Back to the prime of life

Chapter 155 New Ark
The term "a society based on human relationships" is not just four words. In the past, many overseas Chinese criticized these four words as feudal remnants, and ideally believed that they could completely abandon this thing by relying on their own abilities or talents.

In fact, foreign countries are also a society based on acquaintances. For example, you need a letter of recommendation to enter a prestigious university.

Isn't this the system of recommendation from more than a thousand years ago? How come it's not based on personal connections?
Of course, how to correctly grasp these four words still requires a certain level of ability.

If nothing is done, Mr. and Mrs. Lu will be criticized in the village. The older generation attaches great importance to this.

Lu's mother secretly told him, "Ultimately, this is all the Lu family's fault. Your swimming pool is a huge success. Your aunt was afraid that no one would know about the commotion on opening day, so she told a few of her fellow villagers in Jiangzhou that you're really capable now."

Lu Changge scratched his forehead. "What's the matter this time? Borrowing money? Or looking for a job?"

Lu Ma said, "Borrow money. Your second aunt's son is getting married on October 10st, and we're trying to raise money."

Lu Changge remembered this relative. The relationship between him and this second aunt was more distant than that between him and Lu Xiaohui.

If you really want to figure it out, Lu Xiaohui's father is Lu Changge's grandfather.

But the second aunt that Lu Ma just mentioned, her father is the second brother of Lu Changge’s grandfather.

Although they are separated by a layer, they are still real relatives. If I go home to do something, these relatives will come.

"No one told me." Lu Changge said.

Mother Lu said, "You're a junior and a student, so she didn't feel comfortable speaking to you. That's why she told us. When I saw her last month, she kept asking when you would be back."

It wasn't a happy event, but Lu Changge didn't hear any unhappiness in his mother's tone. Instead, it seemed to be full of ups and downs, like a big opera.

"Mom, you're a little smug. I can tell just by listening."

"Haha, so what? Shouldn't I be proud when others praise my son?" Mother Lu did not hide it.

Lu Changge could only smile, thinking in his heart that you will have plenty of opportunities to be proud in the future.

"You guys can take a look at this. If you want to borrow it, just borrow it."

Mother Lu said, "It's not us who are looking at it. We don't have money."

"Ah? Didn't I give you thirty or forty thousand before? Besides, you and my dad must have some savings over the years."

"Don't you think about what your father does? He's in engineering, so he can't keep his savings. Especially since he knows you don't need his money anymore, he's become bolder and has partnered with others to buy a lot of steel pipes."

Lu Changge slapped his head and forgot about it.

I remember that in his previous life, his father always envied a friend of his, saying that the relative was very capable and could provide financial support for this person. Otherwise, it would be accumulated bit by bit, which would be much slower.

There are two important abilities that the Party B of engineering projects has: one is the ability to advance funds, and the other is the ability to wait for payment. To put it bluntly, the cash flow must be strong enough.

In this way, the big bosses are willing to give you a subcontracting job because the upstream also has financial pressure. This is a financial game in itself. It is all about the flow of funds, and the lives of upstream and downstream are all at stake.

In the decade or so following 08, this game was playable because investments were booming across the country. In most cases, Party A could afford to pay the money afterwards. Even if they couldn't afford it, they could use the house as collateral. Wouldn't the house price still increase?
"So this is up to you. Do you want to lend it to me? Your second aunt wants fifty thousand."

Lu Changge thought about it and realized that his second aunt's family was actually honest people. His second aunt worked at a gas station and his second uncle drove a taxi. They only had one son, who was not an ungrateful bad guy. He remembered that he was a truck driver in his previous life. The whole family earned their money through hard work and looked forward to the next generation.

"Getting married is a big deal, just lend it to me."

When Mother Lu heard this, she immediately became happy and said, "Okay, I'll talk to her."

After hanging up the phone, Yin Anyan just came back from outside with fried chicken and some cooked food. Under normal circumstances, this atmosphere is suitable for drinking some beer.

However, Lu Changge had high uric acid in his previous life, so he rarely drinks beer in this life, and he would never drink it for no reason like this. He didn't even want to drink carbonated drinks.

"I just seemed to hear you talk about getting married. Who's getting married?" Yin Anyan asked.

"An older brother at home said it will be on October 10st, so I might have to go home to attend his wedding."

"Okay, then I'll go back too!"

"Row."

