Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

The next morning, a 500-ton crane was already in front of the Future Technology Company, with its four outriggers extended.

The car body was as tall as a three-story iron-gray building.

The hydraulic cylinders gleamed coldly in the morning light. The crane operator, surnamed Zhao, was in his early forties, wearing a faded work jacket, and was circling the crane. He held a wrench in his hand, tapping each tire one by one.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

With each tap, the driver next to him, Xiao Zhou, would swallow hard.

"Brother Zhao, that's enough, isn't it?" Xiao Zhou threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped on it twice. "You started checking at six in the morning, checked the oil system three times, inspected the steel cable four times, and disassembled and reassembled the hydraulic system. This car just had its annual inspection done, is it really necessary?"

Boss Zhao ignored him. He squatted down, grabbed a wrench, and tightened it on the bolts of the outrigger base. The bolts wouldn't budge. He unscrewed another one.

Xiao Zhou sighed, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, knocked one out, and put it in his mouth. Before he could light it, Boss Zhao yanked it away.

"Smoking, smoking, all you do is smoke." Boss Zhao stuffed the cigarette back into the pack. "What if a spark falls onto the hydraulic hose while you're hoisting the crane?"

Xiao Zhou was stunned for a moment.

"Brother Zhao, this crane isn't made of paper. Last time we lifted that 30-ton transformer—a transformer! That thing was full of oil, and you weren't this nervous. What's wrong with you today?"

Boss Zhao stood up. He threw the wrench into the toolbox with a dull thud. He took out his phone from his pocket and opened the payment records.

4:30 AM. Amount received: 100,000 yuan.

"What's wrong?"

Boss Zhao shoved his phone screen right in front of Xiao Zhou's nose. "It's 4:30. Before dawn, 100,000 yuan has already been transferred. Full payment. No contract signed, no invoice issued. Just one sentence—'Be at the Future Technology Building at 8:00 AM sharp.'"

He put his phone back in his pocket. Looking around at the empty sidewalks, he felt that this futuristic technology building exuded an inexplicable eeriness.

Xiao Zhou didn't believe it. He walked to the turnstile and peered inside. Inside the booth sat a young security guard, his back ramrod straight like a telephone pole.

"Hey buddy," Xiao Zhou greeted him, "what kind of company is this? Why are they using a crane to lift things up?"

The young security guard turned his head.

His face wore an extremely subtle expression. It was a mixture of awe and the relief of surviving a disaster. Yesterday, the old security guard had told him that he had to memorize the boss's license plates. This morning, he had memorized every single car registered in the underground parking garage.

"Don't ask," the security guard said in a low voice. "Don't pry into our boss's affairs."

Xiao Zhou, having been rebuffed, sheepishly retreated back to the crane. Boss Zhao had already removed the hydraulic control lever and was wiping it bit by bit with cotton yarn soaked in diesel fuel.

"Brother Zhao—"

"Stop talking nonsense."

Boss Zhao put the cleaned handle back in and clapped his hands.

"If the boss is willing to do a job that pays 100,000 yuan in full at 4:30 in the morning, it must be either a nuclear bomb or a gold mine. Let's do the job well and not ruin our reputation. As for the rest—don't ask questions."

8:10 a.m.

Li Yichen went to bed a little late last night, so he arrived a little late this morning. He straightened his suit collar at the door and walked toward the company.

Across the street, a white Volkswagen slowly rolled down its window. A passerby holding a jianbing (Chinese crepe) stopped halfway through chewing.

"Wow—how big is this crane?"

He counted the wheels, but couldn't finish. Then he looked up at the crane arm, until his neck ached.

Nine o'clock in the morning. At a highway exit in the suburbs of Shanghai. A traffic police motorcycle turned out of the tollbooth first. The officer parked the motorcycle across the exit ramp and raised his walkie-talkie.

Two minutes later, the first military truck emerged from the ramp. It was matte military green and had no license plates. Then came the second, and the third. All of them displayed the same white number plates on their front ends.

The driver in the cab wore a helmet, while a fully armed soldier sat in the co-pilot's seat, holding a Type 95 automatic rifle with a fully loaded magazine. The muzzle was pointing downwards.

A tollbooth worker peeked out from the booth. His hand trembled, and his thermos fell onto the table, spilling tea all over half of the duty roster.

A black Passat was parked in the emergency lane near the ramp. Inside sat a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase. He was on his way to a meeting in Pudong and had asked the driver to stop the car there so he could get some fresh air and have a smoke.

A cigarette dangled from his lips. The lighter's flame flickered against the cigarette tip, but it didn't light. He saw the first military truck turn off the ramp. Then the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth.

Each truck towed a long flatbed covered with a military green tarpaulin. The tarpaulin was bulging underneath, and the edges were tightly secured with steel cables.

