I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Inside the villa, the television program had ended, and the men and women dispersed.

Zang Xuejiao was nowhere to be seen near the living room sofa—after the TV program, some people were quite interested in her and had invited her to chat over, which she gladly accepted.

Lan Qin didn't go; she was sitting on a sofa.

Those sitting nearby included Zong Shijie, Meng Chengjiao, Tong Enkang, and others.

They were talking about Shen Kang, who had appeared most frequently on TV earlier.

"...How did his family manage to pull off all this?" Lan Qin asked, looking quite intrigued.

Then, he glanced at Meng Chengjiao and the others, smiled slightly, and said, "Don't tell me he really started from scratch or anything like that; I really don't believe it."

Meng Chengjiao and the others exchanged glances.

Then, Meng Chengjiao, the one who brought Lan Qin over, coughed and spoke up: "We really don't know what his family does, but he probably didn't start from scratch. Shengyuan Group, have you heard of it?"

Lan Qin nodded. "I've heard of it."

"A Zhou Man recently joined the Qianlin Provincial Branch of Shengyuan Group. She is the daughter of the CEO of Shengyuan Group."

At this point, Meng Chengjiao became somewhat mysterious, leaning forward slightly and lowering his voice: "What the outside world doesn't know is that Zhou Man actually has another daughter. That Shen Kang is the future son-in-law that Zhou Man chose for this daughter."

It has a thrilling feel to it, like telling a secret history of the imperial court.

Lan Qin's expression froze for a moment.

Shen Kang is Zhou Man's future son-in-law... So what exactly did Shen Kang do to cause such a misunderstanding? Lan Qin was genuinely confused.

Meng Chengjiao, unaware of this, thought his new friend was surprised by the secret and was quite pleased.

Lan Qin paused for a moment, then subconsciously asked, "Where did you hear that from?"

Meng Chengjiao shook his head, "It's not something I heard." As he spoke, he gestured with his chin toward Zong Shijie, who was standing to the side, "Old Zong saw it with his own eyes. You can ask him if you don't believe me."

Seeing that the topic had turned to him, Zong Shijie chimed in, "Indeed. That was the first time I met Shen Kang..."

Zong Shijie recounted the entire story of the day he went to Jule Foods.

After listening to this, Lan Qin finally understood why they had such a misunderstanding.

While feeling both amused and thoughtful, Zhou Man seemed reluctant to publicly acknowledge Shen Kang as her son. This suggested a distant relationship between her and her adopted son.

However, she publicly acknowledged in front of everyone that He Qiuzhu was her daughter—directly calling her "daughter" rather than "adopted daughter"—from this perspective, it seems that Zhou Man really likes her adopted daughter.

However, it seems that Shen Kang, the adopted son, and He Qiuzhu, the adopted daughter, have a good relationship.

Lan Qin had a headache.

This family's relationships are really messed up.

……

After the party ended tonight, Lan Qin returned to a five-star hotel near the North Lu University City.

Back in her room, she jumped straight onto the big bed, pounced on it, and let out a long, comfortable moan.

"Hmm~~~"

After lying in bed for a while, she rolled over, took out her phone, and called her mother. "Hey, Mom, I have new information about Zhou Man's current family situation... One price, 100,000!... Absolutely top secret information, you definitely won't regret buying it!..."

After some haggling, the other party agreed.

Lan Qin was quite satisfied, and then revealed the new information she had just obtained that evening: "Zhou Man really likes her adopted daughter, but her relationship with her adopted son is rather ordinary..."

After she finished speaking, the woman on the other end of the phone asked her where she got this information.

Lan Qin then recounted the details of the party she attended that evening, providing various points to demonstrate the reliability of the information.

After saying that, Lan Qin complained, "Honestly, it makes it sound like I'm the kind of person who makes up stories to scam funding!"

The voice on the other end of the phone sneered, "It's not like you haven't done this kind of thing before."

Lan Qin felt a little awkward and gave a silent, dry laugh. She didn't bring up those old stories and directly changed the subject, bringing up the current matter: "But this time I really didn't. I'm telling the truth."

The woman's voice on the other end of the phone said, "Hmm. What you're saying sounds like you're telling the truth this time too."

Lan Qin chuckled and flattered, "No one knows a daughter better than her mother."

The woman on the other end of the phone didn't respond. After a moment of silence, seemingly deep in thought, she spoke again: "If it's really as you say, then that's a good thing."

"That He Qiuzhu isn't anything special; she's just an ordinary student. Her uncle's side is just the CEO of a small to medium-sized company..."

If a student at Yang-Tsai University of Science and Technology knows He Qiuzhu, and hears someone say that He Qiuzhu is an "ordinary student," they might doubt whether the other person has something wrong with their eyes.

