Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

"What's the panic?" Bai Yuhang didn't even lift his eyelids. He picked up his teacup and took a sip. "Zhang Lei and I discussed this before the press conference started."

Su Muqing walked in carrying several reports, glanced at the screen, and chuckled, "I just checked. The newly launched 5Q campus website is just a bunch of dry, fake posts and alumni directories. Yang Bo has already blocked all the core gameplay patents and software of Happy Farm. He can't even find a starting point to copy a game to attract users."

"President Bai," Zhang Jian chimed in, arms crossed, "Now that we have the patents and software trademarks, let's use Qihang's legal department to send a lawyer's letter to Sohu! Let's show all the patents we've registered and warn that old bastard Chen Yizhou that if he dares to imitate Qihang's code, we'll sue him until he's completely ruined!"

Bai Yuhang gestured for Yang Bo to close the door. Yang Bo frowned slightly, turned around and closed Bai Yuhang's office door. He was about to explain the current legal procedures.

"Why send a lawyer's letter?" Bai Yuhang looked at Zhang Jian with a cheerful expression, his tone indifferent.

Zhang Jian stood there, stunned, his face full of confusion.

"Mr. Bai, if we don't send a letter to deter them, with ten million US dollars in their hands, they'll definitely organize people to dig up our code and gameplay overnight!"

Bai Yuhang chuckled and countered, "What if he can't get it off?"

"It would be even better if they couldn't steal it." Zhang Jian scratched his head. "That would save our money-printing machine."

Jiang Shuo, standing beside him, pushed up his glasses that had slipped down to the tip of his nose and chimed in with a smirk, "Mr. Zhang, all you think about is code. If he doesn't steal from us and instead goes after something else, will we ever even get a glimpse of his ten million US dollars?"

Su Muqing crossed her arms and chuckled. "President Bai is probably tired of having ten million US dollars sitting idle in Sohu's account, so he wants to help Zhang Chaoyang spend it."

Bai Yuhang tapped several scattered acceptance notices on the table. "What Brother Bo just brought back were just acceptance notices. It will take time for the official patent certificates, software copyright certificates, and trademark certificates to be issued. If we alert them now, and Chen Yizhou has someone who can help him change the skin or the interaction logic, it will be time-consuming and laborious for us to sue him."

Bai Yuhang's gaze swept over everyone, setting the tone. "No letters can be sent. Not only should we not send them, we should pretend we didn't see them. That's called pig farming."

"Raising pigs? Yes, raising pigs!" Jiao Liwei understood immediately.

"That's right." Bai Yuhang's lips curled into a cold smile. "Chen Yizhou urgently needs to deliver results to Zhang Chaoyang. With Happy Farm being such a ready-made cash cow, he can't help but be envious. Let him copy it, let him run it on Sohu's servers, let him spend ten million US dollars to buy traffic across the entire internet for promotion. In business competition, there's no such thing as gentleness, kindness, respect, frugality, or humility."

Zhang Jian's eyes suddenly lit up alarmingly, and his breathing quickened. "Oh, wait until he burns all that money and fattens up the pigs..."

"By then, our official certificates will be issued." Yang Bo immediately grasped the key point and continued the sentence.

"That's right." Bai Yuhang's eyes flashed with ruthlessness. "When he has invested the most, has the largest user base, and is in a bind, then Brother Bo, you take the official certificate to the court to apply for an injunction. Bleed out all the money Sohu has invested, including interest, under the guise of infringement compensation."

There was a two-second silence in the office.

Zhang Jian gasped, looking at Bai Yuhang as if he were a monster. "President Bai, you're not just raising pigs, you're slaughtering Chen Yizhou like a pig!"

The crowd burst into laughter, and the oppressive atmosphere from the previous display of wealth and resources from Sohu vanished instantly.

"Oh my god, a vice president! Reporting directly to Zhang Chaoyang!" Wan Lianghao, who was on the side, continued reading the news with his mouse and saw the personnel appointment section. He exclaimed and interrupted the conversation.

"So what if he's a vice president?" Bai Yuhang chuckled, saying to Wan Lianghao, "Zhang Chaoyang is putting him on the hot seat. Ten million US dollars plus all the resources of the entire site—if he can't produce a report that satisfies Wall Street within three months, do you think Zhang Chaoyang will personally kick him out before the IPO bell rings?"

Jiao Liwei sat down on the sofa next to him and chuckled, "President Bai is right. Sohu still has a group of veteran executives who have been with the company since it was founded. Can they just stand by and watch an outsider drain all the company's resources? Chen Yizhou isn't going to be a vice president; he's going to be a sitting duck within Sohu."

