Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

Chen Mo did not ask who the real fish was.

Her task is to execute, not to ask questions.

But Gu Ming could tell from the tense lines of her profile that his most trusted subordinate had entered a state of alert.

"There's more than one real fish."

Gu Ming turned around and walked back to his desk, where there was only a piece of paper and a pen.

A Chenguang brand gel pen.

He did not use a computer or any electronic devices.

Some names, once they appear in the digital world, leave a trace.

The names he was about to write down were worthless in 2016.

But in the future, each one will be worth hundreds of billions.

He opened the pen cap, and the pen tip landed on the A4 paper.

The first name: Li Jiaqi.

The second name: Viya.

The third name: Simba.

The fourth name: Luo Yonghao.

……

He hastily wrote down the names that would later define the live-streaming e-commerce industry on paper.

If future MCN bosses saw this list, they'd probably have a heart attack on the spot.

This is not a list; it is a life-or-death book that records the secrets of future traffic.

After writing down the last name, Gu Ming paused for a moment, then heavily smeared it with the tip of his pen, turning it into a blot of ink.

This is a gift for Shen Guodong.

"Let Wang Tianqi in." Gu Ming capped his pen and leaned back in his boss's chair.

……

Five minutes later, Wang Tianqi jogged into the office.

The former MCN industry tycoon of Hegang now wears a fawning smile.

There's no way around it; I have to be humble.

He watched the video called "Rebuilding" more than a hundred times last night.

Each time he read it, he was horrified.

He felt that it was something no human could do; it was a miracle.

And now, he is before God.

"Boss, you wanted to see me?" Wang Tianqi bowed slightly.

"Hmm." Gu Ming gently pushed the paper covered with names in front of him.

"I need you to find all the people listed here and sign them into Starry Sky Holdings' guild within a month."

Wang Tianqi quickly picked up the paper, his gaze falling on the first name.

Li Jiaqi?

Who is this?

He quickly scanned the entire list, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

He didn't recognize anyone on the list; none of them were well-known figures in the industry.

He looked up and asked, "Boss... are all these people... selected from our Starry Sky Hundred Talents Program?"

In his view, this must be the person Gu Ming personally selected from those 100,000 applications.

"No." Gu Ming shook his head. "The Hundred-Man Project is in charge of Su Qingying. They are our Starry Sky's regular army, and it's all out in the open."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"And you, Mr. Wang, what I want you to build is a ragtag army."

He picked up another document and tossed it to Wang Tianqi.

"The people on this list are probably struggling in basements and rented rooms all over the country right now. Some are doing makeup tutorials live, some are selling socks for 9.9 yuan with free shipping, and some are even carrying bricks on construction sites."

Wang Tianqi was stunned.

Do you expect me, a former MCN boss, to travel all over the country and sign a bunch of people from the bottom of society?

That's a huge waste of talent.

"Boss, I don't quite understand." Wang Tianqi looked somewhat troubled. "We currently control the entire Zero and Virtual Human Legion, we have plenty of traffic and resources, why do we need to sign these people?"

Gu Ming looked at him.

"Mr. Wang, your biggest problem is that you only see the present."

"And I am deciding the future."

He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the traffic below.

"You think the ultimate goal of short videos is for Google and virtual idols to sell products?"

"wrong."

"The ultimate goal of short videos is live-streaming e-commerce, which digitizes the entire business world."

"These people," he pointed to the list, "are the ones who will be able to support this trillion-dollar market in the future."

"I'm signing them at a low price now. In the future, if Shen Guodong wants to buy a name from me, he'll have to exchange it for a building."

Wang Tianqi's breath hitched.

His brain was processing Gu Ming's information at lightning speed.

He finally understood.

What Gu Ming asked him to do was to proactively develop core assets for the future in areas that others had not yet discovered.

This foresight exceeded his understanding.

"Go ahead." Gu Ming waved his hand. "Money and legal matters are not issues. I only have one request: sign the strictest contracts possible, so that they can only work for Xingchen for their entire lives."

"Yes, boss." Wang Tianqi's enthusiasm returned.

He felt honored to be able to carry out the plan for such a person.

……

Just as Wang Tianqi was leading his ragtag army across the country to carry out land grabbing activities.

Shen Guodong's regular army has finally arrived.

The CEO's office.

Su Qingying pushed open the door and entered. She was wearing a white suit and had a strange expression on her face.

"Gu Ming, Shen Guodong has made his move."

"Oh? What does he want to do? Copyright lawsuit? Or license restrictions?" Gu Ming didn't even look up, still staring at the user data in the backend.

"None of those." Su Qingying shook her head. "He dispatched a top domestic headhunting firm, targeting all of our company's core technical personnel and operations staff at the P8 level and above."

"The offer is three to five times the current salary."

Trying to poach my people?

