Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 315 Billionaires and Eating and Drinking Men and Women

Zhang Chao slept until after 10 o'clock in the morning. He was shocked when he opened his mobile phone. The entire screen was filled with text messages, emails, and missed calls. He couldn't even keep up with them all. It had never been so lively before. The small screen felt like it was crowded with people.

After browsing them one by one, they can be roughly divided into three types:
The first type is still various invitations from strangers and unfamiliar organizations. The types of activities range from dinners, dances to public welfare speeches. There are even several American universities that want to award Zhang Chao honorary doctorates.

Zhang Chao basically pretended not to see this kind of messages and did not even reply.

The second type is the various people I have met in recent years, including writers and some businessmen. Some of them are playing the victim, hoping to be given some privileges on Weibo so that the recommendation of a certain book can be more easily seen by users; some are taking advantage of the power of others, warning themselves that it is better to pin a certain account to the top, so that Weibo can become a propaganda platform.

Business people are more normal. For example, senior student Wu Wenhui proposed how to advertise Qidian.com's novels; the others are basically advertising cooperation.

Zhang Chao is quite serious about this type of people. He will block those who try to gain sympathy or bully others. If they want to advertise, he will tell them that Weibo has no plans to introduce advertising at least in the near future.

Rushing to realize cash and drinking poison to quench thirst have always been the main reasons for the short life of Internet products. Now that "Chaotide Culture" has a good cash flow, the first priority must be to increase the user scale.

The third type attracted Zhang Chao's attention - including Xinlang, Simon & Schuster Publishing, and many large companies and venture capital firms in China and the United States wanted to invest in Weibo, and some even proposed to acquire it directly.

This was quite unexpected for Zhang Chao. In the past, Chaoxi Culture had received investors before, and even Huayi wanted to take a bite of the swan meat. However, because the entire company's business flow was basically maintained by Zhang Chao's works, neither side was very willing, and the talks often ended in failure.

But things are different with the specific social networking product "Weibo". The amazing explosive power demonstrated in just a few hours made investors salivate, especially since the user base of "Weibo" spans the two major countries of China and the United States. It is not impossible for it to become the next face of the Internet.

It is estimated that these companies must have sent the investment intention emails to Huang Jiefu in addition to himself, but to be cautious, Zhang Chao still forwarded them all to Huang Jiefu.

Soon, Huang Jiefu called back: "Boss, I received all these emails! You are such a genius. I never thought that Weibo would be so successful! ..."

Zhang Chao immediately interrupted Huang Jiefu's flattery and asked, "What do you think of these investments?"

When talking about his profession, Huang Jiefu became excited and his voice became louder: "I think we should first accurately value Weibo! It is definitely a business project worth more than gold!"

Zhang Chao asked: "How much do you think it is worth now?"

Huang Jiefu said: "As for valuation, the most important thing is to find a company or product that can be compared. I think in terms of time and size, the most suitable benchmark for Weibo is the recently popular Facebook - Boss, do you know Facebook?"

Zhang Chao said "hmm" to indicate that he knew. Huang Jiefu continued, "Facebook is an online social media founded in 2004. Its initial valuation was 500 million US dollars. In April last year, they just completed their latest round of financing.

两家风投公司一起投入2000万美元获得4%的股份，那估值差不多就是5亿美金，去年底它的用户规模是1200万。今年预计会突破5000万。

It is said that Microsoft is also going to invest in it, and the valuation may exceed 50 billion US dollars! ..."

Huang Jiefu was so excited when he talked about investment that he couldn't stop talking. Zhang Chao immediately interrupted him and said, "Just tell me, what is our valuation?"

Huang Jiefu was silent for a while on the other end of the phone, obviously thinking, and then he said: "Based on the current user scale and growth rate, our user scale this year is about one million. If we need to raise funds in the short term, then the valuation - I think 8 million to 10 billion US dollars is appropriate."

Huang Jiefu's voice trembled a little when he said this. Although he has always had the ambition to operate "Tide Culture" and list it on the stock market, he has always lacked a strong operating handle.

No matter how exciting it is to make quick money by taking advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, it is not the right way after all, and it cannot be included in the company financial statements of "Tide Culture". Everyone can only make money together in silence, and it cannot replace the temptation of becoming the CEO of a listed company.

