The God of Wealth starts with doing whatever you want

In the morning, Xu Yun stood by the window in the study of the Repulse Bay villa, holding a cup of coffee.

A thin mist shrouded the sea, and the yacht marina in the distance was faintly visible.

He was wearing a light gray custom-made suit today, without a tie, and the collar was casually open.

This was Fu Baoying's suggestion.

It is necessary to show respect for the Zheng family without appearing too formal, lest the other party mistakenly believe that this is a business negotiation.

"Have you looked at all of Adrian Cheng's information?"

Fu Baoying came up from behind and handed him a folder.

She wore a champagne-colored suit today, her hair was carefully styled, and her makeup was more refined than usual.

"I've watched it three times."

Xu Yun took the document but did not open it. "The Zheng family ranks third among the four major families in Hong Kong. Their main businesses are shipping, ports and hotels."

Adrian Cheng is the leader of this generation. He is 56 years old, has a strong personality, and likes to be in control of everything.

His niece, Zheng Weiwei, is 25 years old and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, specializing in Artificial Intelligence.

"There's one more thing you didn't mention."

Fu Baoying walked to his side and lowered her voice.

"Zheng Zhigang has a son named Zheng Haoxuan, who is 32 years old and holds a Doctor of Laws degree from Oxford University."

He should be the first in line to inherit the throne, but Adrian Cheng is very dissatisfied with him, thinking that he is too bookish and not decisive enough.

So for the past two years, we've been nurturing Zheng Weiwei.

No wonder.

Xu Yun took a sip of coffee and said, "Letting a niece participate in core business, or even considering a marriage alliance, is not in line with the practices of traditional family businesses."

Unless… he wants Zheng Weiwei to become the true heir.

"So today's luncheon is ostensibly to introduce Zheng Weiwei to you, but in reality, it's Zheng Zhigang scouting potential successors."

Fu Baoying looked at Xu Yun with a complicated expression.

"If Zheng Weiwei can gain your approval, then her position in the Zheng family will be secure."

Conversely, if she messes up, Adrian Cheng might reconsider the issue of succession.

Xu Yun nodded without saying a word.

Outside the window, the fog gradually dissipated, and sunlight shone on the sea, creating shimmering waves.

"Have you made arrangements with Xiaozhi?" he asked.

"The nanny will take her to the children's playground and she will come back at three o'clock in the afternoon."

Fu Baoying glanced at her watch and said, "We'll depart at eleven o'clock, arrive at the Zheng family's house at noon, and the lunch is expected to last two hours, ending before three o'clock."

"it is good."

Xu Yun put down his coffee cup and looked into the distance.

Today's luncheon, ostensibly a casual family gathering, is actually part of a larger strategic plan orchestrated by the Zheng family.

He is both a piece on the chessboard and a variable that can change the course of the game.

11:40 a.m., 77 Deep Water Bay Road.

This is the ancestral home of the Zheng family.

A white European-style villa built in the 1930s, covering an area of ​​more than 5,000 square meters.

The garden is filled with rare flowers, and the neatly manicured lawn extends all the way to the private beach.

When Xu Yun's car drove through the iron gate, the butler was already waiting at the door.

He was a British man in his fifties, dressed in a traditional butler's uniform, and his manners were impeccable.

"Mr. Xu, Ms. Fu, welcome. Mr. Zheng is already waiting in the reception room."

The two followed the butler through the long corridor.

Photos of several generations of the Zheng family hang on the wall, from old black and white photos to color family portraits, recording the rise and fall of a family over a century.

In the reception room, Adrian Cheng was standing in front of the fireplace looking at an oil painting.

He turned around when he heard footsteps.

He looks thinner than in the photos, but his eyes are sharp, as if they can see right through you.

"Mr. Xu, I have long admired your name."

Adrian Cheng stepped forward and shook hands with a firm grip.

He was wearing a dark blue suit, with an exquisite anchor brooch pinned to his shirt collar.

That was the symbol of the Zheng family's shipping business.

