bookmarkrole Chapter 236 Anti-calcium
Chapter 236 Anti-calcium
At 11:01 AM, in the temporary dean's office on the right side of the first floor of the main building.
Tao Bingwen went out.
Before he left, he said he wanted to talk to the thirty-odd young men from Harbin that the Quantum Correction Group had brought back. After they quietly closed the door, only Su Chen and Lin Wei remained in the dean's room.
Lin Wei raised her watch and glanced at it.
"Harvey Lindbergh," she said softly, "departs from San Francisco at 3:31 this morning. Lands in Pudong at 8:00 tomorrow morning."
Su Chen nodded.
He took out his phone. The notification that popped up from the Vilan Legal Affairs backend had been sent just three minutes earlier: "The Legal Affairs Department has just received a reply from Harvey Lindbergh: 'Accepting the invitation to the Shanghai talks.'"
"He answered," he said.
Lin Wei lowered her head.
He looked at the name on the plaque in his hand: Harvey Lindbergh, President of Synopsys Asia Pacific, PhD from Berkeley, mentored by the maintainer of Berkeley SPICE's second-generation core, personally involved in eleven acquisitions, and adjudicated twenty-three lawsuits.
She was the one who compiled the list. She received the list from Wenwei at six o'clock this morning.
But the list itself isn't the problem. The problem is why this one person on the list is the one Wei Lan proactively sent out today, the one she personally asked someone to make the long journey for.
"You choose him," she said.
"Point to him."
Why?
Su Chen put his phone back on the table.
He glanced at the black-covered notebook on the table. The page Webber had handed him five days ago was still on top of it.
"Yesterday at 12:20 pm," he said, "the show with He Zhaoming."
Lin Wei nodded.
"He Zhaoming took out five things," Su Chen said. "Six names, a chain, a sign, a question he didn't answer, and a FabFour-EDA. These five things were trending on social media before 3 a.m. today."
"Is this what he wanted—to trend on social media?"
"The trending topics weren't what he wanted," Su Chen said. "They were what Harvey Lindbergh wanted."
Lin Wei raised her head.
She understood.
He Zhaoming's interview yesterday noon wasn't about recruiting Qiming. It was about letting Harvey's side hear a message: "Did Qiming take the wrong path from the beginning?" He didn't respond to that question. He couldn't respond to that question. But Harvey heard his silence.
"He Zhaoming took one out and didn't return it," Su Chen said. "He reported it to Harvey."
Lin Wei lowered her head.
She understood. Yesterday at noon, He Zhaoming's interview appeared to be a push for Qiming. However, in his own interview today, He Zhaoming wasn't actually opposing Qiming. He was making a move. Harvey had to accept this move before 3:31 this morning. "Accept" meant accepting the move; he couldn't refuse. If he didn't, Harvey's reputation as a CEO—"personally involved in eleven acquisitions and approved twenty-three lawsuits"—would be diminished.
"Why did he make this trip?" Lin Wei asked.
"He thought," Su Chen said, "that he could get a piece of meat from Qifeng Courtyard by making this trip."
Which part?
"Third-order thermoelastic coupling".
Lin Wei paused.
The paper on third-order thermoelastic coupling, published by Su Chen in March of this year, was taken over by Nature Materials in June, and I checked it in late last month. That paper contains 3 independently reproduced data, 147 formulas, 67 figures and tables, and 47 references. The core algorithm behind the five cubes in the second layer of Zhangzhou Qiming's products originated from that paper.
That article is the piece of meat behind Qiming's product roadmap.
"Why did he think he could take it?" Lin Wei asked.
"He saw that others were on the shelf," Su Chen said. "In this paper, the sixth author is Ishikawa Akira. He reported this morning to the group leader of the third-ranked quantum correction and above nonlinear extension group."
He paused for a moment.
Harvey believed that the true implementer of the core algorithm behind this paper was Akira Ishikawa. Harvey believed that as long as he could obtain global ownership of the algorithm patent for this paper, plus a seat on the board of directors of Qifeng Institute, he would not need the FabFour-EDA chain; he could control the core of Qifeng on his own. With control of the core of Qifeng, it wouldn't matter how far Qiming went.
Lin Wei nodded gently.
She understood.
"Then he's wrong," she said.
"He's wrong," Su Chen said.
You both lowered your heads at the same time.
The core algorithm behind that paper wasn't developed by Ishikawa Akira alone. The only person capable of independently reproducing all the derivations, providing all the parameter tuning reports, and reproducing all the redundant experimental records is Su Zhao, a resident engineer at Vilan. Su Zhao, 44 years old, came from the MEMS division of Shanghai University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was recruited by Vilan in 2023. The joint agreement between Shanghai University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Vilan in June 2024 included a permanent binding clause for five or more years. Su Zhao is currently the only resident engineer at Vilan who has simultaneously worked on all five modules of Qiming's second-layer product, one of the five directions of quantum correction at Qifeng Institute, and the site selection for the Suzhou Materials Calibration Center, which is scheduled to begin this afternoon.
