Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

The next day, Robert instructed his legal team to contact FlowEDA directly to discuss authorization.

He drove himself to a rather unassuming coffee shop.

A stylishly dressed man with dyed red hair was already waiting for him inside.

Robert sat down next to him and immediately started complaining: "When are you going to dye your red hair back? It looks so strange."

Claude laughed and said, "It's for work. Bright red hair attracts attention and makes it easier for my partner to get things done. We're professionals."

Claude was Robert's college classmate. A restless soul by nature, he enlisted in the military after college, becoming one of the few fools in the US to go to university first and then join the army. After all, going to university after military service is completely free and even includes subsidies, but going to university first and then enlisting still means becoming cannon fodder.

After serving three years in the military, Claude was recruited by the FBI for his outstanding performance. After serving in the FBI for another three years, Claude returned to San Francisco and started a corporate competitive intelligence consulting firm.

Robert ordered a coffee and then quietly explained, "I need you to help me look up some people at FlowEDA, the initial staff, about 15 people. I need their detailed information, mainly whether there are any opportunities to use them."

"Is it just a gray area investigation? Or does it require crossing legal lines? Let me make it clear, I'll only slightly cross the line; I don't do anything too shady."

Robert shook his head and said, "We're a legitimate company, not a gang. I just need to know their details, like who's a womanizer, who's a gambler, who's short of money, and so on."

"So it's to make it easier for you to bribe people to do dirty work, huh? Fine, I'll calculate based on 15 people, I'll need two million."

"Why is it so expensive? A few years ago when I asked you to help investigate Synplicity, you only charged 500,000!"

Claude took a sip of coffee and calmly said, "You're an outsider, so you don't understand. Investigating a company is very simple because the company is big enough and has enough loopholes. Besides, you ultimately succeeded in acquiring them, which shows that we did a good job."

However, investigating individuals individually is much more troublesome. If you hire someone to do dirty work, we'll still have to be the ones to contact them in the end, so we need to investigate thoroughly to avoid them turning against us. We need to investigate each person's family finances, medical insurance situation, and even send someone to follow them for a period of time.

Which of these items absolutely prohibits accepting money? If you don't pay the nurses, why should they help you access records? It's the same with banks; how can they get detailed information without payment? Tracking is even more expensive. If I have fifteen skilled people tracking me for a month, their salaries alone would cost me 30 yuan.

Robert thought it made sense, so he simply took out a document and handed it over, saying, "Okay, here's the contract. Fill in the numbers and we'll sign it. If anything goes wrong, we can't be implicated."

"Don't worry, we're professionals."

After signing the contract and reminiscing about the past, Robert hurriedly left to follow up on negotiations.

Once Robert was out of sight, Claude took out his phone and called his secretary: "Find a headhunter. Tell them we need to hire people. Don't worry about the difficulty of poaching them. Just say we'll throw money at it. Focus on FlowEDA's technology and have the headhunter recommend their people."

"The goal? The goal is just to get the information of a few original FlowEDA employees. We can just do some random stuff; I've already got the money. If we can find it, we'll find it; if not, we'll make something up."

Claude had initially intended to give it a cursory answer, but the headhunter unexpectedly provided a crucial piece of information. He and his partner followed up for a week, gathering more detailed details. Feeling it was sufficient, he called Robert to report back.

In Synaptics' CEO office, Robert quietly told Art, "My classmate is really impressive. He investigated all of FlowEDA's initial employees in just one week. He even found out about their financial situation and whether they had any bad habits."

Finally, it was discovered that this Amit was a good target. He is now the chief engineer for Routing integration, and he is responsible for all cross-product line technical integration from Placement to Routing.

This is a very important position. If he makes even the slightest error in the backend data, it'll be enough to keep FlowEDA stuck in limbo for a long time. If things get really tough, he could be made to take the blame directly and cause significant damage when interfacing with clients.

Art asked cautiously, "To be more specific, why is he a good target? If he's found out, are you sure he won't turn on us? It didn't matter before; if we were attacked, we could just settle it. But Chen Yiran is notoriously vengeful. Now there are rumors that even TSMC executives had to kneel down to him before we started cooperating."

"Don't worry, his son has juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Claude managed to get his son Kabir's medical records, and the situation isn't good."

He's basically relying on monthly biologic injections, which were recently increased in dosage. His son's resistance is quite evident, and his condition will likely worsen. Moreover, each injection of those biologics costs several thousand US dollars, and health insurance doesn't fully cover it, putting a significant financial strain on him.

We've also obtained his bank account. He's not saving any of his monthly salary; he only has 10,000 yuan in savings. If his son's situation worsens, he might be unable to make ends meet.

"So, should we just bribe him with money? We can't just give him the money directly, or we'll get investigated. Should we give it to his relative? He's Indian, right? Should we transfer the money to India?"

Robert pulled out a document and said, "No need, there's a better way. The FDA just approved tocilizumab, an inhibitor, for the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Stanford Children's Hospital's Pediatric Rheumatology Center has a clinical trial program for tocilizumab, but enrollment is extremely limited and the waiting time is very long."

Amit nodded: "Go and contact him. If Amit can help us, we'll find a way to get his son onto that list. Remember, don't get caught. We should try to get FlowEDA's authorization first. Finally, what's the situation over there?"

Robert sighed, "There's still no progress. They're not giving any indication, and Director Ming has already announced the signing. We're in a very passive position."

"It's up to you, Robert. You need to work hard on the negotiations, and you also need to get things settled with Amit this week. If you still haven't reached an agreement in another week, then let Amit's side find an opportunity to make their move."

In FlowEDA's legal office, Chen Yiran was instructing Ted's son, Wang Zhiwu: "You feel pressured about dragging things out? Isn't dragging things out what lawyers are best at? If you can't stand it, just go home and complain during dinner. Ted will teach you later."

Wang Zhiwu was helpless. Facing Chen Yiran, a boss who was six years younger than him but claimed to be of the same generation as his father, he didn't dare to speak loudly. He could only complain in a low voice: "Your requirements are too bizarre! If you want to talk, you have to talk slowly. You can't just break up the talks. Are you trying to fish me out?"

"What do you know? You're just a fisherman."

After Chen Yiran finished speaking, he glanced outside and sighed inwardly: "Amit, you must resist the temptation. If you pass this test, you will be the person I trust most in the company from now on."