What Is This

Basement level one of Science Building No. 1, the temporary office area of Deep Space Tech.

Chen Zhi pushed open the conference room door. Pei Ningxue followed closely behind, holding several newly signed financing agreements in her hands.

Out in the main hall, dozens of PhDs and Master's students from Tsinghua and Peking University stopped typing and stared eagerly in his direction.

Chen Zhi walked to the center and cleared his throat.

"Series A financing, valuation at fifteen billion. US dollars."

As soon as he said this, the entire basement went dead silent. The only sound left was the whirring of computer cooling fans.

For a full half-minute, no one in the server room uttered a word. These top-tier geniuses poached from Tsinghua and Peking University, who never got stuck writing the most complex code, had collectively crashed.

Dai Damai snapped back to reality, his brain calculating frantically.

"Holy shit!" Dai Damai howled at the top of his lungs. "At this valuation, even if you guys only hold a fraction of a percent in options... that's still worth tens of millions of dollars!"

His words jolted everyone awake.

The entire basement erupted.

"Damn, I'm worth over a hundred million yuan now?"

"Just yesterday I was trying to bundle items on Pinduoduo for a 9.9 yuan free shipping deal on slippers!"

"We're taking off! This is the real Fourth Industrial Revolution!"

Cheers and whistles filled the air. Someone was so excited they threw their mouse pad into the air. These students, who huddled in an unheated basement typing away every day, had achieved a massive leap in social class overnight.

Looking at his hyped-up employees, Chen Zhi knocked on the table.

"Alright, settle down," Chen Zhi said, leaning back in his chair. "Before, the company had no money in its accounts because we spent it all buying computing cards for you guys. Now, this 4.5 billion dollars will hit our account soon. The very first thing we're doing is moving."

"We're not staying in this dump anymore. We're moving straight to an office building in the CBD. You won't have to squeeze into a server room anymore."

Chen Zhi originally thought this decision would bring a new round of cheers.

Instead, the group looked at each other, their expressions turning hesitant.

One of the employees scratched his head and raised his hand.

"Please don't, Boss Chen. Working on campus is great. It only takes two minutes to scan a shared bike and get here, we can just swipe our cards to eat at the cafeteria, and if we're tired, we can go back to the dorms to catch up on sleep. Moving to the CBD would be so inconvenient; we'd have to squeeze onto the subway."

Dai Damai nodded in agreement beside him.

Chen Zhi laughed out of exasperation.

"Have you country bumpkins coded yourselves stupid?"

"Based on our current valuation of a hundred billion RMB, you could cash out just a tiny bit of your shares and buy a luxury flat within the Third Ring Road in full tomorrow. And you're still obsessing over shared bikes and cafeteria food?"

"You haven't realized you're all multimillionaires now, have you!"

The students in the server room finally realized it.

"Oh yeah! I'm rich!"

"Boss Chen, according to the contract, these options will be open for buyback before Series B, right?" A PhD student poached from Tsinghua asked, his eyes shining.

Chen Zhi nodded. "That's right. Our company's size is going to skyrocket next. If any of you are in urgent need of money to improve your lives, I can have Boss Pei arrange an equity buyback to cash out right now."

"Cash out my ass!"

Dai Damai was the first to jump out and object. "Anyone who dumps their shares now is an absolute idiot! I'm holding onto these options for dear life, and when Deep Space Tech rings the bell on the NASDAQ, I'll achieve total financial freedom!"

"Yeah! I wouldn't sell even if you beat me to death!"

Looking at his howling employees, Chen Zhi stood up in satisfaction. Morale was high.

Over the next few days, Deep Space Tech began a frantic expansion.

Chen Zhi dumped all these trivial matters onto Pei Ningxue.

Within two days, they secured the entire twentieth floor of the World Trade Center for their office space.

A full 1,900 square meters of office space.

As Moss continued to go viral across the internet, the number of users flooding the API interface skyrocketed exponentially every day. The few servers in the university basement couldn't handle it anymore. The current mission was to rent high-end cloud servers and recruit massively.

After arranging all these tasks, Chen Zhi took a hands-off approach.

With his career on track, it was time to spend some time consolidating his home front.

Chen Zhi left the World Trade Center and caught a cab straight to Renmin University.

Arriving near Renmin University, he walked into the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which was only a kilometer away from the campus.

Guided respectfully by the front desk manager, Chen Zhi swiped his card to go up to the top floor, rented out a presidential suite, and paid for a whole year upfront.

After checking in, he took out his phone and called Li Zhiyi, telling her to come over immediately.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell of the suite rang.

Chen Zhi opened the door.

Li Zhiyi stood outside, looking somewhat uneasy.

As soon as she entered, the girl was stunned by the suite's decor.

Hand-woven wool carpets, a massive crystal chandelier, and an unobstructed view of the city skyline outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Chen Zhi..." Li Zhiyi swallowed hard. "How much does this room cost a day?"

Chen Zhi closed the door behind her, pulled her into his arms, and pinched her soft cheeks.

"Who cares how much it costs. Your man is rich now, so rich that all I have left is money." Chen Zhi looked down at her. "Just tell me whatever you want from now on. I'd even buy the stars in the sky for you."

