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."
...
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
