Rebirth of the Rich Second Generation's Growth Diary

Chapter 172 The Finals
In the office of Sunrise Technology, Liu Yunfei handed the report to Li Xu.

Li Xu observed silently for a while, then nodded and asked, "Who knows about this so far?"

Liu Yunfei pondered for a moment and said, "Besides me, there's only Ye Ruida."

Li Xu nodded and said, "Don't make a fuss about it yet. Let's tidy up this report again."

Liu Yunfei hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What should we do?"

A glint of light flickered in Li Xu's eyes as he said, "I'll handle it after the final roadshow."

Liu Yunfei's report did not disrupt the original rhythm. The focus of the next task was still on the roadshow for the finals.

The final presentation was only three hours long, but those three hours were based on six months of their operations. In other words, all their efforts had to be showcased in those three hours, which was no easy task.

But Li Xu was extremely proactive. It's hard to describe Li Xu's current state of mind; lately, he often locked himself in his office, quietly organizing operational data. He revised his speech drafts again and again, as did the presentation format and angles.

Of course, Li Xu wasn't the only one busy. Everyone else was also working towards the ultimate goal, fulfilling their respective responsibilities and completing their tasks one by one.

Tang Qiaoning has already secured the construction of their school's smart campus solution project. The next step, if they can obtain sufficient investment through the creative competition, is to begin construction immediately.

After submitting the report that day, Liu Yunfei dared not slack off in the slightest. He closely monitored the security of the server and system every day to ensure that no mistakes would occur at this most critical moment.

September was a very important day for Li Xu.

As school ended, freshmen at Tsinghua and Peking Universities gazed around the campus with innocent curiosity. They were filled with anticipation, dreaming of achieving extraordinary results at these prestigious institutions over the next four years. Everyone had reason to dream this way; after all, this was Tsinghua and Peking University, a place that held the dreams of countless individuals.

In contrast, the upperclassmen who came to welcome the new students had much calmer eyes. Looking at these freshmen, they were perhaps reminded of their own early days on campus.

Everything on campus was in perfect order. The campus card service center issued smart campus passes directly to this year's freshmen. The sign at the entrance showed how to use the accompanying app.

Under the guidance of their teachers, the students quickly became familiar with how to use their campus cards. Borrowing books, dining, access control, and the intriguing social matching credit score function all amazed these newly enrolled elites at Tsinghua and Peking Universities. They couldn't help but exclaim, "Tsinghua and Peking Universities truly live up to their reputation; even their campus cards are so much more advanced than the ones we used in high school!"

Meanwhile, Li Xu, the creator of this campus card, had already boarded the car heading to the venue.

……

Today isn't the day of the finals, but it's even more nerve-wracking than the finals.

Today we will announce the projects that will ultimately be eligible to participate in the final roadshow from among the eight projects that have entered the finals.

Sitting in the van, Xue Xue couldn't help but complain, "Why did we have to do this? It makes everyone so nervous. They could have just emailed us."

She has always disliked the part where the mystery is revealed. If she gets on the show, that's fine, but if she doesn't, it's really upsetting.

Lei Yinbing, standing to the side, said irritably, "After all, our entrepreneurship competition is going to be featured on the 'Win in China' program. How can we not create some buzz?"

Liu Yunfei looked at the notice sent by the competition organizing committee for a while, frowned and said, "According to the organizing committee, if we don't meet the standards, it's very likely that we won't be able to participate in any events." According to the content of the notice, that was indeed the case.

They submitted all the preliminary operational data. The organizing committee will conduct an initial evaluation of the project based on their operational performance, and only those that meet the standards will be able to advance to the final business roadshow.

Xia Xiaohe thought for a moment and said, "But no matter what, there must be at least one or two projects that can be promoted, otherwise this entrepreneurship competition will be a waste."

Li Xu shook his head and said, "The projects that make it to the finals all have investment potential. Their evaluation criteria here are just the growth potential of the project. Some projects have a high rate of return, but their upper limit is not high. They may get stuck at this stage and not be able to enter the final business roadshow, but they can still get a share of the investment funds from the pool."

After a pause, Li Xu smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, everyone. Our project has a broad market and excellent operational data. Rest assured, we will definitely make it to the final roadshow stage!"

……

Main Hall of the National Convention Center.

As a representative of the participating teams, Li Xu is allowed to sit in the designated area for participating teams, specifically in the first row. He can also bring one other person with him.

Li Xu glanced around at his teammates and said, "We'll need someone to sit in front of me..." Before he could finish, Tang Qiaoning eagerly raised her hand and said, "Me! Me! I can pretend to be your secretary." Tang Qiaoning imagined Li Xu stealing the spotlight in the competition team.

An Duoduo calmly shook her head and said, "I'll go. I know the internal management best."

Just then, Xia Xiaohe also raised her hand. Li Xu's gaze swept over the three of them and landed directly on Ye Ruida.

"You don't need to argue anymore. Ye Ruida will sit with me in the front, and everyone else can sit in the back."

