Chapter 286: Invest, 285
Han Yixuan’s feelings over the past two days had been somewhat complex.
She had seen that photo blackmailing Pei Ningle. Although it made her slightly angry, she had to admit that the scale was indeed quite normal. It could serve as scandal evidence mainly because Pei Ningle’s persona since her debut had always been somewhat yuri. If it were on a young ambiguous couple, tugging at clothes like that would be far too common.
But precisely because she understood all this, she felt even more frustrated.
Once the scandal broke, regardless of whether Wang Heng was willing or not, it would definitely affect the people around him. It was just like classmates in the class cheering on a boy and a girl; if the cheering went on long enough, the two would naturally end up together.
Han Yixuan believed that Pei Ningle definitely hadn’t deliberately brought in paparazzi to stage this scene. Even if her emotional intelligence and scheming had grown, that girl’s heart wasn’t capable of developing to that extent. Even Han Yixuan herself, if she reflected honestly, assuming she were in Pei Ningle’s position, probably couldn’t have planned something so cleverly.
But for this unexpected scandal, Pei Ningle was definitely delighted to see it happen.
Thinking of this, Han Yixuan grew increasingly frustrated. Sitting in the classroom, she only felt the professor’s voice from the lectern turn into meaningless noise that she couldn’t even listen to.
So she took out her mobile phone, lit it up, and happened to see the WeChat message from Pei Ningle.
【Xiao Xuan, Wang Heng said he has dealt with that paparazzi blackmailing me.】
Han Yixuan was stunned for a moment, then quickly replied: 【How did he deal with it?】
Pei Ningle: 【I don’t know either!】
Han Yixuan couldn’t help but laugh, murmuring: “That’s really your dumb and cute style… Well, now the cooked duck has flown away, huh?”
Suddenly, the lectern went quiet.
Han Yixuan sensed something wrong and quickly looked up, just meeting the professor’s gaze.
From middle school to university, over all these years, Han Yixuan had always been a good girl in front of parents and teachers. Getting caught playing on her mobile phone in class was something that had never happened to her.
So at this moment, the young girl’s mind went blank for a brief time.
However, the professor didn’t come down to drag her out or embarrass her. He just gave her a warning glare before continuing the lecture.
Han Yixuan breathed a sigh of relief silently, not daring to look down at her mobile phone again—after all, she was sitting in the first row of the classroom, where any small action could be very noticeable and easily spotted.
After more than ten minutes, once class ended, Han Yixuan finally took out her mobile phone again and looked.
Pei Ningle had sent new messages, two of them:
【I just asked Wang Heng, and he said he’s not in Rongdu and will only return tomorrow.】
【Sister Xu messaged that email blackmailing me to ask, but no one replied. Could he really have dealt with it? Will he get into some trouble?】
Han Yixuan thought for a moment and replied: 【Wait until he returns, and I’ll ask him then.】
————
After learning two pieces of information from Ye Xun, Lu Qi felt that even if work had been extremely busy lately, she had to take action now.
Sitting in front of the computer in the office, Lu Qi methodically set the work tasks for the next period, clearly assigning them to each subordinate, then found the financing announcement for Little Orange Book online.
According to Ye Xun, Wang Heng had participated in this company’s Series A financing.
The announcement didn’t feature that familiar name, only a string of company names. But checking them one by one, Lu Qi soon found the only one registered in Rongdu. Following the trail further, this company named Anzhi Technology had been founded less than two months ago.
Although convenient tools like Tianmu Cha hadn’t appeared on the market yet, Lu Qi could guess who the legal representative of this company was without seeing it.
She directly called Qin Meng.
“Hey, do you know anyone at Little Orange Book?”
Qin Meng on the other end of the phone replied: “Of course I do. Wang Heng asked me about them before.”
Lu Qi’s mouth curved up, and she couldn’t help but smile: “That’s quite a coincidence. What did he ask about them for?”
Qin Meng: “Seemed like he planned to invest. But I really can’t figure it out—where does he get such certainty to bet on an internet company?”
Lu Qi: “Yeah, it’s really interesting…”
————
Shen Yexi had never imagined that his new job would be so leisurely.
After handling the company’s initial startup procedures, he was only responsible for two things. One was participating in supporting the investment in Little Orange Book, and the other was reviewing fof’s entrepreneurial progress and, per Wang Heng’s request, acquiring the equity of fof’s earliest investors at a low price of three hundred thousand, taking it all.
After all, with no profits visible after a year of entrepreneurship, those investors who weren’t particularly well-off had long wanted to sell.
“But President Wang is different. Spending over a million on fof and another three million on Little Orange Book, all for the future—no need for short-term profits at all…”
Looking at the company’s extremely simple financial statements, Shen Yexi couldn’t help but feel some hesitation.
The work he was doing now seemed like it didn’t require him at all. Even if he deducted half his salary and hired someone with average ability from the market, they could probably handle it. And after these two matters, he had no work tasks left.
Slacking off all day and taking a salary—what kind of life was that for a workplace elite with ideals and pursuits?
Moreover, at the end of the day, what exactly did President Wang want to do by starting a company? Just whimsically playing around with angel investment?
Sitting alone in the office with the air conditioning on, Shen Yexi took out his mobile phone and opened the Little Orange Book APP. Although he had participated in their Series A financing, Shen Yexi hadn’t really experienced their product much.
“This doesn’t count as slacking off at work; it’s just responsibly doing some investigation…”
Shen Yexi, who always had strong professional ethics, muttered this to himself.
Then he started browsing Little Orange Book.
Then an hour passed, and he found he couldn’t stop.
“This APP seems kinda interesting… E-commerce? Socializing? Community? Moments? It feels like one-stop operations! And it’s almost all young female users—they’re the biggest spenders…”
Shen Yexi suddenly got excited. He put down his mobile phone and opened the latest data report from fof.
When he had done the investigation in the Imperial Capital before, Shen Yexi had also collected quite a bit of data. Now, comparing the two sets of data, he could quickly summarize fof’s current state.
“Developing very rapidly, with a surge in users who paid the deposit… If the data isn’t faked, that’s pretty impressive!”
Making the association, Shen Yexi felt somewhat astonished and uncertain.
In his previous workplace, due to business dealings, he had contact with many startups and plenty of enthusiastic entrepreneurs. But usually, their success rate was terribly low, probably less than one in ten.
One in ten—strictly speaking, that wasn’t even a success rate; it was the survival rate after three to five years. The vast majority of startups didn’t last beyond three years.
But now, it seemed the fof and Little Orange Book he had invested in were different from those other startups; they looked very promising… So how exactly did President Wang find these two companies?
While contemplating, he heard his mobile phone ring.
Shen Yexi was startled, breaking out in quite a cold sweat. But picking up the phone, he saw it was an unknown number, not a call from President Wang.
Answering the call, he heard a slightly aloof but young and pleasant female voice: “Hello, is this Assistant Shen from Anzhi Technology?”
Shen Yexi: “Yes, it is. May I ask who you are…”
The unfamiliar female voice said calmly: “I think very highly of your company’s prospects. Could we discuss the matter of investing?”
Shen Yexi: “…Investing?”
————
Sorry for the late update; it took a lot of time to sort out the outline and setting. Because we’re reaching a fairly important turning point soon, part of the book’s background setting will reveal its true nature, so it took extra time. And everyone can probably tell that by now, with the story’s development here, the asura field situation has already intensified a lot, and some interesting things are just about ready to brew…
