The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

Chapter 114 The Cicada Sheds Its Shell

2015 October.

Summer has arrived in Hangzhou.

The air became thick, as if it were glued together.

The top floor of the Weiguang Building.

The air conditioning was on full blast.

Lin Che stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, holding a report that had just been delivered in English.

The cover is black.

It has a white U-shaped logo printed on it.

Uber.

"The wolf is coming."

Lin Che threw the report on the table.

The paper slid across the smooth, painted surface with a soft "sizzle".

"Travis Kalanick has arrived in Beijing."

"He brought a billion US dollars with him."

"And they declared that they would burn all domestic ride-hailing apps in China to death within a year."

Shen Nan stood to the side, pushed up his glasses, and a cold glint flashed on the lenses.

"Boss, Didi and Kuaidi just merged and are still in the adjustment period. Now that Uber is coming in, this quagmire... is going to get muddied again."

"It's easier to fish in troubled waters."

Lin Che walked to the wine cabinet.

I poured a glass of ice water.

The ice cubes clinked against the glass.

"But I'm not going to get involved in this mess."

He tilted his head back and drank the cold water in the glass in one gulp.

The icy, stinging sensation slid down his esophagus into his stomach, instantly cooling his previously feverish mind.

The travel market.

That was a real meat grinder.

Didi will burn through billions of dollars over the next two years in order to beat Uber.

That's a bottomless pit.

As for Weiguang Mobility, a third-party platform that started with the "aggregation model", although its valuation has reached 30 billion US dollars, its foundation is not as deep as Didi's.

If the fighting continues, it will be a bayonet charge.

"Sell."

Lin Che uttered a single word.

The sound was very soft, yet it was like a boulder crashing into a deep pool.

"What?!"

Fatty Wang was gnawing on a duck neck when he heard this, and the duck bone in his hand fell to the ground.

"Brother, are you crazy?"

"Weiguang Mobility is our own child! Ten million daily active users! They just forced Didi to call them 'daddy'!"

"Selling now? Isn't that killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?"

Fatty Wang rushed over, not even bothering to wipe the grease off his face.

His eyes were filled with disbelief.

Lin Che did not explain.

He took out a document that he had prepared long ago from the drawer.

Equity Transfer Agreement.

Transferee: Didi Chuxing.

Target: 15% equity interest in Weiguang Mobility.

Consideration: US$5 million (cash) + 2% stake in Didi.

"Fatty."

Lin Che shoved the pen into Fatty Wang's hand.

"Nothing in this world is not for sale."

"There are only products with or without an appropriate price."

He walked up to the operational map of Weiguang Travel.

Each purple dot represents the territory they once conquered.

"Uber has arrived."

"The next subsidy war will be on the scale of a nuclear war."

"A 30 yuan subsidy per order? A 50 yuan subsidy? Or even free transportation?"

Lin Che turned around, his gaze sharp as a knife.

"I don't want to throw the two billion I just earned into this bottomless pit."

"It's at its peak now."

"Didi is eager to unify the market and compete with Uber, and they are willing to pay a premium."

"Leaving the game at this point is called reaping the rewards."

"A little later..."

He made a throat-slitting gesture.

"Let's call it 'burial with the deceased'."

……

three days later.

Beijing. Didi headquarters.

The signing ceremony was very low-key.

There was no media, no flashbulbs.

All that was left were the legal teams of both sides and that thick stack of legal documents, as thick as bricks.

Liu Qing sat opposite him.

She wore a dark blue Chanel suit and had exquisite makeup, but it couldn't hide the fatigue in her eyes.

To combat Uber, she has stayed up for three consecutive nights.

"President Lin."

Liu Qing handed him a pen.

"You are a smart businessman."

"Cashing out at this critical juncture allows you to both make money and get rid of the burden."

"But aren't you afraid..."

She paused, her eyes sharp.

"Will I never be able to get into this kind of situation again?"

Selling shares is tantamount to relinquishing control.

Although Weiguang Mobility retains its brand, it has become an appendage of Didi in terms of capital.

Lin Che took the pen.

My fingers rubbed the cool pen handle.

He lowered his head.

The pen tip touches the paper.

It didn't move immediately.

In that instant, he seemed to hear the buzzing of the backend server of Weiguang Travel.

I could hear the panting of the drivers rushing around trying to get orders.

That was the child he raised single-handedly.

But he did not hesitate.

Use your wrist to generate force.

"Swish, swish, swish."

The ink spread.

The black signature, like an iron gate, severed his blood ties with the product.

There was no lingering attachment.

His hands didn't even tremble.

"President Liu."

Lin Che closed the agreement.

It was pushed back onto the desktop.

"Never fall in love with your product."

He stood up and buttoned up his suit jacket.

"Selling it for a good price is the greatest respect you can show it."

5 billion US dollars.

The moment he signed, the money was transferred to Weiguang Capital's offshore account via the SWIFT system.

That's real gold and silver.

It's ammunition.

It is the ticket to the next battlefield.

……

I walked out of the Didi building.

The sky over Beijing was hazy and gray, as if covered with a layer of dirty cotton wool.

Fatty Wang followed behind, looking utterly devastated.

"elder brother……"

"Are we really just going to leave like this?"

"So, this lucrative travel market is going to be out of our reach from now on?"

He was not reconciled.

That was the territory they and their brothers fought day and night on the ground.

Lin Che stopped in his tracks.

He stood by the roadside and lit a cigarette.

Take a deep breath.

The smoke dissipated quickly in the cold wind.

"Fatty."

"Retreat is for a better offensive."

"With this $5 million, plus our previous assets..."

"We currently have $30 billion in cash on hand."

Lin Che turned around.

Looking at the roadside through the smoke.

It was lunchtime.

Electric delivery bikes, like worker ants, weave through the traffic.

The red one is Baidu Waimai (Baidu Takeout).

The yellow one is Meituan Waimai (Meituan Takeout).

The blue one is Ele.me.

That was a battlefield that was much larger, more frequent, and more chaotic than travel.

"Did you see that?"

Lin Che held a cigarette between his fingers, pointing to the flowing colors.

"That's your rice bowl."

"That's the daily meals for 1.3 billion people in China."

Fatty Wang looked in the direction he was pointing.

stunned.

"Takeout...takeout?"

"Dude, that stuff costs even more! A single order only costs a few dollars in delivery fees, but you still have to support tens of thousands of riders..."

"Who said we need to support delivery riders?"

Lin Che threw away the cigarette butt.

The sole of the shoe crushed it mercilessly.

"Are those guys at Weiguang Logistics bored out of their minds lately?"

"Do those distribution centers in the west of the city only experience warehouse overload during Singles' Day?"

A bloodthirsty smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Integrate the delivery capacity of Weiguang Logistics into the food delivery system."

Same-city express delivery.

"Delivering takeout using the same methods as courier services."

"Dimensional reduction attack".

Lin Che opened the car door.

He climbed into the black Maybach.