"Okay!"
Since the military representatives had agreed, Li Zhou did not hesitate. After turning on the Huawei laptop, he wirelessly cast its display onto the smart TV in the living room.
As for Li Zhou's parents standing nearby, they were completely baffled. They had no idea what their son and the officer were talking about. They simply shot their son a dangerous look that said, "Just you wait."
Li Zhou chose to pretend he had not seen it. After all, he had told his parents a few days ago that he already had a project. If worse came to worst, he would pull out his trump card and take his mother shopping in the county town.
Yuan Jingsong looked at the blank data chart on the television and asked curiously, "How are you charging for this? Everyone knows there'll be fees, but nobody knows exactly how you'll charge."
Li Zhou looked at Officer Yuan with a puzzled expression. "Didn't I announce it?"
"Did you?"
Uh... Li Zhou thought about it and realized that he really had not.
Still, it did not seem like a big deal.
Li Zhou spread his hands, looking unconcerned.
"Doesn't matter. They'll find out soon enough."
"The price is actually pretty affordable. Fifty yuan a year, or one hundred yuan for permanent access. Of course, special features cost extra."
The one hundred yuan permanent access fee did surprise Yuan Jingsong, but when he thought of Li Zhou's paid extras, he was no longer surprised.
"Like E-company?"
Li Zhou shrugged. "Yeah. The experience of those who came before is right there—why not learn from it? Besides, the paid features won't affect the normal use of Intelligent Assistant."
Second by second, time passed. At last, the countdown on the smart TV entered its final ten seconds!
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One!!!
As he watched the countdown hit zero, Li Zhou clenched his hands nervously. In just that short time, his tightly gripped palms had already become sweaty.
At the same time, countless users across the country were just as nervous.
What if the fee was too expensive? Would they still buy it? Many people hesitated over that question.
The next second, every user connected to Intelligent Assistant received a voice prompt from it!
Fifty yuan for one year, one hundred yuan for permanent access!!!
Everyone froze when they heard the news, then felt wild joy surge through them!
Was one hundred yuan a lot? For people in Xia Country today, it truly was not expensive. It could even be called cheap.
As for fifty yuan a year? Many people made disgusted expressions. One hundred yuan could buy permanent access—only an idiot would choose the fifty-yuan annual plan! They even seriously suspected that the developer company had set that fifty-yuan option just to disgust them.
After making up their minds, some users chose to pay immediately.
On the other side, one second, two seconds... Five seconds passed, yet the number on the screen remained at zero without the slightest change.
Just as Li Zhou began wondering whether something had gone wrong, the sales figure on the screen suddenly began rolling upward from zero!
In the sixth second after Intelligent Assistant launched, it surpassed one hundred million!
In the seventh second after Intelligent Assistant launched, it surpassed three hundred million!
In the tenth second after Intelligent Assistant launched, it surpassed one billion!
One billion in ten seconds, and the number on the screen was still jumping nonstop.
Li Zhou excitedly stood up and hugged his parents, tears spilling from his eyes despite himself.
Reborn into another life, he had still spent twenty years in mediocrity. Only Li Zhou himself knew how deeply repressed he had felt inside. At this moment, the repression that had weighed on him for twenty years was finally released.
"Mom, Dad, your son has made it. These past few days, people have been talking behind our backs. I knew about it."
Li Zhou's parents began crying too. They said men did not cry easily, only because they had not yet reached the point of heartbreak.
What man did not care about his pride? Especially in a rural environment like this, where people cared even more. But as parents, they could only choose to support their son. They absolutely could not mention other people's gossip in front of him.
Nothing was more comforting than seeing their son become sensible and successful. As for those gossipers, if they knew their son had earned one billion in just ten seconds, their faces would probably turn green.
Yuan Jingsong and the two soldiers beside him looked on with envy. A harmonious family brought prosperity in all things—perhaps that was what it meant.
Only after the family of three had calmed down did Yuan Jingsong speak up to interrupt them.
"Mr. Li, we'd like to speak with Li Zhou alone. What do you think?"
Seeing the concern on his parents' faces, Li Zhou comforted them. "Mom, Dad, it's fine. They're here to do business."
Under Li Zhou's parents' gaze, 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 else, but Li Zhou's mother directly pulled him outside and shut the front door behind them.
After Li Zhou's parents left, the two soldiers exchanged glances. One of them walked toward a door.
Li Zhou watched Yuan Jingsong open a portable case about the size of a laptop and flip 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 taking the necessary security measures, Yuan Jingsong stood at attention and gave Li Zhou a military salute.
"Hello, Mr. Li. This time, I represent the country in seeking cooperation regarding Artificial Intelligence."
Li Zhou felt extremely awkward looking at the serious Yuan Jingsong.
"There's no need to be so serious."
As soon as Li Zhou finished speaking, Yuan Jingsong smiled.
"Mr. Li, you're a straightforward man."
"Don't be so polite yet. Show me your identification first. I need to confirm your identity before we talk!"
Yuan Jingsong was slightly surprised. Most people who saw soldiers would not think to verify their identities.
After taking Yuan Jingsong's identification, Li Zhou opened his computer to check it, only to discover that the computer had no network connection.
Li Zhou looked up at Yuan Jingsong, who awkwardly rubbed his nearly bald head.
"To prevent eavesdropping, Xiao Wang unplugged the network cable."
Sure enough, when Li Zhou looked toward the communications box, he saw that someone had unplugged the fiber optic cable at some point.
Though it was for security, Li Zhou had placed the server in his home. If Intelligent Assistant had not been completely independent of a remote server backend, that simple unplugging could have caused unavoidable losses to Intelligent Assistant.
After plugging the fiber optic cable back in, Li Zhou turned around and frowned at Yuan Jingsong.
"Do you know that Intelligent Assistant's server relies on this fiber optic cable for its connection?"
"Ahem, we looked into it. Intelligent Assistant doesn't rely on a server."
Li Zhou stared directly at Yuan Jingsong.
"I don't want there to be a next time."
Once the network was restored, Li Zhou verified Yuan Jingsong's identity and returned his identification.
"The ID is real. Tell me why you're here."
Yuan Jingsong glanced at the reconnected fiber optic cable, looking as though he wanted to say something but stopped himself.
Seeing Yuan Jingsong's expression, Li Zhou rolled his eyes at him.
"Don't worry. There's nothing wrong with the computer. I checked it all myself. Besides, with Artificial Intelligence here, any intrusion will trigger an alert."
(Just popping in.)
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