Chapter 97: Little Mian Zhenghe

Zhuang Xu smiled: "It seems your parents really love reading Jin Yong?"

A-Fei watched Lu Kuan drain the soda can in one breath, then tilted his own head back to finish it and wiped his mouth.

"I don't have parents; I chose the name myself."

Boss Lu looked at the capable young man with a smile, thinking of the efficient killing skills he had just displayed, and felt an urge to recruit him.

The entertainment industry is a mix of good and bad, and dump trucks are a common sight; some things must be guarded against.

Who knows where the next Zhang Tianshuo is, or people like Liu Zeyu—they look glamorous on the surface, but how much cleaner are their methods than Zhang Tianshuo's?

"A-Fei, you just saved me. Are you interested in coming to the mainland?"

A-Fei was stunned, feeling this man was a bit inexplicable, and quickly shook his head.

Boss Lu wasn't in a hurry; he drank his beer and ate skewers while trying to draw him out.

"Your accent is quite strange. Your Cantonese is fine, but why does your Mandarin have a Northeast flavor?"

A-Fei didn't really want to engage with him; he was already exhausted from the flight and the journey, and he had just finished giving a statement at the police station.

He squinted his eyes for a moment before saying slowly: "My ancestral home is in Yanbian. I am ethnic Korean, and I learned Mandarin from the uncles in the gang since I was a child."

Boss Lu looked him up and down again. Holy crap, no wonder he fought so fiercely—this is a little Mian Zhenghe!

Mian Zhenghe is a famous ethnic Korean in the Korean underworld; the protagonist of the 2006 Korean film *The Yellow Sea* is based on him.

A plan formed in Boss Lu's mind: "When the War to Resist America and Aid Korea broke out, a group of Nationalist soldiers fled to Taiwan and Xiangjiang, taking ethnic Koreans with them. Perhaps your ancestors were among them."

A-Fei suddenly raised his head, and for the first time, there was a glimmer of light in his indifferent eyes; for Chinese people, the instinct to seek one's roots flows in the blood.

People on this land value family and heritage; not knowing where one's home is makes one feel like a drifting duckweed without roots.

"A-Fei, come help me, and I will entrust someone to help you go to Yanbian to find your relatives."

A-Fei was somewhat tempted; the work he did under Huang Pi, watching over venues and collecting debts, was extremely boring.

At his young age, he was full of curiosity about the outside world.

"You... what do you do?"

"I'm a film director. I have to travel everywhere to shoot movies. You just need to be my bodyguard and drive for me; you don't need to do anything else."

"The mainland is very safe. I see you're not very old; you can study when you're free."

A-Fei gave him a suspicious look. Safe?

If he had been a step late today, he probably wouldn't have been able to deliver the money.

"Fine, then I'll go back to take care of some things and then come over."

"Good! Good, good, good!"

Boss Lu was very happy. With a little Mian Zhenghe, aside from dump trucks and silencers, he would have no rivals within ten paces.

One cannot be too optimistic about the bottom line of certain privileged classes; there are too many examples...

Zhuang Xu and Lu Kuan walked under the streetlights, each holding a can of beer. It had been a long time since the fellow disciples had walked the streets like this.

In the past, they would sing and drink in front of the Three Pure Ones in the Daoist temple...

Zhuang Xu’s expression was heavy: "Xiao Lu, offend as few people as you can. Today's incident was very dangerous."

Boss Lu agreed deeply, but having lived a second life, he didn't want to be too timid or overly accommodating.

Whenever one fights with others, one will inevitably touch upon their interests. Some industries are zero-sum games, where it's a matter of life and death.

Fake business warfare: corporate espionage, reputation attacks, shorting market value.

Real business warfare: seizing official seals, poisoning, wielding sledgehammers!

"Senior Brother, some things, if you aren't at the table, you'll end up on the menu."

Zhuang Xu gave him a meaningful look. The real business warfare he had encountered in this life was far more than what Lu Kuan had seen, and he had to admit this was the truth.

