Chapter 326 No Matter What
Zhou Hongyi got up from the ground in a panic and patted the dust off his body, but he was very thick-skinned, as if nothing had happened before, and he chatted with Lu Yiming about his "big deal" with a smile. He said to Lu Yiming in an excited tone: "Mr. Lu, I have a project worth 10 billion, and I want to have a good talk with you."
As if afraid that Lu Yiming would not believe him, Zhou Hongyi quickly introduced his resume.
It has to be said that Zhou Hongyi is a bad guy with sores on his head and pus on his feet. He even became the number one public enemy of the entire Internet industry in Xia Country. But he does have talents, and a lot of them.
Like Zhang Xiaolong, Zhou Hongyi has a master's degree.
However, in terms of life experiences, Zhou Hongyi's path was much smoother than Zhang Xiaolong's, and their life templates were completely different.
In 1995, after graduating from graduate school, Zhou Hongyi immediately joined Founder Group, a company with a strong academic background in China. It only took him two years to climb up from programmer, project supervisor, department manager, and finally even to the position of general manager of the group's business unit, and was appointed deputy director of the R&D center.
For a moment, life can be described as glorious.
Compared to many ordinary people, this is a completely lucky start for him.
However, Zhou Hongyi is obviously a very ambitious person. He is unwilling to be inferior to others, and he doesn't want to work for others all his life.
Therefore, after Zhou Hongyi almost reached the top of Founder Group, he, like Zhang Xiaolong, decisively chose to resign.
But unlike Zhang Xiaolong who quit his job and continued to work for his boss, Zhou Hongyi decided to be his own boss.
In October 1998, which was last month, Zhou Hongyi launched the slogan "Let the Chinese people surf the Internet in their own language". He had just turned 28 and he took out his life savings to establish 3721 Technology Co., Ltd.
I have to say that Zhou Hongyi has a very good vision and has indeed grasped the pain points of the times.
In the current Xia country, the Internet is still a new thing. Because it was introduced from abroad, many Internet usage habits and even text symbols are quite unfriendly to the Xia people.
Zhou Hongyi's entrepreneurial project is related to this, and he wants to solve the pain point of ordinary people in Xia Country surfing the Internet in one fell swoop.
Although Lu Yiming disdained this guy's character and hated his 360 family package, from another perspective, as long as he was not Zhou Hongyi's software client, this guy was still worth cooperating with.
Lu Yiming looked at Zhou Hongyi's face, smiled and said, "Okay, let's find a place to talk, or you can treat me to lunch?"
Although it was painful, Zhou Hongyi gritted her teeth and said, "It's my honor to treat Mr. Lu to a meal."
Lu Yiming found a relatively expensive restaurant nearby and asked for a private room.
A few people sat down, and a waiter in a black suit came in with an exquisite menu and asked politely, "Excuse me..."
Lu Yiming waved his hand and said, "Bring up the ten most expensive dishes in your restaurant, and order a bottle of the most expensive wine. This gentleman will pay for it."
"Okay, wait a moment."
The waiter turned and left, Zhou Hongyi's heart was filled with anxiety.
For a project worth billions, just bear with it!
If you don't want to put on your shoes, you can't catch the wolf!
After placing the order, Lu Yiming smiled slightly and looked at Zhou Hongyi calmly: "Boss Zhou, shall we continue our conversation now?"
Seeing that Lu Yiming was finally willing to get to the point, Zhou Hongyi's face improved a little, and she quickly said, "Let's continue. I have just done a special project here, which is a Chinese website. Mr. Lu, I am not exaggerating, this move is definitely the first to create Chinese Internet services. In the future, when Xiaguo netizens go online, they only need to log in to our website and enter Chinese keywords to directly search for the website they want. This change can be called revolutionary, and the market prospects are infinitely broad."
Although these words sounded bold and boastful, Zhou Hongyi was not bragging. He still had a little dream in his heart at the moment, and he believed that he had seen the future development trend of the Internet in Xia Country.
After listening to Zhou Hongyi's endless "bragging", Lu Yiming nodded slightly, showing a somewhat approving expression: "It is indeed very inconvenient to surf the Internet now, especially for netizens in Xia Country. If you want to open a web page, you have to remember the other party's English website address first, which is very troublesome. It's okay for professionals, but for most ordinary people, this way of surfing the Internet has a too high threshold for use. It's not foolproof and not convenient enough."
