Chapter 26: Recruiting Technical Backbone from Major Companies, Xinghai Aims to Become a Regular Army

The sun was scorching.

In front of the glass doors of the Bolang Mobile headquarters, a group of young people holding cardboard boxes stood crowded together.

The disastrous press conference a few days ago had caused Bolang Mobile's sales to plummet off a cliff.

To stop the losses, Fatty Xu had directly swung the butcher's knife of layoffs.

A large number of R&D backbone staff, who had gone bald from working in the labs, were thus heartlessly kicked to the curb.

Across the street, Chu Xuan was pedaling a beat-up tricycle, holding a megaphone and testing the sound.

"Hey, hey! Boss Lu, is this volume penetrating enough?" Chu Xuan grinned.

Lu Jingming leaned against the door of the Santana, chewing on an unlit cigarette, and snapped his fingers.

"Hang it up. Let's bring some warmth to these brothers."

With a "swish."

A seven or eight-meter-long, glaring red banner was unfurled and tied tightly between two street trees.

On it were printed a row of garish, massive yellow characters.

"Xinghai welcomes heartbroken tech workers; salaries doubled on the spot; crush your black-hearted former employer!"

Shen Qingqiu stood by the car, reaching up to adjust her gold-rimmed glasses, feeling her cheeks burning.

As a CFO from a prestigious Wall Street investment bank, she was here on the curb with this boss, setting up a stall to poach people.

This behavior was like a con artist selling miracle pills under a pedestrian bridge.

"Lu Jingming, isn't this a bit too underhanded?" Shen Qingqiu lowered her voice. "We're blocking their front entrance."

"The marketplace is a battlefield; I call this precision poverty alleviation."

Lu Jingming held the cigarette between his fingers, his eyes fixed on the crowd across the street.

The megaphone began to loop the text from the banner.

The laid-off employees across the street, shrouded in gloom, turned their heads one by one to stare at that arrogant red cloth.

"Xinghai? Is that the factory that sells 998 bulletproof phones?"

"Don't go. That kind of assembly plant has no technology to speak of; you'd just be going there to screw in bolts."

A few programmers wearing thick-rimmed glasses muttered, and no one was willing to take the first step.

Chu Xuan grew anxious and was about to shout something with the megaphone.

A sudden, fierce argument erupted inside the Bolang Mobile building.

The glass doors were pushed open violently.

A middle-aged man in an old plaid shirt with messy hair was pushed out by two security guards, holding a cardboard box.

"Chief Engineer Zhou, please don't make it difficult for us. Boss Xu has given the order; you have to leave today."

The security guard patted his shoulder with a fake, skin-deep smile.

The man known as Chief Engineer Zhou kept a cold face, slammed the box onto the ground, causing a stack of scattered design drawings to spill out.

"You don't understand hardware, yet you force high frequencies, and the cooling is a total mess. Did I say anything wrong?!"

Zhou Hong pointed at the building and cursed, "This crappy company will be finished sooner or later!"

Lu Jingming's eyes lit up.

Zhou Hong, the former Technical Director of Bolang Mobile, was a notorious tech fanatic.

He had a foul temper, but he held hardcore experience in underlying architecture.

"The big fish has emerged." Lu Jingming patted Chu Xuan's shoulder and strode across the street.

Zhou Hong was squatting on the ground picking up the drawings when a pair of polished leather shoes stopped in front of him.

"Chief Engineer Zhou, if Fatty Xu doesn't want you, I have a bowl of hot rice here. Do you want it?"

Lu Jingming squatted down and helped him pick up a drawing.

Zhou Hong looked up, his bloodshot eyes staring at Lu Jingming, recognizing him as the very person who had been stirring up trouble on the internet recently.

He snatched the drawing back and brushed off the dust.

"Boss Lu, I, Zhou Hong, am into underlying R&D, not going to an assembly plant to screw in bolts for others."

Zhou Hong stood up, his tone filled with undisguised arrogance.

"That bulletproof phone of yours might be fine for fooling laymen."

"You want me to work for you? Sorry, I can't afford to lose that kind of face."

The surrounding laid-off employees nodded one after another; the technical backbone from big companies all had that sense of pride in their bones.

Shen Qingqiu walked over, just about to persuade him with stock options and double the salary, but was stopped by Lu Jingming raising his hand.

"Pride is a good thing; it means you have ability."

Lu Jingming wasn't angry; he fished a black phone out of his jeans pocket.

This was an engineering prototype that Xia Weiliang had just flashed with Xinghai OS, with a rough plastic brick casing.

"Engineer Zhou, you understand the underlying layer, so let me show you something."

Lu Jingming lit up the screen and handed it to Zhou Hong.

"I'll only let you look for five seconds."

Zhou Hong initially looked disdainful.

But the moment his gaze touched the screen, he was rooted to the spot as if struck by lightning.