"Mr. Zheng, you're too kind," Xu Yun replied with a smile.

"Mr. Fu, it's been a long time."

Adrian Cheng turned to Fu Baoying, his smile softening, and said, "It's been two months since we last met at the financial summit, hasn't it? I heard that Yuntian Capital has recently invested in several big projects. Congratulations!"

“Mr. Zheng is well-informed,” Fu Baoying replied politely.

The three of them took their seats.

The servants brought out tea and refreshments, a traditional English afternoon tea setup.

The three-tiered dessert stand has scones on the top tier, sandwiches in the middle tier, and various desserts on the bottom tier.

"Weiwei is still upstairs preparing, she'll be down soon."

Zheng Zhigang personally poured tea for Xu Yun and said, "I heard that Mr. Xu is very knowledgeable about artificial intelligence. It just so happens that Weiwei is also studying this."

You young people should have a lot in common.

Before the words were finished, footsteps came from the stairs.

Xu Yun looked up.

Zheng Weiwei walked down the stairs.

She wore a simple white dress, her long hair was down, and she had no makeup on, completely different from the meticulously dressed heiress Xu Yun had imagined.

What is most striking are her eyes, clear and bright, with a scholar's focused and curious gaze.

"Hello, Mr. Xu and Ms. Fu."

Zheng Weiwei walked over, her voice soft but her words clear.

"I am Zheng Weiwei, it's nice to meet you."

She reached out and shook hands with Xu Yun, then nodded slightly to Fu Baoying.

Xu Yun noticed a detail.

Zheng Weiwei was wearing a smartwatch on her wrist. Instead of displaying the time, the watch face showed a scrolling string of code.

"Weiwei just completed an algorithm model and has been debugging it for the past two days."

Zheng Zhigang noticed Xu Yun's confusion and explained with a smile, "This child gets so engrossed in research that she forgets to eat and sleep. I told her we had guests today and asked her to dress up nicely, but she still did the same thing."

"That's good."

Xu Yun casually remarked, "People who work in technology don't need those superficial things."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Weiwei glanced at Xu Yun, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.

The four began to drink tea.

After the initial pleasantries, the conversation naturally turned to technology.

“Mr. Xu, I have read the technical white paper of ‘Loongson Matrix 2.0’.”

When Zheng Weiwei spoke, her speech became noticeably faster. She said, "Your proposed design of a 'heterogeneous computing abstraction layer' is ingenious."

But I have a question.

How can we ensure consistency in computational accuracy during cross-architecture migration?

This is a very technical question, involving the core challenges of chip design.

Fu Baoying looked at Xu Yun with some worry.

Zheng Weiwei was clearly well-prepared; if Xu Yun didn't answer well, it might affect the atmosphere of today's conversation.

Xu Yun just smiled.

"Ms. Zheng has asked a very good question."

He put down his teacup and replied, "The traditional approach is to perform precision compensation at the instruction set level, but this increases computational overhead."

Our approach involves performing static analysis during the compilation phase and inserting precision control instructions in advance, based on the characteristics of the target architecture.

He paused, then continued, "Simply put, it's about shifting the issue of precision loss from runtime to compile time."

The trade-off is a 15% to 20% increase in compilation time, but runtime performance can improve by more than 30%.

Zheng Weiwei's eyes lit up.

"This idea... is very novel. May I see the specific implementation plan? Of course, if it involves trade secrets, then forget it."

"The technical paper has been submitted to the ISCA conference next month, and I can send you the preprint."

Xu Yun took out his phone and operated it a few times.

"What is Ms. Zheng's email address?"

Zheng Weiwei recited a combination of letters and numbers.

It's clearly a work email, not a personal email.

Xu Yun sent the paper over.

Zheng Weiwei's phone vibrated quickly. She glanced at it, thanked her, but didn't open it immediately. Instead, she put the phone back in her pocket.

This small gesture improved Xu Yun's impression of her even more.

Know the appropriate occasion and how to conduct yourself appropriately.

