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

The legal department's signing room is on the third floor and does not face the sun.

It was already getting dark at 2 p.m.

The mahogany conference table was very long, with two unopened bottles of Nongfu Spring water and a printed copy of the "Non-Core Assets and Debts Transfer Agreement" on it.

The paper still carried the warmth of the printer when it was ejected.

"Manager Lin, we need to double-check the procedures."

The general counsel was a balding middle-aged man. As he checked the company seal, he pushed up his glasses. "Although it's a negative asset divestiture, with Weiguang Media assuming our potential debt of over ten million, legally, it's still a transaction."

He looked up at Lin Che sitting opposite him.

"It can't be a 'gift.' If it is a gift, it will cause a lot of trouble for the auditors, and they may question whether it is a transfer of benefits."

Therefore, there must be consideration.

Lin Che nodded.

Of course he knew.

If it's a gift without spending a penny, Alibaba can renege at any time in the future, claiming it's a "trusteeship" rather than a "transfer".

Only when a real monetary transaction occurs, even if it's just a penny, is the buying and selling relationship completely legally locked.

This is the firewall he wanted.

"Then let's calculate it based on the scrap metal purchase price."

Lin Che reached into his pants pocket.

My fingers touched a few coins.

That was the change he got back from buying lunch at the cafeteria.

He picked one out.

A 2011 edition 1 yuan coin.

The edges were somewhat worn, and there was even a bit of blue cotton thread from the pocket stuck to it.

He placed the coin on the mahogany table.

With a gentle push of the finger.

The coin stood upright and spun on the smooth, painted surface.

Ding--

The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed in the quiet conference room.

The coin spun twice before finally falling to the ground in front of the general counsel.

The chrysanthemum pattern faces upwards.

"One dollar," Lin Che said calmly, "to buy out these 300 million 'troubles'."

The general counsel didn't even look at the coin.

He typed a few words on the computer, the printer buzzed, and it produced a general VAT invoice.

Amount column: One Yuan.

"make a deal."

The general counsel pushed the invoice and contract to Lin Che, then picked up the coin and casually tossed it into the administrative coin jar next to him.

With a clang.

It got mixed up with a bunch of pins and paperclips and can't be found anymore.

Just like "Weiguang Media," which was about to be abandoned by Alibaba, it disappeared into the vast group's asset catalog.

Li Mo stood by the window the whole time.

He had his back to the conference table, looking down at the traffic on Binjiang Avenue.

Upon hearing the word "deal," his shoulders relaxed.

That's the relief after a heavy burden has been lifted.

The "tumor" that had been causing him headaches for months was finally removed.

Although the removal method was somewhat hasty, as long as it's not left inside the body, even if it's fed to a dog, it's still a relief.

The transaction took place in the technical department.

There were no flowers, no applause, only the monotonous buzzing of the computer room.

The technical lead for "Weiguang Media" that Lin Che brought was actually a full-stack engineer he had just poached from Taobao's outsourcing team.

At this moment, the engineer was sweating profusely as he typed on the keyboard, executing the data migration script.

Li Mo stood to the side.

He crossed his arms and stared at the screen like a supervisor.

"Only data from the 'Welfare' section can be transferred."

Li Mo coldly warned, "Not a single byte of the user's chat history and contact list relationship chain, these core social assets, are allowed to be touched."

"Don't worry, Mr. Li."

Lin Che stood behind Li Mo, holding the newly signed contract in his hand. "We only want that batch of 'zombie powder' and the garbage logs."

On the screen, a black command window is scrolling rapidly.

The white characters flowed down like a waterfall.

[Transferred]: 300 MB...

[Transferred]: 45 GB...

[Transferred]: 1.2 TB...

The outsourced engineer's hands were shaking slightly.

He certainly knew what he was conveying.

This is not garbage.

These are 300 million real user IDs, their linked Alipay accounts, their shipping addresses, and the tags for every coupon claim and price comparison they make.

But in Li Mo's eyes, this was just a bunch of junk logs that were wasting the company's valuable server resources.

The progress bar is moving very slowly.

Every second of waiting was torture for Lin Che.

He's gambling.

Bet on Li Mo's arrogance, bet on Ali's obsession with cleanliness.

If Li Mo had taken even a closer look at the specific log content, he would have discovered that the average number of times these "zombie fans" opened the app daily was actually higher than the number of active users on "Laiwang".

