Chapter 28: What's Coming Will Come

Before mobile phones became popular, the main, or perhaps the only, product that allowed two people thousands of miles apart to talk to each other was the landline telephone.

Even if one bought a pager, one still had to use a "big brother" mobile phone or a landline to call back. Sometimes the "big brother" phone didn't work due to signal reasons. Most ordinary pager users still had to line up to use a landline to call the other party back.

Two years ago, the Sanyo Group in Japan launched the first cordless phone in the telecommunications industry, but it didn't make much of a splash because it had too many shortcomings and the technology was somewhat immature.

The digital cordless phone that Li Dongling wanted Dongling High-Tech to launch would have better sound quality, stronger confidentiality, and a wider communication range compared to ordinary cordless phones. And its biggest feature was that one digital cordless phone could be paired with three or even six handsets.

Pagers would be phased out in a few years and would never be thought of again, but landlines would continue to exist. Public service units around the world, such as municipal governments, hospitals, and fire departments, could not phase out landlines. Some emergency units needed someone to stay by the phone 24 hours a day, and only landlines could do this. This destined landlines to exist for a very, very long time!

And in the years before mobile phones were completely popularized, digital cordless phones would always have a market. Even if mobile phones were popularized in the future, they would continue for many years.

If operated well, Dongling High-Tech could launch the world's first digital cordless phone. This business could be maintained for many years, perhaps even ten, twenty years. If the machines could be sold abroad, wouldn't that be more profitable than pagers?!

Pagers in China were at most earning money from our own people. If Dongling High-Tech's digital cordless phones could be sold abroad, that would be harvesting foreign leeks. Wouldn't that be better than fighting for scraps with other factories in China?

The key was that the bulk of the pager business was taken by Motorola and other foreign key component manufacturers, and domestic manufacturers were just earning hard-earned money.

Of course, making a digital cordless phone was not that easy. Besides the technology, to sell it abroad, one also needed to make foreign users accept it, and the latter was even more difficult than the former!

Besides the digital cordless phone, the scroll-wheel mouse was another product Li Dongling was prepared to let Dongling High-Tech launch.

This product was not about how much profit it could earn for Dongling High-Tech, but its patents and the reputation it could bring to Dongling High-Tech, which might far exceed its profits.

Think about it, if the scroll-wheel mouse could become the standard for computer mice, how many computers would global computer manufacturers produce every year, and how many mice would they need? The patent fees alone would be enough for Dongling High-Tech to be well-fed.

And if the scroll-wheel mouse could become mainstream, it would more importantly improve Dongling High-Tech's visibility, allowing Dongling High-Tech to establish a foothold in the tech industry and be accepted by users!

Li Dongling looked at the two blueprints in his hands. For Li Dongling, who came from a design background, designing these two products was not a difficult task. But wanting to turn them from blueprints into reality was not such an easy matter.

This was not like a satellite dish, where one just needed to get the components and assemble them. Digital cordless phones and scroll-wheel mice both involved precision electronic machinery, requiring real technology and an R&D team.

After looking at the blueprints in his hands for a long time, Li Dongling put the blueprints and the draft paper together and stored them in the office safe.

Recruiting technical personnel in Pingyang and building a technical team, Li Dongling felt it was probably somewhat difficult. There were too few technical talents in this area in Pingyang. If he couldn't recruit them, Li Dongling would only be able to go to the provincial capital or even Pengcheng to poach people.

"Creak."

A wooden door was pushed open. Hu Zixian, who had just returned from the train station, looked at the empty courtyard, covered in dust. He didn't expect that he would return here again.

The courtyard had grown quite a few weeds. Hu Zixian carried his bag and pushed open the door that hadn't been opened for many years. A burst of dust rushed toward him, making Hu Zixian cough several times.

Not caring whether it was dirty or not, Hu Zixian threw his bag inside and sat on a chair. Looking at the old house before him, Hu Zixian remembered that when he was admitted to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, he carried his only belongings and shouted spiritedly that he would live in a big city in the future and would never return.

But now, Hu Zixian had returned after all. Recalling his experiences over the past ten-plus years, he felt it was just like a dream.

Hu Zixian was one of the first batch of people to be admitted to university. After entering Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Hu Zixian graduated and entered a state-owned enterprise in Shanghai, rising all the way to Finance Manager. He had even designed a new financial audit process for that state-owned enterprise, which greatly improved audit efficiency and was highly praised by the state-owned enterprise leaders.

After several years in the state-owned enterprise, foreign companies began to arrive in Shanghai on a large scale, and Hu Zixian was poached by a multinational company to serve as Deputy Finance Director, also doing an excellent job. At that time, his salary was already an annual salary. With his salary plus bonuses, he could get eighty or ninety thousand yuan a year. Not to mention at that time, even now, it was definitely at the gold-collar level.

