The Heiress's Game

In the subsequent blind dates, Gu Yunjin did not encounter the same dramatic scene of being splashed in public as Chen Yu'an, but it was not much better.

There was a third son of the Zhao family. The first thing he did after sitting down was to slap his car keys on the table. It wasn't by accident; he did it on purpose, arranging the angle so that the car logo was facing him.

During the meal, he talked about his modified car club for forty minutes. Gu Yunjin smiled and nodded throughout, while calculating the recent trend of London gold in her mind.

There was also the youngest son of the Li family, who was good-looking, but the first thing he asked was, "How much dowry will your father give you?" He asked with such confidence, as if he were discussing a merger that had already undergone due diligence.

Gu Yunjin said she had to ask her father about it, and he said, "Then go back and ask him. I'll wait for your news."

There was also a member of the Zhou family who didn't say a word the whole time, just kept his head down playing on his phone. Gu Yunjin tried to start three topics, but failed each time by the second sentence. In the end, she also stopped talking. The two of them finished their meal quietly, like two strangers forced to share a table.

"Let's just consider it as making some friends," Gu Yunjin said to Wang Manyun.

Wang Manyun was very satisfied, thinking that her stepdaughter was sensible, not picky, and easy to manage. So she arranged today's event.

Today's blind date is Zhang Zhuoran, the eldest son of the Zhang family.

Zhang Zhuoran booked an industrial-style coffee shop by the river, converted from an old factory building with exposed red brick walls and several pots of daffodils hanging on the steel beams. The window seats faced the river.

It wasn't the kind of place that wealthy families usually choose for blind dates, but precisely because of this, Gu Yunjin's first impression of him was several points better than the previous ones.

When she arrived, Zhang Zhuoran was already there. When he stood up and pulled out a chair for her, he didn't say anything like, "Miss Gu is prettier than in the photos."

It says, "The beans at this shop are on the sour side. If you don't like sour beans, they have a Yunnan hand-brewed bean that's very clean."

Gu Yunjin ordered a cup of Yunnan hand-brewed tea.

The initial taste is indeed clean, neither sour nor bitter, with a very light aftertaste.

"Does Mr. Zhang come here often?"

"It's close to the company." Zhang Zhuoran closed the magazine and put it aside.

"I just came from the R&D center this afternoon, and I'm too lazy to change my clothes."

He was wearing a dark gray shirt, without a tie, and the cuffs were rolled up to his forearms.

Unlike the other young masters Gu Yunjin had met, who were meticulously groomed from head to toe, Zhang Zhuoran possessed an air of nonchalance.

"You work at the R&D center?" Gu Yunjin asked.

"I set up a technology industry incubator there myself."

He picked up his coffee, took a sip, and then seemed to suddenly remember something.

"By the way, my dad said today is a blind date. Should I introduce myself and my family background first?"

"My father is Zhang Mingyuan, the Zhang of the Zhang Group. My mother passed away early, and my father remarried a few years ago, marrying a stepmother who is not much older than me."

He said this in a very calm tone, without any embarrassment or concealment, as if he were stating a fact that had little to do with him.

"My dad," he paused, as if choosing his words carefully.

"He had quite a few romantic entanglements when he was young. He didn't really settle down even when my mother was alive. But it was only more than ten years after my mother passed away, probably when he was fifty, that he suddenly understood life."

"After marrying her now, I've settled into a peaceful life. People are interesting indeed."

Gu Yunjin picked up her glass and took a sip.

She certainly knew Zhang Mingyuan's name. The Zhang family occupied half of the building materials and real estate related industrial chain, and had business dealings with the Gu family, but they were not close friends.

Zhang Mingyuan's womanizing ways are well-known in the industry. Every few years, a new scandalous story emerges, and at the most outrageous time, he was publicly confronted by three women at the same time.

He didn't settle down when his mother was alive, but he did more than ten years after she passed away. This isn't about figuring things out; it's about having had enough of a wild life.

