Chapter 268: Your Majesty! Wedding!
Next, under the witness of the legal teams of both parties, Lin Xiao, Wu Lingxi and Masayoshi Son signed a series of documents respectively.
At this time, it was already past two in the morning.
After signing, Lin Xiao and Wu Lingxi looked at each other in disbelief, as if they were looking at fools.
And the look that Masayoshi Son gave Lin Xiao and Wu Lingxi was similar.
When Wu Lingxi was in Renren Group, she was very stingy and fought to the death for equity and control, and was unwilling to give in even a little bit, which eventually led to the collapse of Renren Group.
But when it comes to the Lightning Group, this is the scene.
He had a Chinese allusion in his mind, but he couldn't think of it. It seemed to be about tangerine and citron. Masayoshi Son is Korean and grew up in Japan. But he often claimed that his ancestral home was Fujian, China, and he was familiar with Chinese culture.
And in Wu Lingxi's eyes, isn't Lin Xiao also a fool? She only had a vague feeling before, but now she can see it clearly.
"You really don't look like a Hong Konger." Lin Xiao suddenly said.
Wu Lingxi: "If you want to curse, just say it."
"I was born in the United States and have lived in Hong Kong for less than five years."
"Then I was going to say, you don't look like a country bumpkin at all."
Hahaha, a country folk tragedy? Lin Xiao: "I heard that your father recently teamed up with these Hong Kong giants to do something big?"
"I don't know, let him do whatever he wants." Wu Lingxi.
Masayoshi Son was not sleepy either. He picked up the coffee in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then drank it.
"Mr. Lin, I have met too many great people." Son Masayoshi said slowly: "There are two kinds of successful people in this world."
"One is a risk-taker, and the other is a steady person."
"Adventurers, every hair on their body is full of adventurous spirit and the breath of madness. Such people are suitable for pioneering and changing the world."
"There is another type of people who are steady. They are good at observing, sensing the general trend, and then rising with the wind."
"You know which type of person gets better results?"
Lin Xiao thought for a while: "The second one."
Son said: "Yes, the second type, and you are the first type."
"Great pioneer, great pioneer." Son repeated twice: "Instantly, many names emerged in my mind, names that resounded through the sky."
"Such people tend to think too far ahead and too idealistically."
“And often because of past success, they are full of extraordinary expectations and confidence in their own abilities, and then they make earth-shaking moves.”
"If what they do is in line with human nature and the general trend, they will often succeed."
"If they are only half a step ahead, or if the potential energy has been accumulated, and they just want to make a detonation, they will often succeed."
"But if you want to create something from nothing and change your fate, you will usually fail."
Lin Xiao picked up the red wine glass in his hand and drank it slowly.
Son continued, "In fact, not long ago, I had not studied you in detail. Although our cooperation was very close, your industry accounted for too small a proportion of my investment. It was not until you resigned from all positions in Lightning Group that I really studied your past."
“Your first venture was very bold and ahead of the curve, even too far ahead, so it didn’t really succeed.”
"At that time, China's mobile SP business was the easiest to make money. There were obviously many businesses that could be developed, but you didn't do any of them. I even found that you have a characteristic, that is, when your business starts to make money, you start to lose interest."
“You are like a crazy adventurer, always exploring new areas. You are more inclined to build the blueprint in your mind, even at all costs.”
“This kind of person is terrible. Although they may achieve great success, they often make investors lose all their money.”
Wu Lingxi: "This world belongs to idealists, but ultimately it also belongs to pragmatists."
“Idealists explore the world, pragmatists build the world.”
"Xia Xi and I were actually classified as pragmatists."
Son Masayoshi raised his glass and said to Lin Xiao, "Mr. Lin, I wish you success in your third venture!"
………………………………
The next few days were filled with extremely tedious investigations and negotiations.
After a long time of struggling, the loan contract was finally placed in front of Lin Xiao.
The total amount is US$800 million.
In two years, the interest cost alone was more than 100 million US dollars.
If he fails to pay the money by then, all his core overseas assets will belong to Masayoshi Son.
And we don’t know how many times these core assets will appreciate in value in the future.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Lin Xiao signed his name on the contract.
So...
Including principal and interest, he was burdened with more than 900 million US dollars in debt.
Even someone as strong as Lin Xiao couldn't help but feel a little dazed, until the boss of Meilin gently patted him on the shoulder, his smile even became a little formatted.
After everything was over, he strolled quietly to the X Institute.
