[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-reborn-starting-from-1993":3,"chapter-reborn-starting-from-1993-reborn-starting-from-1993-chapter-28":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Reborn Starting from 1993",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2357012,4611,"Chapter 28","reborn-starting-from-1993-chapter-28",28,"\u003Cp>Before mobile phones became widespread, the only product that could enable two people separated by thousands of miles to communicate was the landline telephone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if one bought a pager, one still had to use a brick phone or a landline to return the call; brick phones sometimes failed due to poor signal, and most ordinary pager users still had to queue to use a landline to call back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two years ago, Japan’s Sanyo Group launched the telecommunications industry’s first cordless telephone, but it failed to make much of a splash due to too many flaws and immature technology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Dongling intended for Dongling High-Tech to launch a digital cordless telephone that offered superior sound quality, stronger confidentiality, and a wider calling range compared to ordinary cordless phones; its greatest feature was that one digital cordless phone could pair with three or even six sub-units.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pagers would be phased out within a few years and forgotten forever, but landlines would endure; public institutions worldwide—municipal offices, hospitals, fire departments—could never phase out landlines; some emergency units required someone to remain beside the phone twenty-four hours a day, and only landlines could achieve this, ensuring landlines would persist for a very, very long time!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the years before mobile phones became fully widespread, digital cordless telephones would maintain a steady market; even after mobile phones became ubiquitous, they would continue for many years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If managed well, Dongling High-Tech could launch the world’s first digital cordless telephone; this business could sustain itself for many years, perhaps even ten or twenty, and if the devices could be sold overseas, wouldn’t they earn more than pagers?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pagers in China could only earn money from domestic customers, but if Dongling High-Tech’s digital cordless telephones could be sold overseas, that would be cutting foreign Jiucai —wouldn’t that be better than fighting domestic factories for scraps from the pager market?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The key point was that the bulk of pager profits still went to Motorola and other foreign component suppliers; domestic manufacturers only earned meager hard-earned wages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, developing a digital cordless telephone wasn’t easy; beyond technical challenges, getting foreign users to accept it would be necessary—and the latter was far more difficult than the former!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides the digital cordless telephone, the scroll mouse was another product Li Dongling planned for Dongling High-Tech to launch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This product wasn’t about how much profit it could bring Dongling High-Tech; its patent and the reputation it could generate for Dongling High-Tech might far exceed its financial returns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Imagine if the scroll mouse became standard equipment for all computers; how many computers did global manufacturers produce each year? How many mice would they need? Just patent fees alone would be enough to keep Dongling High-Tech well-fed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if the scroll mouse became mainstream, its greater value would lie in elevating Dongling High-Tech’s visibility, allowing the company to establish itself in the tech industry and gain user acceptance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Dongling looked at the two sets of blueprints; for someone trained in design, creating these two products wasn’t difficult—but turning them from paper into reality was far from easy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t like satellite dishes, where you just assembled parts; digital cordless telephones and scroll mice involved precision electronic-mechanical systems, requiring genuine technology and a dedicated R&D team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After studying the blueprints for a long while, Li Dongling packed them away with his notes into the office safe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recruiting technical staff and assembling a team in Pingyang, Li Dongling felt it would be difficult; Pingyang had too few technical talents in this field; if he couldn’t recruit locally, he’d have to go to the provincial capital—or even Pengcheng—to poach talent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Creak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A wooden door opened; Hu Zi, just returned from the train station, stared at the empty courtyard, dusty and disheveled—he hadn’t expected to come back here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Weeds had grown thickly across the yard; Hu Zi carried his bag, pushed open the long-unopened door, and a cloud of dust surged into his face, making him cough several times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ignoring the dirt, Hu Zi tossed his bag inside and sat on a chair, gazing at the old house; he remembered when he’d passed the college entrance exam and, with all his worldly possessions, proudly declared he’d live in a big city and never return.