Chapter 208 I also want to hide my shortcomings, but God won’t let me!
"Just stop at the entrance of this alley ahead!"

Su Chen asked the driver to stop the car and got out with a bag of fruit he bought from the roadside.

Watching the driver turn around and leave, Su Chen walked into the alley. Fortunately, Su Chen had a good memory. After turning around several times, he finally saw the familiar courtyard house.

When Su Chen arrived at the gate of the courtyard and was about to ring the doorbell, the door was opened directly.

The next moment, two familiar faces appeared in front of Su Chen, both looking at Su Chen with smiles on their faces.

"Ah~ It's you. Are you preparing to go out?" Su Chen was a little surprised at first, but he quickly reacted and asked with a smile.

The two people in front of him were none other than the two security guards that Su Chen met when he first came here. He still remembered that he gave them half a pack of white box cigarettes when he left.

"Don't go out. We open the door specially for you, Mr. Su." The leading captain said with a little respect.

He treated the half pack of cigarettes that Su Chen gave him last time as a treasure, but his men were not careful enough and the guy boasted about it as soon as they returned to the team.

The squadron leader and the battalion leader came straight to his barracks. He had no choice but to distribute the cigarettes to everyone. He vomited for half a month because of this incident before he recovered.

"Open the door just for me? Did you come here for me?" Su Chen guessed what was going on after a quick thought. How could the place where Grandpa Xiao lived be the same as an ordinary alley? The safety issue must have been taken into consideration.

I'm afraid these people have been seeing me since the moment I got off the car.

The captain smiled and nodded when he heard this, but he did not explain to Su Chen, "Mr. Su, please come in!"

Su Chen thanked him and walked towards the central courtyard carrying the fruits from the roadside stall.

Watching the figure disappearing through the Chuihua Gate, the young guard approached the captain and asked, "Captain, do you think Mr. Su will give us half a pack of cigarettes when he leaves?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt his butt kicked. Before he could react, he heard the captain's cursing voice, "You bastard, it was because you didn't keep your mouth shut last time that I was robbed by the captain and his men."

"You're still thinking about cigarettes. Have you not been training enough recently? When you return from your shift, I, the captain, will train you personally!"

"Ah~ Captain, don't!" The young guard had a worried look on his face. He would be lucky if he could go back and be trained by the captain without getting hurt.

The captain glared at the young guard and walked straight into the small room.

On the other side, as Su Chen walked into the middle courtyard, he saw Old Man Xiao lying leisurely on a recliner in the courtyard. There was a mobile phone playing music on the table next to him, and he occasionally hummed a few lines along with the music.

The old man held a palm-leaf fan in his left hand and a purple clay teacup in his right hand, taking a sip from time to time, looking very happy.

If someone who didn't know Mr. Xiao's identity saw him, they would think he was just an ordinary retired old man.

"Boy Su is here." Old Master Xiao caught a glimpse of Su Chen's figure out of the corner of his eye and put down the purple clay teapot in his hand.

But when he saw the roadside fruit in Su Chen's hand, he said unhappily: "You came to see the old man and only brought some apples?"

When he thought of the treasures that Su Chen took away from him last time, he felt uncomfortable.

"Ahem~ Didn't Brother Chen ask me to come here as soon as possible? I rushed here without stopping after I finished my work. You can't blame me for this!"

"Grandpa, I'll carry it to the house for you!" Without giving Grandpa Xiao any chance to react, he quickly walked into the house carrying the apples in a transparent plastic bag.

After a while, Su Chen came out carrying a recliner, placed it on the other side of the table, and lay down directly. Of course, he did not forget to pour himself a cup of tea.

He tilted his head back and drank the tea in his hand.

"Grandpa's tea is still the best." Su Chen smacked his lips and praised with a satisfied look on his face.

Old Master Xiao was also a little stunned when he saw Su Chen's series of actions. Why did it feel like he was returning to his own home, without any sense of formality at all?

