Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 181 The Unexpected 1100 Million

This morning, Chen Xuebing originally planned to call Cai Zhijian as soon as he got to the company to ask him when he would be back to work.

As a result, when Li Xueling pressed for payment, he remembered that the 600 million yuan annual salary he had promised Cai Zhijian as president meant that he would have to pay half a year's salary plus a 200 million yuan buyout fee upon joining the company.

500 million.

Never mind, let him have some fun in Hong Kong first.

Upon closer examination, Xu Jin, Liu Zengcheng, Tang Qiankun, Zhang Qingzhong, Lu Weibing, Cai Zhijian, Lin Bin, and a bunch of high-paid engineers...
The salaries of high-paid talents alone amount to more than ten million yuan per year, not including stock incentives and living benefits.

At this point, he gradually felt the pressure, and it was time to put an end to the core strategy he had set for himself in September—talent recruitment.

Raise money – start a company – expand business – recruit talent.

In the first year after his rebirth, he had almost completed the most difficult first round.

The final step was a bit bold; to save time in building a talent pool, the asking price was definitely high. But he, the penniless boss, and his company were able to achieve their goal in just three months, recruiting so many outstanding talents, and he has no regrets.

We just need to monetize our talent quickly, otherwise our cash flow will become increasingly tight.

He's going to start looking for ways to make money again.

I opened the computer the administration department had provided him. It had a Pentium 4 processor, an NVIDIA graphics card, a Samsung screen, and the internet speed was quite fast.

I casually browsed through the portal websites.

Aside from recent current affairs news, it's all just spam ads.

I checked Sina Blog, and the homepage is still like a portal website, with several rows of ads densely packed together.

Patents: An investment of 3 yuan yields an annual profit of one million yuan.

Yellow Pages: Earn 500 Million a Year If You're Willing to Work

Building Materials: Guo Donglin Invites You to Open a Small Shop and Earn 30 Yuan a Month

UC Chat: Get your own free video chat room now!

The ads are like a bragging contest; anyone with a modicum of intelligence can't watch them.

These days, most people who can use the internet are either considered smart, or they're just teenagers addicted to games. I don't know who they're trying to fool.

They're probably scamming the customers who placed the ads.

The clients then go on to scam investors.

Look, we're advertising on Sina. We'll see our business grow tenfold next year. Invest now! Invest now!

However, the strange thing inserted at the end does not refer to UC Browser, but to Sina UC, a communication software.

UC Browser was created by He Xiaopeng, and it's currently struggling to survive, unable to afford advertising on Sina.

Sina UC was created by a company called Guizhou Langma, formerly known as Langma UC.

In 01, Tencent faced significant server cost pressures and shut down free registration, instead offering 168 voice information service and mobile SMS registration, requiring a 1 yuan fee to register for QQ.

Later it became a monthly fee of 2 yuan.

This decision almost killed him.

Langma UC insisted on being free, and by the end of 03, its customer base had surpassed QQ, reaching 8000 million, with a peak of 30 concurrent users.

After QQ resumed free registration, Langma saw that the situation was not good and immediately sold itself to Sina for $3600 million.

The two software programs' interfaces aren't exactly similar, they're practically identical.

—They're all copied from ICQ.

Sina UC is no longer doing well either, with a market share of 12.2%, ranking behind QQ and MSN.

After looking around, he reaffirmed his initial thought: the internet is not currently the best opportunity to make money.

There are too few paid entry points.

There are three main consumption methods: SP SMS, game points cards, and phone cards.

Online banking direct consumption and third-party payment are both ranked lower.

He had considered games, and he had looked at a few foreign games that were suitable for distribution, but that would require a huge team, servers, distribution fees, and a long development cycle.

NetEase and Shanda earned hundreds of millions this year, but they have more than one game under their umbrella and have been deeply involved in the industry for several years to achieve this scale.

This is not part of his grand strategy; it's just a money-making venture. It's not appropriate to invest so much energy in it. It would be more suitable to develop it as a derivative product of the network department in the future.

Currently... we can invest in a few more wealthy second-generation individuals who are interested and guide them in their endeavors.

If you can't find a solution right now, take your time thinking about it and focus on finishing what you're doing at hand.

He logged into his blog account and created his first blog post.

