Chapter 246: Admission
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The discovery of the alien corpse unveiled the species’ characteristics, gene sequence, strengths, and weaknesses. Artificial intelligence Scarlet could attempt cultivating and cloning a few alien individuals for research purposes. Within the content of those thick diaries, apart from the deep-seated reminiscence of the aliens to their home, it introduced their civilization, culture, technological advancement, political system, and other valuable information. There was even a star chart which roughly marked the location of the galaxy that the aliens were residing in.
Chen Jin nodded his head. Smart people often made low-level mistakes because they treated everyone else as fools. The mistake that this alien spy committed was that he never regarded the human civilization as a real threat, but only as weak ants.
“If I could further affirm your specific coordinates, after a few years, I won’t have to expend too much effort on finding you.”
Once the alien’s nest was determined, it would be much easier for subsequent matters to be executed.
…
On the 20th of August, Chen Jin received a call from Lei Xiao Jun.
“Brother Chen, I want to tell you a piece of good news. Da Mi’s ‘Guomi 1’ cell phones have already sold more than one million units, it’s a little overwhelming, haha!” Lei Xiao Jun said while smiling heartily.
“Oh? Sales of the Guomi 1 have rebounded from the brink of death? How did you accomplish it?” Chen Jin was rather surprised. When the Guomi 1 launched about a month ago, its sales on the first day did not even wind up at a thousand units. It was simply brutal. Brother Lei even called him and cried for help. In the blink of an eye, sales actually broke into the millions.
“We did literally nothing, our accomplishments must be credited to our peers that gave us a lot of help.” While smiling, Lei Xiao Jun explained, “In the end, it is still the product quality that matters. Last month, after Tiny Pepper Corporation released their Red Pepper Z1, Aiai Mobile Corporation released their Luvaly Z1, Nutsh.e.l.l Mobiles released their Nutsh.e.l.l Z1… more than 10 different local phones were released one after another. Their combined sales were over 15 million units. But the quality of these phones are…” He shook his head. “Brother Chen, when you are looking for partners, make sure you go for the reliable ones. You can’t refuse anyone and take in whoever comes to you. Among those local mobile phones, aside from the Red Pepper Z1 and the Nutsh.e.l.l Z1 that are slightly better, the others are all c.r.a.ppy phones technical-wise. Over 20% of those phones are sent back for repairs due to some fault. Not to mention their customer feedback is severely down the drain… Brother Chen, you need to be more cautious when it comes to finding partners, or else it will cause a negative effect on the Star Cloud System’s promotion. Guomi 1’s quality, on the other hand, is definitely above satisfactory levels. Equipped with 4200 mAh large batteries, it can truly sustain two days of heavy usage. The workmans.h.i.+p of large manufacturers is indeed solid. There are some Guomi 1 buyers that installed the Star Cloud system on the phone. The upshot is they realized that the Guomi 1 work wonders with the system! Guomi 1 immediately became the alpha mobile among people! Considering that many phone buyers are unaware of the methods to overwrite their phone’s OS, for their convenience, now, all the new Guomi 1’s manufactured had the Star Cloud 1.5 installed. It has now truly become a ‘purely domestically produced mobile phone’ and is now attracting more buyers than ever. However, Da Mi’s core priority is placed on the upcoming ‘Guomi 2’ mobile phone. This new phone will be equipped with the SX-1000CPU with a run score of 450 thousand, Baron 5000 baseband, the first-ever domestically produced 4K screen, 5000 mHA batteries, triple rear cameras… but its price is only approximately 2,499 dollars! The Guomi 2 will launch in about September. Brother Chen, help your Brother Lei advertise this new phone by then. The flags.h.i.+p of mobile phones that has the Star Cloud OS installed, sold at 2,499 dollars! I believe that this flags.h.i.+p product can sell at least 10 million units!”
A flags.h.i.+p phone at only 2,499 dollars? How could a flags.h.i.+p phone be so cheap? How would Da Mi Technologies even gain profit? It was indeed impossible in the past. Previous models of flags.h.i.+p phones would only get costlier. From the price range of 2,000 dollars, it rose to the vicinity of the 3k’s and even the 4k’s. After the advent of 5G in the year 20X0, the pricetag of mainstream flags.h.i.+p phones was already closing in on the 5,000 dollars threshold. The inflating price was the main reason that consumers were changing their phones less and less often.