The middle-aged man dropped his cigarette. It flicked off the tip of his shoe and rolled into the roadside ditch. The lighter was still lit, but he didn't notice until he burned his thumb and jerked it out.

Two more wheeled infantry fighting vehicles followed behind. The 25mm autocannons on the turrets were covered with camouflage cloth. The tires of the infantry fighting vehicles made a dull rumble as they rolled over the asphalt road.

The ground was shaking. The middle-aged man instinctively took half a step back, his knee slamming into the Passat's door.

The driver also got out of the driver's seat. Seeing that the middle-aged man's knee had hit the car door, he quickly went over to help him up. His gaze went past the middle-aged man's shoulder and was fixed on the convoy.

"What's that? A military vehicle?" The driver adjusted his glasses. "Isn't this the highway exit? Why is it closed?"

The middle-aged man didn't answer. He crouched down and glanced into the drainage ditch. The cigarette was still floating in the water. Never mind. He stood up, leaned against the car door, and watched the convoy slowly pass through the ramp.

"Five trucks," he counted. "Two infantry fighting vehicles. Traffic police leading the way. This setup—looks like they're escorting something. But what could possibly require two infantry fighting vehicles to escort it?"

The driver thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "I saw a similar convoy once when I was on a business trip to Yanjing near the Great Wall at Badaling. Later I heard that it was an ammunition escort."

"Ammunition? What targets in the suburbs of Shanghai would require military escort for ammunition? No, judging by this direction, it's heading towards Lujiazui, isn't it?" The middle-aged man stroked his chin and hissed.

In a taxi parked at the exit ramp, waiting at a red light, the driver propped his phone up on the windshield, opened a short video app, and switched to live streaming mode. A few scattered comments floated by.

"What's going on?"

"Is the road blocked?"

"Which intersection is the streamer at?"

The taxi driver pressed the voice button: "Guys! A mysterious military convoy has appeared at a highway exit in the suburbs of Shanghai! Traffic police are leading the way, and the military is escorting them! We don't know what they're carrying."

The number of online viewers started jumping, from a dozen to over three hundred. The chat became increasingly dense with comments.

"This is a military transport vehicle, isn't it?"

"Could it be some kind of new weapon?"

The taxi driver glanced at the comments on the screen and then looked in the direction of the convoy. The car slowed down even further. The convoy drove along the ramp into the city's main road, where every intersection was a red light.

Traffic police motorcycles led the convoy in alternating rows, while infantry fighting vehicles brought up the rear. The five trucks in the middle moved as smoothly as if gliding on ice. The equipment under the canvas was firmly secured by steel cables, so it didn't even wobble when going over speed bumps.

Pedestrians on both sides of the road stopped in their tracks. An older woman carrying a shopping basket turned her head, and a celery leaf from the basket poked the back of an older man's head. The old man, oblivious, stared wide-eyed as the caravan drove by.

"What is that stuff coming out of the toilet?"

"It's definitely a weapon. Look at the machine gun on that infantry fighting vehicle—even though it's covered with a cloth, the caliber is unmistakable."

"A convoy carrying weapons can enter the city? There are regulations that heavy equipment cannot enter the city during the day. This definitely cannot be weapons."

"Then what do you mean?"

"How would I know?"

The convoy continued forward, maintaining a steady speed of forty miles per hour. The distance between each truck was precisely thirty meters. The commands from the command vehicle transmitted smoothly and methodically through the drivers' headsets—

"Car number one passes through the intersection, car number two maintains a safe distance."

"There is a road construction section 200 meters ahead for vehicle number three. Reduce speed to 30."

"Vehicles four and five, follow up. Infantry fighting vehicles, maintain rear guard."

At the sixth-floor window of an office building by the roadside, a programmer wearing a plaid shirt held a cup of instant coffee. When he saw the car convoy below, his cup froze in mid-air.

"Holy crap!" He slammed his cup on the windowsill, turned, and yelled towards his workstation, "Come quick, you guys!"

My colleague sprang up from his workstation, the chair leg scraping against the marble floor with a piercing scream. Several people crowded in front of the window, watching the convoy of cars slowly drive by below.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know." The programmer's coffee had gone completely cold, but he had no appetite for it. "Which way is this?"

"It looks like it's going to the Lujiazui area."

"Lujiazui? Isn't that area all banks and office buildings?"

No one could answer that question. The convoy turned the last corner and entered Pudong Avenue. The Future Science and Technology Building came into view on the horizon.

At the building entrance, Boss Zhao was performing the eighth warm-up of the crane's hydraulic system. The engine was idling. Xiao Zhou sat in the driver's seat, his feet resting on the brakes, idly scrolling through his phone.

