Restart life

Chapter 578 0566 [The Wealth-Showing Contest]

"Boom boom boom!"

"Come in."

Qu Guohao pushed open the door and strode over, his voice tinged with anxiety: "Tencent has become an indirect shareholder of Blizzard!"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Blizzard is going to die a slow death."

"Huh?" Qu Guohao was completely confused.

This year, Blizzard's CEO and co-chairman spearheaded the establishment of a private investment fund.

A piece of news was just announced today: the investment fund spent $23.4 billion to repurchase 1.72 million Blizzard shares from Vivendi.

This deal involved a huge sum of money, with Tencent contributing more than half of the investment. Tencent, along with other investors in the fund, collectively holds a 24.7% stake in Blizzard.

Shocking the global gaming industry!
Chen Guiliang said, "During the Vivendi era, although Blizzard had to follow Vivendi's strategy, the founding team still had enough autonomy. After Activision merged with Blizzard, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick began to control Blizzard. Since then, has Blizzard had any innovation? It has been relying on its past achievements."

Qu Guohao thought about it carefully and realized that Blizzard hadn't really released anything new in the past few years.

Chen Guiliang continued, "Now that this deal is complete, Bobby Kotick has complete control of Blizzard, while the founding team will have no say. Outsiders are directing insiders, and capital is directing the games—what future does Blizzard have?"

Qu Guohao said, "But Tencent's stock price soared because of this deal."

“We just need to do our own thing,” Chen Guiliang said with a smile. “If you feel that Tencent has stolen your thunder, you can announce that Youke is the second largest shareholder of Supercell.”

"That won't be necessary," Qu Guohao said with a smile.

Chen Guiliang also commissioned the Youke team to develop a mobile game similar to Clash of Clans. It sold well, but it was released too early, when the mobile game market was relatively small.

He simply had Youke invest in Supercell's seed round, and last year he led Supercell's Series A round. The company's "Hay Day" and "Clash of Clans" have become huge hits, and its daily revenue now exceeds $300 million.

Note that this is the daily revenue!
Moreover, it does not include revenue from the Chinese market, because Clash of Clans did not become a hit in China; the real hit was GamerSky's similar product, Kingdom Wars.

Yuke's "Kingdom Wars" currently generates 80 million yuan in monthly revenue and is estimated to become the third mobile game in China to achieve monthly revenue exceeding 100 million yuan.

After chatting with Qu Guohao for a while, Chen Guiliang sent an email to Mike, the vice president of Blizzard: "Bobby Kotick is now all-powerful. You Blizzard founders must be in a bad situation, right? If you want to switch jobs, you're welcome to come here anytime. If you want to start a new business, I can invest in you to start a company."

Mike quickly replied to the email: "We are doing very well, but thank you for your kindness."

Chen Guiliang replied: "Haha, don't rush to deny it, we both understand the situation. If any member of Blizzard's core creative team leaves, please let me know."

Mike didn't respond directly, but instead started talking to Chen Guiliang about other topics.

They had met several times at the ChinaJoy expo and then bumped into each other in South Korea last year; they were old acquaintances who could chat.

After the email exchange ended, Chen Guiliang couldn't help but post a ByteDance Weibo post: "Congratulations to Tencent for investing in Blizzard, this is really great news for the gaming industry."

The following day, Pony Ma replied on Tencent Weibo: "Thank you for your congratulations, Mr. Chen."

The two interacted remotely on different Weibo platforms, attracting a large number of netizens and many media outlets to report on it.

Even on the NGA community, people started discussing whether World of Warcraft would change hands, possibly being transferred to Tencent after the contract expires. Some players even joked that in the future, they could use QQ coins to exchange for World of Warcraft game cards.

Chen Guiliang was browsing the Steam store when he called Qu Guohao over: "Make arrangements for acquiring or investing in Paradox Interactive."

Qu Guohao asked, puzzled, "What's so great about this company that it's worth acquiring?"

"It's a matter of personal sentiment, I guess. I'm also a Paradox Interactive war criminal," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Paradox Interactive's valuation at this time was not high, at most tens of millions of US dollars. Its annual revenue was less than 2000 million US dollars, and game production expenses accounted for a very high proportion, barely managing to break even.

In two years, Paradox Interactive's games will be a huge hit, attracting investment from various sources (including Tencent), and will successfully achieve an IPO.

