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

Santa Clara, California.

The sun was scorching intensely along the St. Thomas highway.

There are no clouds.

There was only that kind of highly saturated blue sky, and the hot wind so dry it made your nostrils burn.

An inconspicuous black Chevrolet Suburban was parked on the side of the road.

This is not Google's famous colorful campus.

It's not Apple's massive spaceship headquarters that's currently under construction.

This is a slightly old glass curtain wall building.

A green "eye" logo hangs on the roof.

NVIDIA.

In Silicon Valley in 2014, it was just a graphics card company serving gamers.

Stock price: around $18.

Compared to Intel and Qualcomm, it's like a malnourished younger brother.

"Boss."

Fatty Wang sat in the driver's seat with the air conditioning on full blast, but he still couldn't stop the sweat from dripping down his neck.

He was holding a freshly bought hamburger, his cheeks bulging.

"Why are we leaving Facebook and coming here?"

He swallowed his food and pointed to the building.

"I know this company well. Internet cafes used to be full of their cards. They're good for gaming, but what future does this stuff have? Everyone plays on their phones now, who still has a computer?"

This was the prevailing bias in 2014.

PCs are dead; mobile internet reigns supreme.

Graphics card? That's something you'd find on the Titanic.

Lin Che sat in the back seat.

He did not take off his sunglasses.

My gaze pierced through the dark lenses, fixed on the green logo.

downtown San Francisco.

Here, however, it's a completely different scene.

The streets were narrow and steep. The air was thick with the mixed smells of marijuana and coffee.

Downstairs from a run-down shared office space.

Lin Che did not get out of the car.

He simply told Fatty Wang to park the car on the side of the road.

A few minutes later.

A young white man wearing a hoodie and with messy hair rushed out carrying a stack of documents.

He is Travis Kalanick's assistant.

At this time, Uber was expanding like a mad dog around the world, but it was also facing a huge funding gap.

At this stage, they don't even care about the color of the money.

They accept US dollars as long as it's in US dollars.

"Mr. Lin?"

The young man knocked on the car window and handed in a document.

That was Uber's Series G funding agreement.

The terms are very harsh.

The valuation is very high.

But Lin Che didn't even look at it.

He pulled out his pen and signed the name of the offshore company he had already registered: MSI Global Fund.

Another hundred million US dollars.

In return, they received an early ticket to Uber.

Tell Travis.

Lin Che handed over the signed documents.

When the young man took it, his hand trembled slightly from the cold air in the car.

"The Chinese market is huge."

Lin Che stared at the other person's young face with a playful look in his eyes.

"But he will soon discover that there is not only gold there, but also hunting rifles."

The young man nodded as if he understood, then ran off with the documents in his hand.

The car was quiet again.

As Wang Pangzi reversed the car, he stole glances at Lin Che through the rearview mirror.

"elder brother."

"You spent two hundred million US dollars in just one morning?"

"We haven't even had a sip of water."

This kind of spending speed is faster than a money printing machine.

Moreover, the investments were all incomprehensible.

Lin Che leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to rest.

My fingers tapped lightly on the leather armrest.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"They thought I was gambling."

Lin Che's voice was soft, yet it carried an air of arrogance, as if he were omniscient and omnipotent.

"actually."

"I was just copying the answers from the homework."

The most satisfying thing in the world is not predicting the future.

Rather, you're already living in the future.

Just then.

hum-

The Nokia phone on the center console vibrated.

The tremor was very strong.

It sounds like an alarm is being raised.

Fatty Wang glanced at the screen and his expression changed.

"elder brother."

"News from within China."

"Didi and Kuaidi... have started fighting."

Lin Che suddenly opened his eyes.

In that instant, his previously lazy gaze focused and became sharp as a knife.

He grabbed the phone.

The message was very short, containing only a few words:

At midnight today, Didi announced an upgrade to its subsidies, offering 12 yuan per order; Kuaidi followed suit, offering 13 yuan per order, causing all servers to crash.

finally come.

The "taxi war" of 2014.

The bloodiest, most expensive, and most insane subsidy war in the history of the Chinese Internet.

That was the opening whistle of the O2O era.

It is also the ticket to a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

Lin Che stared at the text message.

The light from the screen reflected in his pupils, making it look like two flames were burning.

The seeds he planted in Silicon Valley need time to sprout.

But in the country.

That scorched earth is ready to welcome a new overlord.

"Turn around."

Lin Che threw his phone back onto the center console.

It made a crisp "snap" sound.

"To the airport."

"Back to China?" Fatty Wang slammed on the brakes, the car screeching to a halt. "We haven't even been to Stanford yet. Didn't we say we were going to poach a few people?"

"I'm not digging anymore."

Lin Che sat up straight and straightened his collar, which was free of wrinkles.

Outside the window, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Golden Gate Bridge is faintly visible through the fog.

The scenery is beautiful.

But that's someone else's scenery.

"The house is on fire."

Lin Che's gaze pierced across the ocean, as if he could see the Eastern continent that was boiling over.

"It's time to go back... and reclaim our lost land."