Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

September 10th, Blue Bay Communications headquarters building.

Zuo Cheng last visited this building in April when he signed the contract. Five months later, the layout of the building's lobby has changed—a three-meter-high display board stands at the entrance, bearing the words "Blue Bay Communications 2017 Annual Technology Partner Conference," with a conceptual diagram of the celestial constellation below, showing a light network woven from 1,200 satellites covering the entire Blue Star.

A line formed at the registration desk, mostly made up of middle-aged men in suits. Zuo Cheng received a blue badge that read "Core Technology Partner." Han Zhe had mentioned beforehand that there were only twelve core partners, and 402 was the youngest.

The venue was the main conference hall on the 30th floor, where Zuo Cheng had previously served as a judge for the Sky Dome competition. Today, the setup was completely different; the long judging table had been replaced with theater-style seating, a huge LED screen was in front of it, and Blue Bay Communications' flags stood on both sides.

Zuo Cheng found his seat and sat down. He noticed that the seating arrangement was deliberate—the first three rows were for core partners, and the back rows were for general partners and invited observers. His seat was in the second row, on the side, to his left sat a man around fifty years old whose name tag read "Wang Jianping, General Manager of Dingxin Information Technology Co., Ltd."

Dingxin Information. That's the company whose 402 qualification was questioned during the bidding process.

Wang Jianping noticed Zuo Cheng's gaze, turned his head to glance at his name tag, his expression unchanged, and nodded slightly as a greeting. Zuo Cheng nodded back, without any further pleasantries.

At 9:30 a.m., Zhou Henian took the stage.

He was wearing a dark gray suit, and his hair was a bit whiter than when he was interning in Zuocheng, but he looked to be in good spirits.

"Dear partners, thank you all for attending today's conference." Zhou Henian's opening remarks were concise and almost devoid of formalities. "Today, I have three announcements to make."

The LED screen switches to the first slide.

"First thing: The first phase of the Tianqiong constellation—the experimental satellite networking phase—completed all technical verifications last month. All six experimental satellites are operating stably in orbit, and the core performance indicators of the inter-satellite links and satellite-to-ground links have all met the standards. The first phase is declared a success."

A restrained round of applause erupted from the audience.

"The second thing," Zhou Henian pressed the remote control, and a timeline appeared on the screen. "The second phase of the Tianqiong constellation—the large-scale networking phase—will officially begin next January. The goal is to complete the launch and networking of the first batch of 120 satellites within two years, achieving initial coverage of China and surrounding areas."

One hundred and twenty.

The atmosphere in the room had clearly changed. Zuo Cheng felt Wang Jianping sit up straight next to him.

"The technological demands and supply chain scale of the second phase will far exceed those of the first phase," Zhou Henian said in a low but powerful voice. "We need more partners to participate, and at the same time, existing partners need to shoulder greater responsibility."

He paused for a second.

"The third thing."

The screen switches to an organizational chart.

"Blue Bay Communications will establish a Sky Dome Project Business Unit, operating independently. The business unit will have six technology centers, each responsible for satellite platform, communication payload, ground terminals, operational support, inter-satellite network, and security. Each technology center will offer in-depth cooperation opportunities to partners—not just project outsourcing, but joint R&D, results sharing, and long-term partnerships."

Joint research and development. Sharing of results. Long-term partnership.

These three words made Zuo Cheng's eyes narrow slightly.

Outsourcing projects is a one-off payment process; once the job is done, the employee leaves. Joint R&D, on the other hand, means that 402 can be deeply involved in the development of Tianqiong's technical roadmap, and the technological achievements accumulated during the collaboration can be transformed into their own intellectual property rights. This perfectly aligns with his "key project team" concept, which he proposed upon graduation.

Zhou Henian's presentation lasted forty minutes. This was followed by group discussions—the twelve core partners were divided into three groups based on their technical focus, each connecting with the heads of the ground terminal, inter-satellite network, and operations support technology centers.

Zuo Cheng was assigned to the ground terminal group.

Of the six companies in the group, Zuo Cheng was the only representative under twenty-five. Lu Mingyuan, the head of the ground terminal technology center, was in his early forties and spoke very quickly, explaining each item on a list of requirements.

"The signal processing module for the smart terminal was developed in its first phase by 402 Technology," Lu Mingyuan said, glancing at Zuo Cheng. "The second phase expands from six satellites to one hundred and twenty, significantly increasing the complexity of signal processing—multi-satellite parallel reception, dynamic spectrum management, and inter-terminal collaborative networking. Is 402 capable of undertaking the expanded development for the second phase, building upon the foundation laid in the first phase?"

All eyes turned to Zuo Cheng.

"Yes," Zuo Cheng replied with just two words, then added details, "The core of multi-satellite parallel reception is the parallel expansion of the channel estimation module. Our two-layer prediction architecture naturally supports multi-satellite scenarios, with the bottom layer modeling each satellite independently and the upper layer sharing adaptive compensation parameters. Dynamic spectrum management requires adding a spectrum sensing module; we have the technical reserves for this, but it needs engineering verification. Inter-terminal collaborative networking involves the design of distributed communication protocols—"

He paused.

"—We are currently working on a protocol development project for the Internet of Things (IoT), and the experience we've accumulated can be directly transferred here."

Lu Mingyuan made a few notes in his notebook and nodded.

Zuo Cheng noticed that Wang Jianping, who was sitting opposite him, was also taking notes.

The discussion lasted for two hours. After it ended, the representatives left one after another. As Zuo Cheng walked to the door of the conference room, Wang Jianping called him from behind.

"General Manager Zuo."

Zuo Cheng turned around. This was the first time he had been called "President Zuo," and he felt a little uncomfortable for a moment.

"Mr. Wang."

Wang Jianping walked up to him. He was half a head shorter than Zuo Cheng, but had a calm and composed demeanor. He took off his glasses and wiped them, his tone polite but not warm.

"We've all seen 402's performance in the first phase of the Sky Dome project. The second phase, with its expanded ground terminal development, is a massive undertaking that a single company might not be able to handle. Dingxin has over a decade of experience in embedded system integration. If 402 is interested, we can discuss the possibility of a joint bid."

Joint bidding.

Zuo Cheng quickly assessed the situation in his mind. He had investigated Dingxin Information's technical capabilities—embedded system integration was indeed their strength, and their experience in engineering and mass production far surpassed that of 402. If the scale of the second phase of the Sky Dome truly expanded to one hundred and twenty stars, it would indeed be difficult for 402's five people to handle it alone.

But he did not agree on the spot.

"I'm very interested in Mr. Wang's proposal." Zuo Cheng's tone was as polite but not eager as Wang Jianping's. "We can discuss it in more detail after Lanwan Communications officially releases the second phase of the tender documents."

Wang Jianping nodded and handed over a business card.

"Keep in touch."

Zuo Cheng took the business card and put it in his pocket.

Stepping out of the Blue Bay Communications Building, the September sun was still a bit too bright. He stood on the steps when his phone rang.

Yu Ying's message: "Brother, how did the competition go?"

Zuo Cheng thought for a moment, then replied with four words: "The sky is going to get bigger."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll explain in detail later."

He put away his phone and glanced at the Blue Bay Communications logo on the top floor of the building.

The second phase of the Sky Dome project. One hundred and twenty satellites. Jointly developed.

The next battle for 402 will be ten times larger than the first phase of the Sky Dome.

He couldn't wait any longer.