However, in Lan Qin's eyes, He Qiuzhu was indeed just an ordinary student.

As for He Qiuzhu's uncle.

They had already investigated and knew that the other party ran a small to medium-sized company with assets of around 100 million yuan.

To others, he would definitely be a billionaire, a super-rich man.

But in Lan Qin's eyes, it was just so-so, and didn't mean much.

What truly caught the attention of the Lan family was someone else entirely.

"...The most troublesome one is still that Shen Kang."

On the other end of the phone, Lan Qin's mother remained quite calm until she mentioned Shen Kang, at which point her tone finally wavered slightly.

"However, if Zhou Man and Shen Kang's relationship is just so-so, then that's definitely good news..."

After talking with her mother for a while, Lan Qin hung up the phone, her face beaming with joy—another 100,000 yuan had easily been deposited into her account, making her trip to that boring party tonight worthwhile.

Moreover, this was different from money obtained through embezzlement; it was money she earned legitimately. This made Lan Qin quite happy, and she subconsciously wanted to call a few of her girlfriends and go out to have some fun.

But the next second, he realized that this was Yangcheng, not his home base of Zhijiang.

"well……"

Lan Qin could only sigh, then obediently climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

Go wash up and go to bed, you have tasks to complete tomorrow.

next day

Lan Qin got up early and went to Yangcheng Business School.

She had already done her research. After entering the school, she asked two classmates along the way before heading towards the entrepreneurship base.

Upon arriving at the startup base, she went upstairs, came to the outside of room 305, and looked inside.

……

Li Xian sat at his desk, reading the novel "The Path of the Rising Dragon" on his laptop, his fingers occasionally tapping the keyboard to turn the pages. Across from him, Wei Mingrui was typing away at his keyboard, writing code.

Li Xian has been quite free lately.

As the day-to-day operator of the Yangbei Forum, Li Xian didn't have much to do to begin with. Now that the Beiming Community is constantly eroding the Yangbei Forum's market share, Li Xian has even more free time, and reading novels has become one of his ways to pass the time.

However, Li Xian didn't pay to read the novel; he used a pirated website. Pirated websites often insert unwanted content to generate profit.

The pirated website that Li Xian is currently using is just like that; there are quite a few "GG" characters on both sides of the main text of the novel.

This is very distracting and makes it impossible to concentrate on reading.

After flipping through a few more pages, Li Xian could no longer concentrate on the novel's content; he spent more time looking at pictures of beautiful women whose underwear consisted of only two straps on either side.

These kinds of pictures are irresistible to elementary school students.

Of course, even college students couldn't resist.

Li Xian casually looked up and glanced at Wei Mingrui across from him.

Seeing that the other person was still engrossed in writing code and hadn't noticed him at all, Li Xian secretly manipulated the mouse, first muting the computer, and then moving the mouse to the picture on the right that read "flight attendant, young woman, innocent school beauty".

Before the mouse could even be placed on the screen, a woman's voice came from the doorway.

"Hello there."

Li Xian was startled and immediately turned around to look. He saw a girl standing at the door. At first glance, she was a beautiful woman looking inside.

Li Xian quickly closed the webpage, then got up from his workstation and went to greet him: "Who are you looking for?"

As soon as I got close, I could smell a faint fragrance.

He noticed more things – although he didn’t know what brands the beautiful woman was wearing, they looked very expensive.

"Excuse me, is this the office of Yangbei Forum?" the beautiful woman asked.

Li Xian nodded, "Yes."

The beautiful woman smiled and said, "I'm looking for your boss."

Li Xian subconsciously said, "Just tell me what's wrong."

The beautiful woman then said, "Okay. I want to invest."

"..."

10 minutes later

Zheng Changhao appeared downstairs at the startup base and hurried upstairs with a strange expression, a mixture of surprise and confusion.

The surprise came from a call he had just received from Li Xian, who said a female student had come to his door and wanted to invest in Yangbei Forum.

Female student? Investment?

Jung Chang-ho immediately told Lee Heon to find out what the other party's intentions were. If they wanted to get close to him in this way, then he would not go.

He's been quite busy lately and really doesn't have the time or inclination to do these things.

As it turned out, Li Xian said that the other party might actually be there to invest.

"...Although I don't know what brand her clothes are, they look very expensive. And her demeanor makes her seem like a wealthy person, not an ordinary college student..."

Based on Li Xian's description, Zheng Changhao began to believe that someone was actually going to invest in him, which surprised and delighted him.

The reason for the confusion is that, since I founded Yangbei Forum several years ago, I have never encountered anyone who wants to invest in Yangbei Forum.

With these thoughts in mind, Zheng Changhao arrived at the entrance of 305 and immediately spotted the investor that Li Xian had mentioned.

