Chapter 95: Still Not Worth Mentioning

“Xiao Lei, where did these guests come from? Why didn’t you inform me?” Old Ma Ge, seeing Huang He and the other two enter together, asked the front desk, Peng Lei, who had just opened the door for them, standing beside him.

“They said they came to discuss business with you, and it’s a very important deal. I asked them to sit in the living room for a while and tried to call your phone, but you forgot to bring it,” Peng Lei whispered.

“Ma, it seems you have guests. I’ll head back first. We’ll continue our discussion tomorrow in my room, all right?” Sun Zhiyong, though a billionaire, appeared casual and said in English.

“Wait,” Young Ma Ge’s English was excellent. Hearing Sun want to leave, he stood up at once. “Mr. Sun, I’m Young Ma Ge, chairman of Tengda Group. I came specifically to see you this time. Can we talk? I have something important to discuss with you!”

“Tengda Group! Looking for me?” Sun Zhiyong showed a slightly surprised expression, then looked at Old Ma Ge, seeming to ask something.

“Oh, this Tengda Group is also a web company in our country, operating instant messaging software called QQ, which is quite handy. We’ve been using this software to communicate with friends online!” Old Ma Ge explained.

“Oh, instant messaging software! Like OICQ?” Sun Zhiyong asked.

“Yes!” Young Ma Ge affirmed immediately.

“I have no interest in this,” Sun Zhiyong shook his head. “I have something to do. I need to go.”

“Please wait, Mr. Sun. We already have over ten million active users in Huaxia. Don’t you have any interest at all?” Young Ma Ge shouted in English.

“Ten million active users!” Sun Zhiyong gasped and stopped in his tracks. He looked at Old Ma Ge again. Old Ma Ge could only say very honestly, “The official data is indeed like that, and according to our actual experience, this number isn’t fake.”

“So that’s it!” Sun Zhiyong smiled. “Old Ma Ge, you don’t mind if I borrow your place to talk with Young Ma for a while, right? Don’t worry, my communication with him won’t affect my investment in you!”

“Of course, everyone is our guest. I very much welcome you!” Although he didn’t know if Old Ma Ge truly welcomed it, his smile on his face was definite. So Sun Zhiyong sat in the living room as well, and Old Ma Ge sat down with a thick face.

“They’re talking business—why are you joining in?” Huang He said disdainfully from the side. At the same time, Leng Zhiruo whispered the translation of this conversation into Huang He’s ear.

Unfortunately, our Huang He Huang boss, though he graduated in the era of popular English and his English passed level four, changed to teaching after graduation and could now only understand some simple words and sentences.

Sun Zhiyong grew up in the United States, Young Ma Ge was a top student from university, and Old Ma Ge was even a university English teacher. Naturally, their three people communicated directly in English, while Huang He understood nothing at all.

Fortunately, Leng Zhiruo was following by his side. She had scored 138 points in English during the college entrance exam and later passed level six in school, so she could at least understand these people’s conversations and serve as a real-time translator beside our Huang boss.

Although two unrelated people were now beside him and speaking would risk leaking business secrets, Sun Zhiyong chose to sit in the living room, the other two didn’t take the initiative to leave out of politeness, and Young Ma Ge wasn’t the host here, so asking them to go wasn’t appropriate. He could only comfort himself that these two and his business had little impact and saying wouldn’t affect much.

So Young Ma Ge simply told him what he needed to invest in.

“OK, I understand!” Sun Zhiyong nodded. “I will send people to conduct a detailed investigation of your company to see if it really has the current market position. However, I am very curious, Young Ma, how many shares are you willing to offer, and how much do you want to raise funds?”

“Fifty million US dollars for forty percent of the company’s shares!” Young Ma Ge said.

“Fifty million US dollars!” Old Ma Ge next to him heard his teeth ache. He and Sun Zhiyong hit it off, talked very happily, and even went arm-in-arm to West Lake together, settling on twenty million US dollars investment after half a month, but had to take away fifty percent of Alibaba’s total shares while guaranteeing Old Ma Ge’s control over Alibaba.

The result was that this Young Ma opened with fifty million dollars and only sold forty percent shares, which made Old Ma Ge not help but feel sour. But thinking about it, it was normal. After all, Alibaba now had only a website with a registered user base in the low millions, while QQ already had tens of millions of registered users and over ten million active users—this was simply not the same level!

“According to what I know, at the beginning of this year, Yingke Digital handed over twenty percent shares, priced at twelve point six million US dollars. Looking at it this way, your company’s forty percent shares should only be worth twenty-five million US dollars, right? Why is it twice as expensive here?” Sun Zhiyong, who had just said he had never heard of Tengda, now somehow obtained the detailed data of Tengda’s previous financing round.

Of course, this wasn’t Sun pretending to be confused, but just now during the chat, Sun’s secretary had already collected a simple intelligence about Tengda and given it to Sun, letting Sun have a preliminary understanding of this company.

“Because at the beginning of this year, Tengda’s active users were five million, but now it has more than ten million active users!” Young Ma Ge said in a deep voice. “From the perspective of user numbers, this price increase is reasonable.”

“In less than a year, more than five million active users increased!” Sun Zhiyong was shocked again by Young Ma Ge. This specific data, he couldn’t investigate, but hearing it, he was already somewhat tempted at this time.

Of course, Sun also keenly noticed a very key question, needing to ask our Young Ma.

“Regarding your competitors in the market now, OICQ, how do you see it, Mr. Ma?” Sun Zhiyong asked with a smile. This question directly pointed to the core!

Old Ma Ge, upon hearing, his face immediately showed a curious and interesting expression.

But the one most curious, with the most interesting expression, naturally was Huang He Huang boss on the side, who had been expressionless, acting as an unfeeling melon-eating spectator, and Leng Zhiruo behind him. Hearing this question, they both perked up, showing curiosity on their faces.

“Although it is a bit tricky, it is not worth mentioning!” Young Ma Ge said proudly.