Chapter 267

"Manager Wu, please!"

Su Chicheng felt as if he could sense the seemingly predatory gaze of Wu Siwei behind him, but he still extended his hand toward Wu Ying.

After Wu Ying was stunned for a moment, his gaze involuntarily flickered toward Wu Siwei. A thought arose in his mind: the titans were clashing. He wasn't clear on the exact reason, but it was evident that between Dongling Gao Ke and Sanzhu—two giants in different fields—there seemed to be a posture of arm-wrestling.

But this kind of clash between titans was not something he could participate in. After Wu Ying stood up, he and Lu Hongliang rose and followed Su Chicheng away.

As veterans and old ministers of the Sanzhu Company, Qiao Dejing and Du Wenzan knew their young crown prince's temper all too well. At this moment, they both watched Wu Siwei with trepidation, terrified that this master might start a brawl right here. If this were to cause a scene, it would likely stir up a massive uproar across the entire country.

Qiao Dejing wanted to persuade Wu Siwei, but he was also somewhat afraid. If Wu Siwei truly flew into a rage, even his father, Wu Bingxin, couldn't control this crown prince. It would be a miracle if he, an old minister of the Wu family, could have any effect.

With a scoff, Wu Siwei didn't seem angry at all. He said faintly to Qiao Dejing and Du Wenzan on either side, "It seems this Mr. Li of Dongling Gao Ke is unwilling to see us!"

Wu Siwei lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. His entire body relaxed; he crossed one leg and leaned back in his chair.

But Li Dongling had already made his stance clear by shutting Sanzhu out. He hadn't expected Wu Siwei to be so stubborn, insisting on meeting him.

……

Although Wu Siwei didn't have a great temper, he was certainly not brainless. While it was true that Wu Bingxin was at the helm of Sanzhu, Wu Bingxin excelled in marketing strategies and was a master at advertising. His grasp of the big picture was also quite good; he could spot opportunities and lead the Wu family to soar in the health supplement industry.

As soon as Wu Ying and Lu Hongliang saw Li Dongling, they showered him with no shortage of flattery.

As for Dongling Gao Ke, it went without saying. So what if Sanzhu had an annual revenue of eight billion? It didn't pay taxes in Hanxi. Besides, the taxes Dongling Gao Ke paid were far more than Sanzhu's, and it also brought back large amounts of foreign exchange. If Hanxi didn't help its local god of wealth, would it help an outsider instead?!

When Wu Ying and Lu Hongliang met Li Dongling, their attitude was very humble—even lower than when they had met Sun Zhengyi years ago.

But to Qiao Dejing's surprise, regarding Li Dongling's preference to meet two "nobodies" before meeting the people from UTStarcom, and his unwillingness to meet them from Sanzhu, Wu Siwei was first furious, then suddenly calmed down.

In the health supplement industry, when future generations open the pages of this crazy history, Sanzhu would be a name that could not be bypassed, and the names of the Wu father and son would absolutely be on the list.

Glancing at Du Wenzan and the other, Wu Siwei exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Don't worry, I don't handle things that crudely. In all these years, have I ever done anything that disappointed you, or that teacher of yours, Wu?!"

Hearing this from Wu Siwei, the two Sanzhu veterans, Qiao Dejing and Du Wenzan, thought back carefully. Indeed, in all these years, Wu Siwei had never made a mistake in his dealings.

If Li Dongling didn't know how high Yahoo's market value would rise after its IPO, he might have thanked SoftBank for helping raise the price, given that SoftBank had entered the market and dumped 100 million USD into Yahoo, acquiring a 33% stake and pushing Yahoo's valuation to a staggering 300 million USD in one go, causing the value of the Yahoo shares held by the Zhixing Foundation to skyrocket.

Now, Li Dongling's posture was effectively a refusal of guests; he didn't want to see Wu Siwei. Under normal circumstances, Wu Siwei should have already left in a huff with his people.

Lu Hongliang said with a smile, "In that case, great minds think alike. Director Sun Zhengyi's SoftBank has also invested in Yahoo. Come to think of it, we are all 'our own people'!"

"Snap!"

Li Dongling truly did not want to meet Wu Siwei. He would not touch the health supplement industry. There were so many profitable trades; why insist on drilling into a highly controversial industry?

Opening the history books, anyone who could leave even a tiny mark—whether praised or criticized—could never be an incompetent person. One could say a historical figure was bad, but one could never question their ability.

Hearing Lu Hongliang bring this up, Li Dongling just said expressionlessly, "The Zhixing Foundation cannot compare to SoftBank's grand gestures!"

"I have long heard of Mr. Li's great name. To finally see you in person today—it truly lives up to its reputation!"

"Before we came to Hanxi this time, we spoke on the phone with Director Sun Zhengyi of the UTStarcom board. He is also very much looking forward to meeting Mr. Li to discuss the Dao over wine!"

