Chapter 129 - The Ordinary Su Yuanshan
After Yuanchip's Tech Park was officially put into use, each of Yuanchip's teams resumed their expansion efforts.
This time, however, the largest number of hires was for various administrative departments.
At the same time, Yuanchip directly implemented a modern corporate administrative structure based on its logistics foundation.
An Administrative Center was established, under which fell the Office, the Administration Department, and the Human Resources Department.
Under the Administration Department, there were further subdivisions: Logistics, Cafeteria, and Security.
At the same time, Yuanchip launched its long-prepared P/M ranking system, separating technical and administrative positions.
To help everyone quickly adapt and avoid confusion, Yuanchip also chose to grant a major year-end salary increase.
For now, the P-track (Professional) was divided into ten levels.
P1 to P3 were designated for interns, starting from associate degrees.
P4 marked the beginning for bachelor's degree holders, P5 for master's graduates, and P6 for those with Ph.D.s or equivalent experience.
P7 was for specialists, P8 for senior specialists, P9 for principal specialists, and P10 represented more of an honorary title.
Currently, Yuanchip had only one P10 — Professor Su Xinghe.
And only one P9 — Xi Xiaoding.
The M-track (Management) was similarly divided into ten levels, from M1 (entry-level admin) up to M10 (Chairman).
At the moment, the highest-ranking manager was Chen Jing, who was at M9.
M10 was temporarily vacant.
This hierarchy was necessary because Professor Su Xinghe's position was too special —
he was Yuanchip's legal representative, its largest shareholder, and the highest-ranking academic figure.
Given that Yuanchip intended to recruit even more top talents in the future — potentially including professors and senior researchers —
it was necessary to have Su Xinghe firmly anchoring the technical track at P10.
Everyone understood that while Xi Xiaoding was "only" P9, he had left the EDA department and wasn't involved in any other R&D departments directly.
Yet, he remained Yuanchip's Chief Scientist.
The YXLAB project he was leading was revolutionizing not just the computer industry,
but every sector that involved mathematical computation.
His title was well deserved.
As for Su Yuanshan himself...
Because of his special status — still a university student — he wasn't assigned a rating at all.
In other words, he had no title and no grade.
Su Yuanshan jokingly referred to himself as the "Sweeper Monk."
...
At the end of December, as more laboratories were completed, the two lithography machine teams from the Chinese Academy of Sciences officially moved into Yuanchip.
Together, the two teams consisted of about 200 people.
Thankfully, Chengguang Institute's scientific research hospital provided shuttle buses;
otherwise, accommodating all of them at Yuanchip would have been a logistical nightmare.
At this point, Yuanchip had only one hotel-style dormitory building and one almost-bare-bones collective dormitory.
Naturally, the collective dormitory wasn't meant for P3M3 and above — the white-collar employees.
Instead, it was intended for the numerous logistics workers: cleaners, cafeteria staff, security guards, and so forth.
Of course, if any white-collar employee didn't mind the conditions and wanted to stay there, they were welcome to — and surprisingly, quite a few chose to.
"Uncle Zhao, the conditions are a bit rough.
I hope you won't mind,"
Su Yuanshan said apologetically as he led Zhao Kaidong into the apartment building.
"This was originally prepared for regular staff, so it's pretty basic."
"Don't be so formal," Zhao Kaidong said, looking around.
It was a standard hotel suite layout — small living room attached — but very simply furnished.
There wasn't even a TV — only a basic telephone.
The living room had a cheap fabric sofa and a coffee table that resembled a big wooden bench.
If this were a hotel, charging more than fifty yuan a night would surely lead to complaints.
Zhao Kaidong chuckled,
"This is already great — like staying in a hotel.
Back in the day, we slept in huge dormitories."
His team had traveled all the way from Changguang Institute —
basically migrating for work.
Given that, Yuanchip's treatment was already quite generous.
"If we had more time, once the high-rise apartments are ready,
there will be more than enough space,"
Su Yuanshan smiled.
"They'll be comfortable enough for whole families."
"Seize the day," Zhao Kaidong sighed, putting down his suitcase.
"I heard you even have a low-temperature lab?"
"We just casually built one,"
Su Yuanshan said with a laugh.
"Useful for future condensed matter physics research.
That's probably the direction I'll focus on."
"Haha!
No wonder Old Zheng says you're rich and capricious."
...
After settling Zhao Kaidong, Su Yuanshan returned to his own dormitory.
As the "little boss," he naturally had one of the few available suites.
It was a penthouse unit with a living room —
but to save space, it was even smaller than a hotel suite.
Standing under the shower, washing off the fatigue of the day,
Su Yuanshan finally collapsed onto the sofa and opened a book on quantum physics,
struggling to grasp its obscure terminology.
Everyone said he was a genius,
but only Su Yuanshan knew the truth.
He was just a perfectly ordinary person —
perhaps slightly above average in intelligence.
The type of student who could get into Tsinghua or Peking University —
but only through hard work.
His so-called "talent" in integrated circuits
came entirely from a previous lifetime's relentless hard work and decades of accumulated experience.
In quantum physics,
he didn't know much more than an average student —
and that was the headache of industry specialization:
even though semiconductor manufacturing touched on quantum tunneling,
his knowledge was still far from sufficient.
His father's words from the streets of Beijing echoed in his ears:
—"Only a Nobel Prize winner doesn't have to bow to anyone."
Su Yuanshan asked himself —
could he ever win a Nobel Prize?
Probably not.
His expertise was in integrated circuit design —
a field almost impossible to win a Nobel for.
But that didn't mean he had no luck.
If the timeline didn't change,
twelve years later, two physicists would use a piece of adhesive tape to peel off graphene —
and win the Nobel Prize for it, opening a whole new scientific frontier.
Su Yuanshan thought,
Since he was already labeled a "computer genius,"
why not add another label?
Still, simply peeling off graphene wouldn't be enough to win a Nobel immediately.
He would have to push further.
For example, exploring the Hall effect, or discovering the magic angle.
He needed to make the world realize —
how mind-blowing two-dimensional materials at room temperature could be.
But before all that,
he first had to fully understand the book in his hands.
"Burdened by fame...
damn, it's exhausting..."
Su Yuanshan muttered bitterly, rubbing his tired eyes.
His eyes carried deep exhaustion.
But soon, he rallied himself,
pouring his entire focus back into his studies.
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