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

Lin Che sat at his workstation, a half-cold cup of coffee next to his keyboard.

The screen displays the backend management interface of "Micro Group Buying".

He opened a new activity configuration window.

【Event Name: Hainan Guifei Mango (5kg)】

Original Price: 39.9 yuan

Group purchase price: 0.01 yuan

[Number of participants required to form a group: 3]

[Risk control rule: Must be shared to a WeChat group with 50 or more people.]

This is a losing proposition.

They even lost money on postage.

But in the ledger of the Internet, this is called customer acquisition cost.

Lin Che moved the cursor to the "Subsidy Cap" column.

Enter the number: 1,000,000.

One million RMB.

Press Enter.

No hesitation.

The initial 3000 million yuan I received from Tencent last night has now been transformed into this string of cold, hard parameters.

He sent the generated event link to "Brother Dao" on WeChat.

[Lin Che: Mangoes for just one cent. Unlimited.]

The dialog box displays "The other party is typing..." at the top.

[Brother Dao: Brother Che, this is a bit too much. WeChat is cracking down hard lately; these kinds of links that encourage sharing are banned instantly. If the account gets banned, the brothers will be in an uproar.]

Lin Che replied with four words.

[Account suspension will be compensated.]

Three seconds passed.

[Dao Ge: OK]

The moment the "OK" gesture was sent, the AWS monitor in front of Lin Che jumped.

The blue flow curve originally clung to the bottom, like a dead snake.

Suddenly, it raised its head.

It didn't rise slowly.

It is a vertical lift.

The number of concurrent connections jumped directly from 0 to 500, then to 2000, and finally to 5000.

That was the first wave of attacks by professional "wool party" members.

Tens of thousands of long-dormant WeChat accounts swarmed toward this link like locusts.

Lin Che picked up his phone and opened his secondary WeChat account.

I randomly clicked into a group for getting freebies.

The link has gone viral.

It was a beautifully designed card, with a vibrant mango image taking up half the screen, and below it an enticing red button: [One more person needed to complete the group, click here to join!]

It was not transcoded.

There's no annoying "Please copy the link and open it in your browser".

There is no red exclamation mark blocking it.

It unfolds smoothly in the chat box, just like a built-in feature of WeChat.

S-level interface. Whitelist exemption.

This is a privilege granted by Tencent.

In the WeChat ecosystem of 2014, this was a pass, a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Lin Che stared at the numbers that kept changing on the screen.

New users: +12,400.

This is just the beginning.

These "wool-gathering" groups would forward the links to their aunts, uncles, and other relatives, spreading the message to family groups in third- and fourth-tier cities that didn't have Taobao accounts but had WeChat installed.

That is the real ocean.

........

12:00 noon.

Alibaba Building 2 canteen.

The crowd was full of people.

The air was filled with the greasy smell of braised pork, and even stronger hormones than the smell of cooking oil.

All the talk revolved around three letters: IPO.

"Have you heard? The valuation might reach $1500 billion."

"The exercise price of my options is $30. If the stock price doubles after the IPO, I'll use that to pay the down payment for the apartment in Binjiang."

"I heard that this roadshow will also go to Hong Kong, and Mr. Ma will personally lead the team."

Lin Che stood in line, holding his tray.

The two P6 engineers in front are doing accounting.

One of them pulled out his phone calculator and started typing away.

"3000 shares multiplied by 60, then multiplied by an exchange rate of 6.2... Holy crap, that's over a million!"

His voice trembled slightly with excitement.

On his plate was only a discounted Mapo Tofu, with rice piled high.

Lin Che glanced down at his phone.

The background monitoring app displays this.

New users: +85,000.

fission index: 1.8.

This means that every "wool party" that comes in brings in at least 1.8 real new users.

Based on current valuation models, the customer acquisition cost for a real e-commerce platform is at least 50 yuan.

8 users.

Four million.

In those five minutes of queuing, his assets grew faster than the total amount of options the P6 person in front of him had calculated over the entire morning.

"Ugh, another scam link."

A woman's voice came from behind me.

She's an operations girl. She was frowning as she looked at her phone. "My aunt is really something, sending out these 'get a mango for one cent' offers every day. Doesn't she worry about her phone getting a virus?"

"Let me see?" A colleague leaned over. "Huh? It actually opens directly? It's not a scam website?"

The girl was stunned for a moment.

I swiped my finger across the screen twice.

