Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

"Mr. Su, I just went to the front desk to pick up some documents and passed by the meeting room. The scene inside was terrifying." Jiang Shuo lowered his voice, his eyes gleaming. "Mr. Wang from Lenovo was constantly wiping away sweat, and Mr. Li from Wahaha had his tie askew. Was that blank check in front of Mr. Li?"

Su Muqing sneered: "It's more than just checks. Last month, I visited President Li with my business plan, and he made me wait in his office for two hours, only giving me five minutes to stand and give a presentation. Today, he sat on this shabby sofa in our office for three hours straight, not even daring to go to the bathroom, afraid that if he left, someone from Coca-Cola would take his place."

Jiang Shuo swallowed hard, "What exactly are they trying to do? Sign GG?"

"Renewing the contract." Su Muqing pulled over the swivel chair in front of Bai Yuhang and sat down. "Our CEO Bai said he wants to sign a phased contract, with only one month for the first phase. Just now, CEO Wang grabbed my sleeve, his attitude quite humble. He said that as long as we can keep the two core banner positions on the homepage of HaiNei.com and the QQ pop-up window, he'll fill in any price. He even demanded an immediate one-year exclusive buyout contract, letting us name our price, and the money can be deposited into our company account this afternoon."

"Sign it! For a whole year! That's a ton of zeros!" Jiang Shuo was so excited he almost jumped up. "President Su, President Bai, this is a piece of meat delivered right to our door! Hurry up and sign it, get it in the bag!"

Bai Yuhang leaned back in his swivel chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the table twice, his tone flat.

"I won't sign."

Jiang Shuo froze, staring wide-eyed at Bai Yuhang: "President Bai, we can't turn down money! They're our clients, waving checks around. It's foolish not to make money!"

Bai Yuhang picked up his teacup and blew on the floating leaves: "Old Eight, if you sell them all the slots for a year at the current price, and our domestic and international internet traffic doubles next month, are you going to negotiate a price increase with them? Internet traffic prices change every day. Using fixed contracts to squeeze out flexible traffic is just cutting off your own source of income."

Su Muqing looked at Bai Yuhang, a smile playing on her lips: "What does Mr. Bai mean?"

"We refuse long-term contracts." Bai Yuhang put down his teacup, his gaze revealing the coldness of a businessman. "All GG contracts will be signed for a maximum of one month."

Jiang Shuo panicked: "One month? What if they don't vote next month?"

"We won't back down." Bai Yuhang looked at Jiang Shuo. "We'll implement a bidding system for rankings and limited rotation. Tell them that there are only a few core advertising slots on HaiNei.com and QQ, and we'll only show them that many times a day. Whoever bids the highest gets to be on the list."

Su Muqing's eyes lit up, and she immediately grasped the key: "Scarcity marketing?"

"Yes, roll it up." Bai Yuhang smiled. "Before, we were begging them to invest. Now, we have to make them line up with money, begging us to buy in. Their products have competition, and aren't those competitors fiercely competing? If Coca-Cola wants to gain a foothold, they can ask Pepsi how much they're willing to pay. If Bird Mobile wants to put banners on their phones, they can check Nokia's quote. Let's raise the bar for Qihang Traffic to the highest level."

Jiang Shuo swallowed hard, looking at Bai Yuhang as if he were a monster: "President Bai, your heart is even blacker than a capitalist's. But... I like it!"

He turned and walked out: "I'm going back. I'm waiting for news about the corporate account. If these people get involved, the money will just keep flowing in like water!"

Su Muqing stood up, straightened the hem of her business suit, and picked up the documents on the table: "Understood. I'll go to the meeting room now to convey your instructions."

Bai Yuhang watched her beautiful and tall figure from behind and added, "Be nicer, after all, they're all here to give you money."

Without turning her head, Su Muqing walked to the door in her high heels, leaving behind a crisp reply.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely rip them off, and they'll be grateful to us."

In the office area on the sixteenth floor of Hailong Building, the celebratory atmosphere of making a fortune every day had not yet dissipated when a young receptionist made an internal call directly into the CEO's office.

"Mr. Bai, a few people have arrived outside. The one leading them claims to be Chen Yizhou, the founder of ChinaRen, and he's followed by several lawyers in suits carrying briefcases. He says he has an urgent merger and acquisition deal, and he's very insistent on seeing you immediately." The young woman's voice was a little weak, clearly intimidated by the other party's imposing presence.

Bai Yuhang hung up the phone, leaned back in his swivel chair, and a cryptic smile appeared on his lips.

