Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 468 An Invitation from Beijing

In the residential area, Meng Tao pushed the industrial electric cart, panting heavily with lingering fear.

Holy crap, that's incredible.

Have you ever seen an electric scooter accelerate and lift its head? Like in those Western movies!
Zhai Da explained, "This car is a high-capacity lithium battery version, and I also modified the charging platform. It can travel more than 200km on a full charge, but your electricity bill may increase."

Meng Tao didn't actually understand it either, but it was indeed very useful. Before, when he went to the countryside and villages, if he set off in the morning, he would have to find a place to charge his phone by noon.

"Mr. Zhai, how much is this car?"

Zhai Da laughed and said, "Are you sure you want to pay?"

"determine."

"Then I'll only rent it, not sell it. You'll give me a hundred every month until you don't want to use it anymore."

The annual usage fee of 1200 is actually not cheap.

A battery costs only 2000 yuan on the market. Ordinary people would not drive a car for only two years unless it is stolen.

Of course, compared to the extent of this electric scooter's modifications, it's nothing special, but unfortunately, Meng Tao doesn't understand the technology.
His monthly salary is barely 2000 yuan, so spending 5% of that on electric scooter rentals is a figure that requires some thought.

Meng Tao gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! I will be careful and won't break it for you."

In fact, he understood that no matter how big a boss Zhai Da was, how much money was just a figure of speech; one yuan, one hundred, or even ten thousand yuan made no difference to Zhai Da.

But he needs to overcome his own inner hurdle.

Some might find this idea still "cunning," simply a way to accept kindness from others without owing them any favors.

However, some people dare to turn this pressure into motivation to move forward.

His goal is clear: to do the job of a civil servant and enable more people to live a better life.

Rejecting all kindness is pedantry; accepting all gifts is corruption.

The criteria for evaluation are likely to be a lifelong test for every civil servant.

He knew that although he and Zhai Da were worlds apart, perhaps they were fortunate enough to share some common ideals deep within their hearts.

From today onward, he will only have more energy to ride on the country roads!
Zhai Da concluded, "If there's a problem, I suggest bringing it back here for me to fix. It might not be as timely though. Also, what do you think about what I told you last time?"

Meng Tao scratched his head: "You mean?"

"Club, Pi, you said you'd rather not do things you haven't thought through. Have you thought it through now?"

"Mr. Zhai, what exactly is this 'π' for?"

Zhai Da rolled up his sleeves, put his hands on his hips, looked at Xiao Hei in the distance, and waved.

Xiao Hei immediately took off, flapped a few times, and landed on Zhai Da's shoulder.

Meng Tao was startled, and only upon closer inspection did he realize how big the bird was! This was definitely not a myna!

Eighth Prince is more like it!

So it was General Manager Zhai who was keeping them.
Zhai Da patted Xiao Hei's head and said sincerely, "It's hard for me to say what 'π' does. It doesn't have any mandatory requirements for its members. Only when members join both 'π' and the research institute at the same time will there be a clear subordinate relationship."

“There are many members across the country, some of whom I have never even met, but if I had to say something, it would be very simple.”

"Make the most of your talents, do something practical, and have the right values. That's all. I won't help you with anything extra unless you ask for it. I also won't ask you to do anything, and you don't have the ability to do so."

Zhai Da gave Meng Tao no more chance to hesitate. With a snap of his fingers, a metal card appeared between his fingers.

"Keep it. Generally, we all have 'code names,' but you can leave it blank for now. If one day you no longer want to carry this identity, or if you reach a very high position, so high that you feel it has become a burden, you can just throw it away."

"You're joking. How high could I possibly be? But... what's the point?"

"It may have no meaning for you, and it may have no meaning for me, but it has meaning for 'π'."

Zhai Da said no more, he just held up the card.

Meng Tao remained silent for a moment, then finally raised his hand and took off the exquisite metal card.

Become the only member of π without a code name.

Recognition is mutual, and he admired and even revered everything about Zhai Da.

A few minutes later, Meng Tao rode away on the electric scooter, which was about the size of a motorcycle.

He was going to the next county to inquire about crayfish farming.

Zhai Da fiddled with Xiao Hei's beak, watching its retreating figure, and said indifferently, "Isn't it cool?"

Xiao Hei: "Get lost!"

