My son is a reincarnated soul; I overheard his inner thoughts and became the richest man.

Having figured out the key point, a glint of light flashed in Chen Feng's eyes.

"Lin Wan, reply to Huawei."

Chen Feng's tone was decisive: "In principle, I agree to invest. It doesn't matter if the conditions are a bit harsh; what I value is the company's resilience."

"However, I'd like to discuss this important matter with Mr. Ren in person. I'd like to see if I can invite him to Shanghai, or I can fly to Shenzhen myself."

"Understood, I'll arrange it right away."

Although Lin Wan was somewhat puzzled as to why her boss was so optimistic about this "mess," she immediately went to carry it out because of her absolute trust in Chen Feng's business acumen.

Watching Lin Wan's departing figure, Chen Feng's lips curled up slightly.

Investing in Huawei is a sure-fire way to make money.

......

Shenzhen, Bantian Base.

At this moment, Huawei's headquarters was shrouded in a low-pressure atmosphere.

Cisco's lawsuit was like a Damocles' sword hanging over their heads, making it hard for all the executives to breathe.

After receiving Lin Wan's feedback call, the vice president in charge of financing practically ran into the president's office.

"Mr. Ren! It's working!"

"Fengtian Technology replied that their CEO, Mr. Chen, is willing to invest! And..."

The vice president swallowed hard, seemingly unable to believe it himself. "And he fully accepted our restricted stock terms!"

Mr. Ren, who was reviewing the lawyer's letter, suddenly looked up, a glint of light flashing in his bloodshot eyes.

"Are you sure? You didn't hear me wrong?"

Mr. Ren took off his reading glasses. "No participation in management, no voting rights, non-transferable, non-inheritable... which richest man agreed to all these stringent conditions?"

In the venture capital world at the time, such terms were practically treating investors like suckers.

Apart from dividends, investors have no other guarantees.

"It's been confirmed. It was President Lin of Fengtian Technology who personally replied. She said that President Chen only has faith in Huawei's future and doesn't care about anything else."

"Well done! Chen Feng is truly remarkable!"

Mr. Ren slapped his thigh, his tightly furrowed brows finally relaxing a bit. "Quick, give me Mr. Chen's private number, I'll call him myself."

A few minutes later, the call was connected.

"Hello Mr. Chen, I am Ren Zhengfei from Huawei."

On the phone, Mr. Ren's voice was steady but slightly hoarse.

Chen Feng smiled and said, "President Ren, I've heard so much about you."

"Mr. Chen, there are some things I need to confirm with you in person."

Mr. Ren's tone was serious. "Huawei's restricted stock system is our bottom line. If you invest this money, you might not even hear a sound. Aside from dividends, you'll have no control over Huawei. Even whether these shares can be passed on to your son in the future depends on Huawei's decision. Have you really thought this through?"

"Mr. Ren, I understand perfectly well."

Chen Feng spoke casually, "I have faith in Huawei because I have faith in you and your team. Since this is a financial investment, I have no intention of interfering. As for succession... I'm still young, I haven't thought that far ahead."

A sigh of relief came from the other end of the phone.

"Alright! Since President Chen trusts you so much, Huahua will remember this favor."

"When would be a convenient time for you, Mr. Chen? I would like to fly to Shanghai to discuss this in person."

"The Lunar New Year is almost here, why don't we wait until after the New Year? I'll be at the company after the tenth day of the first lunar month."

"It's a deal!"

After hanging up the phone, Mr. Ren leaned back in his chair, looked out at the gloomy Shenzhen sky, and finally a long-lost smile appeared on his lips.

This life-saving money is safe now.

......

January 31st, Lunar New Year's Eve.

Chen Feng gave his driver Jiang Ming a day off and personally drove an Audi A6 with his son Chen Xiaotian back to their hometown in Jiangzhou.

The Spring Festival of 2003 was still very festive.

Red lanterns hung from the large camphor tree at the village entrance, and the air was filled with the aroma of sulfur and cured meat.

As soon as the car came to a stop, the enthusiastic villagers surrounded it.

"Ah Feng's back! Oh my, even the richest man these days has to drive himself home?"

"I heard your assets are worth tens of billions? All the land in our entire village combined isn't even worth a single finger of yours!"

