I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 579 Having Morning Tea with Ma Huateng

"Xiaoqing, don't talk nonsense," Wang Chenyang quickly reminded her.

Fang Qingye didn't say anything to Song Xiaoqing, but instead said to Wang Chenyang, "Chenyang, contact Lin Haifeng of Tencent in your personal capacity and tell him that you are coming to Pengcheng to discuss a business deal, and invite him out for a meal."

"Chairman Fang, you want to contact people from Tencent?" Wang Chenyang immediately understood what the other party meant.

"We'll see," he replied ambiguously, then added:
"If we get in touch, we can casually reveal that we are negotiating an investment with several companies, including Mingcheng Financial, Jiantou Huake, and Rongxin Investment, and just say that it's basically settled."

“Okay.” Wang Chenyang immediately understood.

Song Xiaoqing understood; the chairman was planning to deceive both sides.

In the afternoon, the three of them took a car to the conference room of Mingcheng Financial Company to continue negotiations with Yang Jie and his group. This time, the main person in charge of Mingcheng Financial's investment department communicated with Wang Chenyang, including Song Xiaoqing, and asked about specific issues related to daily operations and finance.

Song Xiaoqing had a vague feeling that the deal was going to go through, otherwise the other party wouldn't have bothered asking about these specific details.

The negotiations took only one day. Yang Jie said that the key points of today's talks would be discussed and decided at the company's general manager meeting.

"Chairman Fang, I hope we can meet again in Shanghai next time," Yang Jie said, extending his right hand.

“Me too.” Fang Qingye smiled.

The business in Pengcheng was finished. That evening, Wang Chenyang went out to dinner with Lin Haifeng. Fang Qingye didn't wander around either; she stayed in the hotel drinking tea. Wang Chenyang returned around 10 p.m.

Knocking on Fang Qingye's door, Wang Chenyang, reeking of alcohol, said with a smile, "Chairman Fang, I have good news for you. Lin Haifeng wants you to stay."

"Trying to keep me here?"

“We were drinking today, and I mentioned the things I came to Shanghai to take care of. Lin Haifeng was very interested and asked a lot of questions. In the end, he asked me to stay in Shenzhen for a couple more days so he could talk to me.”

Did he report to Ma Huateng?

"I guess so. When Lin Haifeng heard that we had already gotten involved with large state-owned enterprises like Huijin and COFCO, he became a little restless and asked to meet with you. I said that I had to report this to you first, and besides, you are very busy with work, and I don't know how many days you can stay in Shanghai."

“That’s a good answer. Tell him I’ll stay in Shenzhen for a couple more days at most, and then I have to rush to Beijing,” Fang Qingye said with a smile.

“Okay, I’ll text him back now,” Wang Chenyang said, taking out his phone.

Lin Haifeng didn't keep Fang Qingye waiting long. The next afternoon, he replied to Wang Chenyang, saying that he hoped to meet the next morning for morning tea.

"Mr. Wang, there's a restaurant called Weijing Tea Restaurant near your hotel. I'd like to invite you and Chairman Fang for morning tea. Oh, and our General Manager Ma will be joining us too."

Mr. Ma?
Ma Huateng?
Wang Chenyang was a little excited. Although this Brother Ma was very famous, he was very low-key like Jack Ma. It seemed that his visit to Shenzhen was a pleasant surprise.

He hurried to Fang Qingye's room to tell him.

Ah?
Is Brother Ma going to treat me to dim sum?
That was somewhat unexpected.

Fang Qingye originally thought that if Tencent was interested in investing in Ele.me, it would probably be Lin Haifeng, who was in charge of investment, who would contact Wang Chenyang.

Unexpectedly, Ma Huateng personally stepped in!
This is certainly not a bad thing.

"Okay, we'll go on time tomorrow."

The next morning, Fang Qingye and her two companions took a taxi to the Weijing Tea Restaurant.

This is a Hong Kong-style dim sum restaurant. Perhaps because Ma Huateng is low-key, not many people choose this place to have morning tea. When Fang Qingye and the others arrived, Lin Haifeng was already waiting in front of the store. After shaking hands, he led the three of them to a private room on the second floor.

Inside sat a refined-looking middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses—Ma Huateng. Seeing Fang Qingye and his group enter, he smiled and shook hands with them. "Chairman Fang, welcome, welcome. This dim sum restaurant isn't exactly a long-established brand, but the food is quite good. I discovered it while shopping one of the time."

Ma Huateng is a low-key person, and his private life is kept very private. It is said that even those who work closely with him are not sure whether he lives in Hong Kong or Shenzhen in mainland China.

Judging from what he said today, it seems he lives in Shenzhen.

The group sat down, and the morning tea was quickly served. Hong Kong-style morning tea is rich in ingredients, with crystal shrimp dumplings, steamed siu mai, egg tarts, and char siu buns known as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Hong Kong-style morning tea. There are also steamed chicken feet with black bean sauce, fish congee, and of course, a pot of good tea.

"I heard that you like Da Hong Pao tea, so I specially ordered a pot. Of course, the tea here is probably not as good as the one you usually drink." Ma Huateng said with a smile as he poured a cup for Fang Qingye.

"Thank you."

Fang Qingye picked it up and took a taste. It was a first-grade Da Hong Pao, which was a bit ordinary. However, it was still quite good to be able to drink this level of tea at a dim sum restaurant.

"It tastes pretty good," Fang Qingye said.

As they ate and chatted, Ma Huateng didn't mention the investment, or even the takeout. Instead, he talked about the Global Mobile Internet Conference held in Yanjing in May.

The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) is an international mobile internet industry conference hosted by the Great Wall Club. Since 2009, it has been held annually in May and October in Beijing and Silicon Valley, respectively, and is positioned as a mobile internet business platform connecting the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

This year it's in Yanjing.

With the participation of well-known domestic internet companies such as Tencent, Baidu, Sina, Xiaomi, UC, and Acer, as well as Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tango, and Coursera, this event has generated a lot of buzz online.

"Chairman Fang, I would like to hear your speech in Beijing." Ma Huateng spoke very humbly.

Fang Qingye shook her head: "I didn't receive an invitation."

"Huh?" Ma Huateng looked up at the other person, seemingly surprised.

"My company, Tuofang Technology, isn't exactly an internet company; it's just an investment company," Fang Qingye explained with a smile.

"But you also have Ele.me and ByteDance."

"Hehe, but compared to your Tencent or Baidu, its size is still too small and can be ignored."

"But the impact is considerable. The food delivery war between Ele.me and Meituan has become a hot topic on the internet," Ma Huateng said with a smile.

"And then there's ByteDance, which has even greater potential. I'm more optimistic about Fang Dong. Why is ByteDance raising funds again? Tencent wants to invest."

Ha, I came to have dim sum with you with the intention of getting you to invest in Ele.me, but you've got your eye on ByteDance instead?!

Their judgment is not bad.

However, the more you want to invest, the less of a rush I am.

Fang Qingye took a sip of tea and replied, "ByteDance has plenty of cash flow and has no plans to raise funds at the moment."

Let's put that idea on hold for now!

Ma Huateng seemed very interested in the conference, and instead of continuing Fang Qingye's conversation, he continued talking about this topic.

"The theme of this conference is 'Connecting the World – The Next 50 Billion.' Mr. Fang, what are your thoughts on this theme?"

(End of this chapter)