Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 429 People will always change.

Jiang Aiguo and Lin Shengdong are different.

Lin Shengdong is an entrepreneur, and when it comes to matters of the heart, he often only considers interests. As long as Cheng Yi treats Lin Qingyin seriously, Lin Shengdong will not care how many women Cheng Yi has outside.

But Jiang Aiguo is just an ordinary person, and he takes matters of the heart very seriously.

If Jiang Aiguo knew that he was juggling two, three, or four relationships, he'd probably come knocking on his door with a kitchen knife.

It's unclear what Lin Qingyin and Jiang Yuxi whispered about, but after they finished strolling down the street, Jiang Yuxi returned to her usual carefree self, though there was still a hint of evasion in her gaze when she looked at Cheng Yi.

Cheng Yi hadn't strolled around the county town in a long time. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar pedestrian street, Cheng Yi's eyes warmed up.

That's just how humans are; they don't appreciate what they have when it's readily available, and then they regret it when they lose it.

In his past life, when he was alone, he often reminisced about his youth, missing the candied hawthorns on the pedestrian street, the fried pancakes on the pedestrian street, the Hailang Internet Cafe on the pedestrian street, and the beautiful internet cafe manager at Hailang Internet Cafe.

He even swore that if he could go back to the past, he would open a small shop on the pedestrian street and slow down to appreciate every little detail.

But what was the result? Although the person returned, they were still just as busy, with no time to appreciate the scenery behind them, let alone linger for long on this street that would make them cry in their dreams.

The street was still the same street, but the man was no longer the innocent young man he once was.

"Cheng Yi." At this moment, Lin Qingyin ran over quickly and handed Cheng Yi a candied hawthorn.

The sugar coating on the candied hawthorn skewers is so beautiful that it makes your mouth water just looking at it.

Cheng Yi took the candied hawthorn and took a bite. The candied hawthorn tasted the same as before, but he didn't like the taste anymore.

People always change.

That evening, Cheng Jianshu invited Cheng Jianmin and Jiang Aiguo to entertain Lin Shengdong.

Jiang Aiguo was determined to outdo Lin Shengdong at the drinking party. After all, he was no match for Lin Shengdong in terms of either his daughter or his wealth, and he planned to regain some face at the drinking party.

As expected, an unexpected incident occurred.

Entrepreneurs of Lin Shengdong's generation practically spent their entrepreneurial journey immersed in alcohol, drinking from noon to night. When it came to alcohol tolerance, Lin Shengdong was unparalleled.

Before Lin Shengdong even started circling, Jiang Aiguo had already crawled under the table, followed by Cheng Jianshu and Cheng Jianmin.

Lin Shengdong, having drunk three chickens into a stupor, remained unfazed. He glanced at Cheng Yi, who hadn't drunk any alcohol, and said, "Shall we go outside and chat?"

"Okay." Cheng Yi nodded.

The weather has been very cold these past few days, and it's already snowing lightly outside.

Under the streetlights, the two grown men walked one after the other for a few minutes. On the quiet street, the only sound was the crunching of their footsteps on the snow.

Lin Shengdong didn't say anything, and Cheng Yi didn't know what to say either.

Cheng Yi thought Lin Shengdong would bring up the engagement, and just as he was pondering how to answer, Lin Shengdong said, "Your shareholding in Momo Group is too small."

“I didn’t do much, so having these shares is already quite good.” Cheng Yi was taken aback when Lin Shengdong suddenly brought this up.

Lin Shengdong said, "You can't do it this way. I have carefully analyzed the structure of Momo Group and also asked professional institutions to help study it. They said that Momo Group is registered in the Cayman Islands, so it has the characteristic of different voting rights for different shares. This means that although your Momo Group is controlled by overseas capital, your chairman Du Yusheng has absolute control over the group. I can even suspect that one of those two holding companies is a company owned by your chairman Du Yusheng."

Cheng Yi's eyes widened in surprise, and he stared intently at Lin Shengdong.

Lin Shengdong is just the richest man in Dongcang County, yet his vision is so remarkable; he is truly extraordinary.

This is China, after all. Even at the peak of a county, there are hundreds of thousands of people.

Unfortunately, Lin Shengdong was wrong. Both of those holding companies belonged to him, not Du Yusheng.

Lin Shengdong said, "What you are doing now is Xiaonei.com. Although you have absolute control, you may have overlooked one point. That is, Xiaonei.com relies entirely on the system developed by Momo Group and Momo Group's third-party channels. This means that once Momo Group turns against you, you will have nothing."

