<h4>1193 About Two Generations Ahead</h4>


    The first day of May.


    Thebor force in China was celebrating a long Labor Day holiday.


    On the other hand, a major earthquake happened in themunications industry.


    The Asia Pacific Cable No.3 project, which was generally considered a good idea by the industry, was stalled because of the three majormunicationpanies in China refusing to cooperate. Since this order worth tens of billions of yuan could not be fulfilled, SubCom’s stock price began to drop.


    No one understood why the three major Chinesemunicationspanies did such a thing.


    In fact, most of the employees at themunicationspanies did not know either...


    The Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.


    Lu Zhou was sitting in his office. He meticulously drew something on a piece of paper.


    Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door.


    Lu Zhou stopped writing and put the unfinished drawings into the drawer. He looked at the door and spoke.


    “It’s unlocked,e in.”


    When the door opened, a unique face appeared at his door.


    “Academician Lu, you’re still working hard I see.” Wang Zhengfei said with a smile as he walked into the office, “Aren’t you going to take a break?”


    “When I’m not busy, every day is a break. When I am busy, I can’t afford to take breaks.” Lu Zhou looked at Wang Zhengfei, who was sitting down on the office sofa, and said, “Aren’t you the same?”


    Wang Zhengfei waved his hand.


    “Me? I enjoy life much more than you. I’m much less stressed than before. I might be able to retire in a few years.”


    Compared to the troubles a few years ago, Huawei was in a much better position than before.


    From carbon-based chips to HV-1 helmets, to the poprity of the 5Gwork, Huawei’s strategic ns had proven to be fruitful. They had control of the entire industry chain. Nothing could stop the growth of this semiconductor giant.


    Even if Wang Zhengfei stepped down, Huawei could continue to grow steadily. Perhaps after he left, thepany could even develop at a faster rate.


    Because of this, he had been nning to find a suitable time and retire from the front lines.


    If it wasn’t for his respect for Academician Lu, he would have asked his chosen sessor toe here today.


    “I originally nned on going on a vacation, but I heard from my assistant that you have something to discuss with me, so I immediately took the maglev from Shanghai and rushed over.” Wang Zhengfei poured himself a cup of tea and said with a smile, “You have always been indifferent about business matters, so I wonder what project interests you so greatly.”


    Lu Zhou had an apathetic look on his face.


    In fact, he still wasn’t interested in business matters. He didn’t want to participate in this project.


    However, the president personally appointed him to handle this project, so he had no other choice.


    Judging by the envious looks on other people’s faces, Lu Zhou knew that this was not an ordinary task. It would undoubtedly bring him a “sizable” fortune.


    In some sense, this was a reward from the state, just like his stocks in East Asia Energy.


    As far as the state was concerned, money was just a number. Social development couldn’t be measured solely by dor signs. Anyone could profit from this, so it was better to give it to someone that deserved it.


    Lu Zhou didn’t have any ambitious ns at making money. After all, the patent fees from the quantumputer and quantummunication technology were more than enough. The business of submarine optical cables wasn’t attractive to him.


    Thus, he thought of apromise, which was to work with other people.


    This way, he could delegate the troublesome tasks to other people.


    He could also avoid being used of taking all of the profits for himself.


    After all, this was a Trans-Pacific submarine optical cable. This was going to be the lifeblood of the future global informationwork.


    It was too dangerous for one man to have this kind of power...


    “CEO Wang, are you interested in the submarine optical cable project?”


    “Submarine optical cable?”


    Wang Zhengfei paused for a second. He was a little confused.


    However, he quickly realized there was something more to this statement. He looked at Lu Zhou and asked curiously, “Is there something more to this?”


    Lu Zhou contemted for a second and spoke.


    “We n on building a submarine optical cable.”


    Wang Zhengfei frowned.


    “I thought it wasn’t going to be built?”


    “Not exactly.” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “Precisely speaking, we’re not going to build the old cable, we’re going to build a more advanced one.”


    Wang Zhengfei rubbed his chin and spoke.


    “I don’t get what you’re trying to say... Can you be more direct? What do you want us to do?”


    Lu Zhou had a headache. He didn’t know how he should exin this.


    However, he suddenly had a realization.


    Wait a second, why do I have to ask him like it’s a favor?


    This is free money!


    I’m the one giving him an amazing business opportunity.


    Lu Zhou couldn’t be bothered to exin everything, so he spoke straightforwardly.


    “In recent years, our country hasunched a strategy of developing into a marine economic powerhouse. Strengthening and developing the submarine optical cable industry ys a pivotal role.”


    Wang Zhengfei: “???”


    Lu Zhou ignored the muddled face on the old man and continued, “However, due to the high technical threshold of the industry and the capital investment requirements, the current global submarine cable market is basically monopolized by threepanies—United States’ SubCom, Japan’s NEC, and Europe’s Alcatel-Lucent. There are only a few domesticpanies that arepetitive in this industry. If the trend continues, it will be difficult for us to gain an advantage in the information technology field.


    “Therefore, the Communist Party of China wants outstanding privatepanies like us to set an example—”


    “I get it.” Wang Zhengfei interrupted Lu Zhou and said, “How much will it cost?”


    When Lu Zhou looked at the nervous old man, he was stunned.


    His intuition told him that the old man had misinterpreted his words. However, for some reason, he didn’t want to rify himself...


    Lu Zhou decided to improvise.


    “The budget hasn’t been created yet. Basically, the Communist Party of China wants us to spend our own money and integrate small domesticpanies into the submarine optical cable business and build a submarine optical cable from the east coast of China to the west coast of the United States.”


    Lu Zhou thought that it would be difficult to convince Wang Zhengfei to hop on board without revealing the quantum technology.


    However, surprisingly, Wang Zhengfei waved his hand and spoke without hesitation.


    “Don’t worry, money is not a problem! Is there anything else?”


    Yep, this guy...


    Has definitely misunderstood me.


    “Um, one more thing... I’m sure you know a lot of excellent entrepreneurs. The more people involved, the less each person has to pay.”


    “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this, I’ll contact otherpanies!”


    Seeing how enthusiastic Wang Zhengfei was, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but want tough.


    I’m making these people rich, but it feels like... I’m deceiving them.


    But I can’t say anything about quantumputers for now.


    Quantummunications was another story. It might be made public in a few days, but that wasn’t a big deal, since most people did not know about quantumputers, and even fewer people knew about the seriouswork information security challenges.


    Basically, if there was no threat of quantumputers, there was no need for quantummunication.


    Even though Lu Zhou couldn’t exin anything, he tried tofort Wang Zhengfei.


    “Don’t worry, this project will be a huge sess. The technology and initiative are in our hands, and I can guarantee this is a stable business.”


    Wang Zhengfei smiled, clearly not taking Lu Zhou seriously.


    He didn’t mind losing a bit of money. He had made so much money that he was fine with contributing to the country.


    He was more worried about whether they could actually build an optical cable across the Pacific Ocean.


    Huawei had tried to enter the submarine optical cable industry before, so he knew how much this could cost.


    Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sold off Huawei’s submarine optical cable business a few years ago.


    “Can you give me some details...? What’s your level of confidence?”


    Lu Zhou raised two fingers.


    Wang Zhengfei had a solemn look.


    “Only 20%?”


    Lu Zhou shook his head.


    “No, I mean in terms of the technology...


    “We’re approximately two generations ahead.”


    The office went quiet...