A single sentence from Grace rendered the other three momentarily speechless, their expressions frozen in surprise.

  She continued to look at Richard, not urging him, simply waiting for him to speak first.

  Richard instinctively exchanged a glance with Harry before turning back to Grace. He seemed to have grasped her meaning, yet not entirely.

  After a moment's hesitation, he cautiously sought confirmation, "You mean... you want to invest money in our project?"

  Grace raised an eyebrow and nodded. "If you can convince me, I'm willing to invest."

  Getting a definite answer, Richard couldn't help but press further with confusion, "Does your family have investments in the artificial intelligence field?"

  Grace pursed her lips and shook her head.

  Richard asked again, "What about relatives? Or some other reason?"

  Seeing Richard's cautious attempt to gauge her background, Grace couldn't help but smile. "None of those. I find you quite interesting. You prepared your materials and went everywhere seeking investment, even working as a server to sneak into events for a chance. Yet now that a potential investor has come to you, you're suddenly wary. Do I look like a scammer?"

  Both Richard and Harry shook their heads rapidly. Harry grinned, "It's not that. We're completely broke right now. The project is stalled due to lack of funds. There's nothing left for anyone to scam us out of."

  "Richard is just a very meticulous person," Harry added. "Besides, I also feel it's a bit unusual for someone to offer us investment money out of the blue."

  "Out of the blue?" Grace's starry eyes sparkled with amusement as she shook her head. "It's not for no reason. If your program is truly as good as you say, won't it make a lot of money in the future?"

  "I have my motives too, and mine are the most straightforward of all: to make money!"

  Just then, the restaurant owner arrived with their food. Seeing this, Grace said, "Let's eat first. Use this time to organize your thoughts and figure out how to convince me to open my wallet later."

  Richard and Harry nodded somewhat woodenly, clearly still a bit stunned.

  With a few extra dishes ordered, the two young men's appetites noticeably improved—mainly because they hadn't been able to afford a decent meal in a long time.

  Watching them wolf down their food, Grace felt a pang of sympathy and asked casually, "How many people are in your team? All classmates from the same department?"

  After swallowing his mouthful, Harry shook his head. "Not all. There are eight of us total. Six are from the Computer Science department, and two are junior Mathematics majors. We handle the programming and development, while the two juniors handle some of the data modeling and calculations."

  Grace nodded in understanding and asked another question. "Is developing this program very expensive? If you actually secure investment, how much budget are you looking for initially?"

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  The two exchanged another look. Richard spoke first, "Estimating the total budget is impossible. A program from start to a fully operational state requires countless rounds of optimization, each costing money. So, we can only ask for the first round of investment. Once the core development is complete, we'd seek subsequent funding to gradually refine it to its optimal state."

  Harry chimed in to elaborate, "There's also the 'servers,' the 'tech stack,' 'multifunctional technical requirements,' and 'third-party data integration'... all of that costs money. Many people might think developing a program is just a bunch of coders typing away. It's really not, especially in our field, artificial intelligence. It's more complex, has a longer cycle, and allows for less margin of error. That's why Richard earlier thought you might not understand. Actually, we're more worried about investors not understanding where the money goes."

  "But your current product is still a half-finished prototype. Are you confident you can achieve what you've described?" Grace looked at the two.

  "Optimistically speaking, about sixty to seventy percent confidence."

  Grace was slightly surprised. She knew this team ultimately succeeded, but she hadn't expected Richard's confidence during development to be just above the passing mark, and that was under an optimistic outlook.

  Richard's next words took her even more by surprise. He suddenly put down his bowl, looking at Grace with an unusually serious expression. "I don't recommend you invest in our project."

  Not only was Grace taken aback by his sudden statement, but Harry was also stunned.

  Richard explained, "Investment carries risk. If we fail to deliver, your money would vanish without a trace."

  Hearing this, Harry also silently lowered his head.

  Grace was more puzzled than surprised. She asked, confused, "If there are so many uncertainties and you don't have full confidence, why have you been seeking investment from all those major corporations?"

  Richard clarified, "Because the R&D teams in these companies involved in AI are essentially on a path of trial and error every day. Major corporations have the capital to absorb those trial costs. If that cost is applied to us, we might create a miracle. Even if no miracle happens, for them, it's just a normal cost of experimentation."

  Grace understood. Simply put, Richard meant that big corporations could afford to take the risk. He didn't want her, as an individual, to gamble with his team. If they failed, she would lose everything.

  "You're actually pretty nice!"

  Grace remarked with a playful laugh. She seemed detached, but throughout their conversation, she had been subtly identifying the key points.

  Her expression grew slightly more serious as she looked at Richard. "So, according to what you're saying, the risk in this entire venture is entirely on the investor's shoulders. If it succeeds, great, everyone wins. If it fails, the money is gone. Is that it?"

  The words sounded a bit blunt, but that was indeed the essence. Richard nodded somewhat awkwardly.

  Grace gave a light nod. "So, investment carries risk, and the risk lies with the investor. All that professional jargon you mentioned—I genuinely don't understand it, and I don't need to. Because I'm the investor. Investors only care about the rate of return. Since this is a high-risk venture, what I demand is a high return."

  She paused briefly, then got straight to the point. "A 30-70 split. I take seventy percent."

  Upon hearing this, Richard and Harry exclaimed in unison, "You're really going to invest?"

  They hadn't even mentioned an amount yet.

  Grace nodded. "I'll take the gamble. If I win, I should stand to make quite a bit, right?" After all, artificial intelligence was already a major trend, practically integrated into daily life.

  Richard took a deep breath. Grace's decisiveness completely exceeded his expectations. After thinking for a moment, he still spoke up, "We need two hundred thousand dollars for the initial phase. You—"

  "No problem," Grace said breezily. "Since I've decided to invest, you don't need to worry about money anymore. Just focus entirely on the R&D and strive to make it the best you can. That's the greatest return for me, your investor."

  With Grace's words reaching this point, Richard felt it would be hypocritical to refuse further. His heart swelled with a mix of excitement and gratitude, his lips trembling slightly as he spoke, "An 80-20 split. We'll take twenty!"

  This was his gesture of sincerity, his way of thanking Grace.