Chapter 264 Ironclad Allies
After showering, Su Yuanshan lay on the bed but couldn't fall asleep. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Sun Xihui, asking her to get in touch when she had time tomorrow. Unexpectedly, less than five seconds after he sent the message, Sun Xihui replied, and a moment later, she called him.
"You're still awake in the middle of the night?" Sun Xihui's voice sounded a little lazy.
"Sorry, Sun Jie," Su Yuanshan said as he rested his right hand behind his neck, chuckling, "Did I disturb your rest?"
"No, I was just watching TV," she said, stifling a yawn with a laugh. "I finally got a weekend off, but I realized that when I'm not working, I can't even stay up late anymore. Anyway, you said you wanted me to call you tomorrow. What's up?"
"It's about Huayuan," Su Yuanshan said as he lifted his wrist and glanced at the time. It was already half-past midnight, about six and a half hours since the incident that afternoon. No one from their side had come to apologize yet, which meant the Lai family really thought he was just bluffing. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Get someone in HK to keep an eye on Huayuan for me. I'm counting on the VCD market to earn us another two years' profit."
"Got it! I've always disliked those shady channels," Sun Xihui said happily, though she was a little puzzled. "But why are you thinking about this so late at night?"
Su Yuanshan casually recounted the events of the afternoon as a way of making conversation. Unexpectedly, upon hearing he was in the SEZ, Sun Xihui immediately said she would come over the next day.
The following morning, Sun Xihui crossed the border directly into the Special Economic Zone. Since her office was located not far from the border, it was quite convenient. By the time she knocked on his door, Su Yuanshan was still enjoying his lazy sleep.
"Jie... and you always say you're getting old," Su Yuanshan said, struggling to stifle a yawn as he rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at Sun Xihui sitting leisurely on the sofa in casual clothes. He chuckled bitterly. "You stayed up late, and you don't even have dark circles under your eyes?"
"Do you know how many skincare products I use?" Sun Xihui laughed while fiddling with her phone. "Besides, it's because I'm getting old that I don't need as much sleep anymore. Haven't you heard? For the first thirty years, you can't sleep enough; for the next thirty, you can't sleep even if you want to."
"...What kind of nonsense is that," Su Yuanshan muttered as he stumbled into the bathroom to wash up.
When he came out, Zhou Xiaohui happened to be walking over with the day's schedule in her arms. Compared to Sun Xihui's fresh and energetic look, Zhou Xiaohui seemed a little "worn out."
"Sun Jie?" Zhou Xiaohui was mid-yawn but immediately lit up with joy when she saw who was standing there. "When did you get here?"
"Just now," Sun Xihui said as she scanned Zhou Xiaohui from head to toe with a smile. "Xiaohui is getting more and more capable."
"No way..." Zhou Xiaohui said shyly, hugging her for a moment. "It's all thanks to Sun Jie and President Shan's guidance."
"Listen to that sweet tongue," Sun Xihui teased.
At that moment, Yang Yingying's voice drifted in from the hallway. "Good morning, Xiaohui. Hmm? And who's this?"
With three women gathered together, Su Yuanshan felt a bit out of place. Although he wasn't awkward, he had nothing to add either. He simply decided to give Zhou Xiaohui a day off and let the three of them go out and enjoy themselves while he headed to the factory alone.
When he arrived at the VCD factory, the meeting chaired by Jiang Qingchuan wasn't over yet.
In response to the rise of domestic competitors and the influx of low-priced foreign products, Wan Yongliang's marketing department and the VCD team had prepared three strategies.
First, upgrade the VCD standard by launching the "Super VCD," featuring more functions, better decoding, and error-correction capabilities, to target the high-end price segment and maintain profits.
Second, systematically lower the price of regular VCDs, accompanied by promotional campaigns with major appliance malls to boost volume.
Third, strive to release a DVD player before the end of the year.
In this lifetime, although the DVD standards had seen some wrangling, thanks to Yuanxin's role as a hardware manufacturer actively mediating among the giants, the finalization came much earlier than in the previous timeline. The standards were officially agreed upon by midyear.
It's worth noting Yuanxin's influence during the DVD standardization process.
Back at the end of 1992, Philips and Sony had begun their initial talks, with Yuanxin participating as well. Compared to these two optical disc giants, Yuanxin's contributions focused more on data transmission and interface technologies.
At that time, Yuanxin was still relatively unknown — seen mostly as a software company.
But once Toshiba joined the discussions, Yuanxin's opinions began to be sidelined, as the main focus shifted to storage capacity and disc size — each company pushing its own technology, refusing to compromise.
After a year of playing the bystander, Xiao Shouping finally lost his patience.
At a technical meeting, he slammed the table and said bluntly, "If we can't finalize this, Yuanxin will just partner with Sony and launch a DVD drive ourselves. You two can fight it out without us."
The remark stunned everyone — not just Philips and Toshiba, but even Sony was caught off guard.
After all, Sony had always been close to Yuanxin.
If Yuanxin openly sided with Sony, it would upset the delicate balance — and if Sony lost the backing of Yuanxin's hardware capabilities, it would be dangerously exposed against the combined forces of Philips and Toshiba.
Thus, Sony had to smooth things over quickly, clarifying that they sincerely wanted all parties to sit down and make money together.
Yuanxin's assertiveness after a year of silence finally forced Philips and Toshiba to take them seriously.
It was simple — Yuanxin had grown into a true multinational collaborator, and no one wanted an extra enemy when the real goal was to make money.
Eventually, all three parties compromised, and the DVD disc standards were finalized swiftly.
Inside the conference room, Jiang Qingchuan spoke confidently.
"And finally, I want everyone to be very clear on one thing," Jiang said, nodding at Su Yuanshan, who had just pushed open the door and entered. He motioned for the team to greet Su Yuanshan and then continued, "Why were those companies fighting over the DVD standard like rabid dogs?"
"The reason is simple — because DVDs aren't just for storing video and audio files for entertainment. They're also serious data storage devices."
"We need to understand this clearly. Moving forward, our optical drive department should start preparing for DVD burners."
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1