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet now Hu Zi had returned; reflecting on the past decade, he felt it was like a dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Zi was among the earliest to enter university; after graduating from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, he joined a state-owned enterprise in Shanghai and rose to Financial Manager; he once designed a new financial audit process for the company, greatly improving efficiency and earning high praise from management.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After several years in the SOE, as foreign enterprises flooded Shanghai, Hu Zi was poached by a multinational corporation as Deputy Financial Director; he performed exceptionally well, earning an annual salary plus bonuses totaling eighty to ninety thousand yuan—then, and even now, this was unquestionably golden-collar level income!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then came the great rush into business; many of Hu Zi’s former classmates, SOE colleagues, and even current foreign enterprise executives jumped into entrepreneurship, some already amassing millions; this tempted Hu Zi to quit his job and dive into business himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon arriving in Pengcheng, Hu Zi used his expertise to open a financial consulting firm—essentially helping companies with import-export tax processing and tax avoidance; he made a fortune, far exceeding his foreign enterprise earnings, and within months his net worth reached nearly a million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The higher his net worth, the more inflated his ambitions became; especially after hearing rumors from Yazhou, he couldn’t resist joining in; initially, things went smoothly—his company once owned an entire building, with a paper value exceeding eighty million yuan, just a stone’s throw from one hundred million—then, overnight, no one wanted property anymore; his real estate became unsellable, yet bank loans still had to be repaid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Yazhou property prices still seemed stable, even occasionally rising, small firms like Hu Zi’s had already collapsed; sensing trouble, Hu Zi cut his losses, sold off all his properties at a loss, and fled back to Pingyang in disgrace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Trained in finance, Hu Zi had risk awareness; though he’d lost all his earnings, he hadn’t ended up like others—buried in debt, with no chance of redemption, jumping from rooftops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After cleaning the courtyard and spending one night in makeshift conditions, Hu Zi went out in the morning to buy breakfast and several newspapers; his remaining cash was nearly gone; dreams of a comeback—after weathering such storms—he no longer entertained; having nearly stood on a rooftop, his ambition was shattered; now, his priority was finding a job to earn a living and fill his stomach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After scanning several newspaper job ads, Hu Zi grew increasingly disappointed; though he didn’t expect high wages in Pingyang, having once handled vast sums, a monthly accountant’s salary of a few hundred yuan felt like a crushing fall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Zi was even considering going to the provincial capital or returning to Shanghai when he spotted the Pingyang Daily; flipping through the classifieds, he paid no attention—until he saw Dongling High-Tech hiring a Financial Manager, and his gaze froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day, Hu Zi put on the foreign-brand suit and shoes he’d brought back, tidied himself up, and headed toward Changqing Road where Dongling High-Tech was located.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Li, it’s been days now, and no suitable candidates have applied for the Finance, HR, or Tech Manager positions—shouldn’t we go recruit in the provincial capital?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As days passed without finding suitable personnel and Dongling High-Tech couldn’t begin operations, Li Dongling remained calm, but Gao Peng couldn’t hold back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s meant to come will come!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Dongling, holding a copy of the Computer Weekly, newly launched last year by Southwest University and the Chongqing Association for Science and Technology, shook his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As China’s earliest technology newspaper, the Computer Weekly immediately swept the nation, regarded by countless readers as the industry’s barometer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As they spoke, the phone on Li Dongling’s desk rang: “I understand—ask the two of them to wait in the reception room; I’ll meet them in the conference room!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before arriving, Hu Zi had still harbored doubts; in Pengcheng, he’d seen too many frauds—but upon entering Dongling High-Tech and seeing its office environment, no worse than a foreign enterprise, he immediately relaxed; no scammer would set up such an elaborate operation in a small city like Pingyang—how could they even recoup their costs? What’s the point?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After registering at the front desk, Hu Zi was escorted to the reception room by a receptionist dressed in a white Western-style suit, typical of Hong Kong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Entering the reception room, Hu Zi saw a tall woman seated with one leg crossed, wearing a red jacket and blue jeans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Hu Zi enter, the woman looked up from her magazine and nodded; upon seeing her face, Hu Zi paused in surprise, then nodded back and sat on the opposite side of the room; after years of ups and downs, Hu Zi now knew precisely how to maintain proper boundaries and distance.\u003C\u002Fp>",1508,"2026-06-21T04:42:08.057Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","45b68655b3b610de89a3dee3312f8c9a4be3a74f6317fc48eaa87ef05bad3f38","reborn-starting-from-1993-chapter-29","reborn-starting-from-1993-chapter-27",989,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Freborn-starting-from-1993-cover.jpg"]