Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 059 Tender Documents

Zuo Cheng checked the integrity of the sealing strip.

The white A4 paper was placed in a kraft paper file folder, sealed with a blue stripe, and printed with "Blue Bay Communications Sky Dome Project Phase III Tender Document". This document was sent by Zhou Henian yesterday, a week before the official release.

In conference room 402, five people sat around a long table. Zhang Lei, Chen Hao, Liu Wei, Fang Ze, and Zuo Cheng—all five founders—were present. Each person had a copy of the tender document beside them.

"Look at this first." Zuo Cheng opened the document to the third page, pointing to a line of numbers. "Third phase budget, eight hundred million."

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

Eight hundred million. The second phase was only 160 million, but the third phase increased fivefold.

"This is to make the Sky Dome project a national benchmark." Chen Hao pushed up his glasses, his voice a little weak.

Zuo Cheng remained silent and continued flipping through the pages. The technical requirements section was densely packed with over twenty pages, covering topics such as satellite-to-ground links, massive numbers of terminals, and dynamic network reconstruction—each a cutting-edge field.

But he noticed a detail.

In the corner of the technical requirements document, there is an inconspicuous line of small print: "It is recommended to refer to the relevant technical white papers of Huaxin Group."

Zuo Cheng's finger stopped on that line of text.

Huaxin Group. A leading player in China's telecommunications industry, a giant with annual revenue exceeding 200 billion yuan. Blue Bay Communications independently completed the first and second phases of the Sky Dome project, never mentioning Huaxin. Why is the third phase suddenly referencing Huaxin's technology?

"There's a problem." Zuo Cheng looked up. "Han Lu, check if Huaxin Group and Lanwan Communications have had any recent cooperation."

Han Lu nodded and opened her laptop to start searching. She was the business director of 402, with extensive connections and excellent information.

Ten minutes later, Han Lu looked up, her expression not looking good.

"Found it. Three months ago, Blue Bay Communications and Huaxin Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Huaxin participated in the third phase of the Sky Dome project by contributing technology as equity."

"Technology as equity?" Zhang Lei frowned. "What does that mean?"

"This means that CEFC will not provide funding, only technical solutions. If they win the bid, CEFC will receive a share of the technology revenue," Han Lu said. "Moreover, the tender documents clearly state that consortiums are allowed to bid in the third phase."

Zuo Cheng understood. This wasn't a simple bidding process; it was a three-way game. Lanwan Communications was Party A, while 402 Technology and Huaxin Group were potential Party B's. However, Huaxin was also Lanwan's partner, giving it an inherent advantage.

"This is even more troublesome," Han Lu turned the computer screen towards everyone, "The technical lead sent by Huaxin Group is their CTO, Lin Jianhua."

Zuo Cheng's heart skipped a beat.

Lin Jianhua. He was all too familiar with that name.

In his previous life, he worked at CEFC for twelve years. Then Lin Jianhua called him into his office and said the company needed fresh blood and that he should consider other opportunities. Twelve years of hard work turned into a thin resignation agreement.

Zuo Cheng took a deep breath and suppressed his emotions.

"Is there any other information?"

"Yes," Han Lu said. "Lin Jianhua is 62 years old this year and originally planned to retire. But he suddenly returned to work three months ago, personally taking charge of the Sky Dome project. Rumors in the industry are that Huaxin Group is determined to win the Sky Dome project."

The atmosphere in the meeting room became heavy.

Although 402 Technology won the second phase, it's just a startup with a dozen or so people. Huaxin Group, on the other hand, is an industry giant with over 20,000 employees. This isn't a competition between companies of the same scale.

"Brother Cheng, can we win?" Liu Wei asked, echoing everyone's thoughts.

Zuo Cheng did not answer immediately.

He opened the technical requirements section of the tender document and carefully studied each clause. Space-to-ground integration, massive terminal access, and dynamic network reconfiguration—these were technologies that wouldn't mature until 2025 in his previous life. Now it was only 2018, and the entire industry was still in the exploratory stage.

This is the opportunity.

Zuo Cheng had witnessed the final forms of these technologies in his previous life. He knew which direction was right and which was a detour. However, Huaxin Group, including Lin Jianhua, was still viewing things with a 2018 mindset.

"We can win," Zuo Cheng finally spoke, his voice calm but firm, "but we need a new approach."

He wrote five words on the whiteboard.

"Space-Ground Integration."

"What is this?" Zhang Lei asked.

"We need to manage and schedule satellite and terrestrial networks as a whole, rather than as two separate systems," Zuo Cheng said. "This is the technological direction for the next five years, but the entire industry is still in the exploratory stage. If we can be the first to realize this concept, we can establish a technological leap."

"Technological gap?"

"A generation ahead of the competition," Zuo Cheng said. "Not a 10% improvement, but a tenfold improvement."

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

Chen Hao was the first to react: "That's definitely a direction. But the difficulty of implementation is too great. The latency, bandwidth differences, and topology changes of the satellite-to-ground link are all major challenges."

"Therefore, a systemic solution is needed," Zuo Cheng said. "Not a single breakthrough, but architectural-level innovation."

He continued to explain his thought process: a three-layer architecture, a unified protocol stack, intelligent scheduling algorithms, and dynamic resource allocation. Zuo Cheng explained it in great detail, from the physical layer to the application layer, from theoretical models to engineering implementation.

The other four listened intently. They were all from technical backgrounds and could understand what Zuo Cheng was saying. The more they listened, the brighter their eyes became.

"This idea... is indeed feasible," Chen Hao said, "but is there enough time?"

"There are still forty-five days until the bid deadline," Zuo Cheng said. "That's enough time for us to build a prototype system."

"What about CEFC Group?" Han Lu asked. "Are they preparing a plan too?"

"Let them prepare." Zuo Cheng's lips curled into a slight smile. "By the time they find out what our plan is, it will be too late."

He took a picture of the content on the whiteboard and sent it to the work group.

"Starting today, everyone is on wartime alert. Zhang Lei will be in charge of the hardware platform, Chen Hao will be in charge of the software architecture, Liu Wei will be in charge of testing and verification, and Fang Ze will be in charge of embedded development. Han Lu, you are responsible for gathering intelligence on Huaxin Group, the more detailed the better."

"Understood," the four people said in unison.

Zuo Cheng looked at them, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart.

In his previous life, he was a cog in the machine of Huaxin, easily replaceable. In this life, he has his own team, brothers who trust him, and a system that can change his destiny.

He won't lose.

The meeting ended, and everyone else left one after another. Zuo Cheng sat alone in the conference room, staring blankly at the five words on the whiteboard.

Space-Ground Integration. This concept was formally proposed in the previous life in 2025, seven years later than it is now. If it can be realized now, 402 will be a full seven years ahead of the entire industry.

But the existing technological reserves are not enough. He needs more information, he needs to understand the direction of Huaxin Group's solutions, and he needs to find their weaknesses.

He closed his eyes and brought up the system interface in his mind. Current score: 148 points; the technology radar had cooled down.

He needs to find an opportunity to use technological radar.