Chapter 144: DST's Investment Intent, The Future Wage-Slave Emperor (Begging)

After landing at the capital airport, Chen Yansen and his two companions drove to the East Hotel beside the 798 Art District.

The Mi new products launch was scheduled for the following morning; arriving a day early was because Lei Yi had organized a small exchange meeting.

The number of participants was small, fewer than twenty, all founders of companies he had personally invested in, along with the heads of IDG, Qiming, and DST lead investment funds.

After checking in and resting briefly, Chen Yansen drove to the 798 Art District.

The moment he stepped into the private room, several dozen pairs of eyes turned to him in unison.

"President Chen, you've worked hard. Thank you for coming to attend Mi's new products launch."

Li Wanqiang stepped forward proactively, greeting him with a smile.

Lei Yi, who was exchanging pleasantries with investors, saw this, excused himself, and hurried over.

This visit to Yanjing was different from the previous two; back then, Chen Yansen was merely the founder of Fox Tao, with the project valued at only a few hundred million US dollars.

Now he not only held a guide e-commerce unicorn enterprise valued at over 2.5 billion US dollars, but was also the big boss of Sister Chengzi Technology.

In just ten days, Chengzi phones had presold 1.2 million units.

Compared with the four giants—ZTE, Huawei, Ku Sect, and Lenovo—there was a gap, but this presale volume, placed among second- and third-tier phone brands, was an extremely dazzling presence.

The gazes of several venture capital firms immediately followed Chen Yansen closely after he entered, showing strong interest.

Among them were both Mi Tech's Series A investors and potential investment institutions wanting a share of Mi Tech's Series B financing.

With over a billion people in Hua Nation, the smartphone market potential was enormous; compared with Mi, Sister Chengzi Technology, which had already achieved certain results, was clearly more worthy of investment.

"President Lei, sorry for being a bit late. Wishing Mi a triumphant start and sales booming."

After briefly exchanging pleasantries with Li Wanqiang, Chen Yansen stepped forward and said to Lei Yi with a smile.

"Mi is unlike Sister Chengzi Technology, which has its own phone factory. Sales are still half a month away, and the production plan needs to be coordinated. But I'll accept President Chen's blessing. Please, have a seat."

Lei Yi looked at Chen Yansen and shared frankly.

Building one's own factory was costly; although there were some benefits, the high management costs and the fixed-asset depreciation caused by technological iteration also made people think twice.

After speaking, Lei Yi pulled Chen Yansen along and introduced the people beside them one by one: "Let me introduce a few new friends. This is Sun Ran, the boss of Lakala. This is He Xiaopeng, the boss of UC Browser. This is Li Ling, the founder of YY Live…"

"President Sun, President He, President Li, pleasure to meet you."

Chen Yansen greeted them with a smile.

Lakala and YY Live, more than a decade later, had their market shares long since carved up by Mama Ali, the Penguin, and ByteDance, their glory gone.

But in 2011, the two were in a period of rapid growth, conquering territory in their respective industries.

Among these people, the most successful was He Xiaopeng.

Three years later, He Xiaopeng sold UC to Mama Ali, successfully cashing out over 20 billion.

Relying on his 20% shareholding, Lei Yi reaped over 5 billion in returns.

This was also the reason he later was willing to invest in He Xiaopeng's car-making venture.

The few responded politely; after all, although Chen Yansen was young, his net worth was not low, making them dare not take him lightly.

Afterwards, Lei Yi introduced several executives from venture capital firms.

Chen Yansen had previously had contact with IDG and Qiming Capital, so they weren't strangers. But the head of DST's lead investment caught his eye.

"Zhou Shouzhi, DST's youngest Hua Nation region partner. The financing cases of Jingdong and Meituan were led by him alone."

Lei Yi introduced with a smile.

"President Chen, I've long admired you! It's a pity I couldn't participate in Fox Tao's Series A financing. If Sister Chengzi Technology has financing needs, DST will certainly give its full support."

