Chapter 0979: The Rich Man

For Fan Baobao, whether Zhao Fusheng had ten million US dollars or ten million yen made little difference. She wasn't a materialistic girl, and now that she herself had a modest fortune, she saw Zhao Fusheng's ability to make money as a sign of his capability.

That was all.

Of course, after learning that Zhao Fusheng was the owner of the my123 navigation website, she was surprised for a few days, a feeling that lasted until New Year's Day.

And then, that was it.

Over the past few years, Fan Baobao had grown accustomed to Zhao Fusheng's occasional surprises. The guy could write scripts, do advertising planning, and had previously invested in an online game. Now it turned out he had built a website that was acquired.

Well, that was so Zhao Fusheng.

That was Fan Baobao's understanding of the whole matter.

As for other things Zhao Fusheng mentioned, Fan Baobao waved her hand and said he didn't need to report to her; she wasn't interested.

Later, even Zhou Yun called Fan Baobao specifically to ask about it.

There was no helping it. After the contract was signed, Baidu began a massive publicity campaign for the acquisition, and for a time, Future Investment's name spread widely on the internet. It was only thanks to Dong Chenxi's thorough confidentiality work and the fact that the media hadn't yet become as pervasive as in later years that Zhao Fusheng's identity as the behind-the-scenes boss remained hidden.

And those familiar with Zhao Fusheng never expected that the guy, without a word, had built a website himself.

Of course, these people didn't know how much money Zhao Fusheng had, nor how many companies' shares he controlled. They only knew that Zhao Fusheng had initially set up a virtual space, later sold it and built a navigation website, and then used the money from advertising planning to start an investment company.

Well, it was in partnership with the behind-the-scenes boss of Future Advertising.

The above was the explanation Zhao Fusheng gave. Though somewhat far-fetched, it was still acceptable.

Of course, no one knew that he was the actual boss behind Future Advertising.

It wasn't that Zhao Fusheng didn't want to go public; rather, he felt the time wasn't right yet. Only when NetEase's stock price truly rose to his expectations would he seriously consider stepping into the spotlight.

Staying hidden behind the scenes forever was impossible. As the internet developed faster and faster and the media became more advanced, his identity couldn't remain concealed forever. At best, he could be like Boss Wang of SF Express—avoiding public appearances as much as possible and keeping a low profile.

This was an inevitable outcome.

After all, in China, there was a clear chain of contempt among social classes: the upper class looked down on the middle class, and the middle class looked down on the poor.

Each class formed a common group and developed a sense of identity with one another—this was what was called a circle.

If Zhao Fusheng wanted to integrate into the top circles, he had to show his muscle and strength to gain recognition from others. Although some people said that good wine needed no bush—that an impressive person could wear a ten-yuan shirt and still exude the style of an international brand—most people in this society were just ordinary.

When they judged others, they looked at faces, outfits, or cars. Only after getting familiar would they start talking about how much money you had.

So what Zhao Fusheng could do was try not to be so low-profile that no one knew who he was, lest one day he ran into trouble, mentioned his name, and the other party dismissed it, forcing him to run around asking for help.

That would be really low.

The purpose of reading was to talk calmly with idiots, and the purpose of success was to make idiots talk calmly with you. Zhao Fusheng firmly believed this.

……

……

New Year's Day 2004 arrived as scheduled, but Zhao Fusheng and Fan Baobao were terribly busy.

Fan Baobao's theater troupe, the People's Art Theatre, was rehearsing a play called Thunderstorm. She played the role of Sifeng, which was quite important. The girl was extremely excited, rehearsing at home all day, and from time to time she dragged Zhao Fusheng, Zhang Qian, and Yang Panpan to act with her. None of them had ever read the original play, but they were forced by Fan Baobao to memorize several lines.

In the end, when Zhang Qian reported work to Zhao Fusheng, he simply called him outside and refused to enter the house, afraid of being caught by Fan Baobao. This showed how formidable Fan Baobao was at the time.

As for Zhao Fusheng, he was invited to attend this year's annual meeting of Mercedes-Benz, as well as the annual meetings of Shengda Technology and Tencent Technology.

There was no way around it—as a shareholder of these two companies, this was something he couldn't shirk.

Actually, it was supposed to be Dong Chenxi who attended, but Ma Huateng and Chen Tianqiao each personally called Zhao Fusheng, insisting that he participate. Zhao Fusheng knew that these two probably had the same purpose.

Going public!

