890 Unexpected Things
After Lu Zhou left HiSilicon’s semiconductor production and research center, he didn’t immediately get in his car. Instead, he and w.a.n.g Peng walked around the industrial park.
Lu Zhou looked at the buildings and suddenly spoke.
“w.a.n.g Peng.”
w.a.n.g Peng: “What?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Nothing, we’ve been walking around here for a while, what do you think?”
w.a.n.g Peng went silent for a second before replying, “It’s impressive.”
Lu Zhou looked at him.
“That’s all you have to say?”
“I don’t really know how to describe it.” w.a.n.g Peng looked at the large rectangular semiconductor factories and said, “It’s… also a bit unexpected.”
Due to the globalization of the market, every country had its own position in the global industrial chain, and they had their own areas they were compet.i.tive at. However, the ability to produce and the willingness to produce were two different things.
Intel moved its US factory to Saigon because of the expensive US labor costs. It wasn’t because of the decline of the US’ chip manufacturing abilities.
If Intel wanted to, they could move the production back to America at a moment’s notice.
Semiconductor was China’s electronics industry forte. Semiconductor was located in the upstream of the chip manufacturing field.
But now, semiconductors were set aside, giving w.a.n.g Peng a surreal feeling.
Are the carbon-based chips really that magical?
Honestly speaking, w.a.n.g Peng wasn’t convinced.
However, he wasn’t a scientist, so he had nothing to say.
“A ton of unexpected things are going to happen in the future, just get ready…” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Speaking of which, I feel like I learned a lot just from walking around here.”
“Like what?”
“Like production safety.” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “The production process of carbon-based chips and silicon-based chips are completely different. Carbon fibers and carbon dust generated in the production process are flammable. Forget about prohibiting flames inside the plant; they have to be careful of things outside the plant as well.”
w.a.n.g Peng: “Then what are they going to do?”
“Obviously ban smoking throughout the entire park… Why?”
“Nothing…” w.a.n.g Peng smiled and touched his pack of cigarettes as he said, “I just think… It’ll be a pain in the a*s.”
He had been smoking for many years; not so much over the past two years, but he still smoked whenever Lu Zhou was not around.
Banning smoking throughout the entire park would be torture for those nicotine addicts.
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I don’t know what’s so hard, can’t they just quit?”
w.a.n.g Peng smiled and changed the subject as he asked, “Is there anywhere else you want to visit?”
“I’ve seen most of the places I want to visit.” Lu Zhou glanced at the buildings and said, “Let’s head back.”
“Okay, just wait here, I’ll bring the car to you.” w.a.n.g Peng nodded and started to walk away.
…
Lu Zhou wasn’t very familiar with the production process. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to buy half of a semiconductor company just to solve the industrialization problem.
However, even though he wasn’t familiar with the industry, he could still give out constructive opinions from a scholar’s perspective.
Because of this, even though Lu Zhou was engaged in theoretical research, he still visited all of the necessary facilities.
For example, he learned a lot from this trip.
In addition to the basic safety measures, there were a lot of areas that could be improved in the HiSilicon production and research center.
If it weren’t for his visit, these problems would be buried in the long production process. The technicians and workers in the factory could take years trying to find these problems. Instead, Lu Zhou was able to find the root of the problem.
Even though Lu Zhou might not be able to come up with a solution, he could at least point out the problem.
He wrote down these problems and sent it to Chen Yushan. He also sent a copy to Director Li.
He was certain his letter would be immensely useful…
Lu Zhou continued to embark on his journey back home. Dozens of kilometers away, Mayor Jia Yuanping sat at his Jiangcheng office. He meticulously read the doc.u.ment in his hand.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps from outside the office. His office door was pushed open as his a.s.sistant walked in.
“Mayor!”
“What?” The mayor put down his pen and said, “Why didn’t you knock?”
The a.s.sistant didn’t explain why he didn’t knock; instead, he immediately spoke.
“We just received news from the traffic bureau that Academician Lu just got off the highway at the Jiangcheng exit.”
Mayor Jia immediately stood up. He was more anxious than his a.s.sistant.
“Go!”
The a.s.sistant was a little shocked.
The mayor spoke.
“Go there right now!”
Mayor Jia didn’t inform the province of the news; instead, he brought his staff members to the scene.
The group of people soon arrived at the semiconductor industrial base entrance. A soldier standing at the checkpoint was muddled.
The soldier standing at the checkpoint nervously looked around and reported the situation to his superiors.
After a while, he received a reply from his superior, telling him not to worry.
The a.s.sistant walked up to him and spoke in a friendly tone.
“Hey there, we’re from the city council, did you happen to see a black sedan?”
The soldier looked at this man.
“Identification, sir.”
“Here,” Mayor Jia said. He took out his red ID and said, “We’re from the city council, and we heard Academician Lu is here? Can you tell us where he is?”
The soldier looked at the red ID and made sure it was real. He did a salute and gave the ID back to Jia Yuanping.
“If you’re here for Academician Lu, I suggest you leave.”
The a.s.sistant anxiously said, “We’re in a hurry…”
The soldier interrupted the a.s.sistant and said, “Academician Lu left twenty minutes ago…”