But Zhang Zhuoran's willingness to lay this matter out on the table, without hiding anything, earned him Gu Yunjin's respect.

"And what about you?" Zhang Zhuoran threw the question back at him, leaning forward slightly.

"I heard Miss Gu studied finance with a minor in law; her resume is top-notch anywhere. What are your plans after returning to China? I heard your family is arranging for you to join their company?"

"There are family arrangements at home." Gu Yunjin put down her cup and smiled.

"My older brother is doing very well in the group. Even if I joined, I would only be doing odd jobs."

"Besides, neither my family nor Wang himself had this plan."

Zhang Zhuoran looked at her, but ultimately did not ask any further questions.

"Okay, let's not talk about home anymore." He leaned back in his chair. "Let's talk about something else. What do you usually pay attention to?"

"I keep an eye on industry trends and occasionally dabble in stocks," Gu Yunjin said casually.

Zhang Zhuoran's eyes lit up. "You invest in stocks too?"

"Hey kid, what sectors do you follow?"

"Technology." Zhang Zhuoran pulled his chair forward, his tone noticeably warmer than when he introduced himself earlier.

"It's not one of those publicly listed tech giants; it's an early-stage project. I've recently been looking at a team working on solid-state batteries. They came back from MIT last year, and their technology roadmap is very clear, but commercialization still has a long way to go."

Many people are hesitant to get involved in these early-stage hard technologies because the development cycle is too long and the risks are too great. But I think it's worth the gamble.

His whole demeanor changed when he talked about "solid-state batteries".

He's not the kind of person who sits at a dinner party with a glass of red wine, talking at length about "the next big thing"; he genuinely has something in his eyes.

Gu Yunjin was very familiar with that kind of thing—she had it herself.

"You're not optimistic about the real estate market?" Gu Yunjin suddenly asked.

Zhang Zhuoran paused for a moment, then smiled.

That smile wasn't the smugness of being hit, but the relief of finally finding someone who could understand the conversation.

"If I said the real estate market was going to collapse, would you think I was crazy?"

He lowered his voice slightly, "Everyone is rushing in now, land kings are popping up one after another, and leverage is skyrocketing. But look at the vacancy rates in those core cities, look at the debt ratio of residents."

Looking at the demographic structure—the essence of real estate is demographic dividend plus financial leverage. The demographic dividend is disappearing, and the leverage has reached its limit. This game can't last much longer.

Gu Yunjin looked at him without saying a word.

"Five years ago, I told my dad that we should reduce the Zhang family's exposure to real estate and turn to investing in technology. He thought I was crazy."

Zhang Zhuoran shrugged. "Five years have passed, and real estate prices are still rising. He made a lot of money even though he didn't listen to me."

But do you know how much your investment in Blizzard Technology would have increased five years ago?

"More than fifty times," Gu Yunjin said.

Zhang Zhuoran's expression froze at that moment. It wasn't surprise, but something even more precious than surprise—like two people walking separately in the dark for a long time.

They bumped into each other and turned on their flashlights to find that they were shining the same map on each other.

"You watched Blizzard too?" His voice rose slightly.

"I looked at it. But I didn't buy it." Gu Yunjin picked up her coffee cup, her tone indifferent.

"I was preparing my thesis at the time, and I didn't have enough funds."

However, I later did a complete review—Blizzard Entertainment's growth model, technological barriers, the background of the founding team, and the valuation logic for each round of financing. I broke down that case in great detail.

"You did a post-mortem analysis of Blizzard?" Zhang Zhuoran raised his eyebrows.

"I can't find anyone to talk to about this. Every time I mention it to the people around me, they say, 'It's already gone up, what's the point of talking about it now?' They don't understand, the purpose of a post-mortem analysis is—"

"Reviewing the past is to find the next step," Gu Yunjin continued.

