Restart life

Chapter 275 0272 [Senior Sister Bian and Junior Sister Tao meet again]

Weigongcun, Central University for Nationalities.

By the time Tao Xue finished her military training, this year's Internet Conference had already concluded.

She was fairly popular at school because she brought enough sunscreen and shared it with the female classmates. As a result, most of the female classmates had a good impression of her.

But there are always a few people who disdain the sunscreen she "gives away," or who use her sunscreen but don't appreciate it. Behind her back, they gossip that she's acting like a rich girl, asking what's the point of showing off her money.
On the first Friday evening of the new semester, Tao Xue was dragged by her roommate to a social event with boys from another dormitory.

She couldn't refuse, so she agreed.

The group had chosen a restaurant off-campus. They were all freshmen, too shy to talk to the opposite sex. Only one or two outgoing students were there to liven things up.

At the dinner table, the distinction between men and women was clear, with men and women sitting on opposite sides.

At first, we could only talk about military training, but gradually we started talking about the local customs and culture of our hometown.

Tao Xue said her hometown is Longdu.

Gong Xu, the outgoing boy, immediately struck up a conversation with Tao Xue, saying, "Chen Guiliang is also from Longdu. Do you know him?"

Tao Xue said with a grin, "He's my senior from high school."

"Really?" Gong Xu was somewhat surprised.

Tao Xue nodded.

The girls' dormitory head, Xu Pinglan, put her arm around Tao Xue's shoulder and said, "Our Xiaoxue knows Chen Guiliang. She even talked to him on the phone a few days ago."

"Depend on!"

"I go!"

"..."

Several boys exclaimed in surprise.

Boys always have things they admire and like. Most boys are indifferent to celebrities, but admire successful people in a certain field. Especially when these successful people are around their age.

Chen Guiliang is now an idol in the hearts of many boys.

The boys started talking all at once.

"After I finished my college entrance exam, I learned about Chen Guiliang from the newspaper. At that time, the news program 'Xinwen Lianbo' was reporting on the game 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' and some newspapers in our area were criticizing him while others were supporting him. Then I went online to look up information about Chen Guiliang and found out that he was really awesome!"

"Haha, I started playing 'Three Kingdoms Kill' in my second year of high school, and I even bought a physical set of cards."

"These past few days have been truly impressive. Chen Guiliang has been fiercely criticizing Li Yanhong at the Internet Conference. In terms of the content of their speeches, Li Yanhong's level is far inferior to Chen Guiliang's."

"Li Yanhong is getting old; the internet now belongs to the young!"

"Alas, it's a pity we applied for ethnology."

"I applied for computer science, but I was assigned to ethnology..."

"Huh? Did you study humanities or sciences in high school?"

"Science. My college entrance exam score was 50 points above the first-tier university cutoff. My classmates with slightly higher scores applied to Beijing University of Science and Technology and Beijing Jiaotong University. I didn't dare apply to those schools, so I applied to the Computer Science program at Minzu University of China. As a result, I was assigned to the Ethnology major."

These words silenced everyone.

After a long silence, Tao Xue said weakly, "I just barely passed the first-tier university admission line by a few points."

Another girl said, "I scored more than ten points above the first-tier university admission line."

The boy looked pained and said, "Stop talking."

Tao Xue comforted her, "Actually, this is for the best. Our school's ethnology is a top-tier program, consistently ranked first in the country. Computer science, on the other hand, isn't ranked very high. It's just that so many people applied that you were assigned to this program. I guess the admissions officers saw your high score and specifically transferred you to the top-tier program."

The boy waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about that anymore, let's talk about Chen Guiliang. Sigh, I read his interview in the China Youth Daily when I was in high school. At that time, I thought to myself that I must study computer science and start an internet business during college!"

Tao Xue said, "Chen Guiliang isn't a computer science major either."

"Isn't he studying computer science?" the boy asked, surprised.

Everyone fell down.

She doesn't even know what her idol is studying, yet she says she wants to emulate her idol and start a business during college.

The boy asked, "What's his major?"

Tao Xue recounted with great familiarity, "He hasn't chosen a major yet. The class he's in is very special; students can choose any course regardless of their major. There are fewer than 150 students in his class, and 10 of them are provincial top scorers."

"Wow, ten provincial champions! That's amazing!" everyone exclaimed.

Another boy said, "Ten years from now, I think Chen Guiliang's net worth will surpass Li Yanhong's. Renren and HaiNei are both amazing. Take our class for example, it's only been a week since school officially started, and half of the students have already registered on Renren before we even bought computers."

Another boy said, "I don't think so. Baidu is incredibly powerful right now. Who doesn't use Baidu when they're online? Baidu will develop into something like Microsoft. As long as you're online, you can't live without Baidu. It's more powerful than any other company."

