"Old Zhao is muddle-headed!" Ni Guangnan sighed deeply after hearing the report from his secretary.
"Aren't you muddle-headed yourself?" Huang He retorted impatiently. "I thought he had a decent chance of discovering high-energy particles, estimating at least 10% even if it was low. Good heavens, only a 0.87% chance! And it's not that you'll discover high-energy particles after 1,000 collisions, but that this particular collision has only a 0.87% chance. If it wasn't found last time, it won't be found later. He just has a theoretical model!"
"Good heavens, asking me to gamble 50 million US dollars on a 0.87% chance! Why doesn't he sell all his family's assets and gamble on this 0.87% himself? My 50 million US dollars is destined to be wasted. What's the difference between that and robbery?"
"But if it succeeds, the value behind this high-energy particle would exceed 500 million US dollars, and the paper alone would win a Nobel Prize!" Ni Guangnan said.
"What's so great about a Nobel Prize? It's not as good as my Huang He Prize, and the prize money isn't as high as my Huang He Prize. If he wins the Nobel Prize, he'll never win my Huang He Prize!" Huang He snorted. Ni Guangnan shut his mouth. Indeed, many people in China had already changed their award goals from the Nobel Prize to the Huang He Prize. After all, the money was real.
"Also, you mentioned 500 million US dollars for high-energy particles, but that's probably contingent on me establishing a dedicated laboratory to research these high-energy particles, spending tens of billions of US dollars annually to determine their various characteristics. And even if they are successfully researched, whether they can be utilized in modern technology is still a problem."
"As far as I know, 90% of high-energy particles are just simple particles with no practical use. Their only value is probably a paper. What use is that to me? What do I need this thing for?" Huang He spoke like a machine gun.
"And if such particles are useful, it would be the worst-case scenario, because all the collision data is actually held by those research centers in Europe. The discoveries you make using their equipment can be known by them just as clearly. The particles we discover might be handed over to them in turn!"
"Furthermore, because the collider is in their hands, they can continuously use it to generate these particles for research. Conversely, the high-energy particles we obtain by chance might be few in number. Once these high-energy particles are consumed during research, all development will be interrupted. At that point, if you still want to borrow their collider to obtain new particles, they won't lend it to you anymore!"
"Therefore, spending money to borrow European particle colliders for experiments is simply the most foolish thing in the world. Not only do you spend money, but you also give all the data and technical information that Saturn drilled out to the Europeans for free! You're not doing research; you're selling out the country, giving the technology developed with national resources to the Europeans!" Wang Laoban's words struck Ni Guangnan like a bolt from the blue, making him feel breathless again.
Fortunately, the effect of Niuhuang Angong Wan was still significant, and Ni Guangnan did not collapse a second time. He sat alone on the sofa, trying to calm himself down. At the same time, Huang He turned to his secretary and said, "You immediately send a trusted team to the research center to thoroughly investigate all documents and data from the past few years. I want to see how many absurd things there are and how much money has been taken from me!"
"Yes!" The secretary took the order and left. Ni Guangnan was silent for a while and said, "Boss Huang, it's right for you to investigate, but I hope you can put aside past grievances and not delve into them, otherwise, I'm worried..."
"Worried about what? Worried that these people will be uneasy and unable to work and conduct research?" Huang He sneered. "You don't need to worry about that. Aren't you uneasy yourself? Aren't you worried that I might be harmed by these actions and completely shut down the Jiangnan Optoelectronics Research Center?"
"..." Ni Guangnan was stunned. After a long pause, he said nervously, "Xiao Huang, Boss Huang, you must not do such a foolish thing!"
"What? If I don't give you the opportunity to cheat me out of money, then I'm doing something foolish? It seems I have to give you tens of billions of US dollars for every project, and then I'll be the smartest person in the world, right!" Huang He said impatiently.
"Boss Huang, you know I don't mean that. You can do anything to me, and I wouldn't mind dying in front of you. But the Optoelectronics Research Center cannot be closed. It holds the future of China's chips and the entire electronics industry. If you close it, our entire industry will have no future!" Ni Guangnan said nervously.
"That's not necessarily true. The country has money now. If I don't do it, the country will. Then you can find ways to deceive the country's money, rather than deceiving me!" Huang He said with a grin, but these were obviously angry words. Huang He himself knew that no matter what, one could not abandon the good because of a few bad eggs.
One could not shut down their core competitiveness just because of a few scoundrels.
