both hands.

Lei is shorter than Lü Yao. When Lei bent down to shake hands, Lü Yao also bent down, making the two seem particularly polite to each other.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Lü Yao laughed and said, "Although this is our first meeting, I know you very well."

Lei also smiled and said, "I am very familiar with you, Mr. Lü. Our MiTalk was originally a product that was almost marginalized internally, but you revitalized it with your hype. I have always been paying close attention to you and have always wanted to have a good chat with you."

Lu Yao turned to the side and reached out his hand, saying, "Then let's go upstairs and talk."

Once they reached the conference room upstairs, after Lin Yongzhen brought up the tea, General Manager Lei took out his laptop, plugged in the USB drive that General Manager Shang had given him, and displayed the concept image of the new mobile phone. He said, "General Manager Lü, this concept phone has truly amazed me!"

Lü Yao also looked at the computer screen that Boss Lei had brought.

The concept phone on the computer screen was actually the design sketch of the later Apple 12pm.

Most phones in 2015 still had a home button and large top and bottom bezels, but the phone that Lü Yao presented had a notch screen and an ultra-narrow bottom bezel. The three large cameras on the back of the phone, as well as the square and simple phone frame, all highlighted a sense of technology that was out of place in this world.

Actually, full-screen displays are all fine.

In fact, the first truly full-screen phone was the Xiaomi MIX, created by Xiaomi, but Xiaomi's design aesthetics...

It's a long story.

In particular, the Xiaomi Mix, released by Xiaomi in 2016, while featuring a full-screen design, had a rather ordinary overall build quality.

However, the design concept drawings provided by Lü Yao were completely different.

The sheer technological feel of it practically leaps off the screen, even through the design sketches.

Design is influenced by the times, especially for products like mobile phones, whose design aesthetics are constantly evolving.

The early iPhone 5 series had square bezels, but later flat and ultra-thin designs became popular, so Apple phones started to adopt rounded bezel designs. From the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 11, the design language used was similar.

However, this design language reverted to the previous square design language on the 2020 Apple 12.

A larger screen, a larger body, and a larger camera allow Apple's square design language to present a more technological feel.

This change might not be obvious during the transition from iPhone X to iPhone 11, but the differences between iPhone 14 and iPhone 11 will be very significant.
Therefore, phone concept designs that adopt the design language of the Apple 12 series are absolutely stunning at this time of year!
(End of this chapter)