Chapter 1040: The Man Destined to Shake the World

In truth, Dong Chenxin was well aware that Zhao Fusheng handing over the integration plan to her was also for her own good.

Entrusting such a massive task to her was naturally meant to help her establish prestige throughout the company. After all, this involved the merger of numerous companies, with a host of proud and unruly subordinates—none of them easy to deal with.

To command these people, lacking sufficient seniority and reputation would certainly not do.

And this time, it was the opportunity Zhao Fusheng gave to Dong Chenxin.

Whether she could seize it was up to her, but Zhao Fusheng had done all he could.

Opportunity is something others give you; if you fail to grasp it, it’s no longer their problem.

Turning back, Zhao Fusheng’s life continued as usual. He took time to visit Dong Guoxiang and check on the progress of Kaixin.com, and he was quite satisfied.

After so much training, Dong Guoxiang had grown up. In Zhao Fusheng’s view, he now possessed the ability to handle things independently.

It must be noted that originally, Dong Guoxiang was just a tech geek, with average abilities, and his computer skills came from his academic background.

At the very beginning of forming this team, he even had to rely on subordinates to lead.

But now, Zhao Fusheng could clearly feel that Dong Guoxiang’s prestige within the entire team was already very high.

Of course, this also had to do with his own personality.

Dong Guoxiang was the kind of person who was exceptionally sincere. You could despise his lack of ability, but you couldn’t say he was a bad person.

As a result, the people under him held him in considerable respect and would consult with him on matters.

This outcome even surprised Zhao Fusheng, but upon reflection, he could accept it.

Research and development work is inherently different from other jobs. If the team atmosphere is too rigid, it actually hinders the progress of work.

For example, a research and development company might allow employees to wear slippers to work because it’s comfortable and helps researchers maintain a pleasant mood for their work.

But if this laissez-faire approach were applied in a formal enterprise, it would make the company seem less dignified.

This is probably the principle that the same policy can produce different effects when applied in different places.

Oranges grown south of the Huai River are sweet oranges, but north of the Huai River they become bitter trifoliate oranges—this roughly captures the idea.

Originally, Zhao Fusheng worried that Dong Guoxiang might be sidelined, but later he saw that the technical staff truly respected him, so he dropped the thought.

Thinking it over, this was actually normal. Dong Guoxiang treated people so well, so naturally they treated him well in return. In this world, there aren’t that many heartless villains; most people are good at heart, harboring goodwill.

“From now on, leave things here to Dong Guoxiang,” Zhao Fusheng said to Zhang Qian as he left.

Previously, Zhang Qian was mainly in charge here. By saying this now, Zhao Fusheng was effectively granting Dong Guoxiang the authority to make decisions on the spot.

Only Zhao Fusheng, as the boss, could say such a thing.

Zhang Qian nodded, indicating he understood.

……

……

During this period, everything was calm at home. His father’s company was thriving and had now begun to enter the real estate industry—from building houses for others to acquiring land themselves.

“You said before, first get the land in hand, and then what?” Father Zhao asked curiously over the phone.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled: “Dad, do you know the easiest way to make money in real estate?”

Father Zhao was baffled, clearly unable to grasp his son’s thinking.

Zhao Fusheng explained: “In real estate, simply building and selling houses is the most foolish approach. The simplest method is to first enclose land, buy it cheap, then let the local government build roads and designate it as a development zone. Naturally, people will come to buy land for shops and residences. We just sit back and enjoy the profits, counting money at home.”

Without exaggeration, Zhao Fusheng’s suggestion was quite shameless, but in later land development processes, it was very common.

The American President Trump liked to do this. He himself was a real estate tycoon. Typically, he would buy the land first, not even bother to build houses, and wait until supporting facilities like roads, water, electricity, internet, and subways were in place, then sell it off, making tens of times the profit.

A downright lucrative industry!

In fact, many people in China did the same.

