From Wage Slave to Tycoon

Hearing this, Xiao Chen immediately turned and headed for his room, while Su Chen followed Elder Xiao to the study. On his way, Su Chen even remembered to grab the fruit platter from the table.

"Wow, Brother Cheen, this work-issued laptop is pretty nice," Su Chen said, inspecting Xiao Chen’s computer. He had to admit, its specs left his own computer completely in the dust.

"Of course it is. Don’t you know who you’re talking to?" Xiao Chen said with a smug grin.

But no sooner had the words left his mouth than he got a flick on the forehead from the old man. "Oh, aren’t you something."

Xiao Chen fell silent instantly, standing quietly to the side and rubbing his head. Don’t be fooled by the old man’s age—there was some serious power behind that flick. It had genuinely hurt.

Su Chen didn’t dare laugh. ’What if Xiao Chen decides to make my life difficult later?’

He flexed his fingers, pulled a USB drive from his pocket, and plugged it into the laptop. It contained the very firewall Su Chen had previously built from scratch. ’Perfect, I can test out its effectiveness today.’

In an instant, the room filled with the furious CLACK-CLACK-CLACK of the keyboard. Standing behind Su Chen, both Elder Xiao and Xiao Chen were stunned by the speed of his fingers.

As the saying goes, amateurs watch the show while experts see the skill. For Xiao Chen, who knew a thing or two about this field, Su Chen’s work was nothing short of divine.

Xiao Chen could barely follow the initial commands, but as Su Chen continued, he found his own mind simply couldn’t keep up. He shook his head in resignation, gave up trying to analyze the process, and decided to just wait for the outcome.

CLACK! With a final press of the Enter key, Su Chen leaned back and stretched lazily, then picked up a slice of cut fruit and began to eat.

Elder Xiao looked at the progress bar on the laptop screen and asked curiously, "Xiaosu, what are you doing?"

"I’m downloading all the classified files on the American F-15, F-35, and a variety of their drones."

"Classified files?" Both Elder Xiao and Xiao Chen were dumbfounded. They knew exactly what that implied. With that data, one could learn every parameter of those fighter jets, potentially even replicate them perfectly.

After all, Huaxia had a reputation for being a master of "replication." With this data, they could build upon it to develop even more advanced technology.

Their anticipation was tinged with skepticism; they found it hard to believe that Su Chen had gotten his hands on such top-secret material so easily.

"Huh, the Americans have a lot of other goodies in here," Su Chen mused as he discovered even more valuable files, casually bundling them into the download.

As they watched the progress bar slowly creep forward, the breathing of both Elder Xiao and Xiao Chen grew heavier.

When the progress bar finally reached one hundred percent, Su Chen swallowed the piece of watermelon he was eating and his fingers danced across the keyboard again. In less than a minute, he clapped his hands together briskly.

"All done! Want to take a look, Elder Xiao?" Su Chen asked, tilting his head to look at the man behind him.

Was there even any need to ask?

Without a second thought, Elder Xiao nodded. "Let’s see!"

They watched as Su Chen unzipped a file archive. Seeing that it was over three hundred gigabytes in size, they both sucked in a sharp breath.

It took a good five or six minutes for the archive to finish decompressing. When it did, a dozen or so new folders appeared on the desktop, each clearly labeled.

"F-15... F-35... AIM Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile..."

With every name he read, Xiao Chen’s heart jolted. He was the person in the room most familiar with this equipment; he knew exactly how immense its value was.

Su Chen casually opened a folder—it was for the F-15 fighter. The moment the first page of its contents appeared, Xiao Chen snatched the laptop away, muttering to himself, "It’s real... It’s all real!"

"What are you muttering about, you little brat?" Elder Xiao demanded, annoyed.

Xiao Chen snapped the laptop shut. He looked at Elder Xiao and Su Chen, his voice filled with excitement. "You two continue talking. I have to report something urgent."

With that, he grabbed the laptop and ran out of the room, leaving Su Chen staring after him, dumbfounded.

It dawned on Elder Xiao then. He realized the files Su Chen had downloaded were genuine—otherwise, Xiao Chen wouldn’t have been so agitated. His gaze toward Su Chen grew complex.

