Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

As the tea ceremony drew to a close, the color of the rock tea in the pot had faded somewhat.

Before parting, Bai Yuhang put down his teacup and looked intently at Zhang Lei.

"Overseas operations are just a covert move. The top priority domestically right now is to complete the second phase of the performance-based agreement ahead of schedule."

Zhang Lei's hand, holding the teacup, froze in mid-air: "Ten million RMB in annual net profit within three years? Yu Hang, ten million users is a huge number, but in today's internet environment, everyone is burning money to acquire traffic. How do you expect to squeeze out ten million in profit?"

Bai Yuhang smiled and said, "Mr. Zhang, Qihang is about to launch a set of monetization tools. Not only do we want to make money from Google Ads, but I also want to make Chinese netizens, who are used to free internet access, willingly empty their pockets."

Zhang Lei stared at the eighteen-year-old boy in disbelief, speechless for a long time. Making money off netizens?

In the Chinese internet community in 2000, this was simply a fantasy.

Back at Hailong Building, Bai Yuhang had just pushed open the office door when Jiang Shuo followed him in, holding several payment slips in his hand, his face long and drawn. Jiao Liwei and Zhang Jian also crowded around the door to watch the commotion.

"Mr. Bai, have you signed it?" Jiang Shuo handed over the payment slip for the 400,000 yuan server from Shanghai Telecom's data center, his voice trembling. "If we keep approving these payments, our company's accounts will really be empty. The cash flow is just pouring out; even a landlord can't keep his grain reserves. We need to increase revenue and cut costs."

Zhang Jian leaned against the doorframe and chuckled: "Old Eight, you're still not all the money you've spent, are you? If you don't add more servers, and ten million users are stuck on the login screen, can you afford to compensate them?"

"It's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering! Server room rent, salaries, bonuses, subsidies, bandwidth fees, travel expenses, utilities, heating fees—all of these cost money!" Jiang Shuo pushed up his glasses, stamping his feet in frustration.

Jiao Liwei patted Jiang Shuo on the shoulder: "Alright, Lao Ba, we can't skimp on the technical stuff. We can earn the money back if we run out."

"Make money? How can we make money? Right now, our income depends entirely on the meager franchise fees collected by the fifth brother from Northeast China. It's not even enough to fill a gap between our teeth!" Jiang Shuo was about to retort when a crisp sound of high heels suddenly came from the corridor.

Su Muqing walked confidently into Bai Yuhang's office.

Today she changed into a smart and sophisticated urban outfit. The professional pencil skirt added to her beautiful appearance. She was holding a thick stack of folders in her hands, and there was an undisguised smile on her lips.

She walked straight to Bai Yuhang's desk and slammed the folder she was holding onto Jiang Shuo in front of him.

"Butler Jiang, don't worry about your meager savings." Su Muqing raised her chin. "Take a look at this, it'll help you recover."

Jiang Shuo was startled and suspiciously opened the top folder.

"Lenovo? Wahaha? Coca-Cola? Bird mobile phones?" Jiang Shuo read out the names, his eyes widening. "Are these all GG cooperation agreements?"

"They're all top-tier domestic brands." Su Muqing pulled out a chair and sat down. "A little over a month ago, I went to visit the marketing directors of these big companies with my business plan, and they wouldn't even give me a second glance, thinking we were just college students starting a business and messing around. And now? They call me every day, waving checks and begging for cooperation, afraid that if they're a step too late, they'll miss out on the traffic dividend of millions of young people."

Zhang Jian leaned over for a look, then gave a thumbs up: "President Su is so awesome! What do you call this? This is what they call 'yesterday you ignored me, today you can't afford to miss me!'"

Jiang Shuo had no time to pay attention to Zhang Jian; he was staring intently at the amount on the contract, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

"President Su, your list price..." Jiang Shuo swallowed hard, "You've tripled it?"

"What? You think it's too expensive?" Su Muqing raised an eyebrow. "These arrogant clients signed the contract without even frowning. We now have access to the precise traffic of ten million young people, unique in all of China. Take it or leave it."

Jiang Shuo grabbed the calculator hanging around his neck and started frantically typing on the keys, making a rapid "click-clack" sound.

As more and more zeros appeared on the screen, Jiang Shuo's face changed from a bittersweet color to a flushed red with ecstasy.