"Yes." Cheng Yi nodded.

Lin Shengdong sighed and said, "I've been in business all my life, and I really don't want Yinyin to marry someone in business. After all, no one who's in business is a good person, including you and me."

Cheng Yi couldn't refute Lin Shengdong's words.

Almost all major entrepreneurs will stop at nothing to present themselves as philanthropists, national idols, or even conscientious business leaders.

After all, as long as you have money, you can control public opinion. Once you control public opinion, you can shape your mind and change your impression of him.

Strictly speaking, entrepreneurs who have reached that level step by step are all formidable figures.

Those with a conscience and a soft heart mostly fell on the road to advancement, either killed by foreign enemies or by their own people.

Lin Shengdong said, "I don't expect you to be good to my daughter, a man with such ambition. I just hope you can give her a proper status. To be honest, you have quite a lot of luck with women. You have a childhood sweetheart at home, a minor celebrity at school, and a powerful businesswoman at your company."

"Uncle Lin, you might have misunderstood me," Cheng Yi said. "Actually, I..."

Lin Shengdong said, "I know you're not having any extramarital affairs right now because you're still in the peak of your career. When I was your age, I was the same way. I didn't have time for any nonsense about love. All I wanted to do was make money, right?"

"But what happens after you achieve success? As far as I know, the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs have both a stable home life and extramarital affairs. Moreover, the situation you are about to face makes it impossible for you to devote yourself entirely to my daughter."

“Zhang Lingyu is an amazing woman. Her power is probably second only to your chairman. And she listens to you completely. Don’t tell me you have no feelings for her,” Lin Shengdong asked.

Cheng Yi said, "We are master and apprentice."

“The master-disciple relationship is not reliable. It’s not uncommon for a disciple to starve his master by teaching his disciple.” Lin Shengdong sneered: “When I made my first pot of gold, the first person I fired was my master.”

Lin Shengdong said, "Compared to the master-disciple relationship, the relationship between a man and a woman is relatively more reliable, right?"

Cheng Yi said, "Uncle Lin, just say it directly. We're not strangers."

"Okay." Lin Shengdong looked at Cheng Yi very seriously and said, "I just want to tell you that my daughter is more suitable for you than Zhang Lingyu."

Lin Shengdong, being an older generation of entrepreneurs, understood very well the inherent contradiction between business acumen and romantic relationships. An entrepreneur who cannot prioritize profit will not go far.

Romantic relationships and affections are things that only people working 996 (9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week) would do.

As Lin Shengdong said, the Zhang family's power is indeed too great now, and Cheng Yi has also considered suppressing Zhang Gang and Zhang Lingyu.

70% of Momo Group's employees belong to Zhang Gang and Zhang Lingyu, which is an unstable factor for the company.

There is another way, which is also what Lin Shengdong is worried about.

That was his marriage to Zhang Lingyu.

Zhang Lingyu's development indeed greatly exceeded his expectations.

He initially used Zhang Lingyu simply because he didn't have a knowledgeable internet cafe manager, and also because of their master-apprentice relationship.

However, he overlooked the platform's scalability.

The Momo Internet Cafe platform is too big. Even a dog could become the number one dog in Handong if it were tethered there, let alone a woman like Zhang Lingyu who dares to fight and struggle.

In this era, as long as you dare to fight and struggle, you won't do badly.

So, Zhang Lingyu and Lin Qingyin were placed in front of him.

Cheng Yi even went so far as to investigate Zhang Lingyu's past. When Zhang Lingyu worked as a manager at Hailang Internet Cafe, she was known as a thorny rose, and every day thugs would be beaten by her until they cried for their parents.

With Zhang Bao's presence, no one dared to approach Zhang Lingyu.

Zhang Lingyu has no romantic history, which makes Zhang Lingyu and Lin Qingyin the two choices facing Cheng Yi.

He approached Lin Qingyin because he saw her talent in computers, and that she was a computer genius who could be molded at will. In the internet industry, Lin Qingyin was his Gatling gun.

Zhang Lingyu, on the other hand, represents the pragmatist type.

One represents technology, and the other represents power; both are indispensable forces for the Momo Group.

Especially now, Zhang Bao's overseas business division is thriving, and he's almost become a warlord with his own territory in the Middle East.

This has steadily increased Zhang Lingyu's prestige, making the Zhang family the most powerful and influential family in the Momo Group.

