Ten Seconds, Ten Billion

"Good!"

Since the military representative had agreed, Li Zhou didn't hesitate. He opened his Huawei laptop and wirelessly cast the screen to the smart TV in the living room.

As for Li Zhou's parents standing nearby, they were completely baffled, having no idea what their son and the chief were talking about. They shot him a dangerous "you just wait" look.

Li Zhou chose to pretend he hadn't seen it. After all, he'd already told his parents a few days ago that he had a project in the works. If worst came to worst, he'd pull out his trump card—taking his mom to the county seat for a shopping spree.

Yuan Jingsong stared at the blank data charts on the TV and asked curiously, "How are you charging for this? Everyone knows there's a fee, but no one's ever known the specifics."

Li Zhou looked at Chief Yuan with a puzzled expression. "Did I not announce it before?"

"Did you?"

Uh, Li Zhou thought about it. It seemed he really hadn't.

But then again, it probably didn't matter much.

Li Zhou spread his hands, looking completely unconcerned.

"No big deal. They'll find out soon enough."

"Actually, the price is pretty friendly—just 50 yuan a year, or 100 yuan for lifetime access. Of course, special features are charged separately."

The 100 yuan for lifetime access genuinely surprised Yuan Jingsong, but when he thought about Li Zhou's separate charges for special features, he wasn't so shocked anymore.

"Like E-company?"

Li Zhou shrugged. "Yeah. The predecessors' experience is right there—why not learn from it? Besides, the paid extras won't affect the normal functions of the Intelligent Assistant."

Time ticked by, second after second. Finally, the countdown on the smart TV entered its final ten seconds!

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One!!!

As the countdown hit zero, Li Zhou clenched his fists tightly, his palms already sweating from the tension.

At the same time, all across the country, countless users were just as nervous.

If the fee was too expensive, would they still buy it? Many people hesitated.

The next second, every user who had installed the Intelligent Assistant and connected to the internet received a voice prompt from the assistant!

50 yuan for a yearly subscription, 100 yuan for lifetime free access!!!

Everyone froze when they heard the news, then erupted in silent joy!

Was 100 yuan a lot? For people in Xia Country these days, it really wasn't—it could even be called cheap.

As for the 50 yuan yearly plan? Many people made disgusted faces. With 100 yuan for lifetime free access, only an idiot would choose the 50 yuan yearly plan! They even seriously suspected the developer company was using that 50 yuan option just to annoy them.

Having made up their minds, some users chose to pay immediately.

On the other side, one second, two seconds. Five seconds passed, and the number on the screen remained at zero, completely unchanged.

Just as Li Zhou was starting to wonder if something had gone wrong, the sales figure on the screen suddenly surged from zero, rolling upward nonstop!

Six seconds after the Intelligent Assistant went live, it broke one hundred million!

Seven seconds after going live, it broke three hundred million!

Ten seconds after going live, it broke one billion!

Ten seconds, one billion yuan, and the number on the screen kept jumping.

Li Zhou excitedly jumped up and hugged his parents, tears of emotion streaming uncontrollably from his eyes.

Reborn into a new life, yet still ordinary for twenty years—only Li Zhou knew how suffocating that had been inside. In this moment, the twenty years of repression finally let go.

"Mom, Dad, your son made it. These past few days, I knew people were gossiping."

Hearing this, Li Zhou's parents' tears flowed too. They say men don't easily shed tears, but that's only when they haven't reached the depths of sorrow.

What man doesn't care about face? Especially in a rural environment like this, where everyone pays extra attention. But as parents, they could only choose to support their son, never mentioning the outsiders' gossip in front of him.

What could be more gratifying than a son who was sensible and successful in his career? As for those gossiping people, if they knew their son had earned one billion yuan in ten seconds, they'd probably be green with envy.

Yuan Jingsong and the two soldiers accompanying him all showed looks of envy. A harmonious family bringing prosperity to everything—that was probably it.

Once Li Zhou and his parents had calmed down, Yuan Jingsong finally spoke up to interrupt.

"Mr. Li, we'd like to talk with Li Zhou. What do you think?"

Li Zhou looked at his parents' worried expressions and said reassuringly, "Mom, Dad, it's fine. They're here for business."

Meeting the gaze of Li Zhou's parents, Yuan Jingsong nodded in acknowledgment.

"We are indeed here to seek cooperation, but it involves state secrets, so we need some privacy."

Li Zhou's father wanted to say something more, but was directly pulled out by Li Zhou's mother, who also closed the door behind them.

After Li Zhou's parents left, the two soldiers exchanged a glance, and each walked toward a different door.

Li Zhou watched as Yuan Jingsong opened a case about the size of a laptop and flipped a switch.

Seeing Li Zhou's confusion, Yuan Jingsong explained with a smile, "Just in case—this device can block all signals within a short range."

After securing the safety measures, Yuan Jingsong stood straight and solemnly saluted Li Zhou.

"Hello, Mr. Li. I am here on behalf of the nation to seek cooperation in Artificial Intelligence."

Faced with Yuan Jingsong's seriousness, Li Zhou felt awkward.

"No need to be so formal."

As soon as Li Zhou finished speaking, Yuan Jingsong smiled.

"Mr. Li has a straightforward personality."

"Don't be so polite yet. First, show me your credentials. I need to confirm your identity before we talk."

Yuan Jingsong was slightly surprised—most people wouldn't think to verify a soldier's identity upon meeting one.

Li Zhou took Yuan Jingsong's credentials and opened his computer to check, only to find there was no network connection.

Li Zhou looked up at Yuan Jingsong, who rubbed his nearly bald head sheepishly.

"To prevent eavesdropping, Xiao Wang unplugged the network cable."

Sure enough, Li Zhou looked toward the weak current box and saw that the fiber optic cable had been pulled out at some point.

Though it was for security, Li Zhou had his server at home. If not for the fact that the Intelligent Assistant didn't rely on a remote server backend, this simple unplugging could have caused unavoidable losses to the system.

After plugging the fiber optic cable back in, Li Zhou turned and frowned at Yuan Jingsong.

"Do you realize that the Intelligent Assistant's server relies on this fiber optic connection?"

"Ahem, we've studied it—the Intelligent Assistant doesn't depend on the server."

Li Zhou stared straight at Yuan Jingsong.

"I don't want this to happen again."

After connecting to the network, Li Zhou verified the credentials and returned them to Yuan Jingsong.

"The credentials are real. Now, tell me your purpose."

Yuan Jingsong glanced at the reconnected fiber optic cable, hesitating.

Seeing Yuan Jingsong's expression, Li Zhou rolled his eyes at him.

"Don't worry, the computer is fine. I've checked it. Besides, with Artificial Intelligence in place, any intrusion will trigger an alarm."