What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 601 The Grand Gathering (4K)

The Lingang Internet Conference was packed with industry leaders, but the heads of the three giants were still the most watched.

This year's conference theme is "Insight into the Future".

As Pony entered, he greeted everyone while mentally reviewing his speech.

"Alibaba is coming," Tencent CEO Ren Yuxi whispered a reminder.

Pony glanced to the side and saw Ma Chuan striding along, looking particularly spirited.

"I thought you weren't coming this time," Ma Chuan said with a smile after shaking hands.

Pony knew that Ma Chuan was implying something; this was simply the territory of Silicon Carbon Data, and Penguin had a conflict with it.

However, he remained remarkably calm. Tencent had been secretly supporting Pinduoduo, and the related data showed an astonishing performance, making it seem more and more like a surprise attack originating from the lower-tier market.

Especially considering Alibaba's statements regarding Pinduoduo, Pony Ma has a vague sense of familiarity with this situation, which may well become Alibaba's "Penguin WeChat moment."

Tencent knows best the pain of a deep cut, and would be happy to let Alibaba try it too.

Ma Chuan chatted for a while but couldn't get Pony to cooperate. He felt that Pony was very stable, so he gave up.

Pony watched Ma Chuan's departing figure, and had just turned to chat with Ren Yuxi for a few words when her expression suddenly froze as she saw Liu Chiping appear.

He felt conflicted, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the other person getting closer.

“Martin, oh no, I mean Mr. Liu.” Pony took a few steps. “Long time no see.”

Hearing the obvious difference in how he was addressed, Liu Chiping remained silent for two seconds before extending his right hand: "Long time no see, welcome to Lingang."

Pony shook hands with the former president of Tencent, but the two quickly fell silent.

The current president, Ren Yuxi, waited for several seconds before smiling and greeting him, "President Liu, you're doing well in the overseas market."

Liu Chiping grunted and said briefly, "The overseas short video market hasn't really taken off yet. You'll see in the future."

Seeing that Ren Yuxi hesitated and didn't seem inclined to discuss things further in this setting, he said, "You guys talk, Mr. Yu and I have something else to discuss."

The former president of Tencent is heading towards becoming the head of silicon carbide.

Pony suddenly lost interest. He had originally wanted to chat with Bi Sheng of Pinduoduo, but now he went to find his seat in front of him.

When Liu Chiping arrived at Yu Xing's side, he saw him chatting enthusiastically with He Xiaopeng from Alibaba's mobile business group. He was a little puzzled, but he still greeted the man he already knew.

"Mr. Yu, don't forget to give him a heads-up." He Xiaopeng put his arm around Yu's shoulder as if he were the one in charge of silicon carbide.

"No problem, no problem, I just couldn't remember for a moment," Yu Xing replied repeatedly.

He Xiaopeng left with a smile, hoping that Mr. Yu could really give him a good talking-to so that he could leave Alibaba as soon as possible and devote himself to the car manufacturing business.

Yu Xing greeted everyone in a short while, picked up his teacup, and asked while taking a sip of tea, "President Liu, are you tired from flying? How are you?"

Liu Chiping should have arrived in Shanghai the day before yesterday, but due to flight delays, he only arrived last night.

He replied, "Everything is fine, the work is all arranged, I'll go to New York next week."

Now that we're back, we should communicate more with the silicon carbon data team. Douyin (TikTok) has taken the lead despite being a latecomer, and Mus needs to learn from their experience.

Yu Xing nodded slightly, glanced around the room, and asked, "Would you like to talk to Pony? I'll take you to meet him?"

Hearing this tone, Liu Chiping was both amused and exasperated: "No need, I've already spoken to him."

Yu Xing asked with concern, "Did you discuss the non-compete agreement with him?"

"..." Liu Chiping was taken aback. "No."

"So what did you talk about when you greeted him?" Yu Xing frowned. "Why didn't you take this opportunity, while the feelings were still fresh, to quickly eliminate any potential risks? What if he really was removed from Mus's position? Wouldn't that be losing both his reputation and his wealth?"

Liu Chiping thought...that made sense, but it was shameless.

Yu Xing was a man of action. After looking left and right, he finally made eye contact with Bi Sheng on the other side and waved to him, calling him over.

Then, he immediately stood up: "Mr. Liu, come on, I'll take you to him."

Liu Chiping was still reluctant: "...It's about to start, so let's not go. Let's go later."

I can't even imagine what would happen if we really got into a fight in front of so many people.

"Then you wait here." Yu Xing was quite familiar with Liu Chiping's indecisive nature. Seeing that he didn't move, he walked over to Pony without thinking twice.

