President Zhou always went along with her wishes, no matter what—it had become a habit.
Besides, she had said she didn’t want to wear an ill-fitting ring for their wedding.
He nodded. “There’s time.
We still have a meeting this afternoon, no time to pick one out now.”
Zhong Yiwuxin said she’d wait until she had some time off to go with him to the jewelry store.
President Zhou looked at his reflection in the elevator mirror, thought for a moment, then asked, “When you went to the store last time to choose a diamond ring, did you happen to look at any men’s rings?”
Caught off guard by his direct question, Zhong Yiwuxin hesitated briefly.
When picking out her own diamond ring, how could she not have glanced at the men’s rings?
Even though their relationship at the time of registering the marriage was more of an arrangement than a romance, and she wasn’t sure how much affection he still held for her after three years, subconsciously, she wanted to wear a ring from the same series as his.
She always felt that wearing matching rings meant they shared something—then everything could slowly return to how it once was.
But that day, he hadn’t picked a men’s ring. Later, when she asked if he wanted one as a gift, he said he already had one.
Yet it wasn’t from the same series as the diamond ring she liked.
She seemed to have an obsession with rings, always wanting to wear the same style as him.
That’s why today she brought up gifting him one again.
Zhong Yiwuxin glanced at him through the elevator mirror and said, “I looked at a few styles.”
“Did you find one you liked?”
She answered honestly, “Yes.”
Among the many men’s rings, she had instantly favored one particular design.
He hadn’t planned on picking a men’s ring then, so of course she wouldn’t presume to give unsolicited advice.
President Zhou said nothing more, pulled out his phone from his suit pocket, and opened the chat with the Flagship Jewelry Store manager:
【Please take photos of all the men’s rings in the store and send them to me. Thanks.】
Manager: 【Understood, President Zhou. Please wait a moment.】
She inwardly scoffed—finally remembering he didn’t have a wedding ring. That was rare.
Maybe because she hadn’t grown up in such a family, she didn’t understand the meaning of these mutually beneficial marriages.
If they weren’t even serious about the rings, better not to marry at all.
Now that she had been promoted and rarely stayed at the store, she immediately contacted the new manager to photograph every men’s ring in the display case and send them over.
Ten minutes later, President Zhou received the pictures.
By then, the two of them were already in Jinghe’s Headquarters Cafeteria.
Zhong Yiwuxin had intended to eat back at the campus, but President Zhou insisted on eating here and taking the opportunity to pick a ring.
Since she had already seen the style she liked, there was no need to go back to the store.
Zhong Yiwuxin missed Jinghe Headquarters’ yellow croaker noodles the most.
Although she’d gotten a fishbone stuck before and had to go to the hospital to remove it, it didn’t stop her from ordering it again today.
She also ordered two light stir-fry dishes.
After receiving the photos, President Zhou handed his phone to her. “Look and see which one it is.”
Zhong Yiwuxin zoomed in carefully, scanning through to the last photo. There it was—the ring she had immediately favored.
She said nothing, simply pointed to the one.
This men’s ring was from the same series as her favorite diamond ring; together, they made a perfect pair.
President Zhou glanced at it. “You think this one looks good?”
“Mm.”
“Good.”
Their tastes always differed, but since she liked it, President Zhou circled that ring in the photo and sent it back to the manager: 【Have someone go pick it up from the store now.】
The manager had no words to complain—there were so many ring styles, and less than two minutes in, he hadn’t even fully looked through all of them but the boss had already made his choice.
At least this time he didn’t ask her for recommendations.
【Okay, we’ll prepare it for you. You can come pick it up anytime.】
With arrangements made, President Zhou told her, “I’ve sent someone to get it.”
Locking his phone, he leaned back in his chair and watched her eat.
Zhong Yiwuxin swallowed the food in her mouth and looked up. “How much?”
President Zhou: “Are you going to pay me?”
“Didn’t we agree I’d gift it to you?” Zhong Yiwuxin brought up the oil painting she had given him as a meeting gift. “Consider this ring my gift for our first meeting.”
President Zhou’s gaze was calm yet deep. “Zhong Yiwuxin, you’ve known me for four years.”
If it were before, when there were conflicts, she definitely would have snapped back, Really?
But now, she didn’t want to waste time arguing with someone so double-faced over trivial matters. What if she got another fishbone stuck? Not worth it.
He was basically saying only he could call it a first meeting gift, not her.
Zhong Yiwuxin changed her words. “Our first meeting gift in Beicheng.”
She paused, then asked, “Where have you been living most of these years?”
President Zhou: “Mostly in Shanghai. I come back for a couple of months now and then, often meeting with Jiang Yan Feng and Min Ting.”
Zhong Yiwuxin nodded. “I only heard them mention you once at a family dinner.”
President Zhou looked at her. “You didn’t ask more?”
“No,” Zhong Yiwuxin lowered her head to pick fishbones. “Maybe you found the right person to marry.”
A few seconds of silence passed.
President Zhou: “Who do you spend New Year’s Eve with these past years?”