Later, he and Yin Anyan were busy putting the food on the coffee table. He didn't drink those strange drinks, only plain water.

The lights in the room were all on, shining brightly. The two of them just nestled in the sofa, sometimes sitting, sometimes lying, sometimes sprawled. The opening ceremony was playing on TV, and many of the scenes made Yin Anyan exclaim in surprise.
Like fireworks footprints, dancing and painting on the imperial edict, and the rising five rings...

Even Lu Changge would have to give Director Zhang a thumbs up if he watched it again.

Also starting from tonight, a national celebration begins.

However, Lu Changge's small garage was only temporarily closed on the night of August 8th. On the 8th, everything started again.

Thanks to the two technical talents Zhou Shuang and Chi Yongsheng, there are no major problems with the code writing of the software development itself. Whether it is the backend or the UI, they can always find a way to solve it.

In fact, sometimes the problem is not the code itself, but the lack of knowledge of what the software should look like.

In this regard, Lu Changge played a role. He copied the interfaces and functions of the early chat software. After he put forward the requirements, other people with better technology than him were able to produce it.

Some of the following problems can be corrected during testing, and they are not particularly big problems.

However, they are still one step away from real success, which is to be listed on the APP Store across countries.

To this end, Lu Changge, Chi Yongsheng and Zhou Shuang chose a time to meet someone who was still in Shanghai.

As a small workshop, Lu Changge is not too arrogant. In fact, he tries his best to maintain the character of an entrepreneur, that is, to be humble and learn from better talents.
I even remind myself all the time not to underestimate the difficulty of accomplishing something just because I am a reborn person and have a little money in my hands.

Many things can't be achieved simply by throwing money at something or having a little foresight. For example, Baidu successfully anticipated a series of industry development trends such as O2O, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and food delivery, but then successfully missed all the opportunities...

Besides, he is also a manager. A boss's style of doing things will directly affect the people below him. If the boss is carefree and only thinks about spending money, the people below him will follow suit. This kind of corporate culture is not good.

So, making a special trip to Shanghai is nothing.

Even on the way to Shanghai, his boss was the driver, and Chi Yongsheng and Zhou Shuang slept all the way.

……

…The agreed location was at Starbucks.

Lu Changge didn't care about the place at all. He said nothing and went to the front desk to order four cups of coffee.

Zhou Shuang thanked him and said, "The person I'm meeting today is also a woman, Shen Mo, but she's a little prettier than me. Her father is a traditional Zhejiang businessman, and her family is well-off. She's more stylish than me."

Chi Yongsheng said with some worry: "People like this have high standards. Our small temple probably can't accommodate them."

"It depends on the person. It's not always the case you describe. Sometimes, having a certain economic foundation is what allows a person to have a long-term vision. If you can't make ends meet, you'd rather be paid daily, otherwise you won't be able to make ends meet."

"Yes, she actually depends on the person. If she's willing to work with you, she'll do it. If she's not willing, she won't do it no matter how much money you make. That's called confidence. To some extent, work is a game to her. If she wants to play, she plays. If she doesn't want to play... here it comes."

Zhou Shuang suddenly stood up and waved to the front. Lu Changge and Chi Yongsheng stood up at the same time. He also saw this so-called stylish woman.

Indeed, her outfit was different. She wore a sleeveless long skirt and cool high heels. Her fair skin looked like the kind that was paid for with piles of RMB.

Zhou Shuang said she was in her thirties, but Lu Changge thought she looked only about twenty-eight or twenty-nine.

When the two women met for the first time, they kissed each other on the cheek, which made Lu Changge want to try it too, but he quickly suppressed the evil thoughts, greeted them seriously, and introduced himself.

"Momo, the seat is reserved for you."

"Okay, thank you." The woman was very polite and smiled gently at the two men opposite her before sitting down.

Zhou Shuang didn't waste any time. She sat down and said, "Mo Mo, I've already discussed the details of this matter with you over the phone. Nothing has changed. Our boss, Lu, is young and energetic. To be honest, the software development itself is proceeding as planned. It's just that this international project is a bit risky. I mentioned it to Mr. Lu, and he took it very seriously."

"It's okay, I understand. To be honest, I'm still quite surprised." She looked at Zhou Shuang, "I didn't expect you to be involved in this matter. It seems that our President Lu is very capable."

Lu Changge said, "It's not that I have any ability, but the trend is like this. Sister Zhou and Teacher Chi have seen it, so they brought us together to do this. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to convince them. We also came here today specifically to ask for advice."

