Chapter 31: The Original Sin of Greed – Part One

Gu Cheng carefully pondered Zhou Hongyi’s words and finally realized the error in his initial understanding.

Up to now, every deal he’d taken involved business owners intent on keeping their enterprises going. Only Zhou Hongyi’s referral, this Zhang Long, was planning to wash his hands clean, go legitimate, and sell off completely.

If you help someone borrow an extra million, and they give you fifty thousand as a fee, that’s already the limit. But if you help someone earn an extra million—money they don’t have to pay back—it’s entirely possible they’ll give you five hundred thousand.

Once he grasped this nuance, Gu Cheng immediately understood the power of the opportunity Zhou Hongyi had introduced. If Gu Cheng could help Zhang Long boost the valuation of Silver Fox Mail from twelve million dollars to fifteen million, Zhang Long would make an extra three million in real cash, and a split of a million would be perfectly negotiable.

This deal was promising!

Gu Cheng, who had originally planned to take his winnings and leave, couldn’t help but feel greedy. After all, this was a rare chance—since he’d entered the game this year, it was the first time he’d encountered a client intent on selling their company.

That very day, he followed the contact details and address Zhou Hongyi had provided and went to scout the location.

Before he left, he remembered to call his cousin, who acted as his assistant: “Sis, have the supplier boost Silver Fox Mail by two hundred thousand, just to show our sincerity. I’ll be negotiating this afternoon.”

On the other end, Pan Jieying was caught off guard. “Boost it right now? Did you sign a contract?”

“Of course not. This is a free trial—give them two hundred thousand to show what we can do.”

“Alright, I’ll handle it immediately.” Pan Jieying hung up and swiftly placed the order. In less than half an hour, the hackers Gu Cheng had contacted started working.

A decade later, the Taobao sellers of zombie followers would still have to give a thousand zombies to new users as a trial—just to show their strength.

Same principle.

Not long after the boosting began, Gu Cheng arrived at Silver Fox’s office. The company wasn’t large, so he easily met its founder, Zhang Long.

Since July, it had become increasingly easy for him to meet the bosses of major internet companies. Back when he first met Ding Sanshi, he had to explain for ages and slip money to middle managers. With Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi, a brief explanation sufficed. After that, there was no need to explain at all—the veterans simply drove straight up. The big shots in the circle all knew these kinds of deals existed.

Zhang Long was an engineer in his early thirties, a product guy, not much of a businessman. Gu Cheng tried to chat, but they never got on the same wavelength; finally, Gu Cheng had to make his offer plain.

“Mr. Zhang, don’t worry about the cost of boosting daily active users. The price changes every day; you wouldn’t understand it. Let’s be straightforward—IDG has offered you twelve million dollars, right? If I help you increase the valuation and the final sale price goes up, I want a third of the extra. I’ll handle the whole package, a ‘complete solution.’ No need to look at ‘OPEN-BOM,’ just sit back and count your money.”

BOM is jargon in the communications and electronics circles—a bill of materials. The OPEN-BOM model is when suppliers lay out their hardware costs for customers to show they’re fair and not gouging. For example, almost all knockoff phone companies use OPEN-BOM. Apple, however, would never do so; the iPhone sells for at least three or four times its BOM cost.

Gu Cheng’s tone put himself on Apple’s level: “I’m offering a complete solution—why worry about my material costs?”

Zhang Long, the product man, was clearly uncomfortable, feeling disgusted as if he were being extorted.

“I’ve never heard of doing business like this. I can’t accept your model.” Zhang Long rejected Gu Cheng’s offer outright, insisting on a breakdown of costs.

The deal couldn’t proceed for now, so Gu Cheng had to take his leave.

...

After leaving Silver Fox, Gu Cheng refused to give up. He asked Pan Jieying to help as well, and the siblings stationed themselves at Silver Fox every day, keeping watch for any unfamiliar faces going in or out.

Later, he even hired a private detective for a month to help with surveillance.

Gu Cheng knew that shady deals like these could never be settled by email or phone—they’d leave evidence. It had to be negotiated face-to-face.

If Zhang Long found another “supplier,” he’d have to meet them, and Gu Cheng’s surveillance would catch it.

As for his other recent deals, Gu Cheng moved all his business to the coffee shop downstairs from Silver Fox.

Time dragged on until mid-August.

A couple of Gu Cheng’s smaller clients had already finished their deals, so he could focus entirely on Zhang Long.

One day, he intercepted a stranger downstairs at Silver Fox—the man was about to take the elevator when Gu Cheng called out.

“Hey, you’re here to provide data services for Zhang Long, right?”

The man eyed Gu Cheng warily and stepped back.

Gu Cheng quickly reassured him: “Relax, I’m here for the same reason. Zhang Long must have tried to squeeze your price, right? Let me introduce myself—I’m Gu Cheng.”

Gu Cheng now had a clear look at the man: a middle-aged fellow with a round face, dressed like university faculty.

The round-faced man was clearly awkward with people, giving a shy smile. “I’m Chen Shoufu. I didn’t bring a business card.”

