My Dad Is Coming

Pei Ningxue was already dressed and washed up by seven o'clock.

Chen Zhi leaned back on the sofa, flipping through the technical memo Dai Damai had sent at four in the morning. He looked up at her.

"President Pei is back?"

"Last night's Pei Ningxue has logged off. You are now facing the CFO of Deep Space Technology."

Pei Ningxue slapped her tablet onto the coffee table. The screen displayed NIO's annual corporate reports from the past three years.

"Come here, let's go over it one last time."

Chen Zhi leaned in. Pei Ningxue tapped the data on the screen with her pen, speaking very rapidly.

"NIO invested 10.8 billion in R&D last year, with autonomous driving accounting for 30 percent. Li Bin has a routine in negotiations. First, he'll cry poor to you, saying the new energy sector is tough and the capital market is sluggish. Then he'll change the subject and propose a 'strategic partnership to build an ecosystem.' What he means is that your technology is good, but his brand is big and his channels are wide, so both sides should make a concession."

"Making a concession means asking me to lower the price."

"Right. So no matter how he spins it today, the quotation framework stays the same. A 5 percent licensing fee per vehicle sold, plus an annual interface maintenance fee. Not a penny less."

Pei Ningxue closed the tablet, stood up, and walked over to Chen Zhi.

She reached out and adjusted the knot of his tie, then tugged at the shoulder line of his suit.

She patted his chest twice with her fingers.

"For today's battle, you handle the technical offense and defense, and I'll handle the commercial terms."

Chen Zhi caught her hand and kissed her palm.

"President Pei is mighty."

Pei Ningxue pulled her hand back, glared at him, turned around, grabbed her bag, and walked out the door.

...

10:00 AM.

The top-floor conference room of a private club renovated from an old Western-style house on the Bund.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was the Lujiazui skyline. The conference table was a solid piece of black walnut wood, with bottled water and branded folders bearing the NIO logo placed in the middle.

The air conditioning was set a bit low. After entering, Pei Ningxue draped her coat over the back of her chair, pulled it out, sat down, and opened her laptop.

NIO's lineup had two more people than Chen Zhi had anticipated.

President Li sat at the head of the table. He was in his early fifties and wore a NIO branded polo shirt.

Sitting to his right was a man in his forties with a long, thin face—Zhou Mingyuan, NIO's Vice President of Technology for the Autonomous Driving Division.

To his left was a middle-aged woman in a gray suit—the head of NIO's Strategic Investment Department. She didn't say much and kept flipping through the documents in her hands.

President Li stood up to shake hands with Chen Zhi and exchanged a few pleasantries.

"Young Mr. Chen is young and promising. I've heard a lot about you."

"President Li is too kind."

Zhou Mingyuan's gaze swept past Chen Zhi and landed on Pei Ningxue's open laptop screen.

After the few people sat down, President Li followed the script Pei Ningxue had predicted, spending the first ten minutes "crying poor."

The reshuffling of the new energy industry was accelerating, subsidies were declining, and the valuation logic of the capital market for new car-making forces was changing. NIO lost 14 billion last year, and the cash flow pressure was immense...

Chen Zhi listened while drinking water, his expression very calm.

Pei Ningxue couldn't even be bothered to listen, keeping her head down to make annotations on her tablet.

After the crying poor segment ended, President Li changed the subject.

"But our investment in autonomous driving will not be reduced. This is NIO's core competitiveness. We've been following Mr. Chen's Moss for a long time. The technology is indeed leading, which is why we are sitting here today."

Chen Zhi put down his water glass.

"President Li wants to see a demonstration?"

"No rush," Zhou Mingyuan spoke up. "I want to see the log files first."

Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow.

"Not a video or a demo," Zhou Mingyuan pushed his glasses up. "The complete running logs of your Moss autonomous driving module, including decision weights, reaction time distribution, and the raw records of sensor data fusion."

He looked at Chen Zhi, his tone calm but his attitude uncompromising.

"Any company with technical depth shouldn't just bring a carefully edited video to negotiate a multi-billion contract."

The conference room fell silent for two seconds.

Pei Ningxue looked up at Chen Zhi.

Chen Zhi didn't hesitate. He pulled his laptop straight out of his bag and connected it to the large screen in the conference room.

"Log files involve core intellectual property and cannot be shared externally, but an on-site demonstration is fine."

The "degraded" Moss demonstration program prepared by Dai Damai started up.

The virtual urban roads in the simulator began to run. The vehicle controlled by Moss navigated through complex traffic conditions, changing lanes, yielding, recognizing traffic lights, and handling non-motorized vehicles that suddenly darted out.

President Li held his teacup and watched for a while, nodding slightly.

Zhou Mingyuan did not nod.

He stared at the screen for less than three minutes, then pulled an iPad out of his briefcase and began recording data.

Then he frowned.

"Pause."

Zhou Mingyuan put down the iPad and pointed at a set of data on the screen.

"In this scenario, a pedestrian darts out from the twelve o'clock direction ahead. Your system's reaction time is 0.038 seconds."

Chen Zhi nodded. "Correct."

"Go back three similar scenarios."

Chen Zhi switched the screen. The reaction times for the three darting pedestrian scenarios were: 0.041 seconds, 0.037 seconds, and 0.039 seconds, respectively.

Zhou Mingyuan pushed his glasses up.

"Mr. Chen, there's a problem with the distribution curve of this set of data."

He stood up, walked over to the large screen, and drew a line across the data with his finger.

"A real AI decision model, when handling similar sudden scenarios, should have fluctuations and outliers in its reaction time distribution. But your data shows an extremely neat cutoff at the 0.035-second mark. All reaction times are capped above this threshold."