Liu Chiping reached out to stop him, not daring to speak loudly, but his soft calls were ignored, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

The meeting was about to begin, and the leaders were waiting to go on stage, while the guests were almost all seated.

The moment the head of the silicon carbon company made that move, heading straight for the head of the penguin company, almost everyone's attention was drawn to him.

Really? It can't be, right?
However, neither of them could say for sure.

A similar sentiment arose in the hearts of many people: Fight! Fight!
As Pony saw Yu Xing approaching rapidly, his nerves tightened. For a fleeting moment, a thought crossed his mind: although he had punched Yu Xing last time, surely Yu Xing wouldn't punch him back in this kind of situation after so long?

However, if someone surnamed Yu could cry on the spot back then, it's not impossible for him to do something like this.

His business has grown bigger, not that his character has improved.

Coincidentally, Ren Yuxi, who was sitting next to him, had even stood up.

“Pony, stop messing with Liu Chiping’s non-compete agreement.” Yu Xing ignored the stares and speculations of others, and disregarded Ren Yuxi’s menacing gaze. He approached and whispered the matter to him.

Pony frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "You want to talk about this here?"

“This is important, but unnecessary,” Yu Xing said solemnly. “He’s just going to Singapore for a job.”

Pony said sarcastically, "He's working in Singapore, so why is he attending the Lingang meeting today?"

“If we can’t reach an agreement on this, the cooperation between Pinduoduo and Tencent will have to be put on hold.” Yu Xing’s tone was very calm. He glanced at Bi Sheng, who had been brought over, and said with certainty, “President Bi is on the same side as me, and Alibaba also has the intention to invest.”

Pony retorted angrily, "Yu Xing, this is completely different. Are you using this to blackmail me? It was Martin who called to persuade Tencent and Pinduoduo to cooperate."

He then looked at Bi Sheng with a questioning gaze.

It was only when Bi Sheng heard Brother Yu speak that he realized the role he had played. Now, seeing Pony's gaze, he steeled himself, nodded, and thought, "Damn it, if this really fails, I'll consider it repaying him!"
“Yes, Liu Chiping mainly considered that this cooperation would benefit Tencent, which is why he put aside his concerns and called you,” Yu Xing said calmly. “We didn’t expect Tencent to do that either. You should think about the non-compete agreement issue quickly and give us an answer.”

He held up three fingers: "Three..."

Pony thought it was three days, but then he heard the next word.

Yu Xing: "Two..." Pony's mind raced: WeChat Moments, a decisive move, Martin, e-commerce business, strategic situation...

Yu Xing: "One."

Pony replied coldly, "Fine."

Yu Xing thought to himself, "Okay."

He turned around and took Bi Sheng back.

The heads of silicon carbon and Tencent had a clear exchange, but they both spoke in low voices, seemingly excited but managing to control themselves well.

They came unexpectedly and left abruptly.

A buzz of discussion broke out in the room; everyone was curious about what was going on.

Yu Xing led Bi Sheng past the seats on Alibaba's side, and stopped for a few more minutes to chat. Yu Xing recommended Pinduoduo, a vertically segmented e-commerce platform, to Ma Chuan, jokingly hoping to receive investment in the future, thus making up for a part of what he had said earlier.

"Hey, no, Mr. Yu..." Bi Sheng finally couldn't help but ask when he reached his seat on the silicon carbon side, "You..."

He was certainly aware of the competition between Tencent and Liu Chiping, but he didn't expect it to be resolved in such a rash way. Pinduoduo's fate seemed to change back and forth in a short period of time.

Now that I've calmed down, my back is almost sweating.

"You're being reckless, but what if you don't agree in those three seconds?" Bi Sheng was still stunned.

“Then give me a specific time after you finish counting, 3, 2, 1, I’ll give you three days to think it over.” Yu Xing said with a hint of slyness, “Words on the lips, isn’t that how you extort money on the spot?”

If Pony doesn't respond, then that's when the second half of the sentence will appear.

Bi Sheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave a wry smile: "Fine, fine, you're playing with Pinduoduo's life. No wonder you're sitting in the front while I'm going to the back to calm down."

He walked back to his seat, still feeling a bit shaken.

Liu Chiping, who was standing next to him, had already figured out the answer and asked incredulously, "He agreed? How did he do that??"

He never imagined that the non-compete agreement that had been troubling him could be resolved so quickly.

Yu Xing replied succinctly, "I still have lingering feelings."

Liu Chiping felt that Pony's punch earlier was indeed rather light.