There are nearly 200 people here, and the annual salary cost alone is tens of millions of dollars.
Lin Xiao came to Wu Di's office.
"It's pretty good. My hands aren't shaking that badly." Lin Xiao said.
Suddenly, Wu Di's handsome face twitched.
He had only one feeling about Lin Xiao: he was a nice person, but unfortunately he had a big mouth.
"My mother told me that you borrowed $800 million?" Wu Di asked.
Lin Xiao: "Yes, your mother said that she could sell her assets for investment, but I don't think I can just take advantage of your family."
Wu Di: "Do you know? Google's research team on mobile phone systems is far inferior to ours. The number of people is only half of ours."
Lin Xiao: "Because they are not as urgent as we are."
Wu Di: "I found that this thing is not difficult from a purely technical point of view."
Damn, you're a genius!
You think nothing is difficult.
Simply building a system may not be very difficult, but making choices is very difficult.
It is difficult to know when to add and when to subtract.
Early domestic mobile phone manufacturers, even including Samsung, tried hard to add to the mobile phone systems, that is, to make the functions more fancy, the more boastful the better.
After doing it for several years, I started to work hard to do subtraction.
Even the APP icon was purely three-dimensional at first, but later gradually turned into a flat icon.
Early Google native Android was very smooth, but it was always considered difficult to use and very rough, requiring each mobile phone manufacturer to further refine it.
Lin Xiao has used many mobile phone operating systems including HTC, Xiaomi, Meizu, Huawei, OnePlus, Samsung, VIVO, etc.
What he found most difficult to use were the early Lenovo mobile phones.
That’s really… hard to describe.
In fact, the first domestically produced smartphone to gain momentum was not Xiaomi or Huawei, but Lenovo’s Lephone, and the promotion momentum was really in full swing.
Because Meizu was too small, Lenovo's Lephone represented the hope of domestic smartphones at the time.
After the results came out, that system was...really hard to use.
Xiaomi initially relied on Mi UI to break through the siege. When Xiaomi 1 came out, it really gave many people a huge surprise.
In Lin Xiao’s plan, the operating system will do some subtraction earlier than Xiaomi.
But compared to the later OnePlus, it has made a slight addition.
And because it was born early, it really has an advantage.
Because everyone was still using feature phones, the emergence of a smart phone was already very impressive, and people did not have such high requirements for the ecosystem.
Besides, Lightning Group definitely has the strongest software ecosystem in the country.
Currently, in Lightning Games, a large number of people are developing related games for this mobile phone that has not yet been produced.
It can be said that when the Linxiao mobile phone is launched on the market, it will definitely surpass Apple in the domestic market in terms of software ecology alone.
Because Apple will not develop a lot of apps specifically for your market, let alone develop games specifically.
"When the time is right, I would like to go into chip design," Wu Di said.
Lin Xiao: "There is no sign of chip design at all right now."
Wu Di: "You are rich now, right? Why don't you go and talk?"
"Also, don't waste time. When are you leaving?"
Shit, you are the boss, and I am the boss?
………………………………
Next, Lin Xiao had another meeting with people from ARM and Texas Instruments.
X Research Institute, ARM, and Texas Instruments formed a team together to design a chip specifically for this future mobile phone.
Just follow Lin Xiao's request, 45nm process. Although he doesn't understand it, he remembers the relevant parameters of Qualcomm's first-generation Snapdragon chip qsd8250.
I don't care how you do it, but you just have to surpass it!
Is it not possible to design it several years in advance?
Just go ahead and get TSMC's most advanced process technology in the future. Anyway, I know that they will have this process by then.
Follow the map.
The other team began to criticize Lin Xiao for his amateurishness.
"Mr. Lin, do you know how high the cost of a chip will be in this case?"
“If the cost of a chip reaches $50 by then, can you afford it?”
Even though Qualcomm's flagship chip sells for 1,700 yuan more than a decade later, the price was actually very low in the early days.
The cost of $50 sounds horrible.
Because Qualcomm cannot sell it to mobile phone manufacturers at this price.
Lin Xiao: "Let's design it first and then we'll decide how much it will cost."
The research and development cost of Apple's A4 chip reached 1 billion US dollars, which Lin Xiao really could not afford, and he did not need to be so awesome.
"Mr. Lin, I have to tell you that once we start, it will mean a crazy burning of money. We don't know how much money will be burned."
"And according to our agreement, you have to pay 55% of the research and development costs."
"According to the current plan, you have prepared about $200 million for the design and research of this chip. But if there are any problems with the progress, this amount may continue to rise."
