Chapter 216
The next day.
Peninsula Coffee Shop in University Town.
The afternoon sun was a bit glaring.
Gu Ran sat by the window, idly stirring the latte in front of him.
Sitting opposite him was a woman in her early thirties.
Her aura felt completely out of place in this slightly noisy student cafe.
She wore a Chanel haute couture suit and a Cartier Ballon Bleu watch on her wrist.
Her makeup was flawless, her gaze sharp.
Chen Fei.
A partner at Sequoia Capital China, widely recognized in the venture capital circle as the Queen of VC.
"Mr. Gu, I've heard so much about you."
Chen Fei took the initiative to extend her hand, wearing a professional smile.
"You flatter me, Ms. Chen."
Gu Ran shook her hand lightly, pulling away after a brief touch.
"Time is precious, shall we get straight to the point?"
She raised an eyebrow, a flash of surprise in her eyes.
The young man before her was incredibly young, yet he possessed a calm and relaxed demeanor.
It made the opening remarks she had prepared catch in her throat.
She pulled a document from her briefcase and slid it across the table to Gu Ran.
"This is our proposed Series A term sheet. Sequoia Capital is willing to invest three million dollars in exchange for a thirty percent stake in MicroChat."
After speaking, Chen Fei leaned back.
Resting against the sofa, she adopted a posture that said, I am very sincere, but do not push your luck.
Three million dollars. For a student startup project that had just gotten off the ground and did not even have a clear profit model, this was an astronomical figure.
She believed that no college student could resist such a temptation.
However, Gu Ran did not even glance at the document.
He picked up his coffee, took a small sip, and said flatly.
"My target price is five million dollars for ten percent of the shares."
"Pfft—!"
A young assistant standing behind Chen Fei sprayed out the mouthful of water he had just taken.
He looked at Gu Ran as if looking at a madman.
Five million dollars for only ten percent?
That was equivalent to giving an app without even a corporate entity a valuation of fifty million dollars?
Was this kid crazy for money?
Even robbing a bank was not this fast!
Chen Fei's smile gradually faded.
Having been in the industry for so many years.
It was her first time seeing an entrepreneur make such an outrageous demand.
"Mr. Gu, it is good for young people to be confident, but blind confidence is just arrogance."
Chen Fei's tone grew icy.
"A fifty million dollar valuation is comparable to the market cap of some listed companies. What makes your MicroChat worth that much?"
"Based on this."
Gu Ran set down his coffee cup and pushed his phone over to Chen Fei.
On the screen was the backend data monitoring page for MicroChat.
A red curve was climbing upward at an almost vertical, frantic angle.
"This is MicroChat's user growth data over the past seventy-two hours."
Gu Ran's voice was calm.
"As of just a moment ago, our registered users have surpassed thirty thousand, with over twenty-five thousand daily active users. Furthermore, this number is still growing at a rate of thousands per hour."
Chen Fei's pupils contracted sharply.
As a top-tier investor, she knew better than anyone how terrifying these numbers were.
It meant that MicroChat already possessed the potential to become a phenomenal product.
"And this is just the data from one school."
Gu Ran tapped his fingertip lightly against the screen.
"What if I push it to a hundred schools, or even nationwide?"
"Moreover..."
Gu Ran shifted the topic, leaning forward slightly, a sharp gleam in his eyes.
"Ms. Chen, do you really think I am just making a social networking app?"
He tapped open another file. It was a business plan dozens of pages long.
MicroChat Ecosystem — The Super Portal Connecting Everything
Moments, Official Accounts, Mini Programs, Mobile Payment, Game Center...
One by one, these concepts—unheard of in this era yet logically airtight.
Were now presented before Chen Fei in an incredibly forward-looking manner.
The more she read, the more shocked she became.
Chen Fei felt as if she was not reading a business plan, but a book of prophecies from the future.
If even half of the ideas in this plan could be realized.
The value of MicroChat would far exceed fifty million dollars...
"Mr. Gu..."
Chen Fei's voice was a bit dry. She subconsciously picked up her water glass and took a sip to hide her inner astonishment.
"How... how did you come up with all this?"
"I didn't just come up with it. I saw the future."
Gu Ran leaned back in his chair, his tone flat.
Chen Fei fell silent.
She suddenly realized that the person she was facing was not an ordinary college student at all.
But a business titan... cloaked in the guise of a youth.
"Five million dollars, for a ten percent stake."
Gu Ran's voice rang out again, breaking the silence.
"Ms. Chen, this is my bottom line."
"I need this money to rapidly seize the market and build our moat before Penguin has a chance to react."
"And what Sequoia needs is a boarding pass to the next era."
"You won't lose out on this deal."
Chen Fei took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
She knew she had already lost the initiative in this negotiation.
"I need to have a meeting with headquarters."
She closed the file, her tone entirely stripped of its earlier arrogance.
"Fine."
Gu Ran checked his watch and stood up.
"I'll give you one hour."
With that, he turned to leave.
"Mr. Gu."
Chen Fei called out to stop him.
Gu Ran paused his steps.
"I'm curious."
She looked into the young man's eyes and said earnestly.
"If Sequoia doesn't invest today, what will you do?"
Gu Ran stopped, looking back at her.
A brilliant smile appeared on the young man's face.
"Then I'll grow it myself, and then... I'll acquire Sequoia."
Having said that, the young man stuffed his hands in his pockets and strode away.
Leaving Chen Fei and her assistant sitting there, completely dumbfounded.
...
Half an hour later.
Gu Ran's phone rang.
It was Chen Fei calling.
"Mr. Gu, congratulations."
The voice on the other end of the line carried a trace of awe, as well as a hint of excitement.
"The board passed it with a unanimous vote. Five million dollars for a ten percent stake. The contract can be signed this afternoon."
"Then here is to... a pleasant cooperation."
Gu Ran hung up the phone, his face showing no surprise whatsoever.
He knew all along that these bloodthirsty capitalists.
Would never pass up an opportunity that could bring a hundredfold or thousandfold return.
He glanced out the window, took out his phone, and dialed Li Sinan's number.
"Teacher Li, get ready to hire."
"I want to assemble a one-hundred-person technical team within three months."
"Money is not an issue."
...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
