Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

"Twenty thousand!" Zhang Jian's voice cracked, nearly crushing the half-eaten sausage in his hand. "That's the price quoted by Zhang Tian from China Telecom's customer service. This is a 'friendly' price, including disaster recovery backup, six times the bandwidth, and extra hard drives. If we don't expand now, it'll crash within two hours, let alone tonight!"

Twenty thousand yuan. In an era where the average salary is only a few hundred yuan, this is an astronomical figure that can crush a group of students. Bai Yuhang, who was just chatting and laughing with Su Muqing on the phone, rejecting a valuation of tens of millions, now had a slight twitch between his brows. Distant water can't quench an immediate fire; that fifteen million is a pie in the sky, while these twenty thousand yuan are a deadly knife.

The room fell silent instantly, with only the sound of running water from the radiator remaining.

Bai Yuhang didn't respond, his gaze sweeping past the sweating Zhang Jian and landing on Jiang Shuo, who had remained silent in the corner: "Eighth Brother, how much money is still available in the account?"

Jiang Shuo was sitting on a small stool, holding a hardcover account book with curled edges from repeated use. When he heard his name called, he didn't panic. Instead, he slowly adjusted his glasses, moistened his finger with saliva, and turned to the latest page.

"Today I finished checking the last item with the boss." Jiang Shuo's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unprecedented certainty. "After deducting the previously set aside daily expenses, there's still 42,300 in cash on hand."

"How much?" Zhang Jian's eyes widened in surprise.

"Forty-two thousand three hundred." Jiang Shuo pointed to a line of numbers in the ledger. "Thirty thousand of this is the money in the previous account, and ten thousand is the advance payment for the final venue given by General Manager Shi of Lansu. In addition to this forty-two thousand three hundred, there is another twenty-six thousand in the account, which is the prize money from the various internet cafes in the past few days. I originally planned to deposit it in the bank on Monday."

Bai Yuhang's tense shoulders instantly relaxed, and he even wanted to whistle. He was so busy he almost forgot he was holding such a "huge sum" of money.

"You should have said so earlier if you had money! You scared me to death!" Zhang Jian slumped into a chair, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Alright, stop lounging around. Eighth Brother, you and the eldest brother deposit 15,000 yuan of the money off the books in the bank. That's the prize money we promised for the competition, we can't touch it. The rest is for company reserves. We're going to transfer 20,000 yuan to Beijing Telecom first thing tomorrow morning, using the company account." Bai Yuhang said, grabbing his cotton-padded coat from the back of the chair and pulling the still-breathing Zhang Jian up from his seat. "Since we have money, that makes things easier. Come on, let's go downstairs!"

"Where are you going?"

"Help! What are you asking for?!"

Two figures rushed out of the dormitory building, enveloped in the cold wind, heading straight for the lonely IC card phone booth downstairs.

The spring night wind in Harbin was still biting, numbing the face after a while. Zhang Jian, shivering, pulled out his IC card, inserted it, and stiffly dialed a number—it was the personal mobile phone of Zhang Tian, ​​a customer service representative for China Telecom. It was already past 8 PM on Sunday night; by all accounts, he should have been off work long ago, with his wife and kids in bed.

This Zhang Tian is the customer service representative "Blue Sky No. 1" from Beijing Telecom that Bai Yuhang initially contacted. After so many days of communication, Qihang has long become a relatively important customer of Telecom, and he and Zhang Tian have long become good friends even though they have never met.

"Beep...beep..."

As soon as the call connected, Zhang Jian shouted urgently, "Brother Zhang! This is Zhang Jian from Qihang! We need to expand! We need to expand! We have the money..."

"Brother, this isn't about the money." Zhang Tian's voice sounded exhausted on the other end of the line, with the background noise of the television. "I'm at home right now. The company's procedures require financial approval and contract signing. It's the weekend, I don't have the authority to issue you any money first. If you don't pay me by tomorrow, I'll lose my job."

"Brother! Dear brother! This is extremely urgent..." Zhang Jian was so anxious that he couldn't speak coherently, his tongue was tied in knots in his mouth.

Bai Yuhang snatched the receiver and pushed Zhang Jian aside. He didn't rush to speak; first, he covered the microphone with his hand, took a deep breath of cold air to cool down the heat in his lungs, and when he spoke again, his voice was as steady as a rock.

"Manager Zhang, this is Bai Yuhang."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and the background television sound seemed to quiet down a bit: "Mr. Bai, it's not that I don't want to help you, but you guys always make things so complicated, and the rules..."

"Manager Zhang, rules are rules, but people are flexible. I know the data will grow, but this fast is really hard to predict." Bai Yuhang interrupted him, his tone neither too loud nor too soft, but carrying an undeniable sense of pressure. "You should be able to see our backend data remotely now, right? The concurrent connections are already approaching 50,000. You're a tech person, you know what this curve means."

There was silence on the other end of the phone; Zhang Tian was clearly also staring at that phenomenal growth curve.

"Let's be frank," Bai Yuhang said, his words quickening, tinged with a hint of aggressiveness. "With Qihang's current momentum, it won't be China Telecom's largest private enterprise client in Northeast China for at least three months. If you help me out now, we'll be best friends, and I'll remember this deal. But if you insist on talking about procedures and trying to hold me back..."

Bai Yuhang sneered, "Then I'll call China Unicom after I hang up. Their data center manager just treated me to dinner last week and is worried about not having any sales targets. With such impressive data, do you think they'll be willing to make an exception?"

The wind was howling, and the glass windows of the phone booth rattled loudly.

Zhang Jian, listening from the side, was terrified. The China Unicom manager was inviting him to dinner? Oh my god, isn't this the joke Liu Jing made up last week to brag? Lao Liu dares to use this to scam people?

A long five seconds of silence.

Finally, Zhang Tian's voice, filled with gritted teeth, came through the receiver—the ruthlessness of a gambler before placing a bet: "Fine! Mr. Bai, I'll trust you one more time! I'll remotely process the transfer right now, using a special channel to allocate the resources to you. If I don't see the transfer fax by nine o'clock tomorrow morning, I'll fly straight to your university and block the entrance!"

"Don't worry, you won't be shortchanged by a single penny."

After hanging up the phone, Bai Yuhang pulled out the IC card and threw it to Zhang Jian.

Zhang Jian's legs went weak, and he slid down the glass of the phone booth, panting heavily. "Sixth Brother... you're too bold. What if he doesn't do it?"

Bai Yuhang leaned against the cold aluminum pillar of the phone booth, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, and tried to light one, but his hand trembled so much that he had to try three times before the lighter finally lit. He took a deep drag, letting the pungent smoke swirl in his chest, before he could barely calm his racing heart.

"Business is gambling." Bai Yuhang exhaled a smoke ring, watching the crimson flame flicker in the wind. "But he dares not not gamble, because our data is too tempting. As long as he's not blind, he knows that if he doesn't get on this train, there are plenty of people eager to get on."