Restart life

Chapter 159 0156 [People of the Time Did Not Recognize the Towering Cloud Tree]

A reporter from the Economic Observer asked first: "Mr. Chen, what are the main uses of this round of financing?"

Chen Guiliang said, "The funds will primarily be used to improve the company's structure and expand its scale. Secondly, in the coming months, I will invest in certain companies to further develop ByteDance's business portfolio."

Can you disclose which areas you plan to invest in?

"Sorry, it's a trade secret."

A reporter from 21st Century Business Herald took the microphone: "Mr. Chen, what is your view on the current internet landscape? Do you think the internet industry has completely emerged from the bubble?"

Chen Guiliang said, "We've definitely moved on. The landmark event was Google's IPO last year. The current internet landscape is actually very clear. We are currently in the transition period between the Web 1.0 and 2.0 eras. With the continuous development of Web 2.0 technology, a large number of new internet startup investment directions will emerge."

What directions do you think are possible?

"The campus network is one direction, and everyone is exploring the others. But the core content is interaction."

A Sohu Finance reporter asked, "Do you think there will still be a Web 3.0 era?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Of course there are. 1.0 is centered on the website, 2.0 is centered on interaction, and 3.0 is centered on the user."

"How can it be user-centric?"

"I don't know either, it's just an idea."

Chen Guiliang has to pay all the media outlets invited today. One payment is for the content of the report, and the other is for the reporters' travel expenses.

Therefore, when the media reports on the financing news, they use the press releases provided by ByteDance, which are included in the information packages sent to reporters.

But besides financing news, some journalists also write other articles.

The Q&A session is used to write non-press release articles.

After the financial media reporters finished asking their questions, the general media began to ask theirs.

A reporter from the Beijing Evening News asked, "Mr. Chen, do you still remember your small goal?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I remember. When I was in my senior year of high school, I made a bet with some media outlets, saying that if I didn't earn 100 million yuan during my college years, I would take off my clothes and swim in the Huangpu River."

"Hahaha!"

A burst of laughter erupted from the room; even the leaders were laughing.

The reporter pressed further, "It seems you've achieved your small goal ahead of schedule. When you were in your senior year of high school, why were you so certain you would succeed?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It's just a strange kind of self-confidence."

"what?"

"It's a mysterious kind of confidence. Inexplicable confidence is also acceptable."

Ao Yanzhen sat below and pouted; she was already used to Chen Guiliang coming up with new words from time to time.

Most of these new words are very vivid and descriptive.

A reporter from the Beijing Morning Post asked, "Many people laughed at you for being arrogant back then. What do you have to say to them now?"

Chen Guiliang said, "People of this time do not recognize the towering tree until it reaches the clouds, then they say it is high."

Wow, that's quite arrogant and overbearing.

Some reporters thought to themselves: That man who talks big is back!
The reporter from Beijing News immediately asked, "Wolf Totem's sales have plummeted. Do you think you've won?"

Guest host Wang Kai reminded everyone: "Please don't ask irrelevant questions."

Chen Guiliang didn't care about this, as long as it promoted himself and his company: "It's okay, I can answer. I don't know the author of 'Wolf Totem' and I have no grudge against him. The reason I'm speaking out is simply because I disagree with the ideas in the book. Because of the busy company affairs, I haven't even finished writing my blog post refuting the book chapter by chapter."

"His book is nothing compared to my company. I've stopped caring about it. If 'Wolf Totem' doesn't sell well, it's not because I won, but because the people won. I'm nothing, I'm just speaking from my conscience."

Another reporter couldn't wait to ask: "Mr. Chen, what's your opinion on the topic of Liu Tianxian being a transgender person?"

"What the heck?" Chen Guiliang was genuinely stunned. "Which media outlet are you from?"

The reporter said, "The Beijing Entertainment News."

Chen Guiliang looked at Ao Yanzhen.

Ao Yanchen could only shrug. Although the entertainment reporter had come uninvited, he couldn't very well turn him away.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Who told you that?"

The reporter said, "This topic has been very popular recently. It was revealed by Song Dazui when he was a guest on Sohu. Liu Tianxian underwent two sex reassignment surgeries in the United States, and the surgeon was a friend of Song Dazui."

Chen Guiliang pointed at the Sohu Finance reporter: "Sohu must know better. You two can have a private discussion."

"Hahaha!"

The audience burst into laughter.

The Sohu Finance reporter was extremely embarrassed. That was Sohu Entertainment Channel talking nonsense; what did it have to do with their finance channel?

The news about Liu Tianxian's gender reassignment surgery has indeed caused quite a stir, and it's even going to be featured on "Today's Talk" in a month.

The current online environment is terrible; some people have even posted the basic information of more than 200 celebrities at once—including their phone numbers.

This caused those celebrities a great deal of suffering.

There are reasons for calling for real-name registration on the internet!

The entertainment reporter asked, "Do you believe Liu Yifei is a transgender person?" "I'm sorry, I have no comment on this matter," Chen Guiliang reminded, "Also, please don't ask any more questions about entertainment news."

