Chapter 505: Openly Repairing the Plank Road

April 1, 2008, Shenzhen.

April Fool's Day.

Li Yaozong, to confuse his opponent and buy himself time, held a press conference.

The multifunction hall on the third floor of Wanxiang Dasha was packed with more than three hundred media outlets. Long guns and short cannons were aimed at the podium, reporters held audio recorders, cameramen carried their equipment, and a few people stood in the back rows—there simply were no seats left.

A red banner above the podium read:

"Fenghuang Phone New Product Launch"

In the audience, some people whispered to each other.

"Did you hear? Apple's iPhone sold over a million units last year."

"Over a million? Our Fenghuang sold more than fifty million last year."

"Different. The other is a smartphone; ours is a feature phone."

"What's wrong with a feature phone? As long as it sells well, that's fine."

Li Yaozong stood backstage, listening to the discussion, his face expressionless.

Chen Feng came over and lowered his voice.

"President Li, the reporters will definitely ask about smartphones."

Li Yaozong nodded.

"I know."

"How should we answer?"

Li Yaozong gave him a glance.

"Don't answer."

At ten a. m., the launch began on schedule.

Li Yaozong walked onto the stage in a dark gray shirt without a tie. Over three hundred pairs of eyes in the audience stared at him, and the flashlights lit up the room.

"Dear media friends," he began, his voice not loud but audible throughout the hall, "welcome to the Fenghuang Phone new product launch."

He paused.

"Today, we present to you—Fenghuang Generation Six."

The big screen lit up, showing an image of a phone.

Its silver‑white shell was twenty percent thinner than the fifth generation, the screen larger, the buttons more comfortable. A line of text appeared beside it:

"Fenghuang Generation Six—thinner, lighter, stronger."

A round of applause rose from the audience.

Li Yaozong continued the presentation.

"The screen, upgraded from 2.4 inches to 2.8 inches, resolution from 160 × 128 to 240 × 302."

"The storage card supports up to 2 GB, capable of holding two thousand songs and ten thousand photos."

"The battery, standby time increased from 150 hours to 200 hours."

"The camera, from 300,000 pixels upgraded to one million pixels."

He read them out one by one, as if reciting a menu.

In the audience, reporters scribbled rapidly.

Someone raised a hand.

"President Li, when will this phone be released?"

"Next month," Li Yaozong said, "with a nationwide simultaneous release."

Another person raised a hand.

"President Li, what is the price?"

"Fenghuang Generation Six comes in three versions. The low‑end version, nine hundred ninety‑nine. The mid‑end version, one thousand three hundred ninety‑nine. The high‑end version, one thousand eight hundred ninety‑nine."

Another round of applause followed.

As the applause faded, a third hand rose.

It was a young reporter wearing glasses, speaking very quickly.

"President Li, how does Fenghuang view smartphones? Apple's iPhone was released last year, and many say the future belongs to smartphones. Does Fenghuang have a smartphone plan?"

The hall fell silent for a second.

Everyone's gaze focused on Li Yaozong's face.

Li Yaozong stood there, his expression unchanged.

"Smartphone?" he repeated the term, his tone carrying a hint of confusion, as if hearing it for the first time.

Then he smiled.

"Everyone, do you know how many Fenghuang phones were sold last year?"

Someone in the audience answered, "Over fifty million."

"Right, over fifty million," Li Yaozong nodded, "Do you know how many feature phones were sold worldwide last year?"

No one answered.

"One point one billion units," he said, "one point one billion feature phones, and over fifty million smartphones."

He paused.

"Smartphones are good, but feature phones are a staple. The staple for 1.1 billion people versus the novelty for over fifty million— which should I choose, in your opinion?"

The audience was quiet for a few seconds.

Then someone began to clap.

The applause grew louder, eventually forming a continuous wave.

Li Yaozong stood on the stage, smiling, waiting for the applause to subside.

"So, everyone," he said, "the future of Fenghuang is still feature phones. Make feature phones good, thin, light, and cheap so more people can afford them—that's what we should do."

He pointed to the Fenghuang 6th generation on the big screen.

"This is our answer."

After the press conference ended, reporters swarmed toward the backstage.

Li Yaozong was surrounded so tightly that not even water could leak through.

"Mr. Li, is Fenghuang really not making smartphones?"

"Mr. Li, what do you think of Apple's iPhone?"

"Mr. Li, how many more years will feature phones remain popular?"

Li Yaozong answered while squeezing his way out, smiling.

"Smartphones? Let's talk after they sell a hundred million units."

"Apple? Good product. But it has nothing to do with us."

"How many more years will feature phones stay hot? At least five years. We'll talk after five years."

Squeezing to the doorway, he suddenly stopped.

He turned back and glanced at those reporters.

"Everyone, the Fenghuang 6th generation goes on sale next month. If you want to write news, write more about this. If you want to write about smartphones, go find someone else."

After saying that, he got into the car and drove away.

That night, the tech headlines of major portal sites:

《Fenghuang Phone Launches 6th-Generation Feature Phone, Li Yaozong Says Smartphones "Not Our Cup of Tea"》

《Li Yaozong: Let's Talk After Smartphones Sell a Hundred Million Units》

《Fenghuang Holds the Feature Phone Line, Saying "The Rice Bowls of 1.1 Billion People Matter More"》

《Fenghuang 6th Generation Released: Can the Upgraded Feature Phone Continue Its Glory? 》

Netizens in the comment section were in an uproar.

Someone said: "Li Yaozong is right—feature phones are cheap and durable, and ordinary people need them."

Someone said: "Fall behind the times, and you'll eventually be eliminated."

