Chapter 2339: Refusing Boss Sun

Obviously, Kevin Feige was quite satisfied with Zhao Fusheng's answer.

"Thank you for your support."

Kevin Feige said to Zhao Fusheng with a serious expression.

He knew very well that if Zhao Fusheng had refused him, it would have been acceptable too.

But he didn't, and that in itself was an act worthy of gratitude.

Zhao Fusheng, however, chuckled and waved his hand, saying, "Actually, as I said, this matter—I'm a businessman, and I'm just optimistic about Marvel's future development."

The implication, of course, was that not selling now didn't mean not selling later.

Kevin Feige laughed; he naturally understood what Zhao Fusheng meant, but even so, Zhao Fusheng's actions deserved his respect.

"Alright, let's talk about The Avengers."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and didn't continue discussing Marvel shares with Kevin Feige.

To be honest, Mr. Feige was just a professional manager. If Marvel's development strategy ever conflicted with his own and Disney's, Zhao Fusheng would not hesitate to join forces with Disney to abandon Kevin Feige.

But for now, he seemed competent, so Zhao Fusheng naturally wouldn't choose to move against him.

Zhao Fusheng was always courteous to every employee who could make money for him.

As Tan Kaixuan put it, that was the mindset a truly cold-hearted capitalist should have.

A capitalist who shows pity to his employees is not a qualified capitalist.

Zhao Fusheng hadn't quite understood his words before.

But now, Zhao Fusheng felt they were absolutely right.

Especially when Kevin Feige and Sean Favreau had tried to contact other capital behind his back, Zhao Fusheng realized he had been wrong before.

Those not of our kin are bound to have different hearts.

Those eight words were truly correct.

"The Avengers was proposed by Sean. His idea is to use our existing superheroes to build a Marvel universe. Every superhero will have their own solo movie, and then they'll come together to film The Avengers series. That way, we can maximize Marvel's influence..."

Kevin Feige began introducing the Avengers plan to Zhao Fusheng.

Admittedly, the plan was somewhat fanciful, but if it could truly be implemented, it would be amazing!

Zhao Fusheng had experienced this firsthand in his previous life.

Ten years of Marvel, a total of thirteen billion US dollars in box office revenue.

And that didn't even include merchandise, advertising, and so on.

The returns were indeed impressive!

Even Zhao Fusheng himself had to admire how detailed and thorough Marvel's plan was.

This was something Chinese filmmakers needed to work hard to learn.

Fortunately, now he had the chance to get a piece of Marvel's pie.

Thinking of this, a smile appeared on Zhao Fusheng's face as he looked at Kevin Feige: "Kevin, I think this plan is great, don't you?"

Kevin Feige's expression immediately became quite interesting: "Really? But Disney's idea is to have us primarily shoot superhero movies like Iron Man first. They think that will attract the most audience."

"Heh."

Zhao Fusheng sneered: "Those bastards only care about box office; what the hell do they know?"

Kevin Feige chuckled but didn't dare to speak.

He was just a professional manager. Zhao Fusheng could curse at Disney's boss because he was a capitalist like them.

But he, Kevin Feige, still had to continue working at Marvel; offending the boss would make things tough.

After a few remarks, Zhao Fusheng knew Kevin Feige couldn't talk like him, so he said no more and waved for him to escort him back to the hotel.

The security arrangements for this trip had been made well in advance.

Tan Kaixuan personally arranged for a local security company to handle the perimeter, while Zhao Fusheng had sixteen skilled men sent by Zhang Qian by his side.

Originally, Zhang Qian had intended to come himself, but Zhao Fusheng stopped him.

At this point, having Zhang Qian come personally would be overkill.

In Zhao Fusheng's own words, if someone could actually assassinate him under such security, Zhang Qian's purpose in surviving would be to take care of his family and find a way to avenge him.

Zhang Qian agreed wholeheartedly and accepted Zhao Fusheng's request.

Well, he was just that straightforward a person.

Zhao Fusheng had no choice but to let him be.

At most, the guy would secretly train a squad of death warriors.

Though Zhao Fusheng didn't think it necessary, it was still a method.

Even if it wasn't needed domestically, abroad, you never knew.

Back at the hotel, after having the bodyguards check all the facilities, Zhao Fusheng finally moved into the presidential suite.

He would only stay here for two days; after attending the shareholders' meeting, he would leave for his villa.

There, he was to meet with Masayoshi Son.

This was an invitation from Ono Masao. The former richest man in the world seemed to want to cooperate with Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng had no objection to this.

In his view, this was just a meeting. If real cooperation was to happen, it would depend on what Masayoshi Son could bring to the table.

After all, at their level, a single deal could be worth billions. If you couldn't offer something enticing, why would anyone want to cooperate with you?

Words spoken without substance were just a pile of nonsense.

Meaningless!

Exactly.

That was Zhao Fusheng's definition of most business negotiations.

A lot of meaningless chatter that never got to the point.

Real negotiations might end in the first or last few minutes.

Sitting in his room, Zhao Fusheng called Fan Baobao on his phone. They were having a great time back home, especially the son and daughter. Led by their aunt Fan Beibei, the three kids were almost turning the house upside down.

In Fan Baobao's words, the three of them were now like wild horses that had broken free, completely unable to control themselves.

Zhao Fusheng was quite happy about this.

Actually, he didn't agree with Fan Baobao's approach to raising children.

Fan Baobao was very strict with the kids.

Both the son and daughter were tightly disciplined.

In her words, Zhao Fusheng had worked hard to build up all this wealth. Even if they didn't have to inherit and manage it, at the very least, they should be ensured not to become spendthrifts.

Otherwise, wouldn't that betray Zhao Fusheng's hard work and sacrifice?

The words made sense, and the reasoning was correct.