Faced with the villagers' teasing and compliments, Chen Feng skillfully opened several packs of Zhonghua cigarettes and handed them out to everyone he met.

Although he became the richest man, he did not forget his roots.

He handled road repairs, ancestral hall construction, and scholarship programs with great success, which brought his prestige in the village to its peak.

As night fell, the Chen family's old house was brightly lit.

The family sat around the eight-immortal table, eating their New Year's Eve dinner.

The Spring Festival Gala was playing on TV, and Zhao Benshan was performing "Heart Disease." His line, "My heart is so cold," made the whole family burst into laughter.

......

After staying at home until the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Feng set off to return to Shanghai.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Shanghai was experiencing a mix of warm and cold weather.

A black Mercedes-Benz S600 slowly pulled up in front of Fengtian Holdings.

Jiang Ming got out of the car and respectfully opened the back door.

An elderly man with gray hair, wearing a slightly loose gray suit, came down.

He looked haggard with deep eye bags, but his eyes remained sharp.

It was indeed President Ren.

At this time, he was going through the most difficult moment of his life—his mother had just died in a car accident, and his company was facing a life-or-death crisis.

But he straightened his back and walked into this newest landmark building in Shanghai.

The CEO's office.

"Mr. Ren, you must be tired from your journey."

Chen Feng quickly stepped forward and offered his hands.

"Mr. Chen, seeing is believing. You are indeed young and promising."

Mr. Ren gripped Chen Feng's hand tightly, "In comparison, this old man is in a terrible state."

"Mr. Ren is too modest. Everyone in the industry knows about Huawei's resilience in adversity."

The two exchanged pleasantries and took their seats.

Zhang Ying served two cups of hot tea and then left.

Mr. Ren picked up his teacup, blew away the foam, and said with a wry smile, "Mr. Chen, to be honest, Huawei is indeed facing internal and external troubles right now."

"The Cisco lawsuit is still ongoing, and orders from Europe are also dropping."

"At this time, your willingness to lend a helping hand is an understatement; it would be an understatement to say it's like sending charcoal in snowy weather."

After several rounds of tea, Chen Feng put down his purple clay cup and looked directly at the elder opposite him.

"Mr. Ren, let's be frank. Just how big is the hole Huawei is in right now?"

Ren gave a wry smile, his wrinkles seeming to deepen: "It's huge, so huge that if this money doesn't come in, Huawei might really run out of funding."

He sighed and began to review the strategic mistakes of the past two years, his tone full of regret.

"To be honest, I made a big mistake in my strategic vision a few years ago. At that time, Minister Wu Jichuan of the Ministry of Information Industry offered to give me a mobile phone license and also granted me production licenses for GSM and CDMA."

"But I was stubborn back then. I thought that making terminals was a low-end business of selling metal boxes, and that only making switches was high-tech. I pushed away the gold mine that was delivered to my door."

"And what happened? The mobile phone market is booming now, but we don't even have a ticket to enter."

Mr. Ren shook his head and continued, "In order to make up for the shortcomings in terminals, in 00 we partnered with NEC and Panasonic to establish Yumeng Communications, hoping to exchange market access for technology. But the Japanese were very shrewd; they didn't leak any of the core technologies, and our investment of several hundred million yuan went down the drain."

"Then there's GSM R&D. We scraped together all our resources and finally got it working, but then giants like Ericsson and Nokia joined forces to strangle us, causing equipment prices to plummet to near cost. They had the resources to afford the losses, but we couldn't."

"Plus that lawsuit Cisco filed in the US a few days ago... Mr. Chen, Huawei is really walking a tightrope right now."

Listening to this future business guru's candid analysis, Chen Feng couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

Who could have imagined that future tech giants would be in such a sorry state at this moment?

"How much funding does Mr. Ren want?" Chen Feng asked.

A glimmer of hope flashed in Mr. Ren's eyes: "The more the better!"

Chen Feng quickly calculated in his mind.

At the end of the year, we just distributed bonuses to the senior executives of Legend Network. Including the construction expenses of the group headquarters, the cash flow available on the books is currently around 400 million.

But this is clearly not enough to satisfy Huawei's appetite.

"Alright, I'll also tell you my secret."

