Chapter 6: The More Taxes You Pay, the More Legitimate You Are

Zhou Hongyi watched Park Young-gwan depart before returning to his office. His eagle-like eyes stared silently at the grey smog outside the window, the deep lines around his mouth twitching slightly as if he were bearing the weight of immense pressure.

He was not a man of reckless impulses; he was acutely aware of the risks and confrontations lurking behind every decision he made.

Shortly after, Shi Hong—his capable right-hand man who had served as the interpreter during the negotiations—walked into the office after seeing Park out.

Shi Hong was a trusted confidant, a veteran who had been there since the founding of 3722. According to the standard trajectory of history, he would be promoted to CTO in little over a year, and in the "Qihu 361" era, he would go on to serve as assistant to the president.

Because of this, he stood on little ceremony with Zhou, entering without knocking. Zhou did not mind; he possessed the leadership style of a gang boss who treated his subordinates like brothers.

Generally, assistants to the presidents of large internet companies are promoted from operations or finance; it is rare for a technical person to hold such a post. The reason Zhou’s management style was so peculiar lay in the business model of 3722 and later 361—a company that started by peddling "rogue software" and collecting protection money did not need many conventional marketing or operations staff. Much like a racketeering syndicate, the guys with the hardest fists had the best performance and were the most trusted by the boss.

Regardless, Zhou Hongyi had done one good thing: in his company, the rebellious, socially awkward "tech geeks" were always able to find a better upward path than they could in other internet companies. Much like hackers who are generally poor at interpersonal communication, these geeks were only skilled at crashing servers and waiting for people to pay up obediently.

"Did we fully get to the bottom of the East Yi people last time?" Zhou asked, lost in thought for a moment.

Shi Hong confirmed with confidence: "We did. Emade’s business in East Yi has basically collapsed. It seems they offended the high-level officials in the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and now they have no choice but to rely on us. But, by tying ourselves to them and offending Gu Cheng to the point of no return, is it really wise..."

"Ah Hong! If one is to live, one must live as a hero!" Zhou’s expression turned cold, cutting off his subordinate’s hesitation. "In the internet circle, only one player can survive in each niche. If you are content with being second, you are as good as dead. If we only wanted to live comfortably, wouldn't the tens of millions we’ve already cashed out be enough for the brothers to live in luxury for a lifetime? Why do we keep striving? Isn't it to achieve something great? Since that’s the case, what is there to fear?"

3722’s current revenue surplus stood at around one or two hundred million, with tens of millions more siphoned into private accounts through grey-market transactions. Yet, the veteran employees who started with Zhou numbered only a dozen, and the total core staff amounted to only a few dozen.

If they split this money, it would indeed guarantee a good life for all his inner circle—several million in 2002 was no small sum; a 90-square-meter apartment in Beijing’s Third Ring Road cost only 500,000.

This was the ultimate foundation that gave his inner circle the courage to follow Zhou Hongyi into danger.

Shi Hong did not argue. Zhou sat back in his chair, took a sip of tea, and said earnestly: "Gu Cheng’s Alipay antivirus and security guard—he claims they are bundled with Alipay users to provide activation codes, but in the long run, they are effectively free. In the first year alone, his MAC address binding allowed him to capture 5% of domestic internet users for his Alipay. If there is no one to restrict him once he unbinds, how fast will he grow?

"In less than three years, domestic antivirus companies will be boiled like frogs in warm water. It is laughable that those short-sighted fools think Gu Cheng has no intention of launching an all-out war against them, and even accept his 'truce' red envelopes. If the market for domestic antivirus and anti-rogue software is unified by then, what will 3722 be left to do? Collect protection money from them? Do you think they’ll still pay?"

"The security software market has always started by being the thief collecting protection money. It’s just that if you can become the biggest thief, you can transition into the police and legally collect 'market management fees.' Who says the nobles and generals are born to be masters? Why should they get to be the police while we are forced to be the thieves? Topple the boss, sit in that chair, and you become the police!"

Zhou’s theory possessed a certain "knowing it cannot be done, yet doing it anyway" spirit, much like the sentiment in the *Later Memorial on the Expedition*: "If I do not attack the enemy, the imperial cause will perish. Since I must wait for death anyway, why not attack?"

3722’s existing foundation was, after all, a quick-money business. With the rising reliance on navigation sites, the declining effectiveness of homepage hijacking, and the popularization of antivirus software, the cards in Zhou’s hand were bound to depreciate. Moreover, the faster Gu Cheng’s business grew, the faster Zhou’s assets would deflate.

Since that was the case, and they had already set aside enough money for the brothers to support their families, they might as well fight to the death.

Shi Hong raised no further objections, but pointed out one pertinent issue: "Then what if the trapped investors oppose us? Especially Guoxin Software, who entered at the peak before the bubble burst the year before last; they certainly won't want to see the company grow like this. They are still counting on the company to maintain a good reputation and survive the winter until a sucker comes along to take it off their hands."

Zhou Hongyi was indifferent: "The Guoxin crowd will certainly be unhappy. But the private server business cannot go through 3722’s public books; we’ll just use a different shell. Also, if Fu Sheng and the others persist, just find some minor faults and fire them. Give Guoxin some face and an excuse."

Shi Hong was shocked: "Fire them? What if they defect to the enemy and leak our secrets?"