When Zhang Chao first talked about the idea of ​​"Weibo" in the company, Huang Jiefu didn't take it too seriously. He believed that the upper limit of "Weibo" was probably a domestic "forum", and no matter how successful it was, its days would soon come. As for its lower limit, it was hard to say, and it might just become the "Zhang Chao Book Club".

Unexpectedly, Zhang Chao became the most discussed cultural figure in the United States in recent times while riding a sightseeing train in the United States, and also brought "Weibo" to fame.

Excluding the more than half an hour of downtime, Weibo only ran for 10 hours at most, but the total number of users has exceeded 30.

Although Weibo claims to be a professional social media for "recommending books and exchanging readings", Facebook only opened registration to Harvard University students! It was not until one year later that other university users were allowed to register, and another year later that non-college users were allowed to register.

As a result, it is now the fastest growing social media in the world. Everyone now understands the principle of "only when it is vertical enough can it break through the circle".

When Huang Jiefu thought that he might soon become the CEO of a company valued at tens of billions of dollars, he couldn't help but tremble slightly along with the sound.

Zhang Chao was not surprised to hear this. The Internet is now in a period of rapid development. Although it has experienced the bursting of the bubble and is no longer the crazy era when a website could be sold for tens of millions of dollars, the investors who have settled down pay more attention to the long-term prospects of the project, making them more willing to concentrate their funds on the future.

Social media, like online shopping, is the brightest star among all Internet projects. As long as they can find the right angle and gather a group of users, investors will flock to it like flies smelling blood.

Although Zhang Chao has the knowledge of later generations, it cannot replace the specific financing and operating details. After thinking about it, he gave Huang Jiefu general guidance: "Jeff, no matter what the valuation is, first ensure the interests of you 'veterans'.

You must complete the new company structure that I asked you to design before as soon as possible. If you don’t, you won’t get the financing.

In addition, if you accept funds from the United States, you must be extremely cautious. It is best to build a firewall and never let them interfere with operations - of course, it is best not to do so domestically as well.

Before you go back, you must set up the American company "Tide Culture". It cannot be an empty shell anymore. You need to recruit people and conduct business.

There are so many good books and authors recommended on Weibo, we should also try to sign a few of them, especially those with great commercial potential..."

Huang Jiefu listened and took notes, and finally confirmed all the precautions with Zhang Chao before saying "goodbye".

After hearing the hang-up sound from the mobile phone receiver, Zhang Chao sat on the sofa in a daze. After a long while, he was awakened by the growling sound from his stomach.

Then he shook his head in self-mockery - he had clearly decided to withdraw from the management of "Tide Culture" before coming to the United States, but he accidentally got them a big project, and the aftermath seemed to be very long, and it was impossible for him to completely take care of it.

It is true that "the tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop"! ... With these contradictory and unrealistic thoughts, Zhang Chao began to find food for himself - there was nothing in the apartment, after all, no one lived there, and there were only a bunch of strange drinks in the refrigerator that were only available in the United States. Opening the door was like setting off fireworks.

There was coffee, and even a coffee machine that looked very expensive, but Zhang Chao didn't have the habit of drinking it on an empty stomach.

I opened my phone and put it down with melancholy - in 2007, let alone the United States, there were no takeout orders available in China.

After much thought, I could only drag my body, which was in the advanced stage of laziness, to wash up, put on casual clothes, and go downstairs to find something to eat.

The apartment building that Huang Jiefu bought was renovated at great expense two years ago when the U.S. real estate market was hot. It is a historic brick and stone building. When Zhang Chao arrived last night, it was already late at night. He was in a hurry and did not take a closer look.

When I went downstairs today, I felt the historical and modern details of this building. For example, the elevator is made by Toshiba in Japan, but it is decorated like an old-fashioned fence elevator, which is very old-fashioned.

Walking out of the building and looking back, you will find that the exterior of this apartment building retains the decorative details of the late 19th century, with exquisite stone carvings and towering window frames; there is a spacious front porch in front of the gate, decorated with exquisite wrought iron railings and walls covered with ivy.

Symmetrical flower beds are lined on both sides of the entrance, with tulips and violets blooming, which are common in spring.

The building faces a narrow two-lane street with few pedestrians, and it takes a while for a car to pass by. The street is lined with tall sycamore trees with dense branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows.