The other person was sitting at an empty workstation next to the desk, with a bottle of mineral water in front of them, which Li Xian must have brought for them.

Zheng Changhao quickly looked the girl up and down.

Li Xian didn't recognize the brand of the other person's clothes, but he did—although he couldn't recognize all of them, he did recognize the top; it was indeed a luxury brand, indicating a wealthy person.

Rich people.

Zheng Changhao felt relieved and walked in with a big smile.

Li Xianzheng, who was standing next to the beautiful woman, quickly stood up when Zheng Changhao arrived and introduced them: "This is Zheng Changhao, the boss of our Yangbei Forum. Boss, this is Lan Qin."

After getting to know Lan Qin, Zheng Changhao invited her to chat next door, and Lan Qin readily agreed.

After the two left, Li Xian returned to his workstation and sat down.

Wei Mingrui across from me hadn't been coding for a long time.

Seeing Zheng Changhao and Lan Qin leave, Wei Mingrui turned his gaze from the doorway and looked over here, saying jokingly, "Hey, do you think they're really here to invest in our Yangbei Forum?"

"I think so, she has a lot of class."...

After chatting for a while, Wei Mingrui continued to bury himself in writing the code for the "Second-hand Textbook Website" that Zheng Changhao had assigned him.

Li Xian continued reading the novel, but switched to a pirated gambling website to avoid losing control again.

As he watched, he would occasionally turn his head to look to the side, his gaze seemingly able to penetrate the walls and enter the next room to see what they were talking about.

Hopefully, it really is an investment and the deal will come to fruition. If so, he can keep his salary for longer, and might even get a raise...

next door

Zheng Changhao personally brought over two bottles of drinks and placed a bottle of jasmine tea in front of Lan Qin, who was already sitting on the sofa, with a broad smile.

"Thank you," Lan Qin said, taking the drink from him.

"You're welcome."

As Zheng Changhao spoke, he sat down opposite Lan Qin, looked at the girl in front of him, and went straight to the point: "Lan, are you interested in investing in our Yangbei Forum?"

Lan Qin put down her drink. "Hmm. I wonder if your Yangbei Forum accepts investment?"

Jung Chang-ho did not answer immediately.

He still had some questions that he needed to clarify first: "May I ask, where is Lan from?"

In the current situation, it's certainly a good thing that someone is willing to invest in Yangbei Forum.

However, Zheng Changhao did have some talent to build up Yangbei Forum. He wasn't immediately overwhelmed by the good news; instead, he remained very cautious.

Regardless, in terms of market share, Yangbei Forum still holds the majority. Even if it can't beat Beiming Forum, it can still hold out for a while.

But if he really fell for some conspiracy, Yangbei Forum might be finished immediately—based on his two encounters, Zheng Changhao felt that Shen Kang, that insidious and despicable guy, might actually do such a thing.

No, we shouldn't be careless.

Lan Qin understood Zheng Changhao's meaning, smiled, and took the initiative to speak: "I'm not from Yangcheng, I'm from Zhijiang. I'm here in Yangcheng to visit friends and travel for a while. My friend is also a student at Beilu University City. When we were chatting, we talked about the campus forums, and that's how I learned about the Yangbei Forum and the Beiming Forum."

"I think Zheng, you've done a great job with the Yangbei Forum."

"My family is from Zhijiang, and we own a factory. I have some money of my own, so I wanted to ask if your Yangbei Forum accepts investment, Zheng. Of course, my investment isn't free; I want shares."

As Zheng Changhao listened, he felt that there was nothing wrong with what the other person said.

Only one point.

Zheng Changhao thought for a moment, then decided to ask, "Since you've already said you understand our Yangbei Forum and also know about the Beiming Forum, I'd like to ask, if you want to invest, why didn't you choose the Beiming Forum, but instead chose our Yangbei Forum?"

Lan Qin smiled, "Of course it's because I have more faith in your Yangbei Forum. It's all about investment, so naturally I'd invest in the ultimate winner, not the loser."

Zheng Changhao said, "Student Lan, you think so highly of our Yangbei Forum? What a coincidence, I have some friends who think the opposite of you. They actually think Beiming Forum is better than us."

He still felt that Lanqin wasn't telling the truth.

Putting aside subjective emotions, from a purely rational and objective perspective, Zheng Changhao himself felt that Beiming Forum was indeed better than his own Yangbei Forum.

From an investment perspective, it should be investing in Beiming Forum, not Yangbei Forum.

Lan Qin, however, had a different opinion: "I do not share the same view as your friends. It is true that Beiming Forum has its advantages, but Yangbei Forum also has its advantages. That is, under the current circumstances, Yangbei Forum still has a larger market share in the Beilu University City area."

"Moreover, the advantages of the Beiming Forum can also become the advantages of the Yangbei Forum."

