Chapter 33 No One Will Pay for Your Mistakes

That evening, Lin Xi had dinner at the hotel restaurant and did not go out.

The next morning, she and her assistant set out early for the headquarters of Huasheng. Huasheng’s business empire had been expanding continually, from its initial focus on basic electronic products such as smartphones to independently developed chips, and now to drones. In the domestic market, Huasheng’s position in the industry was nothing short of dominant. Even in overseas markets, they had managed to carve out a share.

It was Lin Xi’s first time at Huasheng’s headquarters. After being led to the meeting room, she began to wait.

Her assistant stood beside her, wringing his hands nervously and taking deep breaths.

Catching the sound, she glanced at him. “What are you doing?”

The assistant started, not expecting her to address him. He quickly replied, “I heard that President Shen of Huasheng will be coming over soon. I’m a bit nervous meeting him for the first time.”

Lin Xi didn’t quite understand. The assistant assumed she had been abroad too long and didn’t know about Huasheng’s president. “President Shen of Huasheng is known for his low profile. He’s rarely appeared in public these past few years, and he’s actually my idol.”

“Oh,” she responded.

They didn’t have to wait long; their counterpart was punctual, arriving ten minutes ahead of schedule.

“Hello, President Shen, I’m Lin Xi, an engineer from Feiyun’s R&D department and the main person in charge of this project.”

Just as the assistant had described, President Shen was indeed approachable, without a hint of arrogance. Judging by his age, he seemed about as old as Qin Yu. But unlike Qin Yu’s perpetually impassive face, President Shen’s constant smile made him much more pleasant.

Collecting her thoughts, Lin Xi signaled to her assistant to start the presentation.

The assistant responded and stepped forward.

A few minutes passed, and the assistant looked helplessly at Lin Xi.

“Excuse me,” Lin Xi said to President Shen, standing up.

She walked over to her assistant and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”

The assistant looked embarrassed. “Last night, when I was organizing the files, I dropped the laptop. It seemed fine at the time, but now it’s failing at the crucial moment.”

President Shen, seeing her troubled expression, asked with concern, “Is there a problem?”

Lin Xi eyed the laptop on the table and closed it firmly. She turned back, face composed, returned to her seat but remained standing.

She nodded to President Shen, smiling. “I apologize, President Shen. We’re having some technical difficulties. Would you mind looking through the documents first? Please give me a few minutes, and in the meantime, may I give you a verbal report?”

“Of course.” He smiled, not one to make things difficult.

Lin Xi fetched her own laptop. “It’s been some time since our companies officially began collaborating. During this period, Feiyun has devoted all its resources to the project for your company.

“Our R&D department first analyzed the data from your company’s previous smartphone chip.”

As she spoke, her hands were busy connecting devices.

“There’s no denying that your company’s technology surpasses other brands. This chip provides faster processing and lower power consumption, and it includes a hardware processing unit dedicated to handling large-scale AI data. It’s one of the most outstanding products in the domestic market.

“So we used its data as the foundation for further optimization and analysis.” A few minutes later, Lin Xi finished setting up and gestured for President Shen to look at the detailed data. “President Shen, here’s all the data we’ve compiled…”

Twenty minutes later, Lin Xi looked up slowly, meeting his gaze.

“That concludes our current progress. We’re actually ahead of our original schedule. Please rest assured, President Shen, at this stage, the Feiyun R&D team remains confident.”

Huasheng also had several chip models under its umbrella. However, due to technological limitations in the country, none of these chips could be considered truly domestically produced. That was why Huasheng had begun investing in semiconductors, hoping to establish a complete industry chain. Unfortunately, after years of research, results remained elusive.

At present, only Feiyun possessed the capability to join Huasheng in this ambitious endeavor.

They were confident they could address what was perhaps the most challenging problem in the entire industry at its root. If successful, the lifeline of the domestic high-end smartphone market would finally be in their own hands, free from dependence on certain foreign chips.

Once the technology matured, Feiyun could build on it, further optimizing and applying it to a wider range of products.

However, this was a long-term battle.

Since its founding, Feiyun had poured countless resources and effort into this single pursuit. Cheng Si might seem unreliable, and Lin Xi had her private grievances against Qin Yu, but in this respect, she genuinely admired them both.

The reason Feiyun—a small company—could gather multiple top domestic R&D teams was that it truly provided every engineer with a stage to demonstrate their abilities in every sense, ample research funding, and access to several high-end laboratories. Feiyun’s salaries and benefits also far exceeded market standards.

This was the main reason Huasheng selected Feiyun.

—

After having lunch in Huasheng’s cafeteria and politely declining invitations from senior management for dinner, Lin Xi left with her assistant at one in the afternoon.

Outside the main entrance of Huasheng’s headquarters, Lin Xi stopped and turned to her assistant.

Catching her gaze, the assistant was forced to halt. After enduring a few seconds of that familiar aura of pressure, he hastily apologized, “I didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’t know the laptop was broken—I thought it was fine yesterday.”

“You thought?” Lin Xi raised her eyebrows, looking at him with a hint of interest, as if she found his choice of words quite intriguing.

“I—I didn’t want this either. It was purely an accident.”

“Do you think I, or the executives at Huasheng just now, want to hear that? Have you never interned before? Do you have no experience at all?”

Lin Xi wasn’t upset about the mishap itself, but about his lack of seriousness toward his work. When something went wrong, he kept making excuses, trying to absolve himself with a few words, without even the most basic courtesy of an apologetic explanation—selfish and arrogant.

“Do you really believe you can brush everything off as an ‘accident’? Isn’t that absurd?”

He muttered defensively, “…But I didn’t apply to be an assistant. I could have been on equal footing with you—there’s no need for me to be doing these menial tasks!”

“So? If you can’t even maintain a proper work attitude, what else do you think you can do?”

“I don’t care what your qualifications or background are, or what you want to do in the future. All I know is that right now, you’re my assistant, and you must do every task within your responsibilities well.

“Minor mistakes are forgivable, once or twice I can accept. But you need to adjust your attitude.

“No one else will pay the price for your mistakes.

“Today, President Shen was easygoing. If you encounter someone less accommodating—someone whose status and time are especially valuable—would they have the patience for your so-called ‘unexpected’ explanation?”

Seeing his wandering gaze, Lin Xi suddenly smiled. “You’re not still hoping the other party will comfort you and say it’s all right, are you?”