The next day at noon, Hong Lei was about to invite Liu Ben to have lunch together when he unexpectedly received a call from Wu Hao: “Big Boss, you’re back from your trip?” He was aware of Wu Hao’s departure, but he didn’t know where he had gone or what he had been up to.

It wasn’t just him—even Wu Zhengwei, who was fully in charge of the company, didn’t know where Wu Hao had gone. They had all gotten used to Wu Hao’s frequent trips away.

“I’m back. I just got to the city. Let’s get together!” Wu Hao casually suggested with a smile. Today, his main purpose in coming to the city was to give his and his parents’ documents to Wu Zhengwei to handle their overseas paperwork, while also stopping by the company.

“Alright, I was just planning to meet that kid Liu Ben this morning. Now that you’re back, it’s a perfect chance to have you treat us to a meal.” Hong Lei chuckled as he spoke.

Since the class reunion last year, Hong Lei and Liu Ben had become closer due to both living in the city. Their classmate bond, combined with the fact that Liu Ben’s family was also in business, meant that when they started a machinery factory, they gave some of the work to people they were familiar with.

Over time, Hong Lei and Liu Ben’s relationship grew stronger, something Wu Hao was aware of. Whenever he had the time, he would join them for gatherings as well.

As Liu Ben often said, it was about seizing the opportunity to get a meal out of someone wealthy. Although neither of them had a precise idea of how much wealth Wu Hao had, they were sure it was in the billions.

After all, the resort Wu Hao had built alone involved an investment of several billion, which was practically a synonym for extravagant spending.

“Sure! Let’s meet at the old place where we used to eat!” Wu Hao agreed cheerfully. The “old place” he referred to was actually the most upscale restaurant in the city. While it didn’t quite compare to the major hotels in the province, it was still considered the most luxurious in the city.

On the other end, after finishing the call with Wu Hao, Hong Lei informed Liu Ben, who was naturally overjoyed to hear that Wu Hao was in town.

Soon, Wu Hao drove to the restaurant on his own. After booking a private room, both Liu Ben and Hong Lei arrived shortly after.

“Brother Hao, did you make a lot of money this time?” Liu Ben asked with a wide grin as soon as he saw Wu Hao.

“Not bad! I’m not afraid of you guys taking advantage of me,” Wu Hao laughed casually. Liu Ben and Hong Lei had a rough idea of how Wu Hao made his money; in simple terms, it was through international finance and venture capital.

Of course, this was just the explanation Wu Hao gave them. In reality, he wasn’t doing much in those fields, merely keeping up appearances.

However, now Wu Hao could let the upgraded AI program “Zero” handle these things for him. With Zero’s current computational capabilities, it could fully grasp data from international financial markets, making it much easier for Wu Hao to make money.

Without saying much, Zero could easily trade in and out of the major international financial markets and make billions of dollars within days without attracting any attention.

Given the vast scale of transactions in these markets at any moment, a mere few billion dollars wouldn’t even cause a ripple.

If Zero handled the operations for Wu Hao, it could leave no trace. Even if Zero moved hundreds of billions of dollars in an instant, no one would be able to trace it back to Wu Hao.

That said, Wu Hao didn’t even need to do that because he wasn’t lacking in money. If necessary, he could have Zero earn through regular financial transactions.

After exchanging a few jokes with Liu Ben, Wu Hao let him order the food. Liu Ben didn’t hold back, knowing Wu Hao’s appetite, and went ahead and ordered the most expensive dishes—around a dozen in total.

In fact, since their previous visits, the menu hadn’t changed much, so there wasn’t anything to nitpick about.

“By the way, Brother Hao, now that you’re so wealthy, are you interested in investing in soccer?” Liu Ben suddenly asked halfway through the meal.

“Soccer?” Wu Hao looked at Liu Ben in surprise, feeling a bit puzzled. Wu Hao didn’t know much about soccer—not even the rules.

He had never watched an official soccer match, but he was vaguely aware of the state of Chinese soccer. In a word, it was “terrible.” In two words, it was “extremely terrible,” and apparently, there were all sorts of scandals surrounding it.

These were things Wu Hao had occasionally heard about in the news. So, hearing Liu Ben ask if he was interested in investing in soccer left him rather confused.

Liu Ben, seeing Wu Hao’s puzzled expression, knew Wu Hao definitely wasn’t a soccer fan and likely didn’t know much about the sport. But that didn’t matter because Wu Hao had money!

The reason Liu Ben brought it up was simply to share an idea he had. He had already discussed it with Hong Lei.

Hong Lei wasn’t a die-hard soccer fan, but he liked the sport well enough. He didn’t have a favorite team, so he could be considered a casual fan.

“Here’s the thing, Brother Hao. Lei Zi and I have talked about this privately. We’re both soccer fans, but our country’s soccer is just too heartbreaking. You wouldn’t believe it, but in our whole province of Sichuan, we don’t even have a professional team anymore,” Liu Ben said, his face filled with frustration.

Wu Hao was equally surprised. He knew Chinese soccer was bad, but he didn’t expect that a massive province like Sichuan wouldn’t even have a team. After all, Chengdu, the provincial capital, was one of the biggest cities in the country. Although it might not be on the same level as Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, it was still one of the top-ranked cities in inland China, comparable to its “brother” city, Chongqing.

However, compared to Chongqing, which was a directly governed municipality, Chengdu, known as the Land of Abundance, had a more laid-back vibe and was seen as a slow-paced, livable city.

Chongqing, on the other hand, had a much faster pace of life, only slightly slower than Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. As the only directly governed municipality in inland China, it held a vital position in transportation and geography, and now had the largest urban population in the country.

Geographically speaking, Chongqing and Shanghai were comparable. One city controlled the mouth of the Yangtze River, holding a prime geographical advantage, while the other was a crucial transportation hub in the upper reaches of the Yangtze. To put it simply, one was the “dragon’s head” of the Yangtze River, and the other was the “dragon’s tail,” with its neighboring brother city Chengdu being one of the two major cities in the southwest.