Two Top Talents from Ke University

The sky gradually turned golden.

"Thank you, Brother Xu. Let me lend a hand..."

After Mr. Xu turned off the power, he ran a wire into the two rooms where they were staying.

The two rooms Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu were living in had been converted from a large woodshed. A wall less than 2 meters high divided the space. The rooms were made of tile, and since they were previously just for storing firewood, no electricity had been run into them.

After a period of bustling activity, the lights in the rooms were finally turned on, and power strips were installed in both rooms, thus solving the electricity needs.

He took out his phone and checked it, then called Sun Zhongyong, but it was busy. Guessing he was probably locked in a battle of wits with Guo Siming, Chen Mengchuan walked out with a smile.

The sky was slowly darkening. Stepping out of the large courtyard, he could hear laughter from the school.

"Dr. Chen, are you going out?" Zhao Wanyu asked, somewhat bored.

Chen Mengchuan smiled and said to her, "Miss Zhao, you can call me by my name or Mr. Chen. Please don't keep calling me Dr. Chen."

"Then can I call you Brother Chuan? You can call me Wanyu or Little Fish," Zhao Wanyu said.

"Okay," Chen Mengchuan replied.

"Brother Chuan," Zhao Wanyu called out earnestly.

Chen Mengchuan was slightly taken aback. Zhao Wanyu's address somehow carried a sense of intimacy.

He pondered whether to continue calling her Miss Zhao, or to call her Zhao Wanyu directly, or perhaps just Wanyu? No, no, that's too intimate. Chen Mengchuan thought seriously for a moment.

"Brother Chuan, are you planning to start your own company to do artificial intelligence?"

Chen Mengchuan glanced at her and nodded. "Just established."

"Someone as outstanding as you would naturally want to start your own company," Zhao Wanyu sighed, somewhat disappointed that Ke University probably couldn't recruit him.

"What, are you looking to switch jobs? You're most welcome!" Chen Mengchuan laughed heartily. Such a professional HR person was hard to find, especially one from a rival institution who would naturally have access to a lot of information about AI talent.

Zhao Wanyu also laughed along. "Then I'll have to wait until your company goes public."

"We don't plan to go public."

As Chen Mengchuan said this, he suddenly paused, his mind racing, and he turned his gaze to Zhao Wanyu.

Zhao Wanyu blinked, then felt a sudden strangeness in Chen Mengchuan's gaze, inexplicably flustered.

"How are Xu Shuwei and Toni Chen Miantang doing at your company?" Chen Mengchuan asked seriously.

Hearing his question, Zhao Wanyu breathed a sigh of relief, then burst into laughter. "What's this? Brother Chuan, your company just got established, and you're already trying to poach people from our Ke University? Not only are they doing well at Ke University, but even if they left, they'd be hard to get. Sister Wang mentioned that both President Xu and President Chen have annual salaries in the tens of millions."

Her words made Chen Mengchuan think seriously.

Xu Shuwei, known as the foremost AI expert at Qinghua University, had theoretical knowledge ranking among the best in the country. Four years ago, Ke University had aggressively recruited him from Xia Science Academy. In the early project files for Xuanyuan, Chen Mengchuan had seen many of Xu Shuwei's ideas and viewpoints. In his dreams, even though he later went to Japan, he had always followed Xu Shuwei's new theories and speculations on artificial intelligence, and had long admired him. He had even invited him to Japan several times via email, but it was never successful, and their communication had always been limited to emails.

Toni Chen Miantang, a Chinese-American, grew up in the United States and obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Artificial Intelligence from Harvard, one of the world's top universities. He was a core technical member of Oracle Corporation, having served there for 7 years. Two years ago, Ke University successfully poached him, and he was now the number one expert in Ke University's large-scale AI machinery field, and could be considered one of the world's top experts in the field of large-scale AI computers.

Although his current level was more than enough to crush them, this was based on a 20-year technological lead. If Xu Shuwei and Chen Miantang could join him, there was no doubt that the progress of Chisako would be faster!

With this thought, Chen Mengchuan took a deep breath and gave Zhao Wanyu what he considered his most amiable look and smile.

Zhao Wanyu, who had been chatting and laughing just seconds before, was suddenly startled by Chen Mengchuan's smile and took a step back. "You, why are you making that face?"

"Uh? Is my smile unnatural? Miss Wanyu, I need to discuss something with you." Chen Mengchuan tried hard to make his smile and gaze gentler.

A drop of cold sweat involuntarily trickled down Zhao Wanyu's forehead...

In Xi'an City, Guo Siming, in his hotel room, had a gloomy expression. After hanging up the phone call with Sun Zhongyong, he took deep breaths, trying to calm his emotions.

His assistant, watching him holding a Fruit X, felt his heart pounding.

Guo Siming, gripping his phone, had a face as dark as water. The phone call with this guy named Sun Zhongyong had infuriated him.

"Chen Mengchuan, you damn bastard, you're going too far!!!" Guo Siming finally couldn't hold back and angrily threw his phone at the corner of the wall.

"Brother Guo!!" the assistant cried out in alarm. Too late to stop him, he watched his phone fly into the corner of the wall.

After smashing the phone, Guo Siming felt much calmer and said dully, "I'm sorry, Xiao Li. I lost control of my emotions. I'll buy you a brand new Fruit XR to replace it."

"It's okay, it's okay, Brother Guo. It's Chen Mengchuan who's being too much," the two assistants said quickly. They felt a little better, thinking that trading a year-old X for the latest XR was like losing the phone. They comforted themselves.

A phone rang. Chen Mengchuan picked it up; it was Sun Zhongyong calling.

"Brother Sun."

"Mengchuan, Guo Siming didn't agree. He probably thinks we're asking for the moon," Sun Zhongyong chuckled. 500,000 per person per day was comparable to the appearance fees of many first and second-tier celebrities in the entertainment industry.

"Brother Sun, Guo Siming doesn't have the authority to make that decision. He needs to talk to Guo Zhidong about this. That old fox will agree. He has several labor dispatch companies outside, and he'll pay this money."

Sun Zhongyong asked, "You mean he'll use the labor dispatch method and pay for the Xia Science Academy project himself?"

"Yes. His labor dispatch company signs a contract with Xia Science Academy, and then signs a labor dispatch contract with us. This means that Xia Science Academy will bear the smaller portion of the cost, and he will bear the larger portion," Chen Mengchuan explained.

"Then did I quote too low?" Sun Zhongyong pondered, wondering if he should raise the price again.

"How much did you quote, Brother Sun?"

"600,000 per person per day for 5 days. I was thinking of leaving some room for him to negotiate, just to make 2 million," Sun Zhongyong said with a smile.

Chen Mengchuan said indifferently, "Since we've already offended him, let's offend him completely. Brother Sun, just quote whatever you think is right. Also, when signing the contract, be careful and set a high penalty for breach of contract, otherwise, it will be difficult to get the remaining 30% of the payment."