Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 461 Ma Yun Visits
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the morning light was just beginning to break.

The hazy light shining through the gap in the curtains seemed both real and illusory, and Chen Xiu unconsciously squinted.

He got up and looked to the side. Su Xiao's mouth was slightly open and her eyelashes were trembling as she slept. He smiled slightly and was about to reach out to wake her when the phone on the bedside table beeped first.

Chen Xiu paused for a moment, and could clearly see Su Xiao's slightly furrowed brows.

He's still pretending to be asleep...

Reaching for her phone, she looked at the various messages on the screen. Most of them, as Chen Xiu had said, were unimportant, except for a missed call and a WeChat message associated with the call.

Upon seeing the message from Ma Yun, Chen Xiu raised an eyebrow and immediately called him back.

"Tap tap tap"

It's so early in the morning, I wonder if Ma Yun is awake yet?
He's so old, he probably doesn't need that much sleep.

After muttering a few thoughts to herself, Chen Xiu glanced to the side and noticed Su Xiao, who was moving towards her with her eyes closed. It was so obvious, yet she was still pretending…

"Hey, Mr. Chen, good morning!"

"Good morning."

After giving Ma Yun a perfunctory reply, Chen Xiu looked down at Su Xiao, who was listening intently, a sly glint in her eyes, and then reached out her other free hand towards her.

"Humph!"

A suppressed groan came from behind, and Chen Xiu could clearly feel Su Xiao's body stiffen for a moment.

Ma Yun on the other end of the phone didn't notice the commotion and just started "complaining" to Chen Xiu.

"Mr. Chen, didn't you get any rest last night during New Year's Eve?"

"Yesterday I also worked overtime at the company until the afternoon and didn't get home until evening. After finally finishing my work, I didn't even have time to look at my phone... Hmm?"

Chen Xiu's tone changed slightly, and she lowered her head and saw that her hand was being held in Su Xiao's mouth.

Finally, he stopped pretending to be asleep...

"what happened to you?"

"It's okay, I'm eating breakfast. The pan-fried buns are a little hot, um."

Su Xiao glanced at him sideways, let go of his hand, and carefully lifted the blanket to get out of bed.

"Your sleep and diet are quite regular..."

After saying this rather meaningless remark, Ma Yun probably felt that she had laid the groundwork, and then changed the subject, taking the initiative to explain her purpose.

"Mr. Chen, you're going home for the Chinese New Year, you should be in Shanghai, right?"

"Yes."

"I happen to have some free time today. I was wondering if I could come to your house and ask you for a cup of tea?"

"Great! Mr. Ma, whenever you come, I'll make sure to welcome you with open arms."

Chen Xiu's words were nothing more than normal politeness.

To his surprise, Ma Yun showed no politeness whatsoever this time: "I'm about to leave now, and I should arrive in Shanghai around noon. Send me your address."

"Uh... OK, I'll send it to you."

Hearing the sound disappear from the phone, Chen Xiu gave a strange look and then sent the address of the house next door to Ma Yun.

He's currently staying at Su Xiao's house. Last time he brought Meng Ziyi back, they stayed in the building next door. Both houses are in the Tan Palace complex.

"So, what did Ma Yun want to see you about?"

The sound accompanied the appearance of a figure. Chen Xiu's vision blurred for a moment, and then she saw Su Xiao, wearing a silver-based blue and purple patterned nightgown and with her hair secured with a hairpin, standing by the bed with a cold expression.

"Hehe, he's coming to visit. Would you like to help me greet him?"

"It's fine if you come."

As Su Xiao turned around, her white and round calves, revealed by the hem of her dress, shone brightly in the light from the window, dazzling the eye.

As Chen Xiu lay down to admire her, feeling regretful that she had left, he heard the rustling of her robe and Su Xiao poked her head out from the doorway, squinting as she urged him on.

"Get up quickly, didn't you want to eat pan-fried buns?"

"oh oh."

Chen Xiu rolled out of bed and went to the dressing room to find an outfit for the day. As she thought: Sister Xiaoxiao can handle all kinds of work outside, cooks a great meal at home, and gets along so well with Sister Meng. Tsk tsk, perfect!
After the two had breakfast, Su Xiao played a few piano pieces in high spirits, and Chen Xiu also gave her plenty of emotional support while chatting and laughing.

Around noon, Ma Yun called to confirm the location, and Chen Xiu regretfully got up and left.

As he turned away, Su Xiao didn't forget to throw out a word of advice.

"When you meet Ma Yun later, don't reveal your purpose too obviously. It's best to guide him to help you make connections on his own initiative."

"Don't worry, he'll be happy to help me."

Chen Xiu turned around and waved, her profile bathed in golden sunlight, exuding confidence and arrogance.

……

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't greet you properly since you've come all this way, Mr. Ma."

Chen Xiu placed a cup of brewed tea in front of Ma Yun, just as he had said on the phone, inviting him to drink tea.

Ma Yun didn't mind having a drink; he came over suddenly because today was the only free day he had.

Picking up her teacup and taking a sip, Ma Yun first glanced at Chen Xiu, then curiously looked around at the living room's furnishings.

"Mr. Chen, do you live alone?"

