220: Chapter 22 A Bolt from the Blue

Time always flies when you are immersed in work.

Before they knew it,

it was already twelve o'clock.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Hearing the knock, Shen Yan said without even looking up, "Come in."

The person who entered was Chen Guangke. He stretched his arms while saying to Shen Yan, "It's time, let's go."

Shen Yan raised his hand and glanced at the watch on his wrist.

"How far is the restaurant from here?"

Chen Guangke replied, "I checked. It takes about half an hour to drive there, but since it's lunchtime now, the roads might be congested."

Shen Yan nodded in understanding, then immediately stood up, picked up his phone and briefcase, and walked out of the office with Chen Guangke.

"Let's go eat."

When they walked out of the office, they noticed Wu Ya was still working at her station.

"Isn't it time for lunch? Why aren't you going to eat with them?"

Hearing Shen Yan's question, Wu Ya looked up and replied to him, "I'm not hungry yet."

Shen Yan frowned, thought for a moment, and said to Wu Ya, "Not eating is bad for your health. Why don't you come with the two of us?"

Wu Ya was a bit stunned.

"Aren't you two going to have lunch with the investor? Can I come along?"

Shen Yan didn't think there was any reason why Wu Ya couldn't go.

The three of them, having developed from a studio to where they were now, were already partners who understood each other perfectly.

"Of course you can. Let's go, the three of us together."

Wu Ya didn't stand on ceremony either. She took out her phone, stood up, and followed the two of them out.

Just as Chen Guangke had guessed,

it was peak dining time, and they were stuck in traffic for quite a while.

By the time they arrived, it was already 1:15 PM.

Entering the restaurant, they found a Waitress and said to her, "Hello, we have a reservation."

The Waitress politely bowed and asked, "May I have the name of the reservation holder, please?"

Chen Guangke replied, "Chen Guangke."

The Waitress picked up a small booklet, checked the name, and then led them to a private room upstairs.

"Creak..."

As soon as they opened the door, they saw Gu Mingming already seated inside.

"Why is CEO Gu here so early?"

Their scheduled time was 1:30 PM.

There were still fifteen minutes until the agreed time.

Hearing Chen Guangke's question, Gu Mingming smiled, stood up, and replied to them, "I didn't have anything else to do, so I thought I'd come a bit earlier."

As he spoke, he proactively walked over and shook hands with the three of them.

"Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Gu Mingming."

Shen Yan, Chen Guangke, and Wu Ya all raised their hands to shake Gu Mingming's hand.

"Shen Yan."

"Chen Guangke."

"Wu Ya."

After everyone introduced themselves, they walked over to their chairs and sat down.

"CEO Gu, we spoke a bit hurriedly yesterday, so we didn't have time to introduce our company to you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Mingming directly told them, "After I went back yesterday, I investigated your company. Your company was just acquired, correct?"

Shen Yan was not surprised by Gu Mingming's words.

As the saying goes, you don't fear a divine opponent, but you fear a pig teammate. If Gu Mingming didn't bother to investigate their background before talking to them, he might have questioned whether they could continue cooperating with him.

"That's right, our company was indeed acquired. However, CEO Gu, you don't need to worry about that. Although our company has just restarted, we have full confidence in successfully handling the artificial intelligence project in our hands."

Hearing this, Gu Mingming chuckled a few times.

"CEO Shen, don't be so modest. Besides investigating that your company was just reacquired, I also found out that this company originally belonged to you, CEO Shen."

"Although I don't know what happened in between, I believe CEO Shen is a person with both courage and ability."

Shen Yan narrowed his eyes.

From entering and sitting down until now, Gu Mingming had only been talking about himself, understanding their foundation, and constantly praising him. This made Shen Yan unable to figure out what Gu Mingming actually intended to say.

Thinking this, he tentatively asked Gu Mingming, "CEO Gu, is the investment you mentioned yesterday still valid?"

Gu Mingming replied without hesitation, "Of course it's valid!"

Shen Yan blinked, nodded, and then asked, "Then please forgive my bluntness, CEO Gu, how much investment capital do you currently have available?"

Although he already knew that Gu Mingming only had two hundred million on hand, he still had to ask the conventional questions.

Hearing Shen Yan's question, Gu Mingming cleared his throat and replied, "Two hundred million."

As soon as he said this, Chen Guangke immediately turned to look at Shen Yan.

A few seconds later, he spoke up and asked Gu Mingming, "CEO Gu, does this two hundred million refer to the first round of investment into the project..."

Before he could finish speaking, Gu Mingming directly replied to Chen Guangke, "No, it covers the entire project cycle."

The words fell.

Chen Guangke was instantly speechless.

Although he had already learned from Shen Yan that Gu Mingming didn't have much investment capital, hearing that Gu Mingming only had two hundred million, and that it covered the entire project cycle, still shocked him.

Seeing that the three people in front of him had stopped talking, Gu Mingming cleared his throat and continued, "I know this isn't good news for you, but I am telling the truth. The investment capital I can currently mobilize is only two hundred million."

"If the project performs well, perhaps I can scrape together a bit more money for you later, but you shouldn't hold out too much hope."

After listening, Shen Yan thought for a moment and asked Gu Mingming, "Is there any possibility that we could find another investor?"

Gu Mingming shook his head without thinking.

"Don't forget, you have offended Gu Xuantian. That man holds grudges for the smallest grievance. It is absolutely impossible for you to find any other investor willing to fund this artificial intelligence project."

This sudden bad news caused the atmosphere of the entire dinner to drop to freezing point.

Just as everyone was silent, Wu Ya spoke up.

"CEO Gu, may I ask what your opinion is on our company's artificial intelligence project?"

Gu Mingming hadn't expected Wu Ya to suddenly ask him this question. After a moment of surprise, he honestly shook his head.

"To be honest, I don't have any opinion myself. I haven't read your project proposal, nor have I visited your company, much less seen your company's laboratory."

"My understanding of your company's project isn't even half-baked, so I cannot make a judgment."

Wu Ya asked again, "Then why did CEO Gu choose to invest in our company's project?"

Gu Mingming fell silent.

A few minutes later, he replied to Wu Ya, "Because I have already been blacklisted by other companies doing artificial intelligence projects."

As soon as these words came out, the other three people present were shocked.

"What?!"