Chapter 27: A Pleasure Doing Business

While Zhou Yun and his associates were talking, several brokerage firm managers reported their recent interactions with him to their superiors.

"Director Wang, according to our monitoring, the annualized Sharpe ratio of that model in live gold ETF trading has exceeded 3. Even top-tier quantitative firms barely reach that level, and it is still rising. Furthermore, we are not the only ones in talks with him; the issue is that he is unwilling to sell the model or join our firm. He seems more interested in an investment structure..."

The person on the other end of the line listened to the report for a moment before speaking: "What is his asking price?"

"A Series A valuation of 700 million!"

"Understood. I will have someone fly to Hangzhou tomorrow. You stay there and keep an eye on things; we absolutely cannot let our competitors beat us to it."

Beyond Guojin Securities, four other firms were conducting similar conversations.

At the Securities Regulatory Commission’s branch office, in room 201, Director Zhao also sensed Zhou Yun’s hesitation. "Mr. Zhou, we fully understand your concerns, but we hold you in very high regard. We can put everything you are worried about into writing in the contract. Please trust in our nation’s commitment to valuing talent."

Zhou Yun sighed. "If any other brokerage firm had come to me with this, I would never have agreed. But since it is you... I agree."

In reality, even if he did not agree now, once he became powerful enough, he would inevitably be "made" to agree. There were plenty of real-world examples of this; for the state, financial security could never be left entirely in the hands of an individual. Rather than facing conflict later, it was better to be harmonious and seek mutual prosperity now. Furthermore, Zhou Yun had no real resistance toward the state; in terms of public credibility, China performed far better than the nation across the ocean.

"A pleasant cooperation, then?" Director Zhao smiled and extended his hand.

"A pleasant cooperation!" Zhou Yun smiled and shook his hand again.

The initial intent to cooperate had been established; the next step would be negotiating the details. Zhou Yun had already made significant concessions regarding equity, so he would fight tooth and nail for the best possible terms in other areas.

Just as they were about to discuss the contract specifics, Zhou Yun’s phone rang.

"Excuse me, I need to take this."

"Hello?"

"Hello, this is Zhao Hanyu, the HR manager from Guojin whom you spoke with earlier. Do you remember me?"

Zhou Yun chuckled and shook his head. They were reaching out now because they had finally realized his potential. However...

"You’re too late," he said, hanging up the phone without waiting for a reply.

Director Zhao looked at him with curiosity. "Was that a brokerage firm?"

"Yes." Before Zhou Yun could put his phone away, another call came in.

"Hello?"

"I’m from Huatai..."

Zhou Yun shook his head helplessly. "You’re too late," he said, hanging up again. He proceeded to take three more calls from the firms that had approached him that day.

"Mr. Zhou, would you like us to handle this? They certainly won’t give up easily," Director Zhao said with a smile.

"That would be perfect." With Huijin stepping in, his burden would be significantly lightened. This would also serve as a warning to them not to resort to underhanded tactics. To avoid further interruptions, Zhou Yun silenced his phone. "Shall we continue?"

After an afternoon of negotiations, they reached a preliminary agreement by 6:00 PM. Before formal cooperation, Huijin would provide server resources and funding, while Zhou Yun would focus on further developing the existing model. Although the current model was powerful, it was limited to the domestic market. Their requirement was to upgrade the model—specifically for a certain stock—to adapt to overseas markets, with Huijin providing the necessary data. This phase would be considered pre-research; even if it failed, Huijin would cover the losses, though it would likely end their partnership. All in all, Zhou Yun stood to lose nothing. However, Huijin imposed a condition on the provided resources, including servers and data: they could not be used to train any other models.

"Mr. Zhou, you are truly talented at such a young age. It seems our decision was the right one," Director Zhao said, looking at him intently. He was already fully aware of Zhou Yun’s background, but he hadn't expected a student who had never truly entered society to be so thoughtful. If he didn't know better, he would have assumed he was dealing with a seasoned corporate negotiator.

Division Chief Li, who was present, was also pleased to see the cooperation finalized. This ensured that Zhou Yun would not cause too much disruption to the domestic financial market in the future, making his own work much easier. As for what impact it might have on foreign markets, that was of no concern to him.

"Aside from the conditions we’ve already agreed upon, I have one small request. I wonder if it’s possible?"

"Please, go ahead."

"Can I continue to use our existing model? Of course, I will not make any further upgrades to it, even if it eventually gets phased out by the market."

Director Zhao laughed heartily. "Of course. After all, your procedures are completely legal. Don't you agree, Chief Li?"

Li Mo smiled as well. "Naturally. As long as it is not illegal, we only regulate; we do not interfere. Mr. Zhou, you can rest assured about that. Since we’ve reached an agreement, why don't I treat you to dinner?"

"That sounds excellent."

After dinner, Zhou Yun bid them farewell and returned to campus. Not long after, the presidents of the various brokerage firms that had contacted him received a phone call. Huijin had sent them all "kind regards." From that point on, the various teams that had descended upon Hangzhou quietly returned home, and Zhou Yun never received another call from any brokerage firm.

A day after reaching the agreement with Huijin, Zhou Yun sought out Deng Yonghua. Since the collaboration would take up a significant amount of his time, he needed to inform his mentor that he would not be producing any further academic papers for the time being, even if the research was successful. Deng Yonghua was a member of the "Ten Thousand Talents Program," so it didn't matter if he knew about the pre-research project, though he would likely need to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

In the office, Zhou Yun briefly explained the pre-research project with Huijin. Deng Yonghua listened, then rubbed his bald head. "You’re saying the stock model you researched caught the attention of the CSRC? And they facilitated this partnership with Huijin?"

"That’s right."

"Wow, you truly keep a low profile until you make a splash! I understand your situation. Go ahead and do it. As for your research progress, you already have two papers, so there’s no rush. Focus on this project. If you do it well, it will be worth more to your future than a few more top-tier conference papers. That’s Huijin we’re talking about!"