Chapter 44: Excellence

After Liu Shaosong and Fei Xianghui left, Fu Chuanyi wandered around the study and found a sticky note on the computer desk. Seeing professional terms he couldn't understand, such as "Browser," "HTML," "GIF," "JPEG," and "Open Source," he felt a bit confused, so he had to return to the living room to continue watching television and killing time.

By around 5 o'clock, Fu Wenjing returned holding Qingqing. Seeing the house was cold and quiet, with not even the lights turned on, she was a bit surprised and asked, "Dad, where is Shaosong?"

"He went to find University President Song with Fei Xianghui; they haven't returned yet."

"What are they going to find University President Song for?"

Seeing that Qingqing was asleep, Fu Chuanyi hurriedly stood up to take her, placed her carefully on the sofa, and explained, "It's for that Di Ye; they said they want to do everything possible to keep him at Yun University."

Fu Wenjing turned on the living room's main light, found a blanket to cover Qingqing, and said, "That's work for Dean Fei to do; why is Shaosong joining in the fun?"

Fu Chuanyi felt his daughter was too naive and didn't realize the conflict of interests involved, so he analyzed it tirelessly: "Shaosong is Di Ye's Graduation Thesis Advisor; there is a master-disciple relationship. If Di Ye can truly achieve great things in the future, Shaosong will also rise with the tide. How can you call that joining in the fun?"

Fu Wenjing sneered and retorted, "If Di Ye can truly achieve great things, then no matter where he is, Shaosong will rise with the tide. If you insist on restricting him to the small pond that is Yun University, you might delay him, and he might not be able to achieve great things after all."

Fu Chuanyi was left speechless by the rebuttal and had no choice but to continue watching television with a dark face.

A dozen minutes later, Liu Shaosong returned and said to Fu Chuanyi, "University President Song takes this very seriously and asked me to find a time to bring Di Ye to see him."

Having been rebuffed earlier, Fu Chuanyi was no longer as fanatical and asked, "Di Ye is just an Undergraduate, and you are a Doctoral Student who returned from studying abroad. Before you left, you said he had already surpassed you. What exactly is going on?"

Liu Shaosong bent over to look at Qingqing, and seeing she was sleeping soundly, he sat down nearby and explained, "Computers have many application directions. In recent years, the Internet has been the most popular. Di Ye has extremely high talent in this area, and he plans to develop a revolutionary browser..."

"Wait a moment, what is this 'browser' thing?"

Because Fu Chuanyi knew nothing about computers, Liu Shaosong felt he couldn't explain clearly to him what a browser was. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Dad, you don't need to know what a browser is. You only need to know that if Di Ye succeeds in developing it, he will definitely become an Academician in the future."

Yun University currently didn't have a single Academician. Fu Chuanyi was shocked by this assessment and asked with excitement, "Are you sure he can become an Academician?"

Liu Shaosong had already finished being excited and was relatively calm now, emphasizing, "If the development is successful, there will definitely be no problem."

"Then can he succeed in developing it?"

Liu Shaosong shook his head and smiled bitterly, "I don't know, because to develop a browser, one must have the Internet, and Yuncheng doesn't have the Internet yet."

Fu Chuanyi was stunned by this and asked, "Then how did he think of developing this 'browser' thing?"

"He went to Pengcheng once before the Spring Festival and came into contact with the Internet there. He discovered that the few currently popular browsers had many problems. After returning from Pengcheng, he thought of several concrete technical solutions based on these problems, and every solution is very pioneering..."

When Liu Shaosong reached this point in his introduction, he took off his rimless glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and then continued, "Dad, do you know how long he was in contact with the Internet in Pengcheng?"

"How long?"

"A total of less than 10 hours."

Liu Shaosong put his glasses back on and concluded, "That's why I said his talent is extremely high and he has already surpassed me, because I used the Internet in Dongying for over a year, yet I never thought of the problems he thought of, let alone how to solve them."

Fu Chuanyi was silent for a moment, then asked, "What is the Internet? Why doesn't Yuncheng have it?"

"The Internet is somewhat similar to a telephone network; it requires the Post and Telecommunications Bureau to open it. There is no movement in Yuncheng yet, but University President Song said he would go to inquire about it in a few days."

"In a few days? In a few days, the opportunity will have passed! I'll go to the Municipal Post and Telecommunications Bureau to inquire tomorrow morning."

Liu Shaosong was amused by his father-in-law's childishness and pacified him, "Dad, tomorrow is Saturday; the leaders at the Post and Telecommunications Bureau might not be at work. Besides, there's no use in you being anxious; setting up the Internet isn't something that can be completed in a day or two."

"Does Jinling have the Internet?"

"Currently, only Beijing and Pujiang have opened the Internet nationwide. Pengcheng might have opened it in the last few days, but Jinling probably doesn't have it yet."

Hearing this, Fu Chuanyi relaxed quite a bit. Just then, Qingqing woke up, so he accompanied his granddaughter to play and stopped talking about the topic of Di Ye.

After eating dinner, Liu Shaosong took a flyer out of the study and said to Fu Wenjing, "Di Ye opened a Flagship Store next to the Tianma Cinema to rent VCD discs. Tomorrow is the trial opening. You should ask a few friends to go over and take a look to show him some support."

