Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

Chapter 141 Meeting Ogawa for the first time

Let's switch our focus back to the sixteenth floor of the Hailong Building.

The elevator doors opened, and Liu Xin and Wang Jingbo, dressed in suits, stepped out.

Several boxes of unopened server parts were piled up in the corridor. Liu Xin covered her nose with a handkerchief and quickly walked through the elevator lobby. Compared with the high-end office buildings in Guomao, this place was like a chaotic warehouse.

The two walked to the glass door of Qihang Technology and pushed it open to go inside.

The receptionist was smiling as she browsed posts on HaiNei.com when she looked up at the two meticulously dressed middle-aged men.

"Hello, who are you two looking for?"

Liu Xin stepped forward and handed over her business card. "Liu Xin from Morningside Capital. This is Wang Jingbo from IDG. We're looking for Mr. Bai Yuhang."

In the investment world, if you hand out these two business cards, startup bosses would practically run downstairs to personally welcome you.

The receptionist took the business card, glanced at it, and casually placed it on the table. "Mr. Bai isn't here; he's out. Do you have an appointment?"

Liu Xin was taken aback. "We don't have an appointment. We can wait for him here."

"Okay, the reception room is occupied for now, so please sit here by the door for a while. The water dispenser is in the rest area behind the corner, so please help yourselves if you want some water." The receptionist pointed to a slightly crowded set of sofas against the wall, then turned back to continue reading the homepage posts on Haiwainet.

The two investment tycoons exchanged a glance, and surprisingly did not get angry. They obediently walked to the narrow temporary reception area and sat down.

The sofa was a bit hard, and there wasn't even a magazine on the coffee table.

Wang Jingbo loosened his tie and lowered his voice. "President Liu, how many years has it been since we've experienced this kind of treatment?"

"Since we're here, we might as well make the best of it." Liu Xin's gaze passed over the glass partition and landed on the bustling office area inside.

No one inside noticed that two Gods of Wealth had come from outside, or rather, the people inside didn't care about any Gods of Wealth at all.

"Shuo, is your data lagging or not? I see the recharge requests are about to explode in the backend!" Zhang Jian shouted loudly in the office area while holding a bowl of instant noodles.

Jiang Shuo pulled his head out from under a pile of reports, pushed up his glasses, and looked utterly frustrated. "It's lagging! Why isn't it lagging! The Shandong telecom hotline is down again! Our users, just to buy some virtual clothes, practically broke down the city-level telecom bureau's lines. Seeing the money not coming in is like my heart is bleeding, it's bleeding!"

Wan Lianghao, speaking with a Northeastern accent, chimed in, "What's the rush? Didn't President Bai go to China Mobile to discuss recharge business?"

Liu Xin and Wang Jingbo, who were sitting in the reception area, both gasped at the same time.

Mobile company? Top-up service?

Wang Jingbo turned to look at Liu Xin, her voice a little dry. "President Liu, he just said that Bai Yuhang went to talk to the mobile company about billing services?"

Liu Xin nodded with a serious expression. "This kid's appetite is too big. He wasn't satisfied with just getting freebies from the voice chat platform, so he's going straight to the national team."

In the office area, Jiang Shuo said to Yang Bo, "Brother Bo, the 3.3 million from yesterday has arrived in several batches. Could you check the recharge data for me and remind them if there are any issues? I need to go to the tax office to talk to the tax officer in person."

"A single day's revenue of over three million—" Wang Jingbo leaned back against the hard sofa, feeling the tightness of his collar. He gave a wry smile. "President Liu, compared to this, when we used to drink coffee in the China World Trade Center and invest in projects worth millions of US dollars, isn't it just child's play?"

Liu Xin didn't speak, her gaze fixed on a large screen on the office wall used to monitor server status.

What's jumping around on the screen isn't just data, but also the key to monetization in the Chinese internet over the next decade.

He suddenly realized that today they weren't there to give Bai Yuhang money, but rather they had to beg Bai Yuhang for a chance to get on the ship.

A black Mercedes-Benz sedan with black license plates came to a steady stop downstairs at the Hailong Building.

Bai Yuhang opened the car door and waved to Zhang Lei inside: "See you later, Mr. Zhang."

