My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Chapter 301 Division

He put the cup back on the table in front of him.

At the other end of the hall, David took off the black single-ear headphone he was wearing.

He casually tossed his earphones next to the keyboard, ending his call with the New York legal team that had lasted for more than an hour.

The indicator light on the printer in front of David was flashing, spitting out sheets of warm A4 paper.

David stood up, reached into the paper tray and picked up the thick stack of documents. He then straightened the edges of the papers on the table.

Chen Zhuo turned his head and glanced at him.

David took the stack of papers, but did not return to his seat, nor did he speak slowly and deliberately as usual.

He strode directly to the large coffee table in the center of the hall.

David threw the thick stack of documents, all in English, directly onto the coffee table.

"Sam, Allen."

David looked up and called out towards the study and the French windows.

"Wait a minute, come over and sign this before you go write your papers."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was clearly audible in the quiet hall.

The constant clicking of keyboards in the study stopped.

Sam looked up from his computer screen and rubbed his slightly sore neck.

He leaned back in his chair, stretched his arms, and gave a strong yawn.

"Why are you signing anything in the middle of the night?"

Sam muttered something, walked out of the study, and casually wiped his sweaty hands on the hem of his clothes.

By the French windows, Allen gathered a few pages of physics draft paper that were spread on the carpet and moved them to one side.

He stood up, holding the empty mug, walked to the coffee table, pulled up a cushion, and sat cross-legged on the floor at the edge of the table.

Chen Zhuo also turned around. He didn't walk over, but just sat in the chair, one hand on the back of the chair, his gaze falling on the stack of papers that David had thrown on the table.

The top page contains a translated Chinese summary.

Sam plopped down on the soft sofa that had made him complain of back pain, the cushions sinking in. He leaned forward and glanced at the documents on the coffee table.

"Joint Trust and Open Source Exemption Agreement?"

Sam read out the top line of bold English title, raised his eyebrows, and looked at David.

"David, what are you doing making phone calls in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"

"Without this, even if your paper is published, it will probably just benefit someone else."

David pulled over a single sofa and sat down, crossing his arms and resting his elbows on his knees.

He looked at Sam and Allen, his tone calm and direct, making things crystal clear.

"Chen Zhuo's mathematical foundation has a very clean underlying algebraic logic."

David held up one finger and tapped the cover of the contract.

"The moment Cyril's 'Annals of Mathematics' is printed, those top engineers who make a living by coding can understand its destructive power with just one glance."

David looked at them.

"Without this trust shell protecting your physical models and algorithm code, the moment they see the light of day, the legal departments of those industrial giants in Silicon Valley and the West Coast could immediately find ten thousand ways to exploit compatibility vulnerabilities."

"They don't need to overthrow your core."

David slowed his voice down a bit.

"They only need to bypass the core and preemptively register all the peripheral components, interfaces, and extended applications as patents."

Allen placed the empty mug he was holding on the coffee table.

"Reverse restrictions?"

Allen looked at David, his sleepiness completely gone.

"right."

David nodded.

"At that time, they will even cut off your right to improve your own formula. They have plenty of money and lawyers, and they can drag this out in court for decades."

Sam leaned back on the sofa and pursed his lips.

"Let them wait it out, who's afraid of who?"

Sam said nonchalantly.

"Tomorrow I'll call my uncle and ask him to send two legal teams from San Diego. When it comes to litigation, I've never seen our family back down from anyone when it comes to money."

David looked at Sam but didn't laugh.

"That's why I called you all here tonight to sign this document."

David looked at Sam, then at Allen.

"Sam, I know your uncle is a core director of a long-established defense company in San Diego, and he controls the Pentagon's procurement lines. I also know that Allen's uncle has direct access to the Department of Energy in Washington."

Upon hearing this, Allen's eyes flickered. He looked up at David, his hands unconsciously resting on his knees, and remained silent.

David's gaze swept across their faces, directly piercing through the veneer of their wealthy upbringing.

"Neither of your companies is short of money, nor are you short of lawyers who can sue major Silicon Valley companies into bankruptcy."

David's voice was clearly audible in the well-air-conditioned hall.

"But have you considered the consequences if you show this paper, which could reshape the foundation of computing power, to the old folks in your family?"