There is no doubt that from the perspective of the reborn Lu Yiming, Zhou Hongyi's idea is groundbreaking and the product concept is also very successful.
In fact, in the original history, several years later, Zhou Hongyi did become famous for his "Chinese keyword search" technology and began to move towards the peak of his life.
The project he worked on provided real-name website services, which covered more than 90 percent of Internet users in Xiaguo at the time, with more than 80 million users per day and more than 600,000 corporate customers. It occupied 40 percent of the domestic paid search market, occupying an absolute leading position.
In 2001, 3721 was the first Internet company in the country to announce profits, thus safely surviving the Internet winter .
So much so that three years later, Yahoo, which was still an Internet giant at the time, was willing to invest 120 million US dollars to purchase Hong Kong 3721, making Zhou Hongyi rich overnight.
Although he despised Zhou Hongyi's character, Lu Yiming had no grudge against money. How could Lu Yiming refuse such a money-making project that came right to his doorstep?
"Your idea is great. I, Lu Yiming, have invested in this project!"
Zhou Hongyi was overjoyed. He thought that he should be able to get money from Lu Yiming, the sucker, but he didn't expect it to be so easy!
In just one meal's time - no, the meal hasn't even started yet, and the deal has been done?
Zhou Hongyi gave a thumbs up with a flattering expression on her face: "Boss Lu, you really have a good vision! No wonder you have become a CEO at such a young age. You are really a role model for our generation."
This time, I met a guy who is so easy to take the bait. I have to fleece him to death!
Zhou Hongyi rubbed his palms and asked impatiently, "Mr. Lu, how much money do you plan to invest in this project?"
Lu Yiming stretched out his hand and said, "Five million to buy 3721.3% of your shares."
"Five million?"
Zhou Hongyi was a little dumbfounded.
He just said one billion!
This shrinkage is too serious.
"No, Mr. Lu, can't you see the potential of this project? Let me tell you, if this project is successful, it will easily generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue a year. Besides, you paid 10 million for Zhang Xiaolong's crappy email address, so why is mine only 5 million?"
Zhou Hongyi was really anxious, and spoke without thinking, directly saying what he was thinking.
Lu Yiming understood immediately, and then said with a smile: "You may have misunderstood. Anyway, his Foxmail has been made and put on the market, and has achieved good results, with 500,000 users. What about yours? I won't even talk about the results, where is the finished product of your thing?"
Zhou Hongyi was suddenly speechless. If he could produce a product, why would he waste time talking to Lu Yiming?
But five million is too little, far from meeting Zhou Hongyi's psychological expectations.
"Okay, Mr. Lu, I'll go back and think about it first, and then we can talk about cooperation later."
Obviously, Zhou Hongyi was not willing to give up. He thought that although the money in his hand was less, it was barely enough. After the real thing was made, he would come to negotiate with Lu Yiming, and he would definitely be able to sell it for a good price then.
Zhou Hongyi stood up, and Lu Yiming said with a smile: "We've already ordered the dishes, so you have to eat them before you leave? This meal is your treat."
Zhou Hongyi wanted to turn around and leave, but he had just looked at the menu. This meal cost nearly four figures, and it would be a big loss if he didn't eat it. So he snorted heavily to express his dissatisfaction, and then sat down.
Lu Yiming said jokingly: "What do you think? You really don't want this five million?"
Seeing Lu Yiming's eyes, Zhou Hongyi felt very unhappy, so she simply said frankly: "Mr. Lu, to be honest, the money you gave is too little, I can't accept it."
In fact, in this day and age, it is not uncommon to get an angel investment of five million in China. When many entrepreneurs start their business, they probably don’t even have half a million in their hands.
But everything is afraid of comparison!
Zhang Xiaolong can get 10 million from Lu Yiming, but Lu Yiming only gave him 5 million. How can Zhou Hongyi be willing to accept this?
An ordinary person might be frightened by Zhou Hongyi.
But Lu Yiming was not like that. He was originally a programmer and was very familiar with Internet-related software technologies. He sighed and said to Zhou Hongyi, "Old Zhou, five million is actually not a small amount. And for the thing you mentioned, if I take out one-tenth of the money, that is, five hundred thousand, and let Zhang Xiaolong do it, do you think he can do it? Is there any technical difficulty in this thing you mentioned?"
When Zhou Hongyi heard this, he knew that the young man in front of him was not easy to fool. He immediately became anxious: "Boss Lu, you can't be so shameless! It was obviously me who thought of it first, and you are clearly trying to plagiarize my idea!"