"I just want to see that Li Dongling. I want to ask him a few questions to his face, otherwise, I won't be able to eat or sleep in peace!" Wu Siwei threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it forcefully with his foot.

But precisely because Li Dongling was clear about the explosive performance of Yahoo's IPO in his past life, he wasn't very happy about SoftBank's investment in Yahoo. After all, SoftBank had acquired so much of Yahoo's equity that the stake held by small shareholders like the Zhixing Foundation had shrunk. It would be a miracle if Li Dongling were happy about this; this involved huge amounts of cold, hard US dollars in the future!

Previously, the Zhixing Foundation had exchanged 300,000 USD for a 10% stake in Yahoo. Now, with SoftBank's entry, this stake had been diluted to 7.6%.

"I heard that the Zhixing Foundation established by Mr. Li also invested in an American internet company, Yahoo?"

Du Wenzan also couldn't help but earnestly advise Wu Siwei. Having spent years with frontline sales staff and frequently engaging in turf wars with other health supplement companies, Wu Siwei's conduct carried a hint of banditry—otherwise, how could he hold his ground? He was terrified that Wu Siwei might cause some major incident.

"Manager Wu, this is Pingyang, the Hanxi where Dongling Gao Ke's headquarters is located. It's not Jin Ling or Shandong where our Sanzhu is based. It's better not to have a conflict, so as to avoid trouble!"

Regarding Sanzhu and other health supplement brands, Dongling Gao Ke and its subsidiaries, including Focus Media, would not cooperate with them in the future. There was no doubt about this. To be honest, advertising for Sanzhu was not as memorable as advertising for Du Guoying's Haojixing or Xiaoguan Tea...

Hearing Wu Ying and Lu Hongliang bring up Sun Zhengyi, Li Dongling was noncommittal. The next decade or so would be Sun Zhengyi's highlight reel. Although he had only been the richest man for a day, his success in investing in Yahoo and Alibaba made him one of the world's top venture capitalists. Unless necessary, he feared no one would want to become an opponent of such a person.

Qiao Dejing felt that the gloomy-faced Wu Siwei was even more frightening than when he was angry.

Wu Bingxin sat in the Sanzhu headquarters, but the one who truly led those 150,000 sales staff to conquer the world, fighting against a host of other health supplement brands like Apollo, Fengtian Feilong, Giant Brain Gold, Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle Essence, and Onlly, and who managed to capture the health supplement market in every street and alley from cities to rural areas in China, was precisely Wu Siwei. How could he be an incompetent person?

But now, Wu Siwei had no intention of leaving; instead, he sat there calmly, leaving even Qiao Dejing unable to guess his intentions.

If they were in Sanzhu's lair, with Sanzhu's influence, they might be able to suppress things. But this was Hanxi, Dongling Gao Ke's territory. Sanzhu's reach was limited. If Wu Siwei really dared to stir up trouble, Du Wenzan felt that their group would all be in deep trouble, and whether they could even walk out of Hanxi was questionable!

Local protectionism in this day and age was quite formidable because localities needed major taxpayers to provide tax revenue and jobs, and for this, they would provide various preferential policies. Especially in the last two years, with more and more state-owned factory managers having a hard time, whoever dared to touch the local god of wealth would be shown by the locals exactly why the flowers were so red.

Especially by bringing up Sun Zhengyi, the new Asian billionaire, they were both flattering Li Dongling—implying he had the opportunity to become a top Asian billionaire like Sun Zhengyi—and quietly bringing up the supporter behind UTStarcom. Sun Zhengyi was one of Starcom's major shareholders, which was enough to prove Starcom's strength.

On the surface, this game played by the Zhixing Foundation seemed to have made a killing. If they were to transfer their Yahoo shares to cash out now, 300,000 could be exchanged for 22.8 million USD—a full 76-fold increase, which was enough to be called a miracle in the investment industry.

But if calculated according to Yahoo's peak market value of 200 billion USD after its IPO, then the Zhixing Foundation had lost out big time. Originally, the Zhixing Foundation held a 10% stake in Yahoo; how much could they have earned?!

Calculating again based on the 7.6% stake in Yahoo that the Zhixing Foundation now held, one could see how much less the Zhixing Foundation had earned. It would be a miracle if Li Dongling had any good feelings toward SoftBank and Sun Zhengyi.

However, whatever SoftBank caused the Zhixing Foundation to lose, the Zhixing Foundation would eventually have to earn it back from SoftBank. After all, Yahoo's brand in the Asian region was held in the hands of the Zhixing Foundation!

Lu Hongliang discovered that things seemed to be different from what he had imagined. When he mentioned Sun Zhengyi, the Asian billionaire worth billions, Li Dongling's attitude was very cold. This gave him the feeling of flattering the wrong person. He didn't know what had gone wrong; in the past, whenever he mentioned Sun Zhengyi, the super-rich Asian billionaire, who wouldn't be polite to him? Everyone wanted to have some connection with Sun Zhengyi, but with Li Dongling, this tactic didn't seem to work!

(End of chapter)