A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

In the relaxed atmosphere of the dinner party organized by Li Yanhong, Li Mu took out his camera:

"Everyone, let's take a group photo!"

"Haha, is Li Ji trying to make headlines?"

Ding Lei, who was chatting with Lei Jun, asked with a smile.

"You can post it or not. But I think you are all the future leaders of the Internet. We may not be able to get together like this often in the future, so wouldn't it be good to take a photo as a memento? In 10 or 20 years, when we look back... the Internet has seen many ups and downs, and the spirited and confident young people of you should have a visual record of your early days."

"Well……"

The dozen or so people fell silent.

They looked at each other...

"Li Ji's writing is truly excellent."

Zhang Chaoyang remarked with considerable emotion, then put his arm around the shoulder of Wang Wei, the founder of Sina, who was standing next to him.

At this moment, even rivals became friends who appreciated each other after Li Mu's words.

Ding Lei said:

"Come on. Send me a picture after you take it, and I'll put it on my personal homepage. Hey everyone, welcome to use NetEase Mail! Our servers are the most reliable."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

"Come, come, come."

"It's worth commemorating. When we're all old, this photo will be a beautiful story to tell."

Everyone, including Ma Yun, was amused.

"Let my assistant do it; he takes good photos."

Following Ma Huateng's words, a young man at another table immediately stood up.

"Come on, let's all squeeze in."

"Li Ji, you sit here. You were the one who suggested this. You're handsome, so you'll be a good face for us."

Upon hearing Ma Yun's words, everyone burst into laughter.

Li Mu didn't back down and embraced her on both sides.

On the left is Ding Lei, and on the right is Ma Yun, both flashing their white teeth at the camera.

The seating arrangement today was actually random; everyone except Li Yanhong, who organized the gathering, just sat wherever they wanted.

There's no such thing as "your company is strong, so you get the seat of honor."

Admittedly, STEM men don't actually have that many complicated personalities, even if they are all successful people.

Even if some people may have grudges against each other in private.

Finally, after the flash went off several times, it captured everyone—some beaming, some smiling, some calmly staring at the camera—freezing the moment in time. Li Mu then checked the photos.

Ok.

All I can say is, my buddy is really handsome.

After everyone dispersed, while Li Mu was checking the photos, Li Yanhong came over:

"Li Ji, shall we meet up?"

"Um, Mr. Li, please."

Today they were drinking red wine. After Li Mu clinked his glass with Li Yanhong's, Li Yanhong took the seat that was originally Ding Lei's.

"Li Ji, are you free tomorrow?"

Li Mu was taken aback.

After turning his head to look at him, he smiled and said:

"Is Mr. Li interested in hao123?"

He is straightforward.

Li Yanhong was quite straightforward, nodding:

"To be honest, I'm very interested. How much of a share does Li's company own?"

"Well... strictly speaking, I'm 56, my other partner, who is also my girlfriend, is 14, and the remaining 30 is Li Xingping."

Upon hearing this, Li Yanhong didn't ask who Li Mu's girlfriend was, but instead asked with some surprise:

"So, you're saying you own 70% of the shares? Absolute control?"

"You could say that."

"So... Li Ji, what are your future plans for it?"

This time, Li Mu immediately understood what he meant.

Clearly, just as the wheelchair-bound guy said, he has his eye on hao123.

Therefore, he made his decision:

"If someone else asked, I would definitely elaborate on the business empire. But with Mr. Li, I feel it's unnecessary and meaningless. To be honest, investing is just a side job for me, and my interests lie in angel investing. So, for me, hao123 actually has no plans whatsoever. That's Li Xingping's business. I only invest, but how it goes in the future is up to him."

His words effectively blocked everything Li Yanhong wanted to express.

The subtext is:

"I only do angel investing. If you have any ideas, go talk to Li Xingping."

Li Yanhong immediately understood and said with a smile:

"Could you recommend Li's restaurant?"

"Sure. Tomorrow?"

"Yes, I was thinking of returning to Yanjing tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow."

"Okay. No problem."

Li Mu readily agreed.

Li Yanhong beamed and raised his glass:

"Li Ji, cheers, thanks!"

"Don't mention it~ Just let me book a few more interviews later."

"Haha, no problem. This is no small matter~ We can do it now."

"Hahaha……"

……

The dinner lasted until a little after 9 p.m. before it finally ended.

All the bigwigs left, escorted by their drivers.

