Chapter 1901 No Starting Point

In Zheng Yao's worldview, the purpose of investment is to make money. If an investment doesn't make money, then it's meaningless.

For example, if you have a hundred thousand yuan and buy an antique as an investment, and now that antique is worth one hundred ten thousand yuan.

In theory, you've earned ten thousand yuan.

But before the antique is sold, you haven't actually gotten the profit yet.

Not only that, if the antique is destroyed, or if a similar item is discovered and it becomes worthless, then instead of making money, you've lost money.

That's the risk of investment.

So Zheng Yao felt that since the goal was to get Ma Huateng to negotiate with Future Group, and since that goal had been achieved in the stock market, they should negotiate as soon as possible. After the negotiations, they should sell the shares.

"No, that's not necessary."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said to Zheng Yao, "Tencent Technology's shares will appreciate in the future."

"Ah?"

Zheng Yao was stunned and looked at Zhao Fusheng in surprise.

She hadn't expected Zhao Fusheng to say that.

"The reason we're forcing Ma Huateng to the negotiating table now is to tell him that if Tencent Technology continues to maintain its current state in its cooperation with us, we can make things very difficult for him."

Zhao Fusheng said calmly, "In other words, this is an act to demonstrate my power. The reason I chose Tencent is because I believe this company's future development won't be inferior to Alibaba's."

If you are strong enough, your opponents will be friendly to you.

That was the lesson Zhao Fusheng wanted Zheng Yao to understand.

Zheng Yao wasn't stupid. With Zhao Fusheng's words so clear, if she still didn't get it, she would be hopeless.

"According to your plan, we need to prepare for negotiations with Ma Huateng now." Zheng Yao thought for a moment and said to Zhao Fusheng.

In this era of rapid information dissemination, Zheng Yao never thought Ma Huateng was stupid, so she was sure that it wouldn't be long before Boss Ma found out that the person behind the scenes was Zhao Fusheng.

In that case, Zheng Yao believed it would be a long and arduous negotiation.

Although Pony Ma at this time kept a low profile and always claimed to be from an ordinary family, anyone who took him for a fool would be the real fool.

Looking at Boss Ma's entrepreneurial history, it was truly a case of one general's success costing ten thousand lives.

It wasn't easy to gain an advantage from him.

And now, clearly, Zhao Fusheng was going to challenge this enemy.

As a subordinate and a close friend, Zheng Yao had no choice but to give full support.

...

...

As it turned out, Zheng Yao was quite prescient.

Two days later, Zhao Fusheng received a call from Ma Huateng.

"I'm going to the capital on business in a few days. Let's meet and catch up."

Pony Ma was a smart man; naturally, he wouldn't say anything over the phone.

But the fact that he called Zhao Fusheng meant he already knew everything.

"Okay."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and didn't refuse.

Wasn't the purpose of all his efforts to get Pony Ma to meet him?

After hanging up, Zhao Fusheng called Zheng Yao.

"Get ready. He's coming." Zhao Fusheng said directly.

"He?"

Zheng Yao was startled, then said, "Pony Ma?"

"Of course."

Zhao Fusheng laughed: "Who else did you think?"

Zheng Yao paused, then nodded: "It can only be him."

She also knew this was a tough battle. The opponent Zhao Fusheng had to face was a genuine business elite.

"Should we call Chenxi back?"

Zheng Yao thought for a moment, then asked Zhao Fusheng.

Dong Chenxi was the general manager of Future Investment and the executor of this operation. If she came back, it should be beneficial.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and shook his head, saying, "No need. Ma Huateng and I can probably settle it over a meal."

This was the truth. The matter was not complicated, and the two were old acquaintances. Many things were not troublesome to discuss.

"All right, then."

Zheng Yao had no choice but to nod.

She also knew that on this matter, Zhao Fusheng had more say than she did.

After all, he had dealt with Ma Huateng for a longer time; the two had known each other for many years.

