Chapter 0917: Cleaning Up and Going Legit

Not to mention Fan Baobao, who was so ashamed of not knowing which country Hu Run was from that she got out of the car and hid at home, Zhao Fusheng and Zhang Qian were discussing other matters in the car.

"How is Dong Guoxiang doing?" Zhao Fusheng asked Zhang Qian.

Although the cheat studio was just an insignificant part of all his businesses, in Zhao Fusheng's eyes, it was a clever move for his future plans in the internet industry.

Zhao Fusheng had no intention of touching the e-commerce industry. That was a money-burning business, like a bottomless pit. Even if his current assets were ten times larger, they wouldn't be enough.

The same went for video websites. Even by 2016, most video websites were just making a loss for publicity, with very few actually turning a profit.

Although Zhao Fusheng made money easily, he didn't plan to waste too much effort on these two industries when the technology and market were still immature.

What he aimed for was software development!

As the name implied, Zhao Fusheng's goal was simple: he wanted to gather a research team of his own and have them develop game software.

After all, whether it was PC games or mobile games, the future market was huge. Although the profits weren't as high as e-commerce or video websites, in Zhao Fusheng's view, why take risks when there was a surefire business? He'd have to be crazy to choose otherwise.

As the saying goes, it's a fool who doesn't take easy money. By the same logic, Zhao Fusheng wouldn't waste energy on difficult things when easy money was available.

"Not bad. The cheat market for 'Stone Age' is basically monopolized by us. Whether in terms of functionality or price, we have a huge advantage." Zhang Qian smiled. "Barring accidents, this alone can earn tens of millions a year."

Tens of millions?

Zhao Fusheng was startled. He hadn't expected that just making cheats for one game could yield tens of millions in annual profit.

No wonder cheats persisted in later generations. Even with explicit legal bans, people kept diving into this industry. The profits were just too high; money moved hearts.

Everyone likes making money, but not everyone, like Zhao Fusheng, can control themselves from crossing the line.

Zhao Fusheng couldn't restrain others' thoughts. All he could do was try to control himself.

"Prepare to stop the cheat business by the end of the year," Zhao Fusheng said to Zhang Qian after a moment's thought.

Zhang Qian was taken aback and looked at Zhao Fusheng in surprise. Although he knew that Zhao Fusheng's current net worth made him indifferent to this annual profit of tens of millions, it was still a huge sum. Just stop it?

"Maybe we should reconsider? The staff at the studio are very motivated," Zhang Qian hesitated but still voiced his opinion.

Of course, he couldn't directly say it was his own idea, so he used the studio staff as an excuse.

Zhao Fusheng saw through his little trick but didn't call him out. He smiled and shook his head. "The state is about to legislate on this and will definitely make an example of someone. With our current scale, it's not worth leaving any ammunition for others."

Zhang Qian thought for a moment, then nodded, finding the reason acceptable.

After all, although Zhao Fusheng wasn't famous, Zhang Qian knew he was a legitimate businessman worth over a hundred million. With such status, he didn't need to rely on gray industries like cheat-making.

Simply put, if you can rely on talent to make money, why rely on your face?

Of course, that was a joke. In Zhang Qian's view, Zhao Fusheng intended to whitewash all his businesses, leaving no stains.

Thinking it over, that made sense, so Zhang Qian had no objections.

"Also, have Dong Guoxiang come see me when he's free. I have something to tell him," Zhao Fusheng said to Zhang Qian after a moment.

Zhao Fusheng planned to keep using Dong Guoxiang. Although his abilities were relatively lacking, he was loyal. Ambitious but knowing his limits—that was the kind of person Zhao Fusheng liked to employ.

Or rather, not just Zhao Fusheng—every business owner hoped to have a few such people under them.

Because there were too many smart people in this world. Those who could think ten steps ahead and were sharp-witted were valuable, but even more valuable were those with lesser abilities but unwavering loyalty.

As long as such people weren't useless loafers, they would ultimately go further than those with stronger abilities.