Lu Jingming's fingers slid across the screen casually.

No lag, no ghosting.

Multiple applications switched in the background in seconds; that silky-smooth damping feel completely shattered Zhou Hong's perception.

"This is impossible!"

Zhou Hong lunged forward, wanting to grab the phone, not even caring that the cardboard box in his hand had dropped to the ground.

"What kind of system is this? Symbian could never run at this frame rate!"

Zhou Hong yelled incoherently, "What is the memory scheduling mechanism? Tombstone Mechanism?!"

Lu Jingming flicked his wrist and tucked the phone back into his pocket; exactly five seconds.

"I can't tell you how it's done, but Xinghai's next step is to use this system to crush all our competitors."

Lu Jingming looked at him, his eyes sharp.

"Do you want to stay on the street and keep exclaiming 'impossible'?"

"Or come with me and personally push this miracle to the whole world?"

Zhou Hong was breathing heavily, his chest heaving.

He had spent his whole life pursuing ultimate code and fluidity, but under Fatty Xu, he could only compromise and make junk hardware.

And now, the door to future technology was right in this young man's pocket.

"I'm in!"

A fanatical light erupted in Zhou Hong's eyes.

He ripped off the Bolang employee badge from his neck and slammed it hard onto the ground.

He turned around and roared at the group of former subordinates across the street who were dumbfounded.

"What are you still standing there for?! Come with me to Xinghai! I'm going to lead you to build real smartphones!"

With the Chief Engineer leading the way, those big-company elites who had originally been watching from the sidelines were completely stirred up.

Hundreds of people swarmed across the street, surrounding Chu Xuan's recruitment stall until not a drop of water could pass.

Shen Qingqiu watched this nearly insane scene, and a smile couldn't help but tug at the corners of her mouth.

This man truly had a magic that made people follow him wholeheartedly.

A week later, at Xinghai Electronics Factory.

The walls of the old factory had been leveled, and several excavators were rumbling in the distance, smoothing out the newly purchased land.

In front of the office building, a bright red carpet was laid out.

Today was the big day for Xinghai's official rebranding.

Lu Jingming had changed into a well-tailored black suit, and Shen Qingqiu stood by his side, her professional attire sharp and eye-catching.

Behind them stood Old Li, Niu Dazhuang, and Chu Xuan.

As well as the newly joined Zhou Hong and hundreds of technical backbone staff wearing white lab coats.

The makeshift team had completely shed its shabby exterior and turned into a well-equipped, professional army.

"The auspicious time has arrived; unveil the plaque!" Chu Xuan shouted excitedly, holding a megaphone.

Lu Jingming gripped the corner of the red silk and gave it a hard tug.

Under the sun, a massive plaque made of pure copper gleamed brilliantly—[Xinghai Technology Group].

The whole factory erupted in thunderous applause and cheers.

Just as Niu Dazhuang was preparing to light the festive firecrackers.

"Screech—"

A piercing screech of brakes shattered the enthusiastic atmosphere.

A stretched Mercedes-Benz sedan with special black consulate license plates stopped arrogantly right in the middle of the red carpet.

The car door pushed open, and a bodyguard in black immediately opened a black umbrella.

A pair of polished custom leather shoes stepped onto the red carpet.

Stepping out was a tall foreigner with blonde hair and blue eyes.

He was wearing an expensive handmade suit, his chin held high, his blue eyes filled with condescending arrogance.

The cheering of the whole crowd stopped abruptly.

Niu Dazhuang, holding the lighter, walked forward with a frown.

"Hey! Do you understand the rules? Is this carpet for you to park on whenever you want?"

The bodyguard stepped forward violently and scolded in stiff Chinese.

"Back off! This is the President of Nokia Greater China Region, President Kang Peila!"

Nokia?

Hearing this name, all the technical personnel present gasped.

That was the absolute hegemon that occupied half of the global mobile phone market and ruled the Symbian empire!

President Kang Peila didn't even glance at Niu Dazhuang.

He covered his nose with a white handkerchief, as if disgusted by the air here.

President Kang Peila strode over, walking straight up to Lu Jingming, his gaze sweeping over the newly hung plaque.

"Are you Lu Jingming?"

President Kang Peila spoke in accented Chinese, his mouth curling into a sneer.

"I heard you sold a few hundred thousand pieces of drop-proof junk, and you dare to call yourself a technology group?"

Lu Jingming did not back down; he kept one hand in his dress pants pocket, looking levelly at this insufferably arrogant international giant.

"Not only do I dare to call myself a technology group, I also dare to predict that Nokia's good days are coming to an end."

President Kang Peila acted as if he had heard a massive joke.

He leaned closer to Lu Jingming, lowered his voice, his tone full of disdain.

"Mr. Lu, I am here today to offer you a way out; name your price."

"How much money will it take for you to sell your ridiculous factory to us, Nokia?"