Sam paused for a moment, opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

"Do you really think those elders will treat this as a purely student presentation?"

David twitched the corner of his mouth.

"The think tank behind them can see in less than a second how much interest this set of underlying constants will play in future defense simulations and supercomputing hegemony."

Chen Zhuo sat quietly on a chair a few steps away.

His fingers unconsciously traced the rim of the water glass as he watched David analyze the intricacies of the wealthy, like a detached bystander, without interrupting.

"Just get Washington and the elders of San Diego involved."

David's tone became very realistic.

"As early as that afternoon, your two families' private lawyers will be storming into Boston with hundreds of pages of protection clauses."

David paused, looking at Sam.

"In order to seize control of the project, evade taxes, and keep the core technology under their own family's control, they can break this thing down into dozens of family-controlled business shells."

Allen sighed and rubbed his temples.

David is right.

Allen turned to look at Sam, his voice muffled.

"My uncle spent half a month last month arguing with Texas over a government subsidy for wind power. If he knew the significance of this, he could send a car to pick me up and lock me up in Washington."

Sam scratched the stubble that had sprouted on his chin and fell silent.

He was born into that kind of family, and he knew better than anyone how his elders would react when they saw this piece of meat.

"Spending half a year arguing is just the beginning."

David looked at them.

"By then, your thesis will be torn to pieces, and in order to balance the interests of both families, this base will be cut into countless pieces."

The hall was quiet for a while.

The only sound was the air conditioner blowing air.

"so what?"

Sam lifted his eyelids and looked at the thick contract on the coffee table.

"Do you think setting up this joint trust will prevent my uncle and Allen's uncle from coming to steal my things?"

"You can give it a try."

David reached out and flipped open the contract.

He turned to the second page, which had a table about share allocation with several blank signature fields at the bottom.

"The only way to prevent the old men from getting involved is for the four of us to complete the closed loop tonight and set the rules before they realize what's going on."

David pointed to the top row of the form.

"In this joint trust, Chen Zhuo holds absolute control of 50% and half of the derivative profits."

When David announced the number, the hall was silent for two seconds.

Chen Zhuo leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow.

Sam and Allen's eyes simultaneously fell on the number 50% written on the contract.

David didn't wait for them to speak, and continued.

"First, last night at the bar, if it weren't for the constant wall that Chen forcibly pulled out, none of us would be sitting here tonight. Without him, your two models would still be stuck in a deadlock."

David looked at these two geniuses who had grown up in wealthy families.

"Secondly, and most importantly, Chen is the only one in this room who has no American aristocratic background. He is clean and honest, with no Washington or San Diego behind him. Most importantly, Chen Zhuo is Chinese..."

David pulled his hands back and placed them on his knees.

"Putting him at the forefront and letting him take the lion's share is the safest balance of interests for both of you."

David laid out this open conspiracy, word by word.

"Only in this way will the old men in Washington and San Diego have nothing to say, no one can take away the dominant position, and no one will have to be on guard against the other."

After hearing David's words, Sam reached out and touched his stomach.

He turned his head and glanced at Chen Zhuo, who was sitting there with eight pages of pure algebra manuscript on the table.

Chen Zhuo was looking at him, his expression still calm and easygoing, as if none of this concerned him.

Sam looked away, shrugged, and spoke crisply and decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

"I have no objection."

Sam slapped his thigh, the sound echoing in the empty living room.

"Even disregarding my uncle's troublesome lawyers, just based on what he wrote on the bar table last night, he's worth that much."

Allen sat cross-legged on the carpet, his hands casually resting on his knees.

"Twenty percent is enough for me to buy coffee for the rest of my life."

Allen's voice was also indifferent; he didn't even bother to glance at the contract that determined the enormous fortune.

"I have no problem handing over the lion's share to him, I agree."

In less than a minute, the heirs of the two families casually handed over half of the control of a project that was destined to change the world's computing power landscape.

There was no pulling or haggling.

Unexpectedly open-minded.

David let out a long breath, looking at the three people in front of him, his shoulder muscles relaxing slightly.

"Chen takes 50%, Sam takes 20%, and Allen takes 20%."

David announced the remaining share.

He paused.

David leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his thighs, and looked into the eyes of the three of them.

