Before the New Year

When Li Zhou got up, his mother had disappeared somewhere. Left with no choice, he made himself a cup of instant noodles to get by.

After finishing the noodles, Li Zhou called Xiong Kexuan.

"Beep... beep... beep... beep..."

Before long, Xiong Kexuan's voice came through the phone.

"Hello, my great boss. You're not coming to the company again today, so why are you calling me? I'm busy right now."

Li Zhou rubbed his nose. Even as the boss, he was already being looked down on by the hired help.

If he told the hired help he had slept all day, wouldn't she quit on the spot?

"Ahem, here's the thing. I've rested long enough, so I'm ready to start a new R&D project. I have some ideas now, so I'm planning to buy some experimental equipment. I'm giving you a heads-up in advance."

"Oh, and about the company headquarters. The design drawings are done, so hurry up and put it out to bid. Get a construction company on-site and finish the first phase of the headquarters' main building as soon as possible."

On the other end of the call, Xiong Kexuan held the phone between her shoulder and ear, cradled her daughter Nuonuo in one arm, and used the other to write down the tasks Li Zhou had assigned.

New research? Had the boss come up with a new approach to Artificial Intelligence?

And the Future Technology headquarters building—was that really something that could be built in a short time?

Originally, according to Li Zhou's requirements, the Future Technology headquarters was supposed to hollow out the mountain and be built inside it. In the end, that simply wasn't practical.

Fortunately, the boss had compromised in the end, leading to the current design, with half of the main structure inside the mountain and the other half outside.

Even so, construction would still be extremely difficult. Before building could begin, half the mountaintop had to be excavated. Once the lower half of the building's structure was finished, the soil would be filled back in and buried over it.

To be honest, Xiong Kexuan felt it was rather unnecessary.

After putting down her pen, she took the phone from where it was wedged against her shoulder with her right hand.

"Boss, just send me a list of the experimental equipment you need. As for the company headquarters building, it's not like you don't know. The military had to help us get construction approval for that mountain of yours. Under a normal schedule, there's no way it can be completed in less than three years! Unless..."

Unless what? As if Li Zhou didn't know!

"Then we'll throw money at it. The company has no other areas that urgently need investment right now, so what are we afraid of? But quality must be guaranteed. Tell every company preparing to bid that Future Technology doesn't lack money. The main structure has to meet military-grade construction standards. As long as I'm satisfied, funding won't be a problem."

Li Zhou's voice was so loud that Xiong Kexuan's ears nearly went deaf. Even after moving the phone an arm's length away, she could still clearly hear what her boss was saying.

After Li Zhou finished, Xiong Kexuan said unhurriedly, "Boss, the Finance Department has calculated it. To speed up construction and finish next year as you requested, they would need to work around the clock in shifts. That would at least double the cost."

"Doesn't matter. I'm stupid and loaded."

Xiong Kexuan exchanged a helpless smile with Wang Fei, who had just returned.

"Fine. If you, the boss, don't feel bad about it, then I, the CEO, certainly won't either."

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

Seriously, what did those people know?

If he didn't build a highly confidential headquarters, it would become even harder to explain once he started bringing out more advanced technology.

But it would be different inside the mountain. Once the doors were shut, who would know what he was researching in there?

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

Yet less than ten minutes later, Xiong Kexuan called him directly and immediately asked,

"My great boss, what exactly are you researching? The Procurement Department just told me that the equipment and materials on that list will cost at least two billion yuan, and some of that equipment can't be bought even with money."

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

Watching her boss hang up on her again, Xiong Kexuan looked up at the person in charge of the Procurement Department.

"You heard him. Buy as much as you can. If there's anything you can't get, let the boss figure it out himself later."

Li Haixiang nodded. As long as the boss had approved it, that was enough.

"Got it, Sister Xuan."

Just as Li Haixiang turned to head back and instruct his department to hurry with the purchases, Xiong Kexuan called him back.

"Make sure your people keep their hands clean. Don't forget what the boss used to do."

Li Haixiang froze for a moment. Thinking of the boss's background, he nodded solemnly. He understood what Sister Xuan meant.

Time flew by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

During those six months, aside from Future Technology making the trending searches once over the enormous headquarters construction bid, the company gradually kept a low profile.

It had to be said that money was incredibly powerful. In just half a year, with the cooperation of Bureau One and Bureau Two, the underground portion of Future Technology's headquarters main building had been fully completed and backfilled with soil. The aboveground portion was expected to be finished within six months after the New Year, while the lower half of the main structure would undergo basic interior finishing alongside the construction work after the New Year.

Ever since the construction crew moved in, Li Zhou's old family home had also been demolished. Like the company employees, Li Zhou and his parents moved into town, living above the supermarket.

Thanks to the construction of the Future Technology headquarters, in just half a year, any farmers in the entire town with even a little business sense had made a fortune.

With so many workers, the money spent on meals alone every day was astonishing, and nearly all of it went into the pockets of local farmers.

On top of that, many farmers earned more in rent over those six months than they had made through hard work in an entire previous year.

In a little over ten days, Xia Country's most important annual holiday—the Spring Festival—would arrive.

As the Spring Festival drew closer, the ten young women in the Finance Department had become unbearably busy.

The most important issue was that the company still had not decided how to set the employees' year-end bonuses.

As soon as Li Zhou arrived at his office, Shen Minting, the head of the Finance Department, came straight to him.

Shen Minting laid the three blue folders in her hands out one by one before her boss.

"Chairman, these are the three year-end bonus plans the Finance Department came up with after discussing them with President Xiong. President Xiong said you could choose one, or come up with a better plan of your own."

Li Zhou opened the three folders and reviewed them over and over for quite a while.

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

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

The third plan was to give year-end bonuses along with gifts.

When Shen Minting saw her boss frown slightly, she could not help feeling uneasy.

Li Zhou closed the folders, looked at Shen Minting, and pondered for a while.

"Here's what we'll do. The company developed smoothly this year and made a little money. Everyone deserves credit, so give them year-end bonuses equal to double this year's salary."

"As for President Xiong, I promised her one percent in profit-sharing rights. Have the Finance Department calculate how much profit-sharing she is entitled to, then charge her personal income tax to the company. And as for the annual meeting, don't make it too stingy either."

"All right, that's roughly it."

Shen Minting could not remember how she had walked out of the chairman's office. Her mind was now filled with nothing but money.