Normally, hearing something like this, Li Zhiyi would definitely blush and smile foolishly.

But today, the girl didn't smile.

She reached out and gently gripped the hem of Chen Zhi's shirt.

"Chen Zhi, I heard from my advisor today that your Deep Space Tech... its valuation has broken a hundred billion, right?"

Chen Zhi paused for a moment, then nodded.

Li Zhiyi sniffled.

She looked up, her clear eyes full of helplessness.

"Chen Zhi, have you flown too high already?"

"Lately, I've been studying desperately every day, auditing all kinds of seminars, and taking my freshman and sophomore classes together."

"I thought that as long as I passed the hardest certifications and became a great lawyer, I would be able to help you and protect you."

Li Zhiyi bit her lip, her eyes turning red.

"But... but I feel like no matter how hard I try, I can never catch up to you. The gap between us seems to be getting bigger and bigger."

Seeing her looking so insecure made Chen Zhi's heart soften.

This silly girl was genuinely afraid she wasn't good enough for him, afraid of being abandoned.

"What nonsense are you thinking about?"

Chen Zhi reached out and scooped her up into his arms, letting the girl straddle his lap.

"No matter how much the company is worth, that's for outsiders to see. Even if I become the richest man in the world, don't I still have to report to you on time every day?"

He lowered his head, touching his nose against hers.

"Besides, I'm still counting on the great Lawyer Li to be my Chief Legal Officer in the future, to help me send all those bastards who dare to scam me out of my money straight to jail."

Li Zhiyi was amused by his words and sniffled.

"Really?"

"Of course it's true."

Chen Zhi looked at her moist lips, stopped talking, and leaned in directly to silence her murmuring little mouth.

Li Zhiyi's body stiffened for a second, then she obediently closed her eyes and clumsily wrapped her arms around Chen Zhi's neck.

After a moment of entanglement.

Chen Zhi released her and smacked his lips.

"You didn't put on your orange-flavored lip balm today?" Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow. "Why does it taste like strawberries, and so sweet?"

Li Zhiyi's cheeks flushed red, and her eyelashes fluttered.

"I... when I got your call and ran out, I bought two strawberry candies at the convenience store downstairs from my dorm."

"This candy really is sweet." Chen Zhi held her and stole another kiss. "Buy more next time."

"Come on, student Li Zhiyi." Chen Zhi cleared his throat. "The first course of treatment yesterday had good results. Today, Dr. Chen is here to check on your progress for the second course."

Hearing this, Li Zhiyi's face instantly flushed red all the way to the base of her neck.

Remembering the half-hour of torture in the budget hotel yesterday, her body instinctively shrank back.

"Chen Zhi... is this really going to work?" She was still making her final struggle.

"Hiding your illness from the doctor won't do." Chen Zhi didn't give her a chance to escape at all, directly reaching out to massage her.

"Whether it works or not, you'll know once you let me massage you for a full month."

"Mmph..."

Li Zhiyi let out a muffled groan, completely going soft in Chen Zhi's embrace.

Chen Zhi's technique became increasingly skilled.

The two of them cuddled affectionately on the sofa.

Li Zhiyi sat on Chen Zhi's lap, initially behaving herself. As Chen Zhi's hands grew more brazen, she couldn't help but twist her body, wanting to shift into a more comfortable position.

But with this twist, she felt something wasn't right.

"Chen Zhi... is there something in your pocket?"

Chen Zhi's movements stiffened.

Li Zhiyi turned her head, her gaze landing right on the coffee table nearby.

Lying quietly there was an iPhone 12 Pro Max, the very one she had emptied her savings to buy for him.

Li Zhiyi blinked, looking at the phone on the coffee table.

"Huh?" She turned her head with a bewildered expression. "The phone I gave you is on the table. Did you buy another phone? Is the one I gave you not good?"

Chen Zhi was a bit embarrassed.

How was he supposed to explain this?

Looking into Li Zhiyi's clear, bright, and inquisitive big eyes, Chen Zhi rarely found himself at a loss for words.

"Ahem... well..." Chen Zhi let out a tactical cough, trying to change the subject. "Have you eaten lunch today? Do you want me to have room service bring up some food?"

Li Zhiyi wasn't stupid. Although she was usually a bit naive and cute, she was still a top student from the law school.

She stared at Chen Zhi's awkward expression for two seconds.

Li Zhiyi seemed to realize something.

"You... you..."

She stuttered, unable to even form a complete sentence.

Seeing the girl looking like she wanted to find a hole to crawl into, Chen Zhi sighed.

"Great Lawyer Li, you can't blame me for this. You were wriggling around on my lap; this is a perfectly normal physical reaction for Dr. Chen."

Li Zhiyi bit her lip, looking at Chen Zhi with wet, teary eyes.

After a long while, she finally asked in a small voice.

"Is it really uncomfortable?"

Chen Zhi took a deep breath. "It's fine, I can bear it."

Li Zhiyi took a deep breath, as if making some kind of massive resolution.

"I'll... help you."

Chen Zhi's eyes widened.

Holy crap?

Ten or so minutes later.

Li Zhiyi stood up abruptly, covered her mouth, and trotted barefoot all the way into the bathroom.

Chen Zhi leaned back against the sofa and let out a long sigh of relief.