Gangster heir? Please call me a legitimate entrepreneur.

Shenzhen, the top floor of the Penguin Empire headquarters building.

Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the city lights shone brightly.

Ma Tianteng stood by the window, an unlit cigar between his fingers.

He turned around, and behind his glasses was a sense of scrutiny that came from someone who had always looked down on others.

At the conference table, several senior executives sat upright, not daring to breathe too loudly.

The projector on the table displayed a glaring red line graph.

That's the daily active user growth curve for Sihai Short Video over the past two weeks.

It is as steep as a dagger piercing the sky.

"Has this data been verified?"

Ma Tianteng's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable air of authority.

Director Zhang, who was in charge of operations, swallowed hard, and a layer of fine sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Mr. Ma, it's been verified. There's no inflated data; they're all real, active users."

Director Zhang, his hands trembling, pushed a thick report over.

"I don't know where the Sihai Group found this amazing team."

"Their recommendation algorithm is like it has eyes; once a user looks at it for ten minutes, it's like they're addicted to opium and can't quit."

"The user dwell time on our Tencent Video platform has dropped by 30% this week..."

"Bang!"

Ma Tianteng slapped the report.

The lighter popped open, the cigar lit, and thick smoke instantly blurred his face.

"Poaching talent isn't working?"

He took a drag of his cigarette, his eyes filled with malice.

"I heard that the headhunters you sent couldn't even poach a single dancing influencer? Tencent's money comes from thin air, and they can't even afford a few singing and dancing clowns?"

Director Zhang looked distressed and almost burst into tears.

"Mr. Ma, it's really not about the money."

"Sihai's legal department is so corrupt! The penalty for breach of contract is calculated as one hundred times your monthly income!"

He wiped his sweat. "There's an internet celebrity named Huabiqiang who just received a 500,000 yuan deposit from us, and the very next day he was sued and all his assets were seized."

"Now, those online celebrities avoid us like the plague when they hear our names."

Ma Tianteng sneered.

A hint of arrogance, unique to business tycoons, curled at the corners of his mouth.

"If you can't poach internet celebrities, then dig up the roots."

He tapped the table with the fingers holding his cigar.

"Have you found out anything about Zhang Ming, the algorithm developer?"

"It's all been found out. He's just a poor programmer who eats instant noodles in Zhongguancun."

Director Zhang quickly chimed in, "They were stunned by Su Ye's 1 billion yuan offer and signed an exclusive agreement."

"What's a billion?"

Ma Tianteng flicked his cigarette ash.

"Allocate 200 million yuan from the group's account. Send the top headhunting team to Longhai."

"Don't look for internet celebrities. Go poach Zhang Ming's core programmers."

"Triple salary, stock options as a safety net. We'll agree to any condition as long as you can bring out the core code of the algorithm."

He walked to the projection screen and reached out to block out the glaring red line.

"Also, notify the technical department."

"Starting at midnight tonight. All Tencent products, including QQ and WeChat Space."

"Completely ban all sharing links on Sihai Short Video."

The meeting room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Director Zhang gasped.

This move is too cruel.

Blocking the link is tantamount to directly cutting off the viral spread of Sihai Short Video on social networks.

For a newly launched app, this is tantamount to having its oxygen tube removed.

"Mr. Ma, won't this cause a backlash? People will say we're monopolizing..."

"Monopoly?" Ma Tianteng laughed dismissively.

"In my territory, I make the rules. A local thug who started out in a foot massage parlor dares to mess with me on the internet?"

He waved his hand. "Go do it. I want to see this red line drop to the bottom within a week."

……

Early the next morning.

Longhai City, 18th floor of Sihai Building.

"Brother Su! Something's happened!"

Zhang Ming, sporting dark circles under his eyes, stumbled and crawled as he burst through the door to the chairman's office.

He was holding a tablet computer, and his voice was distorted, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Su Ye was leaning back in the boss's chair, listening to the audio of "Economic Law" with his eyes closed.

Upon hearing this, he slowly pressed the pause button and opened his eyes.

"I'll hold the sky up even if it falls. What are you panicking about?"

He picked up the thermos and blew on the steam.

Zhang Ming rushed to the desk and slammed the tablet onto the surface.

"The sky didn't fall, but someone pulled the plug on our internet cable!"

He was so anxious that he spun around in circles, clutching his newly grown buzz cut with both hands.

"Tencent has blocked us! All the video links shared by our users have turned into red exclamation marks in the Tencent software!"

"It claims to induce sharing and contains inappropriate information!"

Zhang Ming was almost in tears.

"Brother Su, the traffic has plummeted! New registered users have dropped by 80% this morning!"

Shen Qinghan, standing in the corner, pricked up her ears.

She was secretly pleased.

This gang leader has finally met his match.

In the face of an internet giant like Tencent, how could your henchmen with knives possibly reach through the internet to attack people?

Su Ye didn't even lift his eyelids.

He lowered his head and took a sip of goji berry water, the warm liquid sliding down his throat.

"That's all?"

"This is nothing?!" Zhang Ming was on the verge of collapse. "There's something even worse!"

He swallowed hard, dry saliva.

"Just now, three core programmers in the tech department suddenly submitted their resignations. They said Tencent offered them three times their annual salary to poach them."

Zhang Ming gritted his teeth, "They have a grasp on the underlying logic of some of the algorithms! If I switch jobs there..."

"Bang!"

The office door was pushed open again.

Lei Hu strode in, his bald head reflecting the light, the scars on his face bunched up.

He was holding a Nokia phone that was still on a call.

"Brother Su! We've found out!"

Lei Hu roared in his gruff voice.

"The headhunting team sent by Tencent is staying at the most luxurious Shangri-La Hotel in our city. They're secretly meeting with a few people from our tech department in the top-floor conference room!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ming's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the sofa.

"It's all over. If the algorithm is leaked, our billion yuan will be gone."

He covered his face in despair.

Shen Qinghan clenched the notebook in her hand in the corner.

She stared intently at Su Ye.

Tencent not only blocked traffic, but also undermined its internal resources.

This combination of tactics would have killed any startup on the spot.

She wanted to see what kind of trouble this so-called suit-wearing thug could cause.

Su Ye put down the thermos, the metal bottom of which hit the solid wood table with a dull thud.

He stood up, the hem of his coat drawing a sharp arc in the air.

He slowly pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Does Ma Tianteng think that business warfare is just about sitting in an office and unplugging the internet cable?"

Su Ye's lips curled into a chilling smirk.

He looked at Lei Hu.

"Tiger Boy".

"Here I am, Brother Su!" Lei Hu straightened his back and answered loudly.

"Go and call all the guys from the security department. Put on your suits and sunglasses."

Su Ye took a thick red book out of the drawer and threw it on the table.

The cover bears the large characters: "Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China".

He picked up the book and weighed it in his hand.

His gaze was icy.

"Come on. Let's go to Shangri-La."

"Teach these respectable people from big cities how the Sihai Group talks about the rule of law and reason."