Some might not understand this logic, but in Zhao Fusheng's view, it was simple: every successful person was smart enough themselves. Without sufficient intelligence, they couldn't have built their fortunes.

But precisely because they were smart, they had an unconscious aversion to other smart people.

Smart people's minds were too active. Superiors would rather have subordinates who were a bit dull than those who could replace them at any moment.

"Okay, got it." Zhang Qian nodded without asking why Zhao Fusheng wanted to see Dong Guoxiang.

Although he and Dong Guoxiang got along well, Zhang Qian knew whose man he was.

Ever since his grandfather left this world, he had regarded Zhao Fusheng as the only one who could command him to do anything. His upbringing had shaped his sense of right and wrong differently from ordinary people. In his view, whoever was good to him and to the kids at Red Star Welfare Home was a good person.

Clearly, Zhao Fusheng was that good person.

In Zhang Qian's mind, whatever Zhao Fusheng did, as long as his intentions were good, he should support it.

Zhao Fusheng was unaware of some of Zhang Qian's thoughts. If he knew, he would have laughed heartily, because he knew he would never do anything illegal.

After all, he had too much knowledge in his head, enough to earn endless money. Now, making money was more like a job to him.

Money could make life more comfortable for him and his family and bring a sense of achievement. Even as a reborn person, Zhao Fusheng couldn't resist that temptation.

Watching Zhang Qian leave, Zhao Fusheng suddenly felt he should rent an office building. Otherwise, he couldn't keep inviting people to his home for meetings.

With that in mind, he called Dong Chenxi and told her to find an office building in the capital and register a Future Capital China branch with the工商 bureau.

Dong Chenxi had no objection. She had been planning to bring it up herself, as she believed the domestic commercial market had great potential.

Since Future Capital intended to be a venture capital fund, investing in the domestic market was promising.

Dong Chenxi worked efficiently. Three days later, she rented an office building in Haidian District—not the whole building, but floors six, seven, and eight as the company's office.

Zhao Fusheng wasn't entirely satisfied. In his view, since property prices in the capital would skyrocket later, buying was better than renting.

But the problem was, after acquiring NetEase's stock, the cash he had from Huayi Brothers and the Mercedes-Benz was almost used up.

Dong Guoxiang had some cash, about five or six million, but that wasn't enough to buy an office building, so he had to drop the idea for now.

Regardless, at least the framework of an investment company was set up. Dong Chenxi transformed from the head of Future Film to the head of Future Capital.

Dong Guoxiang and Dong Chenxi, who shared the same surname and alma mater, met again after several years in the new office of Future Capital.

"Well, we're all old acquaintances, so no need for introductions." Zhao Fusheng smiled at Dong Chenxi and Dong Guoxiang.

Both graduated from Ninghai Normal University, and back in Ninghai, before she broke up with Wang Zhen, Dong Chenxi had met Dong Guoxiang, so there was no awkwardness.

Although everyone's status had changed, overall things were moving in a good direction, so there was no estrangement.

If one had done well and the other poorly, there might have been distance—that's human nature. But since both worked under Zhao Fusheng, they had a lot in common.

"Long time no see."

"Yeah, long time no see."

After exchanging pleasantries, Dong Chenxi and Dong Guoxiang sat on the sofas to Zhao Fusheng's left and right.

Zhao Fusheng sat on the center sofa and said to Dong Guoxiang, "Senior Dong Chenxi is now in charge of all my investment company matters. I called you here today to get you acquainted. Next step, we'll stop developing cheat software and officially start developing a new piece of software."

"New software?"

Both Dong Chenxi and Dong Guoxiang were stunned. Dong Guoxiang blurted out, "You mean we're going into software development?"

Zhao Fusheng smiled and nodded. "Since we could make cheats, do you think developing a few web games is a problem?"

This was something he had been considering all along. If his team could make cheat programs, then the web games in his mind were a piece of cake.

This time, he would definitely surprise everyone.