What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 224 Gift (5K)
As the Spring Festival approaches, prepare New Year’s goods and arrange holidays.

Bai Xiaosheng's business had been going very well throughout 2009, and with Yu Xing's quiet accumulation of personal wealth, he was naturally generous with his employees' year-end bonuses. However, he rejected the suggestion of holding a team-building event, thinking that it would be better if everyone could relax instead of wearing masks of smiles to each other.

On February 2, Yu Xing ended the communication at hand and his thoughts flew back home.

However, he had just finished a phone call with his mother at noon and had just sat in front of the computer when he saw that there was still new news from Alibaba.

It is said that SoftBank, an institutional shareholder that has always maintained a low profile and neutrality, proposed a solution to resolve the Alipay incident. It hopes to first obtain a license as a domestic company, and then through an agreement, hand over the profits and management of the domestic company to the three-party joint venture.

However, this plan was rejected by Alibaba, which led to the dissatisfaction of SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son, who said that "Madsen should have a way to cleverly bypass the rules" instead of "this is the only way."

Obviously, SoftBank was secretly unhappy with the communication on this matter, otherwise Masayoshi Son would not have mentioned it by name.

Yu Xing carefully read the news and couldn't help but sigh. It's almost the New Year, why are they still doing this? Can't people just have a good New Year first?
Liu Wanying, who had just flown back from Beijing, heard Boss Yu's emotions while having dinner in the evening and pointed out a question: "Didn't you light the fuse?"

"What do you mean? Why me? Aren't we together?" Yu Xing said confidently.

Liu Wanying said patiently: "I participated, but I am not like you. I don't have crocodile tears."

Yu Xing sighed: "Even you misunderstood like this, attributing the fuse to our actions instead of what they did themselves. If..."

"Don't worry, I've hidden it well. No one will know about it for the rest of my life." Liu Wanying said with a smile, "Since you feel you've been misunderstood, why are you acting like you've done something bad and are afraid of being discovered?"

Yu Xing said seriously: "Because this world is not black and white, because being misunderstood is the norm."

Liu Wanying was silent for a while and gave a thumbs up: "Your logic is closed-loop, which is very powerful."

Yu Xing smiled and said, "Right, if you are not strong, you won't be able to compete head-on with the penguin."

He talked about the team's preparation work in recent days and felt that the progress was quite good.

"Where should we put these people? Should we rent another place?" Liu Wanying asked.

"Half of the downstairs is sublet, so I asked Xiao Zhang to rent it and let them work downstairs later." Yu Xing said, "This will make it convenient for work and also for selling the house later. The recruitment team will definitely be expanded this year, and it can still be used at the end of the year."

Liu Wanying smiled as she saw how careful he was in calculating.

At this time, she talked about her last decision before the New Year, which was also the situation of flying to Beijing.

Following the investment in Bai Xiaosheng Company, Hongshun completed its second investment since its establishment, paying US$100 million to acquire a 10% stake in Letao.com.

This was a decision that Yu Xing discussed with Liu Wanying after the deadly 72-hour operation, but it was not necessarily executed. In the end, the investment was made before the New Year. Compared with the US$900 million in real money that Bi Sheng had already paid out, this 10% stake was quite generous.

What's more, before Bi Sheng invested 900 million US dollars, he had already received investment from Lei Jun.

Of course, in the general view of the industry, it is normal for LeTao.com's valuation to decrease instead of increase, as it has experienced management chaos and strategic confusion. However, after Liu Wanying arrived in Beijing and reviewed the website's silent development over the past two months, she had to admit that a correct strategy will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

The focus of the December Jianghu Hunting Order was on Yu Xing, who led the team to capture the thieves. He enjoyed positive praise, while the party involved, LeTao.com, became more of a joke.

No one cared about the subsequent development of this joke. Even institutions like Today Capital were not very willing to pay attention to the possibility of LeTao.com. Under such circumstances, Bi Sheng put aside the vanity and arrogance of executives of large companies starting a business, and explored forward in a down-to-earth manner along the vertical direction of the model.

This change is not known to outsiders, but it can be reflected in the data.