Blogs are completely different from microblogs. To put it simply, microblogs are like "status posts" on QQ Space, while blogs are like "logs".

There's a title; you can post a longer article below.

Having come from the era of "Shuoshuo," "Weibo," and "WeChat Moments," Chen Xuebing is not used to this diary-style sharing mode.

So I just casually came up with a title:
"The Promise on Tieba".

The content is very simple:
The "Netizen Chen Xuebing" on Baidu Tieba and the "Chen Xuebing" on Sina Weibo are indeed Chen Xuebing himself, but the views expressed therein represent only the stance of the persona portrayed by Chen Xuebing and have no relation to Chen Xuebing himself.

I've attached the photo from the forum.

Not long after I posted it, the person in charge from Sina called again.

"Mr. Chen, is this your first blog post?"

"what happened?"

"Um...why don't you ask someone from your company to write something for you?"

"Write what?"

"So...life reflections, entrepreneurial experiences, and the like? You're a business owner, you should write something related to your identity. Such simple content won't appeal to readers."

How do you know netizens don't like watching this?

“…We originally prepared a front-page spot for your celebrity blog, but with such a simple blog, it’s not easy for me to promote it.”

“Then I won’t promote it. I saw that there’s an ad for Hui Ren Shen Bao right below your celebrity blog post. I don’t like it either; it’s easy for people to make unnecessary associations.”

"..."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Xuebing went down to the 45th floor to check the stock market.

……

Today is Monday, November 28th. The Shanghai Composite Index opened at 1113, reached a high of 1119, and closed at 1110.

The stock market remains sluggish, with trading volume reflecting the votes cast by investors' feet; the total turnover for the day was only 55.62 billion.

Holding a massive amount of funds of nearly 1.6 million in such a stock market, large-scale transactions can even affect the overall market data. Any buying action is very conspicuous and easy for others to target and profit from.

Given this situation, even Buffett wouldn't dare to make any rash moves.

They could only lie there quietly, looking for even the smallest trading opportunities.

After a day's work, I lost a small amount of 500,000.

In contrast, according to third-quarter statistics, the United States, with a GDP only six times that of China, has a New York Stock Exchange with a daily trading volume of $82 billion.

6500 billion RMB, a hundred times that of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The stock market and economic development are severely out of sync.

Chen Xuebing wasn't idly worrying about the country and its people; he was simply writing a report on the exit mechanism for Chongqing's government-guided funds.

Secretary Jiang told him to prepare, since he needed to have something to say at the time. He added some points about stock market exit that were not mentioned much in the original report.

Sitting in the lobby on the 45th floor, I looked around at the past performance of the stock market, but still felt there was nothing worth writing about.

The A-share market is severely decoupled from economic development, and the recent share-trading reform has not completely solved the problem. The issue of restricted shares held by major shareholders remains serious. Releasing these restricted shares will trigger large-scale selling; not releasing them means shareholders will feel their shares are likely to become worthless, leading them not to increase their holdings but to cash out at any opportunity.

Investors have also lost trust and are frantically selling their shares as soon as the lock-up period for major and minor shareholders (with 5% as the dividing line) approaches its expiration.

This market has gradually become a battleground for psychological games between shareholders and listed companies, where each side tries to guess the other's intentions with the utmost malice.

Faced with the massive pressure of unlocked shares, the margin trading system in later generations did not take into account the interests of small shareholders. Institutions could resolve this through short selling, but ordinary people did not have this option and could only withdraw.

Vicious circle.

This gradually led to a lack of market confidence.

Of course, these are all future issues. He simply kept these things in his mind and, holding a draft paper, first sang a hymn to the reform of the shareholding structure.

With only a dozen or so men and seven or eight guns, they weren't even capable of starting a revolution.

I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it when the team gets bigger.

If you really want to say something, then don't say it, just do it.

Set an example for the market.

The phone rang again before lunchtime.

"Hey! Mr. Chen! I didn't expect it to be so effective! In just half a day, there are already over 200 comments! You have that many fans outside?"

Chen Xuebing wasn't happy to hear that: "What do you mean by 'outside fans'? I'm not from Sina!"

200+ comments is nothing. I used to get dozens of replies when I posted something on WeChat Moments.

