The sky gradually turned golden.
"Thanks, Brother Xu. Come give me a hand..."
After shutting off the main breaker, the Xu family man ran an electrical wire into the two rooms.
The two rooms where Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu lived had been converted from a large woodshed. A partition wall less than two meters high divided them. The building had a tiled roof, and since it had previously only stored firewood, it did not even have electrical wiring.
After a busy stretch of work, the lights inside were finally turned on. Power strips were installed in both rooms as well, finally resolving their electricity needs.
Chen Mengchuan took out his phone and called Sun Zhongyong, only to find the line busy. Figuring he was probably locked in a battle of wits with Guo Siming, Chen Mengchuan smiled and walked outside.
The sky was slowly beginning to darken. Once outside the courtyard, they could hear laughter coming from the school.
"Dr. Chen, are you going out?" Zhao Wanyu asked, sounding a little bored.
Chen Mengchuan smiled. "Miss Zhao, you can call me by my name or call me Mr. Chen. Just stop calling me Dr. Chen all the time."
"Then can I call you Brother Chuan? You can call me Wanyu or Little Fishy," Zhao Wanyu said.
"Sure," Chen Mengchuan replied.
"Brother Chuan," Zhao Wanyu called out seriously.
Chen Mengchuan froze slightly. Zhao Wanyu had somehow made it sound rather intimate.
Should he keep calling her Miss Zhao? Or call her Zhao Wanyu directly, or simply Wanyu? No, no, that was too intimate. Chen Mengchuan pondered seriously for a while.
"Brother Chuan, are you planning to start your own Artificial Intelligence company?"
Chen Mengchuan glanced at her and nodded. "It was just established."
"Someone as outstanding as you was bound to start his own company." Zhao Wanyu sighed, somewhat disappointed that Ke University would probably be unable to recruit him.
"What, are you thinking of switching jobs? You'd be more than welcome!" Chen Mengchuan laughed. Such a professional HR specialist was hard to find, especially one from within the industry who naturally had access to plenty of information on Artificial Intelligence talent.
Zhao Wanyu laughed along with him. "That'll have to wait until your company goes public."
"We don't plan to go public."
Chen Mengchuan suddenly paused at that point, as though something had occurred to him, and turned his gaze toward Zhao Wanyu.
Zhao Wanyu froze. Seeing the strange look that had suddenly appeared in Chen Mengchuan's eyes, she inexplicably felt flustered.
"How are Xu Shuwei and Toni Chen Miantang doing at your company?" Chen Mengchuan asked seriously.
Hearing his question, Zhao Wanyu relaxed, then immediately burst out laughing. "What, Brother Chuan? Your company was just founded, and you're already planning to poach people from Ke University? Never mind that they're doing perfectly well at Ke University—even if they resigned, they probably wouldn't be easy to hire. Sister Wang told me that those two big shots, Manager Xu and CEO Chen, each earn annual salaries in the tens of millions."
Her words made Chen Mengchuan seriously consider the matter.
Xu Shuwei, hailed as Tsinghua's number one figure in Artificial Intelligence, ranked among the nation's best in theoretical knowledge. Four years ago, Ke University had forcibly poached him from the Xia Science Academy. In Xuan Yuan's early project files, Chen Mengchuan had seen many of Xu Shuwei's ideas and views. In his dream, although Chen Mengchuan later went to the island nation, he had continued following Xu Shuwei's many new theories and hypotheses about Artificial Intelligence. He had long admired Xu Shuwei and always wanted to speak with him face-to-face. He had even emailed invitations several times for him to come to the island nation, but never succeeded. Their exchanges had always remained limited to emails.
Toni Chen Miantang was a Chinese American who had grown up in the United States. He had graduated from Harvard with a doctoral degree in computer Artificial Intelligence, served as a core technical member at Oracle Corporation for seven years, and was successfully poached by Ke University two years ago. He was now Ke University's number one expert in the field of large-scale Artificial Intelligence machinery, and could also be considered one of the world's foremost experts in large-scale Artificial Intelligence computers.
Although Chen Mengchuan's current abilities were enough to utterly surpass them, that was based on a twenty-year technological advantage. If Xu Shuwei and Chen Miantang could join him, Chisako would undoubtedly develop much faster!
At that thought, Chen Mengchuan drew a deep breath and gave Zhao Wanyu what he believed was his kindest look and smile.
Zhao Wanyu, who had been chatting and laughing with him just moments ago, was so startled by Chen Mengchuan's smile that she took a step back. "Why are you making that face?"
"Huh? Does my smile look unnatural? Miss Wanyu, I'd like to discuss something with you." Chen Mengchuan tried his best to make his smile and gaze gentler.
A bead of cold sweat involuntarily slid down Zhao Wanyu's forehead...
In Xi'an City, Guo Siming wore a gloomy expression in his hotel room. After hanging up the extortion call with Sun Zhongyong, he took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
The assistant beside him stared at the Fruit X in his hand, his heart pounding wildly.
Clutching the phone, Guo Siming's face was as dark as water. That call with the guy named Sun Zhongyong had truly made his blood boil.
"Chen Mengchuan, you fucking bastard, you've gone too far!!!" Guo Siming finally could not hold it in any longer and furiously hurled the phone in his hand into the corner of the wall.
"Brother Guo!!" The assistant let out a miserable cry. Before he could stop him, he watched his phone fly into the corner.
After smashing the phone, Guo Siming felt much calmer. He said heavily, "Sorry, Little Li. I couldn't control my temper. I'll replace your phone with a brand-new Fruit XR."
"It's fine, it's fine, Brother Guo. Chen Mengchuan really has gone too far." The two assistants hurriedly responded, feeling somewhat better. Trading a year-old X for the newest XR—just treat it as if they had lost their phones, they consoled themselves.
A phone rang. Chen Mengchuan took out his phone and saw that it was Sun Zhongyong calling.
"Brother Sun."
"Mengchuan, Guo Siming didn't agree. He probably thinks we're asking too much." Sun Zhongyong smiled. Five days at five hundred thousand per person-day was already comparable to the appearance fees of many first- and second-tier celebrities.
"Brother Sun, Guo Siming doesn't have the authority to make the call. He'll have to go to Guo Zhidong. That old fox will agree. He owns several labor outsourcing companies outside, and he'll pay this money."
Sun Zhongyong asked, "You mean he'll use labor outsourcing, pay for it himself, and take on the Xia Science Academy project?"
"Right. His labor outsourcing company will sign a contract with the Xia Science Academy, then sign a labor outsourcing contract with us. That means the Xia Science Academy will bear a small portion of the cost, while he'll bear the larger portion," Chen Mengchuan explained.
"Then did I quote too low?" Sun Zhongyong wondered whether he should raise the price again.
"How much did you quote?"
"Five days, six hundred thousand per person-day. I was planning to leave him some room to negotiate and make two million off him." Sun Zhongyong laughed.
Chen Mengchuan said indifferently, "Since we've offended him, we might as well offend him completely. Brother Sun, quote whatever you see fit. Also, when signing the contract, be careful and set the penalty for breach high enough. Otherwise, it'll be hard to collect the remaining thirty percent."
Before you continue