“By myself.” Zhong Yiwuxin picked a small fishbone from a piece of fish, “Mostly working overtime at the company.”
Before he could ask, she confessed without evasion, “I didn’t wish you well. Because I didn’t want you to be happy.”
President Zhou stared straight at her. “Is that because you resent me, or for some other reason?”
“Both. When you’re with someone else, I just can’t bring myself to wish you well.”
She gestured at her bowl. “Enough, I’m eating my noodles.”
The topic wasn’t pursued further.
After a moment, she asked again, “How much was the ring?”
President Zhou reluctantly told her the price.
Zhong Yiwuxin took out her phone and transferred the full amount without a cent missing.
President Zhou watched as she finished the transaction. Just as she set her phone down, his own phone vibrated inside his jacket.
He didn’t look. “How much did you send? You used to just send me fifty cents.”
Zhong Yiwuxin, just about to take a bite of fish, froze.
In the past, when she treated him to a meal, sometimes he forgot to pay the bill first. When they got home at night, she’d snuggle into his arms and send him fifty cents as a “tip” for letting her treat him.
Every time after she sent fifty cents, she’d turn and kiss him, gently nibbling his chin, acting spoiled: “Take this, your little tip.”
He always indulged her, replying to emails while glancing at his phone, casually accepting the payment.
After each time she gave him money, once he finished his work he’d always hold her a little longer.
That extra moment always made her hesitate to give him “tips” again for quite a while.
Sending fifty cents was their little game.
She’d treat him again next time.
But given their current situation, how could she send only fifty cents?
His words delayed her a few seconds before she brought the fish to her mouth.
Before she could take a bite, “Fishbone!” President Zhou grabbed her wrist across the table. “You’ve been picking for so long, how come you still haven’t removed it?”
At his reminder, Zhong Yiwuxin spotted the extremely fine, soft bone stuck inside the fish, barely showing a tiny sharp tip. If she hadn’t looked carefully, she would never have noticed.
President Zhou slowly loosened his grip, then just watched her silently.
When she pulled out the tiny bone, the warmth in his palm from holding her wrist felt strange, yet somehow carried familiar memories.
“You ever get fishbones stuck while eating?” she changed the subject.
President Zhou: “No.”
“Not even once?”
“Mm.” He paused slightly. “Be more careful next time. How old are you, still getting fishbones stuck?”
Zhong Yiwuxin looked at him. “My dad got stuck last year.”
She continued to defend herself: “Níng Quē got one stuck recently too. She went to the hospital the same day as me to get a fishbone removed.”
President Zhou said nothing more, just raised his chin toward her bowl, signaling for her to keep eating.
***
After finishing their meal together at the cafeteria, they each got into their cars and left Jinghe.
Zhong Yiwuxin still wasn’t familiar with the route back to the campus, so she turned on navigation.
She thought President Zhou had accepted the money she transferred, but when she checked the group messages in her office, she found he hadn’t accepted it.
An hour and a half had passed since the transfer; he clearly had no intention of accepting it.
Zhong Yiwuxin stared at the screen for a moment, then messaged: 【You said after marriage I could ask you for anything, so accept the money.】
Five minutes later, President Zhou accepted the transfer.
Zhong Yiwuxin checked her watch—fifteen minutes until the meeting.
She grabbed her bone china cup and went to the pantry to make coffee.
In the pantry, she ran into Níng Quē, who rarely drank coffee.
“Out of goji berries?”
Right on the mark.
They’d already placed an order, but it wouldn’t arrive for a couple of days.
He reached out to take her cup.
Níng Quē never bossed subordinates around to get tea or water; in fact, he often made coffee for them and occasionally bought afternoon tea as a treat.
He was the most service-oriented person on the whole team.
“I didn’t see you at lunch in the cafeteria,” Níng Quē said casually.
Zhong Yiwuxin: “I went to headquarters for a bit.”
Níng Quē gave her a sidelong glance. “Don’t tell me you went to ask Min Ting for help dismantling the notebook chip.”
Zhong Yiwuxin didn’t confirm or deny.
“Dismantling is risky. Even if you take it apart, it might not be recoverable.”
Zhong Yiwuxin knew that well: “At least I tried, so no regrets.”
Níng Quē stopped discouraging her. “The Chip Team has some hidden talents, so there’s hope. I heard they recruited a new genius about your age.”
“A future titan—no telling how far they’ll go. What hope does that leave the rest of us ordinary folks?”
The coffee finished brewing, and Níng Quē handed her a cup first.
The meeting was about to start, so Zhong Yiwuxin had no time to dwell on whether the wedding photos could be restored.
Níng Quē was also present to observe.
At Kuncheng Motors, besides the technical team, the boss President Zhou, Vice President Du, and Technical Director all attended.
Zhong Yiwuxin chaired the meeting, skipping any opening remarks and getting straight to the point: “President Zhou and I discussed yesterday.”
“The problem isn’t with optimizing the Energy-saving Algorithm anymore. The architecture itself has a fundamental flaw. Why are you still deceiving yourselves?”
