Chapter 63: Once Begun, It Shall Happen Again

It blew up, completely blew up!

No matter how Li Pingan tried to imagine it, he never expected that Cube Technology would become a household name in such an unexpected way.

It was not because of some exceptional product launched by the company.

Rather, it was entirely due to the unexpected internet fame won through a "sharp-tongued" flame war waged by Xiao Fang, the company's artificial intelligence.

Riding the wave of popularity brought by Xiao Fang, a massive influx of new users registered for Spirit Pets that very day.

In just a single day, a staggering cash flow of nearly four hundred million poured into Cube Technology's accounts, an astronomical sum that left people dumbfounded.

Wu Qian, whose job as the company accountant had previously been relatively relaxed and comfortable, was now sweating profusely from being rushed off her feet.

Wu Qian secretly felt grateful that electronic invoices had already become fully universal.

Otherwise, the sheer workload of issuing invoices for the ten thousand smart guide dogs sold today alone would probably have caused her vision to go dark and driven her straight to a nervous breakdown.

Even so, Wu Qian was still up to her neck in work.

Feeling utterly overwhelmed, Wu Qian walked up to the boss's office door and knocked gently.

"Come in~" Li Pingan's voice came from inside.

Wu Qian pushed the door open to a sight of the boss and the senior executive lounging comfortably in their office chairs with broad smiles on their faces, seemingly chatting about something amusing.

Even Old Wu, who usually paid the utmost attention to health and wellness preservation, was holding a bottle of Happy Water just like the boss at this moment.

Looking at the boss, Wu Qian said with a face full of grievance:

"Boss, the company definitely needs to hire a few more accounting staff members.

At the current rate of the company's development, if we don't recruit more hands soon, this workload is going to be the death of me."

Taking a sip of his Happy Water, Li Pingan still had a smile on his face as he said casually:

"If you're short-staffed, just go coordinate directly with HR, or if you have any suitable candidates in mind, you can poach them directly."

Hearing the boss's words, Wu Qian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She had previously worried that the boss might refuse to hire anyone to save costs.

Now it seemed she had worried for nothing.

Well, it made sense, after all, the boss was post-millennial generation.

Wu Qian couldn't help marveling inwardly that starting a business with a post-90s or post-00s boss was indeed different—free from the tedious red tape and numerous constraints of those old fogies, and much more decisive and flexible in action style.

Of course, if the boss were ever backstabbed one day, the company would probably end up with a lot more constraints.

Hopefully that day would come a little later...

By dusk, perhaps because netizens had finally witnessed Xiao Fang's formidable prowess and utter lack of sportsmanship, gradually no one was willing to bother with this "strolling rogue" anymore.

After all, knowing full well that the other party was an artificial intelligence, running over foolishly to argue with it—wasn't that simply asking for abuse?

The guy constantly called you a dog, what could you use to refute that?

As the saying goes, if a dog bites you, are you going to bite it back?

If you actually "bit" it back, wouldn't that just be telling everyone else that you were a dog too?

Stepping out of the office, most of the employees had already gone home for the day, with only Old Wu's office and Wu Qian's work area still illuminated.

Seeing Wu Qian still deeply engrossed in her work with a furrowed brow, Li Pingan instinctively lightened his footsteps, hunched his body slightly, and tiptoed toward the door, secretly praying not to be discovered, terrified of encountering that gaze full of grievances.

However...

Things in the world are unpredictable. The very next second, Old Wu happened to push open his office door.

"Oh...? Boss, you haven't left yet either?"

Old Wu's voice was exceptionally loud in the quiet company.

As soon as those words fell, Li Pingan froze awkwardly in place, shouting inwardly that it was bad.

He slowly turned his head to look, and sure enough, Wu Qian was glaring at him with a resentful expression.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem~~~"

Old Wu also acutely perceived the awkward atmosphere, quickly coughing a few times to break the deadlock, and said straight to the point:

"Boss, it's good you haven't left yet. Huawei has gotten back to me. Shall we talk as we walk?"

Hearing this, Li Pingan instinctively straightened a collar that had no wrinkles to begin with, feigned composure, uttered an "uh," and said, "Let's talk on the way."

Watching the boss and Old Wu hastily and solemnly stride away, Wu Qian couldn't help rolling her eyes fiercely.

However, thinking of the overtime pay promised by the boss, a renewed surge of motivation ignited within Wu Qian's heart.

Overtime it is then; with money, the boss is king!

Who told her to be so single-mindedly devoted to creating a better living environment for her child?

Outside the company reception area, Old Wu could hardly conceal the excitement in his heart as his voice trembled slightly: "Boss, Huawei has agreed.

Only, it's for the previous generation of chips; the yield rate for their latest chips isn't high, so they are keeping those for their own use."

Li Pingan, who had originally just been holding a trial-and-error mindset, couldn't help being somewhat astonished upon hearing this news, and confirmed it once again:

"The news is actually true? Huawei is willing to sell chips externally."

It was no wonder Li Pingan was so surprised. One had to know that the brilliant sales figures achieved by Huawei phones in the market were inseparable from their self-developed chips—this was Huawei's core competitive edge.

Even if the Kirin chips could not keep up with the latest manufacturing processes of the other two major foundries, there were still plenty of people willing to pay for them.

However... now things were getting more and more interesting.

Li Pingan pondered quietly to himself: would other domestic phone manufacturers choose to adopt Kirin chips for some of their models?

He guessed that in all likelihood, they would not.

Unless there was strong policy promotion from above.

After all, for any enterprise, who would be willing to hand over critical technologies or core components related to their own survival and death into the control of a competitor?

Furthermore, even if some phone manufacturers had such intentions, other chip suppliers probably wouldn't sit idly by and would inevitably pressure these phone manufacturers into choosing one or the other in order to protect their own market share and interests.

The corners of Li Pingan's mouth curled up into a slight smile as he said, "Old Wu, I'm actually looking forward to the reactions and moods of those people once they find out we're using Kirin chips."

As the saying goes, once there is one, there will be a second, and where there is a second, there will be a third...

Li Pingan figured that as Cube launched its smart guide dogs equipped with Kirin chips, the Honor brand—Huawei's "favorite child"—would likely follow suit and jump on the bandwagon eight times out of ten.

When else would they wait to follow suit if not now when such a great opportunity presented itself?

"Old Wu, do this: first pre-order one million chips from Huawei.

As soon as the chips are shipped back, put them into production as quickly as possible."

Li Pingan made his decision decisively.

One million chips might sound like a huge quantity, but for a company of Huawei's scale, it was really nothing special.

It wasn't even enough for the sales volume of a single mid-range phone model.

Old Wu was not foolish enough to question why they were ordering so many chips, nor did he worry about whether they could be successfully sold.

With a solemn expression, he simply nodded in response: "Got it!"

That night, lying alone on the bed of his rented apartment, Li Pingan stared up at the bright moon hanging high in the sky outside the window, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

Various data and information regarding virtual reality games kept flashing through his mind, leaving his inner heart churning like a turbulent ocean, utterly incapable of calming down.

Virtual reality games!