Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

Looking at the reply on his phone: "Okay, Mr. Gu. You decide on the time."

It became.

He knew that he had finally resolved the crisis caused by the whiskey.

This actually acts as a catalyst.

This incident brought an end to the testing and maneuvering between him and Su Qingying.

Although the process was terrible, the result was good.

Now it's his turn to make a decision.

"You set the time."

These four words, seemingly handing over the initiative to him, are actually a test.

Setting the coffee shop for tomorrow noon seems too rushed.

Setting it for next week seems too distant.

This was no longer a simple business meeting.

This is the first formal meeting about personal investment.

Hold.

It was even more tiring than negotiating with Shen Guodong.

Gu Ming scratched his hair and paced back and forth in the room.

His gaze fell on the whiteboard that occupied half of the office wall.

On the whiteboard was a diagram of the logical framework he had drawn for the "Digital Life" project, which was his trump card against Shen Guodong.

Gu Ming had an idea.

Inviting top investors to discuss a future valued at 500 million demonstrates sincerity and respect.

He picked up his phone, smiled, and tapped his fingers on the screen.

"Mr. Su, tonight at nine o'clock in my office, let's talk about the next step for Digital Life. This is related to the return on your future investments."

……

Nine o'clock in the evening, in the office of Star Media.

The three Wang sisters had already left work, leaving only the hum of the server fans in the office.

Su Qingying arrived right on time.

She wasn't wearing her usual Armani business suit.

Instead, she wore a well-tailored beige knit sweater paired with dark casual trousers and flat Tod's loafers.

Her hair was simply tied into a ponytail, and she wore no makeup, which made her skin appear fair and her features delicate.

She seemed less sharp at the negotiating table and more at home.

But Gu Ming knew that this was just a facade.

"Mr. Gu, aren't you worried about my safety as a young woman on your turf, asking me out so late?"

Su Qingying teased.

She seems to have recovered from last night's state and is beginning to enjoy this new way of being together.

"Afraid."

Gu Ming nodded and handed her a bottle of Evian mineral water.

"I'm afraid you'll withdraw your intention to make a personal investment in me, the core founder, and that would be a huge loss for me."

He replied with the same statement.

Su Qingying was amused by him, took the water, and rolled her eyes at him.

The two stopped talking about it and walked together to the whiteboard.

The atmosphere became professional, and we entered work mode.

"The initial test of 'zero' was successful, but it also exposed a problem."

Gu Ming picked up a marker and drew a circle on the whiteboard, writing the word "data" inside the circle.

"She can imitate, learn, and react realistically now. But she doesn't have her own core content."

"She has no personality of her own, no memories of her own, no story of her own. Because she has too few examples of learning and interaction."

Gu Ming turned to look at Su Qingying and said:

"We need a lot of character interaction data to help her grow. This data must be copyrighted and of high quality. Buying it directly from the market is very expensive, and copyright issues are also troublesome. This is our current bottleneck."

Su Qingying listened quietly without interrupting.

Her eyes were fixed on the words on the whiteboard as she pondered.

She slowly nodded after Gu Ming finished speaking.

She turned around, took a silver MacBook Air out of her bag, and placed it on the conference table.

"Smack."

The computer was turned on with one hand.

Her fingers began to tap on the keyboard.

Her fingers moved quickly, rapidly switching between the professional financial database and the corporate information query platform interface on the screen.

Bloomberg Terminal, Capital IQ, Tianyancha Professional Edition...

A large amount of data scrolls across the screen.

Gu Ming stood to the side, arms crossed, watching quietly.

With just a computer and internet access, she can find her competitors' weaknesses in a wealth of business information.

Oh shit.

About ten minutes later.

Su Qingying's fingers stopped.

She turned the laptop screen toward Gu Ming, which displayed a well-organized company financial report and equity structure diagram.

"Fantasy Dimension"

Su Qingying said a name.

"A long-established game company wholly owned by Tianying Capital under Shen Guodong. It started fifteen years ago with MMORPGs based on the themes of fantasy and martial arts, and was once a top-tier domestic manufacturer."

She tapped her finger on the red number representing the loss on the financial report.