Seeing Cheng Yi remain silent, Lin Shengdong slowly said, "Actually, I had many confidantes back then, but I always insisted on one point: the other half of a person like us cannot be too smart or too career-oriented. This marriage law of splitting everything in half is very fatal to a company. Zhang Lingyu's ambition is too great, and she also has the power and help to match her ambition. If you marry her, once you get past the seven-year itch, once she has other ideas, you can forget about continuing to run your company."

“I understand what you mean,” Cheng Yi said. “I will give Lin Qingyin a formal status, but not now.”

“Okay.” Lin Shengdong finally smiled and said, “I can also assure you that no matter what decision you make in the future, I will be your strongest support. Although my physical store’s revenue is not as high as that of the internet industry, it is developing very steadily. Give me two years, and my business will be enough to support you in realizing any idea, including bringing down Du Yusheng.”

Seeing that Lin Shengdong was determined to bring down Du Yusheng, Cheng Yi quickly said, "Uncle Lin, I have no intention of bringing down Du Yusheng."

"You'll do it sooner or later. All those titles you've given yourself are just to make it easier for you to usurp the throne in the future, aren't they?" Lin Shengdong said with certainty. "Although Du Yusheng has a powerful network of connections, he's no match for you. It's a waste for him to be sitting in that position."

Lin Shengdong had no idea that the person in charge of Momo Group was standing right in front of him, but as Cheng Yi's future father-in-law, he naturally had to help Cheng Yi plan ahead.

That's how businesses develop; if you don't scheme against others, they will scheme against you.

Control is like a throne, something that countless people covet.

Lin Shengdong said, "You're a smart man. That's all I'll say. It's getting late, we should head back."

Lin Shengdong took out a lot of gift boxes from the car, put them in Cheng Yi's living room, went to Jiang Aiguo's house and called out to Lin Qingyin, then drove away from the community very quickly.

"Don't fucking drink and drive!" Cheng Yi shouted, but his voice was buried in the increasingly heavy snow.

These days, there's no law against drunk driving, so you often see entrepreneurs driving up trees after drinking.

However, Lin Shengdong drank more than a pound of liquor and was completely unaffected, which refreshed Cheng Yi's understanding of alcohol tolerance. This alcohol tolerance was almost on par with the chairman in his previous life.

"Xiao Yi, what are your plans?" Chu Yue'e glanced at Cheng Jianshu and the other two who were fast asleep on the table and asked Cheng Yi.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "Right now, I just want to study hard and improve every day. I'm still a student, it's too early to talk about marriage."

Chu Yue'e glared at Cheng Yi and said angrily, "Speak properly!"

Cheng Yi quickly said, "Mom, what do you want me to say?"

"I'm asking you seriously now, which one do you prefer, the Lin family girl or Yu Xi?" Chu Yue'e asked.

Cheng Yi said, "Mom, let things take their course when it comes to relationships. It's all about letting things happen naturally."

"It'll happen naturally? Are you even speaking humanly?" Chu Yue'e said angrily, "You don't like either of them? You have someone else you like? Is it that little starlet they were talking about?"

"Mom, I can't answer these questions. I'm still a child, my personality isn't settled yet, how would I know who I like?" Cheng Yi said casually, "If it's too much trouble, I'll just marry them all for you. A will serve you in the morning, B will bring you tea and water in the late morning, C will keep you company in the afternoon, and D will..."

"I think you deserve a beating!" Chu Yue'e instantly bristled, picked up a feather duster, and pounced on him.

"She's really my mom." Ten minutes later, Cheng Yi sat on the sofa, touching his arm where there were bloody marks from being whipped, wincing in pain.

From childhood to adulthood, he and his older brother Cheng Jian have been beaten countless times. Being beaten has almost become a daily routine for them, who were born in the 80s and 90s. Compared to those children in the future who are too delicate to be hit or even touched, Cheng Yi still prefers this kind of education.

If you get beaten up a lot, your personality won't become so fragile.

Once his mother calmed down, Cheng Yi first helped his father back to his room, and then took Jiang Aiguo, who was still grumbling, and his uncle Cheng Jianmin back home.

It was late at night when Cheng Yi got home. After washing up, he sat down at his computer and habitually turned on the VPN and opened his international email.

As soon as he opened his email, he saw a letter from Enze Capital. The letter was written in English, and the title alone made Cheng Yi's blood boil.

[Blizzard's parent company, Vivendi, has seen its market value evaporate by 90%, and with the departure of four key figures from Blizzard, our acquisition plan can now be executed.]

(End of this chapter)