Courtyard House: Starting with a 28-inch motorcycle

"Alright, when he comes to his senses—I'll personally mentor him." Old Qian sighed softly, a hint of regret in his voice.

The logistics minister had just left, and the entire research institute was still in a daze: It was unbelievable! In just three years—only three years since he left school—a young man in his early twenties had broken through several hard-shell-like scientific research barriers.

At this moment, the roof is covered with a photovoltaic array designed by Xiao Yao, stacks of solar energy storage panels are piled up in the corners of the corridor, and even the silver-gray work clothes everyone is wearing are lightweight radiation protection suits that he devised. The old leader praised him as a "genius boy," and it was no exaggeration—how did his brain work like that? It's already extremely rare for others to be able to take root and bear fruit in a field; Xiao Yao, on the other hand, has barely taken off his graduation gown and already has several keys in his hand to open different doors.

"Old Qian, I suggest we submit a report immediately and request Xiao Yao's short-term on-site support!" an elderly researcher wearing reading glasses said urgently.

"I've already spoken with the logistics department, but it won't work." Old Qian waved his hand, his tone gentle yet firm. "If he doesn't want to come, we have to respect that. True talent is never something that can be forced out; it grows from the heart—forcing it will only destroy that spark."

At that moment, inside Xiao Yao's research base, two soldiers were testing a new type of walkie-talkie, 500 meters apart. Just then, an old leader happened to pass by on an inspection tour, took one of the walkie-talkies, and gestured to his secretary, "Take the other one." Although wireless communication had already taken shape abroad, Xiao Yao's approach was more practical and grounded in reality.

"Hey, old boss, can you hear me?"

The secretary's clear voice came through the receiver, and the old leader laughed heartily, responding according to the procedure the soldiers had taught him: "Understood! Good, you can return to your units now!"

He turned and went straight into Xiao Yao's laboratory. Inside, several people were gathered around the main control panel, intently watching the data stream on the screen—this walkie-talkie was just a byproduct; the real goal was to verify the stability of cellular networking using the simplest architecture.

Xiao Yao's plan was to first create China's first generation of portable communication terminals using integrated chips as a base. While the bulky, power-consuming, and unreliable mobile phones were outdated, his solar-powered lithium-ion battery offered reliable battery life, yet was only about half the size of a brick.

When the old leader entered, everyone was still intently focused on the terminal screen—thirty voice calls were being received simultaneously, checking to see if the machine would freeze, become out of order, or drop frames. The current bottleneck was that a single cellular base station could only handle a maximum of thirty concurrent calls; any more and it would struggle.

This was just a prototype, far from being a finished product. Due to confidentiality regulations, all tests had to be conducted within the institute, with the furthest test being conducted at a distance of 800 meters. But Xiao Yao was thinking about the actual test distance of over 100 kilometers—a whole mountain in between.

The staff member wanted to go forward to greet them, but the old leader raised his hand to stop him: "Don't disturb them, I'll just stand here and watch." He looked at the young man's tense profile and felt a slight stirring in his heart: After not seeing him for half a month, this kid has quietly turned a new page again.

"The data is stable, but the third call just ended—is it a module contact problem?" Lin Siyue whispered, pointing to a corner of the screen.

"We just finished a call and stopped by to check. The equipment is fine," the former leader replied with a smile.

The colleague next to me was taken aback: Didn't we say not to disturb them? What's going on...?

"Old leader? What brings you here!" Xiao Yao stood up upon hearing the voice and quickly came forward with his team.

"How far can this thing reach?" the old leader asked, getting straight to the point.

"A single base station can cover a radius of 100 kilometers, but currently all experiments have to be kept inside the institute, and we dare not move an inch outside," Lin Siyue answered truthfully.

"Can this cellular system be mass-produced? What's the maximum number of calls it can support at a time?"

"Once the verification is complete, we can put it into production. The first batch will support 150 pairs of terminals online simultaneously. Next, we plan to use two base stations for link coordination to test cross-provincial calls—unfortunately, the prototype can't even leave the gate yet." Her tone revealed her frustration.

"Approved." The old leader said decisively. "The security department will fully cooperate with your on-site testing. Cross-provincial networking can't wait any longer—the sooner it's implemented, the sooner the people will be free from the embarrassment of 'finding a phone like finding a person.'"

As the order was given, Xiao Yao and his companions exchanged smiles, their eyes shining with light, fire, and a heavy sense of determination.

……

Despite the high-ranking leader's busy schedule, the old leader still made a special trip to inform him of this matter. Upon hearing that Xiao Yao's laboratory had achieved new success, he put down his pen and smiled for a long time.

He nodded with a smile: "This young man is truly extraordinary, a real pillar of our nation! The saying 'When the youth are strong, the nation is strong' has truly come to fruition today. Quickly send over a few sets of imported equipment—the most advanced ones—and let him try them out boldly, to see if he can carve out our own technology from these 'foreign goods'."

Xiao Yao and the others finally caught their breath while the cellular equipment was being transferred to another laboratory for installation.

