Chapter 1324: I’m Just a Businessman

Although businessmen always like to package themselves as Confucian merchants, especially the wealthy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, led by Ma Xiaoyun, who constantly flaunt their ideals and put on a compassionate and pitying air.

But in reality, any one of these people, if you dig deep, has a mountain of dark history.

Or to be more precise, the primitive accumulation of capital is itself fraught with original sin.

It’s just that, decades later, most of these people have already achieved success and fame, so naturally there are those who help cover things up.

This is no different from how ancient emperors, after ascending the throne, would alter history.

Just like now, Zhao Fusheng could even be certain that if it weren’t for him, if he had been forced out by Ma Xiaoyun and Yahoo, then in all likelihood, a dozen years later, few people would know what Ma Xiaoyun had done.

Though everyone pulls out all the stops in business competition, in Zhao Fusheng’s view, some methods truly lower the bar of human decency.

"Mr. Ma, if you’ll forgive my bluntness, your actions make me feel that perhaps I misjudged you before," Zhao Fusheng said, looking at Ma Xiaoyun with a calm tone.

He really hadn’t expected that, despite thinking the addition of Future Investment would delay or prevent Yahoo’s capital injection, this unremarkable-looking Boss Ma had still given him a surprise—he had actually colluded with Yahoo after all.

Ma Xiaoyun looked at Zhao Fusheng with a sincere expression: "Chairman Zhao, I think Yahoo is very sincere, and I believe that with this one billion dollar investment, our company will definitely develop even better."

Well, it sounded fine on the surface.

Zhao Fusheng gave a silent, cold smile and shot Ma Xiaoyun a deep look.

If he didn’t know what kind of person this man was, he might have been persuaded by him, naively agreeing to this cooperation, only to have his equity diluted and perhaps one day, like SoftBank Asia before, end up making a bridal gown for Ma Xiaoyun and being forced out.

In business, Zhao Fusheng didn’t mind Ma Xiaoyun playing these little tricks, but he had to go and ally with foreigners to screw over a fellow Chinese, which made Zhao Fusheng extremely unhappy.

No wonder later generations on the internet had a low opinion of those internet giants; in fact, among these companies, very few were truly controlled by Chinese, and most had fallen under the control of foreign investment groups.

Even Tencent Technology was the same.

In 2018, a South African holding company cashed out a huge amount of Tencent stock, raking in billions.

And that money, naturally, was paid for by the shareholders.

"Mr. Ma, do you think Yahoo is a better partner than our Future Group?" Zhao Fusheng suddenly asked Ma Xiaoyun.

Ma Xiaoyun was taken aback, frowned, and then said: "If you’ll forgive my bluntness, Yahoo’s one billion dollar injection is in cash. I don’t think Future Group can come up with that much money, can you?"

From what he knew, when Future Group acquired TB’s shares before, they had done a stock swap with SoftBank Group, exchanging their NetEase US stocks for Alibaba shares.

That meant, in fact, Zhao Fusheng couldn’t come up with much cash to support him.

That was also why Ma Xiaoyun chose Yahoo as his partner; in his view, a shareholder who couldn’t invest more wasn’t a qualified collaborator.

In the end, it all came down to interests.

Someone like Ma Xiaoyun would never allow a "supreme ruler" over his head to dictate his every move; his goal was to firmly control the company in his own hands.

"How can Mr. Ma be sure that Future Investment won’t continue to inject capital?" Zhao Fusheng asked Ma Xiaoyun with a half-smile.

In fact, from start to finish, Zhao Fusheng had never let down his guard against Ma Xiaoyun. There was no helping it—this man was too much of a pitfall, or rather, Ma Xiaoyun had a chronic habit of betraying his allies.

"Some things don’t need to be certain," Ma Xiaoyun said, facing Zhao Fusheng with a smile still on his face, but his tone was very firm.

The atmosphere between the two had naturally lost the warmth and mutual admiration of the morning negotiations.

