Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 232 Silence is Arrogance (6k views, please subscribe)

The weather in Shangnan was great in May, and Jian Xiaojie also chose a good place to eat.

At this time and in this environment, Lü Yao's long-tense nerves finally relaxed a little. At this moment, he seemed to have returned to several years ago in a daze, and he also felt as if he had returned to the past more than ten years ago.

The overly comfortable and pleasant environment made Lü Yao feel as if he had accidentally fallen into the river of time, and the overlapping lives of his past and present seemed to become confused at this moment.

This is not chaos, but a timeless experience.

Immersed in this feeling, Lü Yao felt as if his mind was soaking in a huge jar of warm water, his whole body was light and dizzy, and his mind and body became extremely sensitive in this state. Every breeze that blew over his body, the sounds of the treetops above his head and the people around him were all presented in his mind in great detail.

But Lü Yao's senses remained in sync with theirs.

Everything in the outside world exists, yet none of it can enter Lü Yao's heart.

The feeling was so wonderful that every breath he took brought him an extremely special kind of joy.

Immersed in this state, Lü Yao subconsciously didn't want to think about worldly matters, and he even had no intention of thinking about the company's future or his own future...

He just wanted to lean against the tree, doing nothing and thinking nothing.

Zhang Xiaonan couldn't understand Lü Yao's current state. This state, which was similar to being slightly tipsy but was more detached than being tipsy, was something few people could enter. It was like how people who didn't often enter a state of flow would find it very strange and wonderful when they did.

Although she couldn't understand it, Zhang Xiaonan wasn't disappointed.

Since Lü Yao said, "Let's not talk about work tonight, let's talk about it tomorrow," it means that Lü Yao didn't mean to reject him, but that he really wanted to relax tonight.

Then Zhang Xiaonan went back, and she pulled Jian Xiaojie aside to chat.

Lu Yao continued to immerse himself in his wondrous perception. It felt as if a long time had passed, yet also as if only a few minutes had gone by. Lu Yao's thoughts, which had been scattered and dispersed into everything around him, gradually integrated and solidified.

And so the sounds and movements around us became real again.

Lu Yao turned to look at Jian Xiaojie, who was chatting animatedly with Zhang Xiaonan.

In fact, after visiting Beijing last time, Lü Yao noticed that Jian Xiaojie was particularly enthusiastic towards Zhang Xiaonan, always pulling her aside to chat about this and that. He then realized that Jian Xiaojie had taken a liking to Zhang Xiaonan.

Zhang Xiaonan is indeed very beautiful, with a pure and well-behaved appearance, fair and rosy complexion, and a unique rationality that comes with being a science and engineering student, which gives her a particularly beautiful and delicate charm. Such a woman is actually quite rare in Jian Xiaojie's circle.

Even if there are women who resemble gentle, demure ladies, they lack the refreshing air of a science and engineering woman and the confidence of a highly educated woman compared to Zhang Xiaonan.

A girl with a delicate and refined appearance only becomes special and rare when she possesses these two qualities.

Jian Xiaojie is bisexual, so it's not surprising that she would be attracted to Zhang Xiaonan.

With his forward-looking perspective, Lü Yao knew that the next product Zhang Xiaonan was going to launch was Douyin. Douyin was built from scratch by Zhang Xiaonan, making him an undisputed hero of ByteDance.

With this information gap, Lü Yao was happy to see Zhang Xiaonan being won over by Jian Xiaojie.

As Lü Yao leaned against the wall, lost in thought, Jian Xiaojie, who was chatting enthusiastically with Zhang Xiaonan, suddenly turned around and called out to Lü Yao, "What are you daydreaming about? Come over here and get ready for dinner."

"coming."

Lu Yao got up and sat down at the table where Jian Xiaojie and the others were.

Before long, the restaurant's waiter brought a charcoal brazier and a large casserole to the table, along with several servings of seasonal vegetables.

