Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 170 is dedicated to Teacher Liu.
At 7 p.m., when Chen Cheng left the Sichuan restaurant and arrived at the music room, Liu Shiyu was practicing the cello.

Chen Cheng didn't know much about the cello, only that the instrument had a deep, resonant sound, the complete opposite of the violin.

Liu Shiyu's performance sounded impeccable; no wonder she was selected to join the National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Seeing Chen Cheng enter, Liu Shiyu stopped playing the cello, put it back on its stand, and immediately asked him, "Chen Cheng, when did you create Renren.com? It's so useful!"

"easy to use?"

Chen Cheng said with a smile, "I was just doing this for fun a while ago, and I didn't expect it to be so popular after it went online."

Liu Shiyu exclaimed, "It's super useful. Last night I found my best friend from high school on it. She also contacted some other old classmates she could reach. We've found more than 20 of our high school classmates from that year. They all registered accounts on Renren."

At this point, she added excitedly, "By the way, I've also recommended Renren.com to Berkeley's Chinese alumni. Seven or eight of them have already registered accounts. I asked them to recommend it to international students they know, as a way to help you expand your overseas market."

Chen Cheng smiled and said, "Thank you so much, Teacher Liu! I didn't expect to have overseas users so quickly."

Liu Shiyu said earnestly, "The way Renren (校内网) works makes people unconsciously want to share it with more old classmates, which feels more interesting than QQ."

Chen Cheng said, "We can't compare to QQ yet. Our user interaction is still just simple in-site messaging, not as concise as QQ. Once Renren.com is fully developed, we'll try to hire more people to strengthen the in-site messaging function."

Liu Shiyu asked him, "Do you have a team now?"

"There is."

Chen Cheng answered truthfully: "They are all senior students, currently there are eleven people, and there may be more new people next week."

Liu Shiyu exclaimed in surprise, "A team of more than ten people must be very expensive, right? Can you afford it?"

"is acceptable."

Chen Cheng said, "I work outside, and I earn quite a bit."

Liu Shiyu was surprised that his income from working at Wilderness was enough to support a team of more than a dozen people. He was also immediately reminded of those internet entrepreneurs in the United States.

So she said to Chen Cheng, "The investment cycle for internet startups seems to be quite long. Many companies lose money for a long time before they slowly accumulate enough to start making a profit. Your Xiaonei.com is developing so well now, have you thought about raising funds first? If you are interested, I can help you find some venture capitalists to inquire about. One of my father's students works at IDG, and it seems that they have invested in a lot of domestic startups in the past two years, including Tencent."

Chen Cheng was surprised that Liu Shiyu had this connection. He smiled and said, "IDG is a foreign company, right? If I remember correctly, they invested $110 million in Tencent and took 20% of the shares."

Liu Shiyu said, "I'm not too clear on the specifics of how he made the investment. He's a mid-to-high-level manager at IDG and has some influence. If you'd like to make contact, I can help you get in touch."

Chen Cheng pondered for a moment and said, "Thank you, Professor Liu, but let's wait a little longer. Renren.com has only been online for three or four days. It's not very meaningful to talk about investment so soon. Right now, no capital firm is likely to give me a high valuation. They might take advantage of my young age and try to get 20% or even more shares by investing a few hundred thousand US dollars."

Liu Shiyu asked in surprise, "A few hundred thousand US dollars accounts for 20%, so your valuation is a few million US dollars. For a company that has only been online for a few days, a valuation of a few million US dollars is already very impressive."

Chen Cheng smiled slightly and said, "The key is that there is absolutely no need to raise several hundred thousand US dollars. This amount of money cannot solve anything at all. On the contrary, it is like drinking poison to quench thirst. Once this money comes in and we use it to expand the scale, it is equivalent to being led by the nose by capital. The speed of spending money will be faster and faster. Before long, we will need to conduct a second round of financing. After several rounds, the founder's shares will be diluted to negligible levels."

Looking back at those successful companies, venture capital did indeed play a significant role in the initial stages.

However, this also created unimaginable returns for venture capital. For example, South African media later invested in Tencent and made thousands of times the profit. Masayoshi Son also made two thousand times the profit by investing in Alibaba. Lei Jun invested four million RMB in UC Browser in 06 and eventually cashed out three billion RMB from UC.

These investors, when accepting investment, have no idea what kind of value they will create in the future.

Chen Cheng was neither a naive young man nor a penniless guy desperately seeking funding to keep his project afloat. Knowing full well that he could succeed, he would not leave such a large profit margin for venture capitalists.

Liu Shiyu didn't expect that while many high-achieving returnees from overseas were still looking for angel investments of hundreds of thousands of US dollars, Chen Cheng, a freshman, completely looked down on him.

However, she didn't think Chen Cheng was arrogant. On the contrary, she felt that Chen Cheng's ability to create a product like Renren.com proved that he had sufficient ability in this area, so his control over the situation must be better than hers.

