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"Ahem, Old Yuan, look, we're this familiar—wouldn't it be awkward to make demands? The customized Intelligent Assistant is yours for free."

"See how generous I am? Shouldn't you gift me a Military Unit license in return? After all, we're a civil-military cooperation unit."

Yuan Jingsong sensed something fishy the moment he heard "free." Sure enough, that fellow Zhou was right—there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

On the surface, Li Zhou seemed to just want a stainless steel plaque, but in reality, he was securing a backer for himself. Still, for an independent scientist like Li Zhou, the state was happy to offer protection.

However, this plaque wasn't something Yuan Jingsong could authorize on his own; he needed to consult the chief.

Yuan Jingsong looked at Li Zhou calmly. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, don't act so familiar with me. It scares me."

"Old Yuan, if you're going to be like that, then I won't hold back."

"Actually, there is one more thing. Hook me up with a few retired special forces soldiers, will you? Top-tier treatment. You know, I'm not short on cash."

"And if I could equip them with this, that'd be even better!" With that, Li Zhou raised his right hand and made a gesture at Yuan Jingsong.

"That's all."

Only after confirming Li Zhou truly had no other requests did Yuan Jingsong breathe a sigh of relief. To be honest, even if Li Zhou hadn't brought these up, they'd already planned to secretly arrange protection for him.

They'd been worried Li Zhou might find out, but now it was easy.

Yuan Jingsong gave Li Zhou a deep look before speaking. "I can't make the call on your requests. I need to report to the chief."

Li Zhou made a "go ahead" gesture, and Yuan Jingsong left the living room.

Li Zhou had no idea who the chief Yuan Jingsong mentioned was. If he did, he probably wouldn't be grinning so wide.

In the living room, as time slowly ticked by, half an hour passed. Seeing Yuan Jingsong still hadn't returned, Li Zhou began to feel anxious.

Fortunately, just as Li Zhou was getting restless, Yuan Jingsong pushed the door open and came back.

"The chief agreed. The people you want and the Military Unit plaque will arrive by tomorrow at the latest."

With clear news, Li Zhou finally felt at ease.

"Wait here. I'll go get the USB drive for you."

Without waiting for Yuan Jingsong to respond, Li Zhou cheerfully ran up to his second-floor room, grabbed a USB drive from the bedside table, and came back down.

Li Zhou winked at Yuan Jingsong.

"Here. The big treasure you wanted."

After Yuan Jingsong took the USB drive, he shouted.

"Xiao Sun! The security case!"

The moment Yuan Jingsong's voice fell, the two soldiers standing guard at the door walked in. One of them, from somewhere, produced a small black box cradled in his arms.

Yuan Jingsong took the small black box, carefully placed the USB drive Li Zhou had given him inside, and gently closed it.

Click.

Yuan Jingsong slipped a pair of silver bracelets connected to the box onto his wrists.

After doing all this, Yuan Jingsong and the two soldiers saluted Li Zhou and prepared to leave.

Seeing Yuan Jingsong about to go, Li Zhou quickly added.

"Brother Yuan, look, the Intelligent Assistant is such a beneficial product for the people—help me promote it! If you've got connections at Central Mother, even better."

Yuan Jingsong took a deep breath, nodded, and then, as if his feet were oiled, swiftly bolted out with the two soldiers.

Watching the three of them flee like that, Li Zhou couldn't help but twitch his mouth.

"Am I that scary?"

After Yuan Jingsong left, before long, Li Zhou's parents returned. Not only that, but behind them trailed a crowd of neighbors.

The sight gave Li Zhou a headache. He grabbed his laptop and headed back to his room.

When Li Zhou opened his computer again, he saw that the total received payments had exceeded 3 billion. At the current rate, it would likely break 10 billion within a week.

Sigh, he hadn't expected to hit thirty small goals so quickly.

That evening, after dinner, Li Zhou sat on the sofa watching the evening news, something he hadn't done in ages.

Don't ask why. In the afternoon, Li Zhou had gotten a call from Yuan Jingsong. That guy only said eight words—"Watch the evening news carefully"—and then hung up directly. It pissed Li Zhou off. He felt he'd have to screw Old Yuan over next time, or it wouldn't be worth it.

From after dinner, Li Zhou watched the news with his parents. It wasn't until the news was almost over that the main course arrived.

"They say Artificial Intelligence is the key to the next era, and now, that key is firmly in our nation's hands!"

"Recently, the R&D team led by Future Technology Co., Ltd. has made a major breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence through continuous research! That's right—it's the Intelligent Assistant many viewers are already using. The official launch of the Intelligent Assistant means our country stands at the forefront of the world in the field of Artificial Intelligence!"

"Here, we sincerely thank those unsung researchers."

"That concludes today's News Broadcast. Goodbye."

Li Zhou's mother stared at the final news in shock.

"Old Li, our son's company is called Future Technology, right?"

"Right!"

"Our son's company made the news?"

"If the news isn't wrong, then yes."

Watching his father, whose surface was calm but whose heart was secretly delighted, and his mother sitting there smiling smugly to herself—

Li Zhou pressed a hand to his forehead, unable to bear it any longer, and went straight back to his room.

Lying comfortably on the bed, Li Zhou silently counted the amount in his bank account.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, ten millions, hundred millions, billions—ten billion!

A full ten digits before the decimal point. Li Zhou looked at it with satisfaction.

"Milk's taken care of, bread's taken care of—time to find a tool of a man to work for me."

Having Li Zhou sit around counting money—that, he could do. But asking him to manage a company from scratch? That was way too much to ask.

Each trade has its own specialty, and the funds were in place. If he didn't find a tool soon, was he just going to let the money in the bank sit there gathering dust?

When it came to talent pools, who had the most? That was still Liebao Company. After all, they were the professionals—they made a living off this.

After registering a boss account, Li Zhou verified his identity.

He sent the recruitment requirements he'd prepared directly to Liebao Company.

First: Must have held a position in a Fortune 500 company.

Second: Regardless of gender, age must not exceed 45.

In Li Zhou's view, anyone over 45 generally lacked drive and was too steady. Such people weren't suited for a young company like Future Technology, which took bigger and bigger strides.

Third: Must be able to accept living in a small city below third-tier.

Compensation negotiable, details discussed in person.

The first two were fine. Given the buzz around Future Technology, Li Zhou guessed most applicants wouldn't have issues there. But that third condition—he figured it would stump a lot of people.

He had to give Liebao Company credit for speed. Once they knew Li Zhou was the boss of Future Technology, they quickly selected ten resumes from their talent pool and sent them over.

Future Technology—this company, just yesterday, no one knew about it. But after the news broke, there wasn't a soul in the industry who didn't know who they were.