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

Chapter 393 Liu Tongxiong's Incomprehension

When Liu Tongxiong heard over the phone that they wanted to sign a contract with Li Ziqi, one of his artists, he was visibly taken aback.

In April 2017, Li Ziqi's performance was quite good; she could already be called a "big internet celebrity," but to say she was a "superstar" would be an understatement.

Liu Tongxiong's Weinian MCN has many other artists under its umbrella, several of whom have a greater influence than Li Ziqi. These artists, both big and small, can bring Weinian nearly 10 million yuan in revenue every month.

Although Li Ziqi's influence is not particularly large at present, Liu Tongxiong can see that Li Ziqi's potential far exceeds that of other people in the company.

That's why he personally went to Sichuan and visited Li Ziqi three times to seek collaboration.

Liu Tongxiong's foresight is indeed sharp. Although his Weinian MCN has incubated some KOLs and brought him a lot of revenue during the period of favorable internet development, revenue is revenue and profit is profit. The key is that the incubation of internet celebrities is difficult to replicate.

Just like the carefully selected Ah Dong, the Li eyebrow pencil of Mei Yi, and the Viviya of Qian Xun.
Regardless of the character of these influencers, their ability to drive sales during their rise to fame is undeniable.

Before 2020, if you could incubate any of the above-mentioned internet celebrities, billions of dollars would be within your grasp.

Liu Tongxiong certainly doesn't have such foresight right now, but his business acumen and sharp mind are exceptional. The fact that Lü Yao personally called to request an internet celebrity must mean that the celebrity has immense value.

So Liu Tongxiong used a feigned retreat as a tactic, laughing and saying, "Mr. Lü, what do you need her for? I'm using her right now. Why don't you find someone else?"

Upon hearing Liu Tongxiong's reply, Lü Yao smiled inwardly, realizing that the man was testing him.

So Lu Yao said on the phone, "Yes, I know you're using it, Mr. Liu, that's why I took the liberty of calling you to discuss it with you."

As he spoke, Lü Yao threw out his bargaining chip: "Of course, I know that you, Mr. Liu, have put in a lot of effort and thought for this Li Ziqi. Don't worry, I'll make you work for nothing. I'll give you a transfer fee of 1 million."

One hundred million?

Liu Tongxiong is no stranger to money, but why would he throw out 100 million yuan for a currently unknown internet celebrity?

That's quite generous.

However, Lü Yao's generous spending did not make Liu Tongxiong consider giving up on Li Ziqi.

As Li Ziqi's popularity began to rise in the second half of last year, and her video quality has continued to improve, more and more investment institutions have started to contact Weinian.

For example, investment institutions such as Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Qiushi Investment.

These investment institutions have offered substantial investments and brought considerable resources. Although they are still in contact and have not yet reached a definitive agreement on cooperation details, Liu Tongxiong has already realized Li Ziqi's value simply by engaging with domestic investment institutions.

Now that Lü Yao has come again, doesn't that prove that your judgment was correct?

Perhaps the commercial value of Li Ziqi is not as simple as a few hundred million or a billion.

So, after thinking quickly, Liu Tongxiong laughed and said, "President Lü, actually I have a better suggestion. Let me tell you about it."

"Instead of spending money to sign Li Ziqi directly, why not use that money to invest in us? You only need to invest one-fifth or even one-tenth of it. If we join forces, we can definitely create a better and more brilliant business empire."

Liu Tongxiong's words were quite inflammatory. If Lü Yao's wealth and status were similar to or not much greater than Liu Tongxiong's, he would definitely be swayed by Liu Tongxiong's words.

Unfortunately, there is a huge difference in size between them.

So Lü Yao smiled faintly and said, "Thank you very much for your kindness, Mr. Liu. However, my current business empire is quite good, and its development and operation are very mature. Moreover, my personal MCN company is also very large, so there is no need for a joint venture. Here's what I'll do: I'll add another 50 million. Please consider it carefully, Mr. Liu."

Hearing the calm, even slightly joking, tone of the voice on the phone, Liu Tongxiong immediately felt his ears burning and his mind becoming clearly agitated.

