WAF CH25

Throughout the entire morning after parting ways, Jing Hong and Zhou Chang were separated. Zhou Chang attended a sub-forum on cloud computing, while Jing Hong attended another.

They met again when having lunch in the hotel restaurant.

This time, each brought several subordinates and sat at separate tables. They only glanced at each other from a distance, neither greeting the other.

The hotel served Western food for lunch. Zhou Chang realized that during the meal, his gaze unconsciously drifted toward Jing Hong’s table.

It was hot inside the hotel, so Jing Hong hadn’t put on his suit jacket. He was still wearing the same light blue custom shirt from the morning, cutting the beef on his plate while chatting and laughing with the others. The several executives at that table seemed to be great conversationalists—both men and women—pouring out witty remarks. Laughter often erupted from their table, and Jing Hong would either look at them with a smile or continue cutting his beef, a smile lingering at the corners of his lips as he chimed in from time to time.

Thinking of how polite and distant Jing Hong acted every time he saw him, addressing him formal as “President Zhou” at every turn, Zhou Chang inexplicably felt somewhat displeased.

After watching for a while, Zhou Chang finally retracted his gaze entirely, swallowed the remaining fried scallops on his plate in large bites, and threw down his knife and fork, which hit the plate with a loud “clatter.”

The Qinghui executives at his table were startled, wanting to ask what was wrong but not daring to.

“I’m heading back first.” Zhou Chang wiped his lips with the napkin on the table and stood up. Standing at a distance, tall, broad, and outstandingly refined, he was exceptionally eye-catching.

Zhou Chang looked toward Jing Hong’s table for a few seconds, waiting a bit, but Jing Hong didn’t notice him at all. He didn’t even cast a glance out of the corner of his eye, remaining fully engaged in conversation with the Fanhai team. One of the female executives was saying something again—presumably something quite amusing—and Jing Hong listened attentively with a smile on his face, taking an occasional sip of tea with his slender fingers.

Zhou Chang stood for a few seconds, felt bored, turned around, and left.

Behind him, Jing Hong faintly shifted his gaze, glancing at Zhou Chang’s departing figure for a few seconds until Zhou Chang disappeared at the doorway.

That afternoon was the centralized signing ceremony of the Smart China Expo. Fanhai signed several projects with South Africa, Russia, Argentina, India, and other countries; Qinghui did as well. In addition, Xingyuan, Weilai, and many medium-to-large companies as well as startups participated in the centralized signing. Some of these startups had even been invested in by Fanhai, such as a company providing intelligent edge computing products for autonomous driving.

In front of the camera, Jing Hong sat upright, his suit crisp and tailored to fit. A volunteer handed him a folder; Jing Hong scanned it one last time and signed his name with a few quick strokes.

Camera flashes connected into a continuous sheet of light.

Once Jing Hong finished signing, the volunteer took the document away and presented the next one.

…………

After attending the centralized signing ceremony, Jing Hong returned to the Beijing headquarters.

Upon returning to Beijing, Jing Hong immediately handled the work that had been delayed during the Smart China Expo and pushed forward several internal reforms within the group.

For example, for future internal company meetings, PowerPoint presentations would no longer be the only accepted file format for presentations—meaning that presenters could use Word documents instead.

In a group email, Jing Hong stated that for the vast majority of Design Docs, Word text along with simple shapes like rectangles and arrows provided by Word were more than sufficient for presenters to deliver their points, and everyone could fully understand them.

In truth, Jing Hong didn’t want employees focusing too much on formalities and wasting precious time on “designing slides.” Nowadays, the visual appearance of PowerPoint decks across major companies had become increasingly competitive; yet in reality, they didn’t need to be extremely beautiful or refined. Given that time, employees would be better off resting or spending time with their families.

This initiative received an enthusiastic response from Fanhai employees.

Another example was that the “Corporate Development Business Group” had newly established an Entrepreneurship Advisory Team, encouraging company employees who wanted to start a business to discuss their ideas with the company first. If the business plan was good enough, they could even directly receive angel investment from Fanhai. To make employees feel safe, Fanhai agreed to record the entire process of these consultations.

Jing Hong hoped these measures would yield good results, but Fanhai was too large, with over a hundred thousand formal employees and far too many variables. Many things couldn’t be pushed forward even by Jing Hong himself, and he believed the same applied to Qinghui.

Strangely enough, lately, whenever Jing Hong failed to accomplish something, he couldn’t help but think: If it were Zhou Chang, could he manage it? Or even when Jing Hong had already successfully accomplished something, he would still think: If it were Zhou Chang, could he do it better?

Repeatedly guessing, repeatedly comparing—yielding no answers, yet finding quiet enjoyment in it.

…………

Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, more than a month had elapsed since returning to Beijing.