Frankly, even Zheng Yao had to admire Zhao Fusheng. Back when Tencent was just starting out, he had been able to see the company's promising future and invest in advance. With that kind of foresight alone, she could never catch up.

This was probably what they called talent.

Mr. Ma was a man of action. Not long after calling Zhao Fusheng, he arrived in the capital.

Of course, picking him up at the airport was not something for Zhao Fusheng to do; he had his own branch office and his own subordinates.

"So, how is the investigation going?"

Sitting in the car, Mr. Ma asked his subordinate.

"It has been confirmed that Dong Chenxi, the general manager of Future Investment, has not appeared publicly recently." The person in charge of this investigation was Ma Huateng's trusted aide, so he dared not be negligent.

"Then it seems it's her."

Ma Huateng's face darkened as he said slowly, "Among Zhao Fusheng's people, this Dong Chenxi has always been in charge of investments."

As one of the shareholders of Tencent Technology, Ma Huateng was familiar with the information on Future Group.

Among Zhao Fusheng's subordinates, Zheng Yao, as CEO, was known as Zhao Fusheng's steward, overseeing the overall situation. Zhang Qian was in charge of Future Security, serving as Zhao Fusheng's security force.

Future Investment and Future Film and Television were led by Dong Chenxi and Ye Jing, respectively.

Neither of these two was an easy person to deal with.

Han Star Investment, located in South Korea, was an overseas subsidiary of Future Group. Its head, Liang Jingyu, was promoted by Dong Chenxi and deeply trusted by Zhao Fusheng.

In addition, the general manager of Future Technology, Dong Guoxiang, was a partner who had started a business with Zhao Fusheng during their university days.

It is no exaggeration to say that, aside from Liang Jingyu, all the heads of these Future Group companies were old-timers who had come up together with Zhao Fusheng from their humble beginnings.

In other words, the upper management of Future Group was very united.

When it came to matters like this, Zhao Fusheng couldn't entrust them to anyone else; he had to put Dong Chenxi in charge.

"Chairman, should we also prepare a counterattack?" the assistant hesitated, then asked Ma Huateng.

After all, Future Group's secret acquisition of Tencent's stock was a very serious matter. In the assistant's view, if the company didn't retaliate, wouldn't that let the other side succeed?

Ma Huateng snorted coldly and glanced at the assistant: "Counterattack? What are you going to counterattack with?"

The assistant was taken aback. Thinking it over, he realized how foolish his words had been.

Indeed, counterattack—with what?

You see, among these subsidiaries of the Future Group, apart from Future Technology, which had business dealings with Tencent Technology, none of the remaining subsidiaries were even publicly listed.

Hanxing Investment was far abroad, cooperating with Samsung and CJ, and was impossible to shake.

Future Security no longer accepted external business; it was used purely internally by the Future Group.

As for the remaining subsidiaries, Future Investment went without saying—it could attack their side—and Future Advertising was a top-tier company in the industry.

Only Future Technology had business dealings with Tencent, because it needed to collaborate on promoting their game projects.

But although Tencent Technology's staff acted arrogant in front of Future Technology's employees, as Ma Huateng's assistant, he knew very well how much revenue Future Technology's games brought to Tencent.

"Understand?"

Seeing the assistant's expression change, Ma Huateng snorted and said irritably, "Stop talking nonsense. If Zhao Fusheng were so easy to deal with, I would have bought up his shares long ago."

The assistant quickly nodded and dared not speak again.

Ma Huateng's gaze drifted out the car window, and he sighed silently to himself.

To be honest, he too wished he could counterattack.

But the problem was, how to counterattack, and how to ensure that his counterattack stayed within appropriate bounds without provoking too strong a reaction from Zhao Fusheng.

This was a very difficult thing to control.

To be honest, Ma Huateng did not want to offend a shareholder holding fifteen percent of the shares. He hoped Zhao Fusheng would support him, because Tencent Technology, seemingly prosperous, was actually fraught with crises.

Under these circumstances, Ma Huateng felt he should not turn Zhao Fusheng into an enemy.