Zhou Hongyi: "How much of our core secrets do they know? At most, they know we intend to fight Gu Cheng to the end and will not compromise. They know nothing of our specific operational details. Even if I fire them and they defect to Gu Cheng the next second, it will merely let Gu Cheng know our resolve a bit sooner. It would only cost us ten days or a fortnight of preparation time; it’s of no consequence."

Shi Hong silently noted his boss’s instructions and withdrew to carry them out.

...

At Dadong Roast Duck, Gu Cheng and Lei Jun had already squeezed everything Fu Sheng knew out of him. After evaluating the situation, they offered Fu Sheng a recruitment deal: if he didn't want to work for Zhou Hongyi anymore, Alipay would always have a suitable mid-level position waiting for him.

Gu Cheng did not want to place someone who "actively defected" too high, even if that person had legitimate grounds and motives. He did not want to leave the public with the impression that he was a fan of poaching turncoats.

The greatest gain from Fu Sheng, aside from confirming Zhou Hongyi’s determination to fight to the end, was learning of the existence of "a certain East Yi game company currently in contact with Zhou Hongyi."

The rest of the information was peripheral and seemed unimportant in the short term. Fu Sheng’s position was too low to enter Zhou’s inner circle, so he did not know the specific background of that "East Yi game company."

But Gu Cheng had already had a run-in with Park Young-gwan, so he naturally locked onto the target immediately.

The reason for this situation, ultimately, was that Park Young-gwan had once again sabotaged his teammate—when he contacted Zhou Hongyi, he was certainly not foolish enough to tell him that he had already coordinated with Kim Young-min to deal with Gu Cheng once, failed, and ended up on Gu Cheng’s blacklist.

Had he known, Zhou Hongyi would certainly have weighed whether to cooperate with a guy who had a track record of sabotaging teammates, or at the very least, it would have weakened Park’s bargaining power. Thus, Zhou Hongyi did not know just how exposed his new teammate really was.

After finishing a roast duck and several plates of flame-seared duck hearts, and sending Fu Sheng away, Gu Cheng and Lei Jun sat for a while longer, sipping tea and calculating the situation.

Gu Cheng couldn't be bothered to devise specific schemes against Zhou Hongyi, leaving it to Lei Jun, who had better emotional intelligence and experience.

Lei Jun thought for a long time and sighed: "Zhou Hongyi is very good at protecting himself; he has never entered the fray personally. It is impossible to strike at his heart directly. And as for the cooperation regarding 'Legend of Mir,' he is only just plotting it; nothing has been implemented, so we have no handle to grab there.

"I think it’s better to start from the periphery. With the clues provided by Fu Sheng, we can make a rough inference: Zhou Hongyi’s subordinates are extremely unscrupulous. People who deal in account theft and equipment sales likely don't just do that one thing. They have formed a malignant tumor fully feeding off 'Legend.' Those selling cheats are likely the same group, and those planning to set up private servers will be the same gang. If we concentrate our efforts to secretly take down a few nodes and then appease them to turn state’s evidence, it’s possible to catch more of the evidence and connections of their future private server network."

Gu Cheng did not express an opinion immediately. He was still not familiar enough with the legal environment of this era.

"You expect to solve the problem through formal legal channels? Can that get to the root of the issue? Currently, national law is still very vague regarding whether 'electronic data and virtual items are protected by property rights.' Even if we have evidence, something like the theft of online game equipment will be very hard to prosecute..."

Gu Cheng’s concern was not without merit. When he first transmigrated, based on his modern perspective, he took it for granted that "virtual items composed of electronic data are also property and protected by law." But after returning, he discovered it wasn't that simple.

Before the partial session in March 2002, the legal interpretation in China still emphasized the classical jurisprudence of the Marxist theory that "property is the condensation of undifferentiated human labor." It was believed that the creation of "electronic data" was not the result of "labor" and could be modified at will, thus its property rights were not legally protected.

This was why, while society saw a large number of "RMB warriors" frantically spending cash to buy equipment, the law would not accept reports of game account theft—or if they did accept them, they only recognized that one should be "compensated for the remaining prepaid cards in the game account and the prepaid cards that should have been consumed to obtain the game levels and equipment."

In other words, stealing prepaid cards counted as theft, and even if solved, they only compensated for the card money. The time players spent in the game was not legally protected because the law at the time did not consider it "labor"—you spent time playing, you had already enjoyed yourself; the time was spent buying pleasure, not spent in labor to obtain equipment. There was no property right for the random results and achievements obtained during the process of enjoyment.

Gu Cheng described his concerns briefly and summarized his doubts: "I know this legal controversy is only temporary; it will be reversed in a year or two at most. It’s just a pity I don’t know how to reverse it."

However, upon hearing Gu Cheng’s question, Lei Jun was not worried but rather relieved: "So that’s what you’re worried about? The meeting is coming up in March. The legal game between the two sides on this issue is actually quite balanced. If you are willing to give it an extra push, I guarantee it can be passed."

Gu Cheng was skeptical: "How?"

"If cigarettes can legally own property rights, why can’t online game equipment? As long as you can prove that this industry’s tax-paying capacity is just as promising, the state will naturally recognize online game equipment as legal property. The subsequent risks will all be resolved—by then, if you go to the bureau to report a case, I guarantee they will dispatch officers in minutes."

"Could it be that, in history, Chen Tianqiao also used this kind of crude assistance to push it forward?" Gu Cheng felt a flash of lightning cross his mind; things became much clearer.

"Fine, let’s get to work on this as soon as possible. I don’t want to look into the details myself."