91: Chapter 91: Playing like this will get you sliced ​​up sooner or later.

Zhao Yang waited for General Feng's voice to pause, then immediately spoke up: "Hello, hello, Elder Feng? It was too noisy around here just now, I didn't hear what you said—my apologies, could you say it again."

The breathing on the other end of the phone became noticeably heavier.

Zhao Yang stifled a laugh: "Please wait a moment... Hmm, it's quiet now. You must have an urgent matter, right? Don't worry, your business is my business."

"You little brat! You're going to be the death of me eventually!" General Feng's voice suppressed his anger. "I'm asking you, do you have any idea what that 'Ultra-Large-Scale Cluster High-Speed Concurrency Control System' you created actually means?"

Zhao Yang paused in surprise: "Elder Feng, what are you talking about? What 'Ultra-Large-Scale Cluster High-Speed Concurrency Control System'—what on earth is that?"

"Are you playing dumb with me? Still pretending? Do you believe I can have the bank freeze all your accounts?"

Zhao Yang gasped, then thought for a moment and realized: "Are you talking about that communication module? I don't even know where you heard that name—you weren't scared by the name, were you? I just thought the communication between servers was too slow, so I designed a faster one. Strange, isn't this an internal project of the Third Institute? How did you know about it? Did you plant a mole in the Third Institute?"

"Hmph, and you have the nerve to say that! If the military representative hadn't reported this, I wouldn't have known you kid pulled off another big stunt!"

"It's not that big of a deal, it's just a very ordinary communication module."

"Just?!" The voice on the phone suddenly dropped. "Let me tell you, the General Staff Computing Center has been wanting this thing for years."

"Then just buy it from the Third Institute."

"The General Staff has special requirements."

"You mean you want us to customize it? That will require discussing it with the manufacturer; they are mainly responsible for the module production."

"I can't talk about the specifics over the phone. Someone will come to pick you up in a while, we'll talk when we meet."

Hanging up the phone, Zhao Yang scratched his hair. It couldn't be that serious, right? It was just something three to five years ahead of the curve. Could there be some misunderstanding here? Did the Third Institute engage in false advertising?

He returned to his office calmly and started searching for information online. Half an hour later, he stared at the screen and grimaced.

Damn. I played too big.

Indeed, something with the same functionality as this thing came out in 2002—but that was a first-generation product, and the performance was far inferior. The module he created was a mature design; it would take at least five more iterations for the first-generation product to barely reach this level.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Zhao Yang's back. He couldn't keep doing this; if he kept going like this, he would eventually be dissected.

General Feng's people arrived very quickly. His surname was Tian, a Lieutenant Colonel, accompanied by Director Gao Wenbo to Zhao Yang's office.

Seeing Lieutenant Colonel Tian politely invite Zhao Yang away, Director Gao Wenbo couldn't help but mutter to himself. He never dreamed that Zhao Yang actually had dealings with the military. Although the pretext was inviting Zhao Yang to help verify equipment, he wasn't blind—the respect in the Lieutenant Colonel's eyes for Zhao Yang was heartfelt.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Ma Tiankui's number: "Hello, Director Ma, there's something I'd like to ask about..."

In the military jeep, Lieutenant Colonel Tian took the initiative to speak: "Comrade Zhao Yang, the security module you provided solved a major problem for us. I would like to express my gratitude."

Zhao Yang smiled: "You're welcome, it's all just work."

"Comrade Zhao Yang, I have a question I'd like to ask."

"Please, go ahead."

"We discovered that the module you provided actually has a frequency-hopping function. If we remove this function, will it affect the security effectiveness?"

Zhao Yang paused: "Why would you want to remove it?"

Lieutenant Colonel Tian smiled helplessly: "It consumes too much power. The phone runs out of battery in half the time."

Zhao Yang realized: "Sorry, I really didn't think of that. The frequency-hopping function can be removed or disabled without affecting the security effectiveness—it just won't be able to prevent being locked onto by an anti-radiation seeker."

Lieutenant Colonel Tian trembled: "Did General Feng ask you to add this feature?"

"That's not it." Zhao Yang said, "I remember in '96, that neighbor to the north used mobile phone signals to locate and bomb the rebel leader Dudayev, so I considered this point when I designed it."

Lieutenant Colonel Tian stared at Zhao Yang with burning eyes, like a hungry wolf eyeing a little lamb.

Zhao Yang quickly waved his hands: "I'm quite happy with my current position, please don't think about getting me into the military. With my unrestrained nature, it wouldn't be a good thing for you guys if I went there."

Lieutenant Colonel Tian pondered for a moment and sighed: "You're right."

The car drove into a large compound with a distinct former Soviet style. Zhao Yang followed Lieutenant Colonel Tian to the entrance of a conference room and, as per procedure, handed over all communication devices.

Inside the conference room, General Feng was chatting with an old man with gray hair and thick glasses. Seeing Zhao Yang enter, General Feng snorted directly: "You brat, daring to fool me on the phone. If you don't leave something behind today, don't think about leaving this compound."

Zhao Yang smiled sheepishly: "Elder Feng, are you a General or a bandit? I'm already here, and I'm prepared to be swindled by you."

General Feng ignored him and looked at the old man: "Old Xu, you see, that's just how he is. I really want to take off my belt and beat him."

"It's this unrestrained nature that leads to creativity." Old Xu laughed heartily and looked at Zhao Yang with a smile. "Let me introduce myself, my surname is Xu, I won't mention my position, it doesn't mean much. I looked at the information on your communication module and had some new ideas I wanted to discuss with you. Take a look at this."

He pushed a stack of documents over. Zhao Yang glanced at the cover, and the word "Confidential" circled in red was particularly striking.

General Feng said indifferently: "Go ahead and look, don't have any psychological burden. Given your security clearance within our organization, there's no problem with you seeing this."

"Fine, just don't try to swindle me." Zhao Yang said, though he opened the documents anyway.

In fact, he could have finished reading it with a single glance, but he slowed down and spent a full half hour flipping through it. After closing the documents and pondering for a while, he looked up and said: "Old Xu, this thing would be very difficult to achieve even in America."

Old Xu nodded: "Yes, they are also stuck on the concurrency level. They chose to improve the capability of individual processing chips, but that path is currently not feasible for us. I know about the last security module matter, don't worry, we won't treat you unfairly this time."

"It needs at least a 50% performance increase. I have already squeezed the performance of the components to the limit, it's difficult!"

Old Xu fell silent: "Yes, that's our conclusion too. But since you were able to design such an exquisite security module, I hope you can give it a try."

Zhao Yang looked at him and pursed his lips: "You'll need to pay more."

Pfft—General Feng spat out a mouthful of tea, coughing while pointing at Zhao Yang: "You little brat! *Cough, cough*... You choked me to death! You're so money-grubbing, you'll end up a corrupt official sooner or later!"

Zhao Yang smiled sheepishly: "As long as my family wealth is substantial, no one will be able to corrupt me. So Elder Feng, please don't be too stingy with me."

Old Xu laughed out loud: "No problem, we will definitely pay you more. How long will it take to get it done?"

"Let's wait until after the Spring Festival. It's the end of the year, and there's a lot to do."

...

Upon leaving the compound, Zhao Yang made a secret resolution: He could no longer take things out in his own name; in the future, he must rely on collective strength to get things done.

Just after getting off work that evening, his phone rang. It was Meimei calling.

Zhao Yang picked up: "Meimei, is something up?"

Meimei's voice was uncontrollably excited: "Brother Yang! I have some huge, wonderful news to tell you!"