Zhou Shouzhi, without waiting for Chen Yansen to speak, took the initiative to shake his hand, looking earnest and sincere.

Twenty-eight-year-old Zhou Shouzhi had only taken a year to reach the position of DST's Hua Nation region head, his ability evident.

Compared with Wang Ziyan, he was no less impressive.

Chen Yansen sized up Lei Yi and Zhou Shouzhi, seeing their relationship wasn't very close, guessing that DST at this time had just begun to entertain the idea of investing in Mi but hadn't acted yet.

Lei Buts, Mi's number-one handsome guy, hadn't yet hooked up with Mi's number-two handsome guy.

Should he cut in?

Chen Yansen chatted with Zhou Shouzhi while mulling this over.

Zhou Shouzhi was from Singapore, had dual study experience in Europe and America, and after graduation leveraged his Harvard alumni network and his wife's family influence to enter DST.

Chen Yansen did not look down on him for "living off his wife"; instead, he admired such quick-witted clever people.

After all, not just anyone can live off their wife.

From the several investment cases since Zhou Shouzhi took office, it wasn't hard to see his ability and vision were both good; Mama Ali and Jingdong alone had let DST earn handsomely.

In the group-buying track, he had picked Meituan out of several thousand, and Meituan in the previous life became the ultimate winner of the Thousand-Group War.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen smiled faintly, declined Lei Yi's suggestion that he take the seat of honor, and chose to sit beside Zhou Shouzhi instead.

Gao Ang and Song Yuncheng, like executives from other companies, came in, greeted everyone, and returned to the adjacent private room.

"I heard President Chen has the idea of selling off Fox Tao as a whole? Is it to focus on the smartphone track?"

After sitting down, Zhou Shouzhi took the initiative to make conversation.

Before departing, DST Capital's boss Yuri had instructed him to maintain a good relationship with Lei Yi and seek an opportunity for Mi's Series B financing.

But after Sister Chengzi Technology rose powerfully, Yuri had set his sights on Chen Yansen.

After all, with 1.2 million units presold, as long as production capacity wasn't an issue, Chengzi phones would surely claim a place in Hua Nation's phone market.

"DST is interested in taking it over?" Chen Yansen asked back.

Zhou Shouzhi's expression faltered for a moment, and he said with a smile: "I'm just afraid we can't outbid Lotte and Augusta Capital."

He had no interest in Fox Tao; over a year of work experience in the country had given him a thorough understanding of the e-commerce ecosystem. Investing in comprehensive e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Jingdong could yield greater returns.

Although Fox Tao was currently developing rapidly, its ceiling was also within reach, and it was extremely dependent on external e-commerce platforms.

Especially given the domestic e-commerce market landscape, Mama Ali held 50% market share. Once it changed its attitude and chose to suppress guide e-commerce websites,

Fox Tao's valuation would shrink significantly. This uncertainty made him firmly convinced that investing in guide e-commerce was by no means a wise move.

Chen Yansen looked up at him, read the subtext in the other's eyes, and laughed it off.

Anyway, there were plenty of easy marks. Letv and Augusta had strong investment intentions, so one DST wouldn't be missed.

Lei Yijun sat in the host's seat, chatting casually with Lin Bing, Li Wanqiang, and the others. The topic was nothing more than tomorrow's launch event and the trends in smartphone development.

"Apple plans to launch a new product next month or in October," said the person in charge of Qiming Capital.

Over the past year, whether domestic or foreign, every phone maker's new product had been imitating the iPhone 4.

At this point Jobs had not yet stepped down as Apple's CEO. Hearing this, everyone felt the Q4 quarter and next year's smartphone market would only get livelier, the competition even fiercer.

"The road has to be walked step by step, the rice eaten mouthful by mouthful. If not for me, Sister Chengzi Tech's technical talent pool probably wouldn't even match Xiaomi's. Chips and systems — those have to come along slowly."

Chen Yansen didn't take it to heart after hearing it, only mulled it over privately.

