From Wage Slave to Tycoon

Chen Fei caught on immediately and led Su Chen and the other two into a small room. It was sparsely furnished, with just a few sofas and chairs.

Chen Fei took the phone that was hanging on the wall, dialed a few numbers, murmured a few words into the receiver, and then hung up.

Just as Su Chen was about to ask what was going on, a section of the seemingly smooth wall next to Chen Fei slid open, revealing a hidden passage.

"Sir, this is the exclusive passage used by Professor Wu and his team."

Su Chen never expected it to be so high-tech; it was the kind of thing he had only ever seen in movies.

They stepped into a decontamination and sterilization area. Before Su Chen could figure out what to do, he saw Elder Xiao and Xiao Chen already starting to wash up.

Seeing this, Su Chen followed suit.

Chen Fei produced a few cleanroom suits from somewhere and handed one to each of them.

After changing into the cleanroom suits and passing through another hidden door, Su Chen and the others finally entered the workshop’s interior.

As soon as they entered, two figures in cleanroom suits walked toward them. They were so thoroughly covered that nothing but their eyes was visible.

"Boss, what brings you here? I was just about to call you in a day or two with some good news!"

Su Chen recognized the voice at once—it was Professor Wu.

"I came back to check on Professor Chen’s project, but Chen Fei told me you guys are making rapid progress, too. Are you able to mass-produce the chips yet?" Su Chen explained briefly before steering the conversation to the topic at hand.

A glint flashed in Professor Wu’s eyes. As one of the few people at the research base who knew the full story, he guessed that Professor Chen’s project must have had a major breakthrough, or perhaps was even a complete success. Otherwise, Su Chen wouldn’t have returned.

It was normal for Professor Wu to be unaware of developments elsewhere in the facility. With chip mass production entering its final stages, he was pouring all his energy into it and naturally hadn’t paid attention to anything else.

"With the lithography machine we developed and built ourselves, mass-producing 10nm chips is no problem at all. We still need to improve our production capacity and yield rate, but give me two more months, and we’ll have the largest chip manufacturing base in the country!" Professor Wu declared with confidence.

Su Chen was about to ask about the lithography machine, but Elder Xiao spoke up first.

"Professor Wu, I heard the lithography machine you built is even more advanced than ASNL’s. Could you give me a detailed explanation?"

Hearing the somewhat aged voice, Professor Wu froze for a second. He glanced at Su Chen, his eyes asking, ’Who is this?’

Su Chen gave Professor Wu a knowing look, then stepped aside and whispered the introduction in his ear.

When Professor Wu heard Elder Xiao’s name, he trembled and stammered, "Boss... for real? How could *he* be here? You’re not pulling my leg, are you?"

"Why would I lie to you? Just make sure you give the Elder a proper tour. Don’t hold anything back!" Su Chen was a little exasperated. ’As if I’d lie about something like this.’

Professor Wu nodded emphatically at Su Chen’s words. He walked briskly over to Elder Xiao’s side, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Elder... Xiao, shall we talk as we walk?"

"Then I’ll leave it to you," Elder Xiao replied with a nod.

Professor Wu’s explanation was painstakingly detailed. He covered everything from the chip research to the lithography machine’s performance with exhaustive thoroughness, even laying out the specifics of some of their technological breakthroughs.

Trailing behind them, Su Chen felt his mouth twitch. ’I told him not to hold back, but he didn’t have to be *this* detailed! A general overview would have been fine.’

’Too late to stop him now,’ he thought. ’I just hope the Elder doesn’t get too covetous.’