Chen Guiliang is going to invest now, firstly to make money from the investment, and secondly out of personal sentiment.

The character models in Total War: Three Kingdoms are fucking ugly, and the setting of dismounting and then fighting one-on-one is even more ridiculous. Chen Guiliang will definitely have to intervene.

……

During this time, he has been spending all his time with Bian Guanyue, who is pregnant, and has clearly neglected the other two.

Chen Guiliang drove to Tao Xue's house, where Teacher Tao was busy creating art.

Tao Xue came out to open the door and casually said, "Find a place to sit."

Chen Guiliang followed her into the study and sat down beside her to watch her type: "Starting to write a novel again?"

Tao Xue said, "After taking a break for more than a year, my fans almost cursed me to death."

"What did you write this time?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Xue said, "Silk Road Smoke and Dust 2: Princess Jieyou".

Although Chen Guiliang knew this history, he pretended to be ignorant and said with a smile, "The name Princess Jieyou sounds familiar."

Tao Xue, after researching extensively, proudly explained the history to Chen Guiliang: "The previous book ended with Princess Xijun marrying into the Wusun for a political alliance. This book, however, begins with the Han Dynasty and Wusun temporarily changing their marriage alliance. Princess Xijun was originally supposed to be the daughter-in-law of the protagonist in the previous book, but somehow became her mother-in-law. The two sides fought even more fiercely, eventually poisoning the old king of Wusun. Princess Xijun then remarried the old king's grandson, becoming his daughter-in-law again."

"The Xiongnu also sent a princess to marry into the Xiongnu, and she killed Princess Xijun. The Han Dynasty then married Princess Jieyou to them. The main storyline of Silk Road Smoke and Dust 2 is the struggle between Princess Jieyou and the Xiongnu princess, with the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu forces standing behind them respectively."

"This novel can be considered to have two female protagonists. Although the Hun princess is a villain, I will also write her story in detail."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "The relationships are so complicated. The mother-in-law has become the daughter-in-law, spanning two generations in one go."

Tao Xue said, "That's how it is in foreign tribes. It's normal for a grandson to take over his grandfather's wife. Princess Jieyou and the Xiongnu princess both had tragic backgrounds. They were not in control of their own lives from birth. Before they got married, they each had someone they loved. After marrying the same king, they each had their own lovers in Wusun."

"Two pitiful women, for their own sake and for the sake of their country, had no choice but to drive each other to their deaths. Princess Jieyou conspired with the king's cousin to poison the king, and then remarried the king's cousin, ultimately helping the Han Dynasty win the victory. In the end, she even made her own son the king."

"The Xiongnu princess was no pushover either; she remarried to another Wusun nobleman and launched a rebellion, plunging Wusun into endless civil war." Chen Guiliang wasn't really interested in this kind of novel, but he figured female readers and viewers would love it.

The princesses of the two countries are at odds in Wusun, which evolves from palace intrigue into political and military struggles. They also develop relationships with Wusun nobles as lovers, while secretly gaining the support of their own country's first love. Various love triangles and quadrangles are involved in the love triangles and quadrangles... Female fans love to watch this kind of thing.

"Crack!"

There was the sound of a door opening outside.

When Chen Guiliang went out to look, he saw that it was Xu Fengyin. He asked in surprise, "You two aren't living together all the time now, are you?"

"Is there a problem?" Xu Fengyin said with a grin, "Xiaoxue is my wife now, and I am her husband."

Tao Xue quickly retorted to prove her innocence: "No! That Xu woman is a hooligan! I'm not interested in women!"

Xu Fengyin was indeed a rogue, and said with a wicked smile, "Someone didn't say that last night."

"I'm ignoring you, I still need to write." Tao Xue locked the study door from the inside, preventing even Chen Guiliang from entering.

Xu Fengyin lay down on the sofa in the living room, took out her phone and started ordering takeout. Like Tao Xue, she didn't like cooking for herself.

After ordering takeout, Xu Fengyin picked up a plate and took a picture. The plate had the words "Microwave Oven Only" on the bottom.

"What are you doing?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Xu Fengyin posted the photo on Weibo, along with the caption: "Jiajing imperial kiln, priceless."

Chen Guiliang was both amused and exasperated: "What the hell?"