At the end of last year, LeTao.com handled about 800 orders a day, but in late January it was able to reach 1500 orders a day, a considerable increase. The former is equivalent to 30 orders a year, and the latter could reach 55 orders if maintained.

As for whether or not you can keep it...

Judging from the current situation, it is very likely that it will not just be maintained, but will enter a stage of rapid growth as soon as money is invested.

When Yu Xing was in Lin'an, he talked about Letao.com with Xu Xin and gave an optimistic forecast that the company would be able to achieve 2010 million orders in 100. However, judging from the overall performance of the previous month, as long as it can raise funds normally, 100 million orders should be within reach.

As long as the financing is normal, there is no need for excess premium.

"Based on the performance of Letao.com, I actually wanted to invest 200 million US dollars, but guess what, Bi Sheng only wanted 100 million US dollars." Liu Wanying said at the end, mentioning the little episode about the amount of financing.

Yu Xing nodded. Bi Sheng himself had obviously regained some confidence. In his opinion, the one million US dollars from Red Falcon might be enough to leverage more financing. If he raised two million US dollars at this time, the shares he sold would be too unprofitable.

Liu Wanying said with a smile: "I am very grateful to you, Bi Sheng, for Hongshun's investment this time. Although it cannot be converted into cash immediately, this kind of shares is close to real money."

Yu Xing looked at Liu Wanying, who looked a little proud, and said, "LeTao.com is willing to let Hongshun take advantage. I thought you would have some integrity."

"No, no, no, Boss Yu, money is not a matter of integrity." Liu Wanying explained her thoughts, "This can only be considered as a consensual relationship. After all, Capital Today and IDG are unwilling to invest. Our willingness to invest is in itself a respect for them. Well, short selling should be done in a proper way, and investing should also be done in a proper way."

Yu Xing felt that this made some sense, and it seemed to be true for investors. Didn’t Mr. Xu also reconcile with his ex for the sake of profit? This was probably true.

He pondered for a while and said, "LeTao.com is Bi Sheng's hard work and property. Let's call it quits now. There's no need to ask for help from him in the future."

Liu Wanying pretended to be respectful and praised, "Boss Yu, you are a man of character!"

However, Yu Xing felt that the thanks from Bi Sheng were enough, but the other party obviously did not feel so.

Bi Sheng made a special trip to Shanghai the day before the statutory holiday, ostensibly to inspect the work of the East China branch of LeTao.com, but in fact he just took a look around and went straight to Bai Xiaosheng.

He brought a gift to thank Yu Xing.

"Mr. Yu, I heard you like cats. That's right." Bi Sheng pointed at the New Year's gift happily and saw the surprise on Yu Xing's face. "How is it? Do you like it?"

Yu Xing said weakly: "Boss Bi, there is no need for us to do this. How did you know this?..."

"It's in the news report. What? Don't you like it?" Bi Sheng felt something was wrong.

"Yes, I like cats." Yu Xing admitted reluctantly, and thanked him, "Sending a kitten from a thousand miles away is a token of love. Mr. Bi, you... took the trouble."

Mr. Bi really took a lot of effort. Not only did he give cats as gifts, he even named them. He already had a "Cuocuo" cat, and now he gave him a "Dui Dui" cat, which is quite a complement.

Bi Sheng felt that there seemed to be something wrong, but he didn't know whether it was true or not. But since the kitten had been delivered, he laughed and said, "Put 'right' here. When you see it, give us more money next time."

Yu Xing said "hmm" and did not mention the $100 shareholding ratio of Red Falcon. This was considered affordable.

He was only concerned about the progress of Letao.com over the past month. He is now an independent director of the company and has indirect interests in Red Falcon Capital, and also... there is also a kitten who represents their friendship. He will try his best to help find and fill in the gaps.

Bi Sheng talked about the promotion of the company's business in a very organized manner.

However, putting aside the company's business situation, Yu Xing felt that Bi Sheng's mental outlook was completely different from before. Well, the most obvious thing was probably a more practical feeling.

Yu Xing invited Bi Sheng to have the last drink before the New Year. They didn't chat about small things, but basically talked seriously about vertical e-commerce.