After Da Mi Technologies’s ‘Guomi 2’ mobile phone launched, this flags.h.i.+p would revert the pricing into the 2,000-dollar periphery, directly chopping prices at waist level!
What was the reason? Within those two months, the buying price of core parts dwindled across the board. The price of screens dropped by 35%, RAM 60%, Read-Write Memory (RWN) 50%, and even the price of high-performance CPU dropped by 30%. The age of low-cost mobile phone core parts had dawned. Recently, after the cost price was reduced, the price of flags.h.i.+p phones was taking a drastic downslide. The consumer’s desire to replace their old phones had significantly surged. In this year, the wilting situation of the smartphone market in Z would be swept away. Total s.h.i.+pments were expected to increase by 30%.
The increase in the consumers desire to replace their phones would also be beneficial to the promotion of the Star Cloud system. Consumers could buy a Star Cloud phone at a relatively lower price. After they got used to the Star Cloud system’s operating smoothness and the long battery life it proffered, it would be near impossible for them to revert to using the Android or IOS system. Therefore, towards the price war initiated by Samsin, Chen Jin’s welcoming att.i.tude played the perfect supporting role.
“Sure, sure. When your Guomi 2 launches, send me two of those, I will help you advertise it.”
“Thank you, Brother Chen, haha!”
…
At the Suns.h.i.+ne Garden District, Chen Jin arrived on the Su’s premise with a few gifts. Among the gifts were a high-spec laptop, a 10-thousand-dollar red packet, and a beta version of the ‘Little Star learning machine’ meant for university students. All of these gifts were for Su Zipeng. The other gifts were for Su Yun.
Su Zipeng had received his admittance letter. He was accepted by Jing Hua University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Su’s were not expecting this. Su Zipeng, who only wrote Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University on his application, suddenly received a call from Jing Hua’s student admission office, asking him whether he was willing to further his studies over there.
“Yes of course!” Of course Su Zipeng would be willing. Jing Hua University was the best university in Z, who would have not wanted to go there? But his ranking was below 300 in the province, and the admission quota of Jing Hua University in Huxi province was only at some 100 people per year. With such a low ranking, how did he catch the sight of Jing Hua University?
It was because his special mark was high! He who had gotten a conventional score of 732, which was in fact only a few points away from the Zhuang Yuan of the province. Adding up with his special score, he breezed in the provincial top 10… for those with a high conventional score, their special score was not necessarily high, there were those who only got 2-30 marks. This did not imply that the brains of those candidates were rigid, it was just that in this era where creative talents were increasingly scarce, many prestigious universities sought the special score with grave importance during enrollment. Therefore, Su Zipeng stood out from the crowd.
Aside from Jing Hua University’s call, shortly after, he received invitation calls from Kings City College, Fudan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University which he applied for, and many others. He suddenly became very popular and even bred a catfight between those famous schools. But as man moves upwards, naturally, Su Zipeng picked the best one.
At the celebration feast, Su Tiantian said while pouting, “You actually want to leave Shang Hai for Kings City for your studies. Hmph! A brother without a heart. I wasted all my kindness on you.”
“What are you saying? Your brother got enrolled in the best of the best, why can’t you be happy for him?” Mother Su said with a straight face.
“There’s no one here to play with me anymore! Not happy!”
Su Zipeng comforted her, “Sis, I’ll come back to Shang Hai during summer holidays in the future, will that make it up to you?”
“That’s more like it.”
Su Zipeng then looked at Chen Jin and remembered the beta learning machine he gifted him. He said, “Brother-in-law, thanks for the laptop and learning machine, I will work hard!”
Chen Jin nodded his head and winked to him, “Use the laptop as you please. But be more cautious when using the learning machine, don’t let too many people see it.”
“Understood.” Su Zipeng gave him an ‘OK’ sign.
Chen Jin turned around. His attention returned to the woman next to him.