America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 285 Talk
It was during his trip to Aurora with Suffer that they stumbled upon a Catholic priest committing a crime. Li Xiaoen was somewhat dazed; it had only happened at the beginning of the semester, but it felt like a long time had passed.

"It was Sophie and I who went to investigate."

Coming to his senses, Sean Lee nodded and honestly admitted it, without saying anything more. Jasper, on the other hand, looked at his father and Sean Lee with a look of shock on his face.

No, Uncle Samuel ordered arson?
He subconsciously thought of his father's despondency when he was young, forced to retreat to the East Coast because of that fire. Now, he realized that this story had such an unknown reason hidden behind it.
How come Li Xiaoen and Su Feier knew, but he, as the son, was kept in the dark?
Jasper's eyes showed a look of utter bewilderment.

After returning from Aurora and handing the evidence over to Suffer, Sean Lee spent some time paying attention to the internet, especially news about her family's real estate group, but unfortunately, she couldn't find any indication of anything happening.

Now that Louis has asked about it, it's likely that Sophie has already handed over the evidence to him. Whether Louis is keeping quiet about it or using it to secretly negotiate with his brother, we don't know.

Li Xiaoen can't control that much, nor does he need to.

"You haven't told anyone else about this, have you?"

Louis remained silent for a long time before finally raising his eyes and speaking, "Please keep this a secret, thank you!"

"I haven't told anyone else, so please don't worry."

Sean Lee smiled and nodded in agreement, which made Louis's expression soften considerably.

From then on, the living room fell silent once again.

Li Xiaoen kept his eyes and nose to himself, and didn't feel nervous at all. In other people or other situations, he might have taken the initiative to find a topic to talk about, but with Suffer's father, especially Louis who was still quite concerned about his identity, it was better to follow the other party's pace in their home. Being too proactive would be abrupt.

"Hey……"

Jasper looked around and started a conversation, "Sean, judging from the online discussions and buzz, your startup is really doing well..."

Upon hearing this, Louis also looked up and glanced at Sean Lee.

"It looks pretty good so far."

Li Xiaoen smiled and nodded, taking a sip of coffee. "I just don't know how long it will last, or how long it will remain after the hype dies down."

"Ha ha……"

Jasper waved his hand dismissively, "Don't worry, I see that many of my employees are still loyal users of your app. As long as nothing too fatal or uncorrectable goes wrong, the number of users who stay will continue to grow."

"Sean..."

At this point, Jasper's face lit up with curiosity, and he gestured with his chin toward Sean Lee, "Could you tell us what your company's average daily active users are?"

"Average daily active users?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaoen's expression turned strange. He looked at the two people from left to right, and even Louis looked over with curiosity. He could only nod and give a rough figure, "The last time I checked the average daily active users was last week. It should be over ten million now..."

In fact, there are many ways to get a rough figure for popularity and app adoption rate online, and these methods can't be hidden from Apple's App Store monitoring. But to get an accurate figure for average daily active users, only people in key positions within our company would know.

Although it was a vague number, both Louis and Jasper showed surprise upon hearing it.

"Ha ha……"

Compared to Louis's calm expression, Jasper smiled broadly and nodded eagerly, "You're Sophie's boyfriend. If you need financing, you can tell me. In my personal capacity, although the amount won't be much, it will be enough to cover at least one round."

After speaking, Jasper quickly glanced at Louis, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his father's expression was normal.

"Let's talk about these things later."

Funding is not a monster; in fact, it's something many startups desperately want and can't get. The influx of funds from multiple sources creates connections between the company and other stakeholders, which undoubtedly provides more confidence than having to carry the business alone.

As the company gradually got on track and its commercial value in the market became apparent, Li Xiaoen no longer held onto his possessions as he had at the beginning.

"Sean, you also said in the interview that the push notification mechanism designed by your company is essentially based on the current popular online platforms' push notifications and further filtering..."

Listening to their conversation, Louis, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up, "You're so smart, you should know that you need to be prepared to deal with negotiations, and even counterattacks, from all sides of those internet giants."