Zhai Da turned around in surprise, "You want to sprinkle cumin on it, don't you?"
A hint of panic flickered in Xiao Hei's small, scarlet eyes.
It pecked at the wrong spot!
As its intelligence and training level have improved, the anklet on Xiao Hei's foot has also been upgraded, from the original "6 voices" to a two-digit number button, meaning it can store up to 100 different voices.
It's a bit complicated, and I'm not very proficient at using it yet.
Fortunately, it quickly salvaged the situation by exclaiming: "Cool!" "Great!" "Awesome!"

He pecked at the air three times in a row, trying to awaken his fatherly love.

Zhai Da glared at it, then stretched and yawned.

"So the last gift has been given out. Let's wait and see how many 'special items' we'll get this round."

"Let's go, Pipi Crow, time to go to work!"

He wasn't sure if it was the lighting, but he felt the little black bird's claws looked a bit different.
It used to be a dry, grayish-white color, as if it could never be cleaned properly, but now it has a slight sheen, just like its feathers.

Especially the nails, which have a subtle metallic sheen, give the impression that one swipe of the nail could max out a health insurance card.

------

With the opening of the new headquarters, both Sunmazhuang and Dongyang have undergone significant changes.

The circular headquarters became a popular spot for citizens to take photos. Even though they couldn't get inside, they were still willing to take a one-yuan bus ride to the vicinity to take pictures.

Compared to the unassuming appearance of "Machine Semiconductor" from the outside, the circular headquarters is obviously much more "photogenic".

Even more ingenious people took photos of Sunmazhuang from the top of high-rise buildings in the city, and some even had professional equipment. With blue skies and white clouds, the photos they took were stunning.

Soon, some photos were uploaded to the internet, and this magnificent building, simply named "Ring Headquarters," acquired a new name online: the Blue Eye.

Of course, some people also called it "Taiji City", but in the end, the circular headquarters has not yet shown the "Bagua structure" in the long-term plan, and in the end, "Azure Eye" prevailed.

Many people only then realized that the nationally renowned "Mechanical Core Research Institute" had quietly accomplished such a major feat.

Only after further investigation did the news of the research institute's relocation to Dongyang, a small county town, spread widely among the general public.

It's not surprising, really. Even though everyone uses Hongtu's phones and frequently sees news about its research institute, they don't actually care about the company's own operational decisions. It's like how you play QQ Dance and other games every day, but you rarely care when Tencent built its new headquarters or what it looks like.

Actually, what everyone is concerned about is: what a godforsaken place Dongyang is!

Upon investigation, it turned out to be Mr. Zhai's hometown, which further boosted the topic's popularity.

"This should be the beginning of the research institute's downfall, or maybe they've become too arrogant."

"I don't understand. I haven't seen Ma Huateng build Shantou or Wang Jianlin build Guangyuan. Just wait and see. Poor mountains and bad waters breed unruly people. It's always been like that."

"This Dongyang is supposed to be a poor county, does it even have toilets?"

Some sarcasm and doubts followed, even though some people quickly presented facts and evidence, saying that Dongyang was united in helping the research institute to be established quickly, did not hold it back at all, and provided great support.

But when someone wants to curse, reasoning with them is just as difficult as making Hiroshima scorching hot again.

In fact, since "Hongtu OS" took the lead in the market, there have been unfriendly voices.

The prevailing sentiment remains the same: "I may not understand technology, but I certainly understand the Chinese people," "Real mobile phones still have to be Nokia; no one wants domestic operating systems," and "Let the leaders use them first."

These people are few in number, but they are loud and like to express their opinions everywhere.

However, after Hongtu became a big name overseas, these people found it difficult to criticize him. If they questioned Hongtu at that time, wouldn't they be saying that foreigners were stupid?
That won't work!

As for the series of breakthroughs in "silicon carbide", there is no way to start. After all, there is no comparison, and there is no foreign counterpart. After searching for a long time, all we can do is talk about "the substrate is still foreign".

Now, it seems like a new outlet has been found.

On Weibo, "Azure Eye" and "New Headquarters of the Research Institute" became trending topics. It seems that Weibo cannot escape the fate of "gradually becoming rotten" in this lifetime, even though Starwave intervened to some extent in the spirit of a good cooperative relationship.
But as long as even one out of ten is disgusting enough.