“That’s a given—no one in our line of work carries cards.” Gu Cheng was amused by the man’s honesty. “It’s not convenient here. Let’s go to the startup café downstairs; I’ll buy you a drink.”

Chen Shoufu followed Gu Cheng like an assistant into the café.

There were many startup cafés in Zhongguancun.

Gu Cheng ordered two lattes and two plates of waffles. He started the conversation:

“In our line of work, there aren’t many fat sheep preparing to sell their company outright. Such a great resource, there’s no point in fighting over price anymore. To be honest, last time I offered a kickback of twenty-five percent of the difference, but Zhang Long refused.”

Chen Shoufu was obviously a straightforward man.

Seeing Gu Cheng’s confident, transparent demeanor, he couldn’t help but be honest himself.

“I offered twenty-two percent, but he still wouldn’t agree.”

Gu Cheng shook his head. “Down to twenty-two percent! There’s nowhere left to go. We absolutely can’t drop below twenty percent. Here’s what I suggest: let’s form an alliance, never drop below twenty, and whoever wins, we split the net profit fifty-fifty. That way, we still make at least ten percent each. If we both offer OPEN-BOM bids, there won’t even be ten percent left.”

Chen Shoufu thought it over, rubbing his hands. “Do you… are you sure? How do you know Zhang Long only contacted the two of us?”

“I’ve got people watching him every day, even a detective agency. If anyone else shows up, we’ll bring them into the alliance at most.”

Chen Shoufu was a bit timid about this sort of thing, sipping his coffee for ages. In the end, he seemed to accept that he couldn’t outmaneuver Gu Cheng and agreed.

Over the next few days, Gu Cheng used clever tactics, persuasion, and intimidation to drive off two other competitors who came to negotiate with Zhang Long.

By August 14, Zhang Long still hadn’t found a cheap supplier.

...

That day, Gu Cheng and Chen Shoufu were staking out the café downstairs at Silver Fox. The detective he’d hired called to say another stranger had visited Zhang Long, and sent over a photo by email.

The café had Wi-Fi. Gu Cheng saw the picture and exploded.

“Damn! It’s Zhou Hongyi! He’s come to pitch the deal himself?”

Chen Shoufu was shocked. “What? You got the tip from Zhou Hongyi too?”

Gu Cheng suddenly realized he’d forgotten to compare notes.

He pointed at Chen Shoufu. “You… Zhang Long didn’t reach out to you?”

Chen Shoufu shrugged. “I paid eighty thousand for Zhou Hongyi’s tip.”

“Damn! I paid a hundred thousand! I should have guessed that old fox sold the same tip to several people!”

“Selling the same tip is one thing, but now he’s personally competing for the deal!”

Both Gu Cheng and Chen Shoufu were furious.

It was like a mountain bandit chief telling the neighboring headman, “Give me a hundred silver taels, and I’ll sell you a tip: there’s government silver passing below your mountain—do what you want.” Then, after selling the tip, he goes and robs the shipment himself.

Is there no code in the underworld? What happened to basic trust between people?

“What do we do now?” Chen Shoufu panicked. Zhou Hongyi’s reputation and resources were far beyond theirs.

Gu Cheng said, “Man proposes, heaven disposes. Just wait. Once Zhou Hongyi leaves, I’ll go see Zhang Long this afternoon and probe his position.”

“Well… bro, it’s all up to you!” Chen Shoufu was nervous, unable to take the lead at all.

Gu Cheng waited two hours in the café. The detective reported that Zhou Hongyi had left, so Gu Cheng went in.

When he met Gu Cheng, Zhang Long’s confidence was completely different from last time.

Gu Cheng tempered his approach, acting nonchalant as he asked, “Mr. Zhang, have you considered my previous offer? I’ve thought it over myself and, to show good faith, I’m willing to drop to fifteen percent…”

Zhang Long replied proudly, “Even at ten percent, I don’t want it. If you insist on a commission and won’t discuss OPEN-BOM, fine. I’ve found someone who will—so I don’t need you anymore. Please leave and don’t come back.”

“Alright, I admit defeat. I should have known—Boss Zhou has always been an industry killer.”

Gu Cheng was straightforward, turning on his heel and leaving.

When Gu Cheng mentioned “Boss Zhou,” Zhang Long looked startled.

“You… you were surveilling our company?”

“There’s no wall that doesn’t leak. Forget it, nothing left to say.” Gu Cheng didn’t waste words and walked out.

Back at the café, Gu Cheng bid farewell to Chen Shoufu. “Man, you lost eighty thousand on the tip, but I lost a hundred thousand. I even boosted Zhang Long’s numbers by two hundred thousand for free. Let’s call it even. If you want to blame someone, blame Zhou Hongyi. Between us, we can work together again someday.”

Chen Shoufu was quite honorable: “Alright, even though you cost me a deal, I agreed to stick together in the first place—can’t blame you. If you ever need me, just call.”

“Deal. I’ll consider you a friend.”