Gu Ming finally raised his head.

Shen Guodong's approach is still stuck in the last century.

Do you think loyalty can be measured in money?

"And the result?" he asked.

"We didn't poach a single one." Su Qingying's expression became even stranger. "The headhunters reported that the contracts for our company's core employees are too harsh. They've never seen such clauses before."

She paused for a moment, her tone filled with confusion.

"The contract states that all core employees, in addition to cash and stock option incentives, will also receive algorithm copyright dividends based on their contributions?"

"What does this mean?"

"What I mean is," Gu Ming smiled, "that they are the digital shareholders of the company's core asset, the Soul Engine. As long as the Soul Engine continues to create value for the company, even if they resign, retire, or even pass away, this dividend will continue to be paid to them or their heirs, just like royalties."

Su Qingying was stunned.

She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

As a financial expert, she realized for the first time that her knowledge base was insufficient.

This was a form of bondage she had never seen before.

It binds the future, providing permanent benefits.

"The devil..." Su Qingying muttered to herself, "Who could refuse such a clause?"

"So," Gu Ming shrugged, "tell Shen Guodong that he's welcome to keep raising the price. Every penny he spends is publicity for our company."

……

It's 11 p.m.

Beijing, ByteDance headquarters.

Zhang Yiming appeared at the entrance of Starry Sky Holdings.

Without giving any prior notice, he barged directly into Gu Ming's office.

"How did you know?"

He skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the question.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his expression was complicated.

"What do you know?" Gu Ming asked, pouring him a glass of water.

"Reshaping," Zhang Yiming's voice was a little hoarse, "Why did that video ignite all the data dimensions? How did you predict what kind of content would trigger positive feedback from the algorithm?"

He was asking Gu Ming for advice.

Gu Ming smiled.

He knew that Zhang Yiming had already noticed.

"Yiming, you're still studying algorithms." Gu Ming tapped his temple. "Me, I'm studying human nature."

"You think algorithms recommend content? No, they recommend emotions. For example, pride, anger, emotion, and desire."

"The success of 'Reinventing' is that it ignited users' desire for upward mobility in just fifteen seconds."

"From a naive young woman to a modern urban queen, this transformation fulfills everyone's fantasy of becoming a better version of themselves. That's the core reason why it has spread so widely."

Zhang Yiming stood there, frozen in place.

He felt that his long-held understanding of technology had been completely overturned by Gu Ming's words.

It turns out that the ultimate goal of algorithms is psychology.

"I understand..." Zhang Yiming let out a long breath.

He looked at Gu Ming and said, "From today onwards, all of Xingchen's content will receive the highest priority algorithm recommendations on my platform. I need your content to train my algorithm."

"It's a pleasure doing business with you." Gu Ming extended his hand.

He knew he had taken a crucial step.

……

A week later.

Wang Tianqi called.

His voice was very excited.

"Boss, that's amazing!"

"Those people on your list... after I had someone sign them, I found a few operations staff and, following your ideas, helped them create personas and content positioning..."

"The result? Just one week."

"That guy named Li Jiaqi mainly does lipstick swatches and has already gained a million followers. He shouts 'Oh my god' in his live stream every day, and his sales are very high."

"That Viya, who mainly sells clothing, gained 1.2 million followers, and her sales in one live stream last night exceeded one million."

"There's also that guy named Xinba on the Kuaishou platform. He mainly portrays himself as the son of a farmer, and he calls his fans brothers every day. He's gained followers very quickly, and he's already close to two million."

Good news kept coming.

The Star Guild, a team composed of a motley crew, demonstrated its dominance in just one week.

The entire MCN industry was stunned.

They couldn't understand why these newcomers could unleash such tremendous energy overnight.

Only a few people saw Gu Ming standing behind the scenes.

As Gu Ming was reading the report, the office door was pushed open.

Su Qingying's expression was very serious.

"Gu Ming, something's happened."

She slammed a report on the table.

"Our monopolistic practices have aroused everyone's vigilance."

"Led by Shen Guodong, a coalition of more than a dozen established media groups and record companies in China, and even an official television station, has been formed."

"They couldn't find a way to attack our technology and operations, so they're preparing to attack us from another angle."

Su Qingying took a deep breath and named the weapon.

"copyright."

"They are going to launch a full-scale copyright war against us."

The atmosphere in the office became tense.

However, Gu Ming still had a smile on his face.

He had long anticipated this day.

Just then, his personal cell phone rang.

The caller ID showed Wang Tianqi.

Gu Ming answered the phone.

On the other end of the phone, Wang Tianqi's voice trembled for the first time.

"Boss...you...the person you asked me to find..."

"On the list, the last one, the one that's been blacked out..."

"I found it."

"but……"

Wang Tianqi's voice became shrill.

"His current status is a bit special... so he might be... not very mobile."