Jing Hong finally made up his mind, transferring the head of the Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group to another business group. He promoted a Senior Vice President (SVP) with a sales background to be the new head of Cloud Computing, elevating him to Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP).

This salesperson was someone Jing Hong had always greatly admired—in fact, he was discovered by Jing Hong and recommended to Jing Haiping back when Jing Hong had just returned to China.

He was a computer science graduate from a prestigious university who, contrary to norm, enjoyed working in sales.

What Jing Hong liked most about him was his drive, or rather, his wolf-like aggressiveness.

After graduation, he traveled everywhere pitching sales software. However, many factory yards had guard dogs. Salespeople from other companies didn’t dare enter, but he alone viewed it as an “untapped market” and an opportunity. He reinforced his briefcase to make it sturdy, wore bite-resistant tall rainboots, compiled a “Bite-Prevention Secret Manual,” and within just three months became the top performer in sales volume.

What brought him to Jing Hong’s attention was the 2011 “War of a Thousand Group-Buys”—the first major war of the Chinese internet, the first time money was burned, and the first time hundreds of millions of funds were deployed for marketing. Later came ride-hailing/mobility, shared bikes, food delivery, fresh produce, video streaming, live broadcasting, and so on.

In 2011, various group-buying apps sprang up like mushrooms after rain. The grand spectacle back then was that when sales managers of these apps went to persuade merchants to join, they often crossed paths at the merchant’s front entrance and engaged in fistfights, leaving people unsure whether they belonged to tech companies or organized crime gangs. This new SEVP was exceptionally capable in fights, once again standing out from the crowd and beating others until they avoided his team—and because others avoided them, he was always able to be the first sales manager clients saw on the day new stores opened. Later, Jing Hong heard that his childhood dream had been to be a mobster.

If that were all, Jing Hong wouldn’t have advised Fanhai to poach him. But once this new SEVP became a regional manager, Jing Hong came to view him in a completely whole new light. He didn’t rigidly follow the “iron rule” of “the more merchants, the better.” Instead, he believed that overly scattered orders would dampen merchant enthusiasm, so in the early stages, he selected only merchants that users liked and that had stable supply, receiving rave reviews from both merchants and customers. Furthermore, he didn’t focus his marketing budget offline, using small gifts or cash to entice passersby to download the app; instead, he used it online to attract genuine consumers—patient and unhurried. Moreover, back then all group-buys launched at night, yet he chose noon, allowing consumers to gather friends in the physical world to hit the required headcount.

Back then, Jing Hong felt this person possessed traits he thoroughly liked: a clear mind and brilliant execution.

Jing Hong disliked the feeling of losing control over a situation.

Now, the person Jing Hong had chosen back then was about to take charge of the entire Cloud Computing Business Group.

When the news of Fanhai Cloud Computing’s leadership change was announced, it shook the industry.

Major media outlets reported one after another:

【Major Reshuffle among Fanhai Group Cloud Computing Executives: Tech Faction Makes Way for Sales Faction!】

【Lightning Leadership Change in Cloud Computing: What Is Jing Hong Planning?】

The main text of these reports stated:

【On Month XX, Day XX, Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group announced its latest structural upgrade. Jiang Rengui, former Senior Vice President of Fanhai Group and COO of Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group, will take over the duties of Wang XX, former Senior Executive Vice President of Fanhai Group and CEO of Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group, and be promoted to Senior Executive Vice President of Fanhai Group. Meanwhile, Wang XX will be reassigned to… Zhang XX, Vice President of Fanhai Group, will assume the role of COO while retaining his original duties. At the same time, Tao XX, former General Manager of Amazon Web Services China, will also join the Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group…

In an internal letter, Jing Hong expressed his hope that Jiang Rengui would lead the Cloud Computing group to make timely judgments and strategic layouts regarding major market trends, achieving a leap from quantitative to qualitative scale, and building a powerful ecosystem for Fanhai’s cloud computing…】

Reporters also analyzed:

【Executive changes usually signal the company’s dissatisfaction with existing performance, hoping to adjust strategic direction and achieve a series of transformations.

Now, the industry has progressed from initial price wars and land grabs into a new phase of competing on products and services. Fanhai’s move likely signifies a strategic shift from tech-driven to market-pulled…】

However, regarding the outcome, reporters remained very cautious, stating:

【Tech faction making way for sales faction—Fanhai has set a domestic precedent. It must be said that this move is extremely aggressive and bold. As for whether it will ultimately achieve the results Jing Hong desires, we can only wait and see.】

Jing Hong didn’t even click on any of these reports.

Then, just two weeks later, Qinghui Group also announced a structural upgrade to its Cloud Computing department, similarly “promoting” an SVP with a sales background to the top position.

The industry was shocked once again.

