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

"Secretary Zheng Huaien met with Zhao Yiming tonight."

Chen Ping stared at the eight characters for three seconds, then put his phone back in his pocket.

He Mingzhang was still talking about something, about the personnel arrangements for the liaison team. Chen Ping was already mentally planning his next move.

Zhao Yiming acted swiftly. No sooner had Sun Heming fallen than Zhao Yiming contacted Zheng Huaien, intending to bypass the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and bring the Core Spark Project to the provincial party committee for discussion.

Chen Ping shook hands with He Mingzhang to say goodbye, and after getting into the car, he sent a message to Qin Yu: "Keep a close eye on things."

As the car drove out of Green Lake, my phone rang again. This time it was Gu Weizhen.

"Director Chen, the Provincial Science and Technology Association issued a notice this afternoon saying that an expert research group on the path of self-reliance in the semiconductor industry will come to the laboratory for inspection and will arrive the day after tomorrow."

Gu Weizhen spoke very quickly, and sounded a little angry.

"I've seen the list, and the one leading it is Academician Xu Shouzhen."

Chen Ping leaned back in the back seat, his finger resting on the edge of the car window.

Xu Shouzheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is 73 years old this year and has dedicated his life to integrated circuits. Xu Shouzheng is very knowledgeable, but he has one notable characteristic: he and Sun Heming are classmates and have a good relationship. When Sun Heming was promoting the M-Tek solution at the Science and Technology Department, Xu Shouzheng publicly supported Sun Heming on several occasions.

How many people are in the research team?

"Five. Xu Shouzhen is leading the team, along with Fang Qinian from the Institute of Microelectronics, Zhou Zhengqing from Nanjing University, and two other industry experts recommended by the Department of Science and Technology."

Chen Ping went through all the names. Fang Qinian and Xu Shouzheng were in the same circle, Zhou Zhengqing was more neutral, and the remaining two so-called industry experts were likely people that Sun Heming had arranged to be included in the expert pool back then.

Of the five people, at least three are unfriendly.

"Professor Gu, are you scared?"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"What are you afraid of? My code can withstand scrutiny by anyone."

"Okay. Chen Pingfang will personally accompany you to receive them the day after tomorrow. Prepare a complete technical demonstration plan, but don't use the conventional procedure."

"What do you mean?"

"Conduct blind testing."

Chen Ping hung up the phone, closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair. Those people had come to find fault. Although Sun Heming was in the Discipline Inspection Commission, he had cultivated influence in the provincial academic circle for over a decade, and his influence remained. If these people produced an expert opinion arguing that the Corefire architecture had major flaws and placed it on Zheng Huaien's desk, and then had people from Zhao Yiming's company sign it, things would become very complicated.

Therefore, we cannot let them do things their way.

We have to do it the other way around.

---

Two days later, at the Corefire Lab.

The research team's convoy arrived at 9:00 AM sharp. Three black official vehicles parked in front of the building, and the five experts emerged one after another.

Xu Shouzhen walked ahead, his back straight, his gray hair neatly combed, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and carrying an old briefcase. Behind him, Fang Qinian was short and stout, panting as he walked. As soon as he entered, he began to look around, examining the laboratory equipment.

Chen Pingfang was already waiting at the door, with Gu Weizhen and two core R&D personnel standing beside him.

"Academician Xu, welcome."

Chen Ping stretched out his hand.

Xu Shouzhen shook hands with a moderate pressure, his expression very polite.

"We dare not accept Director Chen's personal visit. This is purely an academic exchange, to check on the progress of Corefire and offer some suggestions."

Fang Qinian chimed in from the side, "Yes, we're here to learn."

These words sounded strange, and Gu Weizhen's facial muscles twitched, but he didn't say anything.

Chen Pingfang led the research team into the main laboratory. Gu Weizhen, following the pre-agreed procedure, first gave a twenty-minute presentation on the architecture.

Fang Qinian started shaking his head halfway through the conversation.

"Professor Gu, your closed architecture design is controversial in the industry, if I may be so bold. A completely independent underlying protocol stack that is incompatible with mainstream international standards is simply a case of reinventing the wheel."

Zhou Zhengqing sat beside him without saying a word, but paused for a moment while flipping through the documents.