A rumble, growing louder as it approached, echoed through the street. It wasn't the sound of an ordinary truck's diesel engine. It was a deeper, metallic roar. Xiao Zhou looked up. His mouth gaped open. His phone slipped from his fingers, screen down, and landed on his knee.

"Brother Zhao... Brother Zhao!"

Boss Zhao turned his head. The wrench slipped from his hand and slammed onto the concrete with a crisp clang. Five military trucks filed into the auxiliary road. Traffic police on motorcycles made a U-turn at the intersection, blocking the entrances at both ends of the auxiliary road.

Infantry fighting vehicles were parked on both sides of the building. Fully armed soldiers jumped out of the rear compartments, their automatic rifles pointed at the ground, their tactical boots making a synchronized sound on the asphalt. Once everyone was in position, facing outwards, shoulders level, they formed a perimeter around the building entrance.

Boss Zhao's legs began to go weak.

He has been working in hoisting for twenty years. He has hoisted security doors for bank vaults, particle accelerator components for precision laboratories, and CT scanners for military hospitals.

Every time he encountered someone in uniform, they would at most come over, give him a few instructions, have him sign something, and then leave. He had never encountered anything like this before. He wasn't someone who hadn't seen the world.

But infantry fighting vehicles? Fully armed soldiers? A perimeter? He looked down at his crane, then up at the military trucks covered with tarpaulins.

Boss Zhao swallowed hard.

That thought from this morning popped up again.

Could this vehicle really be carrying a nuclear bomb?

Sitting in the driver's seat, Xiao Zhou had already picked up his phone, but his fingers were shaking so badly he couldn't unlock the screen. Through the crane's windshield, he watched the armed police officers pacing back and forth outside the cordon.

He quickly removed his foot from the brake, placed his hands neatly on his knees, and pressed the back of his head against the seat back, trying his best to look as harmless as possible.

In the lobby on the first floor of the building, automatic doors slide open to both sides.

Li Yichen walked out. Half a step behind him, Ji Yanran was wearing a pair of black stilettos, the heels clicking crisply on the marble steps.

Li Yichen looked at the infantry fighting vehicles at the intersection, at the fully armed soldiers, and at the five military trucks—without even raising an eyebrow.

Ji Yanran suddenly clenched the folder in her hand.

Her gaze swept over the infantry fighting vehicle. The vehicle's tactical number was printed on the side of the vehicle, in white lettering, exceptionally clear.

In the past few years of her work in corporate management, she has handled many orders from government departments and central enterprises, and occasionally she has encountered technical officers in camouflage uniforms at project sites.

But infantry fighting vehicles?

This was beyond her comprehension. The boss's relationship with the military was far deeper than she had previously guessed. It wasn't just about knowing one or two colonels; it was about having the power to use tactical heavy equipment to escort supplies.

A military off-road vehicle pulled out from behind the convoy. The door opened. Gu Shounian got out of the passenger seat. He was still wearing that dark gray jacket, zipped up to his chest, over which he wore a white shirt with the cuffs buttoned up meticulously.

Li Yichen stepped forward and extended his right hand. Their hands clasped in mid-air.

"Colonel Gu, thank you for your hard work."

"It's not hard work." Gu Shounian released his grip and glanced at the 500-ton crane at the door. "You've prepared quite thoroughly."

"Now that the supercomputer is on my turf, I can't just leave it lying on the ground." Li Yichen turned his head and glanced at Boss Zhao, who was still in a daze. "The crane is already waiting."

Gu Shounian nodded. He turned around and raised his right arm. The officers outside the perimeter saw the gesture and grabbed their walkie-talkies.

The convoy began reversing into parking spaces, military truck exhaust spraying onto the asphalt. Drivers jumped out of their cabs and walked around to the back of the flatbed trailers. They untied the steel cables, lifted the canvas, revealing silver-gray metal cabinets underneath.

Boss Zhao finally snapped out of his daze. He bent down, picked up the wrench, and tossed it into the toolbox. He walked over to Li Yichen and rubbed his hands on his work jacket a couple of times.

"Mr. Li—" His throat tightened, "The hoisting you mentioned earlier—is that what you mean by hoisting these?"

"Yes." Li Yichen pointed to the row of silver-gray server racks on the truck. "Main server racks, cooling modules, power distribution units, and a bunch of cable trays. The total weight is about forty tons. Boss Zhao—can your crane handle it?"

Boss Zhao nearly choked. Forty tons? That's it? He thought it was a nuclear bomb.

"We can handle it!" Boss Zhao's voice instantly rose two octaves. "Mr. Li, let alone forty tons, we can handle sixty tons! After all, this is a five-hundred-ton crane."