“Weiwei’s mentor at Stanford is Professor Fei-Fei Li.”

Adrian Cheng interjected at the opportune moment, his tone filled with pride: "Several large Silicon Valley companies were vying for her when she graduated, but she insisted on returning to Hong Kong."

I asked her where in Hong Kong there was a decent AI research environment, and guess what she said?

"Dad, stop talking." Zheng Weiwei frowned slightly.

She said that Hong Kong is a bridge connecting the mainland and the world, and doing research here allows one to see the most cutting-edge technological developments on both sides.

Zheng Zhigang continued speaking to himself, then looked at Xu Yun and asked, "Mr. Xu, do you think she's right?"

This is a clever question. On the surface, it asks for Xu Yun's views on Hong Kong, but in reality, it is testing Xu Yun's attitude towards the "bridge" designation.

"Miss Zheng is right."

Xu Yun slowly said, "But bridges are not just a geographical concept, but also a meeting point of technology and ideas."

What makes Hong Kong special is that it understands both Western technological logic and is familiar with Eastern application scenarios.

If these dual advantages can be leveraged, it could become an innovation center in the field of artificial intelligence.

"Innovation Center?"

Zheng Zhigang raised an eyebrow and said, "Mr. Xu's suggestion is very interesting."

But the reality is that Hong Kong's technology industry has never really taken off.

"Brain drain, insufficient investment, outdated policies..."

"Therefore, someone needs to break the deadlock."

Xu Yun continued, "The golden age of traditional industries is over. If the Zheng family wants to continue its glory, it must find new growth points."

Artificial intelligence is a promising direction, but research alone is not enough; it must be integrated with industry.

He looked at Zheng Weiwei: "What is Ms. Zheng's research area?"

"Computer vision, especially target detection and tracking in dynamic scenes."

Zheng Weiwei replied, "One of the projects I'm working on is a port intelligent monitoring system that uses AI algorithms to identify container numbers and track the loading and unloading process."

"This application scenario was chosen very well."

Xu Yun praised, “Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest ports, with a huge daily container throughput.”

Even a 1% improvement in recognition efficiency and accuracy would bring astonishing economic benefits.

"But it's difficult to actually implement."

Zheng Weiwei unusually spoke a few more words.

"The port environment is complex, the lighting changes greatly, and wear and stains on the container surface can affect identification."

We've tried existing algorithms, and the highest accuracy we can achieve is only 92%, which is far from meeting the requirements for commercial applications.

"92% is already pretty good."

Fu Baoying said, "Many similar systems can only achieve around 85% accuracy."

"But Miss Zheng was clearly not satisfied."

Xu Yun looked at Zheng Weiwei and asked, "If I'm not mistaken, you're already designing a new algorithm architecture?"

Zheng Weiwei paused for a moment, then nodded: "How did you know?"

“Because 92% is a very delicate number,” Xu Yun said with a smile. “If it were 80%, people might think it’s a data or computing power issue.”

However, 92% indicates that the existing algorithmic framework is nearing its limit and must be rethought from the ground up.

After saying this, Zheng Weiwei's gaze towards Xu Yun completely changed.

It was no longer a matter of polite respect, but rather a recognition and curiosity among peers.

"Mr. Xu... also has research in computer vision?"

"I know a little bit."

Xu Yun humbly replied, "However, our team is currently working on a similar project, which is also a port scenario."

If Ms. Zheng is interested, we can cooperate.

"cooperate?"

Adrian Cheng's eyes lit up, and he asked, "How will we cooperate?"

"Technology sharing, data exchange, and distribution of results according to contribution."

Xu Yun spoke directly, laughing, "The Zheng family has port resources and practical application scenarios, while we have advantages in algorithms and computing power."

Joint research and development can significantly shorten project cycles.

"That's a great suggestion."

Adrian Cheng pondered for a moment and said, "But the specific details..."

"Let the professionals handle the discussion."