Originally, Zhao Fusheng didn’t really want his father to enter this industry, given the many scandals and complexities. But on second thought, if his father didn’t do it, someone else would. Rather than letting unscrupulous merchants make this money, it was better for his own father to do it—at least his dad was a businessman with principles.

Father Zhao was truly shocked by the scene Zhao Fusheng described. He had never imagined that making money could be done this way.

Thinking back, he realized how naive he had been.

But he also understood that the method Zhao Fusheng mentioned was indeed feasible. As Zhao Fusheng said, at least compared to those unscrupulous real estate developers, the compensation he would offer was at least a fair price.

……

……

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, a week went by.

Zheng Yao, along with the Strategic Research Office, was working intensively on the integration plan. In Dong Chenxin’s words, Zheng Yao was now on the verge of going half-mad, and it was best not to provoke her, or she might lash out until you couldn’t take care of yourself.

When Zhao Fusheng heard this news, he touched his nose with lingering fear, wondering if he had pushed Zheng Yao too hard. If she collapsed under the pressure, it would be very troublesome.

But then he thought, if you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight.

If Zheng Yao wanted to become the president of the future group after the integration, and couldn’t even handle this, how would she manage other company affairs later? After all, many people were eyeing her position.

People always envy emperors with their three palaces, six courtyards, and seventy-two concubines, but forget that those emperors lost their freedom for life.

That’s how life is: you gain something, you inevitably lose something. If everything went smoothly, life would lose its meaning for striving.

“Softbank Asia is starting to get restless,” Dong Chenxin said, seeing Zhao Fusheng’s timid look. She didn’t bother to tease him and brought up the serious matter.

Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng frowned: “Has Ono made a move?”

Dong Chenxin nodded: “It’s not really a move, but I received news that Softbank Asia is trying to contact dating websites similar to ours.”

Zhao Fusheng was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

“Just a bluff,” Zhao Fusheng said with a smile to Dong Chenxin.

This was true. The more they acted this way, the more it showed that Softbank Asia actually valued the acquisition of Xiaonei.com very much.

After all, if they weren’t approaching the hottest and largest dating website in the country but instead contacting other similar sites, it only proved they were bullish on the industry.

“But we do need to be careful,” Dong Chenxin said, not as optimistic as Zhao Fusheng. “I’ve heard that similar websites in the US have started targeting campuses. If they poach our user base, it might pose a threat.”

Zhao Fusheng nodded, understanding her meaning. She was referring to Myspace from the US, founded in September 2003, now claiming to be the world’s largest social networking site.

But Zhao Fusheng knew that soon, Myspace would be surpassed by Facebook, which had only been online for a few months.

That young man from New York was now a sophomore at Harvard University. Not long ago, he had just taken the first step of his legendary journey.

As a sophomore, he developed a program called CourseMatch, which allowed users to reference other students’ course selections. Later, he developed another program called Facemash, letting students choose the best-looking person from a set of photos.

In fact, he did it just for fun. He had several books called Face Books, containing students’ names and photos. Initially, he created a website with a few photos—two of boys and two of girls—where visitors could select the “hottest” one, and rankings were based on votes.

The competition lasted through the weekend, but by Monday morning, it was shut down by the school because Harvard’s servers were overwhelmed, and students were banned from the site. Moreover, many students complained that their photos were used without authorization. He publicly apologized and stated in the school newspaper that it was “inappropriate.”

In early February of this year, this Harvard sophomore majoring in computer science and psychology had a sudden idea to build a website as a communication platform for Harvard students. It took him only about a week to establish the site, named Facebook.

The site became a huge sensation as soon as it launched. Within a few weeks, more than half of Harvard’s undergraduate students had registered as members, voluntarily providing their most private personal data, such as names, addresses, interests, and photos. Students used this free platform to keep up with friends’ updates, chat, and find new friends.

Soon, the site expanded to major US college campuses, and young people across North America, including Canada, became interested. It also became popular in university campuses in the UK, Australia, and other countries.

And less than a week after he created the site, this young man received a phone call from across the ocean.