He looked at Ye Ruida and said, "There's nothing much today, just an announcement of tomorrow's roadshow results. The main thing is tomorrow. Tomorrow's business roadshow has three parts. I won't go into the first part, the presentation. The main part is the second part, the debate, and the third part, the simulated capital negotiation. I might need your help with these two parts."

Ye Ruida nodded: "I have no problem."

At this moment, the staff came over to do the final equipment debugging and said to Li Xu, "Could you please have your technicians come over again and check with us to see if there are any problems with the data transmission?"

Li Xu nodded, then looked at Liu Yunfei and Lei Yinbing. The two understood and got up together to follow the staff backstage.

Half an hour before the conference was scheduled to begin, the screens on stage were already displaying the operational status of each participating team's project.

To make the competition more intuitive and engaging, the organizing committee required each participating team to design an interface to transmit and visualize the operational status in real time. The specific UI design was left to each team, with the core principle being to showcase the project's strengths and appeal to the audience and judges.

Li Xu and Ye Ruida then proceeded to the front of the competition representatives' seats.

Not far away was the judges' panel. No judges were present yet, but Li Xu could see the general composition of the panel from this angle. Private equity firms such as Sequoia Capital, Tencent Capital, and Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission were among them, along with representatives from several prestigious universities, including Tsinghua and Peking University. Therefore, in a sense, students from top universities have a certain advantage when participating in this entrepreneurship competition.

Li Xu wasn't worried about anyone bribing the judges beforehand, making the competition unfair. After all, this was different from previous science and technology competitions; winning an award involved real money investment. Even setting aside the fact that these judges were all wealthy business owners, the bribes offered by the contestants couldn't compare to the returns on their actual investments.

Further on, besides the members of the participating teams, there were also many university representatives, investment institutions, and media professionals in the audience, and the program was being broadcast live in its entirety by the financial channel. It was also Li Xu's first time on such a high stage, and it was impossible for him not to be excited.

He glanced around; at this point, only he and Ye Ruida remained in the front row of the competition representatives' seats. Just as he was thinking this, a familiar figure suddenly walked up from behind, and Li Xu was stunned when he saw it.

The other person was also stunned when they saw Li Xu, and blurted out, "What are you doing here?"

Li Xu snapped out of his daze, smiled, and said, "I was also surprised to see you here."

The person he was talking to was none other than Ye Jinhe, his blind date whom he had met once. Beside Ye Jinhe stood a tall man wearing frameless glasses, who appeared refined and cultured.

Seeing that Li Xu and Ye Jin had greeted each other, the man smiled and asked, "You two know each other?"

Ye Jinhe then came to her senses, simply nodded, and said casually, "Just a brief encounter."

Standing next to Ye Jin was Zhang Ye, who wasn't particularly interested in the fact that Li Xu and Ye Jin knew each other. He simply glanced at the nameplate in front of Li Xu, his expression turning somewhat amused, and said, "You're Li Xu, the founder of the smart campus solution? I didn't expect you to be so young."

Then Ye Jinhe sat down in his seat, next to Li Xu. The nameplate in front of him read "Tonghuo Technology".

Li Xu immediately realized that the person opposite him must be Zhang Ye, the founder of Tonghuo Technology and a PhD from Donghai University. Their project is a smart transportation project designed based on smart parking.

Since it was a competition, Li Xu naturally wanted to learn about his opponent's project. Tonghuo Technology's project was quite advanced for its time, but integrating the city's parking resources wasn't an easy task. However, it had to be said that if he succeeded, this project would pose a significant threat, both in terms of market size and return on investment. Li Xu was preoccupied with information about Tonghuo Technology, his gaze naturally ignoring Ye Jinhe beside him. Ye Jinhe, however, was still staring at Li Xu, somewhat bewildered. He had assumed Li Xu was excellent, given his Tsinghua and Peking University background, but he hadn't expected Li Xu to be this outstanding.

When her father introduced Li Xu to him, he only said that he was the son of a company CEO, studying at Tsinghua or Peking University, and that both his family background and his own circumstances were very good.

Before meeting Li Xu, she had imagined what he might be like. In her view, most people who got into Tsinghua and Peking Universities were top students, and the world of top students was often incomprehensible to those who weren't good at studying. To put it bluntly, he was... weird and out of place. Even though her Donghai University wasn't bad, it was a completely different story after meeting Li Xu. He was a guy with high emotional intelligence, the kind of person she could understand. It was just a pity that he clearly had no interest in her whatsoever.

At this moment, Ye Jin silently looked at Li Xu, only to find that he didn't even glance at her, and a strange, indescribable irritation welled up inside her. She then recalled what Li Xu had said that day: "You're definitely not a difficult girl to tame."

She took a deep breath.

Li Xu smiled and said to Zhang Ye, "I didn't expect that President Zhang would be such a refined and cultured person."

Zhang Ye raised an eyebrow. "Oh, is your impression of me based on my name?"