But afterward, it was the time when "ten thousand horses went to sea." Hu Zixian's alumni, former colleagues in state-owned enterprises, and current executives in foreign companies, many of them went to sea, and some had even earned a net worth of a million, which made Hu Zixian unable to resist resigning from his foreign company job and starting to go to sea.

Upon arriving in Pengcheng, Hu Zixian relied on his profession to open a financial consulting company. To put it bluntly, it was helping those companies handle import and export tax processing, as well as some tax avoidance matters. This allowed Hu Zixian to earn a big sum, much more than he earned in a foreign company. In a few months, his net worth reached nearly a million.

The higher his net worth, the more Hu Zixian's heart expanded. Especially after hearing the news from Yazhou, he couldn't resist joining in. At first, it was indeed smooth. At its peak, the company Hu Zixian held had a whole building of houses, with a paper value exceeding 80 million, and he was just a few steps away from 100 million. Then, overnight, it seemed no one wanted houses anymore. The properties in Hu Zixian's hands began to be unsellable, and the money borrowed from the bank still had to be repaid.

Now, although the housing prices in Yazhou seemed to be able to hold on, and news of them rising again came from time to time, small companies like Hu Zixian's were the first to be unable to hold on. Hu Zixian, who sensed something was wrong, cut his losses and was willing to admit defeat, selling off those properties at a loss, and then fled back to Pingyang in a sorry state.

Hu Zixian came from a finance background and had risk awareness. Although what he earned over the years was all put in, he finally didn't end up like those others who owed a mountain of debt and had no chance to turn their lives around, jumping directly from the rooftop.

After cleaning up the courtyard, Hu Zixian, who had made do for a night, went out in the morning to buy breakfast and also bought several newspapers. Now, the money he had left was very little. As for making a comeback, Hu Zixian, who had experienced big storms, didn't want to think about it at all. Having almost been on the rooftop, his ambition had been shattered. Now, the most important thing was to find a way to make a living and fill his stomach.

After reading the recruitment ads in several newspapers in a row, Hu Zixian became more and more disappointed. Although he didn't expect the wages in Pingyang to be very high, after all, he had handled so much money before, and a monthly accounting salary of a few hundred yuan really made him feel the gap was too big.

Hu Zixian was starting to think about whether to go to the provincial capital or go to Shanghai again, when he saw the Pingyang Daily newspaper. When he flipped to the recruitment section, Hu Zixian hadn't paid attention at first, but seeing Dongling High-Tech recruiting a Finance Manager made his gaze pause.

The next day, Hu Zixian put on the foreign brand suit and leather shoes he had specifically brought back in his bag, tidied himself up, and rushed toward Changqing Road, where Dongling High-Tech was located.

"Brother Li, it's been several days now, and no suitable person has come to apply for the positions of Finance, HR, or Technical Department Manager. Should we go to the provincial capital to recruit people?!"

Seeing that several days had passed and no suitable personnel had been found, Dongling High-Tech couldn't start its business. Li Dongling wasn't anxious yet, but Gao Peng couldn't hold back anymore.

"What's coming will come!"

Li Dongling, who was holding a copy of the Computer News just published last year by Southwest University and the Shancheng Science and Technology Association, shook his head and said.

As the first tech newspaper launched in China, the Computer News became popular across the country as soon as it was released. Countless people regarded it as a weather vane for the tech industry.

Just as they were talking, the phone on Li Dongling's desk rang. "I know. Please ask the two of them to go to the reception room first. I will go to the conference room to meet them!"

Before Hu Zixian came, he actually still had doubts. In Pengcheng, he had seen too many scammers. But after entering Dongling High-Tech and seeing the office environment inside, which was not much worse than those foreign companies, Hu Zixian immediately felt at ease. Ordinary scammers wouldn't set up such a big show in a city like Pingyang to scam people. They might not even be able to break even after the scam, so what for?

After registering at the front desk, Hu Zixian was taken to the reception room by the receptionist, who was wearing a white women's suit common in Hong Kong.

As soon as he entered the reception room, Hu Zixian saw a tall woman sitting inside, wearing a red jacket on her upper body and blue jeans on her legs, sitting there with her legs crossed.

Seeing Hu Zixian enter, the woman looked up from the magazine and nodded at him. Hu Zixian was also stunned for a moment after seeing the woman's face, then nodded and sat on the other side of the reception room. After so many years and experiencing ups and downs, Hu Zixian already knew how to grasp the sense of proportion and distance. ===== CHAPTER 29 =====