The lettuce, cabbage, bok choy, radish, and tofu knots looked exceptionally fresh.

In addition, there were the snacks that Jian Xiaojie ordered to go with the drinks: scrambled eggs with toon leaves, boiled peanuts in salt water, cold fish skin salad, and a Huaiyang-style cold dish of pickled bamboo shoots and pork belly. Just the smell of these snacks was enough to make one's mouth water.

Lu Yao rubbed his hands together and said, "We're all old friends, don't be shy, let's eat!"

Everyone laughed and said, "Great!"

No salt is added to the broth; the saltiness and umami flavor of the soup come entirely from the salted pork, which is pan-fried. Therefore, after cooking, not only is the soup delicious, but the salted pork is also tender and tasty.

With the addition of tender spring bamboo shoots, the flavor of this soup is so delicious it's almost overwhelming!
After taking a bite, the people gathered around the table all exclaimed "Mmm~~" in praise.

This "Mmm~~" is the highest praise most people can give to delicious food.

Everyone raved about the savory and delicious pickled bamboo shoot soup, especially the spring bamboo shoots that were soaked in the broth yet retained their fresh taste and flavor, which took the deliciousness of the soup to another level.

After finishing the soup, bamboo shoots, and salted pork, a sip of warmed Shaoxing wine is an absolutely wonderful experience.

However, not everyone likes scrambled eggs with toon leaves.

Mr. Liang and Mr. Shang both really enjoyed the stir-fried eggs with toon leaves. They ate it with relish, taking a sip of Shaoxing wine and then a bite of the stir-fried eggs. Mr. Lü Yao also liked the unique flavor of the stir-fried eggs with toon leaves. However, the younger Zhang Xiaonan didn't particularly like it.

She said the taste of toon leaves was strange.

After hearing this, Jian Xiaojie readily offered the scrambled eggs with toon leaves to Lü Yao and the others, and then asked Zhang Xiaonan for two more portions of Huaiyang cuisine.

Lu Yao and his friends ate and drank, chatting about their recent situations and changes. Since Lu Yao didn't really want to talk about work, everyone spent the evening talking about international affairs, historical stories, or other things they enjoyed.

The dinner was quite enjoyable. After finishing his meal, Lü Yao made an excuse that he wanted to rest and left early, not going to the second round with Jian Xiaojie and the others.

……

The next morning, not long after Lü Yao arrived at the company, General Manager Liang, who was accompanied by Zhang Xiaonan, and General Manager Shang from Xiaomi came to the company again to find Lü Yao.

This time, they started talking about work-related matters.

Liang, CEO of ByteDance, and Zhang Xiaonan have launched Huoshan Video, which targets the lower-tier market. With the help of traffic from "Toutiao", Huoshan Video has achieved good results since its launch, and now its daily active users have exceeded 5000 million.

Zhang Xiaonan, who achieved success in her first battle, was handpicked by ByteDance. After gaining market share in lower-tier cities, ByteDance wanted to create a short video platform targeting high-end, cutting-edge, and trendy people in order to tap the potential of the first- and second-tier city markets.

The lower-tier market is relatively easier to develop.

However, Zhang Xiaonan doesn't have much confidence in short video platforms that target trends, emerging and high-end markets.

But she was experienced and liked challenges, so she decisively took on the task. Then she thought of Lü Yao, who was very good at marketing and had a lot of handsome men and beautiful women under his command.

Lu Yao's MCN company now has many internet celebrities with more than three million followers across the entire network. Under Xiao Nali's training, these internet celebrities have also developed outstanding professional skills.

With Lü Yao's influence, Zhang Xiaonan's operational capabilities, and ByteDance's own core algorithm, Douyin is sure to be able to successfully penetrate the market.

Lü Yao readily accepted Zhang Xiaonan's invitation.

They were originally partners and allies, so this request was reasonable. At the same time, Lü Yao, who had a forward-looking perspective, also knew the size of Douyin in the future. He originally wanted to cooperate with ByteDance because he wanted to get a share of the Douyin pie.

