Chapter 44: Building a Supercomputer and Mining Bitcoin

Feeling Chen Han's burning passion, Yan Fei quickly shifted backward and said with a smile, "The cultural differences between China and the United States are quite significant. Look at how strangers of opposite sexes can be so intimate."

Chen Han chuckled, held her wine glass, moved a bit closer, and whispered softly, "American women are open and inclusive; when they meet someone they like, they pursue them actively, unlike the shy and restrained nature of those in China."

Hearing this, Yan Fei smiled faintly and asked, "You are of Chinese descent. Are you just like those American women?"

Chen Han raised an eyebrow with a smile and said ambiguously, "Want to find out? Although I am of Chinese descent, I was born and raised in the United States. When I meet someone I like, I take the initiative too!"

The red lips less than ten centimeters away tempted Yan Fei to swallow hard. The intense hormonal aura, the moist lips of the beauty, and the boiling blood of youth all made Yan Fei's heart restless.

Amidst his heavy breathing, the pure and breathtakingly beautiful face of Liu Suxin suddenly surfaced in Yan Fei's mind. His burning heart was instantly doused with cold water, bringing him back to his senses. The lips that were almost touching immediately pulled apart rapidly.

Stabilizing his emotions, Yan Fei looked at Chen Han and said softly, "I'm sorry, Miss Chen. I have a girlfriend, and I can't do that. It would be unfair to you, and it would betray my girlfriend."

Upon hearing this, not only was there not the slightest trace of blame on Chen Han's face, but she looked at Yan Fei with even deeper emotion instead, whispering, "Yan Fei, you are a true gentleman. I really envy your girlfriend for finding such an excellent, dedicated, and affectionate good man. She is truly fortunate!"

Yan Fei immediately smiled and replied, "Miss Chen, you are mistaken. I am the fortunate one for winning her favor. She is an exceptionally outstanding woman—a lady of a good family, well-read, polite, gentle, and virtuous. Having such a girlfriend is my blessing."

Hearing Yan Fei's praise, Chen Han felt even more envy for the unseen Liu Suxin and developed an even greater trust in Yan Fei's excellence and character. She spoke softly, "A-Fei, this is how Chinese people address their friends, right? You can call me Hanhan from now on."

Seeing the trace of disappointment in Chen Han's expression, Yan Fei could not bear to reject her wishes any further, so he smiled and said, "Alright, Sister Han."

The two continued to drink at the bar for a while before parting ways. Yan Fei dropped Chen Han off at her doorstep and turned to leave, leaving behind a look of faint disappointment in Chen Han's eyes.

The next day, Yan Fei was awakened by a phone call from LeBron: "My dear Yan, my friend, the headhunting firm has gathered all the people you requested. They are all waiting in the office for your arrival."

"So fast!" Yan Fei's heart surged with excitement, and he said happily, "Brother LeBron, hold on for a moment. I'll be right at the company."

A dozen minutes later, Yan Fei arrived at the company. Seeing more than ten people gathered in the conference room waiting, he strode inside, swept his gaze over the crowd, and saw an all-white group consisting of three women and eight men. The reason he did not hire black people was because of their heavy inherent flaws, which made them difficult to employ.

Sitting in the main seat, Yan Fei looked at everyone and began, "My friends, starting today, we are brothers and sisters fighting side by side. The mission of our Minxin Company is to develop into one of the largest fund management companies in the world."

Excited expressions appeared on everyone's faces, firmly believing that following Yan Fei would enable them to accomplish this great feat, especially since Yan Fei's reputation had spread throughout Wall Street over the past few days. The people in the conference room had all joined the company with a sense of admiration.

Yan Fei's gaze paused on the young man seated in the first position to his left, and he asked, "Dawson, your mission is to lead our brothers and sisters in establishing our first private equity fund, with the initial quota tentatively set at forty million US dollars. How long will it take to complete?"

Hearing this, Dawson Cage thought for a moment and said in a deep voice, "Boss, relying on your reputation, I believe we can definitely complete the task within a week and then put those forty million US dollars into operation."

"Good!" Yan Fei said gravely, "Dawson, I leave this matter to you. I will have Pierre adapt the quantitative auxiliary system so you guys can use it as an aid during trading."

Pierre, seated in the third position to the left, immediately responded, "Don't worry, Boss. The application of quantitative auxiliary systems on Wall Street is very mature, and adaptation is quite straightforward. I guarantee it will be ready within three days."