Currently, we face two major hurdles: the first is the microcellular structure – existing modules are still bulky, and there are no readily available models to follow globally; the second is the power supply system – in terms of batteries, we have quietly surpassed overseas countries: one hour of charging provides a steady one-hour talk time, completely shedding the heavy, fast-consuming, and short-lasting "mobile bricks" of the "big brother" mobile phones.

What's even more disheartening is that Xiao Yao clearly remembers that these kinds of devices were ridiculously expensive back then, so the country had to settle for second best and popularize pagers—those things were charged by the second even by paging stations.

He also recalled an embarrassing old joke: while Chinese people considered pagers a fashionable accessory, foreign ranchers were already using them to track their sheep. Xiao Yao was determined to tear away this awkwardness, skipping the middle stage and ushering in the spring of mobile communication for every household ahead of schedule.

Today, the gap between China's communication technology and the international forefront is indeed like a deep valley. Xiao Yao's plan is to first open up the market with civilian-grade equipment, earn a sum of "scientific research start-up capital," and then exchange it for the strategic materials that the country urgently needs.

With core communication technologies in hand, there's no need to bow down to overseas patent fees. Research and development and mass production costs will naturally be reduced significantly, and the price of the terminal will naturally come down. In the future, a mobile phone will not be a status symbol, but an everyday tool that everyone can easily access.

The principle is easy to explain, but putting it into practice is fraught with danger.

The underlying logic of mobile phones is derived from the wireless signal transmission principle of remote-controlled airplanes.

What's the progress abroad? They have comprehensive intelligence, but the core algorithm and physical layer design remain shrouded in mystery. However, they have a general idea of ​​the overall level.

Xiao Yao's microcell solution has taken a crucial first step. Once deployed, the network signal strength in China will be on par with top-tier overseas standards.

Although it cannot yet achieve millimeter-level coverage, the dual-band cellular coordinated deployment—one large and one small, one wide and one precise—is enough to weave a dense and leak-free signal network, ensuring that every corner of the motherland can reliably receive radio waves.

Imagine what this team is about to support—it's not just a communications revolution, it's a bridge to a leap forward in our times.

It is a hundred times more flexible than a landline phone—the latter is tied to the wall, cannot leave the room, and cannot cross mountain gullies and valleys.

Several elderly scientists with white hair from Province S were sitting around in the conference room, arguing heatedly, one after another.

This closed-door meeting was only open to senior scholars; young scholars were required to wait outside.

This laboratory was the site chosen by Xiao Yao's team for their debut demonstration of microcellular technology. Hearing that Xiao Yao had created a "palm-sized phone" capable of wireless communication, several senior engineers immediately gathered around, eager to witness firsthand how this "miracle" was born. As soon as the installation team set up the equipment, they pointed to the palm-sized box on the table and explained, "This is a mobile phone." Though still in its early stages, it had already ignited everyone's interest.

Several senior professors had long heard of Xiao Yao—the young man who, by developing his own chips, broke through the bottleneck of domestically produced computers. It was he who enabled research institutions to bid farewell to abacuses and hand-cranked calculators, truly entering the era of electronic computing.

As soon as the cellular device was powered on, it instantly connected to Xiao Yao's laboratory's local area network. The professors held their phones, held their breath, pressed the call button, and waited for a response. At this moment, it wasn't a "phone" in the true sense of the word; it was more like a two-way voice intercom terminal—one person spoke, and the other immediately received a clear reply.

When the familiar voice came through the receiver, the old leader gripped the phone tightly, his voice trembling slightly: "I heard you!" He had sat in his office all day, waiting for this moment. His hands were shaking uncontrollably, and Xiao Yao and the others had made sure he hadn't waited in vain.

In Province S, the local link has just been successfully established, and in Kyoto, long-distance call verification at a range of 100 kilometers has been completed; now, only the last hurdle remains: inter-provincial connectivity.

The old leader grabbed his coat and rushed to the high-ranking leader's residence to deliver the good news. The high-ranking leader had also been waiting at home, patiently awaiting the news—he didn't keep his phone on his desk because the device wasn't encrypted yet. Xiao Yao repeatedly emphasized: before security is solid, it's better to be a step behind than to take any risks.

At this moment, Xiao Yao's laboratory was brightly lit, and no one was asleep. Everyone was staring intently at the screen, waiting for the moment the connection was successfully established so they could capture firsthand data such as call quality, latency, and error rate in real time.

Meanwhile, the other ordinary researchers in Lab S remained completely unaware. The newly built equipment room was cordoned off, and entry was strictly prohibited. Everyone was full of suspicion but dared not ask too many questions, feeling only an inexplicable tension in the air.

Three days later, several elderly professors emerged from the laboratory, their eyes red-rimmed, their voices hoarse yet resounding: "We Chinese have created our own wireless communication equipment!" Only then did people realize that these three days had quietly rewritten history.

The crowd erupted in cheers—but apart from a few eyewitnesses, no one knew which team or which face had contributed to this astonishing breakthrough.