"Yeah, the internal strife is enough to give him a hard time. He doesn't have much time left." Bai Yuhang threw the lighter on the table, making a crisp sound. "But he does have money and supplies now. We should stick to our own pace, use offense as defense, and observe the situation while we wait and see."

"Zhang Jian, Wan Lianghao." Bai Yuhang turned to look at Zhang Jian.

"Yes, Mr. Bai." Zhang Jian and Wan Lianghao immediately stood up straight.

"Since President Chen likes campus life so much, we should support our senior." Bai Yuhang's tone was relaxed, but his eyes were unusually cold. "Notify Allen, the technical department, and the game department to get QQ Mail, QQ Groups, video chat, QQ Show, Diamond Membership, and the parking space grabbing feature on HaiNei.com all online by the weekend. Doesn't he want a purely social network? I'll make his 5Q Campus Network so pure that you can't even find a single living person."

Zhang Jian grinned, cracking his knuckles as he clenched his fists: "Alright! I'll go prepare a big gift for President Chen right now. I guarantee he'll be so shocked when he sees the backend data tomorrow he won't even know where to begin crying!"

The sound of keyboards clicking in the office area intensified again, and even through the door, one could feel the excitement and eagerness of the employees, whom Zhang Jian and Wan Lianghao had encouraged.

Bai Yuhang leaned back in his boss's chair, picked up the overseas phone on the table, and dialed Sheryl Sandberg's private line on the other side of the ocean.

The phone rang three times before being answered.

"Boss, it's nine o'clock in New York now. I hope you don't have bad news." Shirley's rapid American English came through the microphone, with the sound of typing on a keyboard in the background.

"The bad news is, you might not be able to sleep tonight." Bai Yuhang shifted to a more comfortable position. "Has the registration process in Delaware been completed?"

"I just received all the documents this afternoon. Facebook has been officially established, and the equity structure is exactly as you requested, absolutely concealed." Shirley's tone was efficient. "Mr. Shi Hongchao has already gone to coordinate with the data center. But boss, I've reviewed the 100-day ground promotion plan you sent me many times."

"What's the problem?"

“This is a big problem.” Shirley paused. “Hiring hot cheerleaders to hand out flyers in college dorms in New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts, and even giving away free beer at fraternity parties in exchange for registrations. This kind of blatant promotion is so un-Wall Street-like; it’s like selling cheap pizza.”

Bai Yuhang chuckled: "Ms. Sandberg, college students don't need high-level Wall Street reports; they just need beer, parties, and girls. That's called being down-to-earth."

A loud voice came from the other end of the phone, indicating that the two were working together.

"Yuhang! That was brilliant! I took a stroll around Harvard today, and the fraternity boys on campus were practically green with envy at the mention of free beer and hot girls! I know this trick like the back of my day, when I was in school, I used a similar approach to lure people to bars and parties!"

"Mr. Shi, take it easy, or the campus police might mistake it for an illegal assembly and arrest you," Bai Yuhang joked.

"Don't worry! I've even prepared the bail!" Shi Hongchao shouted cheerfully.

Shirley regained control of the call, her tone becoming serious: "Boss, I must admit, you understand the American campus scene very well. Your plan, though crude in its approach, has been modeled using data analysis. This kind of viral spread based on familiar social networks, once it breaks through an Ivy League school, will have a terrifying conversion rate. I need financial support. A million dollars in start-up capital might be a bit tight if we want to cover nearly twenty top universities in North America within a hundred days."

"Don't worry about the funding," Bai Yuhang replied crisply. "Yale's investment office will transfer the seed funding of three million US dollars to our account tomorrow, Monday."

"That's great. There's one more thing. Zhang, the tech guy, our collaboration is okay, but this constant contact might not be good for our development." Shirley's voice was filled with excitement. "Also, Facebook can launch its first round of public testing on Wednesday. Tomorrow at dawn, the campuses of Harvard and Yale will be plastered with our blue and white posters."

"Very good." Bai Yuhang's smile faded, his tone turning cold. "I've already started the meat grinder in China. In North America, I need you to expand your business with Ivy League universities as quickly as possible. During this time, I'll take technical personnel to New York to build a technical team to support you. Soon, I want Wall Street to be knocking on your door with their checkbooks."

"As you wish, boss." Shirley hung up the phone decisively.

Bai Yuhang put down the microphone and turned to look at the dazzling night view of Zhongguancun outside the window.

Chen Yizhou boasted on stage about his multi-million dollar social empire, completely unaware that a storm that would attract global capital attention was quietly taking shape across the ocean.