Looking at Su Chen who drank three cups in a row, Old Man Xiao finally couldn't help but speak. If he didn't speak...his food for the day would be drunk up by that little bastard Su Chen.

"That's enough. I've already had a few drinks."

Hearing this, Su Chen paused for a moment, but finally picked up the teapot and poured himself another cup.

"Hehe~ This is the last glass. I won't pour it again." Su Chen said with a grin.

Old Master Xiao looked at the teapot, which had less than one-third of the tea left, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. The matter had become a foregone conclusion, and there was no point in him saying anything more.

He just silently moved the teapot on the table towards himself.

"Okay, let's talk about something serious."

Hearing this, the playful smile on Su Chen's face disappeared, and he sat up from the recliner with a very serious attitude.

The main reason was that Su Chen thought about it carefully on the way here. The reason why Mr. Xiao asked him to come here was most likely because of ByteDance. As for other reasons, Su Chen couldn't think of any reasonable explanation.

The fact that Mr. Xiao is so concerned about this matter only means that what happens next is not as simple as he thought.

Old Master Xiao glanced at Su Chen, who was sitting upright, and a smile flashed in his eyes. "Your business acumen is really amazing. I didn't expect that a casual investment would become a hot commodity."

Su Chen was so proud to receive the praise from Mr. Xiao that he waved his hand casually and said, "Just average, third in the world!"

"Huh~ I told you you were fat and you're still panting!"

"You don't know how many people are watching ByteDance this time. If it weren't for the kid from the Yin family who was paying attention and called us, do you think this matter would have ended so quickly?"

Su Chen became even more confused after hearing this. Could it be that there was something about ByteDance that I didn't know? Was that what those people were paying attention to, not ByteDance's market value?
As if he also saw Su Chen's doubts, Mr. Xiao took a sip of tea and moistened his throat before continuing: "What kind of company do you think ByteDance is?"

"Uh~ It's just an ordinary short video platform." Su Chen paused and continued, "It may become a unicorn company in this field in the future!"

Mr. Jiang rolled his eyes when he heard this, but he felt relieved when he thought about the investigation information. As a hands-off boss, it was normal for him not to know the situation.

"You only know how to invest, and you don't even know how the company has developed."

Then Grandpa Xiao briefly explained it to Su Chen. It would have been better if he hadn't said it. As some data came out of the old man's mouth, Su Chen was completely confused. He had never expected that ByteDance would expand so rapidly.

Douyin has 250 million active users, which means that at least one out of every six people has downloaded the Douyin app. What a terrifying number.

Su Chen was not a fool either, and he quickly thought of other things. Douyin, as a real-time short video platform, focuses on shooting whatever you see and anything you encounter can be posted online.

That means that the Douyin short video APP is no longer a pure short video platform.

Countless people can learn more things through the Douyin platform, but there is no way of knowing whether the things are true.

People only care about their first impressions. No matter whether something is true or false, right or wrong, they will express their emotions based on the guidance of the video.

This has led to some people with ulterior motives making their own comments on it, avoiding the main issues and misleading the uninformed public from various aspects, causing them to change their views on the matter from the root.

Just like e-commerce a few years ago, as long as you create a good personal image, you can quickly gain the attention of many people. Then you can harvest them like leeks, one batch after another. The key is that you don’t know that you are the leek, but you enjoy it instead.

I call them my dear family all the time and feel very honored.

In the past, people paid attention to things through television, website reports on computers, and various forums, and their ability to obtain information was relatively poor.

But now the emergence of the Douyin short video platform means that Douyin will become the new generation of public opinion outlet.

If it is not handled properly, some people with ulterior motives will have the opportunity to take advantage of it. At that time, no one will know whether the information people get is true or false, and it will cause some unnecessary trouble.

Su Chen also understood the importance of this at this time, and his face fell all of a sudden, "It feels like this byte is a hot potato right now!"

Turning to look at Mr. Xiao standing beside me, I saw him drinking tea calmly.

