The second day of the World Internet Conference also passed quickly.

On this day, when Jing Hong ran into Zhou Chang again, his demeanor was business as usual. Yet, when the two sat side by side listening to speeches at the main forum, Jing Hong would somehow inexplicably recall that moment they had turned their heads at the exact same time that morning—as if certain subtle emotions were still lingering within the ink landscape paintings of the art museum.

At the time, Jing Hong hadn’t called out a greeting, nor had Zhou Chang. Jing Hong had been the first to retract his gaze, feigning that he was continuing to appreciate the paintings as he walked along, quickly turning to the other side. Afterward, the two never crossed paths in the art museum again.

That evening, Jing Hong did not attend the private dinner hosted by the CEO of “Weilai,” choosing instead to board a commercial flight straight back to Beijing. Zhou Chang did the exact same thing.

After returning to Beijing, there were moments when Zhou Chang would find himself thinking of Jing Hong.

His expressions and tone of voice during their negotiation in his office last month, along with that tiny smudge of coffee beside the corner of his mouth; the gaze that locked onto the ballpoint pen while leaning over the table in that small town, and the playful double hair whorls atop his head; his tone when uttering “I believe in the ambition and determination of Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises,” and his Moments feed displayed as a single grey line; the canopy of the umbrella lightly twirling round after round atop the Bailian Pagoda; that subtle nod on the Fengyuan Double Bridge; and that sudden turn of the head upon hearing “A whole lifetime was only enough to love one person.”

However, these fleeting thoughts soon dissipated amidst the daily wear and tear of overwhelming paperwork.

On this day, the CEO of Qinghui Group’s Strategic Investment Department came to deliver another report to Zhou Chang. After covering a few other matters, he raised the key issue intended for focused discussion in this meeting: “President Zhou, regarding our investment in ‘Suigou’… there seems to be a minor issue.”

Zhou Chang raised his eyelids slightly: “Out with it. You seem to have gotten quite wordy lately.”

“Suigou” was a community group-buying app, and community group-buying was the newest hot trend of the year.

“Right,” the CEO of Qinghui Group’s Strategic Investment Department cut straight to the point without further wordiness, immediately saying: “Fanhai Group—”

Fanhai. Another appearance of that familiar name.

The space between Zhou Chang’s eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly as he said: “Regarding the investment in Suigou, hasn’t Fanhai already been knocked out of the running?”

Two months ago, Fanhai and Qinghui had shown interest in the “Suigou” app at virtually the same time. However, Qinghui’s strategic investment team had acted more decisively—the head of strategic investment had flown overnight to the location where Suigou’s CEO was on a business trip, offering generous terms to snag an exclusive investment agreement ahead of the rest.

The investment agreement had already been signed, so what kind of snag could Fanhai possibly cause now?

“Yes,” the CEO of Qinghui’s Strategic Investment Department explained, “the problem lies with the ‘CTO’ candidate you proposed.”

Facing Zhou Chang, his posture was by no means as relaxed as Zhao Hanqing’s when facing Jing Hong.

Zhou Chang stared at the man, signaling him to continue.

Zhou Chang’s memory wasn’t that poor; naturally, he remembered what he had proposed. Last week, after reviewing the materials on “Suigou,” he had pointed out a flaw: while the product concept of “Suigou” was exceptionally good, its technical foundation fell somewhat short. He hoped “Suigou” would recruit a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to take charge of the app’s technical architecture, because the product’s current developer was merely a former Google Tech Lead with little experience in managing new products from the ground up—hardly enough to survive a bloodbath in the market—and the man himself was under immense pressure. For this reason, Zhou Chang had stipulated last week that before releasing the first tranche of funds and registering the change in shareholders, “Suigou” had to recruit a new CTO.

“It goes like this,” the Strategic Investment CEO of Qinghui Group said. “On Fanhai’s side… they seem to have guessed that you would definitely want to replace the CTO, President Zhou. Three days ago, they introduced a candidate to ‘Suigou.’ Here, look at this—he is indeed extraordinarily suitable.” As he spoke, he handed over a file. Zhou Chang took it and realized he was familiar with this person as well.