Zhang Zhuoran leaned back in his chair and stared at Gu Yunjin for several seconds.

The look in his eyes had completely changed from "This girl is really pretty" to "This person is worth sitting down and talking to all night."

Over the next hour, they discussed the divergent technological approaches to solid-state batteries, the applications of artificial intelligence in the medical field, and the impact of the dollar interest rate hike cycle on the valuations of emerging market technology companies.

Zhang Zhuoran speaks quickly and jumps between topics, often moving on to another before finishing one, but Gu Yunjin can keep up.

She not only keeps up with him, but she can also point out a key variable he misses when he jumps around.

Zhang Zhuoran said, "The premise of this assumption is—", and she continued, "The premise is that the policy remains unchanged, but the policy in that area is the biggest variable."

Zhang Zhuoran was stunned for a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He lowered his voice, but his eyes were still shining.

"Did you really only study in London?"

Gu Yunjin laughed. "What else? It rains too much in London; if I don't go out, all I can do is read."

Zhang Zhuoran also laughed, a relaxed laugh, a laugh that felt like he had been caught.

As the sun began to set in the west, a new group of customers entered the coffee shop.

The river outside the window was bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, and the whistles of cargo ships drifted in from afar.

Zhang Zhuoran glanced at the time on his phone and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"We've been chatting for almost three hours without realizing it." He turned his phone over and placed it on the table, looking at Gu Yunjin.

I have to tell you the truth.

"Um?"

"This blind date was arranged by my dad. Before I came, I thought I'd just go through the motions and leave after forty minutes—I didn't even park in the underground garage, I parked in a limited-time parking space on the side of the road, thinking that if I went over the time limit, I'd have an excuse."

Gu Yunjin smiled. "Did you get a ticket on your car?"

"I definitely got a ticket." He leaned back, smiling frankly. "But now I think this is the most worthwhile ticket I've received this year."

Gu Yunjin lowered her head, her eyelashes casting a small shadow in the twilight.

She held the coffee cup, her fingertips gently circling the rim.

Zhang Zhuoran is a talented person. He's not the kind of spoiled brat who comes out to pontificate after reading a few financial magazines; he genuinely has his own judgment system and research methodology.

He has vision, strong execution skills, owns his own company, and also conducts pre-investment evaluations for technology incubators within his family business.

This position means that he has a certain say in the Zhang family's decision-making system.

More importantly, he and his father are not on the same wavelength.

His father, Zhang Mingyuan, was a traditional real estate tycoon, but he was eyeing a new market.

Being out of sync means he won't always listen to his father, and it means he has the ability to mobilize resources independently.

It falls within the scope of what can be utilized.

You can never have too many connections.

Moreover, she didn't need to actively cultivate this connection—it was delivered to her by himself; he was the one who slammed his fist on the table first, and he was the one who said, "This is the most worthwhile penalty I've received this year."

"Mr. Zhang—"

"Just call me Zhuoran," he corrected her.

"Zhuoran." Gu Yunjin readily complied, her voice carrying just the right amount of gentleness.

"This coffee shop is nice. I can try their hand-drip coffee series next time. I heard they have a new Ethiopian coffee."

This statement is Gu Yunjin's way of testing the waters.

It's not "Let's meet again next time," it's "This place is nice, we can come again next time."

The initiative is in his hands, but the path has already been paved.

Zhang Zhuoran spoke almost as soon as she finished speaking.

"When is the next time? When are you free?"

The sun had completely set, and the lights in the café came on, casting a warm yellow glow that clearly illuminated the contours of his face.

Thirty-three years old is not young, but he has a sharp edge that hasn't been worn down by the family business.

That kind of drive reminded Gu Yunjin of the entrepreneurs she met in London—people who believed in technology, believed in data, and believed that the future could be changed by smart people.

She smiled, then picked up her phone, opened her contacts, and turned the screen towards him.

"I'll sweep you."