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

Hainan.

Sanya.

The private beach in Yalong Bay is bathed in golden sunlight.

The waves are very gentle.

Layers of white foam, like a lover's gentle hand, softly caress the fine sand.

The air was no longer filled with the dry, smoggy smell of Beijing; instead, there was a faint salty, fishy odor mixed with the sweet aroma of tropical fruits.

This is a paradise for the rich.

A white, three-story yacht is quietly moored in the nearshore waters.

Those were assets that Weiguang Group had just acquired.

on the deck.

Fatty Wang was wearing a flashy Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and holding a glass of champagne.

His stomach rose and fell with his breathing, like an inflated ball.

"Cool!"

He tilted his head back and downed the glass of wine in one gulp.

"Brother, this is what a decent life should be like!"

"Think back to six months ago, we were eating instant noodles in the basement, haggling with the delivery driver to save a few dollars on delivery fees."

Fatty Wang let out a burp, his eyes looking somewhat dazed.

"Now, we're... rich, right?"

Lin Che lay down on the beach chair next to him.

He was shirtless, his muscles were well-defined, and his skin was tanned to a healthy wheat color.

He took off his sunglasses, squinted, and gazed at the distant horizon where the sea and sky met.

"rich?"

Lin Che smiled.

He casually picked up a coconut from the small round table next to him and took a sip of its cool juice.

"Fatty, do you know the difference between money and power?"

Fatty Wang paused for a moment, then scratched his head.

"Can money buy things, and can power control people?"

"No."

Lin Che shook his head.

He pointed to the fishing boat that was operating in the distance.

"If you have money, you can buy that boat, and you can buy that net of fish."

"But if you have the power."

"You can decide who can fish in this area and who can't."

"You can even decide where the fish swim."

Lin Che's voice was very soft, carried away by the sea breeze.

"The only thing that's glimmering in our eyes right now is money."

"We are still far from having the 'power' to make the rules."

................

Shen Nan walked over.

Even on vacation, he carries a tablet in his hand.

His professional habits kept him constantly on edge, always ready for battle.

"Boss."

Shen Nan sat down in the chair next to Lin Che and handed him the tablet.

"Even though we're on vacation, the data isn't stopping."

"There's something interesting."

On the screen is a set of growth curves for "micro-light video".

That was a short video platform that Lin Che had planned in the early days. It was originally just an auxiliary function of the Weiguang APP to increase user stickiness.

But now.

The curve is rising at an odd angle.

"In the past two weeks, a large number of beautiful female live streamers have joined our platform."

Fatty Wang came over and stared at the rows of revealing cover photos on the screen, his eyes lighting up.

"Holy crap, this quality is amazing!"

"Much better than those flashy, cheap women!"

Shen Nan rolled her eyes at him and continued:

"Strangely, we didn't pay any signing fees, nor did we do any promotion."

"They came spontaneously."

"Moreover, most of them were lost from platforms like Inke and Huajiao."

This is market acumen.

Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet.

When a large ship is about to sink, the first to jump overboard are always the rats living in the hold.

Or rather, in this industry, it's those streamers who make a living off traffic.

"Those are refugees."

Lin Che glanced at the screen, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the weather.

"The battle for a thousand live streaming platforms has already begun."

"Hundreds of platforms are burning money and vying for users."

"But they forgot the most important point."

Lin Che sat up, picked up a piece of ice from the ice bucket, and threw it into his mouth.

Click.

The sound of teeth crushing ice is crisp and pleasant.

"Infrastructure".

"Their servers are rented, but their bandwidth is purchased. With the surge in users, lag, latency, and black screens have become the norm."

"Livestreamers need to eat."

"When the platform lags, users complain, and fewer gifts are given."

"So, they had no choice but to run."

"Run towards that platform that withstood three million concurrent users on New Year's Eve and boasts the most stable cloud service in all of China."

Lin Che pointed to himself, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

"That is, us."

Fatty Wang was dumbfounded.

"Bro, so we didn't do anything, just lay around at home, and they just came to us like that?"

"That's called a dimensional reduction attack."

Lin Che stood up and walked to the railing.

The sea breeze ruffled his hair.

"Shen Nan."

"exist."

"Notify Wang Jian."

Lin Che's gaze pierced through the sunglasses, becoming sharp as a knife.

"Weiguang Cloud's data center is almost ready."

"Starting next month."

"Officially launching the 'Live Streaming Acceleration Package' service."

Shen Nan's eyes lit up.