The person on the other end was still excited: "You got over 8 views in half a day with just one blog post, without us even recommending it! You've set a new record for a newcomer! On Sina Blog, only Xu Jinglei has seen such a rapid rise in popularity!" These words finally made Chen Xuebing take it seriously.

"Where's Mu Zimei? Wasn't Mu Zimei invited here as well?"

"Mu Zimei has been co-opted now, she doesn't dare to write recklessly anymore, she's lost popularity! She's nowhere near as good as you!"

Chen Xuebing felt a surge of satisfaction.

Is Lao Tzu's popularity really that infuriating?

"Let me see!"

After hanging up the phone, I opened my blog and saw 232 comments.

"Sofa, sofa! Tell my mom I did it!"

"Haha, rich people have a great sense of humor too."

"From now on, this is how you'll write a disclaimer. I've learned something. Has Chery QQ learned something too?" (Recent news: Tencent QQ sues Chery QQ for copyright infringement)

"President Chen, you said Zhou Gongzi was wrong on the forum. If you were in his shoes, what would you do? Should you just turn a blind eye to someone like Yi Yeqing?"

"Taking this opportunity to voice our opinion: We call for an open industry!"

Chen Xuebing: "."

Most of them are netizens from Tieba (Baidu's online forum), and there are very few serious replies, but at least they have a place where they can get attention and voice their opinions.

The mainstream media is too serious, and there are many restrictions on what can be said.

From now on, we will use this blackboard space, which has a fun and lighthearted element, to release new products and respond to events.

If it's done well, this will be half of his advertising and public relations departments, and it should be taken seriously.

You need to establish a personal brand.

The kind that won't easily collapse.

"Old Wu, Old Xu! Come here for a second!" he called out towards the corridor.

Everyone in the inner office came out.

Wu Zisheng, Xu Jin, Liu Zengcheng, Yu Yi.

Liang Hui was also there.

Since Yu Chunyin became the general manager of Gu'an Labor Services, he has taken over a lot of financial matters. Chen Xuebing's six brothers were originally sent to various companies to oversee finances and expenses. With Chen Xuebing's uncle around, Liang Hui suddenly had nothing to do. Bored in the office, he would come over to learn how to trade stocks from Yu Yi.

"Chairman, what's wrong?"

"I want to ask you, in your eyes, what kind of person am I?" Chen Xuebing asked, looking at the group.

The group of people were taken aback for a moment.

"Great!" Liu Zengcheng spoke first.

"Smart, isn't it?" Xu Jin said after a moment's thought.

Wu Zisheng smiled and said, "Good leader."

Chen Xuebing's mouth twitched: "I didn't ask you to praise me, I just wanted to establish a public image, but I don't want to put on a show too much for later! Liang Hui, Yu Yi, what do you two say!"

Liang Hui and Yu Yi were silent for a moment.

"Brother, are you really going to tell me?"

"Do not talk nonsense!"

The two looked at each other and smiled, then spoke in unison... in different voices.

“Lustful,” Yu Yi said.

“He has a bad temper,” Liang Hui said.

Both of them were stunned for a moment, and the brotherly tacit understanding they had built up over the years vanished.

Chen Xuebing glared at Yu Yi and grabbed Yu Yi's wrist.

"You fucking said I'm a lecher?!"

"Brother! You have two wives! Aren't you lustful?"

Yu Yi had just started arguing when Chen Xuebing tightened his grip and he immediately started begging for mercy again: "I was wrong, I was wrong! Violence, violence! Is that alright?"

The two brothers knew him inside and out. Chen Xuebing himself knew that his intelligence came from his rebirth. He was generous and straightforward to his subordinates for the company's development, and he was calm and composed for the sake of the big picture. What truly belonged to his personality was his straightforward temperament.

It has a touch of radicalism and a touch of violence.

Okay, let's be direct and forceful then.

He turned around, opened his computer, and posted a blog entry based on a screenshot of the comment, "Should we just ignore someone like Yi Yeqing?"

“I usually ignore people I see online, and I’ve never encountered such people in real life. As for what to do if I do encounter one, I’ll just tell him not to run away after school.”

……

Chen Xuebing became famous in just two days.

