Previously, there were stories about down-on-their-luck European aristocrats finding treasures left by their ancestors when rummaging through the warehouses of their ancestral estates.

The Vella family's sell-off was basically the same.

They found some heirloom pieces and managed to earn more than five million euros in total, which was enough to tide them over their current difficulties.

In the early years, Chinese cultural relics weren't worth much, and many people never thought of selling them, simply keeping them as interesting decorative items.

Recently, prices have soared. Things like the animal head faucets from the Old Summer Palace, Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain jars scattered overseas, Ru ware ceramics, and so on, have gradually been dug out from piles of junk, even sparking a trend of treasure hunting abroad.

As they began to appreciate in value, Su Yehao's desire to hunt for investment bargains waned, and he rarely paid attention to new auction news.

If Vella hadn't taken the initiative to invite him this time, he might not have bid on a chicken cup even if he encountered it at an auction.

The ancestors were too generous, leaving behind a huge number of objects from various dynasties, and the market was extremely saturated.

Unless he came across something truly special, a rare treasure worthy of being called a national treasure, the others were optional.

The small castle was already filled with a pile of objects.

For example, that Van Gogh oil painting. The last time he looked at it was a few months ago, and it didn't hold much interest.

Their investment value was only average, and they had practically no practical use, making it difficult for Su Yehao to feel the urge to buy them again.

Both items were small, so he simply signed a check, bought them, packed them in a box, and took them away.

Since he was already here.

After discussing it over lunch, they decided to visit Rome, Italy.

Continuing to bring Vella along, they switched to taking a train to Rome. This city, with more than seven hundred churches and monasteries, had a rich cultural atmosphere and was perfect for a vacation.

On the train to Rome, while having afternoon tea, Su Yehao was surprised to find that photos of him shopping with the girls had become a trending topic online.

Feng Tiancai also called to tell him that because the Americans couldn't completely stabilize the situation, crude oil futures prices had rebounded by 5% in two days, and they were close to making over 210 million US dollars.

This time, Su Yehao was worried about falling into the same trap twice, so he immediately told Feng Tiancai to close the position and cash out.

The price of crude oil continued to rise during the cash-out process, and in the end, they made a total profit of more than 260 million US dollars, which made him extremely happy.

Taking Nangong Tian and the others to shop like crazy, without any major expenses, they only spent a few hundred thousand euros...

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In the blink of an eye, three months had passed, and the days were uneventful.

On June 1st, the Three Gorges Dam officially started impounding water. Su Yehao, as a major shareholder of the Yangtze Power Company, attended the celebration ceremony at the dam.

According to the negotiated results.

He took out loans from several banks, investing a total of more than 13 billion RMB, accounting for 60% of the shares in this company.

It was also agreed that institutions such as 5s Asset Management would be introduced within six months to continue purchasing new generator sets, with a total investment of at least 80 billion RMB within ten years.

The financing problem was over-solved, so both parties were not in a hurry to go public on the A-share market.

The "printing machine" didn't start immediately after impounding water began, but summer was approaching, and water would soon be released.

The Three Gorges Dam became Su Yehao's oversized piggy bank, with a low-risk yield of about 9% per year.

After deducting expenses, it would theoretically take more than ten years to recover the investment. Su Yehao had already signed a trust agreement with 5s Asset Management. At that time, only the money needed for daily expenses would be left in the account, and the remaining electricity sales revenue would be temporarily used for fund management.

Don't underestimate the fact that the government still holds 40% of the shares. If they don't follow Su Yehao to add more funds in the future, their shareholding will soon be diluted.

The Three Gorges Dam had already achieved its strategic value, which was equivalent to installing a water valve on the Yangtze River for water storage and flood control, avoiding natural disasters.

As for power generation, the higher-ups didn't pay too much attention to it. It didn't matter who took over.

Su Yehao's proactive stance actually saved some people a lot of trouble, at least they didn't have to worry about losing money and shifted some of the risks.

In the future, the government only needed to be responsible for collecting taxes, with a net profit of 20% easily. This was what you called a real win-win situation.

Mid-June.

The plan for Emperor Crab Island was finally completely approved. The preparatory group was disbanded, and people were sent to find construction companies, trying to build the island as soon as possible.

The expenses in this stage were limited, so there wasn't much pressure for Su Yehao. The total budget was only about one billion Hong Kong dollars.

On the other side.

The WHO announced that SARS had been successfully controlled. Although there were still some sporadic cases, they didn't cause any more storms. The situation was much weaker than Su Yehao remembered, with a total of more than one hundred unfortunate deaths.

In the blink of an eye, the third installment of *Huan Zhu Ge Ge* was released, and Microsoft also canceled technical support for Windows 98.

Even Su Yehao secretly sighed at how fast time flew.

On July 17th.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs came to Central, Hong Kong, and after presiding over the opening ceremony of Apple's first overseas retail store, he made a special trip to Big Wave Bay to visit Su Yehao.

Last week.

Nangong Tian had just discovered that she was pregnant. Her emotions had been fluctuating a bit these days. She often lamented that her youth seemed to have suddenly ended, and she felt like she had grown up overnight.

Su Yehao was relatively calm about this. In his opinion, her youth had clearly ended long ago.

He guessed that he had protected them too well, and they hadn't experienced much of the harshness of society, which was why she had the illusion that she was still very young, even though she was already twenty-four years old.

The people who had entered Hong Kong University at the same age had already graduated and worked for two or three years, and some of their children were already going to kindergarten.

Su Yehao was quite happy about Jobs' arrival. They occasionally exchanged emails, but they didn't meet often.

During the hot summer season, the sun outside was too scorching.

At this moment, the two were sitting in the study drinking tea. Jobs said to him:

"Su, I have a great idea. The Newton handheld computer product line was mainly cut off by me in 1997 because the technology wasn't good enough. Now I plan to implement it again, combining the iPod with it to launch a new product that can listen to music, play games, and watch videos."

"...Why not go a step further and add the phone function as well?"

After a few seconds of silence, Su Yehao was considering whether he should remind Jobs. After receiving a definite answer, he added:

"That way, you'll have a smartphone. It may not be successful right now, but it has a lot of market potential. If you're willing to work in this direction, I'll fully support you at the board of directors, even if there are short-term losses."

Jobs wasn't surprised. He seemed to have already thought of the idea of a smartphone. He shook his head and said, "The company's computer products aren't successful enough and are losing money every year. Relying only on the iPod series, we don't have enough funds to complete your idea. If all the shareholders were as far-sighted as you, my job would be much easier."

Su Yehao's shareholding in Apple had further increased to about 24%. Even so, he still didn't have much say in the board of directors and couldn't dominate the company.

Limited by the level of technology, he hadn't interfered much with Apple before. It wasn't until he heard Jobs' words today that he began to think about starting the development of smartphones ahead of schedule.

Su Yehao continued to persuade him:

"Coincidentally, I have money and the Black Diamond brand that manufactures mobile phones. What I lack is a research and development team and an operating system. Perhaps Apple can cooperate with my Black Diamond mobile phone to jointly create an epoch-making product. With me sharing the risk, it will be easier to get support from the board of directors, right? I feel like it can be done..."