Did Louis watch the video of his interview?
Li Xiaoen raised an eyebrow and nodded in agreement with the other party's advice.

"Actually, I had that expectation when I first had this idea in the early stages of starting my business."

"Ready? Confident?"

Seeing that Li Xiaoen remained as calm and composed as ever, Louis smiled slightly for the first time since they first met.

"No."

Li Xiaoen shook his head with a smile, saying it with a smile even though it was a denial, which surprised Louis and the other person.

"what do you think?"

Louis frowned slightly, and the ease and indifference he showed when looking at Li Xiaoen were gone, replaced by a serious expression. He carefully considered his words before speaking.
"However, those internet giants have been entrenched in the global network for so long that people from other industries can't get involved. It's really difficult for a college student or a young startup to completely cope with them..."

Is this another attempt to explain and cover up for oneself?

Feeling strange, Li Xiaoen relaxed and leaned back on the sofa, both amused and exasperated.

"Don't think too much about it. We'll deal with whatever comes our way."

Li Xiaoen shook his head and said honestly, glancing meaningfully at the two of them, "Besides, if a small startup like mine can get openly targeted and competed with by some internet giant, wouldn't that prove we're doing well? Shouldn't we be even happier about that?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Lois and Jasper stared wide-eyed for a moment, then fell silent again.

"Hearing what you said, with this mindset, Sean, you'll succeed at whatever you do in the future."

Louis lowered his gaze, smiled, and sighed sincerely.

Li Xiaoen wanted to say something more, but a head peeked out from around the corner towards the kitchen, looking over furtively.

"Hey, you guys seem to be having a good chat!"

With a chuckle, Isolde smiled broadly and then called out, "Time to eat!"

"Later at the dinner table, the three of you must tell me and Sophie exactly what you said."

With a stubborn seriousness returning to his eyes, Isolde's gaze lingered on the three of them for a moment.

"It was just a normal chat."

Louis was having a headache and just waved his hand dismissively.

……

“Here, Sean, this is a herb and vegetable stew that Sophie and I made together. Try it.”

As soon as they sat down at the table, Isolde smiled and set aside a plate of delicate-looking food for Sean Lee. “I heard from Sophie that you have a big appetite, so you should eat a lot of steak tonight. This is Kobe beef that we specially sent from Japan.”

"Thank you."

Sean Lee nodded his thanks, and Louis suddenly took over the conversation.

"Sophie, you and Sean are both too young to drink, so please don't drink."

Upon hearing this, Suffer paused in her pouring of red wine into the glass, lowered her eyes, and helplessly put down the glass.

“It’s okay, we can have juice.” Li Xiaoen took the initiative to ease the atmosphere, picked up a clear glass bottle filled with purple grape juice, and held out his hand to Su Feier.

Watching his daughter's expression soften slightly as she skillfully coordinated with Li Xiaoen's movements, Louis felt a pang of bitterness and sighed inwardly.

"Come on, you three, what were you talking about in the living room just now?"

After inviting everyone to sit down and distributing the food, Isolde sat down with a smile, her expectant gaze sweeping over Li Xiaon and the other two. "Tell us quickly, Suffer and I are very curious."

"..."

Ugh, my head hurts again.

Lois let out another breath.

There was an eerie silence at the table for a while, and finally, at Lois's prompting, Jasper reluctantly spoke.

After chatting and having a good meal, Li Xiaoen sat with everyone in the living room for a while before going to Su Feier's room.

"You seem to be in a good mood."

Looking around the room, which was similar in style to Sophie's dormitory room at school, Li Xiaoen sat down in the chair in front of his computer and chuckled.

Since dinner, Suffer had a smile on her face and her movements became much lighter and more agile. At first glance, she looked like a charming, lively, and energetic teenage girl.

Why do you think that is?

Sophie rolled her eyes, asked a question, sat down in the chair next to her, adjusted the backrest, raised her two long legs, and skillfully placed them on Li Xiaoen's thighs.