Xu Fengyin said, "Don't you know? A wealth-flaunting competition has just started on Weibo."

When Chen Guiliang opened Weibo, he saw that the "Wealth-flaunting Contest" had indeed become a trending topic.

Netizens are uploading all sorts of random antiques and luxury goods to flaunt their wealth; a bottle of Tiger Balm tied with a rope is supposed to be an emerald necklace, and a bunch of green grapes is supposed to be a jade bracelet.

The faceplate printed with the portraits of the actors from "My Fair Princess" is called "Qianlong Imperial Kiln". Ruby Lin even interacted with it, forwarding and replying with "Oh my god" and a shocked emoji.

Principal Wang frequently offered serious commentary on various treasures.

"What nonsense is this?" Chen Guiliang chuckled.

At the beginning of the year, a woman from Beijing started flaunting her wealth, constantly uploading photos of cash, luxury goods, and luxury cars. She claimed that a man wanted to pursue her, but he drove a Volkswagen, which infuriated her. She then boasted that he dared to pursue girls without even owning a Porsche. She added that to marry her, one would need at least a car, a house, and assets worth 100 million yuan.

This kind of low-quality Weibo account has surprisingly attracted a large following among netizens, and as a result, more and more Weibo accounts are being used to flaunt wealth.

They fawn over the rich and belittle the poor, mock the poor and praise the rich, and even look down on ordinary white-collar workers.

This finally sparked public outrage, and netizens joined in the "flaunting wealth" critique, uploading all sorts of bizarre and unusual items. Gradually, many celebrities also jumped on the bandwagon, casually posting pictures of ashtrays and claiming them as antiques.

Tao Xue was still writing in her study, so Chen Guiliang decided to join in the fun.

He drew a watch on his bare wrist and wrote "Rolex" on it: "How's my watch? I bought it for 300 million."

Xu Fengyin, having a great time, went to Chen Guiliang's Weibo and commented: "Only 300 million? I despise you, you poor wretch!"

A bunch of male and female celebrities from ByteDance flocked to Chen Guiliang's Weibo to have a team-building event, and Dilraba even painted a Patek Philippe on her wrist.

Principal Wang then came to comment: "Based on my long-term experience dealing with luxury goods, Mr. Chen's Rolex is absolutely genuine. I will compensate ten times the price if it is fake."

Chen Guiliang replied, "The principal has a good eye."

Soon someone else sent a stack of ghost money: "Old Master Chen's watch is nice, name your price, I'll buy it."

The most ridiculous thing is that Rolex's official Weibo account also joined in the fun: "Mr. Chen's watch is our latest model."

They've all gone mad.

After Chen Guiliang posted his watch design on Weibo, various wealthy individuals, celebrities, influential figures, and official brand accounts all came to show their support.

For example, Want Want's official Weibo account removed the center of a rice cracker, leaving only the outer ring to resemble a bracelet, and claimed that Want Want Group was about to enter the luxury goods industry.

The management of ByteDance's Weibo division were overjoyed by the explosive traffic.

"I'm so angry! None of you play with me!" Tao Xue finally came out of the study, pounced on Chen Guiliang, and grabbed his neck.

Chen Guiliang rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue in perfect cooperation, looking as if he was about to be strangled by Tao Xue.

Xu Fengyin said, "He's already dead, let's dig a hole and bury him."

Chen Guiliang said weakly, "Don't bury me, I can still... be saved."

"Kill him quickly, he's still breathing!" Xu Fengyin pounced on Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang flipped over and jumped up, joining Xu Fengyin in bullying Tao Xue.

As the three of them played, the scene became somewhat inappropriate for children.

By the time the delivery person rang the doorbell, Tao Xue was disheveled and her face was flushed.

While eating takeout, Chen Guiliang took out two property ownership certificates: "It's a villa in Ocean Lavie, the first phase, on the west side. The garden is only a few hundred square meters, and it's a bit far from my second phase apartment."

Chen Guiliang added, "I know you won't accept it, so I bought the house first. We can change the name on the property certificate anytime."

Xu Fengyin glanced at the property certificate and said, "I'll reluctantly accept it because I feel sorry for you. I'm too lazy to change the name, and I'll have to pay the transfer tax."

"Keep me as a sugar daddy? I'm rich now, a famous writer!" Tao Xue said disdainfully.

(End of this chapter)