A gust of wind came, as if passing through Zhang Chao's soul. His body and mind, which had been exhausted for many days, finally felt a little relaxed.

Walking along the street to the corner, you can see a huge donut on the lintel of a store, which should be selling sweets and cakes. Zhang Chao hesitated for a moment, but his hunger urged him to step into the store.

Ten minutes later, he regretted it.

Looking at the two donuts of other flavors left in the paper bag in his hand, Zhang Chao casually threw them into the trash can on the side of the road. Then, with a frown and a stiff neck, he looked around for a coffee shop.

The donuts from this shop made him choke!

Zhang Chao's Chinese stomach's highest praise for sweets is "not too sweet, really delicious!" However, the sweetness of American sweets is definitely so high that the customer would want to develop diabetes after eating one bite.

Fortunately, there were many coffee shops in this old neighborhood, and Zhang Chao quickly soothed his throat with a cup of unsweetened American coffee in a small shop called "The River Café".

Sitting in the coffee shop, Zhang Chao began to miss the food from his hometown - whether it was Fu Hai's fish balls, lychee meat, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, sweet bamboo shoots, fried oyster cakes, or Yanjing's roast duck, copper pot shabu-shabu meat, sesame cakes, and even Shanxi's noodles and Guangdong's white-cut chicken.

My saliva is almost dripping!

I have been out for 10 days without realizing it. Except for the meal at Sichuan Restaurant in Chinatown, I have eaten almost all Western food. Although there are many varieties, it still cannot satisfy my craving for Chinese food.

This made Zhang Chao think about food.

Zhang Ailing's "Lust, Caution" reveals the difference between the "hearts" of women and men - the sentence about women is not suitable for children, but the sentence about men is quite interesting: "To capture a man's heart, you must first pass through his stomach."

Some people may say that this is too biased, and that there are always men who are not greedy in the world - but artists are never responsible for "facts". Artists want to capture the moment with the strongest emotions among thousands of "facts".

"To capture a man's heart, you must first pass through his stomach." This is not the truth, but it is convincing enough in the context of the novel. It also reveals the subtle connection between food and emotion.

For human beings, food has spiritual attributes that go beyond just food and clothing. People use food to comfort each other, but also to hurt each other.

It can be a bond to maintain relationships, a tool to demonstrate power, a symbol of cultural identity, and a carrier of personal and collective memory.

As for the food in literary works, Zhang Chao was most impressed by the feasts that Master Zhu prepared for his daughters in Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman. When Zhang Chao first saw it, he just thought it was Master Zhu's expression of love for his daughters, and he hoped that his daughters could feel their father's love from the food he cooked.

But later, as he grew older and gained more experience, Zhang Chao saw another meaning in it - food was also a tool for Master Zhu to demonstrate his "dominance" in the family and thus "control" his three daughters.

Because of this big meal every week, the three daughters had to return home on time to enjoy it. The atmosphere at the dinner table was not warm at all, but full of repression and resistance.

After Master Zhu lost his sense of taste, he could no longer taste the flavor of food, resulting in abnormal seasoning. His three daughters all tasted it, but for various reasons they did not say anything, or did not dare to say it.

When Master Zhu finally let go of his authority as the head of the family and re-engaged in family life with Jinrong, becoming a husband and a father again, his sense of taste finally recovered.

With this experience, Zhang Chao couldn't help but think of the novel "Homeland" he was currently writing.

Would Lin Rongsheng face such a problem when he was in a foreign land? Although there were Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, the food there was not the taste of his hometown after all.

He thought of Lin Xiaohai again - the prototype of Lin Xiaohai was actually a classmate of his in elementary school. Once, the classmate's father brought a lot of chocolates and candies from the United States, and he brought them to school.

These were extremely rare in Fuhai in the early 90s, so this classmate became the "king" for a few days.

But after the chocolates and candies were all gone, the "king" had no choice but to step down sadly - he began a new round of expectations, looking forward to when his father would come back from the United States; if his father didn't come back, he would ask someone to bring the chocolates back.

Here, food is not only the most intimate shared imagination between him and his father, but also a child’s first experience of exercising “power”.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chao got up, paid the bill, and went back to his apartment to continue writing his new novel.

At this moment, compared to becoming a billionaire, Zhang Chao hopes to write the story of "Eat Drink Man Woman" in his heart.
(End of this chapter)