Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

Chen Yizhou's expression changed slightly.

He was genuinely surprised that Bai Yuhang knew even the bottom line for Sohu's price.

But then I thought about it again. This kid has Zhang Lei from China Entrepreneurship Network behind him. In the capital circle, it's first come, first served. There are no secrets to speak of, so it's normal for him to be well-informed.

Faced with Bai Yuhang's sarcastic remarks, he not only didn't get angry, but instead leaned back on the sofa, crossed his legs, and adopted the posture of someone who had been through it all.

"Mr. Bai is very well-informed. Since you've brought this up, I'll be frank with you too." Chen Yizhou placed his fingers on his knees. "Fifteen million US dollars, which is over 120 million RMB, in cash. Once you sign, you college students can cash out immediately and go back to school to study and chase girls comfortably. You can live a life of luxury without doing anything for the rest of your lives. Or, if you still want to stay in the internet industry, after we merge with Sohu, I'll reserve a few senior management positions for you within the Sohu system, with stock options as usual."

He looked at Bai Yuhang's young face and said, "Young man, this is the path to success that so many entrepreneurs in Zhongguancun have worked themselves to the bone for."

The meeting room door wasn't closed properly, leaving a crack.

In the hallway outside the door, Jiang Shuo and Zhang Jian were crouching down, eavesdropping through the crack in the door.

Upon hearing about the $15 million offer and the cash-out, Jiang Shuo's legs went weak, and he grabbed Zhang Jian's sleeve, nearly collapsing to the ground.

"Third brother, fifteen million US dollars...that's over 120 million RMB!" Jiang Shuo's voice trembled. "How much can I buy if we split it among ourselves? How many meals can I eat at Quanjude?"

Zhang Jian swallowed hard: "This old bastard's really going all out. Sixth Brother's usually pretty arrogant, but can he handle this much money?"

Inside the room, Jiao Liwei and Yang Bo exchanged a glance across Bai Yuhang.

Jiao Liwei curled his lip, inwardly cursing this Chen fellow for his pretentious act. Buying Qihang for 120 million? He's treating us like beggars.

Bai Yuhang sat opposite Chen Yizhou, leaning back in his sofa chair, his gaze fixed on the thick letter of intent on the table, which he hadn't even touched the cover of.

He smiled slightly.

"President Chen's promises are certainly well-made; he's even paved the way out for us," Bai Yuhang chuckled. "However, I have a question for President Chen."

Chen Yizhou raised his hand: "You go ahead."

"Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang was willing to spend 20 million to buy ChinaRen. What did he buy?" Bai Yuhang leaned forward slightly, staring into Chen Yizhou's eyes. "He bought what you call the world's largest Chinese community, your proud daily active users, right?"

Chen Yizhou frowned slightly but did not reply.

Bai Yuhang didn't give him a chance to catch his breath, speeding up his speech: "But Mr. Chen, do you dare to show Zhang Chaoyang the real backend data from ChinaRen over the past two weeks?"

Chen Yizhou's eye twitched suddenly, and the lawyers behind him also showed strange expressions.

"Ever since our HaiNei.com and QQ were integrated, and Happy Farm was launched," Bai Yuhang said calmly, "ChinaRen's user activity has plummeted by 40%. A large number of core users have migrated to our site. Your community forum is practically a ghost town now, except for a few old users posting irrelevant content."

Chen Yizhou's face darkened completely, and his previous composure vanished.

"You rushed here to spend fifteen million US dollars to buy Qihang, it's not a premium acquisition at all." Bai Yuhang leaned back on the sofa, his tone laced with undisguised mockery. "You're using Sohu's money to buy our users to fill the huge hole that ChinaRen is about to burst. Otherwise, once Zhang Chaoyang finds out that you're just an empty shell, he won't give you a single penny of the twenty million US dollars you thought you had."

The meeting room was deathly silent.

Jiang Shuo and Zhang Jian, who were outside the door, were dumbfounded.

"Is Lao Liu's mouth poisoned?" Zhang Jian said in a low voice, "He just exposed everyone's trump cards."