Li Mu also said goodbye to everyone and made an appointment to send them the photos when he got back before getting into Ding Lei's car.

After getting into the car, he dialed Li Xingping's number right in front of Ding Lei.

The phone rang several times before it was answered.

"Hello, Mr. Li."

"Ping-ge, what are you doing?"

"Playing games, what's up?"

"Are you free tomorrow? Robin Li from Baidu would like to invite you to dinner."

Ding Lei, who was resting in his chair, was taken aback.

Li Xingping was also quite surprised:

"Baidu? Why are they contacting me?"

"It sounds like he wants to discuss a collaboration. When he contacted me, I didn't ask too many questions. After all, I promised you I wouldn't interfere with hao123's operations, so it's better if you make the decisions. But he really wants to talk to you, and I agreed to have dinner together tomorrow. How about it?"

"Well……"

After thinking about it for a while, Li Xingping agreed:

"Okay, what time tomorrow?"

I'll contact you then.

"it is good."

"Okay, I'll hang up now."

After hanging up the phone, Ding Lei said:

"Li Ji, what were you guys talking about just now?"

After Li Mu briefly recounted his conversation with Li Yanhong, Ding Lei paused, then asked curiously:

"It feels like he wants to acquire you all."

"Let's acquire it then."

Facing Ding Lei, Li Mu displayed a very carefree attitude:

"hao123 belongs to Li Xingping. If he wants to sell it, then let him sell it. I don't care."

"After all, that's your hard work."

"I wouldn't say that. After all, my main investment focus is on angel investing. Besides... he actually resents me a bit. After all, I got 70% of his shares for only 500,000."

"ha."

Ding Lei wasn't surprised.

Indeed, many people would do this, never considering whether their business would have succeeded without that initial investment.

From NetEase's suspension from Nasdaq to the internal changes within the group a couple of years ago, he had seen through many things long ago.

"Does Li's have a price range in mind?"

"Hmm... not at the moment. But from a long-term perspective, it would definitely be more appropriate to exchange it for Baidu's equity."

He might not give you much.

Ding Lei's understanding of Li Yanhong is naturally deeper than Li Mu's:

"Baidu's shares are in high demand right now. In last month's six-month rankings, it just overtook Google to become the number one search engine in the Chinese community. This level of user engagement already indicates that it will definitely be the largest search engine in the Chinese community in the future. So... even though hao123 currently has more traffic and a higher ranking than Baidu, in terms of commercial value and risk assessment, the gap between hao123 and Baidu is still very obvious."

"And what would you do, Mr. Ding?"

"Well……"

Ding Lei stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then said:

"If I were Baidu, I would negotiate an acquisition using a combination of cash and partial equity; cooperation would be the least desirable option. Of course, this applies not only to Baidu but also to you. The hao123 model is too easy to replicate. With Baidu's expansion, they could easily launch a baidu123-like webpage to replace you, based on their search platform. However, this process would take a very long time, and their primary goal right now is to go public. Based on my deduction, Robin Li will definitely seek an IPO within two years. Therefore, they hope you can be a supporter, contributing to the IPO process, rather than independently operating a baidu123 themselves."

"So, you also think now is a good time to sell hao123?"

"Yes. And... to be honest, if we weren't not involved in search engines, I might have already asked you to sell this website to me."

"Haha, that's a pity."

Li Mu smiled and continued to ask:

"If you were hao123, how would you negotiate?"

"Well..."

Ding Lei shrugged:

"The higher the price, the better. And to get a high price, the data needs to look very good. Currently... your Alexa ranking for the first half of the year is 88, so let's look at the data for the second half of the year. As long as the data for the second half of the year continues to grow, then January next year will be the best time for you to sell."

Upon hearing Ding Lei's words, Li Mu nodded unconsciously.

I must say... that's really impressive.

His idea was exactly the same as the suggestion the wheelchair-bound guy had given him.

They all requested that the sale be postponed until after 03.

However, in 03, the wheelchair-bound guy didn't have the same level of traffic as QQ163.

And now... Li Muyou.

hao123 will definitely be sold.

He couldn't keep him, and he didn't want to keep him either.

After all, there's a property worth over ten million yuan in Yanjing that I'm waiting to buy.

Back then, hao123 generated over ten million yuan in profit for the wheelchair-bound man, which was his first pot of gold.

Now, Li Mu also wants to see what price hao123 will fetch in January next year, given that qq163 is a website that can connect with Baidu MP3 and give it a significant boost.

He waited and saw.