Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

From that day on, Lin Ying never wanted to think about anything else.

The battery team consists of fifteen people, divided into three sub-fields: cathode materials, electrolyte formulation, and separator technology. Lin Ying works with Lao Fan's group, focusing on cathode materials while also handling data analysis for the electrolyte side.

The instruments and equipment available at that time were indeed limited.

Lin Ying was used to those sophisticated instruments in Cambridge, but when she arrived at Institute D6, she found that the experimental conditions in China were even worse than she had imagined. There was only one X-ray diffractometer, which was shared by the entire institute, and the waiting list stretched to the next month; there were two electrochemical workstations, but one of them often crashed, and Lao Fan said that it was more difficult to take care of than his wife.

"Li Hua, remember to back up the data before you export it. This machine can crash unexpectedly," Lao Fan instructed, standing next to the instrument.

"Got it," Lin Ying replied while connecting the phone. "Brother Fan, how much data was lost last time?"

"Three days." Old Fan said and left, his figure desolate.

There are no shortcuts; we can only rely on the hard way.

The formula was tested round after round, and each time the ratio was adjusted, electrochemical tests had to be redone; it took at least three days to complete a set of experiments, and if the data was not ideal, the experiment had to be scrapped and started over.

In September, October, and November, over a period of three months, forty-seven different battery formulations were tested.

Of the forty-seven types, only three are truly promising.

Lin Ying compared the cycle life data of the three formulations. The first one had too rapid capacity decay after 200 cycles, so it was rejected. The second one was stable, but the energy density was not high enough to meet the design requirements. The third one had the closest data to the target, but there was still a problem with the interface reaction between the electrolyte and the positive electrode, and there were side reactions with each charge and discharge.

"Where does the side reaction originate?" Meng Changming stood in front of the whiteboard, looking at the molecular structure diagram drawn by Lin Ying.

"I suspect that the compatibility between propylene carbonate in the electrolyte and the graphite anode is not good enough." Lin Ying pointed to a spot on the diagram with her pen. "If ethylene carbonate is used as the main solvent, a dense SEI film can be formed on the surface, and the side reactions should be suppressed."

"Ethylene carbonate?" Old Wu leaned over from the side. "Can this be bought domestically?"

"We can't buy it." Li Xiao poked his head in from the doorway. "It has to be imported from Japan. I asked last time, and it costs eight hundred yuan per kilogram."

Lin Ying calculated the experimental dosage: "After that round of experiments..."

"Don't bother calculating it," Lao Fan said directly. "It'll hurt to calculate it."

But I still have to buy it.

In early December, the imported ethylene carbonate arrived; Lin Ying and Wang Silian conducted a three-week comparative experiment, spending almost every day in the laboratory.

December 22nd, 4 PM.

Wang Si stood up from the electrochemical workstation, stared at the curves on the screen for a long time, then turned to Lin Ying and called out, "Li Hua! Come and take a look!"

Lin Ying put down her work and went over to the screen. The cycle curve showed that after 500 cycles, the capacity retention rate was 82%.

It meets the standard.

Lin Ying looked at the data, then at Wang Si, and the two exchanged a glance.

"Call him Professor Meng," Lin Ying said.

After Meng Changming arrived, he said, "Run another set immediately."

Another set of tests was run, and the data matched.

"It's done."

The battery team members gathered around, Old Fan slapped the table and laughed, and Old Master Wu smiled so hard he revealed a row of false teeth; even Zheng Weidong from the chip team next door came over to watch the fun.

Lin Ying walked to the side and flipped through the consumables list for the past four months; all materials, reagents, utensils, protective equipment... In four months, this one area alone cost nearly 500,000 yuan; and that was under the condition that all the equipment and instruments were available. She clicked her tongue.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After deciding on the battery direction, Lin Ying turned her attention to the chipset.

Zheng Weidong's progress was slower than she expected; it wasn't that the people were incompetent, but that the equipment couldn't keep up; the EDA software used for chip design was an old version imported from abroad, and it took half a day to run a simulation; the tape-out process had to be queued up and sent to an external foundry, which took at least six weeks round trip.