This viewpoint is very popular at the time.

Just as some players believe that World of Warcraft will never shut down, many others believe that Baidu will never decline.

Because people at that time could not imagine what the Internet would be like without search engines.

As the conversation went on, the topic returned to the dispute between Chen Guiliang and Li Yanhong.

This is the hottest news right now!
Tao Xue listened happily to everyone's conversation; she enjoyed seeing her senior being talked about by her classmates. It was often the same in high school; there were always people in her class discussing her senior.

After the social dinner, someone suggested going to a karaoke bar, but nobody knew where to find one.

So, a group of men and women went to an internet cafe to surf the internet.

Tao Xue hadn't touched her computer for over half a month and almost forgot about her "Reign of Power" account. After logging in, she didn't do her daily tasks, and was too lazy to go monster hunting. Instead, she took her fishing rod, worth tens of thousands of yuan, and went fishing.

The outgoing boy named Gong Xu clearly wanted to pursue Tao Xue, and he would frequently turn his head to glance in her direction.

Seeing Tao Xue enter the game, Gong Xu looked at her as if he had seen a ghost: "You actually play this kind of online game? Shouldn't you be playing Audition Online?"

"I only play it occasionally. Audition Online is so boring." Tao Xue rode her divine steed towards the river.

Fortunately, Gong Xu doesn't play "The Emperor's Reign," so he can only see that Tao Xue's mount is very cool, and wonders what kind of sky-high price it can sell for.

The other boys had already started shouting:
"Let's play CS together!"

"Girls don't like shooting games, so let's play Audition Online instead."

"I don't like Audition Online. How about KartRider?"

"also."

Tao Xue was dragged into playing KartRider, but before starting the game, she had to add everyone as friends on Renren (a Chinese social networking site). It was basically a ploy to get those who didn't have an account to quickly register one.

After playing for two or three hours, most students rushed back to their dorms before closing time, but two guys decided to stay at the internet cafe all night.

After the girls returned to their dorm, they started discussing which boy was the most handsome that day.

Tao Xue thought to herself: None of them are as handsome as my senior!
The next day, Tao Xue got up early and rushed to Peking University.

For her, going to Peking University is much closer than going to the border.

"Senior, I've come to visit the Peking University campus!" Tao Xue called only after she arrived.

Chen Guiliang broke out in a cold sweat because Bian Guanyue was also coming over today. Chen Guiliang said, "Come to my company, I have an appointment to discuss some things."

It was Saturday, and many employees were resting, but a large number of them insisted on being on duty.

The people Chen Guiliang met with were still from Google.

Li Kaifu didn't come this time; instead, another president, Zhou Shaoning, did.

"Hello, Mr. Chen!" Zhou Shaoning's attitude was much more polite.

Chen Guiliang warmly shook hands: "Hello, please sit down."

Zhou Shaoning didn't directly discuss cooperation, but instead started chatting casually: "At the Internet conference a few days ago, I had dinner with Mr. Tao from Bailian Technology. We had a very pleasant chat, and I even said I'd invite you to join us next time."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Do you know General Manager Tao?"

Zhou Shaoning said, "When Mr. Tao was promoting PHS (Personal Handyphone System) at Starcom, I was the president of Starcom. Although we didn't know each other at the time, we did work for the same company. I happened to see him a few days ago, and he took the initiative to chat with me. We are now good friends."

Chen Guiliang said with a smile, "President Tao's friends are my friends."

The two talked about Chinese online games while focusing on Tao Chenggang.

Just rambling nonsense.

Zhou Shaoning gradually got to the point: "Mr. Li came a couple of days ago. He may not have explained it clearly, but Google actually wants to cooperate deeply with ByteDance."

"What kind of depth?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Zhou Shaoning said, "Google wants to participate in ByteDance's Series C funding round, and the investment scale is very large. They hope to obtain more than 8% of ByteDance's shares."

Chen Guiliang said, "I need to discuss this with the other investors first."

Zhou Shaoning said, "Investing in ByteDance is just the first step; the real cooperation will follow. Google will provide ByteDance with technical support, and the two sides will jointly launch several new products. Mr. Chen, you can take the lead on these new products. Our only request is that ByteDance help promote Google Search."

"What new product is it?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Zhou Shaoning said, "It's similar to Renren and HaiNei groups, but more like Baidu Tieba. When users search for a keyword, relevant discussion forums are automatically generated. This requires Google's search technology support because it's for the entire internet, not just Renren and HaiNei. Mr. Chen, once this product is launched, it will be very helpful to the development of Renren and HaiNei!"