Yan Fei nodded, turned his gaze to the young man in the first position to the right, and said, "Bob, I will give tasks to the investment team you lead shortly. Although your team only consists of three people, your mission is the most important."

Bob nodded, his expression very steady. In his view, it was normal that he didn't understand Yan Fei's operations; after all, the difference between a trading genius and an ordinary person was even greater than that between a human and a dog. He only needed to strictly execute Yan Fei's orders.

After reassuring Bob, Yan Fei's gaze fell on the young man in the second position to the right, and he said solemnly, "Blas, I will give you a list after the meeting. Your task is to visit the founders of the companies on this list one by one, tell them that our Minxin Company wants to invest in them, and schedule a time for negotiations."

Blas, possessing a curvaceous and stunning figure, sent a flirtatious glance and said with a light smile, "Don't worry, Boss. I will definitely secure the negotiation opportunity."

Having arranged the general tasks, Yan Fei announced the end of the meeting, asked Bob to stay behind alone, and said seriously, "Bob, how much do you know about Bitcoin?"

"Bitcoin?" Bob pondered for a moment and said, "Boss, I've seen it on low-end forum websites. It's a virtual currency based on blockchain technology. I'm not very clear about the rest."

Seeing that Bob knew of it, Yan Fei said with a serious expression, "What you said is correct. Bitcoin has a total limit of 21 million coins. This limited quantity creates a scarce resource, and future financial wealth will inevitably shift a portion toward virtual wealth to support economic growth and specific uses. I want you to set up a mining team to mine Bitcoins."

Hearing this, Bob asked with some puzzlement, "Boss, how do we mine? What kind of power consumption and environmental conditions need to be met?"

Recalling his knowledge regarding Bitcoin, Yan Fei stated solemnly, "Bitcoin adopts the PoW mechanism. Miners verify transactions and create new blocks by solving complex mathematical problems, and successful miners are rewarded with Bitcoins. After successfully mining a new block, miners receive a certain amount of Bitcoin as a reward. The initial reward was 50 BTC, which subsequently decreases over time. The Bitcoin network adjusts the mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks (about two weeks) based on the total network hash rate to maintain an average block generation time of ten minutes."

"Bitcoins are still quite easy to mine right now. I have already adapted the mining system. You only need to purchase a batch of server-grade hosts, build a small-scale supercomputing center, and mine 24 hours a day without interruption. At the same time, keep an eye on the market; if you find anyone selling Bitcoins, buy them for me."

Understanding Yan Fei's intent, Bob said, "Boss, a small-scale supercomputing center will consume a massive amount of electricity. We need to build the supercomputing center in the suburbs of New York, close to an industrial area, and apply to expand our power bandwidth and capacity. With sufficient funds, getting all of this done will take about a week."

"Very good!" Yan Fei said excitedly, "Bob, handle this matter. Roughly how much funding will be needed?"

Bob picked up pen and paper to calculate for a moment, then looked up and said, "Boss, building a small-scale supercomputing center will require about eleven million US dollars. Renting the facility, expanding the bandwidth, laying out the site, and handling other miscellaneous tasks will take about one million US dollars."

Hearing this, Yan Fei instructed, "I will approve eleven million US dollars for you. Go execute this mission right now. Complete it as quickly as possible, but remember, aside from you and me, do not let anyone else know about this."

Bob nodded, stood up, and left the company. Watching his busy colleagues, Yan Fei returned to his office and began trading international futures and stocks. Following the market trends from his memory, he cautiously participated, engaged in swing trading, and harvested US dollars.

Time flew by, and three days passed in a flash. Sitting in his boss's chair, Yan Fei completed the final trade of the day. Looking at the realized profits, the financial assets in US dollars he held had reached six hundred million US dollars.

Blas knocked on the door and, looking at the smiling Yan Fei, arched her eyebrows and chuckled, "Boss, the UberCab company appointment is set. Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were thrilled when they heard we wanted to invest in them. I've scheduled a meeting for tomorrow, and the plane tickets are already booked."

Hearing this, an enthusiastic expression appeared on Yan Fei's face as he said happily, "Blas, you've done a great job. Let's get going; I can't wait to meet this future transportation empire."

On the airplane, Blas looked at Yan Fei with curiosity and asked in a low voice, "Boss, UberCab is just a startup founded this year. Why are you so optimistic about them?"