Gu Weizhen adjusted his glasses and was about to respond when Chen Ping spoke first.

"Professor Fang raised a very good question. It's really hard to explain just by talking about theory, so let's do some hands-on verification."

Chen Pingfang looked at Xu Shouzhen.

"Academician Xu, I have a suggestion. Let's conduct a blind test, using the test cases provided by the research team, simultaneously running the solutions from Chipfire EDA and AetherX. The test environment will be specified by the research team, and our people won't touch the test machines. After the results are in, we can discuss whether the architecture is reasonable, okay?"

Xu Shouzhen raised an eyebrow.

This suggestion is difficult to refuse. Refusing would be tantamount to admitting that you're there to cause trouble, not to provide academic evaluation.

"Okay." Xu Shouzhen nodded. "Fang Qinian, bring out the set of verification test cases we prepared."

Fang Qinian was taken aback, not expecting Xu Shouzhen to agree so readily. However, he still exported a very complex chip design verification test case from his laptop. He had specifically chosen this test case to target the weaknesses of the Chipfire architecture.

Two workstations were placed side by side, one with Corefire EDA installed and the other with AetherX installed. Fang Qinian imported the test cases, confirmed the environment settings, and then pressed the run button simultaneously.

The laboratory was so quiet that only the hum of the cooling fans could be heard.

The progress bar moves forward little by little.

Fang Qinian stared at the screen on AetherX, fully aware of the situation. He had run this test case on AetherX before and remembered the performance data. If Chipfire couldn't match it, the conclusion for today would be set.

Seven minutes later, the results were displayed on the Chipfire EDA screen.

Fang Qinian turned his head and his breath caught in his throat.

Verification passed. All seventy-two checkpoints showed zero errors and zero warnings.

AetherX is still running item sixty-one.

Two minutes later, AetherX finished running. The result was also a pass, but three checkpoints triggered yellow warnings. The accuracy error was within the acceptable range, but not zero.

Fang Qinian sat in the chair, opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

Zhou Zhengqing stood up, walked to the Corefire workstation, bent down and carefully examined the log output. After checking, Zhou Zhengqing straightened up and glanced at Gu Weizhen.

"Professor Gu, did you rewrite your register allocation algorithm?"

"Written from scratch."

Zhou Zhengqing was silent for a few seconds, then extended his hand.

"admire."

Those two words silenced the lab instantly. Fang Qinian's face flushed crimson, and the other two industry experts exchanged glances, remaining silent.

Xu Shouzhen stood behind him with his hands behind his back, and saw the whole process very clearly.

Chen Pingfang noticed that the old man's fingers were gently touching the handle of his briefcase, as if he was thinking about something.

The research team's visit ended at four o'clock in the afternoon. Fang Qinian left without saying a word, but Zhou Zhengqing took the initiative to exchange contact information with Gu Weizhen.

As Chen Ping saw the research team off and was about to turn back, a frail but powerful voice came from behind him.

"Director Chen, could we speak in private for a moment?"

Xu Shouzhen stood alone at the end of the corridor, his briefcase now carried in his left hand.

Chen Ping let him walk over. The two stood at the corner of the corridor, with the green space of the experimental park outside the window, and no one else around.

Xu Shouzhen took off his glasses, wiped the lenses with the corner of his clothes, and slowly...

"I will record today's blind test results in the report. Chipfire's technology roadmap is sound."

"Thank you, Academician Xu."

Xu Shouzhen put his glasses back on and looked up at Chen Pingfang.

"But there's something else I want to tell you today."

The old man lowered his voice.

"When Sun Heming was at the Science and Technology Department, he compiled an internal list of strategic advisors. On the surface, they were academic advisors, but in reality, the people on the list received a fixed consulting fee every year from M-Tek's China agent."

Chen Ping stopped in his tracks.

"I've seen this list before." Xu Shouzhen pulled a brown envelope from his briefcase and handed it over.

"Twenty-three people. They include academic leaders from six universities and four research institutes within the province."

Chen Ping took the envelope. It felt rough to the touch and wasn't sealed.

Just as Chen Pingfang was about to open it, Xu Shouzhen pressed down on Chen Pingfang's hand.

"Director Chen, the seventh person on the list," the old man paused for a second, "is me."