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

The next morning at nine o'clock, on the banks of the Huangpu River, the buoy stood motionless on the water for forty minutes.

Li Yichen's eyes were getting sore from staring at the bait. Just as he was wondering if he should change the bait, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

Chen Jianjun.

"Lieutenant General Chen."

"Xiao Li, are you busy?" The tone on the other end of the phone was more relaxed than usual, with a hint of laughter at the end.

"fishing."

"How many did you catch?"

"……zero."

Chen Jianjun laughed on the other end of the line: "That's perfect, do me a favor. Several senior academicians at the Shanghai branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences heard that you received the title of Honorary Academician for Life and insist on meeting you. Their exact words were—'Please invite Academician Li to come and give us some guidance.'"

Li Yichen placed the fishing rod on the support.

"Provide guidance? Lieutenant General Chen, your words send chills down my spine. They've dedicated their lives to scientific research; what am I supposed to guide them for?"

"Don't be modest. The detection data from the last cold fusion experiment is right there; those three academicians couldn't sleep for three days after seeing it. If you don't go, they'll really call me every day." Chen Jianjun paused for a moment, "Are you free this afternoon? The sooner the better; those old gentlemen are already waiting."

"Okay, what time?"

"The sooner the better. The main gate of the branch campus."

See you then.

After hanging up the phone, Li Yichen glanced at the stagnant water and the floating buoys.

Well, he wasn't going to catch any fish. He quickly reeled in his line, stuffed the empty fish basket into the trunk, went back inside to change into a dark casual suit, grabbed his car keys, and drove off into the underground parking garage.

A white tank 700 drove out of Tomson Riviera.

-

At 2:53, the car stopped outside the main gate of the Shanghai branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Li Yichen got out of the car and stared blankly for half a second.

A row of people stood on the steps of the main entrance.

Chen Jianjun, dressed in military uniform, stood at the front, followed by four elderly men with completely white hair. The youngest of them looked to be in his early sixties. The man on the left was leaning on a wooden cane, while the man in the middle wore thick glasses that could be used as magnifying glasses.

This was an even more formal affair than when he visited the military region.

Chen Jianjun came down first, shaking hands with me: "You've finally arrived."

"Lieutenant General Chen, you're making quite a show of yourself."

"I didn't do it." Chen Jianjun stepped back. "The old gentlemen were standing here on their own. I tried to persuade them three times, but I couldn't."

He turned to the side and introduced them one by one.

"Professor Qian, Materials Science. Professor Sun, Nuclear Physics. Professor Zhao, Artificial Intelligence. Professor Zhou, Energy and Power Engineering."

The four elderly people's eyes all fell on Li Yichen's face at the same time.

There was a two-second silence.

Although they knew the newly elected academician was young, the four of them still paused for a moment when they saw his face, which was so smooth that it didn't even have a single deep wrinkle.

Mr. Qian was the first to act.

The old man tossed his cane to his left hand, then reached out with his right hand, grabbed Li Yichen's hand, and shook it vigorously several times.

"Young Li! Seeing is believing, you're incredibly young!" Old Qian shook his head vigorously. "Let me tell you the truth, if you ever showed up alone at the entrance of our lab building, the security guards might not even let you in! They'd have to check your student ID three times!"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Old Sun pushed up his thick glasses, leaned closer to examine him, and clicked his tongue in amazement: "A twenty-five-year-old lifetime honorary academician. I've worked in this institute for thirty-eight years, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything like it. Truly groundbreaking."

"Mr. Sun, please don't say that. I was just lucky."

"Luck?" Old Sun snorted. "Cold fusion can be achieved with luck? If you had that kind of luck, I'd trade my thirty-eight years for it."

Old Zhao chimed in from the side, speaking quickly: "Don't just stand at the door, come inside and talk. I've had a bunch of questions that I've been saving up for half a year, and I've been waiting for today."

-

The group walked into the hospital area.

The road was lined with old three- or four-story laboratory buildings with red brick walls and a few vines that hadn't yet grown. Researchers in white lab coats passed by in the corridor from time to time, and when they saw this group of people, they would automatically step aside and follow them with their eyes.

Most people know that a "big shot" has come today, but no one knows exactly who it is.

Li Yichen walked in the middle, without wearing an employee badge, just a casual suit.

A few young postdoctoral researchers were whispering among themselves.

"She looks so young."

"Is this person from some organization on temporary assignment?"

