Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

Chapter 145 Xiaochuan Joins the Company

After listening to Bai Yuhang's words, Liu Xin pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, a scrutinizing look flashing in her eyes.

This eighteen-year-old's eye is frighteningly sharp.

"I can handle the domestic record and film industries myself," Bai Yuhang said, putting down his teacup. "If you two can help me negotiate these copyrights with the same rock-bottom prices from the major players in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, and America, I'll consider releasing a small number of shares to you."

Liu Xin tapped her finger on her knee: "President Bai, you're just showing us your hand like this. Aren't you afraid that we two companies will turn around and buy these copyrights ourselves, then use them to strangle you?"

Bai Yuhang burst out laughing.

"If Mr. Liu really has the leisure and inclination, I definitely won't stop him." Bai Yuhang spread his hands. "Indeed, these copyrights are as cheap as waste paper now. Even if you manage to snatch them up, I can just put in a little more effort and spend a little more money to negotiate with someone else. It probably won't cost much more. But you really won't be able to get on the Qihang train."

He looked at the two investment tycoons, his tone brimming with confidence: "Holding onto a bunch of copyrights that can't be monetized for years, while watching Qihang, this money-printing machine, count money every day, do you two think this is a worthwhile deal?"

Liu Xin was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter and pointed at Bai Yuhang.

"You little rascal, you're more shrewd than anyone else." Liu Xin turned to Wang Jingbo. "President Wang, it seems we have no choice but to accept this errand job, whether we want to or not."

Wang Jingbo couldn't help but burst out laughing.

He turned to look at Liu Xin and shrugged.

"Mr. Liu, just admit defeat. Mr. Bai isn't starting a business; he's clearly setting the rules for the internet for the next decade, building a copyright moat in advance. If we don't take this job and sweep through the copyright market, this supercarrier will truly have no standing room for us."

Liu Xin tapped her fingers on her knees as her mind raced.

Rolling Stones, Warner Music, Universal Music, Emperor Entertainment Group—these names are indeed worthless in the current domestic internet environment, but Bai Yuhang is convinced of the copyright regulations after China's accession to the WTO.

Even if we take a step back and end up with the copyright stuck with us, as long as we can exchange it for shares in Qihang Technology, this deal would still be incredibly profitable.

He slapped his thigh and stood up abruptly.

"Alright! We'll take this job!" Liu Xin looked at Bai Yuhang, her tone revealing a gritted-teeth satisfaction. "I'll contact the teams in Hong Kong and North America right away. But Mr. Bai, we have a deal: once we get the copyright, you can't make us bleed too much on the share valuation. We're working for you with our core connections."

"Don't worry, I'm always fair." Bai Yuhang smiled and extended his hand. "As long as the copyright contract is finalized, Qihang's board of directors will definitely reserve two comfortable chairs for you two."

Wang Jingbo smiled helplessly: "IDG has some connections in these companies. If we work with Morningside to negotiate, we should be able to get the lowest price."

Bai Yu stood up at the airport, straightened his clothes, and extended his right hand.

"Great, thank you both for your hard work. Once the copyright contract is signed, we can sit down and discuss the share valuation properly."

Bai Yuhang escorted Liu Xin and Wang Jingbo to the elevator.

The moment the elevator doors closed, the expressions on the faces of the two investment tycoons were a mixture of joy and bewilderment, clearly still reeling from today's unexpected turn of events.

After seeing the two radiant investors walk by, Bai Yuhang turned and strolled back to the office area.

The office area of ​​the technical department was filled with the sounds of keyboards clicking and discussions, a noisy and chaotic scene.

He walked behind Zhang Jian's workstation.

Zhang Jian was holding a stainless steel fast food cup, slurping the soup from his instant noodles while pointing at the screen and gesturing to Wang Xiaochuan next to him.

"Chuan'er, the message queue you added is indeed very stable. If the mobile billing gateway really can't handle it, we can directly intercept and queue it here, so as not to overwhelm them." Zhang Jian put down his cup, wiped his mouth, "However, the encryption method of this interface protocol is a bit outdated. I just had the guys below re-encapsulate it."