Someone said: "Is Fenghuang stupid? Apple's already out, and they still won't follow?"

Someone said: "What do you know? That's called steady and solid progress."

Shenzhen, Tencent headquarters.

Ma Zong stared at that news, silent for a long time.

The person beside him asked: "Ma Zong, what's your take?"

Ma Zong smiled.

"Li Yaozong is just throwing up smoke screens."

"What does that mean?"

"He says he's not making smartphones—do you believe him?"

The person beside him was stunned for a moment.

"You mean……"

Ma Zong shook his head.

"I haven't said anything. But one thing is certain—Fenghuang's phones, Fenghuang Chat, have already taken up so much of our turf. We need to keep an eye on what they plan to do next."

Hangzhou, Alibaba headquarters.

Ma Zong was also looking at that news.

He looked at it for a long time, then laughed.

The person beside him asked: "Ma Zong, what are you laughing at?"

Ma Yun pointed at that news.

"Look at this headline—'Li Yaozong says smartphones are not our cup of tea'."

He paused.

"Do you believe it?"

The person beside him shook his head.

"I don't believe it either," Ma Yun said, "but he put it beautifully. He drew everyone's attention to feature phones. By the time others react, he'll already be far ahead."

He stood up and walked to the window.

"This person is not simple."

Shenzhen, Nanshan R&D Center.

Late at night, 11 p. m., the top floor of Building 7 was brightly lit.

Chen Feng stood before the huge whiteboard, covered front to back with diagrams. Seated beside him were Zhao Ming, Liu Yang, Zhang Lei, Li Xiang, and Wang Bo—the six members of the smartphone core team.

The door opened.

Li Yaozong walked in.

Everyone stood up.

"Have a seat," he waved his hand, walked to the whiteboard, and looked at those diagrams.

SoC architecture diagram. System architecture diagram. Screen structure diagram. Battery structure diagram. Heat dissipation plan diagram. Ecological planning diagram.

He examined them one by one, carefully.

After looking, he turned around.

You all saw today's press conference, right?

Chen Feng nodded.

Seen.

Any thoughts?

Chen Feng thought for a moment.

President Li, you spoke really well today.

Li Yaozong looked at him.

What's good about it?

"So good that..." Chen Feng chuckled, "So good that I almost believed it."

Li Yaozong froze for a moment, then laughed.

"Believing it makes it right." He said, "Only when even our own people believe it will others believe."

He walked back to his seat and sat down.

Everyone, today's show is performed for others to see. But you know where the real battlefield is.

He looked at the people present.

Right here.

In the SoC, in the system, in the screen, in the battery, in the cooling, in the ecosystem.

He paused.

In two years, I want everyone to know that what they believed today is just a smokescreen.

Chen Feng stood up.

President Li, the SoC side is progressing faster than expected.

He pointed to the diagram on the whiteboard.

The CPU core, we've got it running. The frequency can reach 400 megahertz, ten times stronger than the feature phone chip. The GPU part is still being tuned; we expect to have samples by year-end.

Li Yaozong nodded.

Zhao Ming stood up.

On the system side, the kernel is basically stable. The interface is still being tweaked, aiming to be as smooth as Apple's. The application framework is set up, developers can start writing apps.

Liu Yang stood up.

On the screen side, we've settled with the Japanese side. The first batch of samples will arrive in March next year. The resolution is 260 ppi, a bit lower than Apple's, but sufficient.

Zhang Lei stood up.

On the battery side, capacity has reached 2000 milliamp-hours. Standby for a day is no problem. Fast charging is still being worked on; the goal is to charge 50% in half an hour.

Li Xiang stood up.

On the cooling side, the heat pipe solution is set. In sample testing, the temperature is five degrees lower than that of graphite sheets.

Wang Bo stood up.

On the ecosystem side, the developer conference is set for May next year. Over three hundred developers have already signed up.

Li Yaozong listened to their reports one by one, his face showing little expression.

After everyone had finished speaking, he then spoke.

"Progress is faster than I thought." He said, "But it's still not fast enough."

He stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, Shenzhen's night was deep. In the distance, the lights at the foothills of Nanshan looked like a carpet of stars.

Everyone, we are now racing against time. Apple, Google, Microsoft are all making smartphones. Since we started late, we have to run fast.

He turned around.

In two years, I want to see the Phoenix smartphone placed next to Apple's.

At 1 a. m., Li Yaozong left the R&D center.

The car drove past Shen Nan Avenue, the outside glittering with lights. This city where he had lived for forty-one years remained bustling in the night.

The phone vibrated once.

It was a message from Chen Feng:

President Li, regarding what you said today—"Let's talk again after smartphones sell a hundred million units"—I've thought about it and think we can take it seriously.

In two years, let's make it sell a hundred million units.

Li Yaozong looked at that message and remained silent for a long time.

Then he replied with a single character:

Good.

After sending it, he raised his head and looked at the night sky outside the window.

Shenzhen's night sky has no visible stars.

But he knew the stars were there.

Just like those still working overtime, those still writing code, those still drawing schematics.

They are the stars.

The next day, the tech sections of major media were filled with news about the Phoenix sixth generation.

《Phoenix Sixth Generation Released, Feature Phone Upgraded Again》

《Li Yaozong: Feature Phones Can Still Burn for Five Years》

《Phoenix Holds the Feature Phone Line, Smartphones Not Yet Considered》

People from Tencent and Alibaba looked at that news, half-believing, half-doubting.

But what they didn't know was—

On the top floor of Building Seven of the Nanshan Research and Development Center, that lamp stayed lit through the night.

Another night.