Xu Ye hadn’t expected Zhao Ming to call the very next morning and say yes to the partnership.
So that same afternoon he went over to Lisheng Capital, spent several hours in Zhao Ming’s office, and came away with a whole stack of business plans.
At an investment firm as substantial as Lisheng Capital, founders came knocking every single day. Finding projects to invest in was simply not a problem they had.
Back at the company, Xu Ye called in the investment team at once and started going through the proposals in the conference room.
The professionals in the first few groups of Lisheng Capital’s investment department had in fact already read every one of these, and what reached Zhao Ming’s hands were the ones they had cut — most of them with no real investment value.
Xu Ye eliminated a lot of them after one look at the name.
As someone who had “been through it all before,” he knew perfectly well which industries would make money in the next few years, which would have trouble making any, and which would most likely lose it.
He had almost finished the whole pile before one name finally caught his eye — Yingke Live.
If he remembered right, 2015 would be the year the livestreaming industry exploded.
Right now, this was the picture.
Douyu, Zhanqi, Longzhu, Huomao and Huya were all up and running already. The last of these had started out as YY Live before being spun off and renamed.
Most of the platforms were still losing money at this stage, and some of them would fold later on. But as the industry grew, a handful would pull away from the rest, and several streaming companies would even go public.
Yingke Live didn’t have quite the profile of the other major platforms, but as far as he could recall it wasn’t among the ones that fell away, and he had a vague memory of scrolling past news of the company’s listing.
Xu Ye slapped the plan down on the conference table. “Take a look at this one. What do you think?”
Lü Cheng picked it up for a look, and he frowned at once. “Livestreaming? Right now that industry is gods fighting gods. Count from the start of the year and there have been eight or ten new platforms launching every month. Going in at this point — to put it bluntly — is throwing money in the water.”
“Have you thought about why so many platforms are appearing in the first place?”
“I’ll grant you livestreaming is where things are heading. Even Principal Wang [TL: 王校长 — a widely used internet nickname for the son of a well-known Chinese businessman, prominent in gaming and entertainment investment at the time.] has been putting together a platform lately. But the competition is this fierce, and the odds of success are far too low.”
But Xu Ye said, “Investing is a form of gambling, fundamentally. If we stay out of anything competitive, is this company supposed to put money into nothing but small projects forever?”
Without waiting for Lü Cheng to answer, he settled it himself. “Look into the company’s founder first — his record, his background — and then write me an analysis. Ten million going in. If Lisheng Capital comes along, our share is five million, and five million I can afford to lose right now.”
With the boss putting it in those terms, there was naturally nothing more for Lü Cheng to say.
The truth was that very few of these proposals had any real investment value, and if they kept hesitating and agonizing, there was no telling when the company would ever get a second project off the ground.
Lü Cheng took the plan away and started digging into the project.
That evening, not long after Xu Ye got back to the hotel, Zhao Ming called.
“Hey, Xu Ye. So? Anything you liked?”
“You’re in this much of a hurry, you dumbass? Afraid I’ll pick up a bargain on you?”
“Haha. Caught me.”
“Honestly, there is one I did like.”
“Don’t tell me it’s the order-online, massage-at-your-door one.”
“It’s Yingke Live.”
“That’s the one you picked?” Zhao Ming was taken aback.
Xu Ye was curious. “Why? Do you know something about it?”
Zhao Ming answered quickly. “We had two streaming companies come in recently. Investment Group One studied them and went with the other one — it’s called Quanmin Live.”
“If… and I’m saying if… I go in on Yingke Live, are you coming with me?”
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I? It’s only five million. If a little company like yours dares to put that in, what’s a company my size supposed to be afraid of?”
Xu Ye laughed. “Then get your people ready. In a few days I’ll send my head of investment up with a team to go take a look at the company.”
“Fine. I’ll wait to hear from you.”
……
Two days later.
Lü Cheng took Li Tongwen and several staff from Lisheng Capital’s General Group Five and set off for the capital to get a closer look at the company.
Zhang Xinzhou hadn’t been home all summer, and with Xu Ye now here, he took leave and went back to Shenzhen.
With them all gone, the office felt emptier than ever.
Xu Ye was almost sorry he hadn’t brought Chen Qingqing up from Jiangzhou. If she were here he could tease her during the day, and as for the evenings, heh heh heh…
He was still off in the daydream when Jiang Wei walked into the office without his noticing, slapped a document down in front of him and said flatly, “What are you grinning about? Sign this.”
Pulled out of his train of thought, Xu Ye picked up last month’s payroll sheet and ran his eye over it, then started looking for a pen. “How’s the remodel at your grandmother’s place coming along?”
“Nearly finished.”
“Then keep at it. After you graduate— hold on. Why was your salary lower than Chen Xiaoru’s last month? Aren’t you the head of the finance department?”
Jiang Wei explained. “Chen-jie has far more experience than me. She did a lot of the work last month and I didn’t do much. How could I take a higher salary than her?”
“Whatever the figure should be, that’s the figure. That isn’t for you to worry about.”
And your father’s an associate dean at Fudan, Xu Ye thought. What do they have to compare with you?
Jiang Wei, though, had ideas of her own. Seeing that he had signed, she reached out and snatched the payroll sheet back, and said haughtily, “Then give me a bigger year-end bonus. You’re a rich man now anyway.”
“Wait. I’m the boss. Could you show me a little respect?”
“Tch~”
“And get that door shut.”
Jiang Wei had already closed the door behind her out of habit. Hearing that, she pushed it open again.
Xu Ye let out a helpless sigh. He was about to get up and close it himself when the WeChat icon in the bottom right of his screen suddenly started flashing.
He clicked on it.
Qin Zhiwei: “Brother, I think the timing’s about right. Can I kiss Shen Xinyi now?”
The dumbass.
Coming to me about this, too.
Xu Ye screenshotted the message and forwarded it straight to Shen Xinyi.
Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi were sitting in a dessert shop eating at that moment. Seeing that a message had come in from Xu Ye, Shen Xinyi opened WeChat and looked, and her whole small face went scarlet at once.
Qin Zhiwei was still in the dark. He went ahead and asked cluelessly, “What’s wrong? Why has your face gone so red?”
Shen Xinyi passed the phone over, and at the same time her foot came down on his under the table. Qin Zhiwei saw that Xu Ye had forwarded his own message straight to her, and wanted nothing more than to tear open a crack in the floor and climb into it.
He scratched his head and laughed awkwardly. “I… I was only asking for fun. Don’t take it seriously.”
At that, Shen Xinyi only pressed down harder.
(End of Chapter 283)