Jiang Shuo nodded repeatedly, rubbing his hands excitedly: "Great! These capitalists think they can get something for nothing, do they really think Qihang is an easy target?"

Chen Yizhou, his sore spot touched, suppressed his anger and said, "President Bai, it's understandable for young people to be impetuous. But in business, you can't move an inch without money. Fifteen million US dollars in cash—this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Bai Yuhang pushed the thick letter of intent in front of him to the edge of the table next to Chen Yizhou, pressing it down with only one finger. "Mr. Chen, since we're talking about business, I have a suggestion."

Chen Yizhou assumed Bai Yuhang wanted to raise the price, and his expression softened slightly: "Go ahead."

"I'll offer three million." Bai Yuhang held up three fingers.

Chen Yizhou frowned: "Thirty million US dollars? Mr. Bai, that doesn't conform to market rules."

"It's three million RMB," Bai Yuhang corrected.

The air in the conference room froze instantly.

Chen Yizhou was stunned, and the four lawyers behind him looked at each other in bewilderment.

"I'll offer three million RMB." Bai Yuhang looked into Chen Yizhou's eyes, his tone extremely sincere, "to acquire the remaining server hardware of ChinaRen, as well as your remaining university databases."

Jiao Liwei, who was drinking water, choked upon hearing this, coughing repeatedly until his face turned red. Yang Bo quickly handed him a tissue, his shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress his laughter.

Outside the door, Jiang Shuo covered his mouth tightly, tears welling up in his eyes, and frantically nudged Zhang Jian with his elbow: "Third brother, did you hear that? Three million RMB! Sixth brother, this isn't negotiation, it's like collecting junk under a bridge!"

Zhang Jian slapped his thigh with delight: "It has to be our CEO Bai, that's the knife he used, stabbing right into the major artery."

Inside the room, Chen Yizhou's face had turned from ashen to a deep red. He, a Stanford graduate and a member of the world's largest Chinese community, had been treated like a junkyard.

"Bai Yuhang, you've gone too far!" Chen Yizhou suddenly stood up. "Three million? Do you think you're buying scrap metal?!"

"President Chen, don't get agitated." Bai Yuhang didn't even change his posture, still leaning back on the sofa. "Your daily active users have plummeted like that. Apart from a few old users posting, the rest of the community are all bot accounts. The majority of the three million I'm offering is for your server hardware. After all, our Qihang user growth is too rapid right now, and our Shanghai data center happens to need a few machines for hot standby and disaster recovery. As for your university data, we're just picking up the shell on the side. Our tech department still has to clean and deduplicate it ourselves, which is quite labor-intensive."

These words are extremely hurtful and highly insulting.

Chen Yizhou was so angry that his chest heaved violently. He pointed at Bai Yuhang, speechless for a long time. He originally thought that he could overwhelm these naive college students with 15 million US dollars, but he didn't expect to be exposed and even trampled underfoot by them.

"Mr. Chen." Seeing the situation getting out of control, the lawyer behind him quickly stepped forward and tugged at his sleeve.

Chen Yizhou flung the lawyer's hand away, grabbed the letter of intent from the table, and gritted his teeth: "Fine, very well. Since President Bai is so confident, let's wait and see. Let's see how long your millions of users can stay on the server!"

Bai Yuhang gestured for him to leave: "Take care, don't bother seeing me out. Also, when President Chen goes back to discuss the merger with Zhang Chaoyang, remember to make the daily active user data look good, so you don't give yourself away at the last minute."

Chen Yizhou snorted coldly and walked out with his lawyer without looking back.

The door was suddenly pulled open, almost hitting Jiang Shuo and Zhang Jian who were peering through the crack in the door.

Jiang Shuo quickly stood up straight, pretended to adjust his glasses, and shouted at Chen Yizhou's retreating figure, "Oh, Mr. Chen is leaving already? Shouldn't you reconsider Mr. Bai's offer? Three million in cash, we can deposit it into your company account today!"

Chen Yizhou stumbled, his face turned green, and without turning his head, he rushed towards the elevator without saying a word.