"So, one weekly batch to maintain momentum is fine," Haifeng said.
"Go call Lu Hong. Tell him I'm waiting in my office."
Xiao Ai nodded and stepped out.
Haifeng had just brewed himself a cup of tea when Lu Hong arrived.
"Come in, Lao Lu. Taste this tea I made," Haifeng offered.
Xiao Ai quietly excused herself. Some conversations weren't meant for her ears.
Lu Hong took a sip. "Good tea. What can I do for you, President Lu?"
Haifeng set down his cup. "Explain our chip situation to me. We sold many phones today, but all the profit went to chip, screen, and camera suppliers."
Lu Hong nodded, sensing the urgency. "It starts with architecture. Every chip is built on an instruction set—like Intel's x86 or ARM's reduced instruction set. That's the framework on which everything else is built."
He continued, "Designing a chip is like decorating an empty room. Some teams do it well. Some… not so much."
Haifeng understood immediately. He opened the system and searched for chip architecture options—only to choke at the sight of the point requirements.
500 million points.
That's 500 million yuan in net profit.
How many phones do I have to sell to break even?!
Lu Hong said, "Phone chips are usually divided into four components—CPU, baseband chip, RF chip, and power management."
"Can all architectures be designed independently?" Haifeng asked.
"Absolutely. We can design our own."
"But right now, we're using ARM, right?"
Lu Hong frowned. "Why would we need ARM? We don't even use it much. We already have our architecture."
Haifeng froze. "Wait. What are you talking about?"
"The Hongmeng AI chip. It runs on the Hongmeng instruction set. You didn't know?"
"You developed it?" Haifeng asked, stunned.
"Of course," Lu Hong replied. "I figured a custom RISC architecture would better meet our needs."
Haifeng wanted to scream. He looked at Lu Hong like he was ready to strangle him.
Why the hell didn't I know about this?!
It was time to sit down with all four system-assigned experts and get a proper breakdown. If Lu Hong had been sitting on a custom instruction set this whole time, what else were they hiding?
"Lao Lu, can you design chips for any platform? Computers? Servers?"
"Sure," Lu Hong said casually. "Anything you want."
Haifeng's eyes lit up. It was time to build an R&D center. What about the others if one of the system-assigned researchers was this powerful?
"Can the Hongmeng AI chip be taped out now?"
"Yes, we're ready."
"The only problem is... we don't have our fab yet."
"Can you split the chip line into three tiers—high-end, mid-range, low-end?"
"That's easy. What should we call them?"
Haifeng thought for a moment. "High-end is Kunpeng, mid-range is Zhulong. I haven't decided on the entry-level name yet."
"Going with mythical beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, huh?" Lu Hong grinned. "We should trademark every creature in that book. We're gonna need a lot of chip names."
"That's a damn good idea." Haifeng stood. "I'll notify the legal team immediately."
Later, Xiao Ai walked in.
"President Lu, what can I help you with?"
"Tell the legal department to register every mythical creature from the Classic of Mountains and Seas—as trademarks if possible."
She blinked. "You're gonna trademark the whole thing? What about other companies?"
"Too bad for them." Haifeng shrugged. "We're claiming everything."
Xiao Ai gave him a look. "You're going to leave the rest of the industry with nothing to name their chips after."
As she left, Haifeng chuckled, then sat quietly—thinking about the next steps.
One week later.
Another flash sale. This time during the National Day holiday.
Result?
Sold out in one hour.
The internet lit up again. Netizens gave Haifeng a new nickname:
"Monkey King."
Not out of mockery—but because he had seemingly stolen Lei Jun's title.
Haifeng was annoyed.
That title was his… and now it's mine?
"Xiao Ai, call President Lei. Invite him to visit the company tomorrow morning."
"Got it, President Lu."
The next day.
Lei Jun arrived—in disguise—but it didn't fool anyone for long. Haifeng welcomed and gave him a tour of the facility alongside the senior executives.
Still, employees quickly recognized him. Whispers spread. Eyes peeked around cubicles. Soon, the whole company knew.
As Lei Jun walked through the halls, dozens of staff wore the same subtle expression—an almost ceremonial smile that said:
"Your presence brings light to our humble office."