Sometimes, it is events that push people, rather than people pushing events.

"By the way, Senior Brother, do me a favor."

"Speak."

"You have wide connections. Help me look into the matter of A-Fei's residency, and help me contact a bank. I want to use my shares in the blog network to get a loan."

Zhuang Xu hadn't even had the chance to ask where the suitcase of cash from tonight came from, and for a moment, he couldn't keep up with Lu Kuan's train of thought.

"What kind of trouble are you stirring up now?"

"I can't stay at your place forever. I'm planning to buy a house, fix it up, and settle down in Beiping."

In 2002, Beiping still had a policy of buying a house to obtain residency, but it was limited to houses in the suburbs and satellite cities, and one had to deposit 500,000 in interest-free savings at a bank, which would be returned after 5 years.

Because of his investment in the blog network, Lu Kuan had no problem with residency, so there was no need for such trouble.

Boss Lu calculated the dates; he had to return to Su Province next month for the college entrance exam, and once that was over, he would just have Sun Wenwen handle this matter.

Zhuang Xu thought about how A-Fei was about to become his bodyguard, and since he now had his own work and social circle, living together was indeed inconvenient.

With the growth rate of the blog network, quite a few venture capitalists had already come knocking, so pledging some equity wasn't difficult.

"By the way, the blog network is burning through money very quickly, and your funds are hitting the bottom again. You need to plan early."

Lu Kuan understood his Senior Brother's meaning. The model of the blog network was very simple, and it wouldn't be difficult for major internet companies to imitate it.

If the site's development were affected by funding issues, the current first-mover advantage would soon be caught up to.

In other words, Zhuang Xu felt now was a good time to approach venture capital.

This was because he didn't know about Boss Lu's recent income. In fact, he had already planned ahead and mapped out the expected income and expenditure directions for the future.

The remaining 13 million in funds from sports betting in Xiangjiang would arrive one after another, and he would continue to pour it into the blog network.

The earnings from *Blind Shaft* would be recorded by March of next year at the earliest. He held a 2/3 stake, and as long as there were no major mishaps, a conservative estimate was an income in the tens of millions, which would be the startup capital for the next investment or film.

Then there were the earnings from *Whiplash*, which would depend on the film's performance in Venice.

The film market in Venice is much smaller than in Cannes. If he returned empty-handed, not only would overseas copyright revenue become a problem, but domestic theaters would also be a struggle.

These days, aside from the works of big-name directors, the only way for a novice director to make a comeback is to export and then sell domestically.

Even with Zhou Jielun's drawing power, without the laurels of an overseas film festival, the profit prospects for this film would be in doubt.

"Let's wait a bit longer on the venture capital side. The true value of the blog network hasn't been reflected yet; the valuation would be a loss right now."

Zhuang Xu nodded in agreement. Currently, the site's strategy of building up entertainment stars was seeing initial results, and strategies for cultural stars and grassroots stars were also being implemented.

The timing of the first round of financing is very important. Generally, companies raise funds either at the startup stage, the growth stage, or the stable stage.

Generally speaking, companies with new models must start looking for financing targets during the business growth period.

Because financing has a time cycle, it takes 20-25 days for an angel-round entrepreneur to go from contact to receiving a TS (term sheet), and then another month for due diligence and SPA (share purchase agreement) before the funds are transferred. The A-round takes even longer, making the total cycle at least 2-5 months.

Therefore, a company seeking financing must maintain its growth rate during these 4 or 5 months and cannot stagnate in its core data.

The next explosion of users and word-of-mouth that Lu Kuan planned for the blog network would not happen until at least after the 2003 Boiling Point.

At that time, he would arrange for the company to conduct large-scale event marketing, demonstrating the ability to guide public opinion in a healthy and positive direction and stabilize the development of the situation during collective incidents.

This is the time node that truly reflects the value of the blog network.

(End of chapter)