After breaking up with my boyfriend, I made a fortune and rose rapidly in my career.

On the seventh page of the budget sheet, there was a line of numbers. Chen Ping circled it twice and put down his pen.

Jiang Fan pushed open the door and placed a fax paper on the corner of the table.

"SMIC sent a letter saying that Professor Song's team has been working in their workshop since they arrived, and asked if they could first provide a letter of intent for technical cooperation to calm the factory down."

Chen Ping picked up the fax paper, glanced at it, and put it down.

"No need to send out the letter of intent; let them wait for the results."

Jiang Fan stood there for a second, then closed the door and left without asking any more questions.

~

SMIC is a long-established semiconductor packaging factory in Nanzhou, with a factory age of 21 years. The equipment is barely passable due to aging, but the production line is still running. Three years ago, they implemented a new immersion packaging process, and the problem of film uniformity started from the first batch, with the yield rate stuck at 68%, unable to be pushed higher.

In three years, we changed four technology service providers, but none of them could change that number.

Song Yue joined that production line on the fourth day.

He brought two people with him, Lin Siyuan and a young postdoctoral fellow named Xu Ning. The three of them, along with a box of equipment, spent six whole days in the SMIC device workshop.

On the seventh day, Jiang Fan's message came in at 2:53 a.m.

"Director, Professor Song has the data. The yield rate is 91.4%. He asked me to send it to you."

The attachment is a densely packed test chart with neat peak curves and uniformity deviations within the allowable range.

Chen Ping placed the picture on the bedside table, flipped through it, dimmed his phone screen, and mentally reviewed the numbers.

91.4.

A problem that has plagued me for three years, solved in seven days.

Chen Ping put down his phone, leaned back on the pillow, and closed his eyes.

Things progressed three days faster than he had expected.

~

The next morning, Chen Ping was put into the workshop of SMIC Devices.

The factory manager, He Zhou, was in his early fifties with dark skin. When he saw Chen Ping let in, he walked up quickly and stretched out his hand, revealing calluses on his thumb and forefinger.

"Director Chen, I couldn't sleep last night because of this."

Chen Ping shook hands with him and didn't mince words.

"Has the data been confirmed?"

He Zhou shoved a stack of printed test reports over his shoulder. The paper was very thick, and there were comparison records from the previous three years sandwiched in the middle.

"It's confirmed. We tested three batches this morning, and every batch was above 90. We can hardly believe it ourselves."

Chen Ping took the book, flipped through a few pages, and looked up into the depths of the workshop.

Song Yue and Xu Ning were still squatting on the ground beside the production line, comparing parameters with the rotating parts at the bottom of a glue applicator. Neither of them was wearing gloves, and their hands had a thin layer of glue residue on them.

Lin Siyuan stood to the side, holding a marker in his hand, and marked a few numbers on the equipment nameplate.

None of the three people looked up.

Chen Ping tucked the stack of reports into his briefcase and spoke to He Zhou.

"Compile this data into a formal report by today, with the heading 'Joint Testing by SMIC Devices and Industrial Energy Coordination Center,' and I will send it to the city."

He Zhou nodded, rubbing his hands together on the hem of his clothes.

"Director Chen, from now on..."

"We'll discuss future collaborations after the expert apartments are built and the laboratory is fully operational. Let's finish this report first."

~

The official report was delivered to the mayor's office at 4 p.m.

Without giving prior notice, Chen Pingfang had Jiang Fan hand the document directly to his secretary, along with a note: "Please review, Mayor."

Li Jianguo called back at 6:20 p.m.

"The report you sent showed a yield rate of 91.4%?"

"Yes."

"Was this number measured in SMIC's own workshop?"

"Their production line, our formula and process support, three batches of continuous testing."

There was a pause of a few seconds on the other end, followed by the sound of files being turned over, and then it stopped.

"How many days have these people been here?"

"Seven days."

There was a brief silence on the phone.

"I'll go take a look."

~

When Li Jianguo arrived at the SMIC device workshop, he was accompanied only by his secretary and a deputy director from the industry department. There were no photographers or document bags. He was wearing a dark jacket and went straight to the production line without taking any detours.

He Zhou greeted them at the door, bowing low, followed by several middle-level managers, their steps somewhat unsteady.

Li Jianguo waved to He Zhou, but didn't stop, his gaze sweeping towards the middle of the workshop.

Song Yue stood next to the immersion packaging line, his back to the door, checking the parameters on the control panel of the glue coating machine. Xu Ning was taking notes next to him. The two were talking and didn't notice anyone coming in.

Chen Ping placed it beside him and followed without introduction, waiting.

Li Jianguo walked to the line, stopped, looked at the equipment, then at the record board next to Song Yue, and spoke without any bureaucratic formalities.

"This glue applicator is three years old, and this is the only problem it has?"

Song Yue then turned his head, glanced at Li Jianguo, and put the record board on the table.

"The problem lies in the mismatch between the spin coating parameters and the pretreatment temperature range. This has been going on for three years, and no one has bothered to trace the root cause from the formulation."

Li Jianguo lowered his brows, remained silent, and gestured for him to continue.

Song Yue turned around, brought up the two sets of curves on the screen, and stepped aside.

"The parameters on the left are from when it went live three years ago, and the parameters on the right are from now. A gradient has been added to the temperature compensation, and the proportion of one catalyst in the formula has been reduced by 0.8 percent."

"this one?"

"That's it."

Song Yue pulled two printed test reports from the table, pushed them in front of Li Jianguo, and tapped the numbers with his finger.

"We've been stuck for three years. The answer is in the recipe, but nobody's looking for it."

The workshop was quiet, with only the low hum of the production line machinery.

Li Jianguo held the two reports in his hands, not putting them down, and looked at them for a full minute. Then he flipped them over and stared at the data tables from beginning to end.

The deputy director of the industry department next to him leaned over, glanced at the numbers, straightened up, tugged at his suit jacket, and remained silent.

He Zhou stood on the outer circle, with his hands behind his back, his thumb pressing back and forth on the back of his other hand, not daring to move.

Li Jianguo closed the report and looked up at Chen Pingfang.

Chen Ping met his gaze, took out the official joint test report from his briefcase, and handed it over.

Li Jianguo took it, opened it, read it from beginning to end, paused for a few seconds in the remarks column, and then closed it.

In the workshop, Song Yue had already turned back to look at his parameter screen again, Xu Ning was filling in the records next to him, and Lin Siyuan came out of the inner room with a set of sample trays that had just been taken off the instrument. He was checking the labels with his head down. The three of them were busy with their own things and did not change their pace at all because the mayor had come.

Li Jianguo handed the report to his secretary, turned to the side, and said something to Chen Pingfang. His voice wasn't loud, but the people around him heard it.

"From now on, for anything involving the introduction of Corefire talent, there's no need for layer-by-layer approval. Just do it first, and report back to me when it's done."

He Zhou's thumb on the back of his hand stopped.

The deputy director of the industry department slowly turned his gaze away from the production line and onto Chen Pingfang. He paused for two seconds, then looked away.

Jiang Fan stood at the outermost position, holding a notebook in his hand, the pen tip hovering over the paper, not falling, his mind only focused on that one sentence.

Cut first and then play.

Chen Ping pressed the clasp on his briefcase, turned his head, and glanced into the depths of the workshop.

Song Yue's back remained still as he continued to check the last set of parameters, one by one, on the control screen of the glue applicator.