"If everything from Beiming Forum is copied and replicated on Yangbei Forum, and given its current market share advantage, I think Yangbei Forum is more likely to emerge victorious."

Zheng Changhao was greatly surprised and suddenly understood.

That's what he was thinking too: to directly copy the content from the Beiming Forum and then use his market share advantage to defeat the Beiming Forum.

He just didn't have any money before. But after the investment, the situation changed.

Lan Qin's reasoning successfully persuaded him.

Jung Chang-ho finally smiled genuinely: "Great minds think alike, that's what I think too..."

With no further doubts, Zheng Changhao continued his conversation with Lan Qin, discussing the investment amount.

"...Five hundred thousand?"

Upon hearing the investment amount announced by Lan Qin, Zheng Changhao's heart skipped a beat.

This number was indeed a bit beyond his expectations, which made him very happy.

Lan Qin looked at Zheng Changhao, smiled and nodded, but inwardly she was annoyed: judging from this guy's expression, I should have kept my guard up.

Her mother gave her a million dollars to do this.

She originally planned to keep 30% for herself and give 70% to Zheng Changhao.

But in the past few days, her thoughts have slowly changed—how come it's only 30%?

So, the original 700,000 yuan was reduced to 500,000 yuan.

Judging from Zheng Changhao's expression, even if I only give him 300,000, it should be enough.

But the words had already been spoken, and there was no going back.

After his initial elation, Zheng Changhao cautiously inquired about how many shares Lan Qin wanted.

Lan Qin gave a figure: "60%".

Zheng Changhao quickly did a mental calculation: 500,000, 60%, then Lan Qin's total valuation for Yangbei Forum is over 800,000.

A valuation of over 800,000...

Zheng Changhao even had an impulse—forget about 60%, just add another 300,000, and I'll sell the entire Yangbei Forum to you!

However, since it was a website he had created himself, Jung Chang-ho was still a little reluctant to give it up.

In addition, Lan Qin's sudden appearance and willingness to invest gave him the feeling that "Yangbei Forum is worth more than 800,000".

It's like an old person in the countryside having a broken bowl that has been passed down from who-knows-when.

If it were a villager offering ten yuan for this broken bowl, he probably would have sold it long ago, but no one is buying it.

One day, a well-dressed merchant came to the village. When he saw the broken bowl, his eyes lit up, and he said he would buy it for 50,000. He paid on the spot, and the bowl was delivered to the buyer.

Instead of selling, the old man immediately snatched the broken bowl back—"Judging from your appearance, I know this broken bowl of mine is priceless. You think you can get a bargain for 50,000 yuan? Bah! No way!"

Zheng Changhao now has a vague subconscious desire for greed that arises unconsciously.

"60% is too much."

After thinking for a moment, Jung Chang-ho decisively replied, "At most 35%!"

Lan Qin was speechless.

However, she absolutely had to get this done, so she shook her head and began bargaining with Zheng Changhao: "35% is definitely impossible. Zheng, besides me, has anyone else expressed any interest in investing?"

Zheng Changhao smiled slightly, "Trade secret, no comment." He looked confident.

"Anyway, 35% is absolutely impossible..."

The two then began to haggle over the price.

During the negotiations, the talks almost broke down due to Jung Chang-ho's greed.

Fortunately, seeing that Lan Qin was genuinely angry, Zheng Changhao sensed a crisis and quickly decided to back down while he was ahead. Finally, after more than half an hour of back-and-forth, the 500,000 yuan investment for the shares settled at 45%.

Overall, both sides were fairly satisfied.

The investment intention was thus decided.

They went through a capital increase and share expansion process. At Lan Qin's urging, the capital increase agreement was signed on the same day, and other formalities were also processed as soon as possible.

Lan Qin's hurried demeanor aroused Zheng Changhao's suspicions again, and he said half-jokingly, "Isn't there a need to be in such a rush?"

Lan Qin gave a reasonable explanation.

"We have to hurry. As I said, I'm from Zhijiang, and I'm only in Yangcheng for tourism. I won't be staying long, and the investment was a spur-of-the-moment decision. We need to get everything settled before I leave Yangcheng. Also, the sooner we complete these formalities and get the funds in place, the sooner you can get things done. Right now, the Beiming Forum is eroding our Yangbei Forum's market share every day. The longer we delay, the harder it will be to compete, so every day is crucial. The sooner we act, the greater our advantage will be!"

After listening, Zheng Changhao felt that it made a lot of sense—this Lan Qin's family is indeed in the factory business; not only can they invest money, but they also have unique insights into doing business.

This investor is definitely the right one!

She and I were like a perfect match, like a dragon and a phoenix. Our meeting today surpasses countless encounters in the mortal world.

Shen Kang? What a load of rubbish.