Li Xu nodded and said, "There are some preconceived notions."

Zhang Ye pulled out a seat and sat down, saying, "Brother Li Xu, do you like to judge people by their reputation?"

Li Xu shook his head and said, "Otherwise, why would people say that seeing a name is like seeing the person?"

The two exchanged a few casual pleasantries, completely ignoring Ye Jinhe standing beside them, as if she didn't exist.

At this moment, Ye Jinhe interjected, saying to Zhang Ye, "Mr. Zhang, it seems that two people can go on stage together during the cross-examination."

Zhang Ye nodded: "We'll go up together then."

Li Xu remained silent.

Ye Jinhe then said, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally, "However, we may not necessarily need to enter the debate phase."

After a pause, Ye Jinhe said meaningfully, "There may not be any competitors entering the commercial roadshow at the same time."

Zhang Ye was taken aback. He sensed that Ye Jin was somewhat different from usual today, seemingly exuding a more murderous aura. These words, spoken here, clearly carried a provocative tone towards Li Xu.

But Zhang Ye was not angry at all; instead, he became happy and said with a smile, "Don't say that. Our opponents are all very strong."

Li Xu didn't take those words to heart, smiled without saying anything, and turned to chat with Ye Ruida about other things.

The conference officially began shortly afterward.

The host walked onto the stage, and after a long opening speech, finally began the formal segment.

He held the microphone and said, "After more than half a year of competition, a total of 8 projects have made it to our final round."

"However, to truly enter tomorrow's final roadshow, one must meet the standard of at least 5000 million in investment value."

"That means that if you make it to tomorrow's business roadshow, you can get at least 5000 million in investment."

"As for how much money we can get from our investment fund pool, we'll have to see how we perform tomorrow."

"And today, we will release the valuation of each participating team's project across our major investment institutions."

"First, there's the voice-matching chat app project from Jinchuan University."

As the host introduced the app, a real-time operational interface for the project appeared on the screen behind them. Designed by the Jinchuan University team, this app's main selling point is its innovative voice matching mode. The UI they showcased displayed real-time data such as the number of currently online users and the traffic generated by advertising, providing a clear view of the project's vitality.

The host then read aloud the introductory text submitted in advance by the evaluation team, holding a cue card, and said: "This is Mr. Zhao from Tencent Capital's evaluation of this project."

"This voice-matching dating project demonstrates a bold and innovative spirit."

"It broke away from the rigid logic of 'appearance first' in social software at the time, and tried to use voice as a medium for emotional transmission, thus entering a niche market that had not yet been overdeveloped."

"The privacy and realism of sound provide introverted users with a more comfortable social entry point, and also coincide with the potential trend of future smart hardware interaction."

"The team's keen sense for differentiated tracks is commendable, and the project has strategic value in quickly securing a foothold."

"However, the risks are equally acute. In an era of high mobile network tariffs and inconsistent mobile phone microphone hardware performance, it was difficult to guarantee a smooth voice interaction experience."

"In addition, the path of monetization through membership subscriptions or virtual gifts has not been verified, and the compliance costs of voice content review have not been fully estimated."

"After comprehensive consideration, this project is valued at 500 million yuan!"

After the host made the announcement, applause broke out in the audience.

In any case, this is a good start for a startup.

Compared to Li Xu's smart campus solution, which combines software and hardware and requires overcoming various non-commercial barriers, an app alone is far less costly and technically challenging. Therefore, obtaining such an investment assessment is already quite good.

However, Li Xu could see that the representatives of Jinchuan University sitting not far away were showing undisguised disappointment, after all, this number meant that they would not be able to enter tomorrow's business roadshow.

Then, the Tencent representative sitting on the judging panel said into the microphone: "This project was personally reviewed by me, and the decision was made based on our meeting discussions..."

"This funding will be led by Tencent Capital and will focus on algorithm optimization and seed user community operations."

"We hope to see rapid product iteration through small-scale closed-loop testing. If core users' daily voice interaction time exceeds 15 minutes and the matching satisfaction rate exceeds 60% within the next three months, we can add resources to expand the scale."

Li Xu remained silent in the audience. He knew very well that this investment valuation was not the final amount, because the next step in the investment process would require detailed discussions on equity ratios and other cooperation details, such as the degree of interference from the investor in the project.

The announcement of the first project's results undoubtedly heightened the tension at the scene, but Li Xu remained completely unconcerned. Based on the valuation of the first project, Li Xu silently estimated that his own project, regardless of the valuation method, would definitely reach the 5000 million mark.

But who will be his opponent?

The most likely candidate is Zhang Ye, who is sitting next to him.

Li Xu turned his head slightly and found that Ye Jinhe was also looking at him.

Li Xu smiled politely.

Ye Jinhe murmured softly, "Are you sure you can really subdue me?"

These words startled Li Xu slightly, and he blinked.

Ye Jin glanced at him lightly, her gaze somewhat sharp.

(End of this chapter)