Forcing Me to Be Reborn?!

Cheng Zhu's freshman summer vacation came to an end just like that.

After a busy day, he took the elevator to the company's underground parking lot, and as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he heard Lin Lu's voice.

"Cheng Zhu! Hello, hello!"

"Here, here!"

Little Lu was sitting in the car, rolling down the window, sticking her head out, and calling out to him.

The two had planned to have dinner together today. Knowing that Cheng Zhu has been very busy and tired recently, Lin Lu insisted on picking him up herself.

Sitting in the car, the voice actress girl said in her ever-changing voice, "Hello sir, today your dedicated driver Lin Lu is at your service. Please fasten your seatbelt."

"Alright." Cheng Zhu smiled and fastened his seatbelt.

"Sir, may I know our destination for today?" the voice actress girl asked again.

Cheng Zhu mentioned the name of the restaurant.

"Alright, let's set off now." The voice actress girl started driving.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Cheng Zhu looked at his girlfriend and felt a bit comfortable.

He adjusted the seat back and then leaned back, half-lying in the seat.

"Lu Lu, I'm going to take a nap." Cheng Zhu said.

"Okay, I'll call you when we arrive," Lin Lu said earnestly while driving.

In Hang City, there are many restaurants in office buildings, and the one they were going to today was one of them.

After parking the car in the underground parking lot of the office building, Lin Lu looked at Cheng Zhu, who had his eyes closed, unable to bear waking him up immediately.

His fatigue was visibly evident.

Cheng Zhu, such an energetic person, now appeared tired from head to toe.

After [Youuqu] launched, many small issues emerged, along with the need for much public guidance.

Daily, it was endless meetings big and small, with countless matters to handle.

Moreover, running an APP is different from opening a milk tea shop.

Milk tea shops close at night.

But an APP, in the middle of the night, still has people staying up late, scrolling endlessly, and suddenly, issues can emerge in the dead of night.

Of course, this also indirectly reflects the necessity of a sedimentation period.

Lin Lu leaned slightly closer, carefully observing his face.

Unexpectedly, the sly man suddenly opened his eyes at that moment.

He immediately asked with a smile, "What is it? Are you trying to steal a kiss?"

"Steal a kiss, my foot!" Lin Lu playfully scolded.

But after speaking, she swiftly gave him a quick peck and said, "Well, then just one kiss, alright!"

Cheng Zhu's smile widened, and he adjusted the reclining seat back up, saying, "Let's go, time to eat, my treat!"

During the meal, Cheng Zhu asked Lin Lu how her and Jiang Wanzhou's blind box store preparation was going.

Her mom, Meng Yue, gave her 5 million to start the blind box business with Jiang Wanzhou.

Being the owner of an interior design company, she's naturally more trendy.

Meng Yue knows that many fashionable toy ornaments are currently popular, especially abroad.

Plus, the trendy toys business is truly lucrative.

Once something becomes a hit, combined with the star effect, a simple ornament could easily sell for several thousand or even tens of thousands.

These things are inherently part of soft furnishing, so both Meng Yue and the designers in her company are somewhat familiar with them.

Meng Yue thought it over and felt it was a good project with promising prospects.

But when it comes to doing business, what matters most is whether it can be done well. The market outlook might be good, but strong capability is also necessary.

Lin Lu casually mentioned that it was Cheng Zhu's suggestion.

Upon hearing this, Meng Yue immediately nodded and agreed.

This left Little Lu feeling a bit annoyed!

"Oh! When your daughter wanted to invest, you hesitated!"

"But the moment Cheng Zhu said it was worthwhile, not only did you agree right away, you even raised the funding from 3 million to 5 million!"

"Annoying, annoying, annoying!"

"It seems Cheng Zhu holds more weight in your heart than your own daughter!" Lin Lu pouted and even got a little jealous.

Unexpectedly, Meng Yue crossed her arms, supporting her ample chest, and with a satisfied smile, said, "Own daughter? If Cheng Zhu were truly my child, I'd be more than happy."

Parents always hope their children succeed, wishing their sons become dragons and daughters phoenixes.

With Cheng Zhu's success, he naturally becomes what people call 'others' pride.'

What surprised Meng Yue was that her daughter suddenly went silent.

Because a common saying popped into Little Lu's mind: "A son-in-law is half a son."

As for the Jiang family, they have always been very supportive of their son's entrepreneurial aspirations, especially with Cheng Zhu backing them.

The Jiang family's cash flow is much healthier than the Shen family's, less tight.

So they directly invested 10 million.

Giving a college student 10 million in cash to experiment boldly is a significant amount.

In reality, opening a blind box store doesn't require nearly that much money.

It's purely because Cheng Zhu repeatedly emphasized to them that while IP licensing fees are low now, they should sign as many as possible and ensure the contract term is long, at least five years, and definitely exclusive.

Even if they sign for five years, the payment doesn't need to be made in one go; these terms are negotiable.

During his entrepreneurship in Wu City, Cheng Zhu interacted with many IP business owners, so he's familiar with this.

With the future skyrocketing prices of IP rights, stabilizing only when the global economic situation isn't favorable, the necessity of signing exclusive contracts becomes evident.

Because, even if they can't raise your price then, they could still sell the rights to several vendors.