So she smiled and said, "Let me know when you want to talk about investing, and I'll ask around for you."

"no problem."

Liu Shiyu came to the piano and said to him, "Come on, let's see if your basic skills have deteriorated these past few days." Chen Cheng sat down on the piano bench, stretched his ten finger joints, and said with a smile, "They've definitely deteriorated. I haven't had much time to practice these past few days."

Liu Shiyu found the sheet music they had practiced before and had Chen Cheng play it once. Then she commented, "It's a bit rusty, but it's okay. It's even better than I expected."

Afterwards, she guided Chen Cheng back to the basics, going through the pieces several times. Seeing that Chen Cheng was gradually regaining his form, she taught him some new playing techniques and essentials.

The class time passed quickly, and soon it was 7:40. Chen Cheng told her, "Teacher Liu, I have to rush back at 8 o'clock. There is an event award list that I need to announce."

Liu Shiyu nodded. Because her registered IP was in Jiangcheng, she also received a push notification for the new user acquisition competition. With only twenty minutes left until eight o'clock, she told Chen Cheng, "I'm going to Yanjing this weekend, and I might have to take a few days off next week. No one will be here then, so come and practice the piano whenever you have time."

Chen Cheng asked knowingly, "Why did Teacher Liu take leave to go to Yanjing?"

"Go for an interview."

Liu Shiyu didn't intend to hide anything from Chen Cheng and said directly, "I've been preparing for the Philharmonic Orchestra's application. I'm only missing the final interview. If I pass, I'll come back and resign. If I don't, I'll continue teaching and try again next year!"

Chen Cheng wasn't surprised at all, but he asked with great curiosity, "Teacher Liu doesn't like teaching?"

Liu Shiyu shook her head and said, "I don't like it at all. My parents originally wanted me to go to the music academy to teach instrumental music properly, but I don't have much patience. I don't want to have little time to practice the piano every day and have to teach a bunch of students. That's why I came to Jiangda to work as a music appreciation teacher, so that I have more time."

As she spoke, Liu Shiyu sighed with some frustration, "I originally thought I wouldn't have to teach instrumental music, but I didn't expect the school to make me the instructor for the pop music club, and I also have to teach them piano lessons every week. Fortunately, there aren't many lessons, only one or two a week."

Chen Cheng laughed and said, "Teacher Liu doesn't like teaching people to play the piano, is it because of Senior Ning that you're reluctantly teaching me?"

"Not really..."

Liu Shiyu was a little embarrassed and casually flipped through the sheet music to cover up her embarrassment. She replied, "I thought you were more interesting and that you must be quite talented. I didn't expect that I would actually guess right. Although your piano playing is just average, your songwriting is really great, much better than mine."

The main reason Liu Shiyu wanted to teach Chen Cheng piano was because of his dual identity and she had some curiosity about him. Otherwise, she would have avoided teaching any random student.

Unexpectedly, Chen Cheng turned out to be a truly talented person.

Crucially, his talent extends far beyond music; he is also impressive in business and entrepreneurship.

When Chen Cheng heard her say that Liu wrote better songs than her, he asked her curiously, "Does Teacher Liu also write songs?"

Liu Shiyu said frankly, "It's rare for someone who studies piano not to try writing their own songs. It's just that I don't have much talent in this area, and my songs aren't very good. They're really not presentable, and they're far inferior to yours."

At this point, Liu Shiyu glanced at Chen Cheng and said with a hint of regret, "If I pass this interview, I'll probably have to resign and head north soon, and then I definitely won't have the chance to teach you to play the piano anymore."

"it's okay no problem."

Chen Cheng comforted her, saying, "I'm just a novice. I'm already very lucky to have the opportunity to learn a little from Teacher Liu. I didn't expect to achieve any great mastery in the future."

Liu Shiyu pursed her lips, mustered her courage, and said, "Look, we're about to part ways. If you have any original songs, don't keep them to yourself. How about I be your listener?"

After saying that, fearing that Chen Cheng would refuse, she added, "There may really be no chance in the future. You are focused on making money every day, so you definitely can't be a singer and release records. Wouldn't all the songs you write be buried?"

Chen Cheng thought to himself, "I thought Teacher Liu was reluctant to part with me, her student. Turns out she was waiting for me here."

However, what she said seemed sincere, so Chen Cheng smiled and said, "Teacher Liu is right. I happen to have a song that I've already finished. How about I sing it for you and you give me your feedback?"

Seeing that her self-inflicted injury had worked, Liu Shiyu immediately nodded excitedly and said, "That's such an honor! Come on, tell me the name of your second original song?"

Chen Cheng thought to himself, "I don't plan to make a living by singing other people's songs. If we can avoid taking away other people's livelihoods, we should try our best not to."

But there's one person whose livelihood you can just smash if you want.

So, he said with feigned deep emotion, "This song is called 'In My Song,' which is perfect for Teacher Liu. I wish Teacher Liu a successful trip to the north and that she will fulfill her dream!"

(End of this chapter)