Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

The laughter in the office hadn't completely subsided when Bai Yuhang bent his fingers and tapped them lightly twice on the desk.

The laughter stopped abruptly. Everyone looked at Bai Yuhang, who was sitting in the boss's chair.

"Don't be so quick to celebrate." Bai Yuhang turned to Wan Lianghao. "Fourth brother, tell me, Happy Farm is indeed popular right now, but tell me, is the game's underlying logic complex?"

Wan Lianghao scratched his head and answered honestly in his thick Northeastern accent, "It's not complicated. It's just Flash combined with a few simple database interactions. According to your idea, our team could have typed it all out in a few days of intensive study. There's no technical barrier to it."

"That's the most crucial point." Bai Yuhang leaned forward, placing his hands crossed on the table. "Chen Yizhou went back in a huff today. Once Sohu's twenty million US dollars arrive, and he sees how much money our farm is making, do you think he'll just sit idly by?"

Zhang Jian reacted extremely quickly, blurting out, "Pixel-level plagiarism!"

"That's right." Bai Yuhang nodded. "The gameplay of the farm game is too straightforward, with no technical barriers whatsoever. ChinaRen community only needs to gather a technical team of a few dozen people, and they can copy it exactly in three days at most, including the UI and logic. They can just change the skin, call it something like Happy Farm or Crazy Vegetable Garden, and launch it directly to steal our users and revenue."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shuo's smile vanished instantly. He slapped his thigh, exclaiming in alarm, "He wouldn't dare! If that old bastard dares to touch our printing press, I, Jiang Shuo, will be the first to grab a brick and block his company!"

"I wouldn't say I'd go all out." Bai Yuhang turned to Yang Bo, who had been sitting quietly taking notes, and said, "Mr. Yang, it's your legal department's turn."

Yang Bo closed his notebook, looked up, and said, "President Bai, what do you say? I'll follow your instructions."

"Build a moat." Bai Yuhang's tone was extremely cold. "From today onwards, not only Happy Farm, but also the upcoming Parking Wars and QQ Show, all related peripheral gameplay, interaction logic, UI design, and even terms like 'stealing vegetables' and 'parking wars,' register them all as patents, software copyrights, and trademarks."

Yang Bo immediately grasped the key point: "Use legal barriers to block the way. As long as anyone dares to go online, even if they change the skin, as long as the core interaction is the same, we'll sue them without fail."

"I want more than just winning the lawsuit," Bai Yuhang sneered. "What I want is for them to not only force them to take the content down if they dare to copy it, but also to use the court's judgment to legitimately transfer the 20 million US dollars that Sohu just gave them into our corporate account under the guise of infringement compensation."

Jiang Shuo's eyes suddenly lit up. "President Bai, this is brilliant! We'll make them work for us for free, paying us from Sohu!"

Zhang Jian clicked his tongue and said, "President Bai, you're practically digging a hole for your competitors. If Chen Yizhou knew that even the words 'stealing vegetables' have been locked by us, he'd probably vomit blood on the spot."

"In the business world, there's no such thing as gentleness, courtesy, frugality, or yielding; it's all about striking first." Bai Yuhang stood up. "Second brother, this is the highest priority. Whatever amount you need, use the expedited process and get approval directly from eighth brother."

Yang Bo tucked his notebook under his arm. "Okay, I'll get some people to organize the materials in a bit and make sure we get every possible registration done."

As soon as the meeting ended and the office door opened, everyone immediately sprang into action.

With his notebook tucked under his arm, Yang Bo swiftly grabbed Jiang Shuo, who was about to return to the finance office.

"Old Eight, don't run away. Boss Bai has spoken: for the legal department, you'd better approve the money without hesitation."

Jiang Shuo pushed up his glasses, which had slipped down to the tip of his nose, and with a wave of his hand, surprisingly refrained from complaining about being poor. "Second Brother, feel free to bet as much as you want; I'll approve as many as you need!"

Zhang Jian walked by with a coffee cup, patting Jiang Shuo on the shoulder with amusement. "Well done, Lao Ba, you've really evolved from a miser to a penny-pincher."

"Go away, what do you know?" Jiang Shuo shook off his hand and whispered, "This is called a strategic investment. Third brother, you'd better hurry up with your QQ group with Allen, lest the legal department digs the pit before you've even set your trap."