"Grandpa, what do you think we should do about this? How about I sell all my shares to you?" Su Chen didn't want to cause trouble for himself. After all, he was not short of money. Now he was thinking about how to get rid of this hot potato.

Su Chen's idea was ruthlessly rejected by Mr. Xiao.

"You should keep the shares for yourself. Also, you can rest assured that no one will have any ideas about ByteDance in the future."

"In the future, all major departments will gradually move into the Douyin platform, and you can run it as you wish."

Old Master Xiao didn't say much. They must have their own considerations. Su Chen didn't want to know either, because curiosity would kill the cat.

The more you know, the more pressure you will feel. Isn't this a typical case of looking for trouble?

Su Chen looked at Grandpa Xiao with a hint of resentment, "Grandpa, since it is still the same as before, why do you want to expose this matter? Aren't you torturing me?"

A playful smile flashed across Mr. Xiao's face. "I'm just reminding you, so that you don't sell your shares to those foreign financial groups."

"You also know that with the rapid development of our country in the past decade, it has attracted the attention of some countries, which have restricted our development in various aspects, whether in terms of economy or technology."

"They tried every way to restrict us, but unfortunately, we became more and more courageous, which made them gradually change from restricting us from the outside to disrupting us from the inside."

"I called you here because I hope you can stick to your bottom line and not be tempted by money."

Hearing this, Su Chen fell silent. He certainly knew what the old man meant, but didn't the old man seem to be looking down on others? What did it mean to stick to one's bottom line?

An impulse surged in Su Chen's mind. He really wanted to stand up and say loudly to Mr. Xiao, "I have no interest in money at all. My bottom line is welded with alloy."

After thinking about it, Su Chen decided to give up. He couldn't say such embarrassing words.

However, the polite words still need to be said.

"Grandpa, don't worry, my bottom line is unbreakable!" Su Chen said seriously.

Upon hearing this, Old Master Xiao nodded in satisfaction. In fact, there was a purpose for calling Su Chen here this time, which was to test what Su Chen's thoughts were. If there were any deviations, they would be able to remedy them in time.

But after some testing, Mr. Xiao was very satisfied with Su Chen's reaction, but there was also a trace of worry in his eyes, wondering what kind of impact the Douyin platform would bring. You know, a powerful existence like the Soviet Union disintegrated because of public opinion.

Old Master Xiao changed the subject and looked at Su Chen beside him and asked, "By the way, Xiao Chen, how is the chip going? Has it been manufactured yet?"

"The experimental 10nm chip product was manufactured some time ago. We are currently studying how to achieve mass production. I think it should be soon." Su Chen did not hide anything and directly told everything he knew.

“Did it really succeed in making it?”

"How can you make chips without a lithography machine? Do you have any other methods?" Old Master Xiao looked at Su Chen with expectation.

You should know that lithography machines are essential for chip manufacturing, but domestic lithography technology is just starting out and is not on the same level as foreign technology.

Every year, the country imports a large number of lithography machines from ASML in the Netherlands for chip manufacturing, and the cost alone is billions of euros.

That's right, it's billions of euros, and this is just the cost of purchasing the lithography machine. Problems arise from time to time, and they cannot solve them themselves, so they have to ask people from ASML to come forward, and each repair costs at least several million.

The most annoying thing is that you don’t know whether the failure is caused by excessive use or by ASML’s background operations.

This is the result of limited technology. There is no other way but to accept it. It's our fault for not having these technologies.

Su Chen's eyes moved slightly. He naturally knew the importance of lithography machines, but if he said that he had the technology to make lithography machines, he would probably encounter a lot of troubles. So he simply pretended that he didn't know.

"Old man, you know me. I am a hands-off boss and I don't care much about the park."

"I just received a call from the park saying that the chip was successfully made, but as an outsider, I don't know exactly what happened."

"How about I give them a call and ask?"