It can disgust nine people.

What does Zhai Da think about this?

He doesn't care about anything, he's just a bunch of idle bums. He doesn't care at all.

He's reading a book!
He has always treated the online noise as nothing more than a passing breeze. When he first appeared purely as a writer, there were many people who opposed him "for the sake of opposing," and some even tried to take advantage of him.

Will it affect his chances of winning the annual bestseller award?
Similarly, we can prove now: Does this affect my Forbes China ranking of 11th?
I'm driven by technology, not marketing.
After moving into the new headquarters, the research institute entered an important period of adjustment, and everyone needed to get familiar with the new environment.

How to get around, how to eat, the commute route to and from get off work, what is the purpose of this little hole in the wall—these are all things that need to be figured out.

Of course, there's also the daily lunch break when everyone gathers in the "Nature Courtyard" to enjoy the forest scenery and the beauty of "Yu Xiaobai".

Zhai Da, aside from his daily management work, spent almost all his time reading.

Yes, reading books, or more accurately, studying.

In the six months since graduating from university, although I have never stopped learning by doing, I have ultimately had much less systematic and broad learning.

In fact, after acquiring "On Systems Engineering" and absorbing a large amount of "manuscript-type equipment," he received a boost in most academic fields: enhanced understanding and learning abilities.

In some fields where there are duplicate manuscripts, the bonus is particularly large.

But in the past six months, my main focus has been on practical work: reverse engineering, developing processes, and arranging investment to build factories.

It has ample depth, but is slightly lacking in breadth.

He also misses his university days. There were so many courses, and not all of them were applicable, but they were categorized to form a general framework. The difference between them was that he was "learning about problems that were right in front of him" and "learning knowledge in completely new fields."

So after moving into the new headquarters, Zhai Da began to try to recapture the feeling he had before.

Force yourself to absorb knowledge in a planned way, and make more efficient use of the "Systems Engineering" buff.

It has proven to be effective!

Previously, I focused on areas I was already familiar with, so the added benefits of equipment weren't very noticeable.

Now, when venturing into entirely new fields, even with no prior knowledge, they are able to quickly memorize, understand, and even analyze information.

For example, he hadn't paid much attention to "biology" in either of his previous lives, but recently he became curious about Xiao Hei's changes and started to intentionally learn about it.

After filling in the gaps in the basic concepts, I felt a sense of rapid and seamless progress.

Furthermore, the concept of "systems engineering" itself embodies "holistic thinking," making it easy to draw inferences from one instance to another.

So when the research institute gradually got used to each other and new projects were launched, even Xiao Mutou was busy with the "entropy algorithm".

On the contrary, you can often see General Manager Zhai engrossed in reading books or papers in the courtyard or canteen.

Until the end of August, Tang Xiaokui was clinging to Zhai Da's leg and acting cute every day, and Zhai Da didn't have time to take her out to play. They had agreed to go at least once before the end of summer vacation.

Until Zhai Da received a special phone call from Director Lu of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

It was an invitation, hoping he could go to northern Beijing to attend two important meetings jointly organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

One participant was an expert and industry professional, and the meeting was titled "Looking Ahead to the 12th Five-Year Plan: Special Conference on Science and Technology/Industry".

The other was to participate as a representative of private enterprises, in a meeting called "Symposium for Representatives of Private Enterprises".

The latter was also an information adoption meeting for the 12th Five-Year Plan, but it wasn't mentioned in the name.

These were two very high-level meetings that were not open to the public.

Especially the former.

Because Zhai Da's name was once on an important report.

The second name on that report was once considered an "add-on to help students," but now, nobody thinks that way anymore.

Inside the office, Zhai Da leaned back slightly in his chair, staring at the ceiling.
Will the teacher participate?

On the other end of the phone, Lu Qinqian laughed and said, "We've extended an invitation, but whether he'll accept it or not is not up to us."

Zhai Da nodded: "Okay, I'll arrive on time."

I'm definitely going; it's a big deal.

Considering that the "12th Five-Year Plan" is from 2011 to 2015, this major plan, which affects more than a billion people, must be finalized before the end of this year. This should be the last time to solicit public opinions.

"By the way, Minister Lu, one last question."

"You said."

Can you bring your child?

(End of this chapter)