He turned his head and looked at Chen Zhi.

"Your system has been downclocked. This is not Moss's true level."

President Li put down his teacup, his eyes darting back and forth between Chen Zhi and Zhou Mingyuan.

Chen Zhi didn't deny it.

"Mr. Zhou, how much money has NIO invested in its self-developed NIO Pilot since the project started?"

Zhou Mingyuan paused for a moment; this number was not a secret.

"Over 12 billion RMB."

"12 billion to achieve L2+ assisted driving." Chen Zhi closed the simulator and opened Moss's real-time interactive interface. "Mr. Zhou, please give me the public technical specs of any mass-produced NIO vehicle. Wheelbase, braking distance, steering ratio, sensor layout—anything."

Zhou Mingyuan looked at President Li, who nodded slightly.

"ES8. Wheelbase 3012 mm, braking distance from 100 km/h is 33.8 meters, steering ratio 15.6, forward..."

He rattled off a complete set as fluently as if he were reciting a spec sheet.

Moss finished receiving the data.

Data began to scroll across the screen.

Fifteen seconds.

A full fifteen seconds.

A complete urban autonomous driving path planning scheme appeared on the large screen.

Traffic light recognition logic, pedestrian avoidance decision trees, construction zone detour strategies, specialized adaptations for mixed traffic with non-motorized vehicles, and even a targeted processing model for the traffic density fluctuations on the Bund in Shanghai.

Zhou Mingyuan's finger stopped in mid-air.

He stared at the scheme on the screen, speechless.

He knew all too well the level of completion of this system. It would take his team of forty engineers at least three months to produce a solution of equal precision.

Fifteen seconds.

President Li held his teacup halfway up, without taking a sip.

Chen Zhi turned off the screen.

"Mr. Zhou, you asked me why I underclocked it."

He looked at Zhou Mingyuan, his tone very casual.

"Because if I showed you its true capabilities, you and your forty-person team could all be laid off tomorrow. I didn't think that was necessary."

Zhou Mingyuan opened his mouth but couldn't speak.

The conference room fell silent for nearly half a minute.

Finally, President Li broke the deadlock. He put down his teacup and slowly leaned back in his chair.

"Young Mr. Chen, I have nothing more to say about the technology. Let's talk about the terms."

Pei Ningxue immediately took over the conversation, opening the prepared contract document and going through it line by line.

The calculation method for the licensing fee, the annual adjustment mechanism for the interface maintenance fee, the boundaries of data usage rights...

Pei Ningxue spoke quickly. The wording of every clause had been polished repeatedly, leaving no loopholes for the other party to exploit.

After listening, President Li remained silent for a moment.

"President Pei, we agree with the general framework of the terms, but I have an additional condition."

He signaled the head of the strategic investment department next to him to hand over a document.

"A technology iteration lock-in clause. During the cooperation period, Deep Space Technology shall not license autonomous driving suites of the same or higher level to Nio's direct competitors, including but not limited to Li Auto, XPeng, and Huawei's smart driving solutions."

Pei Ningxue took the document, read it for two seconds, and furrowed her brows.

Chen Zhi saw it too.

If they signed it, Deep Space Technology would be tied exclusively to Nio, completely destroying their core strategy of selling shovels to everyone. If they didn't sign, Nio would use this as leverage to continue driving down the price.

Under the table, Pei Ningxue tapped Chen Zhi's knee twice with her finger.

Chen Zhi received the signal.

He did not refuse on the spot.

"President Li, we can discuss this clause."

President Li was somewhat surprised.

"But I have an additional condition that requires your personal approval."

"Go ahead."

Chen Zhi glanced at the watch on his wrist.

"At two o'clock this afternoon, I have a video conference with Li Auto, and we happen to be discussing the pre-installation cooperation for this exact system. If President Li can give me a definite answer before one-thirty this afternoon, I will consider canceling that meeting."

President Li's expression changed.

He turned his head and glanced at Zhou Mingyuan.

Zhou Mingyuan thought for a moment and gave a slight nod.

"Before one-thirty, I will have someone send the revised terms to your email."

President Li stood up and took the initiative to extend his right hand.

Chen Zhi shook it.

Both men had a strong grip.

...

Coming out of the clubhouse doors, the sky over Shanghai was gloomy.

Pei Ningxue walked in front, only stopping when they turned onto a deserted side road.

"A video conference with Li Auto at two o'clock?"

Chen Zhi threw his hands up. "There isn't one."

Pei Ningxue glared at him but couldn't help but let out a laugh.

She looked down at the tablet in her hand, then checked the time.

"If they really send over the revised terms before one-thirty, how do we handle the technology iteration lock-in clause?"

"Split it into two parts," Chen Zhi said, stuffing his hands into his trouser pockets. "Exclusive for the first twelve months, then open it up, but Nio gets the right of first refusal under the same conditions. It gives him face, but doesn't tie us down."

Pei Ningxue thought for a few seconds and nodded.

"Alright, that room for concession is acceptable."

The two walked back along the riverbank. After only a few steps, Pei Ningxue's phone rang.

She took it out, glanced at the caller ID, and stopped in her tracks.

Chen Zhi turned around.

Pei Ningxue stared at the name on the screen without answering immediately.

"What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"Hello."

The person on the other end spoke for less than a minute. Pei Ningxue didn't say a word the entire time, only letting out a soft affirmative sound at the very end before hanging up.

"Whose call was it?"

Pei Ningxue put her phone back in her bag, looked up, and her expression returned to a calm state.

"My father's secretary."

Chen Zhi waited for her to continue.

"Said my dad is coming to Beijing next week, and he wants to drop by and see what I'm busy with."