After all, back then they were mostly probing each other, but now they were talking about real money.

Zhao Fusheng’s gaze sharpened as he looked at Ma Xiaoyun, his eyes full of mockery: "Mr. Ma seems very confident."

Facing Zhao Fusheng’s gaze, Ma Xiaoyun showed no sign of backing down and said calmly: "Chairman Zhao, I admire you as a business genius, but the e-commerce industry requires not only talent and ability, but also wealth."

The implication was that Future Investment’s current scale couldn’t support the amount of capital Alibaba needed.

"In that case, let’s wait and see," Zhao Fusheng said flatly, then stood up and left without another word.

He no longer had any desire to talk with Ma Xiaoyun. Since this guy dared to come see him alone, he had probably already contacted Yahoo.

The problem now was how to handle the situation going forward.

Dong Chenxi also looked helpless. She glared at Ma Xiaoyun and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Ma, you’ll regret this sooner or later."

Ma Xiaoyun smiled proudly: "I never look back at the past when I do things."

The implication was that he never regretted anything.

……

……

Dong Chenxi followed Zhao Fusheng outside and said in a low voice: "Should I announce a withdrawal of investment?"

Withdrawal?

Zhao Fusheng was startled and looked at Dong Chenxi strangely: "Why would we withdraw?"

Dong Chenxi frowned: "If Ma Xiaoyun is unkind, we can be unjust…"

Before she could finish, Zhao Fusheng interrupted her, waving his hand: "Two different things. Although that Ma guy has poor character, we have to admit that the company’s development potential is there. Otherwise, would Yahoo’s executives be crazy enough to spend a billion dollars on a company destined for no growth?"

"Then what do we do? Should we contact Pangu Bank for a loan?" Dong Chenxi thought for a moment and offered another suggestion. In her view, if Alibaba couldn’t be abandoned, then Future Investment would have to continue injecting capital as Ma Xiaoyun envisioned.

To be honest, as an investor, Dong Chenxi really disliked this feeling of being led by the nose.

In fact, Zhao Fusheng didn’t like it either. Even if the one leading him by the nose was Ma Xiaoyun, one of the future big shots, in Zhao Fusheng’s eyes, Boss Ma’s behavior was truly shameless.

With that in mind, he shook his head, rejected Dong Chenxi’s suggestion, and said coldly: "We won’t go to the Chen family. Let’s bring back Ma Xiaoyun’s old rival."

"What do you mean?" Dong Chenxi was confused and didn’t quite understand Zhao Fusheng’s meaning.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled: "Doesn’t Ma Xiaoyun like to play balance games? Then this time I’ll turn his company into a battlefield."

Battlefield?

Hearing those words, Dong Chenxi was half-understanding. After a moment, a flash of inspiration struck her, and she blurted out: "Sequoia or SoftBank?"

She wasn’t stupid. Since Zhao Fusheng had made it so obvious, Dong Chenxi instinctively recalled his previous moves.

When the situation is chaotic, the best way to break the deadlock is to introduce new forces from the outside.

For Future Investment, the venture capital funds they had dealt with before—SoftBank Asia and Sequoia Capital—were both good choices. The former had once been Alibaba’s partner, but Ma Xiaoyun had always been wary of them and had even secretly created Alipay, joining forces with Future Investment to drive them away. The latter, Sequoia Capital, had always had a strong interest in entering the Chinese market. If Zhao Fusheng expressed a willingness to cooperate, either of these two companies would surely give Ma Xiaoyun a big surprise.

This was no joke. As leaders in the venture capital field, they had the ability and the level to do so. Dong Chenxi could already picture how shocked Ma Xiaoyun would be when he heard the news.

But just then, Zhao Fusheng shook his head and said slowly: "How can one be enough? If Ma Xiaoyun doesn’t suffer a bit, he won’t learn his lesson."

Dong Chenxi was stunned. For some reason, even though it was a scorching summer day, she suddenly felt a chill.