Cao Ge hung up the phone, then casually placed it on the desk, and looked at the computer screen to ponder where exactly the code had gone wrong.
Just at that moment, the phone on the desk rang again with the sound of "Ring Ring Ring".
Glancing at the phone screen, Cao Ge immediately picked up the phone once he saw "Manager Lu of Apple" displayed on the caller ID, and then held it to his ear.
"Hello, is this Mr. Cao?" A middle-aged man's voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Speaking."
"Hello, Mr. Cao, this is Lu Lei, I called you a couple of days ago, do you remember?" the middle-aged man replied.
"Hello, Manager Lu, I remember you. Is the time set?" asked Cao Ge.
"Yes, the time is set for tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, at the Renaissance Hotel. The reason I'm contacting you is to ask if you have time tomorrow, and where you're staying, so I can arrange for someone to pick you up."
"The time's fine, but there's no need to pick me up, I'll go there myself, the Renaissance Hotel, right?" Cao Ge thought for a moment and then said.
"Alright then, we'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
"Beep! Beep! Beep!" Cao Ge hung up the phone.
...............
The time came to the next day.
Around eight o'clock in the morning, Cao Ge, dressed in casual clothes and carrying a shoulder bag, set out from his rented apartment.
Then, around nine o'clock, he arrived at the Renaissance Hotel.
"Boss, we've arrived at the Renaissance Hotel." The driver pulled over, then turned his head and said.
"Okay, here's the money." Cao Ge had glanced at the meter beforehand, so he had the money ready, and handed it to the driver once the car stopped, then opened the door and got out.
"Bang!"
After the car door closed, the taxi driver drove off.
After getting out of the car, Cao Ge straightened his clothes, swung his shoulder bag to his back, and then looked up at the hotel in front of him.
The hotel in front of him soared over a hundred meters high, its exterior made up of continuous glass panels, exuding modernity. In front of the hotel, there was a huge plaza, adorned with flower beds, flags, and a stone tablet with the words "Renaissance Hotel" engraved on it.
Looking up at the extremely luxurious hotel, Cao Ge couldn't help but swallow hard.
To afford such a flower bed in the Capital, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, this hotel must be more than just wealthy.
This hotel must at least be five-star.
However, the hotel was of secondary importance to Cao Ge, who wasn't particularly impressed; what made him nervous was how to negotiate with the capitalists from Apple.
He pondered how he could secure the maximum benefit for himself, facing a group of capitalists who had been in the game of capital for decades, and he was alone. In terms of show, he really was at a slight disadvantage, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Cao Ge tugged at the hem of his shirt and then, with measured steps, walked toward the hotel's entrance.
"Is it Cao Ge, Mr. Cao?"
As Cao Ge reached the hotel doors, a young man in a black suit immediately came up to greet him and asked.
"Yes, that's me. And you are?"
"Manager Lu asked me to wait for you here," the young man said.
"Mr. Cao, please follow me."
Cao Ge nodded, then followed the man into the hotel.
............
When he walked out of the hotel again, it was two o'clock in the afternoon.
Standing in front of the hotel entrance, Cao Ge watched the hotel guests continually approaching, feeling a world of difference from the morning, a complete turnaround.
After more than five hours of negotiations, Cao Ge had sold the voice assistant he had spent over thirty days and nights coding to Apple Inc.
100 million US dollars! Roughly 700 million renminbi.
Though it was less than the original timeline's two hundred million US dollars that Apple paid for Siri, he had tried his best.
After all, in the original timeline, Apple bought the entire Siri company, not just a voice assistant.
Bear in mind, Apple's initial offer to him was a mere ten million US dollars; he felt that raising the deal to one hundred million was already Apple bleeding money.
Any higher, and even if it had been the tech fanatic Jobs himself, the deal might not have happened.
Therefore, Cao Ge decided to take the money and run, completing the transaction.
In just one month, he had transformed himself from a newly graduated pauper into a billionaire.
A sense of achievement he had never felt before welled up inside him.
Cao Ge stood at the hotel entrance, opened his arms, and embraced the world.
"From now on, the world is wide open for me to explore," Cao Ge said, extremely pleased with himself.
With this money, he could realize his plan; he wanted to start a company, a high-tech one.
Cao Ge looked back, then left the place, and hailed a taxi back to his rented apartment.
He needed to tidy up a bit, pack up the things he wanted to bring; he planned to move out as soon as the money hit his account tomorrow, to rent a bigger house.
An hour later, he returned to the rented place. Cao Ge stood in the middle of the room, surveying the items in the house.
After taking a look around, he realized he didn't have much to take: a few sets of clothes, a blanket, some daily toiletries, and the most valuable thing he owned was his computer.
It took Cao Ge half an hour to pack his clothes and computer; the toiletries he didn't bother with.
After packing, Cao Ge lay on the bed, thinking about what he would do tomorrow.
According to the contract he signed with Apple, the money would be in his account around ten o'clock tomorrow morning, and it would be paid in one lump sum.
Tomorrow, he planned to look at houses, and if he still had time, he intended to visit the Bureau of Industry and Commerce to get his company registered.
He had already decided on the direction of the business: to develop a keyboard-less smartphone.
This was the industry he knew best. Originally, his plan was to start with the mobile phone industry, then gradually move to artificial intelligence, and finally escalate to spacecraft.
Because his ultimate goal was to build a lightspeed spaceship.
But he realized one important issue: he lacked manpower. Mobile phones seem small, but many people need to cooperate to make one.
Moreover, seven hundred million may seem like a lot, but creating a good mobile phone isn't easy, and selling it successfully is even harder. It might turn out that the money gets burnt through with nothing to show for it.
So after some consideration, he decided to start with his specialty: he would launch an internet company to make games.
Over the next twenty years, gaming would be one of the most lucrative industries in China.
Right now, China's gaming market was still a blue ocean, and with his foresight, he could create those popular future games. When his gaming company became profitable, then he would move on to making smartphones.
Lying in bed, Cao Ge thought this way, planning his life after receiving the money.
The current time was still early; the Earth's governments didn't even know about the Trisolarans yet, so there was no need for him to rush.
Now, the only thing he needed to focus on was accumulating funds, a vast amount of funds.