“Pinduoduo’s rapid growth is something Tencent can see. Tencent has far more business rivalries with Alibaba than we have. For years, it has wanted to make a move against Alibaba’s e-commerce business. Now that it has the opportunity, why would it give it up?” Yu Xing said fairly. “Pony is a qualified leader. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have removed you in the first place.”

Public matters are public matters, and private matters are private matters. Pony did not put his personal interests aside for the sake of public matters in the past, which led to Ren Yuxi replacing Liu Chiping. Now, with Pinduoduo demonstrating its significant, undervalued value, he will naturally not put his public interests aside for the sake of private matters either.

Liu Chiping said with a wry smile, "You don't have to stab me every time you want, and you just resolve this like this?"

Yu Xing added, "He knows I might not be qualified, and that I might act impulsively."

Liu Chiping was stunned and speechless.

After a while, he saw the leader go on stage to give the opening speech and asked, "Is this what they call treating people with sincerity?"

Yu Xing turned his head and smiled, "Does it work?"

Liu Chiping honestly replied, "It works."

Yu Xing nodded: "Then let's listen to what the leader has to say."

The leader's speech was really uninteresting, but thankfully it didn't last long.

As a local expert, Zhong Zhiling was the second to take the stage representing Silicon Carbon Data Company. Without a prepared speech, he fluently discussed Silicon Carbon Data's most eye-catching short video business.

Although Silicon Carbon Data has not officially acquired Douyin, the industry is aware of this news and it is not surprising. Meanwhile, DigiData has already reached a cooperation agreement with 360 and Blackstone to sell Universal Key. Despite facing heavyweight competitors, there is a consensus that Douyin has a leading prospect.

This consensus now has an impact not only in the industry but also among users.

Zhong Zhiling spoke at length, without mentioning Douyin's commercialization plans, but only looking ahead to the impact of the development of short videos.

Compared to the somewhat rigid Chung Chih-ling, Ma Chuan was much more relaxed and natural on stage.

"It's particularly interesting to talk about the future this year, standing here in Lingang. As everyone knows, Carbon Silicon Data Company and Mr. Yu are recognized as pioneers of the mobile internet."

"Lingang has greatly enriched the internet ecosystem, and this ecosystem is the future of the internet."

"An ecosystem needs multiple species. The more species there are, the healthier the ecosystem is. Only when more people participate can we truly achieve harmonious coexistence and interdependence."

"We are now transitioning from the IT era to the DT era, and the differences between these two eras will be an important driver of future ecosystem performance."

Ma Chuan proposed a definition for the DT era, a term he discussed last March. DT stands for Data Technology Age, a stage of data technology development centered on serving the public and stimulating productivity, emphasizing the value of data.

This also reflects Yu Xing's discussion of the different stages of internet development back then.

Alibaba has cloud computing, is also making short videos, and is expanding into various other businesses. It is the perfect fit to emphasize both inclusiveness and data.

As Liu Chiping listened carefully to President Ma's speech, he noticed that he was about to conclude and commented in a low voice, "It seems a bit superficial and not very substantial."

"It's alright, it's a decent speech," Yu Xing said. "That's just how Jack Ma is. We can't expect every speech of his to be of such high value. Alibaba is indeed very strong now."

Liu Chiping wanted to continue the discussion, hoping to glean some insight into whether Jack Ma's words reflected a corner of Alibaba's strategy, but then he saw Yu take out his phone.

A moment later, Yu Xing feigned surprise and said, "The mountain peak has reappeared."

Liu Chiping raised an eyebrow: "Who did that short seller short this time?"

Yu Xing swiped his phone and replied, "It's Huishan Dairy, a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which has been found to have seriously falsified its claim of 100% self-produced alfalfa."

Liu Chiping thought back for a moment, but he wasn't quite sure what kind of company it was.

He simply said, "Then it must be a fake."

"You didn't even see the short-selling report?" Yu Xing put away his phone. "You're already convinced this company is fabricating data?"

"The influence of Guoshanfeng is still very significant." Liu Chiping wasn't sure if President Yu knew the true impact of Guoshanfeng, so he simply explained it to him and introduced the evaluation from Wall Street, and said with certainty, "When it comes out, it means that Huishan Dairy is definitely guilty of fraud. I can't say 100%, but it's about 99.999% certain."

Yu Xing clicked his tongue in amazement: "Even you believe it so easily, so its influence must be very wide."

Liu Chiping nodded slightly solemnly: "Indeed, it is the king of short sellers, and its reach is very deep. Didn't it point out back then that Alibaba quietly transferred control of Alipay? It is quite powerful. But it has never had any designs on Tencent."

Yu Xing glanced at the victims still speaking on stage, then at Liu Chiping beside him, thinking that this year's event was also a gathering of victims.

(End of this chapter)