Now that the startup team of Douyin is trying to recruit him, this is exactly what Lü Yao wanted.

ByteDance's upcoming short video app is positioned to avoid direct competition with Kuaishou in lower-tier cities, focusing instead on young users in first- and second-tier cities to create a "trendy and cool" short video community.

Therefore, they plan to introduce full-screen immersive interaction and lower the barrier to creation through strong algorithm recommendations to attract more young people to the new platform.

Then Zhang Xiaonan took out her computer and showed Lü Yao their product design.

As Zhang Xiaonan explained things to him, Lü Yao kept recalling the development history of Douyin in his mind.

In fact, Douyin's early development was not smooth. Although it quickly gained a base of users thanks to its trendy and cool features and the traffic recommendations from ByteDance's products, Douyin's early content was relatively simple, mostly consisting of music and dance, technical editing, and appearance displays.

Their initial strategy was to establish the product's image and create a "trendy and cool" platform through these elements, and this strategic direction was correct.

However, a brand's tone doesn't need to be defined over a year, nor can it be defined solely by these short video genres within a year.

In fact, in the second half of 2017, Douyin should have shifted its platform content and repositioned its platform direction by offering high-end content from multiple genres.

Afterwards, Lü Yao discussed the matter with General Manager Liang and Zhang Xiaonan in the conference room.

For example, after establishing a "trendy and cool" image in the early stages, one can move on to sharing clothing and home decor styles, introducing the "appearance economy," and supporting and developing story-based content.

For internet companies, time is extremely valuable.

In the original timeline, until mid-2018, Douyin's short video content mainly consisted of 15-second videos featuring music, dance, singing, and funny actions. However, in the second half of 2018, Douyin began to enrich its platform content. In August 2018, users with more than 1000 followers received a notification to enable 30-second long video permissions.

In 2019, MCN agencies began to set up shop on Douyin, and drama accounts became very popular. Detective Xiaoyu gained 700 million followers with 6 drama accounts, becoming a traffic phenomenon that year.

That same year, all sorts of organizations began flocking to Douyin, paving the way for their subsequent foray into e-commerce.

These are all essential knowledge points for future marketers, and much of the future marketing will revolve around the Douyin platform.

However, Lü Yao didn't go into too much detail with Zhang Xiaonan. Douyin's future success is inextricably linked to this group of creators. While the platform and content are mutually reinforcing, the efforts of Zhang Xiaonan and the other creators in the platform's development cannot be ignored. They are inherently very capable, and Lü Yao doesn't need to give them excessive guidance; he only needs to offer advice at key junctures to help them save time.

Lu Yao's points gave Zhang Xiaonan and his team some inspiration, but their original strategy remained unchanged. In the early stages, they still needed to use relatively light entertainment methods to turn the first batch of players who joined the platform into "internet celebrities," and then attract more professionals to join.

The inspiration gained from Lü Yao will only accelerate the shift in platform content.

Meanwhile, Mr. Shang also indicated that they could provide them with new product recommendation resources in Xiaomi's app store, and even pre-install their new products on Xiaomi phones.

Mr. Liang and Ms. Zhang Xiaonan were very happy to receive Mr. Shang's verbal promise. After chatting, they took an afternoon flight and flew directly back to Beijing.

But Shang was kept behind by Lü Yao.

Lu Yao asked President Shang, "President Shang, I don't think I've heard anything about Xiaomi Group releasing a new phone this year. Are they preparing something big? Can you give me a sneak peek?"

Mr. Shang raised an eyebrow, looked around, and said with extreme caution, "Oh dear! These are all internal company secrets that I shouldn't tell you, Mr. Lü, but since you are not only a partner of Xiaomi, but also a major shareholder of Xiaomi Interactive Entertainment, and one of our own, I'll tell you first."

"Our new model is facing production difficulties this year!"

Lu Yao raised an eyebrow as well: "What do you mean?"