"Yes, it looks like things are going quite well."

Li Xiaoen chuckled, one hand dangling down to caress the girl's soft, plush thigh beneath her trousers, while the other hand picked up the mouse and browsed the web on the computer.

knock knock.

After the two spent some time together peacefully, there were two knocks on the door.

Suffer abruptly sat up from the chair, his face filled with helplessness, and walked towards the door.

"Who is it? What do you want?"

"it's me."

Jasper's voice came from outside the door.

"What are you here for?"

Suffer's voice immediately became impolite, which made Li Xiaoen smile.

He vaguely sensed the food chain-like relationships in Suffer's family. What was this nonsense?

"Mom cut up the fruit and asked me to bring it up."

Jasper sighed helplessly in response. After the sound of a door opening came from inside, Sophie exclaimed with a mixture of helplessness and confusion, "Hey, just give me the fruit, what are you doing in here?"

"I need to talk to Sean about something."

"..."

From then on, in the quiet room, the three of them looked at each other and formed a triangle.

"Don't look at me like that. You need to know about this too."

Jasper rolled his eyes in annoyance at being looked at by Sophie with good intentions. "It's about the financing for Sean's company that you mentioned before."

After a moment of stunned silence, Sophie's face lit up with elation, and she quickly grabbed Jasper's arm with both hands. "Jasper, you mean that Dad and Mom have agreed to finance Sean?"

Before he said that, he was treated the same way. But when he said he would provide financing for Li Xiaon, he was treated differently. Jasper looked at Suffer with the look of a willful sister who was biased towards outsiders, a look that suggested they had been siblings for almost twenty years.

However, the other party remained unmoved, and despite being very intelligent, seemed puzzled as to not understand his meaning, so he could only sigh and give up.

"Mom agreed, but Dad didn't say anything."

Jasper replied helplessly, and Sophie's delighted smile froze, her joy quickly fading.

Seeing this, Li Xiaoen reached out and grabbed her hand, which was resting on her knee. The two looked at each other and both understood the meaning in each other's eyes.

"Sean."

Jasper took a deep breath and shifted his gaze to Sean Lee. "For now, we'll provide your company with an initial round of financing of $30 million. We'll increase the investment gradually, depending on the company's growth and financial situation, even up to hundreds of millions of dollars. But there's one condition..."

"You said."

Li Xiaoen nodded.

"that is……"

Jasper glanced at Sophie before continuing, "We're asking for equity financing. The funds will be transferred to you in Sophie's name. You should understand what that means, right?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaoen's expression froze, and he subconsciously turned his head to look at Su Feier, meeting her gaze.

"Any questions?"

Jasper asked, puzzled.

"nothing."

Li Xiaoen smiled and shook his head, "I can definitely do that on my end."

"Actually..."

On the contrary, Sophie, with a smile on her lips, cheerfully explained to Jasper, "Sean promised me before that he would transfer 51% of the company's shares to me later..."

That sounds nice, but there's no guarantee or legal oversight in its implementation.

Jasper felt a strange mix of emotions as he looked at the knowing yet amusing smiles on Sean Lee and Sophie's faces.

Judging from their current relationship and Li Xiaoen's personality, he may not break his promise in the future, nor will he betray his sister's kindness.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Jasper couldn't help but let his mind wander.

What, didn't he meet a girl in college with whom he could spend his life and give everything to?

Thinking this, he couldn't bear to watch the scene between Li Xiaoen and the other person any longer. After briefly explaining the specific time for the subsequent negotiations and to finalize the contract, he got up and left.

"Oh, yes."

Just before reaching the door, he turned back to let him know, "Sean, are you staying overnight? We'll prepare a guest room for you."

“This is home. Although Mom is open-minded, she still can’t accept the two of you spending the night in the same room, let alone Dad…”

Upon hearing this, a blush appeared on her fair, smiling face. Sophie gritted her teeth, picked up a cushion from the chair, and was about to throw it at Jasper, but was stopped by Sean Lee's quick reflexes.

(End of this chapter)