Xu Yun looked at Zheng Weiwei and said, "Ms. Zheng, if you'd like, you can bring your team to Shenzhen, or we can go to Hong Kong to conduct an on-site inspection of the port's actual situation."

Then we'll determine the cooperation framework.

Zheng Weiwei did not answer immediately, but looked at Zheng Zhigang.

Adrian Cheng nodded: "Sure, Weiwei, you're in full charge of this matter. Just tell me what resources you need."

"it is good."

Zheng Weiwei turned to Xu Yun and asked with a smile, "When would be a convenient time for Mr. Xu?"

"next week."

Xu Yun said, "President Fu will coordinate with you regarding the specific time."

The conversation then turned to more specific ideas for cooperation.

Zheng Weiwei became unusually talkative, raising several technical difficulties and questions.

Xu Yun answered his questions one by one, and the two talked more and more deeply.

Fu Baoying and Zheng Zhigang occasionally chimed in with a few words, but spent most of their time observing.

The luncheon began at 1 p.m.

The restaurant's long table was laden with exquisite Cantonese dishes, but clearly, the food was no longer the focus.

During the meal, Zheng Zhigang casually inquired about Xu Yun's family situation.

"I heard Mr. Xu has a daughter? She must be very cute."

"He's five years old, and his name is Xiaozhi."

Xu Yun frankly said, "She's very smart, and also very clingy."

“Then Mrs. Xu…” Zheng Zhigang asked tentatively.

He is unmarried.

Fu Baoying suddenly smiled and answered for Xu Yun: "Xiao Zhi is a child jointly cared for by me and President Xu."

That's a clever answer.

She neither denied nor explicitly admitted to her relationship with Xu Yun, leaving enough room for imagination.

Zheng Zhigang glanced at Fu Baoying, who simply smiled and remained silent.

"Oh." Zheng Weiwei.

Halfway through the luncheon, Adrian Cheng received a phone call and temporarily left the table.

Only Xu Yun, Fu Baoying, and Zheng Weiwei remained in the restaurant.

The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat subtle.

"Mr. Xu."

Zheng Weiwei suddenly spoke up: "I'd like to ask a personal question, is that alright?"

"Please speak."

"Mr. Fu just said that Xiao Zhi is a child you and she jointly guardian.

Zheng Weiwei looked up, her eyes clear, and asked, "But you two aren't married. Why?"

This was a bold question, and Fu Baoying frowned slightly, but Xu Yun didn't seem to care.

"Because marriage is not the only form."

He calmly said, "What matters is responsibility and love. Mr. Fu and I both love Xiaozhi and are willing to take responsibility for her. That's enough."

"But……"

Zheng Weiwei hesitated for a moment, then asked in return, "Is this fair to the child? What will she think when she grows up? Other children have both a father and a mother, but her parents are not married."

"Xiao Zhi knows we love her, and that's enough."

Fu Baoying took over the conversation, her voice gentle but firm.

"Moreover, she has a father and a mother, and we are all by her side."

As for the format... every family has its own style; there's no standard answer.

Zheng Weiwei fell silent.

She looked at Xu Yun, then at Fu Baoying, as if she were thinking about something.

“I’m sorry, I asked a question I shouldn’t have,” she finally said.

"It's ok."

Xu Yun smiled and said, "Miss Zheng is a scholar and has a habit of getting to the bottom of things, which is very good."

At this point, Adrian Cheng returned, and the conversation returned to business and technology.

The luncheon ended at 2:30 p.m.

When they parted, Zheng Zhigang held Xu Yun's hand with even more force than when he arrived.

"Mr. Xu, today's conversation was very pleasant. We'll proceed with the port project as you suggested, with Weiwei in full charge."

If you need any other resources from the Zheng family, please feel free to ask.

"Thank you for your trust, Mr. Zheng," Xu Yun replied politely.

Standing behind her uncle, Zheng Weiwei nodded to Xu Yun and said, "Mr. Xu, see you next week."

See you next week.

On the way back to Repulse Bay, Fu Baoying leaned back in her seat and let out a long sigh.