"The interface looks nice... and it even accepts WeChat Pay? No need to link a bank card?"

"Really? Just one cent?"

"I'll give it a try... I can't lose anything by spending a penny."

The girl who initially looked down on him still honestly pressed the red "Pay 0.01 yuan" button.

Lin Che did not turn around.

He walked to the window.

"Auntie, one order of braised lion's head meatballs."

He pointed to the most expensive meat dish.

"Add a braised egg as well."

Swipe.

"drop."

The purchase cost 18 yuan.

He carried his tray and found a corner to sit down.

No exchange rate needs to be calculated.

No need to wait for the option to be exercised.

His wealth is currently lying in an offshore account in Hong Kong, ready to be converted into any currency at any time to buy this canteen or this building.

........

23:00am.

Riverside rental housing.

The Qiantang River outside the window was dark and gloomy, with only the lights of the Alibaba Industrial Park in the distance shining brightly.

Lin Che sat at his desk.

There was a blue online banking security token on the table.

The six-digit number on the screen changes every 60 seconds.

That is the key to the offshore financial world.

On the laptop screen is the Interactive Brokers trading interface.

Complex candlestick charts and densely packed price quotes.

Lin Che clicked on [Transfer and Payment].

Original account: China Merchants Bank Hong Kong Branch (last four digits: 8848).

Amount: USD 2,000,000.00.

Two million US dollars.

This is just the first transaction.

The remaining money needs to be used as subsidies for the "micro-group buying" program.

confirm.

Enter the token dynamic code.

Three seconds later.

Funds have been received. Current available purchasing power: USD 8,000,000.00 (including 4x leverage)

Lin Che moved the mouse.

He typed four letters into the code input box: YHOO.

Yahoo holds a 40% stake in Alibaba.

Before Alibaba's official IPO, it was the only Alibaba-related stock in the US stock market.

Buy.

All positions.

Then, he moved the mouse to the bottom of his watchlist.

There is a blank line there.

He manually entered a code: BABA.

Press Enter.

A line of gray text appeared on the screen:

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd - IPO Pending

Currently, it is grayed out; there is no price or candlestick chart.

But in Lin Che's eyes, it was a red, magnificent curve.

That represents Alibaba's destiny for the next ten years.

It was also the sickle that he used to harvest his former employer.

He closed his laptop.

He slept soundly that night.

.......

9:00 AM the next morning.

Strategic Development Department.

Li Mo's office door was open.

"Lin Che, come in for a moment."

Li Mo was straightening his tie; the table was piled high with documents.

Lin Che went inside.

"Is the boss looking for me?"

"There's a mission."

Li Mo took a red object out of the drawer and threw it on the table.

It was a red armband.

The words printed on it in yellow read: "IPO Roadshow Logistics".

The workmanship is very rough; even the pins are a bit rusty.

"The group wants to hold a roadshow launch ceremony in the park, but the administration department is short-staffed, so every department needs to send people."

Li Mo pointed to the armband, "Go help move the materials and maintain order. Especially when the media enters, make sure no one runs around."

Let a P7 product expert work as a security guard.

This is Li Mo's "waste utilization".

Lin Che picked up the armband.

The fabric is a bit prickly.

"Is there a problem?" Li Mo looked at him, a hint of provocation in his eyes.

He was waiting for Lin Che to refuse.

If Lin Che says "no" even a little bit, or even just looks a little unhappy, he has every reason to write "lack of team spirit" in his performance review.

Lin Che did not refuse.

He even smiled.

"No problem, Mr. Li."

Lin Che put the armband on his left arm, adjusted the position of the safety pin, and pinned it to the faded shirt.

"Being able to experience the company's glory firsthand is a blessing that many people would rather die for."

Li Mo was stunned for a moment.

He hadn't expected Lin Che to agree so readily, and was even a little... looking forward to it?

"Alright, go ahead. Don't embarrass the department." Li Mo waved his hand, as if shooing away a fly.

Lin Che turned and walked out of the office.

He glanced down at the red armband on his arm.

The bright red color was glaring.

Just right.

Standing at the entrance offers the best view.

He could see up close which Wall Street vultures were walking into that venue today.

more importantly.

He wanted to see for himself how much of the "growth data" in the exquisite PPT that Mr. Ma would be showing on stage later was something he had just generated using a server last night.

Lin Che straightened his collar and strode towards the elevator.

Like the most dutiful doorman.