Before the New Year

When Li Zhou woke up, his mother had disappeared somewhere. With no other choice, Li Zhou made himself a bowl of instant noodles to get by.

After finishing his noodles, Li Zhou called Xiong Kexuan.

"Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring~"

After a moment, Xiong Kexuan's voice came through the phone.

"Hello! My big boss. You're not coming to the company today, why are you calling me? I'm busy right now."

Li Zhou touched his nose. He, the boss, was already being disliked by his subordinate.

If he told his subordinate that he had slept all day, wouldn't he have to run away?

"Ahem, it's like this. After resting for so long, I'm planning to start a new R&D project. I have some ideas in mind, so I plan to buy some experimental equipment. I'm just giving you a heads-up!"

"Oh, and about the company headquarters. The design blueprints are out. Speed up the bidding process, let the construction units move in, and get the main building of the first phase built as soon as possible."

On the other end of the phone, Xiong Kexuan held the phone between her shoulder and ear, holding her daughter Nuonuo in one hand and taking notes of Li Zhou's instructions with the other.

New R&D? Could it be that the boss had a new idea for artificial intelligence?

And the Future Technology headquarters building, could that thing be built in a short period?

Originally, according to Li Zhou's requirements, the Future Technology headquarters building was to be built inside a hollowed-out mountain. However, that turned out to be completely impractical.

Fortunately, the boss compromised in the end, which led to the current design blueprint for the headquarters building, with half of the main structure inside the mountain and half outside.

Even so, the construction difficulty was still very high. Before construction, they needed to excavate half of the mountain. After the lower half of the main building was completed, they would backfill the soil and cover it up.

To be honest, Xiong Kexuan felt it was a bit redundant.

After putting down her pen, she took the phone clamped between her shoulder with her right hand.

"Boss, just give me a list of the experimental equipment. As for the company headquarters building, you know as well as I do that the military helped us get the construction permit for your mountain. With the normal construction period, it's impossible to finish in less than three years! Unless..."

Unless what? Did Li Zhou not know?!

"Just throw more money at it. The company doesn't have any other places that need investment right now, so what are you afraid of? But the quality must be guaranteed. Tell all the bidding units that Future Technology is not short of money. The main building must be built to the quality of military construction. As long as I'm satisfied, all the funds are not a problem."

Li Zhou's loud voice almost deafened Xiong Kexuan. Even when she moved the phone an arm's length away, she could still clearly hear what the boss was saying.

After Li Zhou finished speaking, Xiong Kexuan said unhurriedly, "Boss, the finance department has calculated it. To speed up the construction period and complete it next year as you requested, the construction will have to be done day and night without stopping. This will at least double the cost."

"It doesn't matter, I'm foolish and rich."

Xiong Kexuan exchanged a look with Wang Fei, who had just returned, and they both smiled helplessly.

"Alright, if you, the boss, don't feel bad about it, then I, the CEO, definitely won't."

After hanging up the phone, Li Zhou paid no attention to the strange looks from Zhou Song and the other three.

Really, what did these people understand?

If he didn't build a highly confidential headquarters, it would be even harder to explain when he came up with more black technologies.

But it was different inside the mountain. Once the doors were closed, who would know what he was researching inside?

Half an hour later, Li Zhou sent Xiong Kexuan a list of the experimental equipment and materials he needed.

Less than ten minutes later, Xiong Kexuan called him directly and asked, "My big boss, what are you researching? The procurement department just told me that the equipment and materials on that list can't be bought for less than two billion. Some equipment isn't something you can buy just with money."

"The research is confidential for now. What's two billion? Go and check the company account, and you'll feel better. You'll get used to it."

Looking at the phone that was hung up again by the boss, Xiong Kexuan looked up at the head of the procurement department.

"You heard it all. Try to buy what you can. If you can't buy it, let the boss figure it out later."

Li Haixiang nodded. As long as the boss agreed, it was fine.

"Okay, Sister Xuan."

Just as Li Haixiang turned to go back and instruct his department to hurry up with the procurement, Xiong Kexuan called him to a halt.

"Make sure your people are clean. Don't forget what the boss's background is."

Li Haixiang was stunned for a moment. Thinking of the boss's background, he nodded with a solemn expression. He knew what Sister Xuan meant.

Time flew by. Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

During this half-year period, apart from the massive tender for the headquarters building making headlines, Future Technology gradually became low-key.

It had to be said that the power of money was indeed immense. In just half a year, with the cooperation of the First and Second Bureaus, the underground part of the Future Technology headquarters main building was completely constructed and backfilled with soil. The above-ground part of the main building was expected to be completed within half a year after the new year. Simultaneously, the lower half of the main structure would undergo simple decoration while construction was ongoing.

Since the construction team moved in, Li Zhou's old house was also demolished. Like the company employees, Li Zhou and his parents moved to the town and lived above the supermarket.

Thanks to the construction of the Future Technology headquarters, the entire town, in just half a year, saw farmers with a bit of business acumen make a fortune.

The cost of food for so many workers alone was an astonishing figure every day, and most of this money was earned by local farmers.

In addition to this, many farmers earned more from rent in just half a year than they had earned through a whole year of hard work in previous years.

In about ten days, it would be Xia Country's most important festival of the year – the Spring Festival.

As the Spring Festival approached, the ten young ladies in the finance department were overwhelmed with work.

The most important task was how to determine the company's employees' year-end bonuses, which had not yet been decided.

As soon as Li Zhou arrived at the office, Shen Minting, the head of the finance department, came straight to his door.

Shen Minting lined up the three blue folders she was holding in front of the boss.

"Chairman, these are the three year-end bonus plans that the finance department and President Xiong came up with. President Xiong said for you to choose one, or even better if you have a good plan yourself."

Li Zhou opened the three folders and looked through them back and forth for a long time.

The first plan was double salary at the end of the year, with more generous rewards at the annual meeting.

The second plan was to distribute bonuses based on performance reviews.

The third was a combination of year-end bonuses and gifts.

Seeing the boss frown slightly, Shen Minting felt a little uneasy.

Closing the folders, Li Zhou looked at Shen Minting and pondered for a moment.

"Alright, the company has done very well this year, and we've made a bit of money. Everyone has contributed, so just give them a year-end bonus equivalent to double their salary. As for President Xiong, I agreed to give her a 1% profit-sharing right. Your finance department can calculate how much her profit share will be, and then the company will cover her personal income tax. And for the annual meeting, don't be too stingy with the budget."

"That's about it."

Shen Minting couldn't remember how she left the chairman's office. Her mind was filled with money.