Going home for the Chinese New Year with a year-end bonus of 100 million

Room 307, male dormitory building, Industrial University.

The door was ajar, and the sounds of keyboard typing and hushed conversation could be heard from inside.

"Old Chen, there's still a problem with the convergence of this loss function. Take a look at the gradient of the third layer..."

"I adjusted the learning rate, but overfitting is still obvious. The dataset is too small."

"If only I could get two more A100 chips..."

When Zhou Jin pushed open the door, this was the scene he saw—

Three boys were gathered around a server, the screen of which was covered with code and graphs.

The room was filled with various electronic devices, cooling fans were humming, and the air was filled with the distinctive smell of instant noodles and circuit boards.

"Zhou Jin? Why are you back?"

The boy near the door looked up, pushed up his thick glasses, and asked, "Weren't you running that e-sports hotel?"

The speaker was Chen Mo, the leader of Room 307, a senior majoring in computer science, and also the head of this small team.

The other two boys also turned around—the tall, thin one was called Li Hao, who was in charge of algorithms; the slightly chubby one was called Wang Tao, who specialized in hardware.

Zhou Jin casually closed the door, pulled up a chair and sat down, his expression mysterious.

"Brothers, I've got some amazing news."

"What good things could you possibly have to do with it?" Li Hao asked without turning his head, continuing to stare at the screen.

"Could it be that your e-sports hotel is about to open and you're inviting us to play for free?"

"It's more exciting than that," Zhou Jin said in a low voice. "My older brother wants to invest in this kind of technology project."

The room fell silent instantly.

Three pairs of eyes stared at Zhou Jin.

Chen Mo put down the circuit board in his hand: "What did you say? Investment? Investment in us?"

"Yes." Zhou Jin nodded.

"My dear brother, I'm currently looking for investment opportunities."

"They specifically target young people like us who have skills and ideas but lack money."

Wang Tao swallowed hard. "Zhou Jin, you haven't been scammed, have you? Who would just give money to a college student these days?"

"That's what I thought at first too," Zhou Jin said seriously. "But let me tell you, my older brother is no ordinary person."

He paused, then stated a number:

"He invested three million in my esports hotel."

"How...how much?" Li Hao's voice changed.

"Three million, in RMB." Zhou Jin repeated:

"The money has already been transferred to my company account. The renovation is currently underway, and the equipment contract has also been signed."

A deathly silence.

The three tech geeks looked at each other, their faces saying, "This is impossible."

Chen Mo was the first to react, his voice hoarse: "Zhou Jin, are you sure... it's not fraud? It's not money laundering?"

Zhou Jin rolled his eyes at the group and said, "That's my older brother. Can you guys please stop thinking about it that way?"

He looked around at his three roommates:

"I mentioned your situation to him, saying that there's a team in our dorm working on a large AI model; they're very technically skilled but lack funding. He said he'd be interested in meeting them."

Li Hao stood up excitedly: "Really? When will we meet?"

"Tomorrow at noon," Zhou Jin said, "on the second floor of the hot pot restaurant. I'll take you there."

Wang Tao hesitated: "Zhou Jin, this project of ours... is burning through money."

"Buying chips, renting computing power, datasets, electricity bills... the initial investment will be at least several hundred thousand."

"The later stages are a bottomless pit. Your older brother... was he able to invest so much?"

Chen Mo calmed down as well: "Yes. Besides, we're working on a large language model, and there are already leading companies in that field in China. Why should a few students like us expect them to invest?"

"Based on technical skills," Zhou Jin said.

"Old Chen, your architectural design skills are recognized by all the professors at our school."

"Li Hao's algorithm optimization won first prize in the last competition."

"Wang Tao's hardware optimization can make one card achieve the efficiency of two cards from others."

He paused, his tone serious:

"I know this project is difficult, expensive, and has a low success rate."

"But are you content with this?"

"We've been working on it for two years, revised the model architecture seven times, and spent three months cleaning the dataset. But because we're short of a few graphics cards, we can only run small-scale validations."

"What if you had the money? What if you had enough computing power? Could you make it?"

The three boys fell silent.

The only sound in the room was the hum of the cooling fan.

Chen Mo stared at the model on the screen, which was only half-trained, his expression complex.

After a long while, he took a deep breath:

"If we can secure investment, I am confident that we can create a competitive model in the vertical market within six months."

"I wouldn't dare say it's on par with GPT, but it can demonstrate practical value in specific scenarios."

"How much money do you need?" Zhou Jin asked.

Chen Mo quickly calculated in his mind: "The initial startup will cost at least 800,000."

"It mainly involves hardware procurement and computing power leasing. If we want to do large-scale training... we may need to add two or three million later."

He himself found the number absurd when he said it.

Which investor would invest two or three million in four college students to work on AI?

But Zhou Jin laughed:

"Go see your older brother tomorrow. Have your technology, plans, and market analysis all ready."

Whether it will work out depends on what he says. But at least there's a chance.

Li Hao rubbed his hands together, his face beaming with excitement: "Zhou Jin, if this really works out... you'll be a benefactor to our team!"

Wang Tao also got excited: "I'll optimize the technical solution again tonight! I'll redo the hardware procurement list to ensure the best cost-performance ratio!"

Chen Mo looked at his three roommates, then at the unfinished model on the screen, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

……

At 12:30 pm the next day, at the main gate of the Normal University, at the "Qianweifang" hot pot restaurant.

The private rooms on the second floor have been cleared out, and the tables and chairs have been arranged for receiving guests.

Xiaoya brought Zhang Xiaowen up first.

"Brother, this is my roommate Zhang Xiaowen, she's a beauty blogger," Xiaoya introduced. "Xiaowen, this is my brother, Yang Fan."

Zhang Xiaowen dressed up specially today, with exquisite makeup and a tasteful off-white knit sweater.

But her nervousness was impossible to hide; she gripped the backpack straps tightly.

"Hello, Brother Yang..." Her voice trembled slightly.

Yang Fan smiled gently: "Sit down, don't be nervous."

"Xiaoya, why don't you go down and help?"

"Okay!" Xiaoya gave Zhang Xiaowen a "good luck" wink, then turned and went downstairs.

Only two people remained in the private room.

Zhang Xiaowen took a folder out of her backpack and handed it to Yang Fan with both hands:

"Brother Yang, this is the information I've compiled."

"It includes my account data, fan demographics, analysis of past content, and future plans..."

Yang Fan took the folder, but did not open it immediately.

He looked at Zhang Xiaowen and silently said in his mind, "Scan."

A pale blue light curtain unfolded beside the girl—

Name: Zhang Xiaowen

[Current Status]: Beauty Blogger/College Student

[Investable Project]: "Personal Beauty IP Incubation and Commercialization"

[Project Potential Rating]: C+ (There is room for growth in the vertical field, but the ceiling is obvious)

[Recommended Investment Amount]: 50,000 - 150,000 yuan

[Expected return period]: 4 - 8 months

Risk Index: 4 (Low to Medium)

[Key Weakness]:

1. Lack of commercial operation experience

2. Low content production efficiency (solo operation)

3. Lack of familiarity with supply chain and brand negotiations

[Recommended Empowerment Tools]: "Content Operation in Practice" (80 Investment Coins), "Business Negotiation Basics" (60 Investment Coins)

[System Note]: This is a small-scale investment trial project with stable returns but limited upside potential. It can be used as a source of initial investment currency.