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

Saturday, 10:00 AM.

Tencent Building, Nanshan District, Shenzhen.

No one spoke in the elevator from the lobby to the top-floor conference room.

The TME administrators kept their heads down and carefully pressed the elevator buttons.

Standing behind her were Lin Che and Shen Nan.

Lin Che was wearing a simple black windbreaker, his hands in his pockets, calmly watching the numbers on the elevator screen.

Ding.

We've reached the 39th floor.

The elevator doors slowly opened.

Two rows of executives dressed in dark suits had been waiting for a long time.

Standing in the very center is Peng Jiaxin.

The head of this music empire, which is worth hundreds of billions, had a stiff expression on his face at this moment.

His usually meticulously combed slicked-back hair looked somewhat disheveled today, and his eyes were puffy, clearly indicating that he hadn't slept all night.

"President Lin."

Peng Jiaxin extended his hand, his voice hoarse.

Welcome to Tencent.

Lin Che did not shake hands immediately.

He first glanced around the luxurious office area, his eyes sweeping over the expensive mahogany furniture and the "Connecting Everything" slogan hanging on the wall.

Two seconds later, he reached out and gently grasped the cold, damp hand.

"Mr. Peng, this should be our first formal meeting."

Lin Che's voice was very soft.

"It's a pity that if this hand had been extended a week earlier, the King of Pop's new album might have sold tens of millions more."

Peng Jiaxin's hand froze in mid-air.

The executives around him turned pale instantly.

It was a resounding slap across the face, silent yet burning with pain.

"Please come in."

Peng Jiaxin withdrew his hand and forced a smile.

……

……

The air conditioning in the conference room was on full blast, but it still felt incredibly hot.

The negotiating table was clearly divided by the Chu River and Han border.

On the left is TME's large negotiation team, with legal, financial, and operations directors sitting in a row, their front desks piled high with documents.

On the right, there were only Lin Che and Shen Nan.

He didn't even bring a laptop; Shen Nan only had a voice recorder in his hand.

"Mr. Lin, regarding the cooperation..."

Peng Jiaxin took a deep breath, trying to take control of the conversation.

"We drafted a new licensing agreement overnight. TME is willing to grant Weiguang access to its entire music library at the best price for a 'strategic partner,' and we can reduce the annual minimum licensing fee to..."

Peng Jiaxin held up three fingers.

"Three hundred million."

"This is already the industry floor price. NetEase Cloud's licensing fee was three times this back then."

After saying that, Peng Jiaxin looked at Lin Che, waiting for the other party to counter-offer.

In his view, this was a huge concession.

however.

Lin Che smiled.

His laughter was somewhat inexplicable, as if he had heard a lame joke.

"Mr. Peng, are you sure you haven't misunderstood something?"

Lin Che leaned back in his chair.

"I'm not here to buy anything today."

Peng Jiaxin frowned: "Then what are you here for?"

"I'm here to collect taxes."

The moment those three words were uttered, the conference room fell into a deathly silence.

TME's chief legal officer couldn't help but stand up: "Mr. Lin, please watch your wording! Who pays whom? We own the copyright, and you use it, so it's only natural that you should pay!"

"sit down."

Lin Che didn't even lift his eyelids.

The voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable sense of pressure.

The legal officer paused for a moment, glanced at Peng Jiaxin, and had no choice but to sit back down in his chair angrily.

Lin Che stood up and walked to the whiteboard.

He uncapped the pen, drew a huge circle on the whiteboard, and wrote "Traffic".

Then I drew a small square next to it and wrote "Copyright".

"President Peng, times have changed."

"In the PC era, in the era of selling records, copyright was a moat; whoever had the songs, users would follow."

"But in the era of short videos..."

Lin Che pointed sharply at the huge circle with the tip of his pen.

"With 1.5 million people watching videos every day, and each person spending an average of 90 minutes on the screen, your copyright is just fuel."

"Without the distribution of Weiguang, your songs are just inventory in the warehouse, data garbage that nobody listens to."

"Hasn't the disastrous failure of Jay Chou's new album woken you up yet?"

Lin Che turned around, his gaze sharp as a knife, sweeping across the faces of everyone present.

"I'm not begging you to sell my songs."

"It's you guys who are begging me to help promote your songs."

Peng Jiaxin's fingers gripped the corner of the table tightly, his knuckles turning white.

He wanted to argue.

I want to say that TME is still the leader, and that we have hundreds of millions of users.

But he couldn't bring himself to speak.

The contract termination warnings sent by Universal and Sony last night are like a Damocles' sword hanging over our heads.

If the blockade of Weiguang Channel cannot be resolved, those record companies will not hesitate to abandon Tencent and directly embrace Lin Che.

"So...how does Mr. Lin want to cooperate?"

Peng Jiaxin's voice instantly aged ten years.

He knew he was losing his trump card in this negotiation.

"Replacement".

Lin Che sat back in his chair and presented the plan he had prepared long ago.

"Weiguang uses TME's entire music library for free as background music (BGM) for its videos."

"In exchange."

