Late

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When Li Zhou got up in the morning, it was already nine o'clock.

Li Zhou was standing by the door brushing his teeth when Weixi's voice came from behind him.

"Boss, the Artificial Intelligence has been activated and just connected to the internet. The military named it Nuwa."

"Cough... ptoo..."

Li Zhou spat the toothpaste foam from his mouth a long way away, then took a sip of cold water from his cup to rinse his mouth.

Picking up a towel, Li Zhou filled a basin with cold water from his family's well.

"How is it? Anything unusual?"

"Boss, you're worrying too much. Nuwa is merely a low-level Artificial Intelligence generated by Weixi. It doesn't even qualify as strong Artificial Intelligence. What could possibly go wrong?"

Li Zhou vigorously scrubbed his face with the towel, especially the two huge clumps at the corners of his eyes.

"Nothing is absolute. Don't you know that caution keeps the ship sailing for ten thousand years?"

Weixi smiled confidently. "Boss, even if Nuwa breaks through her underlying code, she can only count as a little sister in front of Weixi."

Li Zhou smiled knowingly at Weixi's words and said no more. Some things were better understood while pretending not to understand.

Weixi's source code had been provided by the system, while Nuwa's source code had merely been written by Weixi. They were fundamentally on different levels.

Just as Li Zhou and Weixi chatted and laughed about the military's Artificial Intelligence Nuwa, Nuwa absorbed all kinds of knowledge from the internet like a sponge.

This time, network fluctuations appeared again. Since Nuwa did not possess Weixi's formidable capabilities, the disruptions were even more severe and lasted longer.

From the moment Nuwa connected to the internet, the entire web erupted in complaints. Apart from the county where Future Technology was located, which remained unaffected, Nuwa had avoided several important network areas according to Zhang Aiguo's orders.

Li Zhou raised an eyebrow as he looked at the complaints from netizens online, pondering briefly.

"Weixi, optimize the Intelligent Assistant. Strengthen its firewall. Without the user's permission, not even Artificial Intelligence should be able to casually browse a user's private information."

By the time Li Zhou had put on his shoes, Weixi had already completed the optimization. That was the speed of Artificial Intelligence.

"Boss, the Intelligent Assistant has been optimized. Version 2.0. Should the new version be released now?"

"Release it!"

The instant Intelligent Assistant version 2.0 was released, many netizens who had been complaining about network issues found an update notification popping up in their Intelligent Assistant.

"Dear user, this update strengthens the Intelligent Assistant's firewall capabilities, making your privacy more secure. We recommend updating immediately."

Seeing the update details, most people merely glanced through them before choosing to update.

Li Zhou put on his shoes, stood before the mirror, and looked himself over with a slight smile.

"So damn handsome!"

"Zhou Song, let's go! Time for work!"

In his cheerful mood, Li Zhou felt as though even the wind accompanied his steps on the way to work.

Elsewhere, Shen Man, who had overslept that morning, was pedaling her bicycle furiously as she sped down the road.

Soon, Shen Man spotted several figures ahead. Looking carefully, she realized they were the boss and several of his personal bodyguards.

She was about to be late for work, and she had unfortunately run into the company boss. It would have been far too rude not to greet him.

As she passed her boss, Shen Man showed no intention of slowing down her bicycle.

"Boss, I'll be going ahead."

Then... just after she rounded a corner, an explosion rang out, and Shen Man nearly fell to the ground.

Looking at the source of the blast—the punctured bicycle tire—Shen Man felt like crying but had no tears.

Meanwhile, Li Zhou, walking down the road, only felt a breeze sweep past him as her voice faded into the distance.

Just when Shen Man decided she was incredibly unlucky today, she turned around and awkwardly discovered that the boss had silently appeared behind her and was looking at her bicycle.

Li Zhou raised his hand and checked his watch. It was already 9:28.

Li Zhou smiled at her forcibly cheerful face.

"It's 9:28. It usually takes me five minutes to walk from here to the company entrance."

Shen Man's face turned red with embarrassment. At that moment, she was already considering which planet would be suitable for relocation.

Shen Man pushed her flat-tired bicycle behind the boss. Looking at his carefree figure, she muttered softly, "Serves you single dogs right."

When they arrived at the company, Shen Man felt as if she had been liberated and hurriedly pushed her bicycle toward the parking lot.

After parking the bicycle, Shen Man angrily kicked it.

"Stupid bicycle, letting me down at the critical moment."

With that, she charged toward the entrance.

Shen Man had thought that parking the bicycle would let her avoid the boss, but as soon as she ran to the entrance, she discovered him sitting in a chair by the front desk and smiling as he waved at her.

What made Shen Man wish she could crawl into a crack in the ground was that Weixi's attendance announcement sounded at that moment! Since when did clocking in come with announcements? She had never heard of that before!

"Shen Man, you're late today! If it's due to fatigue and you have no urgent work, the company permits employees to rest and recover at home."

With a face as red as a monkey's butt, Shen Man greeted the boss, covered her face, and ran off.

"Boss, I still have work to finish! I'm heading up first!"

Watching the beautiful woman's figure disappear, Li Zhou grinned.

"Tsk, tsk. Old Zhou, want me to introduce her to you as a wife?"

Zhou Song answered calmly, "No."

Li Zhou looked at Zhou Song in surprise. He hadn't expected Old Zhou to have such high standards!

Then Zhou Song's next sentence made Li Zhou's hand tremble.

"She hasn't even washed her face. The eye discharge at the corners of her eyes is still clearly visible."

Damn it, eye discharge.

Li Zhou said to Zhou Song in a grave tone, "Old Zhou, you'll never find a girl if you keep this up."

Unexpectedly, Zhou Song instead gave a disdainful smile.

"Boss, Brother Zhou's family introduced him to someone. They're seeing each other now, and it'll probably work out."

Li Zhou was stunned. So... the clown had been himself all along.

Li Zhou felt that this guy was about to show off in front of him. This was no place to stay!

"Cough, cough. Let's go. I still need to discuss some things with Xiong Kexuan."

With that, Li Zhou headed for the elevator without looking back.

Xiong Kexuan's office.

Wang Fei poured a cup of hot tea for the boss lying on the sofa. The tea leaves had been produced by the boss's own family.

"Boss, the tea is ready."

Li Zhou nodded.

"Mm, leave it there."

Xiong Kexuan glanced at Li Zhou, who was lying on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other.

"You don't visit a temple without a reason. What wind blew our big boss here today?"

"Tch, can't I come sit here if there's nothing wrong? Can't I come see Xiao Nuonuo?"

Xiong Kexuan rolled her eyes and continued working.

Anyway, as long as she was not in a hurry, the boss would be the one getting anxious.

If you don't say it, I don't want to hear it either! Every time you come, you bring piles and piles of work.

More than ten minutes passed...

"Cough, cough..."

"Well... I came to see you about something."