Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Xu Cheng followed Han Fei into the president's office. His first impression was that, apart from the ashtray piled high with cigarette butts on the desk, it was no different from the other offices in the publishing house. An old air conditioner was blowing whirring in the corner.

"It gets really hot here in the afternoon," Han Fei said apologetically, pointing to an armchair.

Xu Cheng sat down: "President Han, the fact that you were able to find people from NetEase and get these young people to work so hard shows that you not only know how to create content, but also how to lead a team. It's much harder to keep the technical team stable in this old building than to hire people at high prices in an office building."

"Actually, leading a team is the same principle as writing a novel," Han Fei said, handing Xu Cheng a glass of water before walking around behind the desk and sitting down. "You can't please everyone, but you have to let everyone know where you're headed. Besides, although our hardware isn't great, our software is pretty good. The stuff these young people work on all night, we see people paying for it the next day—that kind of feedback isn't always available in big companies. Don't you think so?"

Xu Cheng nodded: "President Han is right. Big companies have their resources, and small teams have their own unique advantages. But President Han, have you considered this?"

"Please speak, Director Xu." Han Fei took out two cigarettes from the pack and offered one to Xu Cheng. Xu Cheng waved his hand.

"Your current system can support the hundreds of thousands or millions of users, but what if the number of users increases dozens or hundreds of times? At that point, it won't be something that young people can solve just by staying up all night. When it comes to technology, once you reach a certain scale, what matters is the architecture, experience, and the lessons learned from mistakes. Your current core leaders may be very capable, but after all, it's just a few people carrying the entire load, and the pressure will only increase."

"Director Xu is right," Han Fei sighed. "We've been thinking about this issue recently. But fortunately, the core of our business is still content. No matter how good the technology is, without a story that people are willing to pay for, it's all for nothing. On the contrary, as long as the content is solid, we can gradually make up for the shortcomings in technology."

"I agree with what President Han said; content is fundamental," Xu Cheng said with a smile. "But this is also the biggest weakness of this model. Content is produced by authors, and authors are people, and people are the most uncontrollable element."

"Is Director Xu worried about me?"

Xu Cheng smiled and said, "In all my years of experience in strategy, I've seen too many content creation teams fail because of their personnel issues. Authors are free; if the pay is a little higher, they'll leave, and you can't stop them."

Han Fei nodded: "Indeed, we can't stop them. But if an author leaves just because the royalties are a little higher, it means we weren't paying them enough to begin with."

"Oh?" Xu Cheng leaned forward. "But there will always be someone in the market who offers a higher price. Once this market is fully ignited, it won't just be one company extending olive branches to these authors. There will even be investors specifically targeting top authors like you, whose royalties can be doubled or even more. At that time, your current core assets will become the scarcest resource in the entire market, and also the easiest resource to be manipulated."

"Director Xu makes a good point," Han Fei said, stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray. "But not all authors put money first. When I say we don't pay our authors enough, I'm not just referring to money. Our most popular story, 'Borrowing Seeds,' was written when the author was at our poorest. We couldn't even pay salaries back then, but he still wrote it. Why? Because these kinds of authors need more than just money; they need the sense of accomplishment of having their work recognized and read by tens of thousands of people. These things can't be replicated instantly by doubling the royalties. Money can lure people away, but it can't take away the sense of belonging they find here. Money can lure away some authors, but not all of them. And who can guarantee that after they're poached, they can still write works like 'Borrowing Seeds'? Creation isn't an assembly line; if the soil isn't right, the seed won't sprout."

Sunlight shone on the glass on the desk, reflecting off the glass. Xu Cheng shielded his eyes with his hand and found his palms were damp. Wondering where to wipe the sweat, he placed his fingertips on the hot wooden armrest of the chair, feeling the sweat slowly evaporate as it was baked.

Xu Cheng realized that Han Fei was more difficult to deal with than he had imagined; at least, the tactic of applying pressure was completely ineffective against Han Fei.

"I believe what President Han said," Xu Cheng said. "But you also know that in the capital market, the most frightening thing is not a strong opponent, but an opponent who is too clear-headed. Since you are so clear-headed, I'm actually a little unsure how to start the conversation."

"Director Xu is flattering me," Han Fei laughed. "If I were truly sober, I would be using Director Xu's influence to invite your Tencent team in to help us rebuild our technical architecture."

Xu Cheng looked directly into Han Fei's eyes, but it was useless; lies wouldn't surface there. Xu Cheng knew the moment he saw Han Fei that he was the kind of person who wouldn't let his facial expressions reveal his thoughts. Perhaps it was because Han Fei always looked at people in such a direct way that it was hard to tell whether he was being honest or had already seen through everything.

Xu Cheng hesitated for a moment: "President Han, to be honest, I didn't come here just to check out your business. Headquarters is indeed very interested in your direction and thinks it's a track worth investing in for the long term. We've also been thinking about whether it's possible to find a way to both help you grow faster and allow us to participate. For example, we could use our channels to help you promote your content or help you solve some technical bottlenecks. Of course, these are just preliminary ideas; how to implement them depends on whether you're willing to discuss it further."

"Oh?" Han Fei raised his eyebrows. "Director Xu, I think you mean it sincerely. I was quite nervous before you came today. After all, with the size of Tencent, a single word from you can make our little company tremble. But after talking with you, I realized that you genuinely want to help us, not come to take advantage of us. What our little company needs most right now is your kind of national-level technical capabilities. Sigh, but I'm still worried about something..."

"President Han, please speak."

"Director Xu also knows that this team has been with me for so long. As I just said, what they're after isn't just money, but also the sense of accomplishment they get from accomplishing something. If we suddenly hand over the core system to an external team at this point, I'm afraid they won't be able to get over that mental hurdle."