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

Shenzhen, Nanshan District.

Tencent Building, 38th floor, General Office Conference Room.

It was 4 a.m. Beijing time.

The conference room was brightly lit and the air conditioning was blasting, making it so cold that it chilled you to the bone.

The long conference table was filled with core members of the WeChat business group.

No one spoke, only the sound of the laptop fan spinning wildly, like a swarm of restless wasps.

The huge data monitoring screen on the wall was now glaringly red.

The originally smooth flow curve has been abruptly stretched into a steep straight line over the past four hours.

That's the number of API calls to share content on WeChat Moments.

It surged by 800%.

"Did you find it?"

A middle-aged man wearing frameless glasses, sitting at the head of the table, spoke up.

His voice was soft, yet it carried an imposing, stern aura.

He is Martin, the number two figure at Tencent, and just as Lin Che remembered, he is an extremely astute strategist.

"Found it."

The technical lead wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and projected several screenshots onto the screen.

"The source is an H5 page called 'Micro Group Buying,' whose propagation mechanism is extremely malicious, using 'price-cutting' and 'lottery' to induce users to share. Our anti-spam system should have blocked it, but..."

"But what?" Martin tapped the table.

The technical lead swallowed hard and tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

A string of domain name resolution code popped up on the screen.

"The entities that registered these domain names are neither e-commerce companies nor marketing accounts."

"They are all... non-profit organizations, health education organizations, and even two of them are 'stray cat and dog rescue stations'."

The entire audience erupted in uproar.

Within WeChat's ecosystem rules, public welfare and livelihood-related accounts have the highest level of "whitelist exemption."

To prevent accidental damage, the system's automatic interception threshold is set to an extremely high level.

This is the time bomb that Lin Che planted.

Six months ago, he had Wang Pangzi register dozens of shell companies and apply for these seemingly harmless accounts to post inspirational quotes and build up their authority.

Until tonight, the true colors will be revealed.

This is no stray dog ​​rescue station; it's clearly a pack of wolves in sheep's clothing that has stormed into Tencent's backyard and is tearing it apart.

"Good tactic."

Martin looked at the group-buying links disguised as "love relays" and laughed in exasperation.

"This is taking advantage of our kindness and exploiting loopholes in the rules."

He stood up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor with a screeching sound.

"Forget about any accidental casualties. Pass on my orders: the security team must intervene immediately."

"Initiate Level 1 Blockade."

"Better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free. Drag all these domain names into the black hole!"

......

Ten minutes later.

Following orders from Tencent headquarters, a silent massacre unfolded on the Chinese internet.

Millions of links that were being transmitted suddenly became invalid.

When users click through, they only see the famous red exclamation mark and a line of cold, impersonal text:

Access to this webpage has been disabled.

[Reason: Contains content that induces sharing, and has been reported by multiple people]

But it was too late.

The virus has spread.

The seeds have been planted.

Moreover, this large-scale, undisguised ban only confirmed one thing—Tencent was in a hurry.

......

New York, 10 a.m.

The breakfast restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Lin Che is cutting a sausage.

His movements were elegant, as if the bloody storm that had just occurred on the other side of the ocean had nothing to do with him.

"It's sealed off."

Old Xiao rushed over, holding a tablet computer, his face pale. "Just now, Tencent blocked WePinTuan across the entire internet. All the links are inaccessible. Domestic media are reporting that Tencent is 'using nuclear weapons to kill mosquitoes.'"

Old Xiao's voice was trembling.

That's the core data source for Alibaba's wireless strategy; this blockade is tantamount to cutting off their supply line.

"What's the panic?"

Lin Che put the sausage in his mouth and chewed it carefully.

"Old Xiao, haven't you noticed the way people around us are looking at us has changed?"

Old Xiao was taken aback and subconsciously looked around.

Inside the restaurant, Wall Street investors and fund managers who were drinking coffee were all whispering among themselves.

Their gazes occasionally drifted in this direction, but there was no mockery or doubt in their eyes.

Only...reverence.

Even a few Goldman Sachs partners who are usually arrogant took the initiative to bring coffee over and smile and greet Mr. Ma's table.

"This..." Old Xiao was a little confused.

"There is an unwritten rule on Wall Street."

Lin Che wiped his mouth, his voice as calm as if he were talking about something trivial.

"If you want to prove the value of a startup, the best way is not to look at its financial statements."

"It depends on who its enemy is."

He pointed to the news article on his tablet about "Tencent's ban".

"If it were a piece of junk software, would Tencent mobilize its top-level resources to block it? Would it risk being labeled a 'monopoly' to intercept it?"

"Won't."

"Tencent's actions can only mean one thing—they're scared."

"WeChat group buying is really threatening WeChat's dominant position."

Old Xiao suddenly realized.

At this moment, the way he looked at Lin Che was as if he were looking at a monster.

This young man not only accurately predicted the data and the stock market, but also the reactions of his opponents.

He turned Tencent's ban into the best opportunity for Alibaba's roadshow.

A guy worth a fortune.

Just then.

A burst of hearty laughter erupted from Mr. Ma's table.

Mr. Ma stood up and shook hands with a Jewish man wearing a gray hoodie. He was the global managing partner of Sequoia Capital.

"It seems the deal has been reached with the boss."

Lin Che stood up and straightened his suit.

"Let's go, Lao Xiao, today's roadshow will be even more exciting than yesterday's."

"Because now, the whole world knows that we hold a knife that can hurt penguins."

......

San Francisco, three days later.

The roadshow is already halfway through.

Alibaba's valuation has been climbing steadily. Although the domestic "micro-group buying" has been banned, the concept of "Project W" has taken root in people's hearts.

Some investors have even started asking whether the project will be spun off and listed separately.

Lin Che had just finished a closed-door meeting and was preparing to go back to his room to rest.

A white man dressed in a black suit and wearing sunglasses, who looked like a bodyguard, blocked his way.

"Mr. Lin?"

The bodyguard handed him a business card.

The business card was pure black, with only one line of gold-embossed English text and a handwritten address.

Sequoia Capital (Private Meeting)

Blue Bottle Coffee, Third Street.

"We need to see you," the bodyguard said in a low voice. "Not Mr. Lin from Alibaba, but Mr. Lin from the 'Weiguang Group'."

Lin Che accepted the business card.

The fingertips felt the weight of thick paper.

He glanced at the address.

Blue Bottle Coffee.

That was also the place where Sequoia Capital liked to discuss private deals in its previous life.

They found it.

They discovered the true structure behind WePintuan and found out about "Weiguang Group," which was not actually merged into Alibaba.

Lin Che's lips curled up slightly.

He put the business card in his pocket and patted the bodyguard on the shoulder.

"Tell your boss."

"My coffee, double the sugar."

"Because of my price, it will be very tough."