Lin Lu picked up a piece of chopped pepper fish head for herself, looked at Cheng Zhu, and said, "Those few IPs you mentioned before, we've basically signed them all."

"But some big IPs simply don't want to collaborate with us."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Zhu felt it was normal.

Like later, when Pop Mart took off, international big IPs such as Marvel and Harry Potter could easily collaborate with them.

But in the initial stages, it was undoubtedly impossible.

People don't just look at how much money you offer; they always consider your qualifications, channels, and so on.

After all, IP collaboration is not just about collecting a licensing fee; many big IPs will set a sales qualifying line, hoping to further increase IP visibility through spreading channels.

"There's no rush with the big IPs. The few I mentioned earlier are good to sign first. Then we can focus on marketing them well," Cheng Zhu said.

Cheng Zhu had some understanding of how Pop Mart first became popular.

Later, when he started a livestream shopping company, he had a small collaboration with Pop Mart once.

Speaking of which, the founder of Pop Mart, Wang Ning, is also a rather legendary figure.

In the past, investors' evaluation of Wang Ning was: the founder had an average education, never had a formal job, spoke little and without much expression or appeal, and the team lacked any elites.

After Pop Mart went public, investors mentioned Wang Ning: Wang Ning is stable in character, doesn't speak much, hides emotions well, and possesses many excellent qualities of a [consumer entrepreneur].

At this moment, Lin Lu was not a major shareholder anyway, and she had unconditional trust in her boyfriend, so whatever Cheng Zhu said was as it was, she wouldn't delve into it.

She was also quite happy to have more things to do.

"Now Ningning is getting busier, you're also so busy, there's no one to accompany me every day anymore," Lin Lu frequently said like this before.

But now that she also had a career that she enjoyed, she didn't feel bored anymore.

...

...

At the beginning of September, the weather in Hang City was still very hot.

The intense group-buying final battle and the food delivery war were nearing the end of the first round at this moment.

The market shares of [Dianping] and [Eleme] had increased by 4.6% and 6.1%, respectively!

These two numbers might seem insignificant, but in reality, they are quite terrifying, especially the latter!

Now, it seemed like time had returned to a few months ago.

The advantages Wang Xin had gained from his previous reckless spending were now completely gone.

More fatally, a significant portion of the market share raised by [Eleme] and [Dianping] was bitten off from the lower-tier markets!

Wang felt a sharp pain in his heart!

During this period, Wang Xin was practically flying between cities.

He and Bao Fan even met Little Ma once.

However, this meeting was destined to disappoint him.

Previously, Little Ma had been interested in merging.

He was also happy to accept Wang Xin's allegiance.

For Tencent, this not only cuts off one of Alibaba's arms but also gives Alibaba a bitter taste.

From a business perspective, it was almost all gain and no loss.

At that time, my Tencent will dominate the group-buying and food delivery fields!

However, the current situation was quite strange.

Surely, I can't say that under my leadership, both [Dianping] and [Eleme] are doing great, and then jump out to tell them, "Don't fight! Don't fight"?

How could the emperor negotiate peace when the ministers are ready to fight to the death?

Moreover, with Tencent investing in Meituan, there might be variables, right?

If your Meituan gets worse, I can buy shares then and do the mergers, and make even more money!

Furthermore, Wang Xin initially insisted that he could reduce his shares but wanted control of the new company.

From Tencent's perspective, Wang Xin is a rebel, Zhang Tao is a favorite; if Taozi can stand firm and become the leader of the merged new company, that would be great too!

Overall, companies invested in by Tencent tend to have greater autonomy.

Taozi and Haozi have their own persistence, and Little Ma would just squintingly watch from the side.

As for Red Mountain Capital, which was deemed by Boss Wang as the last straw, it also expressed its difficulty being stuck between Tencent and Alibaba.

Nowadays, Zhang Xuhao was not short of money, but on Taozi and Wang's side, almost simultaneously, they burned through most of the money.

Wang Xin's side was temporarily helpless.

Zhang Tao began happily embarking on a new round of financing!

Cheng Zhu invested a total of 35 million US dollars into [Dianping] during this opportunity.

Participating in financing twice in a short interval was the limit he could afford right now.

If it weren't for the unexpected appearance of Cousin, he and Zhang Tao had a silent agreement that the investment amount would be 20 million this time, the same as the previous investment in [Eleme].

As a result, he had to make another trip to Shanghai.

But this time, Cheng Zhu was not planning to inform the slightly chubby fox.

He was too tired recently, with many things to handle, and could receive calls about urgent situations at any time.

At night, he would probably be pulled into an all-night talk by Taozi and Haozi.

A big, comfy sofa should be a pleasure to enjoy when at leisure, not something to be hastily visited within the demon fox's lair for half an hour.

More awkwardly, his trip to Shanghai coincided with the opening day at Technology University.

Which means, on the first day of the new semester, this university student was taking a leave of absence.

Under normal circumstances, the school would surely question the student's attitude toward learning.

But just look at this student's reason for requesting leave.

"Going to invest in [Dianping] alongside Tencent and Wanda."

....

(ps: Asking for monthly votes.

Also, seeking a name for Lin Lu's blind box shop, feel free to suggest one~)