"Are you sure you can handle it? Once you sign a contract, it cannot be changed, let alone abandoned halfway!"
………………………………
Lin Xiao returned to X Research Institute and held another meeting.
His chip team is really small, with only a few dozen people, and they are very young.
However, they have a skill, summoning magic.
These people are all PhDs from top universities, and their teachers are basically well-known world-renowned figures.
This time, Lin Xiao flew to Taiwan to visit Boss Liang.
The other party looked at Lin Xiao in astonishment again. Are the young people in the mainland so awesome now? He had attended the ceremony of X Research Institute before and was surprised to know that the mission of this institute was to develop mobile phone systems.
He didn't expect that the chip specifications he wanted to develop at the beginning would be so terrifyingly high.
Should I say that you are an amateur, or that you are a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers? "Is it outrageous?" Lin Xiao couldn't help asking.
Boss Liang: "You don't understand chips?"
Lin Xiao: “I don’t understand.”
Boss Liang: "Then how did you reach the limit in the next two or three years?"
Then, the boss said that it was enough.
Besides, it's a trade secret.
But his meaning was very clear. Lin Xiao’s requirement was to push TSMC’s large-scale processing to its limit in the next two to three years.
How did you know that?
There are very few people in the world who understand this thing.
"I'm actually surprised that you came to me." Boss Liang: "Because this also involves the key secrets of your company. How can you guarantee that I won't work for your competitor in the future? You actually came to me for consultation on such a critical decision, and you also gave me such a generous consulting fee? You should know that sometimes confidentiality agreements may not be effective."
Lin Xiao was stunned: "Maybe the ignorant are fearless."
He was indeed somewhat prejudiced, because Mr. Liang was one of the biggest contributors to the future of China's chips.
"First of all, it is very difficult to design this chip, even if the main research is done by ARM and Texas Instruments. Secondly, even if the research and development is completed, the biggest beneficiary is not you, but Texas Instruments. However, you have to pay more for research and development, which does not seem to be a cost-effective business."
"If you convert it to 5 million chips, the R&D cost alone will be more than $200 million. Not counting the foundry fee, the R&D and design cost alone will reach $40 per chip. In fact, a finished SOC can't even be sold at this price."
"If this is purely a business, I have never seen this kind of business."
"Texas Instruments will be able to sell a large number of chips once the ban is over, and it can also spread the cost. On your side, your sales forecast is only five million, and that's for the entire cycle."
"According to your approach, I don't know how much your phone will cost in the end and what price it should be sold for."
"And I heard that you have very high requirements not only for chips, but also for screens, and even for camera modules, COMS sensors, etc. You need to negotiate with Sharp and Sony specifically."
"You are a liberal arts student, right? You are full of romantic feelings."
“To work in the technology industry, you need to be adventurous and romantic, but you also need to be down-to-earth.”
Lin Xiao: "Dr. Liang, do you advise me not to do this?"
"No, I have my say, but... some people are born not to be disciplined." Liang said with a smile: "If you want to make the ultimate product, then you are not crazy. If you want to do business and make money, then I really don't know what the result will be."
"But if you are determined to do it, then I can only say two words: admiration!" Liang continued: "In comparison, Hongda seems mediocre."
Lin Xiao smiled bitterly.
When he was doing it, he didn't expect it to be so difficult and risky.
Even if he could foresee the future a few years later, the risks of this matter were still huge.
High-Tech Corporation, or HTC, was also very successful in its early days, ranking among the top companies in the world. However, it declined in a very short period of time.
Of course, after the mobile phone industry failed, Wang Xuehong was unwilling to be mediocre and led HTC to bravely transform, almost ALL IN virtual reality. As a result, it was still stuck in the quagmire as of 2025 and had not yet climbed out.
Of course, a few years later, Facebook's Zuckerberg also took the ALL IN stance.
"If you really want to do it, then I'd be happy to make friends with you." Boss Liang said with a smile: "After all, this world is a paradise for lunatics."
………………………………
Flying back to the United States again! Lin Xiao once again, once again, had a meeting with the teams from Texas Instruments and ARM.
I don’t know how many times it was opened.
The support team behind him is becoming more and more professional and high-end.
Because he really doesn't understand much and needs help with many details.
Finally, Boss Liang flew over again.
The top mentors of the doctoral students at X Institute were also summoned to conduct the most professional negotiations with Texas Instruments and ARM.
Lin Xiao paid a hefty consulting fee for each of these people.
