mijobooks Chapter 45 Year-End
Chapter 45 Year-End
In mid-November, the final acceptance notice for the first phase of the Sky Dome project was issued.
Acceptance score: 96. The Blue Bay Communications Technology Committee's summary comment was: "402 Technology demonstrated outstanding technological innovation capabilities and engineering delivery quality in the development of the Sky Dome ground terminal signal processing module, and is recommended as a priority partner for the second phase of joint research and development."
The words "preferred partner" carry more weight than the score of 96 itself.
The final payment of 98,000 yuan arrived in the account three days after the acceptance inspection. The entire 980,000 yuan of the first phase of the Tianqiong contract was thus settled.
Zuo Cheng stared at the bank transfer notification in his office, silently doing some mental calculations—980,000 yuan in revenue, minus four months' worth of labor costs, equipment purchases, server rentals, and various operating expenses, leaving a net profit of just over 400,000 yuan. For a small company with a team of ten, this profit margin was very healthy.
But money isn't meant to be saved.
In the same week, the tender documents for the second phase of Sky Dome were officially released.
On the night Zuo Cheng received the bidding documents, he read them three times in his office, from the first page to the last.
The project was larger than he had anticipated—it wasn't just one module, but the development of the entire software platform for ground-based intelligent terminals, encompassing four major subsystems: signal processing, spectrum management, terminal collaboration, and operation and maintenance monitoring. The contract amount column stated "maximum budget of eight million yuan."
Eight million.
Zuo Cheng stared at the number for a long time.
If 402 were to bid alone, given its current team size and qualifications, securing an eight-million-dollar project would be challenging. However, if it were to bid jointly with Dingxin Information—with 402 responsible for core signal processing and spectrum management, and Dingxin for system integration and operation and maintenance monitoring—the complementary capabilities of the two companies would significantly increase the chances of winning the bid.
He picked up his phone, found Wang Jianping's business card, and dialed the number.
"Mr. Wang, have you read the tender documents?"
"I've seen it." Wang Jianping's voice was steady on the other end of the phone. "Did President Zuo see it too?"
"I've read it three times." Zuo Cheng cut to the chase. "My idea is a joint bid. 402 will be responsible for the signal processing and spectrum management subsystems, while Dingxin will be responsible for terminal coordination and operation and maintenance monitoring. Technical tasks will be divided based on capabilities, and business will be split proportionally based on workload. If you're interested, we can meet tomorrow to discuss the details."
Wang Jianping remained silent for two seconds.
"Tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM, in my office."
"good."
The negotiations on the second day went more smoothly than Zuo Cheng had anticipated.
Wang Jianping is a pragmatic person—he is well aware that Dingxin's technical reserves in channel prediction and spectrum management are far inferior to 402's, and he also knows what the phrase "preferred partner" in Lanwan Communications' acceptance review means. Joint bidding is the best way for Dingxin to get on the Sky Dome Express.
But he was no pushover either.
"My suggestion for the workload ratio is 50/50," Wang Jianping said, adjusting his glasses. "402 will be responsible for two subsystems, and Dingxin will be responsible for two subsystems. The funding will be split equally."
"64." Zuo Cheng shook his head. "Signal processing and spectrum management are the core technologies of the entire platform, and their development difficulty and workload are greater than those of terminal collaboration and operation and maintenance monitoring. 64 is a reasonable allocation."
Wang Jianping stared at him for a few seconds.
The 23-year-old sat opposite him, speaking neither humbly nor arrogantly, his negotiation pace as steady as that of a seasoned businessman with ten years of experience.
"It's split 50/50, but 402 owns the intellectual property rights to the signal processing and spectrum management subsystems," Wang Jianping said, offering a different perspective.
This sentence instantly drew Zuo Cheng's attention.
Intellectual property rights. This means that after the project ends, 402 can transform the technology of these two subsystems into its own products and sell them to other clients. Dingxin gave up this part of the rights in exchange for a higher revenue share.
Zuo Cheng quickly did the math in his head—in the short term, a 50/50 split would mean 400,000 less for 402,000, but in the long term, the value of the intellectual property rights could be ten or even a hundred times that amount.
"Deal," he said.
A slight smile appeared at the corner of Wang Jianping's mouth. He reached out his hand.
"It's a pleasure working with you."
"It's a pleasure working with you."
The two men shook hands. Five months ago, they were rivals facing each other across the table at a bidding qualification review meeting; now they were allies in the same trench.
Over the next three weeks, the joint bidding team from 402 and Dingxin entered a period of intense proposal writing.
Zuo Cheng divided the team into two groups—he led the core technology group, responsible for writing technical solutions for signal processing and spectrum management; Fang Ze and Chen Hao led the system architecture group, responsible for coordinating the overall architecture and interface specifications with Dingxin. Tang Xu appeared in the office three days a week, and he was mainly responsible for the technical integration solutions for beam management and terminal collaboration.
Han Lu once again demonstrated her professional competence in business documents—she and Dingxin's business team spent a week finalizing every clause of the joint bidding agreement, including the division of labor, acceptance criteria, liability for breach of contract, and ownership of intellectual property rights.
The joint tender document was finalized on December 10th.
This time it's not 146 pages—it's 412 pages.
As Zuo Cheng finished checking the last punctuation mark at one in the morning and closed the folder, he recalled the night six months ago when he first submitted his bid. Yu Ying's words, "Zuo Cheng, are you crazy?" were still echoing in his ears.
That time it was 980,000. This time it's 8 million.
He picked up his phone and sent a message to Yu Ying.
"Kongkong, are you asleep?"
"No, I'm reading some research. What about you?"
"The tender document is finalized."
How big?
"Eight million."
Yu Ying remained silent for more than ten seconds.
"You've gone crazy again."
Zuo Cheng laughed out loud.
"I made 980,000 after my last crazy spree."
"Then we must win this time too."
"Um."
He turned off his phone and leaned back in his office chair for a while. Winter had already arrived in Huaxia City outside the window, and fine rain could be seen slanting down under the streetlights.
The bid was submitted on December 12th.
Then came the waiting again.
The end of the year was ten times busier than the beginning of the year for Project 402. The Tianqiong project was awaiting results, the Transportation Bureau project was entering the acceptance phase, the IoT communication module had been delivered and technical support was being provided, and the sensor protocol development for Ruilian Technology was nearing completion. With all four projects winding down simultaneously, everyone was incredibly busy.
On December 28th, Zuo Cheng gave the entire company a New Year's Day holiday.
"Come back to work on January 2nd," he said in the group chat. "Everyone is required to rest for the next five days; no overtime is allowed. Anyone who works overtime will have their salary deducted."
Zhang Lei was the first to respond: "Brother Cheng is brilliant!"
On the first day of the holiday, Zuo Cheng went to Yu Ying's house for dinner. Yu Jianguo was in a good mood today and even took the initiative to chat with him for half an hour about the intersection of physics and communications. At the end, he even gave a comment: "You young man have a quick mind, but you work too hard. Take care of your health."
After leaving Yu Ying's house, Zuo Cheng returned to his empty office alone and stood by the window looking at the city's night view.
2017 is about to end.
That year, he went from a poor student with only 237 yuan in his pocket to the CEO of a ten-person technology company. He published a paper in a top journal, won a provincial-level excellent paper award, delivered a million-yuan project, found a girlfriend, met her parents, and started his doctoral studies in engineering.
The technology tree has evolved from its budding stage to its growth stage. Eleven leaves, one branch, and ninety-five points.
not enough.
But that was enough to convince him that next year would be better.