Originally, if only Fanhai Group had done this, it might have been merely a single attempt. But now that Qinghui did the same, it showed that “tech faction making way for sales faction” was a collective shift.

Reporters swept in on the news again:

【Chinese Cloud Computing Giants Collectively Make a 180-Degree U-Turn?】

【Fanhai and Qinghui Adjust Direction and Redeploy at the Same Time—Can This Break Through the Bottleneck and Produce Results?】

【Following Fanhai, Qinghui Cloud Computing Business Group Also Announces Organizational Adjustment: Former Qinghui Group Senior Vice President…】

【Currently, the gap between Chinese SaaS and foreign SaaS is growing larger, with no large-scale companies born to date, whereas America’s Salesforce has reached nearly ten billion dollars in annual revenue. Because of this, Chinese cloud service vendors providing computing power and storage resources for SaaS enterprises—such as Fanhai and Qinghui—find themselves in a rather awkward position. Now, it is clear that big tech firms like Fanhai and Qinghui hope to join hands with various SaaS companies, intending to match their needs and expand the overall market size to truly establish their underlying dominance as cloud service providers…】

These were all truths.

On the day of the industry shock, Zhou Chang sat in the Nappa calfskin back seat of his Rolls-Royce, loosened his shoulders, held his phone, and looked at a blank chat screen. With a movement of his finger, he forwarded a Qinghui announcement to Jing Hong—whom he hadn’t seen in a long time—regarding Qinghui’s similar appointment of a sales-faction CEO for Cloud Computing, appending a sentence:

【Risks taken to accompany a gentleman.】

It had been months since they exchanged contact information, yet the chat page remained completely blank.

Today was the very first message.

This was because, strictly speaking, Jing Hong had been the one to bring up the idea first. On the 28th floor of the hotel in Chongqing, bathed in the spilled sunlight, Jing Hong had once asked: “President Zhou, has Qinghui ever considered having someone from sales serve as the group president for Cloud Computing?” Back then, he had offered the options to “try together,” “succeed together, or fail together.”

Fanhai hadn’t dared to follow through then, but now Qinghui had followed—or rather, appeared to have followed.

Unexpectedly, Jing Hong replied very quickly.

Just a few minutes later, Zhou Chang’s phone vibrated.

Seeing Jing Hong’s reply, Zhou Chang raised an eyebrow slightly.

Because what Jing Hong sent back was surprisingly a voice message.

Zhou Chang moved his thumb and tapped the voice message.

Jing Hong’s voice immediately played out, first explaining the reason for sending a voice message: “In the car.”

Then his voice carried a hint of subtle irony: “I certainly can’t shoulder that responsibility.”

Meaning: I can’t take responsibility for this, so don’t pin it on me.

On the other side, Jing Hong was naturally well aware that Zhou Chang’s decision this time had nothing to do with him. Just as he wouldn’t joke with the company’s future, Zhou Chang wouldn’t either.

There could be only one reason for Zhou Chang to replace a tech-background leader with a sales-background one: he wanted to do so himself.

Yet because Fanhai announced first and Qinghui announced later, Zhou Chang insisted on putting on a pose of “Fanhai didn’t dare follow, but Qinghui did.”

Jing Hong didn’t realize that his lightly sarcastic and relaxed tone was something he almost never used normally, so much so that the driver in the front seat cast an astonished glance at Jing Hong through the rearview mirror.

A few seconds later, another message from Zhou Chang came through.

It was also a voice message.

Jing Hong tapped it, and Zhou Chang’s magnetic, deep voice could be heard clearly: “Quite heartless, aren’t you.”

Jing Hong curled his lips slightly and didn’t reply further.

Heartless or not depended on who it was directed at. Against someone like Zhou Chang, a moment of carelessness would result in being bitten to death without even a trace of bone left.

Zhou Chang was plainly a shark wearing human skin.

The car drove all the way back to “Zhuxiang Qingyun.”

After returning home, Jing Hong handled some work as usual, still sending emails at three in the morning and holding video meetings with managers of overseas branches.

During meetings with overseas branches, Jing Hong accommodated their schedules as much as possible, not wanting to spread a reputation that “working at Fanhai’s US office requires mid-of-the-night meetings with China.” Since the staff in the US didn’t have meetings in the middle of the night, Jing Hong himself had to be the one taking them.

After taking a shower and blow-drying his hair, while lying on the silk sheets wearing only soft underwear, he opened the chat page with Zhou Chang again quite inexplicably after checking his alarm for the next morning, playing Zhou Chang’s phrase—”Quite heartless, aren’t you”—once more.

Then a second time.

And then a third time.

What he didn’t know was that at almost the exact same time on the other side, Zhou Chang was also savoring his line—”In the car. I certainly can’t shoulder that responsibility”—over and over for a good few times.