Looking at the white clouds outside the window, Yan Fei said with radiant confidence, "Great companies all start small, like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. I am optimistic about the transportation industry; it is a great endeavor that changes people's lifestyles."

Watching Yan Fei's profile cast in a golden glow by the sunlight, Blas thought he looked exceptionally handsome. The phrase "a confident man is full of charm" surfaced in her mind, and for the first time, she felt a spark of interest in an oriental man.

After the plane landed, the two hailed a taxi to the hotel Blas had previously booked, had dinner there, and took the elevator upstairs to rest.

Standing at the door of Room 1805, Blas arched her eyebrows playfully, looked at Yan Fei with a teasing smile, and said, "Boss, would you like me to accompany you? To avoid being lonely alone tonight—and I'm volunteering, you know!"

Yan Fei looked at Blas's curvaceous, full figure and her magnificent chest, swallowed hard, shook his head hastily, said goodnight, and rushed into the room without looking back, slamming the door shut behind him.

Standing at the doorway, Blas looked at Yan Fei's flustered state and covered her mouth in giggles. She found teasing the boss a lot of fun, and the boss's cute reaction made her immensely happy.

The next day, after having breakfast, the two took a taxi to the UberCab company. Touring the premises, they found the entire company consisted of only seven or eight people, still in a stage that had just recently gotten off the ground.

Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp welcomed Yan Fei as soon as he arrived, stepping out of their office to greet him warmly. "Welcome, Mr. Yan," they said happily.

After a few pleasantries, everyone gathered in the conference room, and Yan Fei began, "Travis, tell me about the company's current status, the problems you are facing, the funding required, and how you plan to use those funds."

Travis immediately spoke up, "We at UberCab just started out. Currently, we provide high-end ride-hailing services in San Francisco, with over 1,200 registered drivers, more than 2,000 users, and an average of 30 rides per day."

"We now need more capital to step up our publicity and promotion, increase driver and user registrations, and our preliminary plan is to expand UberCab's transportation services across the entire state of California, which will take about two million US dollars."

After listening to Travis, Yan Fei remarked, "While the unit price for high-end services is certainly higher, the market capacity is limited. Following this plan, there won't be any major development in the future. Don't you have other ideas?"

Hearing this, Garrett Camp immediately took over, "Mr. Yan, we do have other ideas. Initially, Travis and I planned to start with high-end transportation services because the financial pressure during operation would be much lower, and it might even generate some profit. As for mid-to-low-end transportation, we know the market capacity is huge, but that requires a massive amount of capital to deploy, which we didn't have. If Mr. Yan is willing to invest in us, we will naturally venture into the mid-to-low-end market."

Yan Fei nodded with satisfaction, confirming that the two founders had a clear strategic plan, and smiled, "Very well, gentlemen. Let's discuss the specific details of the investment!"

Travis and Garrett looked at each other with excitement gleaming on their faces, and began negotiating with Yan Fei, discussing many details of the financing and the use of funds.

A dozen minutes later, after listening to their plans, Yan Fei nodded and said firmly, "I can invest two million US dollars in you, or even more. How much equity are you willing to cede?"

Hearing this, the two immediately realized that Yan Fei approved of their strategic plan and the details of fund utilization, and the negotiation had reached the most crucial pricing stage. Travis said gravely, "We can cede at most 20% of the equity, but we require five million US dollars."

Yan Fei shook his head with a faint smile and stated calmly, "20% is too little. I need controlling stake; 60% is a good ratio, and I can offer twenty million US dollars for the price."

"That's impossible, Mr. Yan!" Travis stood up excitedly, looked at Yan Fei earnestly, and said, "If your excellency has investment intentions, please offer a reasonable proportion. Our founding team will definitely not give up controlling stake."

Yan Fei shrugged with a smile and replied lightly, "We have a saying in China: 'Quote a high price in the sky, and bargain on the ground.' Gentlemen can state your bottom line so that the negotiation has a purpose to move forward."

Garrett and Travis looked at Yan Fei's smile and understood that he was both an angel investor and a greedy corporate crocodile. Without offering a proportion that satisfied him, it would be difficult to reach an investment agreement.

The two looked at each other, nodded silently, and Garrett said, "Mr. Yan, we can only offer up to 30% equity, but we need a financing of ten million US dollars."

Yan Fei stood up and said, "It seems gentlemen haven't thought it through yet. I will wait for you at the San Francisco Grand Hotel. Once you have discussed it, we can conduct the next round of investment talks."