Chapter 1

"MLGBZ, you want it to be cheap and have high brightness, how is that possible? Should I just give it to you for free? Do you really think the cost of labor and materials is so low nowadays? MD, this job is getting harder and harder, you want low cost and to enter the Zhongzheng mobile client, how is that possible?

The project hasn't even started, and we've already had five rounds of price negotiations. Every day, we're discussing costs, damn, this is not a job for humans.

The market is so bad, and my performance is tied to the profit, NND, isn't this using my money to do this project? It's really fucking frustrating..."

In the luxurious office building of Hualong Technology in Qianhai, Pengcheng, Project Manager Wang Wei had just finished a cloud meeting with suppliers and leaned heavily back in his chair, immediately launching into a series of complaints, interspersed with profanity.

Wang Wei is from Jiangsu Province, and at just thirty years old, he has a master's degree from a prestigious university. In just five years, he has risen to the position of project manager at Hualong Technology, with an annual salary of 400,000 yuan, making him a young and accomplished professional.

Hualong Technology is the top-ranked ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) in the country, with annual smartphone shipments measured in the hundreds of millions, supplying well-known domestic brands such as Zhongzheng, Oupai, Weiwo, and Xiaomi. Hualong Technology has over 10,000 employees and a market value exceeding 500 billion yuan. Compared to the second-ranked Zhongwei Technology, it is nearly 400 billion yuan higher!

Therefore, in Qianhai, Pengcheng, where land is worth its weight in gold, with a square meter costing 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, Hualong Technology has built its own office park and luxurious office building.

The office building is equipped with all kinds of welfare facilities.

Gyms, rest areas, and dining areas are standard, and there are even game rooms and nursing rooms.

At Hualong Technology, every project manager must be an elite capable of handling significant responsibilities, especially those responsible for projects with well-known brands like Zhongzheng, Oupai, Weiwo, and Xiaomi. Among them, the Zhongzheng mobile client is the most important.

A project manager must not only serve the client well but also bring value to both the company and the client. In practical terms, this means that every smartphone project developed should be a win-win, with high profits for both the company and the client. Material costs are the largest component of this.

After graduating with a master's degree, Wang Wei joined Hualong Technology through campus recruitment. In five years of hard work, he became a project manager, with an annual salary of 400,000 yuan, after tax, not to mention the project bonuses and company profit-sharing.

This is still because Wang Wei is relatively upright and unwilling to engage in underhanded tactics.

Otherwise, with his position as a project manager at Hualong Technology, he could easily profit from the hundreds of suppliers who rely on him.

Of course, with more money and power comes greater responsibility.

After winning a bid for a new smartphone project, Wang Wei was appointed by the project leader to lead the development of the screen for this smartphone, immediately entering a series of cost reviews. Including today's cloud meeting, Wang Wei is very clear that this is the fifth round.

Looking up at the snow-white ceiling, Wang Wei's mind went blank, and he felt a deep sense of fatigue wash over him.

What is 996? That is indeed a blessing, because he is 007, always online as long as the smartphone project is not discontinued, ready to respond to the client at any time.

Currently, the project Wang Wei is responsible for is stuck on materials.

Don't be fooled by the small size of a smartphone; it contains a staggering number of components, so every smartphone brand has thousands of suppliers working for it.

Among these, the screen is one of the most important components, and due to technological development, it is the second most challenging core technology after chips.

The development of chips is a well-known issue, but the development of screens is also difficult.

A smartphone screen is not just a piece of glass; it integrates various components, each of which contains many materials.

The widely publicized OLED screens are extremely challenging, but fortunately, a few domestic glass manufacturers can produce OLED screens, and they have developed to a decent level.

The increasingly low-end and marginalized LCD screens have very mature glass technology, but to display images, they need a chip to drive the glass.

Unfortunately, these chips are the same as the CPU chips in smartphones, cut from wafers, and the high-quality ones are mostly from abroad.

In addition to the glass chips, LCD screens, which do not emit light on their own, require a component to provide light, which involves optical materials.

The higher the quality of the optical materials, the more light they provide, and the brighter the screen appears visually.

The core parts of domestic optical materials are mostly imported from abroad, especially from countries with better living standards, and they are relatively low-end. As for high-quality, high-end optical materials, they are also from abroad.

Wang Wei's project is currently stuck here. Cheap optical materials do not efficiently utilize light, resulting in insufficient screen brightness. High-quality optical materials can meet the brightness requirements of the Zhongzheng mobile client but are expensive and imported, making them unusable.

To use cheaper optical materials, other aspects could be considered, such as the choice of glass. However, that is even less feasible because glass resources are more scarce, and the glass for this project was only obtained through the intervention of the Zhongzheng mobile client; otherwise, the glass manufacturer would not supply them.

"Darkness gave me black eyes,

But I use them to seek light,

Sweat condenses into a time capsule

..."

At some point, his phone rang, jolting Wang Wei out of his daze.

"Huh, Zhou Feiyu?"

Wang Wei picked up his phone and saw it was his high school classmate, frowning.

Zhou Feiyu works at a materials company in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, doing research on low-end materials. After learning that Wang Wei works at Hualong, he occasionally jokes about getting help from him.

Wang Wei avoids trouble, so he is not very enthusiastic about chatting with Zhou Feiyu.

However, they are old classmates, and not answering would be impolite, so he decided that if Zhou Feiyu asked for help, he would refuse. Then he answered the call.

"What wind brings an old classmate to call me personally?"

Wang Wei teased.

In response, he heard a hearty laugh: "Of course, it's the spring breeze, the breeze of success. I'm calling to share some good news with an old classmate."

Wang Wei was taken aback and laughed, asking, "What good news?"

From the other end, Zhou Feiyu's voice quickly came through: "Didn't you complain to me about the poor quality of domestic optical film materials? You said that domestic basic materials are severely lacking and are 20 to 30 years behind foreign materials? I can responsibly tell you that this history is over because I have developed a material that is even better than the top foreign optical films, and I've also brought down the price!"

"What?"

Wang Wei doubted his ears and subconsciously asked, "Zhou Feiyu, do you know what you're saying?"

Zhou Feiyu said, "A person changes in three days, you should look at me with new eyes! Wang Wei, I'll be in Pengcheng tonight, and you'll see the material."

Wang Wei was about to say more when the phone went dead with a "beep beep beep."

"Damn, is this for real?"

Wang Wei looked incredulous.

On the other side, Zhou Feiyu, who lives in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, had just boarded a high-speed train to Pengcheng.

Dressed in clothes worth no more than 500 yuan and with an ordinary appearance, Zhou Feiyu was completely unremarkable in the crowd. He carried a backpack, clearly a business traveler.

"Thirty years, and finally, it's my turn to step up!"

Finding his seat, Zhou Feiyu hugged his backpack and sat down.

Looking out the window, a faint smile appeared on his face, and his eyes burned with a passionate fire.

No one knew that his journey would bring about a world-shaking transformation!