One had to know that the core members of Xiaomi's R&D team mostly came from Motorola and Google — that was also the key factor behind MIUI's success.

In the private room, a dozen-odd men and women clinked cups and swapped glasses, and soon their faces were flushed red.

Setting aside investment talk, these bosses worth hundreds of millions or billions were no different from ordinary people — wine, women, wealth, and temper, they had it all.

Chen Yansen was used to it.

In his past life, although he had never dined with a big shot like Lei Yijun, the fair-weather friends he'd had in the Shanghai business circle back then — which of them didn't have a wife at home, a secretary kept by the company, and a fresh young thing on the side at school?

Day to day, besides attending business association meetings to brag, they just got drunk and dreamed in commercial KTV clubs.

Men, as long as they could still get it up, were all the same.

"Mr. Chen, shall we step outside to chat privately?"

After three rounds of drinks, Zhou Shouzhi lowered his head and proposed it to Chen Yansen.

"No problem."

Chen Yansen smiled, stood up and said hello to Lei Yijun, but said out loud: "It's stuffy in here, going out for some air."

In the private room, apart from him and Zhou Shouzhi, most were heavy smokers — Lei Yijun especially, who after two glasses of wine started puffing away.

Lei Yijun narrowed his eyes through the smoke, guessed what Zhou Shouzhi had in mind, sighed inwardly, and gave a heavy nod.

He knew that whether or not they invited Chen Yansen, DST would lean toward Sister Chengzi Tech on its own.

"Mr. Lei, this…" Li Wanqiang's face darkened, and he caught on as well.

"Just make Xiaomi well. We won't lack for chances."

Lei Yijun waved a hand, his eyes full of confidence.

Just as he had said before, the market was big enough that even the "China-Cool-Lian" four giants could eat their fill, let alone second-tier makers like them.

Meanwhile.

Zhou Shouzhi and Chen Yansen stepped into a private room alone.

The two sat facing each other, and Zhou Shouzhi got straight to the point: "DST has a good relationship with Gao Tong. If Yuri steps in to lobby, Sister Chengzi Tech's chip supply price could be discounted by at least another 10%–15%."

"Electronic components like screens, cameras, batteries, connectors, and sensors — DST has the resources for those too. We can help Sister Chengzi Tech on parts procurement cost, supply stability, and so on."

Unlike ordinary investors, Zhou Shouzhi didn't open by talking valuation and financing with Chen Yansen, but instead brought up DST's advantages on the supply chain.

He had long had this pitch prepared — one he could deliver to Lei Yijun, and could deliver to Chen Yansen as well.

"Mr. Zhou truly is DST's youngest partner. To be frank, I don't lack capital, but on the supply chain side, I do indeed need the resources of a third-party investment firm."

Chen Yansen gave a slight nod, showing his agreement.

Zuo Hongyu's ability wasn't bad either, but his background and origins capped his ceiling. In front of top-tier international suppliers, a mere few hundred thousand in procurement volume was hard-pressed to get the best material costs.

"So Mr. Chen, does that mean you're willing to accept DST's investment?"

Zhou Shouzhi pressed with a smile.

"No rush. Let's wait until the first batch of pre-orders ship and see the market feedback. I'm afraid the user experience won't be good enough, and I won't be able to answer to my investors."

Chen Yansen shook his head and declined for the time being.

Sister Chengzi Phone had only been out for ten days. Talking financing at this point would naturally be at a disadvantage.

Zhou Shouzhi acknowledged it with a sound, and didn't rush to invest in Sister Chengzi Tech either. He could understand the wait-and-see approach.

Since Chen Yansen had been able to build up Foxi Shop and Sister Chengzi Tech one after another, it showed he was a smart man — and of course unwilling to accept an A-round financing at this juncture.

Afterwards, the two chatted a while longer, and only after pinning down the timing for their next communication did they return to the private room together.

Only, what Zhou Shouzhi hadn't expected was that Chen Yansen wanted not only his money, but his people as well.

All of it!

(End of chapter)