Chapter 0843: Frenemies

Men, as a species, only achieve success when they are restless. If they are too content with the status quo, in the end, nine times out of ten, they will accomplish nothing.

Zhao Fusheng had undoubtedly inherited the restless genes from his father, because both father and son were equally dissatisfied with the present and yearned to venture into the outside world to achieve greater success.

Father Zhao's business had already begun expanding to other cities and counties. Zhao Fusheng had no comment on this; his father had his own ideas, and if the son interfered too much, it would change the dynamic and make his father uncomfortable.

Just like Sicong once said, 'I don't judge friends by money, because the other party definitely isn't richer than me,' Zhao Fusheng's thought was to let his old man do as he pleased. After all, with him around, there was no need to worry about his father overreaching.

After all, given his father's current strength, even if something went wrong, it would be years down the line.

And in less than three years, once Shengda went public, Zhao Fusheng was one hundred percent certain that his fifteen percent stake would make him a fortune.

Even if he couldn't reach Chen Tianqiao's level of five billion RMB in personal wealth, Zhao Fusheng figured he'd at least have three or five hundred million.

He hadn't understood finance before, but now Zhao Fusheng knew that unless Chen Tianqiao signed an agreement with him to ensure his equity wasn't diluted, once venture capital entered the company—that is, after successful financing—his shareholding ratio was bound to decrease.

There was no way around it. Doing business was actually quite interesting: those with money could find good projects because they had sufficient funds to invest, making their capital grow, while those without money, even with good projects, had to give up due to lack of funds.

For a company, especially an internet company like Shengda, as financing progressed, unless Zhao Fusheng injected additional capital, his shares were destined to be diluted.

Of course, although diluted, with the addition of venture capital, the value of Zhao Fusheng's shares actually increased.

For example, although Zhao Fusheng currently held fifteen percent of Shengda Technology, the company's total valuation wouldn't exceed fifty million RMB, making his stake worth about seven or eight million. But if ten million USD in venture capital joined, assuming that ten million USD accounted for twenty percent of the shares, then Shengda Technology's valuation would become fifty million USD.

Converted to RMB, that's over four hundred million.

Even if Zhao Fusheng's shares were diluted to ten percent, he would still hold equity worth over forty million.

Especially after going public, such benefits would only increase.

To put it simply, take the disclosure system as an example.

This is a system that any mature stock market should have, mainly to protect the interests of small and medium shareholders and prevent them from being affected by剧烈的 market fluctuations.

In plain terms, it's to prevent small shareholders from being toyed with by major shareholders.

Specifically in documents, it requires that although a listed company's shareholders can change arbitrarily, if an investor holds more than five percent of the company's shares, starting from five percent, then ten percent, fifteen percent, and so on, they must report to the Securities Regulatory Commission within three days of reaching the threshold, announce the acquisition plan to all investors, and begin fulfilling their shareholder obligations.

Speaking of this, Zhao Fusheng had made a round at the Glory Internet Cafe a few days ago and found that almost everyone in the cafe was playing Legend. According to Qian Dongliu, there were still people playing Stone Age or Red Alert before, but now no one played anything else.

At the same time, Zhao Fusheng also noticed that besides the cheats he had sold before, people in the cafe had started using other cheats to play the game. After all, the game code of Legend was riddled with loopholes; any moderately skilled programmer could exploit bugs to farm money or equipment, let alone develop simple cheats.

At the very least, Zhao Fusheng had seen with his own eyes that some players' cheats weren't that complex—just a simple full-map view without candles. But even so, people flocked to them.

"This game, I think more and more people will play it," Qian Dongliu said to Zhao Fusheng.

He didn't know that the boss in front of him was actually a shareholder of the company that published the game.

Hearing Qian Dongliu's words, Zhao Fusheng smiled lightly and made no comment.

Some things didn't need to be said by others; facts would prove everything. And for Zhao Fusheng, all he needed was time.

……

……

"Happy New Year!"

With the host's New Year wishes coming from the TV, the Spring Festival of 2002 arrived as scheduled.

Taking red envelopes from his mother and Li Yuan, Zhao Fusheng happily opened them to count the money, but Fan Baobao snatched them away.

"I'll hold onto them for you," said Comrade Fan Baobao.

Zhao Fusheng didn't think much of it, just assuming Fan Baobao genuinely wanted to keep them for him.

But after his mother and Li Yuan went into the kitchen to make dumplings, and his father went to answer the phone, he saw Fan Baobao smilingly approach her little sister.

"Beibei, where's your red envelope?" Fan Baobao asked, grinning at her sister.

Fan Beibei blinked her big eyes and replied innocently, "Right here."

As she spoke, she held up the red envelope for her sister to see.

Originally, Zhao Fusheng and Fan Baobao were going to give her a red envelope too, but Li Yuan stopped them, saying the little girl was only five and shouldn't be spoiled like that. They said daughters should be raised with wealth, but it depended on the situation; love didn't mean indulgence.

Fan Baobao smiled—neither simple nor cunning—and looked seriously at her sister: "Beibei, you're still young. Keeping the red envelope is useless. How about this: give it to me, and I'll save your New Year's money for you. When you grow up, I'll give it back, okay?"

At that moment, Zhao Fusheng felt like he could see the word 'cheat' shining brightly on Fan Baobao's forehead. His girlfriend was like the big bad wolf tricking Little Red Riding Hood, wasn't she?

Opening his mouth to speak, Zhao Fusheng was about to say something when Fan Baobao suddenly turned around and shot him a sharp glare. Then she said to Fan Beibei, "See, big brother already gave me his red envelope. Beibei, do you want to do the same as him?"

"Okay, okay."

Fan Beibei, who had been hesitant, no longer hesitated when she saw Fan Baobao holding Zhao Fusheng's red envelope. She handed her own red envelope to her sister and said cautiously, "Then keep it safe for me, and don't mix it up with big brother's."

Fan Baobao walked away contentedly with the two red envelopes, while Fan Beibei and Zhao Fusheng sat side by side on the sofa watching the Spring Festival Gala.

"Big brother, hide this for me."

Just as Zhao Fusheng was about to comfort the little girl, he heard Fan Beibei's voice beside him.

Then, a small red envelope appeared before him.

"Huh?" Zhao Fusheng looked up at Fan Beibei in surprise.

"Uncle gave it to me. Sister doesn't know," the little girl said, a smug smile spreading across her face.

At that moment, Zhao Fusheng thought of the legendary frenemies.