Chen Guiliang was somewhat tempted by what he heard, but then raised his question: "You and Li Kaifu are both the heads of Google China. Why are the things you're saying different?"

Zhou Shaoning said, "This is a plan that was just approved after being reported to headquarters."

Chen Guiliang didn't believe such nonsense.

There is definitely a huge internal conflict between Li Kaifu and Zhou Shaoning, this pair of partners.

Both of them were recruited by Google last year, and their public titles are exactly the same: "Google Global Vice President and President of Greater China".

Dual CEO system!
Li Kaifu is responsible for technology research and development, government relations, and brand public relations.

Zhou Shaoning is responsible for sales, channels, and cooperation negotiations.

However, Li Kaifu bypassed Zhou Shaoning and directly discussed cooperation with Chen Guiliang. This was tantamount to overstepping his authority and doing Zhou Shaoning's job.

Given Google China's dual-president structure, Chen Guiliang really didn't dare to rush into cooperation, especially deep cooperation.

Li Kaifu might not honor the agreement reached by Zhou Shaoning. Violating the cooperation agreement is unlikely, but a passive approach is certain; the chances of being taken advantage of in a deep collaboration are high.

Chen Guiliang only remembered that Li Kaifu had been the president of Google China for many years, but he had never heard of Zhou Shaoning.

This person was most likely driven away by Li Kaifu!
It's impossible for him to be sidelined and stripped of power. Zhou Shaoning was already the president of Starcom before Starcom even sold the PHS phone. A person of his stature would definitely resign immediately if he were stripped of power.

Chen Guiliang did not refuse on the spot, but said very tactfully, "Google wants too many shares, you have to talk to the investors first."

Zhou Shaoning said, "We have reached a preliminary cooperation agreement, so I can talk to those investors. Those investors will definitely be willing to have Google invest in ByteDance, because it will be easier for them to make money and exit in the future."

Chen Guiliang could only say, "I'm sorry, I don't think this collaboration will be successful."

"Why?" Zhou Shaoning said he couldn't understand, as he felt it was a win-win situation.

Chen Guiliang answered bluntly: "I am not optimistic about Google China's dual-president system."

Zhou Shaoning was taken aback.

But he also has alternative partners: Tianya Forum.

Zhou Shaoning stood up and shook hands, saying, "President Chen, I hope we can cooperate again next time."

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "Like I said, Mr. Tao's friends are my friends. Let's have a drink together sometime."

“Okay, let’s reschedule for another day.” Zhou Shaoning said goodbye and left.

Chen Guiliang is not cooperating; he's going to talk to Tianya.

Tianya Forum is about to be severely harmed by Google!
The product Zhou Shaoning mentioned earlier is actually the future Tianya Laiba. The two parties will also collaborate to launch Tianya Q&A (the predecessor of Google Answers).

These things were all negotiated between Zhou Shaoning and Tianya.

But just as Tianya LaiBa was launched, Zhou Shaoning was forced to resign by Li Kaifu. Then, Google started wrangling with Tianya, vying for control of these products, and Google also wanted to forcibly take 70% of the advertising revenue.

Finally, they simply changed Tianya Q&A to Google Q&A.

The two products suffered from a terrible user experience due to the constant wrangling between the two sides. The CEO of Tianya even complained that he felt like he was working for Google.

Chen Guiliang had a very keen sense of smell, and he subconsciously sensed that something was wrong.

Which dual-leader system has ever been successfully implemented?

But both Li Kaifu and Zhou Shaoning are heavyweight figures. Google poached them, but neither was willing to be their deputy, ultimately leading to a dual-CEO structure.

"Senior!"

As soon as Chen Guiliang stepped out of the reception room, he saw Tao Xue standing there with a smile.

She was chatting and catching up with Xie Yang.

"You guys chat, I'm off," Xie Yang said.

Tao Xue waved energetically: "Goodbye, Senior Xie!"

"Goodbye."

Tao Xue turned to Chen Guiliang and asked, "Senior, are you this busy on Saturdays too?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I had something to do, but it's already taken care of."

Tao Xue was very understanding: "Actually, you can continue working. I'll wait for you to finish get off work at noon and then we can go out for lunch together. Don't let me interfere with your work."

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: How can I be in the mood to work today? Sigh, I knew it. We're all studying in Beijing; you'd definitely come this weekend, and we'd run into each other sooner or later.

Just then, Bianguanyue arrived.

She paused for a moment when she saw Tao Xue, then smiled and greeted her, "Tao Xue, hello there, it's been a long time."

Tao Xue pouted: "Yes, it's been a long time. I've been wanting to go visit my senior."

Chen Guiliang seemed to be lost in thought, as if his soul had already departed.

(End of this chapter)