"You think 'temporarily assuming a position would get four academicians to come downstairs to greet you'? Do you believe it?"

"...That's probably the child of some important person coming to go through the formalities."

Li Yichen heard it.

He didn't turn around.

Chen Jianjun first led him to the comprehensive exhibition hall. An entire wall of display panels, from superconducting materials to quantum measurement and control, showed the various main research directions neatly arranged. As they walked, Professor Zhou talked, slowing down his speech when he got to the energy section.

"...We've been working on this path for decades," Old Zhou said, pointing to a diagram. "We're still stuck on the second stage. Your invention, which you built in eight days, has bypassed our decades-long journey."

Li Yichen glanced at the blueprints.

"Professor Zhou, your line of thinking is correct."

"That's right?"

"The direction is right, but the chosen constraint method is too conservative."

Old Zhou stood in front of the display board, remaining silent for a long time.

-

When we went up to the small conference room on the second floor, there were fewer people, and the atmosphere immediately relaxed.

Professor Zhou personally brewed a pot of tea, and six rough porcelain cups were arranged. The four academicians sat in a semi-circle around Li Yichen, and the arrangement was more like a graduate student's thesis defense than a discussion—except that the one sitting in the middle was only twenty-five years old.

Old Zhao was the first to fire a shot. He pushed a stack of printed drafts onto the table, the corners of the papers curling up.

"Xiao Li, I'll skip the pleasantries and get straight to the question."

"Please speak."

"Our self-built general-purpose intelligent framework can't handle complex decision-making tasks." Old Zhao tapped his finger on the paper. "It performs well for single tasks, but it starts to waver once the task chain is long and the goals conflict with each other. We revised the reward design seven times, added three layers of arbitration mechanisms, and provided sufficient computing power."

He raised his head.

"I've been stuck for eight months."

Li Yichen pulled the stack of manuscripts over and flipped through them page by page.

The meeting room fell silent.

The only sound was the turning of pages.

He stopped on page fourteen.

"Mr. Zhao, your arbitration mechanism is in parallel."

"Yes, all three levels are evaluated simultaneously, and a weighted average is taken."

"That's the problem." Li Yichen drew a line on the diagram with his index finger. "In a parallel structure, the three arbitration modules see the same snapshot of the state. But in complex tasks, the priorities between objectives themselves drift over time. You give it three pairs of eyes, but these three pairs of eyes are all looking at the same picture—the picture from the previous second."

Old Zhao's hand froze in mid-air.

"So its wavering isn't due to a lack of judgment," Li Yichen pushed the manuscript back, "but because it's using old information to make new decisions, and all three modules are using old information simultaneously, corroborating each other, becoming more and more convinced the more they corroborate. The more layers you add, the more confident it becomes in its mistakes."

"...How should we change it?"

"Chained. And each layer needs its own state update window so that the downstream layer gets the latest snapshot after the upstream layer has finished processing. Your current structure is essentially like three people arguing while looking at an outdated newspaper."

Old Zhao stared at the picture for five seconds.

Then he slapped his own thigh.

With a "snap," the teacup jumped.

"Expired newspapers—" the old man jumped to his feet, "This stuff that's been stuck on for eight months, explain it to me in three minutes!"

Old Sun, standing nearby, gloated: "Old Zhao, sit down, don't get so excited you'll hurt your back again."

"It's worth it even if I have to get my back checked!" Old Zhao frantically reached for his pen. "Wait, wait, wait, that status update window you mentioned, how exactly do I draw it—"

-

One hour.

One hour and twenty minutes.

two hours.

The discussion was originally scheduled for one hour, but it was stretched to two and a half hours.

When Qian asked about grain boundary failure in superconducting materials under extreme temperature differences, Li Yichen offered two solutions: one conservative and one radical. He also pointed out that their existing formula had an impurity tolerance set too wide.

Old Sun asked something even more obscure, and halfway through, he felt embarrassed: "This might be a bit much to ask, if it's inconvenient for you—"

"Mr. Sun, this doesn't involve any secrets." Li Yichen took out a pen and paper and drew a diagram. "You're not stuck on the theory, you're stuck on the measurement accuracy. You need to change the probe first."

Old Sun stared at the sketch for a long time.

"...We just approved the purchase of new probes last month."

"Then you're in luck."