But people don't come here just for the money.
Again, there is a small part of this world that is a paradise for lunatics.
Sober people build the world.
Crazy people design the world.
So much so that in the subsequent negotiations, Lin Xiao, the key decision maker, became a bystander.
Then, the mentors of these doctoral students at the Inexplicably X Institute formed a supervisory committee to oversee the work progress of this future tripartite team.
final……
After more than twenty rounds of tug-of-war and negotiations.
Several top academic leaders turned around and said to Lin Xiao: "Mr. Lin, you can sign the contract and pay the money."
Then, Lin Xiao transformed into a ruthless signing machine.
Signing documents one after another.
After the signing, it means that $200 million is gone.
However, these agreements stipulate that if the R&D and design are not successful after these funds are spent, Texas Instruments will have to pay more of the remaining R&D funds, but the share of the intellectual property rights of this chip will not change.
For this chip, Lin Xiao will have to pay at least $200 million in research and development costs, and Texas Instruments will pay $180 million.
This is also a big gamble for Texas Instruments.
So when Richard signed the contract, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
After the signing, no one even applauded, there was only exhaustion and even a hint of confusion.
However, after the confusion, there was an inexplicable feeling of excitement and passion.
…………………………
No matter what, the research and development of the core SOC of mobile phones has at least started to get on the right track.
Next, we need to tackle the screen, camera module, COMS sensor, etc.
At this time, Lucas called.
"Boss."
Hearing this name, Lin Xiao felt a little strange.
You are dating my sister and you call me boss?
"There is such a thing. There are two capitals that want to invest in our East Asian Facebook." Lucas' voice was a little cautious.
Lin Xiao: "Has it reached the point where you can no longer make the decision?"
Lucas: “Yes.”
Lin Xiao: “Which two?”
Lucas: "One is the Shinawatra Group, and the other is the Royal Fund."
Damn! No wonder! Awesome! The two super bosses of Tailan.
Lin Xiao: “How much?”
Lucas: "It's not a lot of money, just around $60 million, and the asking price is not particularly high, but it's still slightly lower than other investment banks' prices."
Lin Xiao: “Promise!”
"Okay!" Lucas: "You still have to come to this signing ceremony."
Lin Xiao: "I have already resigned from any position in Lightning Group. Xia Xi and you can just sign."
Lucas: "You better be there."
Lin Xiao: “Okay!”
………………
Next, Lin Xiao flew to Bangkok before flying to Japan.
Then he went through a ceremony of the highest order.
Although he didn't need to sign, it seemed that the signing was secondary and being received was the main thing.
At this point, Lin Xiao unlocked an achievement! An audience with the King!
Immediately afterwards, the Lightning Group was also asked by the other government.
In the future, Lightning Entertainment is very much welcome to come to Thailand to shoot movies, but if possible, try to show the positive and active side of this country and its beautiful customs and culture.
Suddenly, the people from Lightning Group felt a little embarrassed, especially Gao Changhe from Lightning Entertainment.
The 2005 Lunar New Year movie season has ended.
Lightning Entertainment does not have any big productions this year, and the one that will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday is "SPL".
Although it is called this name, the plot is the same as that of "SPL 2". The setting is Thailand and the plot is about the illegal organ trade, which is very scary.
After watching this movie, people in China are so scared that they dare not come to Thailand.
In 2005, a super heavyweight movie was released and was recorded in the history of film. It was "The Promise".
The film was released on December 15th, simultaneously with Lightning Entertainment's "SPL".
It was truly an unprecedented event.
In terms of production cost and cast, it is much higher than last year's "The Walking Dead".
The final domestic box office of "The Last Journey" was 410 million yuan, so the production team of "The Promise" set a higher goal, to break the box office record once again.
The final box office was 180 million! The final box office of "SPL" was 250 million. The box office of "SPL 2" in history was 560 million, but that was several years later.
The box office of 250 million has already made Zhen Zhidan overjoyed.
He was the first Hong Kong filmmaker to join the Lightning School. If his performance was not good, he would be in trouble both inside and outside.
The result fully proves everything.
"Lost in Thailand" grossed 280 million yuan.
Therefore, the first and second place in China's movie box office in 2005 were still Lightning Entertainment.
But this year's results are not encouraging.
The success of "The Last Days" last year really made people feel the new ceiling and new hope of Chinese films.
It felt like the entire market ceiling would rise rapidly and the film industry would flourish, but this year it was back to square one.