Although Lü Yao put it very tactfully, Liu Tongxiong, being astute as he was, immediately understood what Lü Yao meant—"My business is much bigger now than yours, so why should you cooperate with me?"

Liu Tongxiong comes from a powerful local family. When has he ever been humiliated like this?
Let alone Lü Yao, even the bigwigs in the province would have to smile and say some polite words when they met him, okay? No matter how powerful you are, Lü Yao, can you kill me on my turf? If you can't kill me on my turf, then you can forget about killing me on the internet!

There are many companies on the Internet, but since the development of the Internet, every Internet company that has been eliminated has been eliminated through preemptive means.

On the contrary, on the internet, no matter how fierce the public opinion is, established internet companies are not afraid of it.

If Lü Yao could hear Liu Tongxiong's true feelings, he would definitely agree with Liu Tongxiong's views.

In the future, the landscape of domestic internet companies has been set, and there will be constant friction between the major internet giants. The use of online trolls can be described as flashy and full of news, but all these methods can be described in one word - "smear campaign".

Mobile phone manufacturers are smearing each other.

There is mutual smear campaigns within the car manufacturing industry.

Even industries that can be empowered by the internet, such as air conditioners, range hoods, and refrigerators, generate a lot of negative news.

Moreover, it was as if everyone had planned it together, with one person finishing their act and another taking the stage, making it incredibly lively.

No matter how powerful the smear campaign is, companies that are meant to survive will continue to thrive.

Therefore, Liu Tongxiong was filled with dissatisfaction at this moment.

But Liu Tongxiong had been in the business world for a long time. Even when Lu Yao was putting him down, Liu Tongxiong calmed himself down in a single breath. He spoke into the phone again in a normal tone, "Well, Mr. Lu, please allow me to think about it, okay?"

Lu Yao smiled and said, "Of course, Mr. Liu, when do you think you can make up your mind?"

After a moment's thought, Liu Tongxiong said, "I will call you back at 2 PM the day after tomorrow."

Lü Yao smiled and said, "Okay, I'll wait for your good news."

After saying that, Lü Yao hung up the phone.

After the call ended, Liu Tongxiong remained expressionless and stiffly removed the phone from his ear for quite some time.

In Liu Tongxiong's office alone, the air seemed to freeze.

But amidst this tense atmosphere, Liu Tongxiong's phone was unusually active. WeChat messages, text messages, and phone calls kept lighting up his screen. People in his circle were anxiously trying to find out why Lü Yao had contacted him and what kind of cooperation they wanted to reach.

Liu Tongxiong sat there blankly for almost forty minutes before finally picking up his phone again to browse through the screen that had been acting like it was infected with a virus.

11 phone calls.

64 text messages.

135 WeChat messages.

Most of them were private messages sent to him by people in his social circle.

Meanwhile, people in the WeChat group were also discussing Liu Tongxiong's case intensely, and the discussion was still ongoing.
"Lu Yao! That guy is at the peak of his career right now, damn! My family has a much better background than his, but we still haven't been able to climb to such a high position."

"I just chatted with a bunch of guys in the industry to find out what Mr. Lü is up to lately, and guess what? Goodness! They all started swarming around me like flies, asking me all sorts of questions. Just now, people from the venture capital and finance circles actually got my contact information and want to invite me to play golf."

"Wow, that's awesome. If I were that handsome, and with my family's wealth, I might have been able to climb that high too."

The person who said this had a profile picture that showed the typical appearance of "General Manager Wang of AAA Building Materials," someone who looked very wealthy and was the type who "didn't eat cilantro" and particularly loved it.

So as soon as this guy spoke, the group chat immediately filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

"Dude, if you were really as handsome as Mr. Lü, you would have died on a woman's belly long ago."

"Haha, I think that makes sense. With your personality, you'd have trouble breathing if you were away from a woman's belly for more than thirty seconds."

"Hahahaha, if Zhejiang Province weren't so big, I could smell the stench of a slutty pig on you."

Looking at the lively discussion in the group, Liu Tongxiong couldn't help but shake his head. In his circle, he was considered a young entrepreneur who maintained a good image and physique, but even so, he didn't spend too much time on women.

Moreover, it would be naive to think that Lü Yaozhen rose to his current position solely because of his looks.