The four elderly men chatted more and more enthusiastically, and the tea on the table was changed three times. Li Yichen did not change his posture throughout the conversation, answering every question directly without putting on airs or being ambiguous. He spoke frankly about what needed to be said and directly addressed classified information. His attitude was calm, but every word he said was sharp and incisive.

It wasn't until a staff member knocked on the door and came in, quietly reminding us that it was time to go to the next stop.

Old Zhao was still copying things into his notebook when Old Qian pulled him up.

"Old Zhao, the man has other plans for this afternoon."

"I have one more question—"

"Let's go eat."

-

The cafeteria is located at the west end of the campus, with stainless steel trays stacked on shelves at the entrance.

Li Yichen drew one himself and placed it after Qian Lao.

The food serving window was steaming hot. The auntie holding the spoon looked up, her gaze lingering on his face for two seconds before her eyebrows furrowed.

"Which institute are you from, young man?"

"..." Li Yichen was taken aback. "I'm not from here."

"A new graduate student, right?" The auntie didn't even hear the rest of his sentence, shoving her spoon into the pot of braised pork. "You're so skinny, is your advisor not letting you eat?"

Splash!

A spoonful and a half of braised pork was piled on top of his rice, forming a small mountain.

Eat more.

"...Thank you, Auntie."

Old Qian, who was at the back of the line, was laughing so hard he could barely hold his chopsticks. His shoulders were trembling, and he almost slipped off his cane. Old Sun helped him up, while he himself was trying not to laugh.

"Little Li," Old Qian said, panting, "I've never enjoyed this kind of treatment in the thirty years I've been eating in this cafeteria."

The four of them sat down at the long table. Li Yichen ate a couple of mouthfuls of rice; the extra half spoonful of braised pork was indeed quite substantial.

Halfway through the meal, Chen Jianjun moved his chair closer to him and lowered his voice.

"Two projects later."

"What project?"

"The first one is the reverse replication of cold fusion." Chen Jianjun's chopsticks paused on the edge of the plate. "We've been disassembling and analyzing your machine for more than three months. We've reproduced the main structure, but we can't get past the energy conversion part. The conversion rate just won't go up."

"The second one?"

"The mass production of the Heavenly Soldier Armor is becoming more autonomous." Chen Jianjun's tone was a little embarrassed. "We have the blueprints, but the materials and manufacturing processes are the real challenges. The institute wants you to personally oversee the process."

Li Yichen hummed in agreement and put the last piece of braised pork into his mouth.

"no problem."

-

After the meal, the group got up and headed towards the cold fusion experimental building.

That building was located at the deepest part of the campus. Its exterior walls were gray, and its windows were small, making it feel much more oppressive than the other laboratory buildings. The corridor lighting was pale, and the doors on both sides were closed, with only numbers on the doorplates.

Old Zhao was still talking to him about the series structure, while Old Qian walked ahead, leaning on his cane.

Turn a corner.

The side door was pushed open with a "bang".

A person rushed out from inside, the hem of his white coat swung up, almost bumping into Li Yichen's shoulder.

Li Yichen stepped to the side to avoid the attack.

The man stopped abruptly. He was in his early thirties, with a buzz cut and prominent brow bones, and he was holding a stack of printed data sheets in his hand. He glanced up and his gaze lingered on Li Yichen's face for a moment before moving down—to the casual suit he was wearing without any name tag.

His brow furrowed.

The name tag on my chest swayed slightly.

Senior Researcher Fang Xu.

Fang Xu didn't move aside. He stepped half a step into the middle of the corridor, blocking most of the way.

"Who is this?"

The tone wasn't exactly harsh, but the condescending, businesslike air about him was palpable even from two meters away.

"The core experimental area is just ahead." Fang Xu rolled up the stack of papers in his hand and tapped them twice in his palm. "Without S-level clearance, you can't enter."

Chen Jianjun's brow twitched, and he was about to speak.

Fang Xu added another sentence.

"Have a few more children of leaders recently come to the office to go through the formalities?"

The air in the corridor seemed to freeze.

"To put it bluntly," he said, slightly raising his chin while his gaze remained fixed on Li Yichen, "the things in the core area aren't for people with connections to look at and play with."

Two seconds that felt like death.

Old Qian's eyebrows furrowed, and the tip of his cane tapped against the paving stones. Chen Jianjun's face darkened, and a sound began to rise in his throat.

And the person who was blocked in the middle.

Li Yichen stood still, his expression unchanged.

The corners of her mouth even turned up slightly.

It seems they find this quite interesting.