Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

In her office in Washington, Shirley frowned as she opened her email. She expected to see a poorly written, buggy college assignment.

The page loaded instantly. The minimalist blue and white interface had no unnecessary Google icons. What shocked her most was the dynamic timeline in the center, labeled "NewsFeed," presented as a data stream.

Without needing to manually refresh, the information stream automatically pushes test data posts smoothly like a waterfall as you scroll the mouse.

She randomly clicked on a few test accounts, and the user-generated content under the strong relationship chain, that is, the ecosystem logic of UGC, was very clear, accurate, and had strong product stickiness.

As a top student at Harvard Business School, Shirley's pupils contracted sharply; she knew all too well what this meant.

This is not some campus dating website at all. It is a trillion-dollar monster that is capable of overturning the one-way output model of traditional portal websites such as Yahoo, immersing hundreds of millions of users in it, and dominating the future of the Internet.

Less than three minutes later, the breathing sound coming from the receiver changed.

"Mr. Bai, are you listening?" Shirley's voice rang out again.

The original arrogance and scrutiny vanished, replaced by an undisguised excitement, even accompanied by a slight tremor.

"You have two minutes left." Bai Yuhang leaned back in his chair.

"It won't be two minutes!" Shirley spoke even faster, but this time with urgency. "I didn't expect... the underlying logic of your website's dynamic timeline design is amazing. How did you manage to keep the server from crashing with such a massive amount of data? What exactly is your true strategic intention for the North American market?"

Although Zhang Qingheng, who was standing next to him, couldn't understand many of the complicated English technical terms, he could clearly feel that the American elite who was originally high and mighty on the other end of the phone had completely broken down.

The way he looked at Bai Yuhang was as if he were looking at a god or Buddha.

"The strategic intent is simple: flip the table in Silicon Valley and make our website serve users all over the world. The company makes a profit, nothing more." Bai Yuhang tapped his fingers twice on the table. "Now, let's renegotiate your compensation."

The balance of power shifted instantly.

Shirley remained silent, waiting quietly for what would happen next.

"I'll give you a million-dollar annual salary, every penny. But the stock options are only five percent."

"Mr. Bai, five percent is far below my expectations, I..."

"This 5% must be vested over five years." Bai Yuhang interrupted her bluntly, laying down his bottom line. "In exchange, you must use all your political and financial connections in Washington and Wall Street to clear all obstacles for Facebook in North America and even Europe, including compliance, antitrust scrutiny, taxation, and future financing. I want a fast track without any obstacles."

The phone went silent again, with only a faint hum of electricity coming from the radio waves that had traveled halfway around the world.

Zhang Qingheng swallowed hard, his heart pounding. He basically understood what Sixth Brother had said; the knife had cut too hard, severing the option right from the carotid artery to the ankle. Wouldn't the foreigner immediately turn hostile?

A few seconds later, Shirley's crisp and clear voice came through the receiver.

"Deal made. Mr. Bai, I hope your funds will be as stable as your code."

After hanging up the phone, Bai Yuhang tossed his phone onto the table, picked up the half-cold glass of water next to him, and took a sip.

Zhang Qingheng wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Although he understood most of the overseas call, Bai Yuhang's aura of being able to crush Wall Street elites made his scalp tingle.

He picked up the notebook and brought it closer, his face full of disbelief: "Sixth Brother, it's done already? She's a high-ranking official in the US government! Your offer was way too domineering. How could she agree without even a second thought? You cut her too hard. Aren't you afraid she'll just hang up on you?"

"Because she's a smart person. She can't bear to part with it." Bai Yuhang looked at the flashing code on the screen. "Smart people know that compared to a vague 20% stake, being able to personally manage an internet empire that changes the world is priceless."

Bai Yuhang continued, "But Seventh Brother, this woman is a ravenous wolf. From now on, all the overseas technical collaborations will be in your hands. If your English and coding skills can't keep her in check, she might turn on us at any time and devour Facebook whole."

Zhang Qingheng gritted his teeth: "Sixth Brother, don't worry. Although my spoken English isn't that fluent, my listening and speaking skills are basically fine. I won't sleep tonight. I'll go through the framework code three more times and perfect the front-end page. I definitely won't let Qihang down."

Bai Yuhang nodded in satisfaction and pushed open the conference room door.

As soon as I stepped out, Su Muqing walked towards me. She was holding a freshly printed business plan in her hand, her high heels clicking crisply on the ground, and her eyes gleaming with barely suppressed excitement.

"Mr. Bai, has the deal been settled with the US side?" Su Muqing asked.

"Okay, I've found someone to handle the European and American business." Bai Yuhang took the proposal. "Mu Qing, how's the arrangement for GG?"

"The contract we just signed is in GG, and all the electronic components are ready." Su Muqing opened the folder. "The marketing directors from Lenovo and Wahaha probably aren't planning on sleeping tonight. They're all watching our conversion rate when we go live at 8 a.m. tomorrow."

Jiang Shuo suddenly appeared from the side: "President Su, President Bai, the first batch of GG fees has arrived. My heart attack is almost completely cured."

Zhang Jian, holding a half-full cup of coffee, came over and patted Jiang Shuo on the shoulder: "Old Ba, don't worry. Allen and I personally handled the GG display space and user experience logic, and we guarantee these clients will be ecstatic tomorrow."

Bai Yuhang walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows in the large office area and looked at the dazzling night view of Zhongguancun outside.

Wan Lianghao, Yang Bo, Jiao Liwei, and others consciously gathered around, waiting for the final instructions.

"Third brother, the entire tech department is on standby tonight, keeping a close eye on user feedback." Bai Yuhang turned around, his gaze sweeping over everyone. "Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, I'm going to let tens of millions of netizens across the country know what an irresistible temptation is."

Zhang Jian grinned: "No problem! But Mr. Bai, are you really planning to make money off these few gigs? Three million seems like a lot, but it doesn't suit your shrewd, opportunistic nature."

"Three million four hundred thousand is just a test." Bai Yuhang's lips curled into a playful smile. "The real main event is to get Chinese netizens, who are used to free internet access, to willingly take money out of their pockets."

Jiang Shuo pushed up his glasses, his eyes widening: "Making money off netizens? Mr. Bai, aren't you just squeezing money out of a tightwad? Who spends money online these days?!"

Jiao Liwei chuckled from the side: "Old Ba, do you think all netizens in the country are as stingy as you?"

A burst of cheerful laughter erupted in the office area, the fatigue from days of overtime work being dispelled by the excitement of an impending charge.