Although the group of people in the same circle as him seemed a bit unreliable, Liu Tongxiong still knew how useful their brains were, since they were all from the same circle. So after observing for a long time, he finally picked up his phone and replied in the group: "Brothers, I've finished talking with Boss Lü."

The moment Liu Tongxiong appeared, there was a brief pause in the group chat, followed by a storm of messages.

"Holy crap, Lao Liu, you're finally out! What were you guys talking about?"

"Is there a big project they've approached you about?"

"There are a lot of projects that General Manager Lü is working on in Shangnan right now. I remember you're in the online media business, Lao Liu. General Manager Lü seems to be involved in this too. Is this related to your business?"

"."

Everyone in the group was frantically trying to find out.

It wasn't that they cared about Liu Tongxiong, but rather that they wanted to see if they could get a share of the profits through him. Even if they couldn't get a share, they could still glean some insights into the direction of events from the conversation between Liu Tongxiong and Lü Yao.

2017 was a crazy year. With the booming development of the domestic real estate economy, all sectors of the country were thriving.

Every day, all sorts of startup presentations from the real economy, the internet industry, and the high-tech industry are put on the desks of angel investors, major investment banks, and even independent investors.

A well-known professional investor sometimes meets with more than fifty entrepreneurs a day.

This business environment is vibrant, dynamic, and brimming with restless energy.

The meteoric rise of Alibaba, the rapid growth of JD.com, the rapid expansion of the sharing economy, and the rapid rise of platforms such as Vipshop, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin have made Dongda's investors highly sensitive to internet buzzwords such as "Internet+", "platform entrepreneurship", and "O2O".

Investors who come across projects with these features will start evaluating the prospects of these projects like hungry wolves.

During this period, smart communities, smart homes, unmanned delivery, unmanned supermarkets, fresh food supermarkets, ride-sharing, online clothing, beauty and cosmetics, and many other industries can all be empowered by the Internet. Some entrepreneurs' ideas have indeed been valued by these Internet giants.

Therefore, before 2019, the domestic business environment was almost producing millionaires in batches.

Lu Yao is one of those people who can mass-produce millionaires.

So even though everyone in the group was separated by their phone screens, they were all staring intently at Liu Tongxiong's reply with eyes practically glowing green.

Liu Tongxiong didn't mince words and said directly in the group: "That's right, President Lü did come to me to talk about cooperation in the field of online media. However, he doesn't want to invest in me, but rather wants to transfer an artist from under my management."

Then a series of questions flooded the group chat:
"Who is it?" ×10086
Liu Tongxiong did not answer who it was, but said in the group: "Sigh, President Lü offered me a transfer fee of 1.5 million, but I am actually quite hesitant."

Upon seeing this, someone in the group who was on good terms with Liu Tongxiong quickly said, "No, what are you still hesitating about? If I were you, I would have transferred the contract without hesitation if President Lü had told me to, and I wouldn't even want the 1.5 million yuan. I would just consider it as making friends!"

Although these words may seem outrageous and unserious to most people, as if they were a trap set for Liu Tongxiong, they are actually heartfelt words.

1.5 million is indeed a lot of money, but everyone in this group has that much wealth. If they can use this money to gain Lü Yao's friendship and support, it will definitely be a sure thing.

Then some people in the group who weren't very close to Liu Tongxiong started to sabotage him: "I don't agree with that. Did that money grow on trees? 1.5 million! Not 1.5 yuan! This is no small amount of money. Are you trying to make my brother Liu bleed money?"

If Liu Tongxiong takes even the slightest bit of the underhanded sabotage in the group to heart, he considers himself to have lost.

But the current situation is that he can clearly sense that Lü Yao doesn't want to talk about friendship with him. Otherwise, why would he just buy out his artist's contract? Wouldn't it be better for everyone to do business amicably?
Liu Tongxiong isn't exactly a nobody; so many investment institutions are contacting him. Why is Lü Yao so domineering?
The more Liu Tongxiong pondered it, the more distressed he became.

Looking at the chaotic messages in the group, Liu Tongxiong simply turned off his phone, went home, and started smoking in silence.

One after another.

With each cigarette that burned out, Liu Tongxiong's brow furrowed even deeper.

(End of this chapter)