Li Zhou had never liked to procrastinate. That very night, he found an agency in the county online, paid a 3,000-yuan deposit, and agreed to pay the remaining 7,000 once the documents were ready.
Under normal circumstances, if an individual handled it themselves, it would take at least a month. But agencies were much faster; they could usually get the documents issued in a day or two.
Early the next morning, Li Zhou's mother dragged him out of bed, saying she was going to the bank to transfer money to him.
Li Zhou instantly stopped feeling sleepy. One million yuan was more than enough as startup capital. Besides, Intelligent Assistant would begin charging fees in a few days. If nothing unexpected happened, the company would not face a cash shortage by then.
"Mom, I'm getting up now."
Li Zhou sprang out of bed and scrambled to his feet.
Seeing her son so excited, Li Zhou's mother could not help laughing.
"You little rascal, why are you so worked up? The money isn't going anywhere."
"Mom, I was afraid you'd change your mind. You're usually as frugal as can be, yet this time you actually agreed to let Dad give me a million yuan!"
His mother rolled her eyes at Li Zhou. Who else but my own son?
Li Zhou chuckled. "Of course."
To be honest, Li Zhou would have been lying if he said he was not surprised that his mother had agreed to let him start a company and even gave him one million yuan in startup funds.
His family was fairly well-off, but if he wanted to spend money freely, he first had to see whether his mother approved.
As his mother put it, "We were scared of those poor days in the past. If I don't keep some money saved up, I feel uneasy."
After breakfast, it was only six o'clock when Li Zhou's mother rode her electric scooter to take him into town.
By the time they arrived at the supermarket in Li Zhou's town, it was already open. After years of Li Zhou's persuasion, his parents had become more open-minded and hired another sales clerk.
The moment Li Zhou entered, he saw Aunt Chu at the counter, holding a bowl of noodles.
"Aunt Chu, morning!"
"Oh, the college student is back?"
"So, have you found yourself a girlfriend? Want Aunt Chu to introduce you to one?"
"I'm telling you, Xiao Zhou, my niece is really pretty."
Li Zhou was helpless in the face of Aunt Chu's "concern." Yet although his parents never said anything about it, they never stopped her either.
"Auntie, I'm still young."
In the end, Li Zhou finally managed to escape the auntie's barrage.
The bank in town was not far from Li Zhou's family supermarket, only around 150 meters away.
In the countryside, especially in a small mountain town like Li Zhou's, there were generally only two banks: the postal bank, which could be found everywhere, and the Rural Credit Cooperative.
Who knew what benefits the credit cooperative had promised his mother, but all the supermarket's transactions and savings accounts were handled through the Rural Credit Cooperative.
As a major client of the local Rural Credit Cooperative, Li Zhou's mother was greeted by everyone the moment she entered. They all called her Aunt Xia, giving her the full super-VIP treatment. That was right—Li Zhou's mother's surname was Xia, so everyone called her Aunt Xia.
Perhaps because it was too early, or for some other reason, there was no one else in the bank handling business.
After accepting a cup of tea, Li Zhou's mother casually walked to an empty counter and took out her ID card and two bank cards.
One of them was the ICBC card Li Zhou's school had arranged for him.
"Transfer one million to the other card for me."
The instant Li Zhou's mother finished speaking, the entire bank fell silent. Even the young female clerk who had taken the documents and bank cards, ready to process the transaction, froze.
This Rural Credit Cooperative had never processed a private transfer as large as one million yuan before.
Fortunately, the young woman was quick-witted. After only a brief pause, she apologetically said to Li Zhou's mother, "Aunt Xia, this transfer amount is rather large. I'll go ask the manager for approval."
Li Zhou's mother did not mind at all and smiled, telling the young woman to go get the manager.
Less than a minute later, Li Zhou heard two sets of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs.
The newcomers were the young woman from before and, presumably, the manager she had mentioned. He did not look much younger than Li Zhou's mother, probably in his forties.
As soon as he arrived, Li Zhou saw the manager anxiously ask his mother, "Sister Xia, Xiao Sun said you wanted to make an interbank transfer of one million yuan?"
Li Zhou's mother smiled with immense pride. "My useless son just graduated from college, you see.
His wings have grown in, and now he wants to start his own business.
He looks down on this old woman's little supermarket. My husband and I thought about it, and we couldn't just let our son spend his life getting by with a supermarket like we did.
Since he wants to start a business, we as parents have to support him.
We don't have much more to give him—just one million yuan."
Although Li Zhou's mother called her son useless and whatnot, only she was allowed to say such things. Let someone else try it!
After understanding the situation, the manager did not stop them.
"Xiao Sun, go process it for Aunt Xia. There's no problem."
With the manager's confirmation, the young woman finally felt at ease and helped Li Zhou's mother process the interbank transfer.
"Aunt Xia, please sign here."
After Li Zhou's mother signed, the manager kindly reminded her to confirm the amount.
Li Zhou glanced at the slip in his mother's hand, and the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He was still too young. He had seriously underestimated the supermarket's revenue.
Even after deducting one million, the number on it was still a seven-digit figure beginning with seven.
The transaction was processed quickly. As the manager saw Li Zhou and his mother out, he reminded them, "Sister Xia, the transaction has been completed. Since it's a large interbank transfer, the money will arrive after twenty-four hours."
"Alright, we'll be going then."
"Please."
--
Early the next morning, Li Zhou received the notification that the money had arrived in his bank card. It was the first time he had ever seen so many digits in his account, and he could not help feeling excited.
Li Zhou skillfully opened Taobao, searched for servers, and bought two enterprise-grade servers for nearly thirty thousand yuan.
Servers alone were not enough. Li Zhou rode his electric scooter to the China Mobile branch in town and upgraded his home broadband to 1000 Mbps.
On the fourth day after Li Zhou returned home, with only three days remaining until Intelligent Assistant began charging fees, he finally received all the company's documents and three seals: the legal representative's seal, the financial seal, and the official company seal.
Looking at Future Technology Co., Ltd. on the business license, Li Zhou believed that before long, the company's name would become the fastest-rising dark horse and be known to everyone.
As time passed, the two servers Li Zhou had ordered from Taobao finally arrived the day before Intelligent Assistant began charging fees.
Installing the servers was simple, but to prevent a sudden power outage, Li Zhou had specifically spent several thousand yuan to buy a small diesel generator in town.
After removing the download link from Aliyun, Li Zhou placed it on his own server and updated the link in the post. Then, through the server, he sent out a notification that Intelligent Assistant would begin charging fees promptly at eight o'clock the next morning.
According to the statistics in the backend, the number of phones with Intelligent Assistant installed had exceeded one hundred million over the past few days.
At first, Li Zhou had been puzzled by such a huge number.
It was not until Nai Yi explained it that Li Zhou understood what had happened.
But it had already happened, so what could he do? Li Zhou could only restrict Nai Yi's intrusion function. Fortunately, the user version of Intelligent Assistant had long been restricted, or Li Zhou would have been preparing to run away.
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