But in Zhao Fusheng's view, wasn't the purpose of his hard work to let his son and daughter live happy and free lives?

However, since he had entrusted the children's education to Fan Baobao, he would certainly not interfere.

In that regard, he respected Fan Baobao very much.

Whether it's the man working outside and the woman managing the home, or vice versa, it's ultimately the couple's way of getting along.

"How are things over there?"

Fan Baobao casually asked Zhao Fusheng.

"Not bad."

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "You know, Americans really do things quickly."

Fan Baobao smiled slightly.

She knew that although her husband had many investments in the United States, Zhao Fusheng's impression of Americans had never been good.

"Alright, stop overthinking. Finish the talks as soon as possible and come back."

Fan Baobao said to Zhao Fusheng at last.

"Okay."

Zhao Fusheng nodded and hung up the phone.

For him, even just chatting with his family for a few words could warm his heart.

After thinking for a moment, he called his parents again, asked about their health, and inquired about Li Yuan's situation before hanging up.

To be honest, this feeling was really good for him.

Someone cared about him, and he cared about them.

Compared to the extreme loneliness of his previous life, the present was much more comfortable.

…

…

The next day, when Zhao Fusheng attended Marvel's shareholder meeting, he perfectly displayed the traits of a businessman.

Throughout the meeting, he mostly just nodded and didn't speak. Most of the time, as long as others' suggestions didn't affect his interests, he would agree.

This truly surprised everyone.

They had thought this super-wealthy man from China would be a tough nut to crack.

Unexpectedly, he was so easy to deal with.

Only the Disney representative and Kevin Feige knew what a formidable character he really was.

"Zhao, what exactly do you want to do?"

The Disney representative approached Zhao Fusheng at the end of the meeting and asked him.

Zhao Fusheng glanced at him and chuckled. "What I want to do, you're not qualified to know. Have your CEO come talk to me."

With that, he simply left.

Leaving the representative standing there dumbfounded.

Zhao Fusheng was right.

He indeed was not qualified to negotiate with Zhao Fusheng.

After all, Zhao Fusheng was the boss of Future Investment, while he was just a senior vice president at Disney.

In other words, how could a wage earner and a capitalist be qualified to sit down and negotiate?

After the meeting, Zhao Fusheng left to meet with Son Masayoshi.

The former world's richest man came across as very polite. Although he didn't speak Chinese, Zhao Fusheng could communicate with him in English.

The atmosphere of their meeting was very harmonious.

Son Masayoshi was the kind of person who was good at conversation. Or rather, no one who achieved such success was a fool or an idiot.

They always used the most heartwarming ways to bridge the distance, making you feel they were especially kind and trustworthy.

Then, they would take every penny from you.

Fortunately, Zhao Fusheng was battle-hardened and managed not to be fooled by Son Masayoshi.

"I believe we will have a pleasant cooperation."

Son Masayoshi said to Zhao Fusheng with a serious expression.

Clearly, he was eager to cooperate with Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled lightly, but was not interested in his words.

To be honest, as far as Zhao Fusheng was concerned, this guy might have been very successful in his investments in the first half of his life, but in the second half, if Zhao Fusheng remembered correctly, SoftBank later even had to rely on selling shares in Alibaba to stay afloat.

Regarding this matter, Zhao Fusheng felt it was best to keep it to himself and not remind Masayoshi Son.

On one hand, he didn't want to be accused of alarmism; on the other hand, he still harbored resentment toward Mr. Son's nationality.

Deep down, Zhao Fusheng was still quite a hot-blooded youth.

"Dear sir, I think I will not consider continuing to invest in some American companies for the time being."

Zhao Fusheng said calmly to Masayoshi Son.

Son's expression changed slightly; he really hadn't expected Zhao Fusheng to reject him.

"Zhao, you should trust my ability."

Son tried to salvage the situation.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled: "I trust myself more."

Son was silent.

If anyone else had said this, he might have retorted that they were overestimating themselves.

But the problem was, the one who said it was Zhao Fusheng.

Who was Zhao Fusheng?

This guy started from scratch and accumulated immense wealth in ten years.

Now he was about to see his net worth soar due to Facebook's IPO.

A man like this was absolutely qualified to reject him.

In fact, Son was well aware that if their positions were swapped, he might not necessarily do better than Zhao Fusheng.

Of course, he was also confident that if Zhao Fusheng were in his shoes, he certainly couldn't have achieved what he had.

Everyone has their own pride, and Boss Son was no exception.

So he put on a polite smile and bid farewell to Zhao Fusheng.

Watching Boss Son and his entourage leave his estate, Zhao Fusheng gently shook his head.

This Boss Son probably still clung to the methods that had worked for him back then.

In his view, as long as he took a large sum of money and cast a wide net, investing in internet startups, if one of them went public with a market cap of hundreds of billions of dollars, he could recoup his investment.

After all, that was how he had discovered Yahoo and succeeded.

But the problem was, times had changed.

If, ten years ago, or fifteen years ago, in the wild early days of the internet, SoftBank's investment strategy was very successful, then now you would find that the method of casting a wide net was gradually losing its effectiveness.

Because more and more entrepreneurs would burn through the money you invested.

For example, a company was doing well, and as an investor, you invested five hundred thousand.

But by the second round of financing, you would find you had to invest ten million.

Then a hundred million, five hundred million.

By the time of the IPO, you would find you had to invest a billion to maintain the shares you needed.

Fine, you invested.

All in all, a project worth nearly two billion.

But after going public, the company's market cap turned out to be low!

In fact, a company you valued at ten billion ended up with a market cap of only five billion.

That was the situation Boss Son faced.

It was a sad story.

But in Zhao Fusheng's memory, it had actually happened.

So there was no way he would cooperate with this Boss Son.