Zhang Jian scoffed and turned to look at Zhang Xiaolong, who was walking behind him. "Allen, we'll have to sleep on the sofa in the office tonight. We need to go over the underlying logic of video chat again."

Zhang Xiaolong took a sip of water, his face expressionless. "As long as you don't write code that makes me want to delete it after just one look, it should be running before midnight tonight."

Zhang Jian was so speechless that he rolled his eyes, which made Liu Zhi and Wan Lianghao next to him burst into laughter.

Wan Lianghao, speaking with a heavy Northeastern accent, patted Liu Zhi on the back. "Old Liu, let's not say anything more. I'll get the graphic designer to handle the matter that Boss Bai arranged right away. Whether it's a VIP or a regular member, it has to look like someone who's paid for it is a big shot."

Liu Zhi nodded in agreement. "Okay, we also have a few good UI designers in our team. Let's work together and try to produce the first draft of the concept art tonight for Boss Bai's review. We guarantee that netizens will want to buy it at first glance."

Looking at his brothers who were now full of energy, Jiao Liwei turned to Su Muqing and said, "President Su, leave the logistics to me. Tonight's supper will be prepared to the highest standard. There will be plenty of roast duck from Quanjude. I will make sure that none of the brothers are typing on an empty stomach."

Su Muqing tidied the folder in her hand, a smile playing on her lips. "President Jiao's arrangements are naturally impeccable. I need to return a few calls and tell them that HaiNei.com will be launching new features soon, and the GG fee will need to be renegotiated."

Bai Yuhang stood at the office door, watching the group of people disperse in a flurry, each heading to their workstations, where the sound of keyboards clicking filled the air once again.

ChinaRen hasn't even received the $20 million from Sohu yet, but Qihang Technology has already turned the meat grinder up to its maximum speed.

The office area was filled with the clatter of keyboards. Jiang Shuo was yelling at Yang Bo, "Second Brother, come to the finance department later to sign a form and get an advance on some expenses. We should save where we can and spend where we can!" Yang Bo, carrying a stack of documents, gave Jiang Shuo an "OK" sign and turned to go to call a meeting.

Bai Yuhang retreated to his office, closing the door behind him to shut out the noise from outside. He picked up his phone from the table and dialed Zhang Lei's number.

The phone rang twice before being answered.

"Mr. Zhang, are you busy?"

"I just heard from my subordinates that a fight almost broke out in the meeting room of Hailong Building. Chen Yizhou went there with his lawyers, looking very aggressive. What, didn't they tear down your little temple?" Zhang Lei's voice carried a hint of leisurely schadenfreude.

"Your information is really good. He wants to throw fifteen million US dollars at me." Bai Yuhang walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Wow, that's quite a generous offer. Not tempted?"

"I countered with a price of three million RMB, and bought the rest of his servers as scrap metal."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Zhang Lei's hearty laughter: "You're really ruthless, aren't you? Chen Yizhou probably wants to kill you. But you didn't just call to show off your annoying skills, did you?"

"Sohu is about to inject 20 million US dollars into him. Once that money arrives, he'll definitely use it to flood the traffic market and fight us to the death." Bai Yuhang's tone turned cold. "I don't want to give him that breathing room. Does Mr. Zhang have any influential connections at Sohu?"

"What do you want to do? Go and badmouth him to Zhang Chaoyang?"

"Complaining is too low-level." Bai Yuhang picked up his suit jacket draped over the back of his chair. "I want to give Sohu a big gift, maybe it can save Zhang Chaoyang some money. Are you at the company now? I'd like to talk to you in person."

"Okay, I'll have my assistant brew some aged Wuyi rock tea and wait for you."

After hanging up the phone, Bai Yuhang put his phone in his pocket and went out the door.

As soon as I entered the office area, I bumped into Jiao Liwei, who was carrying two large bags of lunch boxes and squeezing in, sweating profusely.

"Sixth Brother, lunch's here! Want to grab a bite while it's hot before you get back to work?"

"Boss, you take the brothers out to eat. I'm going out to take care of something." Bai Yuhang patted Jiao Liwei on the shoulder without stopping.

Jiang Shuo poked his head out from behind the computer screen, holding a greasy duck leg in his hand, and shouted, "President Bai, aren't you going to try some? It's all lean!"

"Keep it as a souvenir for your stingy spending," Bai Yuhang said with a laugh, striding across the corridor and hurriedly pressing the down button for the elevator.