"By the way, I have something to tell you." Lucas suddenly said.
Lin Xiao: “What’s the matter?”
Lucas: "I'm marrying your sister."
"Ah?!" Lin Xiao: "When?"
Lucas: "I'm too busy with work, so I'm just going to host a party at your hometown on March 9th!"
Shit, there aren’t many days left.
Why are you notifying me now? Lin Xiao: "Won't Hong Kong do it?"
Lucas: "I don't have any relatives or friends there, so why should I hold a banquet?"
His mother came here illegally, had no relatives, and later became the mistress of a British man. So although he was born and raised in Hong Kong, he really has no relatives or friends.
In recent years, his mother has had many card-playing friends.
So in a sense, Lucas is really a person without any relatives.
Lin Xiao patted him on the shoulder and didn't say anything like "we are your family from now on."
He is not only his brother-in-law, but also one of his generals.
They are not relatives, but they are better than relatives.
……………………
March 5! A piece of news broke out on the domestic Internet.
The news that the leader of Ergou owed a huge debt of 1 billion US dollars in the United States once again caused an uproar.
It has been almost nine months since Leader Ergou resigned from all his positions and disappeared from everyone's sight.
There have been various news along the way, and this time it is really big news.
It immediately sparked a heated discussion.
Soon after, many reporters crowded at the entrance of Lightning Group, and even Xia Xi was interviewed by reporters when she was attending an event.
"Boss Xia, I heard that Master Ergou owes a huge debt of one billion US dollars in the United States. Is that true?"
"Will he completely bring down the Lightning Group if he owes such a huge debt?"
"Why did he owe such a huge debt? Did he fail in his investment in the United States? Was it futures trading or stocks?"
"Boss Xia, the total market value of all of Master Ergou's shares in Lightning Group is less than a billion US dollars, right? Does this mean that he is completely bankrupt?"
Faced with these questions, Xia Xi gave a cold reply: "It's completely false."
"Boss Xia, why did Master Ergou go to the United States? Did he become an American citizen? Is he no longer a Chinese from now on?"
"Did he go to the United States to escape the condemnation of domestic public opinion?"
Xia Xi was extremely annoyed.
Merrill Lynch's Liu Feifei called Lin Xiao specifically to apologize.
"Boss Lin, I'm really sorry."
"We are already tracing the source to see which party leaked the news."
"We will definitely give you an explanation."
There is no impenetrable wall in the world, and there are a total of three banks providing loans this time.
Besides, Lin Xiao has so many opponents that they will dig him out as soon as they smell some wind.
But what's disgusting is that the person who leaked the news clearly knew what Lin Xiao was going to do, but deliberately spread rumors saying that it was an investment failure, and even led him towards bankruptcy.
Liu Feifei: "Some people really hope that you can't pay back the money and then go bankrupt."
At this time, countless fans of Ergou Jiaozhu appeared again in the Facebook community.
"Master, you have been missing for almost nine months."
"You should come out and clarify the facts quickly, otherwise the rumors will become true. Over time, you will really be bankrupt in the eyes of many people."
Someone mocked in the comments: "Clarify? Clarify your ass."
"Don't you know? The so-called rumor is the truth."
"When Ergou was cheating on his wife, didn't everyone think it was just a rumor? The two female protagonists even tried to whitewash him, but what happened? Wasn't it confirmed? Didn't Ergou lose his reputation because of this incident and flee to the United States?"
Immediately, Ergou's fans argued below: "The leader is responsible, so he came out to admit it. What do you mean he is disgraced? Who told you that he has fled to the United States?"
Next, someone immediately sent a photo.
This was probably a secretly taken photo, showing Lin Xiao walking into a hotel in the United States.
"You still don't admit it? Isn't this America? Isn't this Ergou? He just ran away!"
"A group of people regarded him as a patriot and an idol, but when something happened, he was the first to flee to the United States. What a bunch of idiots!"
"He just wants to harvest you, and you think he's a hero. What a bunch of idiots, without the ability to think independently."
It has to be said that after the departure of Leader Ergou, the domestic public opinion environment has continued to deteriorate.
A large number of reflective bodies and a large number of public intellectuals are stirring up trouble.
At the same time, Lin Xiao, who was at the center of the storm, finally returned to his hometown to attend the wedding of his sister Lin Yao and Lucas (played by Wu Laicai).
………………………
Note: I can’t think of the words to ask for monthly tickets, and I’m a little anxious, so I’ll just kowtow to the benefactors, please!
(End of this chapter)
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