Fu Wenjing took it and looked at it, seeing an activity where topping up 2500 would get a VCD Player as a gift, and asked, "This gifted VCD Player is modified from a CD Player, right? I remember you saying that this kind of machine has poor quality and is unstable at reading discs."

"The quality isn't great, but Di Ye guaranteed to me that he would import a batch of VCD Players produced by legitimate manufacturers next month. By then, Yun University faculty and staff can use their credentials to exchange for a brand-new one."

Fu Wenjing was somewhat tempted. While looking at the content on the flyer, she said, "That's not bad. If they have a lot of movie discs, I'll go get a membership."

"You should just get one directly. Di Ye said he sent employees to Guangdong Province to buy 500 movies, including that *The Shawshank Redemption* recommended in today's *Yuncheng Evening News*."

Fu Wenjing liked watching art films and was pleasantly surprised. She looked up and asked, "Really?"

Liu Shaosong couldn't help but laugh and said, "Of course it's true. The film review column in the *Yuncheng Evening News* is called 'Yingfeng Talks Movies.' Yingfeng is the name of Di Ye's company, and that film review was written by him."

Fu Wenjing clicked her tongue in wonder and praised, "He really is multi-talented."

Liu Shaosong had no interest in movies and disagreed, "A person's energy is limited. For him to be doing everything like this is a waste of time. I have to find an opportunity to persuade him to watch fewer movies in his spare time."

"People aren't machines; they have to have some spiritual enjoyment, otherwise living is too tiring. Don't you also often listen to music while programming?"

"Listening to music doesn't affect my thinking and typing, but watching movies makes it impossible to think or type."

Fu Chuanyi had been setting off small fireworks with Qingqing in the courtyard. After returning to the house and seeing the flyer, hearing that it was something Di Ye had organized, he blew his beard and stared, saying, "He is still a student at school; how can he go into business? It's complete nonsense. Shaosong, you must properly discipline him."

Fu Wenjing rolled her eyes at him and argued, "Di Ye is a university student, not a middle school student; he is already an adult. Using his winter break to do business isn't illegal. Shaosong is only his Graduation Thesis Advisor, so why should he discipline him?"

Seeing the father and daughter at loggerheads with high tempers, Liu Shaosong hurriedly put out the fire, "Di Ye's disc rental shop business is very good; he can earn at least a thousand yuan every day. Even if I could discipline him, there's no need to ask for trouble by doing so."

Fu Chuanyi had worked in academic administration for decades and had come into contact with tens of thousands of students, boasting that he could handle any kind of troublemaker. However, at this moment, he felt like a mouse trying to pull a turtle—having no way to start. He couldn't help but sigh and said in a tone that was hard to tell if it was praise or disparagement, "He really is overflowing with talent."

"Do you mean wealth as in 'fortune'?"

"Talent as in 'giftedness'! Qingqing, your mother isn't being good; she always makes your grandfather angry. Will you help grandfather make mother angry?"

"No, I love mother the most."

Fu Wenjing was overjoyed, picked up Qingqing, kissed her, and said, "Good baby, tomorrow mother will buy you something delicious."

Fu Chuanyi had no way to deal with his granddaughter and was extremely depressed, so he had to go to the courtyard outside to smoke. Liu Shaosong followed him out, lit a cigarette, and said, "Dad, based on my understanding of Di Ye, if he didn't want to stay at Yun University, he wouldn't have talked to me and Dean Fei about the browser this afternoon at all."

"What do you mean?"

"He is waiting for a better price. If Yun University can meet his requirements, he will stay; if not, he will go to Jinling University."

Fu Chuanyi exhaled a puff of smoke and laughed, scolding, "This kid! Shaosong, don't interfere with the matter of Di Ye staying at the school in the future. Wenjing is right; the pond that is Yun University is too small. If he is truly a dragon, forcing him to stay will only delay him."

Liu Shaosong nodded and said, "I think it's best for Di Ye to go study abroad in the United States, because the domestic Internet industry is currently a blank slate; it lacks both academic research and commercial applications. Any university here will delay his growth."

"Studying abroad isn't easy. If you have connections, you can help him make contact and build some goodwill."

"I'll contact some former classmates in the next few days to see if there's an opportunity."

Fu Chuanyi nodded, then remembered something and asked, "How is Di Ye's graduation thesis actually written?"

"The quality is quite high. Dean Fei suggested he submit it to the *Computer Journal*."

The *Computer Journal* was a top-tier journal in the domestic computer field. Fu Chuanyi had heard of it and exclaimed in wonder, "It's very difficult even for Doctoral Students to publish papers in this magazine. Can a paper written by an Undergraduate pass the review?"

"There shouldn't be a problem. Actually, that paper could have been published in an international SCI journal, but the review cycle for mail-in submissions is too long. By the time it was published, Di Ye would have already graduated, so Dean Fei told him to publish it in the *Computer Journal*, saying he could find someone to help cut the line, and it could be published in about three or four months."

"If that's the case, then he must be the most outstanding undergraduate student since the founding of Yun University."

"I think he must be the most outstanding undergraduate student in all of China in 1995."