Ni Guangnan, perhaps due to the events of the past few days, found his mind unable to keep up and couldn't see through Boss Huang's attitude. He still thought he was going to close the optoelectronics center and kept persuading him earnestly, almost kneeling.
"Elder Ni, I will consider this matter carefully. However, there is one thing I want to tell you: you probably won't be able to return to the Optoelectronics Center forever!" Boss Huang sighed.
His original intention in visiting Ni Guangnan was to comfort this great contributor to Jiangnan Group, let him rest for a year, and then return to work and resume his original position. By then, Zhang Yingguo should have established new rules for the research center, and the center should ultimately be managed by professional scholars. Therefore, he hoped Ni Guangnan wouldn't have any negative emotions.
However, at that time, Boss Huang did not know that Ni Guangnan had been cooperating with others to set a trap for him from beginning to end. In that case, Jiangnan Optoelectronics could only say goodbye to Professor Ni.
However, fortunately, Jiangnan Optoelectronics was already on the right track, with a group of mature technical personnel. Even if Ni Guangnan left, it should not affect the future development of Jiangnan Optoelectronics.
"I understand!" Ni Guangnan nodded. After a moment of hesitation, he continued, "If that's the case, I have a request."
"Please speak?"
"I hope to go to Jiangnan University, even if it's just as an ordinary university professor. Since I can no longer fight on the front lines, let me diligently train our next generation!" Ni Guangnan said.
"Certainly!" Huang He's eyes also showed a hint of emotion. Ni Guangnan was, after all, a peerless national scholar, impeccable in many aspects and worthy of everyone's respect, with his merits far outweighing his flaws. However, he was ultimately not suitable for a corporate research center."
"Perhaps being a teacher is also an excellent path!"
— — — — — —
For a full three days, the entire Optoelectronics Research Center was in a state of panic. Although the order from above was to continue as usual and maintain normal work.
However, the former director, Ni Guangnan, had disappeared, and the other leaders remained silent, mainly because they themselves didn't know what to say.
Most importantly, outsiders had entered the institute and were interviewing people one by one, requesting detailed reports of their work and asking them to write detailed work reports summarizing all their work since joining the institute. Most importantly, they were asked to explain the significance of their work to the development of Jiangnan Group and its future benefits to the group.
Even a fool could see that a major storm was brewing in the research center. And according to rumors, Boss Huang planned to lay off more than half of the departments and two-thirds of the projects, discarding all research projects that were not closely related to Jiangnan Group's business. Then, all personnel involved, whether managers or ordinary researchers, would be dismissed.
Everyone understood that Boss Huang was truly angry, and at the same time, they understood how many people in the entire research center would lose their jobs when Boss Huang was angry.
Soon, those who had spent money and taken loans to buy houses were on the verge of tears. They thought about what would happen to their mortgage payments if they lost their jobs here. After all, housing prices in Cao County, near the research center, had risen to over 20,000 yuan per square meter, which was almost two-thirds of the housing prices in the capital. If they lost their jobs, they would definitely default on their mortgages.
As a result, Leng Jingmo, the instigator, naturally bore the brunt of everyone's accusations. Everyone hated him, wondering how he could not even know what his boss looked like. If he hadn't pressed that alarm button, perhaps none of this would have happened, and they could have continued their happy research as before.
Of course, many people also started carrying a photo of Boss Huang with them, as they didn't quite remember what Boss Huang looked like. If a similar situation occurred again, it would be extremely unfortunate.
However, miraculously, despite the panic, the research progress in the research center did not slow down. Almost everyone was voluntarily working overtime, working overtime to improve progress… Their idea was simple: at least perform well these few days to reduce the possibility of being laid off.
Therefore, the research progress of the entire research center actually accelerated considerably. The progress made in these three days was equivalent to nearly a week's progress before.
And amidst this pervasive panic, the new director of the research center, Zhang Yingguo, was rumored to have arrived at the research center and brazenly moved into Ni Guangnan's former office, packing away all of Ni Guangnan's belongings and sending them out.
Just as everyone was wondering what the new director intended to do, the change arrived as expected.
The first change occurred in the lobby of the research center. The gold-embossed title that read "The pursuit of objective truth and knowledge is man's highest and eternal goal—
Einstein" was directly removed and replaced with a giant portrait of us.
This giant portrait was naturally of our Boss Huang, and below it was also a quote: "You give me research results, I give you fame and fortune—
Huang He"