Mr. Shang clicked his tongue, a hint of self-deprecation in his voice, and said, "What's the most important thing on a phone?"

Lu Yao looked up and thought for a moment: "Screen, motherboard, camera... and CPU."

Mr. Shang continued, "The most important component here is the CPU. As you know, the high-end CPU market has always been dominated by foreign companies. Qualcomm's CPU development has been slow this year, and there's still no news."

"It's not just us who are anxious now; other mobile phone manufacturers are also very anxious."

Lu Yao knew this information. Apple's early chips were mainly from Samsung, but as the Android camp pressed closer, Apple embarked on the path of developing its own chips.

However, there are not many domestic companies that develop their own chips, and most of the domestic companies that develop their own chips focus on chip design, while the manufacturing still relies on foreign chip manufacturers.

In 2015, companies like Xiaomi relied on suppliers for all their mobile phone components. The only thing that truly belonged to Xiaomi on a Xiaomi phone was probably its operating system.

However, many companies do this these days. China lacks a high-end industrial chain, so there's nothing we can do but use chips from others.

However, Lü Yao also knew that in early 2016, Xiaomi's mobile phone supply chain would also encounter problems. They would break up with Samsung, a supplier of mid-to-high-end mobile phone screens. Afterwards, in order to ease the relationship, Lei Jun personally went to Samsung and humbly hoped to start cooperation again.

As they say, Lei Jun is a ruthless man. He manages a fund worth tens of billions of dollars and is the founder and CEO of a company valued at $200 billion. Despite this status, he went to Samsung four times, drank five bottles of red wine at the dinner, and was ultimately tricked by Samsung.

But fortunes change.

Back then, it took Lei Jun five visits to secure a letter of commitment to supply goods, but ten years later, it was the head of Samsung who began to visit Lei Jun.

Lu Yao felt that Lei Jun should experience such a humiliating moment, because Lu Yao was also looking forward to the scene of the Samsung leader coming to visit him ten years later.

Even this time, he wanted to go to Samsung with CEO Lei to drink that expensive but unpalatable red wine.

this!

That's a really good marketing point too.

Therefore, Lü Yao has also prepared a gift for President Lei.

So Lü Yao took a USB drive from his office safe and solemnly handed it to President Shang, saying, "I hope President Shang can personally deliver this USB drive to President Lei. This is a very important strategic development direction for my company going forward."

Mr. Shang took the USB drive from Lü Yao with some surprise. He was curious about what was on it, but Mr. Shang, who had been in the business world for many years, knew that some things were simply forbidden to be seen.

After chatting for a while, President Shang left with the USB drive that Lü Yao had given him and took a plane back to the north.

After seeing President Shang off, Lü Yao drove directly to Huasheng Life Plaza and went straight to Rong Nianqing's office.

At this moment, Rong Nianqing was engrossed in her work in her office. Only after Lü Yao knocked on her office door did Rong Nianqing look up from her desk. When she saw Lü Yao standing at the door, Rong Nianqing immediately leaned back in her chair and said with a smile, "It's rare to see you on the office floor of Huasheng Life, Mr. Lü."

Lü Yao knew that Rong Nianqing was putting him down.

Although he is a shareholder of Huasheng Life, he also contributed a great deal to the establishment of Huasheng Life in the beginning. In fact, Huasheng Life's current business system was established at Lu Yao's suggestion.

Today, Huasheng Life's shopping mall has not only opened its third branch in Shangnan, but also branches in Wuxi, Suzhou and Kunming in the bulk shipping province.

Rong Nianqing plans to open more branches in Changcheng and Luzhou this year and next.

Simultaneously.

Rong Nianqing also continuously established offline delivery service stations throughout the city, centered around the shopping mall.

However, building a logistics system is actually very difficult, especially with established delivery systems like SF Express and JD.com already in place. Therefore, Rong Nianqing's logistics framework construction did not progress smoothly.