"Boss, you mean... sell it to our competitors?"

"right."

Lin Che nodded.

"We don't sign streamers, we don't run guilds, and we don't participate in those low-level melee battles."

"We only sell water."

No signing fee is required.

"We'll crush them with bandwidth costs."

Lin Che stretched out his hand and clenched it tightly in the air.

"I want to surpass Feng Yousheng of Inke, Zhou Hongyi of Huajiao, and Chen Shaojie of Douyu."

"They came to us on their knees, begging us to sell them servers."

"If you don't buy it?"

Lin Che gave a cold laugh.

"Then their users will churn because of the lag."

"Finally, it all flows to Weiguang Video."

"Either way, I'm going to die."

"This is an open conspiracy."

................

Fatty Wang gasped.

It's too cruel.

This is utterly thuggish logic.

You either pay me protection money (buy cloud services), or I'll kill you.

Moreover, even though you're paying this protection fee, you're still helping me maintain the algorithm and sharing the infrastructure costs.

"Brother, you're pushing them to their deaths!"

"The business world is like a battlefield."

Lin Che turned around, leaned against the railing, and looked at his two brothers who had fought their way out with him.

"A compassionate person cannot command an army, and a righteous person cannot manage finances."

"The war that follows will be bloodier than the war over payments."

"Because the payment war is about money."

"The battle for a thousand live streams is a matter of life and death."

Just then.

Shen Nan's phone rang.

It was an urgent news notification sound.

He picked up his phone and glanced at it; his expression instantly changed.

"Boss."

Something's up.

Shen Nan handed the phone to Lin Che.

On the screen is a newly released major news story.

Douyu Live Streaming completes Series C funding round, valued at over $10 billion, led by Tencent!

The subtitle is even more provocative:

"Tencent executives have declared that they will go all out to create a 'glimmer of light' in the live streaming industry, determined to reclaim their position as the dominant force in traffic."

Tencent.

It's Tencent again.

After suffering a setback in the payment battle, the massive Penguin empire did not give up.

Like a wounded beast, after licking its wounds, they quickly found a new battlefield.

Live broadcast.

This is the pan-entertainment field that Tencent excels at.

With access to two major traffic sources, WeChat and QQ, plus endless financial support.

This is absolutely a terrifying opponent.

Fatty Wang's smile vanished as he watched the news.

"Damn it, these guys are like ghosts that won't go away."

"Just finished attacking Alipay, and now they're going to attack Douyu?"

"Brother, shouldn't we... avoid their sharp edge?"

The sea breeze suddenly picked up.

The once clear sky was suddenly dotted with a few dark clouds.

On the distant horizon, the faint sound of thunder could be heard.

That was the prelude to a storm.

Lin Che looked at his phone screen.

Looking at that familiar penguin icon.

He was not angry.

There was no fear.

in contrast.

A flame, hotter than the sun, ignited in his eyes.

"avoid?"

Lin Che tossed the phone back to Shen Nan.

Why avoid it?

He put his sunglasses back on and lay back down on the beach chair.

His demeanor was composed, even carrying a hint of arrogance.

"Are they trying to create a glimmer of hope in the live streaming industry?"

"OK."

"Then let them see."

"What is a true glimmer of light?"

Lin Che picked up the half-finished coconut juice and gently swirled it.

"Shen Nan."

"After we get back, have Wang Jian revise the price list for 'Weiguang Cloud'."

"How much should we change?" Shen Nan asked.

"For companies affiliated with Tencent."

Lin Che took a sip of coconut juice, his voice icy and chilling.

"Prices have tripled."

"Buy it or don't, it's up to you."

"Since they want to play, then we'll play along with them."

"Let's see if their heads are stubborn enough, or if my knife is faster."

................

The waves lapped against the gunwale of the ship.

It made a loud crashing sound.

Dark clouds were gathering overhead, as if to swallow the lone boat whole.

But Lin Che knew.

That wasn't a natural storm.

That was the smoke and fire of the capitalist world.

That was the "thousand-stream war" that was about to sweep across the entire Chinese internet.

This is also the necessary path for Weiguang Group to evolve from a "unicorn" to a "giant".

"listen."

Lin Che turned his head to the side.

"The wind is coming."

Wang Pangzi and Shen Nan exchanged a glance.

They saw a familiar fervor in each other's eyes.

That was the bloodlust before following the wolf king into battle.

The calm before the storm.

ended.

The next massacre.

it has started.