Chen Yizhou.

In his past life's memories, this name represented a fleeting, poignant presence on the internet. In 1999, he founded ChinaRen with Stanford alumni, and it did enjoy a period of great success, hailed as the world's largest Chinese community forum.

Unfortunately, its lifespan was too short; it didn't last more than two years before Zhang Chaoyang acquired it for 20 million US dollars.

Later, this guy had good foresight. He founded Oak Pacific Interactive and acquired Renren.com. On the day of its listing, its market value was close to that of BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), ranking fourth in the domestic Internet industry.

The results of it?

The company's management style was inconsistent, and internal strife among senior executives led to a chaotic situation. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the company squandered its winning hand and ultimately had no choice but to sell Renren.com at a bargain price and instead focus on developing a used car platform.

Now, this good brother has come to his own territory.

"Boss, Second Boss, we've got work to do." Bai Yuhang stood up, straightened his shirt collar, and said, "Let's go to the meeting room to see our senior."

Pushing open the door to the meeting room, Chen Yizhou sat imposingly on the sofa, with four lawyers in suits standing behind him, exuding an air of oppression.

Upon seeing Bai Yuhang enter, Chen Yizhou did not stand up, but merely nodded slightly, sizing up this excessively young colleague.

"Mr. Bai, it's an honor to meet you. The commotion your HaiNei.com has caused these past few days has really woken up the entire Zhongguancun area. I even rushed back from California overnight to see you." Chen Yizhou's tone was filled with condescending admiration.

"Mr. Chen, you're too kind." Bai Yuhang sat down opposite him, with Jiao Liwei and Yang Bo on either side. "You wouldn't come here without a reason, Mr. Chen. You didn't bring such a large entourage just to experience our newly launched Happy Farm, did you?"

Chen Yizhou smiled, a smile brimming with confidence.

He's certainly riding high lately, having just reached a preliminary acquisition agreement with Sohu. With the $20 million that's about to arrive, he now sees everyone as a commodity he can set his own price on.

He gestured to the lawyer behind him. The lawyer immediately stepped forward and pushed a thick document in front of Bai Yuhang.

"Mr. Bai, we're all smart people, so I won't beat around the bush." ​​Chen Yizhou leaned forward, crossed his hands on his knees, and adopted the posture of an internet veteran. "Qihang Technology has a good technical foundation, but the social ecosystem is a bottomless pit that burns through money. It's already a miracle that you college students have managed to reach tens of millions of users. But miracles don't turn into real money."

Jiao Liwei rolled his eyes and turned to look at Bai Yuhang, suppressing a laugh. This square-faced old man probably doesn't know that we can extract a million yuan in real money from netizens' pockets every day.

Chen Yizhou, oblivious to Jiao Liwei's expression, continued to offer his bargaining chips: "I just finalized a big deal with Mr. Zhang from Sohu. ChinaRen has no shortage of cash right now. Take a look at this letter of intent for acquisition."

He extended a finger and tapped it heavily twice on the document.

"Fifteen million US dollars. A full acquisition of HaiNei.com and QQ." Chen Yizhou stared into Bai Yuhang's eyes, trying to break down his psychological defenses with numbers. "Mr. Bai, with this money, you founders won't have to worry for the rest of your lives. This is an astronomical figure that many entrepreneurs in Zhongguancun wouldn't even dare to dream of."

Fifteen million US dollars, which is equivalent to more than 120 million RMB.

In 2000, this was an enormous sum of money that could overwhelm any startup team.

There was a two-second silence in the conference room.

Jiao Liwei pursed his lips and muttered in a low voice, "Only 120 million? Based on our farm's current daily revenue, plus the GG fee that President Su just signed, this amount of money is only enough to buy half a year's worth of our production capacity. Is this senior here to help the poor or to pick up bargains?"

Yang Bo almost burst out laughing, but quickly coughed twice to cover it up.

Bai Yuhang smiled and leaned back on the sofa.

"Mr. Chen," Bai Yuhang said calmly, looking at Chen Yizhou, "Fifteen million US dollars to buy our HaiNei.com and QQ?"

"You think it's too little?" Chen Yizhou frowned slightly. "President Bai, it's good that young people are ambitious, but greed is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. This price is already a premium."

"No, Mr. Chen, you've misunderstood." Bai Yuhang chuckled. "What I mean is, Sohu only gave you twenty million US dollars, and you're offering fifteen million to buy me. Does Zhang Chaoyang know you're trying to make a five million profit off the difference?"