"Why is it so slow?" Li Mo frowned and glanced at his watch.

"The data is too fragmented, Mr. Li." Lin Che handed over a bottle of water. "It's all small files, only a few kilobytes in size, so reading and writing are slow."

Li Mo did not take the water.

He stared at the total file size displayed as "3TB" and made a mental estimate.

3TB of text logs.

It's really rubbish.

"Hurry up," Li Mo urged. "President Zhang is still waiting for my email."

at last.

The green progress bar has reached the end.

[Status]: 100% Completed.

At the same time, one by one, the red alarm lights representing "server load" on the adjacent monitoring screen went out.

The cooling fans, which had been spinning wildly due to overload, gradually quieted down.

The world is quiet now.

Li Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned around and looked at Lin Che.

The hostility in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a hint of pity.

It's like watching a fool about to go homeless with tons of garbage on his back.

"Lin Che".

Li Mo patted Lin Che on the shoulder.

"The contract is signed, the data is transferred, and from now on, all these troubles will be yours."

"Don't let Mr. Zhang hear any more complaints about these users."

Lin Che nodded.

He walked up to the computer of the outsourced engineer.

The cursor on the screen is still blinking.

He reached out and gently closed the laptop lid.

The movements were very light and slow.

It's like closing a pirate chest full of jewels.

"Don't worry, Mr. Li."

Lin Che raised his head, his eyes calm. "From now on, you will never see this data on Alibaba's reports again."

........

8 PM.

In a residential building in an old neighborhood in western Hangzhou.

This is the temporary office of "Weiguang Media".

There are no glass curtain walls like those of Alibaba, no ergonomic chairs, only red bricks exposed after the wall plaster has peeled off, and a few folding tables found at a flea market.

On the table, three monitors formed the new command center.

Next to it were several boxes of takeout food that had just been eaten, with congealed chili oil on the edges of the boxes.

Lin Che sat in the middle.

He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

Soft Zhonghua (a type of Chinese liquor).

This was the first time he had smoked since his rebirth.

Click.

The lighter's flame shot up and ignited the cigarette butt.

The acrid smoke filled his lungs, causing him to cough.

But the real stinging sensation convinced him that he wasn't dreaming.

"Boss, the data recovery is complete."

The outsourced engineer sat across from me, his voice trembling, "All the tags are there, this group of users... is too damn precise."

Lin Che exhaled a smoke ring.

He reached out and typed a few commands on the keyboard.

That's God's authority.

The screen flickered.

The database that was displayed as "zombie", "junk" and "invalid user" in Alibaba's backend was stripped of its disguise here.

The originally gray ID instantly turned into color.

Each ID is followed by a string of heart-pounding tags:

【ID: 89757】 -＞ 【Tags: Stay-at-home mom / Extremely price-sensitive / 4 hours of free time daily】

【ID: 95221】 -＞ 【Tags: College Student / Game Boosting / Skilled at Recruiting Players】

【ID: 10086】 -＞ 【Tags: Online shopping addict / Monthly spending of 200 yuan / Group buying fanatic】

This is not garbage.

This is the life force at the very foundation of the Chinese internet.

It's a sea of ​​traffic that big tech elites sitting in their office buildings will never understand or look down upon.

But in Lin Che's eyes, each of these data points is the cornerstone of Pinduoduo's future.

With that coin, still with a thread stuck to it, he bought a ticket to the next era.

Lin Che stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, which was full of cigarette butts.

He reached out and deleted the prominent red word "loss" from the screen.

Four characters were re-entered:

Strategic investment.

Then, he took another coin out of his pocket.

That's the "brother" of the coin we just saw.

He tossed it in his hand.

The coin flipped, fell, and was tightly clenched in his hand.

Ding.

That was the sound of the gears of fate meshing.

Although faint, it was louder than Alibaba's listing bell in the night.

The phone screen suddenly lit up.

A news notification popped up:

Breaking News: Alibaba Group officially launches its US IPO roadshow, with a potential valuation exceeding $2000 billion.

Lin Che looked at the news article.

The light from the screen shone on his face, creating a half-light, half-shadow effect.

He muttered to himself:

"Mr. Ma, I'll take these 300 million people with me."

"Next time we meet, I'll have them make sure you remember me in a different way."

"The game has only just begun."