Unexpectedly, Grandpa Xiao saw through Su Chen's little thoughts, but the old man had no intention of exposing him. He knew that if the 10nm chip was really successfully mass-produced, Su Chen would call him or Xiao Chen as soon as possible.

Furthermore, after the Douyin incident, I think Su Chen will start to hide his abilities. If he really has technology like photolithography machines, he will probably wait until it can be mass-produced before displaying it openly.

After thinking for a moment, Mr. Xiao waved his hand and said, "Forget it, there's no need to call. Let's talk about it after mass production."

Hearing this, Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief. He was also afraid that Mr. Xiao would ask him to make a phone call. If someone didn't keep his mouth shut and told some secrets, he wouldn't know how to explain it.

Unfortunately, plans sometimes never keep up with changes.

The cell phone in his pocket suddenly rang. When Su Chen took out the phone and saw the caller ID, his eyes widened instantly.

You know, when Su Chen left Zheng Island before, he repeatedly told this person not to contact anyone from the outside world if the project was not successful. But now the call came, does that mean that the experiment has had a breakthrough or has succeeded?
Thinking of this, Su Chen swallowed his saliva nervously.

This scene happened to be seen by Mr. Xiao.

"Xiao Chen, what's wrong with you? Is there something wrong with the phone?"

Mr. Xiao's words brought Su Chen back to his senses immediately. He took two deep breaths before pressing the answer button.

As soon as the call was connected, the excited voice of Old Man Chen came from the other end of the line.

"Mr. Susu, I...our research was successful!"

He was so excited that he even stuttered when speaking, and Su Chen also heard a hint of tears in the old man's words.

"Successful? Really successful?" Su Chen asked loudly, completely ignoring the old man Xiao sitting next to him.

It’s not Su Chen’s fault that he was so excited. It’s mainly because the information was too shocking. It’s only been a short time, and Old Man Chen actually succeeded in his research.

"Yes, it succeeded! We built a one hundred to one ultra-small reactor. It is currently operating normally and all data have been collected!" Old man Chen's words were also full of pride.

"You built an ultra-small reactor in the research base?" Su Chen was stunned. You know, that was a nuclear reactor. Even if it was a controlled nuclear fusion reactor, if it exploded, the entire park would be destroyed.

"Don't worry, sir. This ultra-small reactor is very stable. We have already tested it!"

After hearing this, Su Chen completely gave up. What else could he say after he had already been tested? He just didn't expect that old man Chen would be so bold as to dare to test it in the research base.

Perhaps it’s because all of this was created by him, so he is quite confident about its safety.

However, Su Chen still had to give him some instructions to avoid any trouble in the future.

"Professor Chen, before you do any tests in the future, please call me for instructions first."

Old man Chen also understood Su Chen's meaning. He repeatedly assured him that he would ask for permission before testing in the future, and then he hung up the phone.

As soon as he hung up the phone, Su Chen saw Mr. Xiao standing next to him and looking at him. Su Chen was so scared that he took two steps to the side.

"Old man, what are you doing? Don't you know that scaring people to death is a way to scare them to death?"

Su Chen also reacted at this time. He was afraid that Mr. Xiao had heard everything he had just said.

"What about the reactor you were talking about on the phone just now? Are you doing some research on Zheng Island?" Although Mr. Xiao is not young anymore, he still has sharp ears. He also heard the voice on the other end of the phone just now, and it was spoken in Chinese.

Based on this alone, Mr. Xiao quickly deduced that the call was from Zhengdao Park, and judging from the change in Su Chen's expression, it seemed that the information brought by this call was quite important.

Su Chen was also a little helpless. He had just been thinking about hiding his abilities in the future, but a phone call ended up selling himself out.

Looking at Grandpa Xiao's eyes that seemed to see through everything, Su Chen smacked his lips. Anyway, this thing had to be handed in in the end, so he might as well just give it a brand name and stopped struggling.

"Hehe~ It's not a big deal. We just developed controlled nuclear fusion." Su Chen said lightly.