Finally, he gave a suggestion that had been discussed before but not taken seriously: "As for the vertical model segment, I think this year and next year may be a period of drastic elimination. This vertical segmentation is different from the performance of the big market. Take our experience as a workplace platform. You see, the workplace network that tried to compete with us before couldn't catch up with us after our number of users increased. This is a clear Matthew effect."

"Since you are dealing with leftover goods, the more users your website can accumulate, the easier it will be to get favored by brands. If there is a backlog, you will definitely want to get your money back quickly."

"At this time, LeTao.com needs to build a team of buyers who travel around the country and strengthen its ties with brands so that it can get the last-minute goods as soon as possible."

LeTao.com is currently trying to sign supply cooperation agreements or exclusive supply cooperation agreements with brand owners, but this strategy faces obstacles in actual implementation, and second- and third-tier brands still have a certain attitude.

However, the vertical model is destined to strengthen ties with suppliers, so a "mobile force" is likely to achieve better results.

When Bi Sheng heard Yu Xing say this, he also remembered that he had talked about this aspect last year. After thinking for a while, he said: "Well, we should build a global buyer team in the medium and long term. The problem of inventory backlog is actually quite common, and many users are quite familiar with foreign brands."

Yu Xing nodded in agreement. This is indeed how it should be once it reaches a certain scale. Well, not necessarily.

He changed his mind and thought that perhaps he could start this kind of work without waiting for it to be scaled up, at least on an experimental basis.

This is the specific adjustment in the specific work.

Bi Sheng and Yu Xing didn't drink much, but this work exchange was the most enjoyable one since they met.

Yu Xing couldn’t help but send a text message to Liu Jiankai of Capital Today after sending Bi Sheng away: “If you don’t invest in Letao.com, I think you will regret it.”

"Mr. Yu, the New Year is almost here, and you are still thinking about helping Letao? Did Bi Sheng give you a gift? Happy Chinese New Year and may your family be reunited. Mr. Yu, I wish you a happy New Year and hope that you and Bai Xiaosheng will dominate the market this year." Liu Jiankai replied.

Yu Xing calmed down a bit and stopped talking. Instead, he sent a slightly more detailed lobbying and New Year greeting message to Zhang Suyang of IDG.

Zhang Suyang's last meeting in Shanghai was actually a bit unpleasant, but after receiving Mr. Yu's text message, he still read it carefully and temporarily gave his assistant a task to learn more about LeTao.com.

The assistant knew about Letao.com and expressed his confusion: "Boss Zhang, this Letao.com is the company that Yu Xing was hunting down. It's quite chaotic internally."

"Lessons can be turned into experience." Zhang Suyang said this, and then gave one of his main reasons, "Yu Xing doesn't seem like a person who talks nonsense."

The assistant no longer had any objections and urgently contacted Bi Sheng, who had just returned to Beijing, and assembled a temporary small team to conduct research on Letao.com.

Yu Xing didn't know that Zhang Suyang from IDG had a good opinion of him.

After receiving Sheng, he no longer thought about work. He just wanted to go home and lie down for a few days without thinking about short selling, Bai Xiaosheng, WeChat, or anything else...

I just eat and sleep, sleep and eat, open my eyes and call my mom, smoke and call my dad, eat the reunion dinner around the table, eat the leftovers around the table...

On February 2, at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, Yu Xing returned home.

Unlike what one might have imagined, the old couple were certainly happy about their son's return, but they expressed a stronger complaint: "Why didn't you bring Liu Wanying with you?"

Yu Xing was somewhat helpless: "There is no rule that my girlfriend must come home at this time, right? Isn't it enough to just say hello?"

Chu Qiying asked: "Did you ask her? Did you ask her if she wanted to come over?"

Yu Xing shook his head: "I didn't ask."

But he added: "After the Chinese New Year, when the holiday is almost over, I can just walk this way and wish you two a happy new year, isn't that enough?"

"Then why don't you ask her, what if she wants to spend the New Year together? I see that you have become a big boss, and the relationship has been confirmed, so you are too lazy to figure out what others are thinking." Chu Qiying made a small criticism.

Yu Xing felt wronged, but wisely knew that the more he argued, the more wronged he might become, so he had no choice but to surrender and listen to the old couple's advice.