A reporter from *IT Manager World* asked: "Mr. Chen, some people say your Renren.com is copying Facebook. They also say your game *Sanguosha* is copying *BANG!*. How do you explain this?"

“There’s nothing to explain,” Chen Guiliang said. “Once you’ve used these four products, you’ll know that Renren has more features than Facebook, and that there’s a huge difference between Sanguosha and BANG!. I admit that I’ve drawn some inspiration from them, but it’s by no means a simple copy-paste. Let alone plagiarism!”

The reporter then asked, "It seems that Chinese internet companies and online games are imitating foreign ones. What do you think is the cause of this?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Because others developed the internet earlier, they were learning to walk when we were just learning to crawl. You can't say that a three-year-old who can walk is necessarily more successful than a baby who can only crawl. There are also primary school, middle school, and university stages later on, so an age difference of one or two years is nothing."

"The important thing is that we must continuously strive to improve ourselves as we grow. Renren is a grade lower than Facebook, which is simply an objective phenomenon caused by age. I've already started skipping grades, and my features are now more comprehensive and abundant than itss. Renren is already in its third year, while Facebook is still in its second year!"

"Clap clap clap!"

A round of applause broke out, with the city leaders applauding first, followed by the others.

The Q&A session with the media will last 30 minutes, and by the time it ends, it will be almost lunchtime.

Lunch was a buffet, as requested by the investors.

The city leaders did not stay for a meal, but they had a brief chat with Chen Guiliang before leaving.

After the buffet ended, most of the media reporters left with their travel expenses and small gifts. Chen Guiliang also gave them a set of Three Kingdoms Kill cards.

However, a few leading media outlets stayed to conduct one-on-one interviews with the founders and investors.

……

Only after seeing off the guests and reporters could Ao Yanzhen finally have time to eat.

She wasn't full at the buffet, so she went downstairs to eat a hot meal.

"Mr. Ao, you've finally arrived. If you hadn't come soon, the leftovers would have been gone."

"Senior Sister Ao, are you here to collect your wages? Hurry up and pay me!"

"..."

A group of female classmates who worked part-time as hostesses were sitting around the dining table eating, laughing and joking with Ao Yanchen.

Ao Yanzhen sat down with an air of authority: "I'm not in charge of finances right now. You can come to the company to collect them later."

A sophomore girl said, "I've really seen something new today. I never knew a financing ceremony was like this before. It's like an awards ceremony at a foreign film festival."

Ao Yanchen said, "Our CEO Chen's idea, the general plan was his. You probably won't see a scene like this in other parts of the country."

"That's amazing!"

"I'm going to seduce him and make him my boyfriend. Maybe I'll snag a rich husband. Hahahaha..."

"His real girlfriend is over there."

"..."

Bian Guanyue sat at another table; the hostess's uniforms had long since been changed.

Lin Ruonan whispered, "Xiao Bian, your boyfriend is at Peking University, where he's surrounded by wolves. There are plenty of female predators."

Bian Guanyue said, "They were joking. If they really had that intention, would they say it in public?"

"That's not necessarily true," Lin Ruonan said.

Wu Meng sat down next to Bian Guanyue: "I'll help keep an eye on things."

Lin Ruonan said, "Don't steal from your own workplace."

Wu Meng was stunned. Did this person even know how to speak?
Bian Guanyue explained, "Wu Meng, don't mind it. My roommate doesn't think before she speaks, we're all used to it in our dorm."

The other four roommates wholeheartedly agreed, and they were often so angry that they wanted to beat Lin Ruonan up.

"cut!"

Lin Ruonan curled her lips, revealing a disdainful expression.

After they finished eating, Chen Guiliang's meal was still not over.

Several leading media outlets conducted one-on-one interviews with the two founders and two investors. They then conducted cross-interviews with other individuals and published a comprehensive report on each.

Bian Guanyue and her roommates waited for a long time in the rest area before Chen Guiliang finally walked over, exhausted but excited.

"You must be exhausted?" Bian Guanyue asked.

"It's alright. It's just that I've been dealing with leaders and the media the whole time, so I'm on edge all the time. It's more tiring than teaching all day," Chen Guiliang waved to the girls and smiled. "Thanks everyone for coming!"

"Mr. Chen, please sit down. We'd like to interview you too." The girls dragged Chen Guiliang to sit down.

Soon, all sorts of strange questions came out, initially related to starting a business and opening a company, but gradually veerging off-topic and going completely off-topic.

As evening fell, Chen Guiliang escorted Bian Guanyue to her carriage.

As they parted, Bian Guanyue asked, "Will my dad see the news?"

Chen Guiliang guessed, "They should be able to see it. A reporter from the Daily Economic News was also invited today. This media outlet is headquartered in Chengdu and is the most authoritative financial newspaper in Southwest China."

"My dad will be very surprised!" Bian Guanyue's smile was smug, as if she wanted to show off to her father.

(End of this chapter)