It would be fine if someone else said this, but when Zhou Hongyi said this, Lu Yiming just wanted to laugh: "Oh, you can't say that. Have you applied for a patent for your idea? Is it illegal for me to do this?"
Lu Yi is clearly shameless, what can Zhou Hongyi do?
He could only sulk in his heart. He didn't expect that after being despicable all his life, he now met someone even more shameless than him. The feeling was simply indescribable.
"How about it? I'll invest 5 million in you and get 30% of the shares, or I'll spend 500,000 to have someone make a replica. It's your choice."
Zhou Hongyi always thought that he had no bottom line in his behavior, but he never expected that the young man in front of him, Lu Yiming, not only had no bottom line, but he had no bottom line at all.
After a long while, Zhou Hongyi finally sighed and surrendered to Lu Yiming like a bereaved mother: "Okay, Mr. Lu, you win, I accept your suggestion."
Lu Yiming laughed heartily: "That's right. Look at it calmly. At least with my five million, you can produce results faster. Then it will be easy to make money. Life is short, you should make a fortune as soon as possible."
Seeing Lu Yiming's heartless smile, Zhou Hongyi's heart was bleeding.
He always thought that he was the only one who could scheme against others, but he never expected that today he would fall into the hands of a high school student.
It's shameful. It's so shameful!
Zhou Hongyi secretly swore in his heart that when he became rich in the future, he would definitely take back the place he had today!
During this meal, Lu Yiming's mouth was full of oil, but Zhou Hongyi felt that the exquisite dishes in front of him had no taste at all. He wanted to give bad reviews to every dish so that he wouldn't have to pay the bill.
After having a good meal and a good drink, Lu Yiming burped and said to Zhou Hongyi, "Come to the company on Sunday morning to sign the contract."
"Um."
After school in the afternoon, Lei Peilin called Lu Yiming and told him that Zhang Xiaolong had completed the first version of the software and asked him if he had time to come over and take a look .
Lu Yiming was very satisfied with Zhang Xiaolong's efficiency. As soon as the last class in the afternoon was over, he came to Shijinji.
Looking at the dark circles under Zhang Xiaolong's eyes, Lu Yiming couldn't help but tease him, "Old Zhang, did someone punch you in the eye? Half of your face is black."
Zhang Xiaolong yawned and spoke in a listless manner: "I haven't slept for three days and two nights. Mr. Lu, please check if there is any problem with the software. If there is no problem, I will go to bed."
Seeing his condition, Lu Yiming did not dare to delay and quickly tested the software himself.
Zhang Xiaolong has strong technical skills and the software functions are not complicated. Lu Yiming completed the test in just over ten minutes without any bugs and successfully passed the stress test.
Lu Yiming looked around and said to the people around him: "Hey, did you see that? This is called professionalism!"
The software problem was solved, and Lu Yiming felt relieved. He turned to ask Lei Peilin, "Old Lei, how are your activities going?"
Ji Wen Ze used his privileges to intimidate Lu Yiming, but was easily resolved by Lu Yiming. Now the TV station has already lifted the ban, the advertisements continue to run, and the planning of the program is also being carried out in full swing.
Lei Peilin immediately reported the project progress to Lu Yiming: "The preliminaries will be over in two days. After that, we will select 100 works and hand over all the materials to the TV station for the production of the first episode. The second episode will enter the audition voting to select the top 32. The specific operation is still under discussion to make it more topical and attract more attention."
The voting system was created for the second episode. Taking into account that art is highly subjective and that Lu Yiming has no liking for so-called experts, Lu Yiming rejected the previously agreed plan to have an expert jury select the top 32, and instead left it to the audience to decide.
After all, since the auditions, there have been special people in charge, and Lei Peilin and his team have only screened out the trash. There are tens of thousands of submissions, and those who can enter the top 100 all have a certain foundation. No matter who is selected from the top 32, the level will basically not be too bad.
"Well, you guys decide this, especially the TV stations. They are more professional than us in controlling public opinion and audience emotions. You can leave this to them to plan."
All competitions have scripts, and the process must be full of suspense and excitement, so that the audience can be fully engaged and participate throughout the process.
Lu Yiming patted Zhang Xiaolong on the shoulder and praised him generously: "You have completed the task very well. I have paid you 100,000 yuan in advance, and the remaining 900,000 yuan will be transferred to your account soon. Go to bed quickly and get enough rest to prepare for the next project."