The old couple has a lot of opinions...

Therefore, Yu Xing also had an effective way to change the subject: "Dad, Mom, do you want to retire early? I have made a lot of money recently, which is more than enough for me."

Yu Guosheng asked in surprise: "You transferred the company's assets? That's illegal!"

Yu Xing didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "No!"

Yu Guosheng thought for a moment and then asked, "Did you use Bai Xiaosheng to extort PR fees from other companies? Isn't this likely to violate the law?"

Yu Xing swore solemnly: "Absolutely not!"

Yu Guosheng stared at his son and asked suspiciously, "It's not like he's evading taxes, is it?"

Yu Xing sighed: "No..."

Yu Guosheng nodded: "Well, I guess your company has not yet reached the profit stage, and it is still losing money now."

Yu Xing was silent for a few seconds, and then he explained: "Losses do not mean you don't have to pay taxes. Losses can also be used to evade taxes, but we are very formal."

"So, Mr. Yu, you didn't transfer assets, extort money, or evade taxes. The company is even losing money." Yu Guosheng spread his hands. "Then how did you make enough money to keep your parents from worrying about the rest of their lives?"

Yu Xing was silent for a longer time this time, and then he said sincerely: "Dad, Mom, if you are willing to work, then continue to work. I will try to earn this much money this year..."

Yu Guosheng nodded happily. He liked and loved going to work.

Chu Qiying squeezed his son's shoulder and rubbed his face. "Just run your company well and get along well with Liu Wanying. You don't have to worry about us now. Also, don't work too hard. You can't make enough money. Your health is the first priority. You must eat on time every day. I heard from Xiaoguang that you often work overtime in meetings at night. You must take care of your health."

Yu Xing listened to his mother's nagging and felt that it was the most heartwarming feeling of the Spring Festival mixed with her.

Eat, sleep, lie down, wish a happy new year, send red envelopes, listen to the Spring Festival Gala...

Yu Xing planned to continue like this until he went to work.

However, on the second day of the Chinese New Year, his lazy state was ruthlessly interrupted.

"Mr. Yu, I have made up my mind. I am willing to join Bai Xiaosheng." Baidu's Ge Zhijie unexpectedly made his decision to change jobs on this day.

Yu Xing was very happy, but had to correct him: "Teacher Ge, it's not Bai Xiaosheng, it's WeChat company."

Ge Zhijie said, "Yes, it's WeChat company. I've thought about it."

Yu Xing did not ask the other party for the reason he had thought of. He just said sincerely: "Okay, Teacher Ge, this is the best news I have heard this year. Welcome to join WeChat. We are only 999 steps away from defeating Penguin."

"You..." Ge Zhijie laughed helplessly, "Mr. Yu, you don't have to rush to mention Penguin. You'll make me regret it easily."

"Competition cannot be ignored in commercial projects. I don't want to hide the fact that Mr. Ge is willing to come," Yu Xing said calmly. "We won't fight Penguin right away, but we will inevitably compete with it."

Ge Zhijie asked: "Then...are you confident?"

Yu Xing felt that he would probably have to answer similar questions this year. He thought about it carefully and replied: "I don't know if this counts as confidence, but I believe we can make the penguins feel the pressure."

Ge Zhijie felt that this was confidence.

Anyway, I have the money and the experience, as long as Mr. Yu has confidence, that's all.

Yu Xing talked to Ge Zhijie on the phone for a long time.

After he put down his phone, he couldn't help but walk to the balcony and smoke two cigarettes in a row, and his mood gradually became more excited.

"Xingxing, what's wrong? What's the matter?" Yu Guosheng came over and asked for a cigarette, while also showing concern for his son.

Yu Xing exhaled and laughed, "I can't help but get a little excited when I think about the possibility of being beaten to death by my competitors."

Yu Guosheng: “?”

He could understand each word, but not when they were put together.

Yu Xing blinked and told his old father the essence of this operation: "I will go shopping this year upon hearing the news."

Yu Guosheng took a long puff of his cigarette. Was he going to end up committing a crime?
It seems that my son is really not far from success.

(End of this chapter)