In fact, Rong Nianqing didn't need to go through the trouble of building such a large logistics system herself.

All she needs to do is handle logistics and delivery within the same city and surrounding areas.

Logistics in other areas can be handled entirely by JD.com and SF Express. She's quite a large company now and can get very low prices from SF Express and JD.com.

Because of Huasheng Life's excellent reputation, SF Express and JD.com are even willing to work for Huasheng Life at a loss or even at a loss, and then use Huasheng Life's reputation as a partner to expand other businesses.

Therefore, Rong Nianqing's main focus is now on three areas: smart homes, overseas electronic products, and overseas vehicles.

As for the quality control of Huasheng Life, the well-established business mechanism has allowed Rong Nianqing to basically relinquish her responsibilities, especially since she has Wang Shu, a super capable assistant, to help her.

Or rather, Wang Shu is now the true CEO of Huasheng Life.

Wang Shu originally worked in procurement. After joining Huasheng Life, she started from procurement and gradually gained control of Huasheng Life's entire supply chain. She had a thorough understanding of every link in the supply chain. At the same time, she also used people trained by Rong Nianqing's family to build her own team to manage the supply chain.

With Wang Shu's help, Rong Nianqing was able to break free from the daily tedious tasks and focus her work on the front lines of the furniture market.

But none of this concerned Lü Yao, because he was busy with his own affairs.

No wonder Rong Nianqing teased him like that as soon as he arrived.

He was supposed to start a business with me and build our empire together, but as time went on, he went off to build his own empire. Even though we're still in the same alliance, Rong Nianqing still felt a little resentful about leaving so many things to her to deal with.

What does this feel like?

It's like Zhuge Liang had been following Liu Bei in conquering the world, but one day, Zhuge Liang suddenly said to Liu Bei, "Alright, from now on you go and fight against Eastern Wu, and I, Liangzi, will go and deal with Cao Cao of Northern Wei."

Although you are still together, whenever you encounter difficulties in battle, Bei misses Liang very much!

Lu Yao slammed the office door shut behind him and said with a grin, "What kind of talk is that? If I had the time, I'd come here every day to get close to President Rong. Do you think I want to do anything for myself?"

Rong Nianqing suppressed a laugh and went along with Lü Yao's words, saying, "Okay then, you can come work for me. You can name your salary. If you want to be the chairman of my company, I'll be your deputy."

Lu Yao's face immediately hardened: "President Rong! You know me! I've always been absolutely loyal to you! I have absolutely no intention of usurping your position!"

As he spoke, Lü Yao raised his hand to the sky as evidence and swore: "I, Lü Yao, swear to the heavens!"

Rong Nianqing felt inexplicably relieved. She rolled her eyes in response and then said, "Alright, stop joking. You're even making up nonsense like swearing oaths."

Lü Yao chuckled and withdrew his hand.

indeed.

Men can swear oaths as casually as eating and drinking, but posting them on social media requires more caution.

Rong Nianqing continued, "Speak, President Lü, you must have come here for a reason. What is it?"

Lu Yao asked, "Let's check on President Rong. How's your mobile phone business going lately?"

Rong Nianqing raised an eyebrow, then said familiarly, "You're the one who put me in charge of this business. Thanks to the complete domestic supply chain, our mobile phone factory production lines are all in operation and have started shipping. From last year to now, we've shipped nearly ten million units to non-mainland China. However, the phones sold there are all low-end phones, with little profit. Most of the profit comes from tax rebates and policy subsidies."

Are you interested in this business?

Lu Yao shook his head and asked, "So who are our phone screen suppliers?"

Rong Nianqing raised her eyebrows again and said, "Currently, it's mainly BOE, CSOT, Tianma Microelectronics, and Visionox. We'll just use whoever has the goods."

They're all low-end products, nothing fancy.

Lu Yao scratched his chin and thought for a moment, then said, "Would President Rong be interested in supporting a panel manufacturer that belongs exclusively to us?"

(End of this chapter)