Chapter 144: Sirius

After exchanging pleasantries for a moment with the supervisors of the Dongling Gao Ke Industrial Park, Duan Youli handed several application forms to Song Yajun, Tao Zhiliang, and the others with a beaming smile.

"You all must have heard the news that our factory is going to build residential buildings for employees, right? There are five hundred spots in the first batch. Old Song, Old Tao, you both have a share; you can fill out an application. Also..."

Duan Youli pointed to the application forms, "The headquarters has given our industrial park one hundred and fifty application spots. It is the department with the most application spots in Dongling Gao Ke, excluding the Technical Department. You can recommend a list!"

Duan Youli's words filled Song Yajun and the others with joy. They were the first group to have the qualifications to apply for housing. However, the latter part of his sentence left supervisors like Song Yajun and Tao Zhiliang with faces that held both joy and worry.

Duan Youli had allocated a few recommendation spots for the staff housing to Tao Zhiliang and the others, which was enough to show how much Duan Youli valued them. But how to distribute the list made things a bit difficult for them; the people under them would certainly all want to apply for a spot!

Tao Zhiliang wanted to speak, but Duan Youli waved his hand to interrupt him, so they had no choice but to leave the office first.

Watching the group leave, Duan Youli looked at their figures. He was clear that the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters was using these housing application spots to attract and retain talent.

In fact, besides these five hundred modernized residential buildings, the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters was also preparing to build a batch of villas in Pingyang to reward high-level executives at the manager level or technical personnel who had made significant contributions to Dongling Gao Ke. With Duan Youli's position, he was also qualified to receive one such villa.

Regarding the old workhorses like Song Yajun and the production supervisor Tao Zhiliang, Duan Youli knew their temperaments. For these people who truly got things done, Duan Youli had a high tolerance. Even if they made mistakes, as long as they weren't irreparable, major errors, he would generally just criticize them a few times or laugh it off.

But for personnel in other departments of the industrial park, Duan Youli was much stricter. This time, letting the department heads of the industrial park distribute the housing spots themselves was also a test or an inspection. If anyone truly took the opportunity to stir up trouble or engage in under-the-table maneuvers, he wouldn't mind firing another batch of people.

Duan Youli's performance since arriving at the Dongling Gao Ke Industrial Park, regardless of how controversial it was, had made his capabilities obvious to all. Especially when he had argued with Zhang Ao earlier, Li Dongling had supported him at the last moment; otherwise, he would have been forced to run away long ago.

As for letting that Sales Department staff member stay for a few more months and finally giving them a sum of money to leave, that was for the sake of Zhang Ao's face.

When Zhang Ao returned from Europe, regardless of whether he was willing or not, he still brought a gift for Duan Youli. The two of them shared a drink in the courtyard behind the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters, which could be considered letting bygones be bygones.

As for whether there was truly no lingering resentment between the two, that was something Duan Youli couldn't control. His style of doing things was just like that. Although everyone said he was from General Manager Ren Yuefeng's faction, at critical moments, even Ren Yuefeng couldn't restrain him.

However, since arriving at the Dongling Gao Ke Industrial Park, Duan Youli was quite satisfied. Besides the affairs of the industrial park, the most important thing was the support from headquarters, or rather, the support from Li Dongling!

The news that Dongling Gao Ke was going to issue year-end bonuses and start building employee residential buildings spread like the wind. As the end of the year approached, this news was simply too stimulating to the nerves of countless people.

Especially since the situation for local state-owned companies and factories in Pingyang was going from bad to worse. Factories that were in arrears or had stopped paying wages began to appear constantly, and even the word "laid-off," which had never appeared on the heads of state-owned enterprises in the past few decades, began to appear constantly in people's ears or in newspapers.

Against this backdrop, frontline production workers at Dongling Gao Ke could receive bonuses of nearly two thousand yuan, and they also had the opportunity to apply for housing with independent kitchens, water heaters, and flush toilets. This contrast was simply too strong!

Almost without Dongling Gao Ke needing to shout it out themselves, there were countless "mouthpieces" who publicized it for them. For a time, within Hanxi Province, and even including the provincial capital, countless people cast their eyes toward Dongling Gao Ke. The number of people who wanted to work at Dongling Gao Ke was countless, and another large group of people were trying every means possible to join Dongling Gao Ke.

This kind of spontaneous publicity, where people heard the news from their own aunts and uncles, was far more effective than Dongling Gao Ke running advertisements themselves!

It was hard to say how effective it was in other provinces, but within Hanxi Province, quite a few college students or people with technical skills were indeed preparing to defect to Dongling Gao Ke, or were making Dongling Gao Ke their first choice for employment.

And within the domestic tech industry, rumors of Dongling Gao Ke being "nouveau riche" began to spread, causing quite a few technical personnel at tech companies to feel restless for a time, with some even running away directly to head toward Dongling Gao Ke.

This made quite a few companies curse Dongling Gao Ke for not following the rules of the martial arts world, saying they were just showing off because they had a bit of stinking money, snatching away their technical personnel. But no matter how they cursed, when Dongling Gao Ke raised a flag, it let quite a few domestic technical practitioners see that it turned out there were companies willing to give technical personnel high salaries, treatment, and benefits, rather than being unwelcome everywhere.

Influenced by Dongling Gao Ke, various tech companies, fearing that too many technical personnel would run away, whether voluntarily or passively, all increased the benefits for their technical personnel for a time. This was perhaps the first direct impact Dongling Gao Ke had had on the tech industry since its establishment, but no one expected it to be in this way.