Chen Feng tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "I currently have about 400 million yuan in liquid funds. If you need more, I will arrange to reduce my holdings of Fengtian Technology shares in the near future."

"Fengtian's current stock price is around $53. If we cash out some at the high point, raising 800 to 900 million shouldn't be a problem."

"I only have one question: What is the current valuation of Huawei's virtual restricted shares?"

When Ren Zhengfei heard that Chen Feng was actually willing to reduce his stake in Fengtian Technology, a "golden goose," for Huawei's sake, he was completely moved.

Moreover, it was at a time when Huawei was least favored that they traded their most valuable assets for an uncertain future for Huawei.

This courage and trust brought tears to Mr. Ren's eyes.

"Mr. Chen...I can't thank you enough!"

Mr. Ren took a deep breath to calm himself down. "The current share price is 2.74 yuan per share."

"it is good."

Chen Feng made a quick decision, "Then I'll subscribe to 3 million shares! The total price is 8.22 million. I'll transfer 4 million over the next few days to tide me over, and I'll make up the rest as soon as I cash out the shares."

3 million shares! 8.22 million yuan in cash!

This figure completely put Ren Zhengfei's mind at ease. With this money, they could not only deal with Cisco's lawsuit but also reconnect their broken cash flow. Huawei survived!

Although Chen Feng was unaware of the terrifying rate of return on this investment, historically, Huawei's virtual share dividends have been extremely astonishing.

For example, in 2010, the stock price was only 5.42 yuan, but the dividend was as high as 2.98 yuan, with a return rate of over 50%!

If you hold it for three years, you can earn back the 8 million yuan, including the principal and interest.

At this moment, in Chen Feng's eyes, he was simply making a sure-fire deal based on his son's vision of a "trillion-dollar empire."

After the business was finished, Mr. Ren suddenly looked troubled.

"Mr. Chen, I have another request."

"Please speak."

"That's right. According to the Huawei Basic Law that I personally drafted, the company's virtual restricted shares are, in principle, only open to internal employees, implementing a full employee stock ownership plan."

Mr. Ren rubbed his hands awkwardly. "If I sell the shares to external capital, that would be leading the way in breaking the rules, which is taboo at Huawei."

"So, could you possibly make an exception for Mr. Chen?"

"It would be best if you held these 3 million shares in your personal name. Also... I would like to hire you as Huawei's chief strategic advisor."

"You don't actually need to come to Shenzhen to clock in for work; it's just a nominal position. Legally, that way, you're still considered a Huawei 'employee,' and everyone can save face."

Chen Feng was taken aback, then burst into laughter.

This is quite a painstaking effort to ensure compliance.

Anyway, he never intended to hold the shares under the company's name; personal shareholding is more discreet and flexible.

As for being a nominal consultant? That's an even better deal with no investment and huge profits.

"No problem, Mr. Ren has considered everything thoroughly."

Chen Feng readily agreed, "Then I'll shamelessly accept a Huawei employee badge."

Seeing that Chen Feng agreed so readily, President Ren finally relaxed completely.

As they parted, the elderly man with gray hair grasped Chen Feng's hand tightly, his voice sincere: "President Chen, thank you so much. You helped us when Huawei was facing its most difficult time. Everyone at Huawei will remember this kindness."

"Once I return to Shenzhen, I will immediately arrange for my legal counsel to come and sign the agreement."

"Mr. Ren, you're too kind. I also wish Huawei a speedy breakthrough and a phoenix-like rebirth."

After seeing Mr. Ren off, Chen Feng immediately summoned Yu Bo, the executive vice president of Fengtian Capital.

"I want to cash out 1% of Fengtian Technology's shares."

Chen Feng cut to the chase, "The stock price is currently at a high of $53. 1% is roughly 1.4 million shares, worth 700-800 million RMB. Sell your shares in batches, but be careful not to drive the price down."

"Understood." Yu Bo nodded. "The current trading volume is very large. If we sell it all over two weeks, the market can handle it."

After some calculation, Chen Feng realized that with the existing dividends from Legend Network and this cash-out fund, he could easily raise the 8.22 million yuan he had promised to Huawei.

First, transfer the 3 million in the account to cover the emergency, and make up the rest within a month.