Chapter 28 – Xiao Gu Has a Good Eye

The company had just marked its fifth anniversary. Its internal systems were relatively well-established now, but during the early days of its startup journey, it had suffered three near-failures in succession.

The reason Gu Yao remembered it so clearly wasn’t just because of its setbacks.

There was one thing about them she found particularly remarkable.

In five whole years, not a single team member had left.

In the early stages, when they couldn’t even afford to pay salaries, for a team to stick it out—it took more than just lofty promises and empty dreams.

So today, she figured she’d see for herself just what made this founder and tech director named Xiao Yu stand out from the rest.

While her thoughts drifted, the front projection wall had already been connected to the presenter’s laptop.

Without unnecessary pleasantries, the presentation jumped straight into a live model demonstration.

At first, the judges remained neutral, showing no strong reactions. But the moment the demonstration shifted to the data anomaly alert interface, the atmosphere in the room changed—almost instantly, every pair of eyes took on a new look.

Gu Yao’s included.

The impact of the 518 case in the city had been unprecedented. Beyond the list of names made public, the real target of the reform was the rot buried deep at the roots—those hidden parasites beneath the surface.

What surprised the entire cadre system was that Secretary Zhou had, with seemingly casual ease, entrusted such a heavy responsibility to a junior officer who had only recently passed probation.

Ultimately, the direction of this reform remained unclear.

Perhaps the higher-ups simply wanted to send a warning—to rattle the cage, so to speak.

In times of such tension and uncertainty, people were bound to overthink.

Once the presentations ended, the panel of judges moved to the next room to deliberate.

Each shared their thoughts. When the votes were tallied, two companies stood out as frontrunners—Yaoke Technology and another established tech firm.

Gu Yao, of course, voted for Yaoke. Her reasoning was clear:

“Compared to the template-based solutions we’ve seen elsewhere, their proposal is far more adaptive—particularly effective in addressing the department’s current core challenges.”

Someone raised a concern:
“Yaoke’s self-audit module is impressive, sure. But the company’s background is still shallow. What if their after-sales service falls through, or worse—they fold midway? That’s a huge risk.”

Gu Yao had anticipated this.

She distributed the results of a private investigation she had conducted earlier and shared her analysis.

“Before founding Yaoke, Xiao Yu was part of the core R&D team behind the GT large model in Bangkok. His experience in embedded intelligent systems surpasses that of most major companies in our city. And based on the company’s financial reports from the past three years, their overall growth trend has been steady. Barring unforeseen natural disasters or major disruptions, the likelihood of after-sales collapse is very low.”

After she finished, the discussion room went quiet.

All eyes turned toward Director Meng, who had remained silent the entire time, awaiting his take.

After a brief pause, Meng Changjun picked up Yaoke’s bid proposal and flipped to the final page—the pricing section.

The highest among all.

He chuckled.
“Xiao Gu has a good eye.”

She not only prioritized quality but also had a knack for picking the most expensive option.

Understanding the implication in his tone, Gu Yao knew what he was really worried about: the difficulty of justifying the budget request.

After thinking for a moment, she proposed a cost-reduction plan. By the time she finished explaining it, several people were staring at her in disbelief.

This… was practically daylight robbery.

“Would Yaoke Technology even agree to that?”

They weren’t stupid, after all.

But Comrade Xiao Gu remained composed. “I’ll give it a try.”

As for how she’d try—she already had a plan in mind.

Two minutes later, an off-the-record conversation began in the reception room.

Across the sleek black conference table sat the founder of Yaoke Technology—Xiao Yu.

Wearing a dress shirt and slacks, the man was calm and composed. His gaze toward her was respectful yet firm, giving off an air of humble confidence without the slightest hint of subservience.

At twenty-eight, he had resigned from his position in Bangkok and returned home with his team to start a business from scratch, leaving everything behind. That kind of boldness and resilience was not something just anyone could muster.

When it came to business negotiations, Gu Yao didn’t have much of an upper hand.

So, she decided to get straight to the point—no detours, no pleasantries.

“Integrating AI models into government office systems is a bold and highly innovative move. If successful, it won’t just elevate your technological reputation—it’ll inject unimaginable momentum and market valuation into your next round of funding, maybe even your future IPO. President Xiao, would you agree?”

The atmosphere shifted subtly the moment she said that.

At first, Xiao Yu had assumed he’d be met with the usual bureaucratic haggling and formalities.

But the second the young woman spoke, he realized—his preconceived notion of public officials had been a critical mistake the moment he stepped into that room.

Roughly ten minutes later, the door to the reception room opened.

All the judges turned in unison to look at Gu Yao. Director Meng was the first to ask about the negotiation outcome.

Without a word, Comrade Xiao Gu picked up the pen from the table, calmly crossed out the original price listed on Yaoke’s bid, and wrote down the updated final figure.

How much?

Meng Changjun furrowed his brows as he stared at the document—frozen in place.

Another judge leaned over to get a look—and reacted the same way.

The room buzzed with curiosity.

Just as the second wave of people moved to peek, Meng Changjun came back to himself, casually closed the bid folder, and declared:
“No need to look. Draft the contract.”

Gu Yao gave a faint smile.

Under the puzzled stares of a few, she followed Director Meng out of the room to announce the bidding results in the next room.

To ensure smooth communication throughout the project, she and Xiao Yu added each other on WeChat.

He worked with incredible efficiency. Within two minutes, he’d already set up the client-side project group chat and had his team members introduce themselves one by one.

As she shook hands with the project leader, he glanced at her curiously and asked tentatively, “Have we met before, Ms. Gu?”

They had, indeed.

“Two weeks ago, I came to your company for an interview. You were the first-round interviewer.”

The moment she said that, the entire Yaoke team practically turned to stone.

A civil servant… came to interview at their company?

What on earth?

Upon being reminded, Team Leader Lu suddenly recalled, “Right, right, right! You were applying for the model development engineer position. I remember thinking you looked too young—when I saw your résumé, I admit I was a little biased, I thought—”

“Clearly, ability has nothing to do with age,” Xiao Yu interrupted at just the right moment, cutting off his subordinate’s rambling.

He knew full well that, compared to her undercover visit, the woman before him preferred to keep conversations strictly about work.

After all—

The next three months of collaboration were only just beginning.

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Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was already August.

The finance channel broke the latest news:

Hengyuan Group, in partnership with the city’s top three real estate developers, had received official project approval for a luxury resort development. A grand opening ceremony was expected to be held in mid-August.

Over the past few days, Secretary Xu’s work phone had been ringing non-stop with calls from Cheng Shaoguo, chairman of Hengyuan.

The man was relentless—extending a very “sincere” invitation for Secretary Zhou to spare two hours next Friday to attend the ribbon-cutting at the hotel.

Unsurprisingly, Xu politely declined the invitation, citing a packed schedule.

Normally, the government does show some level of support by appearing at major city projects.

But for purely commercial events like this, high-ranking officials never attend.

Cheng Shaoguo’s intention to curry favor was obvious. He’d hinted at it not once, but multiple times—yet continued pretending to be oblivious, constantly looking for ways to get in through the back door.

But this was Secretary Zhou they were talking about.

Trying to cozy up to him? Utterly delusional.

If the Hengyuan chairman didn’t rein himself in soon… he was going to suffer the consequences.