Li Yichen took out his phone from his suit pocket, opened the payment QR code, and waved it at Boss Zhao.

"Boss Zhao. We agreed before that everyone would get a big red envelope after the damage-free hoisting was completed. But I said damage-free hoisting. If there's any bump or scratch, then we might not get the red envelope, and we'd have to pay compensation."

Boss Zhao turned his head sharply and stared at Xiao Zhou. "Did you hear that? No damage! Not even a scratch on the paint is acceptable." He lifted the hem of his work jacket and grabbed the handle of the hydraulic control lever.

"I'll try lifting a cable tray first to calibrate the center of gravity. You stay below and watch the height, making sure the steel cable doesn't touch the cabinet casing. No one is allowed to move without my permission."

At 11:00 AM, the hoisting operation began smoothly. Li Yichen and Ji Yanran had already retreated to the lobby entrance, where they could escape the sunlight. Ji Yanran stood beside Li Yichen, watching as the crane steadily placed the last set of heat dissipation modules onto the loading and unloading platform on the 32nd floor.

"Boss," Ji Yanran finally spoke, "how long have you known that Colonel Gu?"

"We just met a few days ago." Li Yichen said, one hand in his pocket. "He came to me with a mission. We got along well and became friends."

Just a few days. Just a few days. You think a few days is enough to warrant them using infantry fighting vehicles to escort supplies?

Ji Yanran swallowed the turmoil in her heart. She felt that the longer she stayed by this man's side, the less her previous knowledge seemed to be enough.

It was 3 PM. The last set of server racks was in place on the 32nd floor. Boss Zhao jumped down from the control panel, his work jacket soaked with sweat.

Li Yichen walked over, his phone screen displaying a transfer interface. "Boss Zhao, thank you for your hard work. The 100,000 yuan hoisting fee was already paid this morning. Now—it's completed flawlessly. This is an extra reward." A scanning sound rang out. Transfer received. Red envelope: 20,000 yuan.

"This is for both of you." Li Yichen put his phone back in his pocket. "Ten thousand each."

Li Yichen turned and walked back to the truck. Gu Shounian leaned against the truck door, looking up at the 32nd floor, where the engineers on the loading and unloading platform were performing a second leveling calibration.

"Colonel Gu," Li Yichen walked over, "The hoisting is complete. Thanks to the brothers in charge of transportation; it's late and none of us have eaten yet. I've booked a three-star hotel next door. Treat the brothers to a meal."

"Mr. Li, you're too kind." Gu Shounian didn't refuse. "I'll let them go over after the equipment is unloaded."

The afternoon sun hung low over the west side of the building, casting shadows on the glass curtain wall and creating a line between light and dark. Across the street, pedestrians hadn't yet dispersed, and several young people, holding up their phones, squatted outside the police cordon, frantically taking pictures of the Future Technology Building.

On the 32nd floor, engineers were conducting final integration tests with walkie-talkies. All the server racks of the Tianhe-3 supercomputer, on the anti-static floor of the 32nd floor, were flashing countless indicator lights.

A continuous line of green lights. Li Yichen stood at the entrance of the first-floor lobby, looking up at the thirty-second floor. Tianhe-3. A peak value of exascale floating-point operations. The complete artificial intelligence architecture in his mind had finally found a shell to house it.

Across the street, among the group of young people still taking photos, someone posted a message on WeChat Moments. Location: Future Technology Building. Caption: What's the background of this company? Military infantry fighting vehicles escorting them, a 500-ton crane lifting them. The post was immediately screenshotted and forwarded to several investment and tech circles.

Ji Yanran stood behind Li Yichen, her phone scrolling through work group messages like crazy.

All the messages were asking the same question—what exactly was that commotion? What were the military vehicles doing there? Why was the road closed for so long? What exactly did the company receive?

"The whole street is blocked off?" She looked at the dense barrage of pop-up messages, too lazy to reply to them all, and simply typed a line and sent it: "The boss brought back a supercomputer."

"Tianhe Series"

The group chat went silent instantly. Silence lasted for a full ten seconds. Then it exploded. Messages flooded the screen at a rapid pace, like a waterfall. Ji Yanran silenced her phone, tossed it into her bag, and, in her high heels, followed Li Yichen into the lobby.

Passersby on the street looked up at the dense array of green indicator lights on the 32nd floor of the Future Technology Building, still wondering what kind of background this company had.

Escorted by traffic police and infantry fighting vehicles, what could it be? It doesn't look like ordinary equipment. Some say it might be a new type of weapon, while others say it's definitely related to the military.

Someone suddenly muttered, "Could future technology have anything to do with the Shanghai Military Region?"

This statement quickly spread among the onlookers.

(This chapter, dear readers, is actually two chapters combined into one.)