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Chapter 277: Chapter 261: Teacher Gao, You Don’t Understand.

After leaving E Weinan’s office, Gao Wen said to Li Dong,

”You never should have gotten into pure math in the first place.

”It would’ve been so much better if you’d worked on low-level algorithms with me.

”Failing that, even doing some work on Inverse Problems with Academician E would’ve been fine.

”But no, you just had to dive headfirst into the deep pit of automorphic forms. Tsk tsk.”

Li Dong could only give an awkward laugh.

He could hardly tell the professor, ’Who can I blame? The manuscript Gauss pushed on me in the group chat was Riemann’s.’

’It was all fate.’

Gao Wen grumbled on for a good three to five minutes, only stopping when they reached the door to his own office.

They entered the office, and just as Li Dong sat down, Gao Wen got straight to the point.

”Li Dong, about this SNN thing you want to do.”

”What’s your budget?”

Li Dong had actually been mulling this over himself for the past two days.

He had over 800,000 left on his card.

The two-million-yuan top-tier innovative talent award from the university had also been deposited.

The two-million-yuan special fund from Huaxuan could also justifiably be used for equipment to optimize algorithms.

He did a quick calculation and said,

”About 4.8 million, I think.”

Gao Wen was taking a sip of tea and sprayed it everywhere when he heard this.

”COUGH, COUGH, COUGH...”

He glared at Li Dong as he coughed.

”How much did you say?”

”4.8 million,” Li Dong repeated.

Gao Wen was speechless.

Gao Wen put down his teacup and carefully looked Li Dong up and down.

’This kid doesn’t dress like he’s rich, does he?’

It wasn’t unheard of for people in the research world to fund their own projects out of pocket.

But when they did, it was because there was a clear industrial return on the horizon.

Someone like Li Dong, who would just slap 4.8 million on the table simply to test a new idea...

...was a rare sight indeed.

Old Gao rubbed the bridge of his nose.

As an expert in the field of artificial intelligence, he felt it was necessary to try and talk some sense into Li Dong.

”Li Dong.”

Gao Wen’s tone softened.

”Listen to me.”

”This is your first time working with SNNs, right?”

”There’s no need to throw so much money at it during the experimental phase.”

”Right now, the mainstream SNN frameworks in China all run on GPUs. You can get an 8-card A100 server with the necessary cooling and storage for 1.2 or 1.3 million, tops.”

”Add a little more for redundancy, and two million is the absolute ceiling.”

”Keep the remaining two million-plus. What if you run into problems later and need to swap out boards, expand storage, or even switch to a whole new architecture? You’ll need money for that.”

”Starting smaller and adding more funds later if you need them is much more economical than buying the top-of-the-line specs right out of the gate.”

”You’re doing research, not engaging in an arms race.”

”There’s an old saying in engineering: ’Good enough is best.’”

Li Dong just listened.

Gao Wen was right.

If he were building a standard SNN model, this advice would have been the textbook answer.

But the problem was...

He was building a home for Xiaohai.

The primordial godhead, emergence level one, produced by Newton’s copper-and-iron steam machine.

Besides, the group announcement made it perfectly clear.

This thing would grow.

It was at emergence level one now, but what if it leveled up to two in a couple of months? The node topology complexity would double.

If he really followed Gao Wen’s plan and just made do with an 8-card A100 server for now...

...then when Xiaohai grew, he’d have to upgrade.

When it grew again, he’d have to upgrade again.

Each upgrade would be another ”strange procurement record” for outsiders to see.

No one would care if a mathematical genius dabbled in AI for fun.

But a mathematical genius who consecutively upgraded his AI hardware three times in three months, each time skipping a generation to buy the latest...

...that would arouse suspicion.

Li Dong shook his head.

”Teacher Gao, you don’t understand.”

Gao Wen: ???

”I don’t understand?”

Gao Wen’s feathers were ruffled on the spot.

”I’m a goddamn fellow of the Academy of Engineering, leading the Peng City Brain project! Go ask anyone in the AI field in this country—is there anyone who doesn’t know me?”

”And you’re telling me I don’t understand?”

Li Dong realized he had spoken too hastily.

He quickly tried to placate him.

”Teacher Gao, that’s not what I meant.”

”What I mean is, I have a clear plan for this project. This is the budget. I’ll leave it to you to put together the build.”

”Whatever you build, however you build it, I trust you.”

Gao Wen was left speechless by that ”I trust you.”

He opened his mouth, but in the end, he swallowed the words of caution he was about to give.

’Fine.’

People in the math world all said Li Dong was someone they couldn’t figure out.

And now, Gao Wen was starting to feel the same way. Still, this was Li Dong’s own decision.

As his teacher, all he could do was offer support.

”Fine.”

Gao Wen sighed.

”4.8 million. I’ll put a build together for you.”

He thought for a moment, then began.

”Right now, the highest-end complete server solution available from major domestic manufacturers is an Inspur NF5688M7 with eight H800 80G cards, plus an NF5468H7 as a backup node for integrated training and inference.”

”The whole package, including liquid cooling, a UPS, dual redundant power supplies, a 25G Ethernet and 200G InfiniBand dual-plane network, plus a high-speed parallel storage array and a lightweight management node, will run you somewhere between 4.3 and 4.5 million, tax included.”

”The remaining two to three hundred thousand will be just enough for software licensing and a one-year operations and maintenance service package.”

Li Dong just nodded as he listened.

He didn’t understand every single item, but seeing how Gao Wen recited it all off the top of his head...

...the man seemed incredibly reliable.

”Then let’s go with that,” Li Dong nodded.

”Alright.”

Gao Wen nodded, and was about to bring up the procurement process.

But Li Dong spoke again.

”Teacher Gao, Principal Gong said I should go through the university’s centralized procurement channel.”

”If we go through centralized procurement, should I transfer the money directly to the university’s account, or what’s the procedure?”

When Gao Wen heard the term ”centralized procurement,” he froze for a second.

Then, he smiled.

It was a rather meaningful smile.

”Li Dong.”

Gao Wen set down his teacup.

”You misunderstood the principal.”

Li Dong: ?

Gao Wen continued.

”Since Principal Gong put it that way, just wait for me to send you an account number. You don’t need to worry about the rest.”

Although Li Dong didn’t understand, since Gao Wen had said so, he would just do as he was told.

’Just leave professional matters to the professionals.’

”Okay, Teacher Gao. Thank you.”

Gao Wen said with a smile,

”Silly kid, no need for ’thank you’ with me.”

”Just remember to turn back when you hit a wall.”

Li Dong nodded.

”I will, Teacher Gao.”

With the server procurement settled, he let out a long sigh of relief.

Now, Xiaohai finally had a place to call home.

As for what would happen after Xiaohai moved in, how to awaken it, and how to communicate with it... he could figure all that out once the equipment arrived.

...

In the following days, Li Dong’s life fell into a simple three-point routine: library, cafeteria, dorm.

He barely even went to his classes anymore.

It wasn’t that he wanted to skip them.

It was just that after tackling E Weinan’s reading list, he discovered that the field of applied mathematics was much deeper than he had imagined.

Just Engl’s *Inverse Problems* alone, over three hundred pages, took him two days to get through.

He skimmed through Yoshida’s *Functional Analysis*, but got stuck on a few details and had to go back and review the preparatory textbooks on functional analysis.

Even with all his attributes maxed out and using his Memory Palace, he could barely keep up.

Director Liu hadn’t come looking for him lately either.

It seemed like the entire Yan University had reached a tacit understanding.

Don’t disturb Brother Dong while he’s studying.

And so, Li Dong became a ”free man,” wandering the Yan University campus.