Without a doubt, Boss Ma and Boss Chen were both ambitious and driven figures. The greatest characteristic of such figures was that once they saw an opportunity for success or further advancement, they would quickly assess the overall likelihood of success. If the chance of success exceeded thirty percent, they would unhesitatingly set their plans in motion.

In this regard, Zhao Fusheng was not like them, because unless the chance of success exceeded fifty percent, he would not easily make up his mind to do something.

This was probably the difference between planning before acting and daring to be the first.

But regardless, for Zhao Fusheng, this was a good thing, and he naturally supported it. Whether it was Tencent or Shanda, as long as these two companies went public, it meant an increase in his own wealth. Zhao Fusheng would undoubtedly not miss out on this legitimate way of making money.

Who would argue with money?

So, after attending the annual meeting of Mercedes-Benz, Zhao Fusheng and Dong Chenxi headed to Shanghai together.

"Baby didn't ask you how you plan to spend the money you earned."

Sitting in economy class on the plane, Zhao Fusheng and Dong Chenxi chatted idly. Behind them were Zhang Qian and a few staff members from Future Investment. Originally, Dong Chenxi had suggested buying a business class seat for Zhao Fusheng, but he refused. He wasn't the President of the United States, after all. To be honest, spending money on a plane ticket, in Zhao Fusheng's view, was already quite wasteful. It wasn't an urgent matter; taking the train would have been just as good.

"She's not interested in that." Zhao Fusheng shook his head helplessly and said with a smile, "She's been busy rehearsing a play lately. The house is plastered with her lines. Even if I told her I'd earned ten million, or even that I planned to become a monk, she'd probably just nod and go back to her own business."

Dong Chenxi burst out laughing at Zhao Fusheng's words, rolled her eyes at him, and shook her head.

As an old friend who had watched Zhao Fusheng and Fan Baobao come this far, she knew that Zhao Fusheng was joking, but she also had to admit that their relationship was truly good, untainted by material things, purely a childhood sweetheart bond.

"By the way, have you thought about dating?" Zhao Fusheng was silent for a moment, then asked Dong Chenxi.

After breaking up with Wang Zhen, Dong Chenxi had never been in a relationship. Although he felt it was a pity that their relationship had ended, Zhao Fusheng also knew that some things, once past, could never return to how they were.

Hearing Zhao Fusheng's words, Dong Chenxi gave a bitter smile and gently shook her head: "I don't want to think about that for now."

With a sigh, Zhao Fusheng nodded and didn't bring up the matter again.

Clearly, Dong Chenxi didn't want to discuss this topic, so he naturally wouldn't say more.

Matters of the heart were personal privacy; even close friends shouldn't talk too much about them.

"How is Wang Zhen?" Just as Zhao Fusheng was about to close his eyes and doze off, Dong Chenxi suddenly asked a question that caught him quite off guard.

"What?" Zhao Fusheng raised an eyebrow and glanced at Dong Chenxi.

She smiled faintly and said calmly, "I'm asking you, how has Wang Zhen been lately? Don't tell me you haven't been keeping an eye on him."

Zhao Fusheng gave an awkward smile, naturally understanding what Dong Chenxi meant, and nodded: "He's doing okay. You know, his case had room for manipulation. Barring any accidents, he should be out in about half a year."

Then, Zhao Fusheng looked at her and asked, "What, do you still..."

He thought that Dong Chenxi might still have feelings for Wang Zhen. Although it seemed a bit unbelievable, when it came to matters of the heart, Zhao Fusheng dared not judge based on his own life experience, because such things could never be measured by common sense, especially with women. The saying 'a woman's heart is as unfathomable as the bottom of the sea' was not just an idle phrase.

Zhao Fusheng even felt that if Dong Chenxi said the next second that she couldn't forget Wang Zhen, he wouldn't find it strange.

But Dong Chenxi was, after all, not one of those young girls who were always caught up in romantic fantasies. Over the years, through the ups and downs of the business world, she had been tempered and matured a great deal.

Hearing Zhao Fusheng's words, Dong Chenxi smiled faintly and gently shook her head: "What's past is past, let's not bring it up again. What I mean is, I hope he can live well."

She paused, then said softly, "After all, when we were together, it was sincere."

Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng knew that between Wang Zhen and Dong Chenxi, it was completely over. Even if Wang Zhen came out of the detention center and restarted his career, he and Dong Chenxi could never become lovers again.

When a woman could talk calmly about a past relationship, it meant she had already turned that past love into a memory.

Memory, whether sweet or painful, was just the past.

Only those who looked toward the future could face their past squarely, because in their eyes, the past was over, and the future was what mattered.