At her words, everyone in the Kuncheng conference room exchanged glances.
They had heard about Zhong Yiwuxin’s working style but didn’t expect such sharp criticism.
The meeting had just started, and Vice President Du already sensed the other party was targeting their architecture. His mental defenses were on high alert.
“Director Zhong,” he interjected, “multi-modal fusion can never be perfect. Not just at Kuncheng, but at any car company.”
“I reviewed your related training data. There are massive safety validation issues and a lack of Extreme Scenario Generalization. This isn’t a minor flaw—it’s a serious module fragmentation during modeling.”
To others, it might seem like mere module fragmentation, not a huge problem, but to her, it was intolerable.
Zhong Yiwuxin projected the relevant data onto the screen.
“I’m not exaggerating. Though Kuncheng is a leader in the industry now, if you don’t hold yourself to the highest standards, no one knows who will be the leader in the future. Decline is inevitable.”
President Zhou listened quietly, never uttering a word.
“Reducing energy consumption must never come at the cost of safety. I imagine this is why Kuncheng sought cooperation with Jinghe in the first place.”
Vice President Du opened his mouth to respond but was silenced by a look from President Zhou.
With no choice, Vice President Du swallowed his words, took a sip of tea, trying to calm himself.
Since President Zhou took over Kuncheng, despite all the external doubts, he never wavered. Now he wouldn’t even let Vice President Du speak.
In Jinghe’s conference room, Níng Quē drank half his coffee.
He glanced at the time again. In just a few minutes, Zhong Yiwuxin had struck several painful points in Kuncheng’s management.
Finally, President Zhou spoke: “Director Zhong, please continue.”
It was the first time he formally addressed her that way.
Zhong Yiwuxin looked at him. “Layered Optimization will remain the mainstream solution for the next three to five years, but in the longer term, End-to-End Technology is definitely the trend.”
Vice President Du couldn’t resist interrupting.
“Director Zhong, End-to-End is just an ideal state. It requires massive computing power and extremely high chip performance.”
“It’s basically impossible to achieve. To scrap our existing model and start over, do you know how much extra cost that would add to Kuncheng?”
The huge upfront investment would be wasted, and the ongoing R&D costs would be a bottomless pit, without any guarantee of better results.
To his knowledge, no car company had a flawless model or no technical bottlenecks.
Zhong Yiwuxin looked at Vice President Du as he spoke. “End-to-End will definitely be the trend, not just an ideal state.”
“You may find it hard to imagine how new energy vehicles will develop or how advanced intelligent driving can become, but I can.”
Vice President Du felt the “you all” she mentioned was directed at him personally.
It was an implicit jab implying he understood nothing.
Zhong Yiwuxin: “Because End-to-End is currently only an ideal, Kuncheng must break through to make it the trend. If Kuncheng wants to maintain its leadership, it must be the first, not a follower.”
She looked at President Zhou again. “If Kuncheng wants to be more advanced, it must also collaborate across domains.”
President Zhou gestured for her to continue.
Zhong Yiwuxin: “Cross-domain cooperation in algorithm and hardware, collaborative design to achieve a comprehensive breakthrough in the model.”
She took a sip of coffee. “That’s all I have to say for now. President Zhou, any instructions?”
President Zhou still remembered her words: ‘Disagreements are not personal attacks, nor are they vendettas.’ He promised, “All issues will be addressed with you by next month at the latest.”
The online meeting ended.
The Kuncheng conference room fell into silence.
No one knew about their relationship—President Zhou had not responded while Zhong Yiwuxin mercilessly exposed Kuncheng’s weaknesses. The team couldn’t guess what the boss’s decision would be.
The company’s future was at stake; no room for carelessness.
Having been in this industry for years, they’d seen other car companies collapse due to a single wrong managerial decision, dragging down the entire brand.
Once the brand fell and became marginalized in the market, recovery was nearly impossible.
Vice President Du broke the silence first. “The model certainly has shortcomings, but it’s not as worthless as she says. Who can guarantee her team’s model is industry-leading?”
He admitted Zhong Yiwuxin was an expert in this area, but her one-sided claims lacked persuasion.
To overturn two years of effort, involving billions in investment, would never be approved by Kuncheng’s board, let alone Director Zhou.
Extreme Scenario Generalization could be improved; it wasn’t beyond remedy.
Vice President Du took a sip of tea, calming down.
“I’m no tech expert, but I know that when Director Zhong talks about cross-domain cooperation in algorithm and hardware, isn’t she just trying to promote Jinghe’s chips?”
President Zhou: “Not quite.”
Everyone quietly glanced at their boss.
Vice President Du said tactfully, “President Zhou, I’m not against Jinghe or Director Zhong, but you must always be cautious in business.”
“There are countless cases of the other party exaggerating problems to make a profit. How can it be otherwise?”
President Zhou: “Because she’s my wife, that’s why not otherwise.”
The entire conference room fell utterly silent.
Everyone was stunned beyond belief.