Lin Ying joined the chip group in January 1933.

Three days before the Spring Festival, Li Xiao came to ask her, "Li Hua, are you going home for the New Year?"

"I won't reply."

"Isn't your family pressuring you?"

"I told them I was busy writing my thesis."

Lin Ying made a phone call home that night.

"Ah Ying! You're not coming back for the New Year?" Lin Lanying was a little reluctant to leave, as she hadn't seen her daughter in a long time.

"I'm pressed for the thesis deadline, and my supervisor is pushing me too hard, so I'm not going to bother with it anymore."

He Dazhu chimed in from the side, "Sister, if you're busy, that's fine; just take care of yourself."

"Understood, Lao Dou."

Lin Qian called out from a distance, "Big sister! Are you doing some kind of secret research? Why are you being so mysterious?"

Lin Ying chuckled: "You should read less novels."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Ying sat at her desk in her apartment, where she could faintly hear the sound of firecrackers outside.

She couldn't divulge a single word about anything confidential; her family only knew that she was a graduate student at Beijing University of Science and Technology, unaware that she had long been transferred to Institute D6, and even less aware that her current name was Li Hua.

During the Lunar New Year holiday, the cafeteria remained open as usual, but there were far fewer people. After finishing her New Year's Eve dinner, Lin Ying returned to her apartment and spent the entire night studying chip architecture materials.

After the Spring Festival, the progress of the chipset began to accelerate.

Zheng Weidong was responsible for the logic design of the baseband processor, while Lin Yingguan was responsible for the architecture and power consumption optimization of the RF front end. The two worked well together. Although Zheng Weidong was a man of few words, he was very serious about his work and verified each module more than three times before moving on.

In mid-March, the first draft of the chip design was finalized and sent out for tape-out.

The sample photos arrived at the end of April.

On the day of the test, everyone in the lab gathered around the test bench. Zheng Weidong personally installed the chip onto the test board, connected the probes, and began the functional verification process.

Lin Ying stood beside her, watching the signal waveforms on the oscilloscope. The baseband section passed, the radio frequency section passed, and the power consumption test met the standard.

Zheng Weidong gave Meng Changming a thumbs up.

Meng Changming nodded: "Alright, we have the battery and the chip. Now it's just a matter of finishing up the integration."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

There was much more work to be done than I had imagined.

Motherboard layout, antenna debugging, casing mold, complete machine assembly, system integration... there were problems to solve at every stage; a group of people were busy from May to July.

On July 12th, the entire machine passed the integrated testing.

A prototype, much smaller than a brick and weighing only a little over 300 grams, was placed on the experimental table.

Lin Ying pressed the dial button and heard a clear dial tone.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

On July 15th, Lin Ying took a day off from D6.

Li Xiao drove her back to Beijing University of Science and Technology.

The corridor of the graduate school was still the same as before. Deputy Director Gu sat in his office and handed her two red certificates.

"Lin Ying, here's your graduation certificate and degree certificate."

Lin Ying took it and flipped through it: Beijing University of Science and Technology, Industrial Automation major, Master's degree.

"We handled the procedures for your graduation thesis defense. You only needed to make some minor changes to the non-classified parts of your proposal to pass," said Deputy Director Gu. "Your grades are excellent."

"Thank you, Teacher Gu."

Deputy Director Gu then took out an envelope from the drawer and handed it over: "This is the project bonus, approved by the higher-ups."

Lin Ying picked up the envelope and weighed it in her hand, but didn't open it.

"Count them yourself," said Deputy Director Gu.

Back in the car, Lin Ying opened the envelope. Inside was a bank deposit slip for eight million. She put the slip away, leaned back in her seat, and closed her eyes for a while.

The day after returning to Institute D6, Professor Meng stood in front of Lin Ying's workstation, holding a production plan in his hand.

"Comrade Li Hua, I have good news for you."

"Please speak."

"The prototype has been handed over to the factory in G province, and the first batch of mass-produced machines will be ready to roll off the production line before the end of the year."

Lin Ying looked at the list: "How many units?"

"The first batch of 5,000 units is for trial use."