"We will add a 'Listen to Full Song' pop-up button to the bottom left corner of every video that uses music."

"When users click the button, they are directly redirected to a music app under TME."

Lin Che spread his hands.

"I'll drive traffic to you, you give me content, it's a fair trade, and neither of us pays anything."

A collective gasp filled the conference room.

On the surface, this appears to be mutually beneficial.

But Peng Jiaxin, an old fox, saw through the true nature of it all at a glance.

Once this agreement is signed...

TME completely lost its independence, transforming from an equal platform into a "downstream service provider" dependent on Weiguang for survival.

Weiguang has become the landlord of traffic.

TME, on the other hand, became a tenant farmer who cultivated land for landlords.

In the future, whichever song Weiguang promotes, TME will be able to earn money from that song.

If Weiguang doesn't provide traffic, TME will starve.

This is what Lin Che meant by "collecting taxes".

He's charging tolls to the entire music industry.

"This is impossible..." the operations director muttered under his breath, "This is too domineering."

"You don't have to sign."

Lin Che glanced at his watch and stood up.

"Ding Lei from NetEase called me three times yesterday. If I don't sign, I might consider exclusively opening up this 'first-level redirect entry' to NetEase Cloud Music."

Upon hearing the words "NetEase Cloud Music," Peng Jiaxin's pupils contracted sharply.

That's TME's mortal enemy.

If all of Weiguang's terrifying flood of traffic were channeled into NetEase Cloud Music... TME's market share would be completely devoured in less than six months.

That would be a catastrophe.

"etc."

Peng Jiaxin called out to Lin Che, who had already reached the door.

In that instant, the light in the tycoon's eyes went out.

He knew that the old era of making easy money by hoarding copyrights was over.

"We...sign."

……

……

Half an hour later.

The agreement has been signed.

Looking at the bright red official seal stamped on the document, Peng Jiaxin felt that he had signed not a cooperation agreement, but a surrender document.

"Mr. Peng, it's a pleasure to cooperate with you."

Lin Che put away the contract and handed it to Shen Nan.

"You'll find that this is the best decision you've ever made in your career."

"Although I lost my dignity."

"But at least, TME survived."

Lin Che did not stay for lunch.

He refused Peng Jiaxin's tasteless celebration banquet and led Shen Nan directly out of the Tencent Building.

The sun in Shenzhen is very bright.

Lin Che stood at the entrance of the building and looked up at the huge penguin logo.

"Boss, is it all done?"

Shen Nan held the file bag, his hands still trembling slightly.

"nailed it."

Lin Che took out his phone and dialed the number for the Beijing technology department.

"I am Lin Che."

"Implement the 'Restoration of Voices' plan immediately."

"Open up all of TME's music library interfaces and make all those red mute icons disappear."

"Let the sound return."

……

……

Five minutes later.

Beijing, Microlight Technology Data Center.

Wang Jian pressed the Enter key.

The command was transmitted instantly to server nodes across the country via fiber optic cables.

On the Shanghai subway.

Lily was wearing headphones and scrolling through the dim light.

Sudden.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

A mesmerizing laugh came through the headphones, followed by a cheerful background music track.

Holy crap!

Lily was startled, then her eyes widened.

She noticed a small vinyl record icon in the bottom left corner of the video.

The text above reads: "[Want to hear the full version? Click here to go to QQ Music]".

She tried clicking it.

Swish.

The phone directly activated QQ Music, and that nice song started playing automatically.

"This is so convenient!"

Lily exclaimed in amazement.

She was unaware that this seemingly simple detail signified a dramatic shift in the landscape of China's internet.

……

……

On the plane back to Beijing.

Lin Che leaned back in the spacious first-class seat, looking at the sea of ​​clouds outside the window.

Shen Nan was still excitedly scrolling through his phone.

"Boss, that was a brilliant victory!"

Shen Nan took off his glasses and wiped away his tears of excitement.

"Not only did we not spend a single penny on copyright fees, but we also turned TME into our employee. Who would dare to hold us hostage in the future?"

Lin Che did not speak.

He held a glass of soda water in his hand and gently swirled it.

This victory solidified Microlight's position in the cultural and entertainment industry chain.

From today onward, whether it's record companies or copyright giants like TME, they are all just "content providers" for Weiguang.

They produce content, and then distribute it.

Microlight holds the only gateway to users.

"Shen Nan."

Lin Che suddenly spoke.

"Um?"

Do you think we won?

"Of course we won! A resounding victory!" Shen Nan exclaimed, puzzled.

Lin Che turned his head and looked down from the porthole.

The plane is descending, passing through the clouds.

The city lights below shone like a galaxy.

But Lin Che's gaze seemed to pierce through the bright lights and shine into a deeper, darker place.

"This is only a victory within the Fifth Ring Road."

Lin Che said softly.

"Those who listen to Jay Chou and use the latest iPhone are only a small minority."

"There are still many people in this folded world."

"They can't hear these sounds."

Lin Che closed his eyes, and another map appeared in his mind.

It was a map filled with cheap goods, pay-to-win links, and silent crowds.