Lu Jia also silently picked up his drink.
"Dude, you’re incredible."
Chen Zhuo swallowed the peanut in his mouth and wiped his hands with a napkin.
Chu Ge raised his bottle.
He pushed up his glasses, a flicker of unease on his face, but he forced himself to remain calm.
"That’s Wang Xing we’re talking about! Who knows how huge his company could become? Even if you just casually give them a few pointers and take some founder’s shares, in the future you could..."
"Good enough."
Large kidneys, grilled until they sizzled and dripped oil, were placed on the table. The rich aroma, a mixture of cumin and chili powder, instantly overwhelmed everyone’s senses.
Chen Zhuo just smiled gently, the corners of his eyes holding a faint, casual air, as if he were just an amused bystander.
Chen Zhuo took a sip of his orange soda, set the can down, and looked at Chu Ge.
Chen Zhuo spread his hands.
Chu Ge sighed and took a big swig from his bottle.
"I care about whether the Singularity in the continuous domain on Teacher Li’s office blackboard can be eliminated. I care about whether the Jacobian determinant will cause spatial distortion after a homology group is mapped to a discrete topological space."
"Why would I go meet him? He wouldn’t understand what I’m talking about, and I couldn’t care less how he makes his money. It’d be a waste of time for both of us. There’s no point."
Chen Zhuo folded his hands on his knees, leaned back slightly, and looked at the three confused faces across from him.
"Brother Zhuo, I need to tell you something."
Chen Zhuo chewed his peanut without replying, his gaze fixed on the embers flaring and dying in the charcoal stove.
Chu Ge grew anxious.
"Progress is very stable, in line with logical expectations," Lu Jia said.
"Cut the crap."
"Fine."
He unceremoniously grabbed two lamb skewers, stripped more than half the meat off one in a single bite, and started chewing with his cheeks puffed out.
He began to speak, slowly and deliberately.
The atmosphere instantly returned to the pure, bustling clamor of a street-side eatery.
"Wait, Brother Zhuo, you’re really not going to meet him?"
He leaned closer to Chen Zhuo, lowering his voice with a hint of probing.
Even though Wang Xing was still in the startup phase, Chu Ge could sense his ambition and the resources he had in the Capital City’s circles.
"So, Wang Xing... he called me this afternoon. We talked for half an hour."
"Keep the money safe. Don’t go spending it recklessly."
Chu Ge chuckled and casually grabbed a napkin to wipe his mouth.
"What’s too far? A flight from the Capital City to Huizhou is only two hours..."
Three green glass bottles and one orange pull-tab can clinked together gently in mid-air.
"Go ahead."
"Don’t just focus on eating. What’s the progress with that upperclassman?"
Chu Ge watched Chen Zhuo’s profile.
Chen Zhuo pointed to the dim incandescent bulb overhead.
Chu Ge quickly shook his head.
"He kept trying to pry it out of me, wanting to know if I had an expert guiding me from behind the scenes."
"Delicious!"
Chu Ge, still chewing, nudged the quiet Lu Jia with his elbow.
Wang Dayong was the first to move.
"Chu Ge, stop thinking about all that useless stuff and eat! These kidneys are grilled to perfection."
"Wang Xing’s exact words were, if this expert is willing, he’ll fly to Huizhou to meet them anytime. Even if they don’t join the company, just being a technical consultant in name would be fine. They can name their price for compensation, and even shares are on the table."
Lu Jia’s chewing faltered for a second.
This was an incredibly rare opportunity to get a seat at the internet industry’s table.
A string of code he tossed out could create a storm in the business world, yet he himself had no interest in even glancing in that direction.
Chen Zhuo picked up a peanut with his chopsticks, tossed it into his mouth, and didn’t look at him.
"But I don’t care about any of that."
As Chu Ge spoke, his eyes were shining.
Chen Zhuo smiled.
Just as he finished speaking, the owner came over carrying a huge metal platter.
"He’s no fool. The moment he saw that algorithm, he knew there was no way someone at my level could have come up with it out of thin air. The underlying algebraic logic is too high-dimensional. It was a complete dimensionality-reduction strike against their current engineers."
Chen Zhuo admonished gently, like a nagging mother hen.
"Hey, Lu Jia."
"Cheers."
Chu Ge was stunned.
"I really don’t get the level you’re on. But you’re right, with a brain like yours, working in the internet industry would really be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."
Wang Dayong struggled for a moment, only managing to squeeze out those few words.
Chen Zhuo picked up a skewer of grilled pork belly and ate it slowly and methodically. The pork belly was grilled until it was crispy, the fat rendered out, leaving only a charred fragrance.
"I mean we wouldn’t have anything to talk about. The distance is too great."
As soon as he said this, even Wang Dayong, who had been fiercely attacking his lamb skewers, paused and pricked up his ears.
Chen Zhuo nodded, reached for his orange soda, and took another sip.
Wang Dayong yelled, his voice muffled by the food.
Chu Ge also let go of his worries, grabbing a skewer of kidney and taking a large bite.
"Did you tell him who I am?" Chen Zhuo asked.
Chu Ge swallowed hard.
"It’s too far."
Chu Ge opened his mouth, wanting to argue, but found he couldn’t think of a single word in rebuttal.
Chu Ge put down his bamboo skewer.
Wang Dayong and Lu Jia also stopped what they were doing and turned in unison to look at Chen Zhuo.
"No, my lips are sealed. Without your permission, I didn’t even reveal your surname."
He didn’t show the shock of a child hearing about a huge sum of money, nor did he put on a pretentious air of being above worldly affairs.
"Kidneys are here! Careful, the lamb skewers are hot!"
"Don’t mention it in the future, either."
Chen Zhuo cut him off, his tone casual and dismissive.
"What does Wang Xing care about? Daily active users, concurrent traffic, how to capture market share, how to close the loop on his business model."
"What does ’stable’ even mean? What stage are you at? Have you asked her out to eat yet?"

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