"However, they failed to keep up with the development of mobile internet and their transformation was unsuccessful. They have suffered losses for the past five years, becoming a bad asset in Shen Guodong's hands, which is very troublesome to deal with."

Gu Ming immediately understood.

Su Qingying continued:

"This company's most valuable asset is its database, accumulated over more than fifteen years of operation. It contains all the public dialogues, story texts, character interactions, and UGC from the player community across its dozen or so games over the past decade..."

"This is a corpus about Chinese-style fantasy worlds."

Su Qingying's words made Gu Ming understand immediately.

He stared at the data on the screen, his breathing becoming somewhat rapid.

Corpus!

That's right!

This is what "zero" needs.

Having a virtual human study Shakespeare? Or Dream of the Red Chamber? No way! That's too pretentious and out of touch with reality!

But what if you asked her to learn how tens of millions of Chinese players have joked around, experienced love and hate, boasted, and spoken witty remarks in the world of Xianxia (fantasy martial arts) over the past decade?

Then she will have a core that is both internet-savvy and down-to-earth!

"It's unrealistic to directly buy this company or purchase data licenses," Su Qingying analyzed. "Shen Guodong won't sell, and he'll be wary that we're developing virtual humans."

Gu Ming smiled.

"Who said we were going to buy it?"

He walked back to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, drew a circle next to the word "data," and wrote "Fantasy Dimension."

Then, he used a red pen to draw an arrow between the two circles.

"We're not buying."

Gu Ming said:

"Let's revitalize it."

Su Qingying was somewhat surprised.

"you mean……"

"That's right!" Gu Ming slammed his hand on the whiteboard. "We'll make 'Zero' the spokesperson for the AI-remastered version of this company's old games, or make her an NPC with autonomous intelligence within the game!"

"We've helped Fantasy Dimension revitalize this old game! We've empowered it with our technology and traffic!"

"And in exchange..."

Gu Ming said:

"This company's entire database is open to us indefinitely, unconditionally, and free of charge!"

Su Qingying was surprised by Gu Ming's plan.

She reviewed the plan in her mind and found that it was highly feasible.

First, we acquired the project's core data resources at a low cost.

Secondly, it gives "zero" a commercially viable application scenario, enabling it to generate profits in advance.

Third, they infiltrated Shen Guodong's company with their influence, turning the tables from a passive to an active position.

"This plan is excellent," Su Qingying said.

She also picked up a pen, walked to the whiteboard, and began to refine the business details and legal risks in her plan.

"The cooperation agreement must clearly distinguish between the right to use data and the right to own it..."

"We can introduce a performance-based clause, linking the game's revenue share to the player's popularity growth from 'zero'..."

In the office late at night, the two began an efficient discussion.

They were standing very close, their shoulders almost touching.

He could smell the fragrance emanating from her hair.

She could also feel his breath occasionally brushing against her ear when he spoke.

After an unknown amount of time, the two of them worked together to sketch out the entire framework of the plan on a whiteboard.

Gu Ming put down his pen and looked at Su Qingying beside him, who was annotating details. The light shone on her face, outlining her features, and her eyelashes trembled slightly.

He looked at her and said, half-jokingly:

"Analyst Su, you've helped me so much, providing both manpower and effort, and even giving me a business solution for free. How can I possibly pay you for your consulting services?"

He thought that Su Qingying would, as usual, retort with, "When your company is worth a billion, just give me 1% of the shares."

However, he miscalculated.

Su Qingying didn't even look up, continuing to write on the whiteboard, casually saying in a calm tone:

"Payback with sex"

"Would you accept?"

"Cough...cough cough cough cough!"

Gu Minggang choked on the bottled water he had just taken a sip of when he heard those two words.

He coughed violently, covering his mouth, his face turning bright red, and tears were almost streaming down his face.

Fuck!

This woman!

How dare she?!

How dare she say such a thing in such a calm tone?

After writing the last word, Su Qingying put down her pen and turned to look at the man who was still coughing.

A slight smile played on her lips.

"Just kidding."

"Look how scared you are."

She said it casually.

However, her eyes seemed to say:

I'm not entirely joking, you know.