"Okay, I'll help you apply," Li Nannan said.
Jiang Ye was very prompt, transferring 3 billion yuan immediately. It had been a while since he had shown filial piety to Li Nannan.
After a good night's sleep, at one in the afternoon, Jiang Ye took a car to the Termite Real Estate building.
He knocked and entered the boss's office.
Xu Yan, dressed in a wine-red formal suit, was dozing with her legs pulled up, basking in the sunlight by the window.
Jiang Ye sat down quietly, opened his phone, and started working.
After a long while, Xu Yan's voice finally broke the silence.
"Oh! When did you get here? Why didn't you wake me?"
"I've been here for about half an hour. I saw you were napping, and I didn't want to disturb you. I'm not in a hurry," Jiang Ye said, putting down his phone.
"If my last boyfriend had been half as considerate as you, we wouldn't have broken up," Xu Yan said with a bitter smile, walking to her desk. "What's up? The intelligent fungus farm?"
"You already know?" Jiang Ye asked, surprised.
"Nannan told me and asked me to prepare. I've been working on design drafts for over ten hours, which is why I'm so tired," Xu Yan explained. "Want to see the results?"
"Great!" Jiang Ye exclaimed happily.
Xu Yan slapped her desk.
Several holographic projections in a deep blue color popped up one after another, like countless curtains falling. Around Jiang Ye, more than a dozen architectural blueprints of various sizes floated in the air.
"Let me introduce them one by one," Xu Yan said.
"Underground intelligent fungus vaults of small, medium, and large sizes, equipped with cultivation tanks, screens, signal systems, and feeding systems. They have ten-meter-thick lead and alloy walls capable of withstanding thermonuclear weapons and bunker-buster bombs. The layered connection structure is earthquake-resistant. The walls have a potent sterilization layer that can be detonated at critical moments. The prices are 500 million, 300 million, and 100 million yuan, respectively. They can be built in a chain at different underground levels, like candied hawthorns."
"Space intelligent fungus vaults of small, medium, and large sizes, equipped with signal transmission and reception equipment, correction engines, rocket docking ports, and teleportation gates. The advantage of space vaults is that they are leak-proof. If damaged, all intelligent fungi will instantly die from space radiation, temperature fluctuations, explosions, and extremely low pressure. Not a single one will reach the ground. The prices are 2 billion, 1.5 billion, and 1 billion yuan."
"There are also underwater intelligent fungus vaults, similar to underground vaults but with added waterproof, salt-resistant, and pressure-resistant layers. Construction is more difficult, and each costs 200 million yuan more than the underground vaults."
"From what you've said, do these intelligent fungus vaults all have the ability to destroy the fungi or prevent their escape at critical moments?" Jiang Ye narrowed his eyes.
"That's right," Xu Yan replied. "You understand, this is necessary. Fungi are inherently well-armed species, and these fungi are also highly intelligent. We must guard against them."
"Underground ones will suffice. Let's order ten large underground vaults first," Jiang Ye said. "Besides the vaults, we need to get these intelligent fungi to start working."
"Tell me what you want them to do, and I'll design accordingly," Xu Yan said, tapping the screen and switching modes.
Jiang Ye calmly took out a piece of paper from his pocket.
The paper contained lines of small text, written by two people. Some were his own ideas, and some were additions from Cen Yemeng.
"I have two gold mines that are fully automated, mined by robots. You should know this," Jiang Ye said. "These two gold mines have similar daily output rates. Let's have the intelligent fungi take over one of them and compare the speed to see if the current program control or intelligent fungus control is faster."
"Okay, I've noted it down," Xu Yan nodded, her fingers flying across the screen.
"Several music companies have already set up shop on Jiang Ye Star, allowing individuals to upload their songs for sale throughout the M78 nebula. The music library also contains many AI-composed songs, both bestsellers and not. I plan to build an intelligent fungus music laboratory. Let them listen to all sorts of music intensely and then try to compose fungus music to see if it can be sold," Jiang Ye said.
"Oh? I feel like it's a money-losing venture, but it might also lead to a fortune. It's quite interesting. I'll design a relatively low-cost one, so even if it loses money, it won't be too much," Xu Yan nodded.
"No need to economize. I have plenty of money, so much that I can't spend it all. Get the audio equipment, recording equipment, and all related equipment ready. If the intelligent fungi can't use it, it can be given to musicians in various cities. You can consider this when designing," Jiang Ye added.
"Got it," Xu Yan said, a spark of inspiration in her eyes. "Since you're planning to have intelligent fungi venture into the arts, why not set up more laboratories? For example, a painting laboratory, a literature laboratory, a sculpture laboratory, and an architecture laboratory. As for film and game laboratories, the difficulty is higher and the cost is too great, so we can put them aside for now."
"Great, let's do as you say!" Jiang Ye agreed.
"And then, what else do you plan to build?"
"Fishing," Jiang Ye said. "Several coastal cities now have large fishing companies, and the market share is quite substantial. I'm a bit envious. Let's get a few fishing boats, fully automated ones, and remotely control them with intelligent fungi to see how they perform."
"Mathematical calculations, this is actually quite simple, serving as supercomputers."
"We also need to build pools for continued evolution. I want to know what state the super-intelligent stage of intelligent fungi will be in."
"Okay," Xu Yan nodded.
"Let's stick to these categories for now. We can build more later if needed," Jiang Ye said. "Design them and calculate the total cost. I'll have Feng Zhishuang transfer the funds directly to you."
"Alright, you can count on me."
...
In just two weeks, all the intelligent fungus buildings were completed.
The cost was substantial, totaling 18 billion yuan.
To cultivate super-intelligent stage intelligent fungi, a specially enlarged cultivation facility was built, with a total of 1000 breeding pools. Each pool was as large as a basketball court and ten meters deep.
As they had not yet obtained a permit from the Galactic Empire, only 10 breeding pools were opened for now.
The working intelligent fungi began their training.
The intelligent fungi awaiting evolution started experimenting with different things.
One morning, Jiang Ye arrived at his desk and found that the intelligent fungi had spelled out a few lines on the surface of the liquid:
"We wish to try some different liquids."
"Please provide us with: 10 jin of pure milk, 10 jin of yogurt, 10 jin of cola, 10 jin of green tea, 10 jin of sour plum juice, and 10 jin of vinegar. Release them from various corners of the pools."
"Thank you very much, Master! Long live Master!"
Jiang Ye immediately dispatched his subordinates to fulfill the request.
Large quantities of beverages were purchased from supermarkets and slowly added to the intelligent fungus pools.
He wasn't worried that these fungi would die from the addition of different beverages, as many cocktails also contained various mixed drinks. These fungi survived by consuming alcohol, so they should be unaffected.
The intelligent fungi were designed to consume alcohol and likely wouldn't have much interest in other beverages, probably trying them once or twice before discarding them.
This was Jiang Ye's assumption.
However, this time, he was wrong.