……

At Dongxin Semiconductor in the Hanxi provincial capital, Tan Minghua had come along with his mentor, Liu Youguo. He was already familiar with Dongxin Semiconductor, having visited many times during this period.

Dongxin Semiconductor had cooperative projects with the Joint Laboratory and Hanxi Jiaotong University. Especially because of technical bigwigs like Ni Guangnan, Zhou Shi, Wang Xia, and Zhang Shiying, Tan Minghua's mentor, Liu Youguo, had also become much more diligent in coming here.

"The notification came down yesterday; he will be rushing over today. It's just as well; let him see our R&D results!"

Ni Guangnan was talking with Liu Youguo. On the experimental bench in front of them lay a chip. Looking at that system-level chip, both Ni Guangnan and Liu Youguo had smiles on their faces, along with a hint of sighing and emotion.

Tan Minghua naturally knew who the person Ni Guangnan and the other were referring to. Besides Li Dongling, who had invested in the Joint Laboratory and established this Dongxin Semiconductor company, who else could it be? Among all the companies in the entire tech industry, Dongxin Semiconductor was currently the only one still insisting on independently researching and developing chips!

"I heard that Dongling Gao Ke has issued year-end bonuses and also issued housing. Over at Hanxi Jiaotong University, quite a few professors want to go to Dongling Gao Ke."

Liu Youguo said to Ni Guangnan with a smile. Both of them were people dedicated to technology. Having interacted many times in the provincial capital, their relationship was now very close.

Ni Guangnan had no intention of hiding it either. "They did indeed issue rewards: a 500,000 yuan bonus, plus a set of housing in the provincial capital, or in Yanjing or Shanghai."

"It would be great if they could really come. We are truly lacking good technical personnel here. If they could come and help me research and develop computer chips, I would be willing to split the bonus with them!"

Liu Youguo was shocked to hear this. He hadn't expected that Dongling Gao Ke could really issue such a large bonus to Ni Guangnan, plus a set of housing. At this moment, Professor Liu Youguo also felt a bit sour.

Although last time, he led his team to help Dongling Gao Ke develop the "Cow Dung" chip for electronic pet machines and finally received a million-yuan reward, Hanxi Jiaotong University took a portion of that money, plus a portion was split for the college, and a portion was split for team members like Tan Minghua. In the end, what reached his hands was only about 260,000 yuan. This sum was already considered a huge fortune, equivalent to his salary for several decades.

But compared to the treatment Dongling Gao Ke gave Ni Guangnan, these rewards were nothing, not to mention there was also a set of new housing.

Tan Minghua, who was on the side, also felt a bit shocked, but couldn't help but feel envious. At this moment, Ni Guangnan's treatment made him believe that technology was useful. If he had the opportunity to reach Ni Guangnan's level, would he also be able to have this kind of treatment—a specially equipped car and driver, a year-end bonus of several hundred thousand, a small villa, and so on? For a time, Tan Minghua's imagination ran wild.

"When he comes over, I want to suggest to him that we recruit some more chip technical personnel. I plan to invite Huang Lingyi from the Institute of Computing Technology to Dongxin Semiconductor. Leading the team by myself, I am truly stretched too thin!"

Ni Guangnan did not hide his obsession with computer chips. For him now, money was already an external object. Currently, Dongxin Semiconductor's tasks were truly too heavy. They had to prioritize researching and developing chips for products like the Shenzhou telephone and Feiyan radio on Dongling Gao Ke's side, and only then could he have the time and funding to research and develop computer chips. He was truly too busy; if he didn't invite helpers over, he truly couldn't handle it.

"Academician Ni, Professor Liu, Senior Brother Tan!"

After Li Dongling arrived at Dongxin Semiconductor, he exchanged pleasantries with the group. "Next week, Dongling Gao Ke will hold its annual meeting. At that time, I will send a car over; Academician Ni, you all should go together to attend!"

Ni Guangnan didn't want to waste time at that kind of gathering. Having that energy to research and develop chips for a while longer was better than anything else.

But since Li Dongling said it personally, and for an occasion like the annual meeting, inviting him over also had a hint of publicizing that Dongling Gao Ke valued technical talent. If he didn't go, it was inevitable that gossip would occur. In the end, he nodded and agreed.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Ni Guangnan and the others, Li Dongling went up to the photolithography machine department to talk with Zhou Shi, Wang Xia, Zhang Shiying, and the others for a while.

After coming down, Li Dongling headed straight for the chip department's laboratory. "The chip for the Shenzhou telephone has been successfully researched and developed?!"

"It has already been developed. It is a single-chip solution that can support caller ID, voice broadcasting, recording ringtones, and also functions like automatic IP dialing, alarm clocks, and long-distance locking," Ni Guangnan said in a deep voice.

"How does it compare to the performance and cost of the chip Toshiba supplies to Shenzhou?!" Li Dongling asked the key question.

Ni Guangnan said, "The performance is on par with Toshiba's. It's just that some functions might not be as good as Toshiba's, but it also has functions that Toshiba doesn't have. It can only be said that they are evenly matched. The cost is less than two-thirds of Toshiba's chip. If we let a domestic chip factory produce it, then the final cost might be suppressed to one-third, or even one-fourth, of Toshiba's level!"

"That's enough!" Li Dongling looked at this chip and couldn't help but say. For Dongling Gao Ke, this kind of performance and cost was already enough.

"This chip hasn't been named yet!" Ni Guangnan gave the naming rights for the first domestic telephone chip to Li Dongling.

"Let's call it Sirius!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 145 =====