"Oh~ Isn't it just controlled nuclear fusion?" Old Master Xiao reacted after just a few words, grabbed Su Chen's shoulders with both hands and asked loudly: "What did you say just now, the controlled nuclear fusion research was successful?"

"Yeah~ Professor Chen and his team have built a super small nuclear reactor in the park!"

Anyway, I've already said it, so I might as well be thorough.

Now it was Grandpa Xiao's turn to be confused. "Ultra-small nuclear reactor" were such plain and simple words, why did they seem so hard to accept when put together?

You should know that the energy generated by nuclear fusion is more than a hundred times that of nuclear fission. Even if it is a super small nuclear reactor, if it explodes, the power will be like a super large mushroom.

"You are really brave!" Old Master Xiao didn't know what to say at this time.

Blame Su Chen? What's the point of blaming a hands-off boss!

Blame the scientific research master who developed controlled nuclear fusion? Forget it. This is the country's top talent. We don't even have time to protect him. How can we blame him?

"Xiao Chen~you bastard, get in here now!" Old Man Xiao shouted loudly towards the front yard. The voice was so loud that Su Chen felt his ears buzzing.

Soon Xiao Chen ran in, wearing an apron and looking like he was cooking.

Seeing Su Chen standing beside him, Xiao Chen smiled and greeted him, "Try the braised pork trotters made by your brother tonight. I guarantee it will be so delicious that you won't be able to stop eating it."

Su Chen smiled awkwardly. No matter how delicious the braised pork trotters were, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to eat them in the evening.

"Eat, eat, eat. All you know is to eat!" Old Master Xiao was so angry that he kicked Xiao Chen in the butt, making Xiao Chen stagger.

Xiao Chen took the opportunity to jump to Su Chen's side and whispered: "What's wrong with my grandpa? Has he eaten gunpowder? Why is he so angry?"

It's more than just like eating gunpowder, it's like eating a nuclear bomb. Su Chen just smiled and didn't answer Xiao Chen.

At this time, Xiao Chen also reacted and realized that something had happened.

Sure enough, the next second, I saw that Mr. Xiao had changed his usual gentle image, and a passionate and domineering aura came to my face, as if a tiger had awakened.

Su Chen felt that his breathing became a little rapid.

"Xiao Chen, listen to my orders!"

"Click!" Xiao Chen took a step forward with a firm expression. There was no trace of the previous smile on his cold face.

"Lead all your men to Zheng Island immediately and take over Su Chen's research base. No one is allowed to enter. All means of communication are confiscated. Not even a fly can fly out!"

"Yes!" Xiao Chen immediately took off his apron, took out the internal phone he carried with him, dialed the number, said a few simple words and hung up the phone. He trotted away without saying goodbye.

Although Xiao Chen was curious about what was going on, his mission told him that what he should do now was to rush to Zheng Island as quickly as possible and take over the research base.

Old Master Xiao looked at Su Chen unhappily. This kid actually ordered him around.

"Just stay here today and don't go anywhere. The meal should be ready in the kitchen soon. You can eat by yourself then."

After saying that, Mr. Xiao was about to go back to the house, but then he thought of something and took back the steps he had just taken. He turned to look at Su Chen and said, "I won't confiscate your phone, but you should be more sensible."

"I know!" Su Chen also knew what the old man meant, and waved his hand to signal him to go about his own business.

Controlled nuclear fusion can be said to be a matter of national destiny. Su Chen certainly knew what Grandpa Xiao was going to do. He didn't care that the old man was watching beside him and just lay down on the recliner.

Since things have come to this, I might as well just lie down and relax.

When Mr. Xiao saw this, a smile appeared on his face, but it disappeared in an instant.

After returning to the room and changing his clothes, he made a few phone calls and left the courtyard with his guards.

Looking at the empty central courtyard, Su Chen couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"Hey, what is this?"

(End of this chapter)