"Ring Ring Ring!!!"
The following morning, while Cao Ge was still deep in his slumber, the unidentified button phone on his bedside began to vibrate on the desk and emit a piercing ring.
Cao Ge buried his face in the pillow and subconsciously reached for the phone on the desk, just as he was about to press the cancel button, the groggy Cao Ge suddenly came to his senses, his face plunging into the pillow abruptly lifted, looking at the phone in his hands.
On the narrow phone screen, an animation of a phone bouncing up and down appeared, topped by an unfamiliar phone number.
Seeing the unfamiliar number, Cao Ge's still groggy mind instantly perked up, he shook his head from side to side to make himself more alert, then pressed the call receive button.
"Hello!"
"Is this Mr. Cao Ge?" came the voice of a middle-aged man from the other side of the phone.
"Yes, I am Cao Ge, may I ask who is calling?" Cao Ge asked.
"Good day, Mr. Cao, this is Lu Lei, General Manager of Apple China. The reason I'm contacting you is that we've received instructions from the company headquarters that there is an important business matter they wish to discuss with you. This call is to confirm that with you so we can arrange a time and place for the meeting," Lu Lei explained.
"So, you're aware of this matter?" Lu Lei sought confirmation.
"Hello, yes, that matter exists, I confirm," Cao Ge responded, suppressing the joy in his heart and calmly spoke.
"Alright, when are you available? We would like to arrange transportation for you," the middle-aged man on the phone replied.
"Where is the meeting location you've arranged?" Cao Ge inquired.
"Mr. Steve has specifically instructed that if you ask about the meeting location, it should be at your convenience."
Relieved by this response, Cao Ge composed himself then said into the phone, "I am currently in Beijing and might not have the time to visit Shanghai, so perhaps you'll need to come to Beijing. As for the time, any day within the next month should be fine, you decide. Once you've set the time, just notify me."
"In that case, we will follow Mr. Cao's request for the location. We will send someone to Beijing to select a conference venue in the next couple of days. Once the location and time are determined, I will inform you immediately."
"Thank you, I appreciate it. See you in Beijing then," Cao Ge replied.
"Alright, Mr. Cao, see you in Beijing. We will conclude today's call here."
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
Cao Ge hung up the phone, feeling a huge sense of relief.
Thankfully, the meeting was set in Beijing. If the acquisition meeting were to be held at Apple China's head office in Shanghai, Cao Ge would find himself in a very embarrassing situation.
Because right now, he no longer had enough money to buy a plane ticket, and if he had to go to Shanghai, he could only take the train.
That would show a lack of confidence in front of Apple Inc.; his negotiating position would certainly be weakened.
Although he was one person, his technology was genuinely needed by Apple.
But after all, Apple was an international corporation, controlled by capitalists, a company with money, and a lot of it. Yet according to the nature of capitalists, they would not spend a penny more if they could spend less.
If Cao Ge let them know about his current dire financial situation, that he might not afford meals in a few days, they would surely drag the negotiations on as long as possible to pressure for a lower price.
Of course, this didn't mean Apple wouldn't investigate him.
For a global corporation like Apple, every significant investment involves a substantial amount of preliminary investigation into the target customer's personality traits.
Such investigations are not unique to Apple; almost every company carries out this practice during major acquisitions, the wisdom being "knowing the enemy and yourself, you can fight a hundred battles without disaster."
Only by fully analyzing the target customer can the greatest benefits be gained at the lowest cost.
Cao Ge thought that the reason Apple China needed two or three days to select a venue was exactly for this research.
Otherwise, what kind of conference venue would take two or three days to pick? It wasn't as if they were organizing a United Nations conference.
Just an acquisition meeting, any five-star hotel in Beijing would do, rent a conference room and that's it, no special arrangements needed.
They would conduct an investigation, but this was China after all. Money could certainly facilitate certain matters, but it did not mean omnipotence.
Two or three days at most would suffice for them to investigate his identity and social relationships. As for his financial situation, as long as he didn't reveal it himself, they probably wouldn't discover his impending bankruptcy.
And even if they did find out, Cao Ge had decided he would not relent.
"Xiao An Voice Assistant" had a bottom line in his heart, and if the price offered was below that, he would not sell, no matter what.
He also didn't believe someone as intense as Jobs would quibble endlessly over money with him.
But it's always best to be cautious; therefore, setting the location in Beijing was the better choice.
Cao Ge glanced at the time and saw it was only 9:30. He put down his phone, his body relaxed naturally, and he fell back.
He had stayed up late the night before to solve a computational problem and only managed to sleep after 3 am, so he decided to catch up on some sleep, considering he didn't have anything else to do today.
Aside from handling issues at the science frontier, Cao Ge had also been contemplating artificial intelligence in these past two days.
His expertise was greatly enhanced, far surpassing his past self, and he had attained a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence.
During the still of night, when his thoughts were the clearest, he tapped out program codes on his computer, codes he would never have considered before.
He didn't know what he was doing; he only felt the structure of the programs he was typing was quite peculiar, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly how. There was this vague sense that these structures were not simple, because they greatly simplified program complexity, turning tasks that previously required several functions into something achievable with just one, improving efficiency and saving computational power.
At some point, Cao Ge had begun to be fascinated by the codes on his computer screen. As he stared at the letters, it was as though he glimpsed a different kind of cosmic beauty.
Those digital letters seemed to be alive, endlessly jumping in front of Cao Ge's eyes.
On the other hand, Cao Ge thought it would be good to find something to occupy himself, a way to pass the tedious hours, so he delved into research.
No matter what, he was going to start a technology company in the end, the entertainment company he was currently running was only to accumulate funds for future tech research.
As Cao Ge slipped back into dreamland, Apple China began to leverage its influence in China, trying every means to investigate information about Cao Ge.
Although Apple was big, it had only been operating in China for three years, and its influence over various aspects within China wasn't particularly extensive, which meant that the investigation was progressing slowly.