The two short blog posts on Monday caused a stir on Tianya Forum, the origin of the "Yi Yeqing incident," and Baidu Tieba, where Chen Xuebing posted, garnering a total of over 100,000 views and more than 500 comments.

These days, there aren't many trending topics pushed online. Many netizens come here because they see people discussing him on forums. Even more people are curious about his identity and wealth, so they go to the blog comment section to ask all sorts of questions.

On Tuesday, he posted another landscape photo taken from his 46th-floor office in New York: "Stop asking questions, just focus on your work, everything else is irrelevant."

The comment section was stunned.

What is "神马"?

A netizen from Tianjin replied: "Whatever is what!"

"What is 'shenma'?"

"Yes! What is Shenma!"

"Everything is fleeting!"

Now, many people have finally noticed that this Mr. Chen is very witty in his speech.

"Chen Xuebing, played by Chen Xuebing", "Yi Yeqing, don't run after school", and "Everything is fleeting" gradually spread online, and the blog's attention really began to soar.

It's not an exaggeration; he only gained 8000 followers in two days. These days, fake followers and paid trolls haven't even started to emerge yet, so the data is very real.

8000 is quite a lot. The Sina staff who contacted him changed their tune drastically, saying that this kind of simple and concise blog is also very marketable, and that they would put his blog diary, "First Love," on the homepage of the celebrity blog section.

In this era, a single sentence can keep everyone entertained for a long time.

Many veteran fans are starting to look forward to Chen Xuebing posting on his blog, waiting to buy content from him and then share it on their own forums.

Chen Xuebing, of course, felt no pressure; he could write four kilograms of these old tropes a day.

However, using too many memes can easily turn someone into a joker. At the same time, he also verified the market and found that the upper limit of public social media traffic is still very low these days. A blog with less than a thousand comments is worth being featured on the homepage, and the reach of personal accounts is still very limited.

After a couple of days of casual fun, I decided to use this free time to complete my task of mentoring entrepreneurs.

Xu Yunfeng has been very quick these past few days. He has already found a startup team and invited him to the store to discuss the investment details.

I heard that he wanted to make a web-based Three Kingdoms strategy game, which would be very expensive. Even for a web game, a budget of several hundred thousand yuan would definitely not be enough, so Chen Xuebing had to borrow one million yuan from the group's account.

……

On Thursday at noon, the first day of December, the sunlight had no color.

The weather has turned completely cold, and people in Chongqing have put on long sleeves and trousers to enjoy the late autumn before the arrival of winter fog.

Chen Xuebing had just arrived at Xu Yunfeng's 4S store when he received a phone call.

It was a call from my mom.

As soon as the call connected, Yu Chunyan's tone was extremely panicked.

"Soldier! The money...you sent the money?!"

"What money?"

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, then Yu Chunyan's tone became hesitant again: "You didn't transfer the money, right? Oh... that might be a scam! I just received a call from the Agricultural Bank of China, the card I use to pay taxes when I opened my shop, you know? They said someone transferred two sums of money to me, a total of 1100 million! I have a landline number with the bank, so I don't receive SMS notifications. That's why they called me specifically to tell me to go to the bank when I have time... to check the accounts! Yes, check the accounts!"

Chen Xuebing raised an eyebrow.

My mom actually met Qin Shi Huang in this day and age?

He gradually recalled some fraudulent methods from later generations and asked:
"They didn't say anything about your bank account being locked, or ask you to transfer money to unlock it?"

"No, no! They just notified me that the money had arrived in my account, and they sounded really serious! They said something like... one payment was nine million, a whole lot! And the other was two... two million two hundred and twenty thousand..."

Yu Chunyan was trying to recall the numbers anxiously when Chen Xuejin's voice came through again: "Two million two hundred and twenty-seven thousand eight!"

"Hehe." Chen Xuebing chuckled: "These scammers are starting to put their hearts into it now. They even make up numbers with round numbers. You don't need to worry about it. If they call you again asking for something, just don't go."

He said he was about to hang up the phone.

Suddenly, my brow furrowed; the number seemed somewhat familiar.

"Mom, don't panic! You just said two million two hundred and twenty thousand, what's the rest?"

"Seven thousand eight!"

Hiss!
Chen Xuebing gasped.

(End of this chapter)