"Well, my parents live in their old house. I only come back here for a few days during the Spring Festival, so I haven't been thinking of hiring anyone." "You haven't thought about finding a lady of the house?"

"..."

Chen Xiu paused for a moment, then quickly moved closer to Ma Yun and asked, "Mr. Ma, does that mean you came here today specifically to play matchmaker for me?"

"Uh... with your looks and such a successful business, you shouldn't lack resources in this area, right?"

"What you're saying is very misleading."

"As we all know, Mr. Chen, your childhood sweetheart has been with you from the start of Didi to your current position as CEO of Douyin. Are you still single?"

That's a statement that's impossible to refute.

Chen Xiu took a sip of tea, which was taken as tacit agreement.

Ma Yun chuckled and said proudly, "The kind of feelings you have for someone who has come all the way through entrepreneurship are something most people wouldn't understand, especially since you two are childhood sweethearts. Your feelings are even purer and much better than those you met along the way."

"Mr. Ma, your words seem to be implying something."

"Just a quick thought: even if it does have some hidden meaning, it's not really a 'again'! It's the first time for everyone."

"..."

Chen Xiu remained silent, her eyes moving slowly as she recalled an event that had just occurred last year.

He put down his teacup, beckoned to Ma Yun with a gossipy look, and waited for her to come closer before saying, "Last year, I noticed that Lao Sun posted more frequently on WeChat Moments, and the captions were quite lively. Is he with that person from your company?"

Ma Yun pursed her lips, glanced at Chen Xiu, and uttered a Zen-like saying with philosophical implications.

"What is meant to be will eventually come to fruition."

No, I was just chatting with you about gossip, why are you acting all high and mighty?

Chen Xiu squinted at Ma Yun, but knew when to stop.

The other party must have come here specifically for something important, and I also have my own ulterior motives. Gossiping and chatting will be enough to ease the atmosphere.

"Ahem, Mr. Ma, I'm sure you're here today for more than just a cup of tea. We've known each other for quite some time, so if you have something to say, please speak frankly."

"Um……"

Ma Yun pondered for a long time before saying, "President Chen, there's something I've been wondering about. Could you please enlighten me?"

"my pleasure."

Chen Xiu readily agreed, her expression relaxed, but she was on high alert, wary of Ma Yun's potentially startling remarks.

"We've known each other for years, and I believe I've been completely honest with you. Why do I always feel like there's something between us? Are you always wary of me, or rather, of Ahri?"

"how could be!"

Chen Xiu vehemently denied it, and her face showed just the right amount of surprise.

Ma Yun pressed on: "If you weren't prepared, then why did you make excuses every time I asked you for cooperation? Including last year's TikTok pre-IPO, you chose Tencent over Ali."

"You can't say that."

Chen Xiu shook his head, picked up his teacup, and used the time while drinking tea to gather energy for his next output.

"Mr. Ma, if we're talking about cooperation, Douyin's cooperation with Ali predates Tencent's by a lot! When Douyin launched the bike-sharing feature, the first wave of marketing was actually planned and completed by you and me."

"In recent years, the GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) of Douyin's shared bike links to Taobao has reached a record high as a percentage of Taobao's total annual GMV."

"So we had already cooperated in the early stages, and both sides benefited from the cooperation. As for the choice of financing last year, that was a company decision, not something I made on my own."

Ma Yun was not surprised at all by these words.

He had already anticipated a similar answer from Chen Xiu before asking the question, and the reason he asked the question was simply to elicit further discussion.

“What you said is true, but recently it seems that users on Douyin have started to create their own shops, bypassing Taobao and conducting transactions directly on Douyin.”

"This is also the user's choice, and the platform can only try its best to protect the rights and interests of consumers."

"So in the beginning, you used Ofo (a bike-sharing service) to cooperate with Taobao in order to understand the logic of the e-commerce sector, and then build your own Douyin e-commerce platform?"

"You can't say that."

Ignoring Ma Yun's gloomy expression, Chen Xiu pointed to the three empty teacups on the coffee table.

"Mr. Ma, don't you think these three stacked teacups resemble the upstream and downstream relationships of WeChat, Douyin, and Taobao?"

Ma Yun was stunned for a moment, and the oppressive feeling that had just been building up dissipated.

"Where do you get this idea of ​​an upstream and downstream relationship?"

"As the absolute leader in the current field of instant messaging on the Internet, WeChat encompasses almost all users. We open WeChat every day to chat, make payments, and follow our friends' updates, but we don't use it for entertainment."

Chen Xiu picked up an empty cup and placed it at the front.

"As the most successful entertainment software at present, Douyin has firmly grasped the user experience with the timeliness, fragmentation and unpredictability of short videos, making its usage frequency second only to WeChat."

The second empty cup was placed after the first one.

"As a commercial software, Taobao is only opened and used by users when they need it or on major discount days. They don't pay attention to it on a daily basis."

The third empty cup was placed last.

Seeing Ma Yun's expression gradually come to her senses, Chen Xiu sat upright on the sofa, picked up the teapot, and gave the three empty cups a three-nod gesture.

"Life, entertainment, and consumption—this constitutes the most complete internet industry chain. The barriers between upstream and downstream are inherently blurred. Users within the chain will naturally strive to influence and shape the downstream industry chain. Mr. Ma, do you agree?"

(End of this chapter)