"What do you think of Zheng Weiwei?" she asked.

"He's a talented person in technology."

Xu Yun said, "She is pure, focused, and talented, but she is not suitable to be the successor of the family."

"why?"

"Because she is too pure."

Xu Yun looked out the window and said, "Technology requires purity, but steer a business empire requires complexity."

Adrian Cheng wanted her to succeed him because he valued her abilities, but he overlooked one crucial point: Zheng Weiwei was, at heart, a researcher, not an entrepreneur.

"But today Adrian Cheng's attitude is very clear: he wants to bring you two together."

Fu Baoying said, "If you two really get together, you can help her manage the business side, and she can focus on the technology. Wouldn't that be great?"

"That's the problem."

Xu Yun turned her head and looked at Fu Baoying.

“Zheng Weiwei will not accept this arrangement. Look at the question she asked today, about marriage and family.”

She wasn't gossiping; she was contemplating a possibility.

If she is forced to marry for the sake of her family's interests, what should that relationship look like?

Fu Baoying said thoughtfully, "So she's actually resisting?"

"It's not resistance, it's finding a way out."

Xu Yun smiled and said, "Zheng Weiwei is very smart. She knows her uncle's plans, but she doesn't want to be a tool for a marriage alliance, nor does she want to give up her research."

So she was observing, testing the waters, to see if there was a third option.

"for example?"

"For example, purely technical cooperation, rather than a family alliance."

Xu Yun smiled and said, "When I talked to her about the port project today, her eyes were shining."

That wasn't because they were interested in me as a person, but because of the technology itself.

What she really wanted was a research partner who would allow her to focus on her studies, not a husband.

Fu Baoying remained silent for a while.

"Will Adrian Cheng agree?"

"He has to agree."

Xu Yun said calmly, "Because Zheng Weiwei is the best card he has."

If you push too hard, this card might become useless.

On the contrary, allowing her to develop in her own way might actually pave a new path for the Zheng family.

The car drove into the villa.

Xu Xiaozhi has returned and is playing on the swing in the garden.

Upon seeing Xu Yun, she jumped down and pounced on him.

"Dad! Does Grandpa Zheng have a sea turtle?"

"There were no sea turtles, but there were some very good snacks."

Xu Yun picked her up and asked, "Did you have fun today, Xiao Zhi?"

"I'm happy! But I'd rather play with my dad."

"How about Daddy spends time with you this afternoon?"

"it is good!"

Fu Baoying looked at the father and daughter, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up.

Just then, her phone rang.

It was a message from the secretary about the preliminary arrangements for meeting with Zheng Weiwei's team next week.

She quickly glanced through it, then looked at Xu Yun.

"Zheng Weiwei's team list has been sent over. It consists of five people, all of whom are her classmates and alumni from Stanford."

They were all from technical backgrounds; there wasn't a single business or managerial staff.

"really."

Xu Yun smiled and said, "She's showing her attitude through her actions, focusing only on technology and nothing else."

"Should we proceed according to the original plan?"

"of course."

Xu Yun put Xiao Zhi down, took her hand and walked into the house, saying, "Technological cooperation is beneficial to both sides. As for the Zheng family's scheme... let Zheng Zhigang play it himself."

What we need to do is to create a new game, outside of this one.

As the sun sets, the sea at Repulse Bay is dyed golden.

Xu Yun stood by the window, gazing in the direction of the Zheng family villa in the distance, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.

Today's lunch is just the beginning.

The Zheng family's game had only just begun, but he had already seen the moves three steps ahead.

The cooperation on the port project will proceed smoothly in the coming week.

Zheng Weiwei will prove her technical value, and Adrian Cheng will see new possibilities.

My phone vibrated.

Xu Yun glanced at the message; it was from Li Ting. The initial plan for the AI ​​lab had been completed, and she was asking when they could discuss it.

He replied with a time, then put his phone away.

because……

A true chess player is never confined to a single chessboard. (End of Chapter)