Shen Mo didn't hesitate. If she didn't like it, she wouldn't have come. "Don't be polite, because what I say may not be what you want to hear."

There was more seriousness in Lu Changge's eyes.

"Just say it."

"I don't think a few Chinese people can develop an instant messaging app suitable for foreign countries. Even if they did, it wouldn't have a large user base. This isn't a cultural issue, but rather a lack of understanding of the region. This lack of understanding won't just lead to losses, but potentially lawsuits."

Lu Changge glanced at Zhou Shuang and found that she was pursing her lips and had no intention of speaking.

Shen Mo continued, "First of all, there is a problem. Communication software is closely related to personal privacy. If you have been to the United States, you will know that this kind of bandit country will definitely find a hundred reasons to ban you once you reach a certain scale, and will also widely publicize that your software is unsafe. How to solve this problem? The bigger problem is that American official agencies will require all communication software to reserve backdoors. You are using encryption, right? The United States has a law called the Patriot Act. If you don't follow its rules, they can sue you.

Besides, we Chinese have no idea about some banned words in foreign countries and the culture behind them. Let me give you a simple example. If your software is launched in an Islamic country, what should you pay attention to?

Lu Changge shook his head, "We really don't know about this."

Zhou Shuang added, "The United States also has laws in each state. These things are a headache even for professional lawyers, so I have always said that we must pay attention to this issue."

Chi Yongsheng asked: "Then there is no way to solve it?"

"If it really doesn't work..." Lu Changge touched his chin. What the woman said was scary, but he was not someone who could be scared. If there was a problem, he would just solve it.

Shen Mo found it interesting, "If it doesn't work out, what do you want to do?"

Lu Changge remembered that there were overseas versions of TikTok. How could a living person be suffocated to death by urine?

"If that doesn't work out, we can register the company overseas and hire a foreigner as the boss. Our own company will only hold a portion of the equity, and other than that, we'll follow the same path as foreign startups. That should be fine, right? It doesn't prohibit all of our investment activities."

"It's really troublesome. I don't know when the Apple App Store will be available in China." Chi Yongsheng said irritably, scratching his forehead.

Zhou Shuang replied, "I just saw the news in the Wall Street Journal. Apple's plan is 2010."

After hearing this, Lu Changge thought to himself that this news was quite accurate.

Across from him, Shen Mo looked at him with a bit more spirit in his eyes, "Regardless of what the future holds for the country, the method Boss Lu suggested is actually the suggestion I personally intend to make.

Startups need to minimize various risks. If you insist on wearing that skin, it will significantly impact your fundraising process. So, just treat it like a US company, register in Silicon Valley, set up servers in Ireland, and hire technologists there. You absolutely can't do it on your own. For example, there's something in the US called the 'Social Security Death Master File,' are you familiar with it?

Even Chi Yongsheng had to shake his head at this.

Shen Mo said: "It is to prevent minors from registering. The US has many legal provisions, some of which are completely different from what we imagined. So the best way is to stay in the US. Compared with those legal issues, the payment channel is much easier to solve."

As for the issue of share ratio, Lu Changge is very clear-headed about it. In some traditional industries, it can be said that the boss alone holds the majority of the shares, but in the Internet industry, if you don't give equity, no talented people will work with you.

Therefore, it is naturally an industry with dispersed corporate equity.

"Then we have to find an American."

This must be obtained. He will not change his nationality on his own.

At this point, Zhou Shuang suddenly looked at the person next to her with a hint of surprise, "Mo Mo, you wouldn't..."

Shen Mo didn't say anything, but only asked Lu Changge: "Mr. Lu, I have answered your question. Can I ask you a question?"

"You said."

"Do you really believe that you can play the Apple App Store within the walls of the Nokia empire?"

Lu Changge said, "I know Nokia is still laughing at Apple for being too delicate and breaking easily when dropped, but I believe that within five years, every subway passenger will be bowing their heads and knocking on that piece of glass that can be controlled directly with their hands."

"But your backend using the XMPP protocol, an old-fashioned architecture, might not even support a million concurrent connections."

"That's why I need more friends to build a new interstellar port. When Nokia's Saipan starship crashes, we will let all the exiles board the new ark."

Lu Changge actually guessed it, "Ms. Shen, are you American?"

"Yes, a new ark...you used that metaphor well."

(End of this chapter)