Establishing a Company

Li Zhou never liked dragging things out. That very night, he found a county agency online, paid a 3,000 deposit, and agreed to pay the remaining 7,000 once the documents were processed.

Normally, if someone handled it themselves, it would take at least a month, but agencies were fast—usually getting the certificate in a day or two.

The next morning, Li Zhou was yanked out of bed by his mom, who said they were going to the bank to transfer money to him.

Instantly, Li Zhou felt wide awake. A million in funds was enough for his startup capital, and on top of that, the Intelligent Assistant would start charging in a few days. Barring any surprises, the company wouldn't face a cash shortage.

"Mom, I'm getting up right now."

Li Zhou sprang up like a carp flipping out of water, scrambling out of bed in a flash.

Seeing her son so excited, Li Zhou's mom couldn't help but find it amusing.

"You, why so worked up? The money's not going anywhere."

"Mom, I'm just afraid you'll change your mind. You're usually so frugal, but this time you actually agreed to give me a million!"

His mom shot him a look. Who else would I spoil if not my own flesh and blood?

Li Zhou grinned. "That's for sure."

Honestly, Li Zhou would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised that his mom agreed to let him start a company and gave him a million in startup funds.

Sure, his family was fairly well-off, but spending lavishly meant getting his mom's approval first.

In her own words: "I've had enough of that poor life before. If I don't have some savings tucked away, I get really anxious."

After breakfast, at just six o'clock, Li Zhou's mom rode her electric scooter, taking him to town.

When they reached the town's supermarket, it was already open. Over the years, thanks to Li Zhou's persuasion, his parents had loosened up and hired another clerk.

As soon as Li Zhou walked in, he saw Aunt Chu at the counter, eating a bowl of noodles.

"Morning, Aunt Chu!"

"Oh, the college student's back?"

"So, got a girlfriend yet? Want Aunt Chu to set you up?"

"Let me tell you, Xiao Zhou, my niece is really pretty."

Faced with Aunt Chu's "concern," Li Zhou felt helpless, but he never stopped her from this kind of talk, even if he didn't say anything.

"Auntie, I'm still young."

In the end, Li Zhou barely managed to escape the barrage from this aunt.

The town bank wasn't far from Li Zhou's family supermarket—about a hundred and fifty meters away.

In rural areas, especially in a mountain town like Li Zhou's, there were usually only two banks: the ever-present Postal Savings Bank and the Rural Credit Cooperative.

For some reason, the credit cooperative must have promised his mom some perks, because the supermarket's cash flow and deposits were all handled there.

As a major local client of the Rural Credit Cooperative, the moment Li Zhou's mom walked in, the staff all greeted her, calling her "Aunt Xia"—a clear sign of VIP treatment. Right, Li Zhou's mom's surname was Xia, so everyone called her Aunt Xia.

Maybe it was because it was too early, or for some other reason, the bank had no customers.

After accepting a cup of tea, Li Zhou's mom casually walked to an empty counter and pulled out her ID and two bank cards.

One of them was the ICBC card issued by Li Zhou's school.

"Transfer a million to this other card."

The moment Li Zhou's mom finished speaking, the entire bank fell silent. Even the young woman who had taken the documents and cards to process the transaction froze.

This rural credit cooperative had never seen a private transfer as large as a million before.

Luckily, the girl was quick on her feet. After a brief pause, she apologized to Li Zhou's mom. "Aunt Xia, this transfer amount is quite large. Let me go check with the branch manager."

Li Zhou's mom didn't mind and smiled, letting the girl go call the manager.

In less than a minute, Li Zhou heard two sets of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs.

The first person was the girl from before; the other was presumably the branch manager she mentioned. He looked to be not much younger than his mom, probably in his forties.

As soon as the manager arrived, Li Zhou saw him ask his mom urgently.

"Sister Xia, Xiao Sun said you want to do an interbank transfer of a million?"

Hearing this, Li Zhou's mom smiled proudly. "It's because my useless son just graduated from college.

The boy's got his own ideas now, wants to start a business—looks down on my old supermarket. My husband and I figured, we can't let him just coast along like us, running the shop forever.

Since the kid wants to start something, we parents have to support him. It's not much, just a million."

Don't let the "useless son" talk fool you—only she could say that. Let someone else try!

After hearing the situation, the branch manager didn't stop them.

"Xiao Sun, go ahead and process it for Aunt Xia. No issues."

With the manager's approval, the girl confidently handled the interbank transfer for Li Zhou's mom.

"Aunt Xia, please sign here."

After Li Zhou's mom signed, the manager kindly reminded her to double-check the amount.

Li Zhou glanced at the slip in his mom's hand and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

I was still too young, and I had severely underestimated the turnover of the family supermarket.

After deducting one million, the number above was still a seven-digit figure starting with seven.

The business was handled quickly. Finally, as the bank manager saw Li Zhou and his mother out, he reminded them.

"Sister Xia, the transaction is complete. Since it's a large-sum interbank transfer, it will take 24 hours to arrive."

"Alright, we'll be going now."

"Please, take care!"

--

Early the next morning, Li Zhou received a notification that the money had arrived in his bank account. It was the first time he had seen so many digits on his card, and he couldn't help feeling a bit excited.

Li Zhou skillfully opened Taobao and searched for servers. He bought two enterprise-grade servers, spending nearly thirty thousand yuan.

But servers alone weren't enough. Li Zhou rode his electric scooter to the town's mobile service center and upgraded the home broadband to 1000Mbps.

On the fourth day after Li Zhou returned home, with only three days left until the Intelligent Assistant started charging, he finally received all the company documents and three engraved seals: the legal person seal, the financial seal, and the company seal.

Looking at the business license for Future Technology Co., Ltd., Li Zhou believed that before long, this company name would become the fastest dark horse, known to all.

As time passed, the two servers Li Zhou ordered on Taobao finally arrived the day before the Intelligent Assistant began charging.

Setting up the servers was simple, but to prevent sudden power outages, Li Zhou spent a few thousand yuan at the town's store to buy a small diesel generator.

After canceling the download link on Aliyun, Li Zhou placed the download link on his own server and updated the link in the post. Then, he pushed a notification through the server that the Intelligent Assistant would start charging at eight o'clock tomorrow morning.

From the backend statistics, Li Zhou saw that the number of phones with the Intelligent Assistant installed had already exceeded one hundred million in the past few days.

At first, Li Zhou was puzzled by such a huge number, but after Nai Yi's explanation, he understood what was going on.

But since it had already happened, what else could he do? Li Zhou had no choice but to restrict Nai Yi's intrusion function. Fortunately, the user version of the Intelligent Assistant had already been limited, or else Li Zhou would have been ready to flee.