"The remaining ten percent."

David's voice became very sincere and earnest.

"It's mine."

He didn't use any embellished language, nor did he adopt a superior attitude about how much help he had provided.

"I won't hide it from you."

David turned his head and looked at Chen Zhuo.

"When the benchmark results came out today, looking at that dead line that was forcibly straightened by the algorithm, I had a feeling that this thing would be in textbooks in the future."

David chuckled self-deprecatingly and rubbed his face.

"I've lived for over twenty years, but my brain isn't as sharp as yours. In terms of pure academics, I probably won't have any chance of making a name for myself in history."

David looked into Chen Zhuo's eyes, his gaze revealing a unique frankness.

"So today, I'm standing here with a thick skin, and I want to ask the three of you to entrust me with the management of this trust."

David pointed to the contract on the table.

"I'll handle all the messy business of cross-border legal affairs, global cross-licensing negotiations, and wrangling with Wall Street and tech giants. You can just focus on your academic work; I won't let a single trivial matter bother you."

"I'm not after that small profit from that 10% share."

David looked at them and said, word by word.

"What I want is for future history textbooks to include my name, David Collin, when they mention this epoch-making change."

After David finished speaking, he sat up straight.

"Consider it a favor of me to accept this commission."

The hall became very quiet.

Only the central air conditioning vents overhead emitted a steady, soft hum.

David's words were laid bare, open and aboveboard, without any concealment.

They laid all their interests, precautions, and ambitions out in the open, without any behind-the-scenes collusion or coercion.

David stood up, walked to Chen Zhuo's desk, and gently placed the document in front of Chen Zhuo.

Chen Zhuo sat in the chair, not moving immediately.

The air in the hall seemed to have become a little thicker.

Chen Zhuo looked at David quietly.

David had visible red blood vessels in his eyes, a result of long hours of working on legal documents and maintaining intense concentration.

David met Chen Zhuo's gaze without flinching, his eyes as open and honest as a pool of water, allowing Chen Zhuo to scrutinize him.

Chen Zhuo's gaze swept across Allen and Sam's faces.

Sam was idly picking at his thumbnail, while Allen was staring at his toes.

They weren't averse to David's ambition; on the contrary, they were happy to have someone handle these legal hassles they hated most.

Chen Zhuo withdrew his gaze, reached out, and picked up his Montblanc fountain pen.

The pen feels slightly cool and has a bit of weight to it.

Chen Zhuo did not make any remarks about the future, nor did he say a single polite word.

In the first column of the shareholding table, in the blank space reserved for 50% control, Chen Zhuo put down his pen.

Chen Zhuo.

The two Chinese characters were written crisply, without any connected strokes, and the last stroke was executed very steadily.

He put the pen cap back on, and then Chen Zhuo handed the pen to Sam, who was sitting on the sofa.

"Thanks, Chen."

David looked at the signature on the paper, his tense nerves relaxed, and his voice lowered slightly.

Sam took the pen, didn't even bother to read the English supplementary clauses on the contract carefully, and went straight to the last signature page. Under Chen Zhuo's name, he quickly signed a string of flamboyant English letters.

After signing, Sam tossed the pen to Allen, who was sitting on the carpet.

Allen picked up the pen, pulled the contract in front of him, lowered his head, and carefully signed his name stroke by stroke.

Four people, three signatures.

From the moment the truth was revealed to the moment the pen was put down, it took less than a few minutes.

After signing his name, Allen put the pen back on the table, dusted off his trousers, and stood up.

David walked over, picked up the signed contract, and checked the signatures from beginning to end.

He neatly folded the contracts, walked to the cabinet in the distance, opened the drawer, put the documents inside, and locked it.

Sam stretched and yawned.

"Alright, the rules are set."

Sam shuffled back toward the study.

"I need to go back and delete the redundant code in the continuous state. I was just getting into a good rhythm when you interrupted me."

Allen walked back to the French windows and bent down to pick up the page of the physics outline draft that he hadn't finished reading.

Chen Zhuo pulled out a chair and sat down again.

Chen Zhuo reached out, pushed the empty water glass aside, and pulled over the notebook.

"Let's get back to work."

Chen Zhuo spoke in a gentle, calm voice, as if he were talking to himself.