He was the true confidant behind that paper, the one who truly supported it.
He is not the author's name. He is behind it.
The names that the author, Lie Li, could see were all names on the desktop. He Zhaoming could see them yesterday at noon, Harvey could see them, and Xin Si could see them. But the person under the desktop, He Zhaoming couldn't see them, Harvey couldn't see them, and Xin Si couldn't see them.
It's not that they weren't proactive enough. This is because in the joint agreement between Weilan and China Aviation in June 2024, the permanent binding clause was solely based on the names of key personnel specified in the supplementary appendix, though it was just a formality. That appendix was upgraded to "restricted access" by Weilan's legal department.
No one could see Wei Lan from outside.
"He'll be landing in Pudong at eight o'clock tomorrow morning," Su Chen said.
"What do you want to talk about?" Lin Wei asked.
Su Chen glanced at the black-covered notebook on the table.
He gently placed his hand on the notebook.
"We'll pay $500 million for a permanent license to use one hundred of their 172 MEMS algorithm patents in mainland China," he said.
Lin Wei paused.
He didn't answer.
"He won't answer," Su Chen said.
"How much are you planning to lift?"
"Five hundred million, twelve hundred million."
"He won't answer."
"He didn't answer," Su Chen said. "Only when he didn't answer did he take out the piece he wanted."
Lin Wei looked at him.
She understood.
Whether Harvey accepts the $500 million or $1.2 billion isn't the point. The point is that Harvey came all this way thinking he could get a piece of meat from Qifeng Academy. If he doesn't get that piece of meat, he won't get anything back. If he gets nothing back, there will be one less seat at the conference table behind him for the next year or two.
He can't get it, he absolutely can't get it. Harvey has to take off before 3:31 this morning.
"Anti-calcium," Lin Wei said.
Su Chen nodded.
"The five directions you took to Qifeng Academy at 10:30 this morning," Lin Wei said, "were not for Qifeng Academy's sake. It was to let Harvey hear 'Nonlinear extensions above quantum correction' highlighted as the third direction on the surface. Only when that direction is highlighted will Harvey believe that the part behind the third-order thermo-elastic coupling theory resides in Qifeng Academy. Only when he believes that part resides in Qifeng Academy will he believe he can obtain it."
"Yes," Su Chen said.
"He can't get it," Lin Wei said.
"He can't get it."
They both looked up at the same time.
"Will he understand after he boards the plane?" Lin Wei said.
"No," Su Chen said. "After he lands in Pudong at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, and goes into that negotiation room, he'll understand if he doesn't get what he wants."
He paused for a moment.
"He jumped on the plane back to San Francisco," he said. "He'll understand once he's on the plane."
-
July 8th, 8:00 AM, Pudong Airport.
Harvey Lindbergh, accompanied by six legal counsel and three technical advisors—a group of ten—emerged from an exit gate. A person from Synaptics' Shanghai branch, who had come to pick them up, stopped them.
At the arrivals gate, a man wearing a sun hat and carrying a long lens slung over his shoulder snapped a photo. He was a reporter from CBN (China Business Network). This morning, he received a call from a travel agent: "8:00 AM this morning, Pudong Airport, President of Synaptics Asia Pacific."
He took that photo. That photo was uploaded to CBN's backend at 1:026.
At 9:00 AM, the photo of the Pudong Airport exit appeared in another inconspicuous push notification on the CBN (China Business Network) platform thirty minutes later. The title was: "Synopsys Asia Pacific President Harvey Lindbergh Intervenes in China Business?"
The post was forwarded 12,000 times within 30 minutes.
In the reposts and comments section, one sentence received five thousand likes.
"Oh, this person is here to vouch for the 172 patents that are still in their possession."
At 10:00 AM, a medium-sized VIP room on the fifth floor of a hotel in Lujiazui.
Su Chen, Lin Wei, Assistant Chen, and the three legal counsel from Weilan were positioned to one side. Harvey Lindbergh, his six legal counsel, and three technical consultants were positioned to the other side. In the middle was a long table with a plain tablecloth in the center, completely bare.
Go down to Harvey's place.
He took a document out of his dark blue suit. The document had the Synaptics logo on it.
He gently pushed the file to the center of the table.
"Mr. Su," he said. His Chinese was quite good. During his years of doctoral studies at Berkeley, they had hired a Chinese tutor there.
"Mr. Su," he said, "the invitation your legal department sent last night listed a 'two-track solution with a list of 172 MEMS algorithm patents.'" I boarded the plane.