This individual had been paying attention to the “community group-buying” sector early on and had always worked in O2O. The concept of O2O originated from the United States, and this man was a standout leader in the field—having managed O2O at Walmart before moving to an IT giant to build a team and develop products, akin to an internal startup, which ultimately proved very successful. Upon returning to China early last year, he joined an investment firm. According to the records, he had been constantly urging others to build community group-buying products for him to invest in, having already approached at least seven or eight people.

He possessed vision, technology, experience, and contacts—capable of managing internally, communicating externally, and well-versed in operations.

Looking at the file in his hands, Zhou Chang remained utterly unperturbed, revealing neither joy nor anger.

The person opposite handed another stack of candidates over to Zhou Chang: “There are others as well, but compared to this man, they all fall short to varying degrees.”

Zhou Chang took the other materials and flipped through them at lightning speed. He spent only a glance or two per page—checking merely the last two places of employment, titles, and a few quantifiable metrics of achievement—before flipping to the next. For some, a single glance at a hollow resume crammed with fluff was more than enough.

Indeed, none of them really measure up. Or rather, a few were decent to begin with, but in the presence of a true gem, they paled in comparison.

Zhou Chang closed the files, tossed them back, and tapped his fingers twice against the cover of the first man’s file, asking: “What happened with this man?”

The other party immediately continued: “This person was proactively introduced to ‘Suigou’ by Fanhai Group. In the past, he seems to have… enjoyed a rather good relationship with Jing Hong. For some reason, he’s stubbornly loyal and completely impervious to persuasion.” The Strategic Investment CEO of Qinghui looked somewhat baffled himself. “He keeps saying that he stands and falls together with Fanhai. If ‘Suigou’ wants to hire him, they must simultaneously accept Fanhai as an investor, allowing Fanhai to invest at least a 10% stake as well. If Fanhai can’t get in, he definitely won’t go over.”

Hearing this, Zhou Chang let out a scoffing chuckle.

“He also said,” the other party reported further, “that if he doesn’t go to ‘Suigou,’ he will join Fanhai directly to build a similar product in-house, competing directly with ‘Suigou’ for the market.”

Having explained the current situation, Qinghui’s Strategic Investment CEO sought instructions from Zhou Chang on the next step: “So what do we do now? Jing Hong guessed that we would definitely want to swap out the CTO, proactively introduced this person, and even bundled him together. He’s running a ‘buy one, get one free’ deal—’Suigou’ buys a CTO, only to get an investor forced on them as a bonus. Fanhai is bending over backward trying to squeeze their way in.”

“…” Zhou Chang didn’t look at the file in his hand again, nor did he hesitate in the slightest. Tossing the file back to the other man, he said: “Right now, Qinghui holds a 30% stake, correct?”

“Yes. 30%.”

Zhou Chang added: “Redraft the investment agreement. Have Qinghui yield a 10% stake to Fanhai. We’ll invest in this project together with Fanhai.”

“…” The other party nodded.

However, after a brief pause, Qinghui’s Strategic Investment CEO couldn’t help but sigh with emotion: “Back then, just so Qinghui could sign an exclusive investment agreement with ‘Suigou’ and eliminate Fanhai and everyone else, I flew to Japan overnight without even eating dinner, negotiated through the entire night, and only signed the agreement in the morning—thinking Fanhai was finally out of the game. Yet now, hah, Fanhai still managed to invest.”

It had gone from Qinghui exclusively investing for a 30% stake to Qinghui holding a 20% stake and Fanhai holding 10%.

“I don’t blame you,” Zhou Chang said, watching the man gather the messy files. “President Jing’s tactics in business warfare are all…”

The Strategic Investment CEO of Qinghui casually chimed in: “Very brilliant?”

“No.” Zhou Chang raised his eyes—not looking at the man, but seemingly staring through the empty space at someone else, his gaze sharp and focused as he uttered a somewhat unexpected yet roughly synonymous word: “They are all very sexy.”