"Alright, hurry up and get in there to count your money." Zhang Lei rolled down the car window and chuckled, then turned to instruct his assistant, Zhang Jing, to continue driving.

Bai Yuhang turned and walked into the building, arriving at the elevator lobby on the first floor, which was reserved for the office area.

It was just past noon, and there weren't many people waiting for the elevator.

Standing next to me was a young man with a backpack, black-rimmed glasses, and messy hair. He was looking up at the floor numbers flashing above the elevator, his eyes showing a hint of confusion.

Bai Yuhang glanced at him, his gaze pausing for a moment.

This person looks somewhat familiar, but I can't quite place where I've seen them before.

The young man noticed the gaze, turned around, awkwardly adjusted his glasses, and tentatively asked, "Hey buddy, can you tell me if the elevator to Qihang Technology on the sixteenth floor is from here?"

Bai Yuhang nodded: "Yes. You're going to set sail?"

"Hmm." The young man tugged at the strap of his backpack. "I want to go see if they're hiring, even part-time coding is fine."

Bai Yuhang chuckled and looked him up and down: "The threshold for starting your journey is not low. Where did you work before, brother?"

""

"I just resigned from Sohu." The young man sighed, his tone filled with barely concealed frustration. "Working under Chen Yizhou was too stifling. A bunch of people were making web games with drawing software and spending all their time scheming in office politics. I just couldn't stand that makeshift team anymore. I've seen Qihang's underlying code; it's practically a work of art. I want to meet Qihang's boss, Bai Yuhang. Even being a low-level programmer under him would be better than being a thief at Sohu."

Are you a student? Where do you go to school?

Bai Yuhang raised an eyebrow, his heart skipping a beat.

Resigned from Sohu? Understands low-level code? That appearance—

"What's your name?" Bai Yuhang asked.

"Wang Xiaochuan. From the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University."

The moment those three words were uttered, a firework exploded in Bai Yuhang's mind.

Wang Xiaochuan!

The founder of Sogou in his previous life, a top technical expert in Zhongguancun, and a legendary figure in Tsinghua University's Computer Science Department!

Chen Yizhou, you really made the most of that ten million RMB.

Not only are you sending me money, traffic, and users, but now you're even forcing future tech gurus to come to me.

Bai Yuhang suppressed the smirk that was creeping up his lips and extended his hand: "Nice to meet you. You look a lot like someone I know, but you probably don't know him. He's probably not that famous yet."

Wang Xiaochuan paused for a moment, then grasped his hand: "Does it look very similar?"

"They look very similar, but we know each other now." Bai Yuhang smiled.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened.

Bai Yuhang stepped inside, turned to look at Wang Xiaochuan who was still standing there in a daze, and pressed the door open button: "Aren't you coming in? Weren't you going to Qihang to see Bai Yuhang?"

Wang Xiaochuan quickly stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the sixteenth floor, and saw Bai Yuhang waiting for the elevator to start. He turned to look at him with a puzzled expression: "Dude, are you from Qihang too?"

"I guess so." Bai Yuhang watched the elevator doors close, his tone calm. "I am Bai Yuhang."

Wang Xiaochuan suddenly turned his head, his eyes wide open, his mouth slightly agape, but he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

He knew that Bai Yuhang, who started the business, was a college student entrepreneur, but he never expected that the mastermind behind the creation of code that could be described as works of art and that had crushed Sohu was actually this young man in the elevator who looked even younger than himself. He was just too young.

"What, doesn't it look like it?" Bai Yuhang couldn't help but tease him, seeing his surprised expression.

"No—no." Wang Xiaochuan stammered, his face flushed red, his straightforward geek nature on full display. "President Bai, does Qihang's high-concurrency data distribution model use an asynchronous non-blocking architecture? I've been studying it for days, and the redundancy mechanism is absolutely brilliant!"

"Once we get to Qihang, let Zhang Jian show you around." Bai Yuhang patted him on the shoulder. "Qihang is in dire need of pure tech people like you right now. We're taking in any gems Sohu doesn't want."

The elevator came to a smooth stop on the sixteenth floor.

The two walked out of the elevator side by side and bumped into Liu Xin and Wang Jingbo, who were sitting on the hard sofa in the reception area, waiting anxiously.