’I never expected Su Chen to be such a prodigious talent,’ he thought. ’Connecting this to the information from our background check... it all suddenly makes sense.’

’With top-tier hacking skills like that, making money would be child’s play.’

’Truly a case of "silent till provoked, then world-shaking when he acts." He must have been lying low for years before suddenly revealing his wealth!’ Elder Xiao’s mind was already conjuring images of Su Chen using his hacking skills to rake in vast sums of money from across the globe.

"Master Xiao, perhaps we should go sit and talk outside?" Su Chen suggested, seeing the old man staring into space.

Elder Xiao snapped out of his reverie. Realizing he was indeed tired from standing so long, he nodded and headed outside.

......

Now that he was certain Su Chen’s 10nm chip technology was real, Elder Xiao had to start planning for what came next.

His original plan had been to have Su Chen go to the Northeast region to build a factory complex and stimulate the local economy. After all, the Northeast had made significant contributions to the nation’s early development, and Elder Xiao had a deep affection for that "black earth" land, so he naturally wanted to help it out.

Now, however, he was hesitant about Su Chen going to the Northeast. Going there meant starting completely from scratch, and the construction alone would take a considerable amount of time. If he went to Peng City, on the other hand, there were ready-made facilities available for him.

As for having Su Chen hand over the 10nm chip technology, Elder Xiao had considered it. But he had crushed the thought as soon as it appeared—if for no other reason, then for the sake of Su Chen himself.

"Xiaochen, what are your plans? Peng City or the Northeast? Don’t worry about other factors; just follow your heart."

Su Chen gave the old man a surprised glance. ’So he’s trying to steer me toward Peng City,’ he thought.

Previously, Su Chen would have agreed in a heartbeat. After all, the resources in Peng City were far superior to what the Northeast could offer. But now... the vast, sparsely populated Northeast held a much greater appeal.

Ever since he’d gotten the "One Hundred Types of Civilian Technology" from that blind box, a crazy idea had been brewing in Su Chen’s mind: to build his very own high-tech industrial city.

That’s right—an industrial city! Not just an industrial park.

An idea like that could only be realized in the Northeast. In a place like Peng City, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, the cost of the land alone would be astronomical.

’Besides,’ he thought, ’with the talent support Xiao Chen promised and the data he just ran off with... asking for a huge plot of land for free isn’t too much, is it?’

Of course, this was all just speculation on Su Chen’s part for now. Whether he could actually achieve his ambitious goal remained to be seen.

"Master Xiao, I’ve made my decision. I’m planning to locate the research institute and the associated factories in the Northeast. I just haven’t decided on a specific location yet. I was wondering if you had any recommendations."

Hearing Su Chen mention the Northeast, Elder Xiao gave him a long, hard look, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "You’re not cooking up some scheme, are you, kid?"

"What? I swear, my intentions are pure! I’m just thinking of stimulating local development and providing some jobs. Don’t you go slandering me, Master Xiao!"

"Hmph. The Northeast has no resources and no talent. What kind of fool would invest there, especially in a top-tier industry like semiconductors?"

"But... you were the one who wanted me to go to the Northeast in the first place..."

Su Chen interjected weakly, leaving Elder Xiao momentarily speechless.

’He was right...’ Elder Xiao thought. ’I was the one pushing for him to go to the Northeast. Why am I trying to stop him now that he’s willing?’

The reason was just as he’d stated: no resources, no talent. Development from a standing start was the most difficult path of all.

"Alright, out with it. What’s your real angle?"

Elder Xiao was starting to see it clearly now. Su Chen was a little fox. For all he knew, everything that had happened today had been part of the kid’s plan.

A grin spread across Su Chen’s face. "Heh heh, it’s nothing too grand. But look, that stuff Brother Cheen ran off with... that was my contribution, wouldn’t you say? Shouldn’t that merit some kind of reward?"

"Ahem. I don’t want much. Just... maybe you could give me a large plot of land in the Northeast for free? Preferably near the coast, the kind with a port!" Su Chen heavily emphasized the word "large," as if afraid Elder Xiao might not grasp the scale.

"What would you do with that? A chip factory doesn’t need a port!" Elder Xiao was now thoroughly confused, unable to figure out what Su Chen was scheming.

Su Chen took a deep breath and declared, "I’m going to build a massive industrial city!"