"We're rich! We're really rich!" Jiang Shuo exclaimed, clutching his calculator, almost jumping for joy. "President Bai, President Su, if this money all comes in, we can afford to rent out the entire office space in the Hailong Building, let alone buy servers in the Shanghai data center!"

Bai Yuhang leaned back in his chair, looked at Jiang Shuo with a smile, and saw him looking like a miser who had turned his life around.

"Eighth Brother, you're getting easily swayed." Bai Yuhang pointed to the contract on the table. "This is just the appetizer. The real show is just beginning."

Jiang Shuo's fingers flew across the calculator keyboard, leaving afterimages. The clattering of the keys sounded particularly jarring in the quiet office area.

He stared intently at the calculator's small, grayish-white LCD screen, afraid he might miscount a zero.

Three million four hundred thousand.

This is just the initial prepayment from several major companies.

Jiang Shuo suddenly raised his head, and his glasses, which were originally pushed up on the bridge of his nose, slipped down to the tip of his nose due to the sudden movement, but he didn't bother to fix them.

"President Bai, President Su." Jiang Shuo's voice cracked, trembling with a broken tone, "Three million four hundred thousand! Cash! As soon as our GG account goes live, the money will be deposited into our company's corporate account within three days!"

Upon hearing this, the few people who had been watching the commotion at the door were all dumbfounded.

Jiao Liwei stood there, stunned, his mouth slightly open.

Liu Zhi, a veteran from a major factory in Shenzhen, was also stunned by this huge sum of money. They had toiled in Shenzhen for so long, begging and pleading for investment, struggling to even raise a few hundred thousand yuan. And this female college student had gone out for a while and brought back over three million yuan in cash flow?

Zhang Jian reacted the fastest. He yelled and rushed over, staring at the several contracts stamped with the official seal in his hand.

"President Su! No, Grandma Su!" Zhang Jian clasped his hands together and bowed deeply to Su Muqing at a ninety-degree angle. "Goddess of Wealth! From now on, you are our living ancestor at Qihang! The technical department will be your personal guard from now on. Wherever you point, we'll write the code!"

Su Muqing was amused by his silly antics and reached out to snatch the contract back from Jiang Shuo's hand.

"Don't give me that." Su Muqing tidied up the folder. "This money isn't for nothing. It's clearly stated in the contract that after May Day, all GGs must be launched on time in the core pop-up positions on HaiNei.com and QQ, and the exposure must be guaranteed. If your technical department drops the ball, we'll have to pay back double the three million yuan as liquidated damages."

"Absolutely not going down!" Zhang Jian patted his chest, then turned to Jiang Shuo, "Eighth Brother, did you hear that? The Goddess of Wealth has spoken. Twenty top-of-the-line servers in the Shanghai data center..."

"purchase!"

Jiang Shuo, contrary to his usual behavior, slammed his hand on the table, making the pen holder on it jump. His face was flushed, and he waved his hand, displaying the air of a nouveau riche.

"Twenty units? How can that be enough? We have tens of millions of users now, we need to be prepared! Third brother, go order thirty units! All top-of-the-line! Ten more will be kept in the server room as backups, ready to be replaced if they break down!" Jiang Shuo said confidently, "We have money now, we can't let our users be held back!"

There was a moment of silence in the office area, followed by a burst of boisterous laughter that seemed to lift the roof off.

Jiao Liwei rubbed his stomach, pointed at Jiang Shuo, and laughed, "Eighth Brother, you stingy rooster, you've not only plucked the feathers, you're even throwing away the sheet metal!"

The entire sixteenth floor was filled with a festive atmosphere, and the fatigue from working overtime for the past few days was swept away by this huge sum of money that had fallen from the sky.

Bai Yuhang leaned against his desk, watching his brothers make a ruckus, and turned his head to look at Su Muqing standing to the side.

"Thank you for your hard work." Bai Yuhang's voice was soft, just loud enough for her to hear.

Su Muqing met his gaze, her eyes revealing a hint of cunning and composure.

"I'm just doing my job, taking their money to solve their problems." She straightened her cuffs. "But Mr. Bai, I overheard Jiang Shuo settling the accounts just now. You said this was just an appetizer, so it seems you've got an even bigger trick up your sleeve?"

Bai Yuhang smiled but didn't rush to answer. His gaze swept past the crowd and landed on the real-time data dashboard at the entrance of Qihang, displaying 10.9 million users.