Wang Xiaochuan pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, stared at the code running logs on the screen, and nodded repeatedly.

"Mr. Zhang, I've looked at it. The newly revised asynchronous flow handling is so much cleaner. When I looked at their code on Sohu, it was like looking at a jumbled mess. This work is much more efficient."

"Don't call me General Manager Zhang, just call me Brother Zhang." Zhang Jian grinned.

Bai Yuhang pulled up a swivel chair and sat down, tapping on the table. "How's the progress? Will it get running tonight?"

Zhang Jian turned around and saw Bai Yuhang, and immediately perked up. "President Bai, don't worry. The interface protocol has been distributed, and the brothers are writing the modules separately. With Chuan'er here helping to build the framework, we'll definitely have a test version out tonight."

Bai Yuhang looked at Wang Xiaochuan. "Have all the onboarding procedures been completed?"

"It's all done." Wang Xiaochuan rubbed his hands nervously. "Supervisor Jiao just had me sign some documents, including a confidentiality agreement. But—"

"What is it? Chuan'er, you're just too honest." Zhang Jian put his arm around Wang Xiaochuan's shoulder and raised his eyebrows at Bai Yuhang with amusement. "President Bai, you went to meet the investors just now, didn't you see Brother Jiao interviewing Chuan'er? That's amazing."

Bai Yuhang raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Brother Jiao gave Chuan'er an application form to fill out. When he saw her education, he said she was from Tsinghua University's Computer Science Department, and he was quite pleased. But Chuan'er confessed that she was still a graduate student at Tsinghua and could only come here part-time." Zhang Jian vividly recounted, "Brother Jiao hesitated a bit at the time, saying that we're working non-stop right now, and he was afraid that part-time work would make it too late to keep up."

Wang Xiaochuan awkwardly scratched his already messy hair.

"And then I happened to be passing by." Zhang Jian slapped his thigh, laughing so hard he almost fell over. "Chuan'er said he just ran away from Sohu 5Q because he couldn't stand Chen Yizhou's group making games with drawing software anymore. When I heard that, I thought, this isn't a job interview, this is clearly a defection! I immediately decided with Brother Jiao that this guy is a talent, even Boss Bai said so, our tech department wants him!"

Bai Yuhang chuckled. "Your interview was certainly hasty."

"What's with the hasty approach?" Zhang Jian pointed to a piece of test code that had just finished running on the screen. "Regarding the redundancy mechanism that Chuan'er just modified, besides you and CEO AIlen, there aren't many people in our company who can write it this smoothly. It doesn't matter where they've worked before, whether it's part-time or not, as long as they're technically skilled and have signed a confidentiality agreement, they're brothers in our Qihang team. At worst, we'll treat them as interns, pay their bonuses, and then retain them after graduation. Right?"

Wang Xiaochuan quickly expressed his opinion. "President Bai, President Zhang, I really don't care about the salary. Being able to code here is much better than getting a high salary at Sohu and being bullied by a bunch of laymen. I will definitely work with everyone to get the interface on the mobile side sorted out tonight."

"Alright." Bai Yuhang stood up, patted Wang Xiaochuan on the shoulder, and said, "At Qihang, let the code speak for itself. As long as you're talented, I'll take you on. Do a good job, and once the Mobile Dream Network channel is fully operational, I'll have Jiang Shuo give your technical department a separate bonus. Xiaochuan, do your best; I have some important work for you."

"Alright!" Zhang Jian yelled, turning to shout across the office area, "Did you guys hear that?! Boss Bai said there's a big bonus for working overtime tonight! Get that mobile interface sorted out for me, and tomorrow we'll have users' money flying in through SMS channels!"

Cheers erupted in the office area, and the pace of keyboard typing noticeably quickened.

Sitting at his workstation, Wang Xiaochuan looked at the group of young people around him who were excitedly coding, and couldn't help but smile.

He pushed up his glasses and put his hands back on the keyboard.

This is the Zhongguancun he wanted; this is the real Internet.