Chapter 21. The Speed Technology Office. ...
Speed Technology Office.
Song Chaoye looked at the two resignation letters on the table, one of which was Lu Xiao's. He readily approved it, since given Lu Xiao's relationship with Huang Shiyu, he wouldn't let Lu Xiao stay at Speed Technology.
There will always be a way to make her unable to stay, but Lu Xiao is a wise person. She didn't choose a dead end for herself, which is much better than Huang Shiyu's stubbornness. I don't know how the two of them became friends.
However, as he looked at another resignation letter, his brow furrowed slightly. He looked up from that letter, sized up the person in front of him, and spoke with a tone of regret and consolation for such a talented individual.
“Wang Ping, you’re so outstanding and so young, I really can’t bear to let you go like this. Stay in the game project team, and I can give you another 10% raise.”
Speed Technology has barely made a profit in the past year. The fact that Song Chaoye could still promise Wang Ping a raise while drastically cutting salaries and laying off employees shows that Wang Ping is indeed very outstanding, as he said. Otherwise, Huang Shiyu wouldn't have wanted to poach her.
Song Chaoye himself came from an algorithm background, and he was well aware of the strength of the person in front of him. If possible, he would still like to keep her.
Wang Ping said, "Thank you for your kind offer, Mr. Song. 10% is indeed very tempting, but I have something else I'd like to do."
"Huang Shiyu's intelligent medical care?" Song Chaoye put down her resignation letter, lifted his eyelids, and told her with a forced smile, "I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but she has no resources, no connections, and no funds. She's practically a triple threat. Following her is a waste of your time and your talent."
He continued, "This is advice I'm giving to someone who also comes from an algorithm background. Don't make a mistake and choose the wrong path. A person's energy is only available for a few years in their lifetime. Your talent might be overtaken by someone else one day. Don't let yourself be confused and lose your sense of direction."
"What can Huang Shiyu offer you?" The last question was uttered with deep dissatisfaction and resentment.
It's as if it's saying that Huang Shiyu has nothing left now, so why are you still eagerly going to him? It's no different from watching your own grown cabbage insist on getting into the mud and making yourself all dirty.
Wang Ping met Song Chaoye's puzzled look and said, "Of course I understand that, but Mr. Song, you know that the last thing I lack is money. I think you should know my answer. Sometimes the value of doing something is much more meaningful than cold, hard numbers. Of course, you wouldn't understand, so Speed Technology couldn't keep me. Or perhaps the person who kept me was never Speed Technology."
It is precisely because she has this confidence that she can continue to do what she is interested in without any worries. It has never been the company or the job that chooses her; rather, it is these options that she chooses.
As Wang Ping finished speaking, the small office fell into a deathly silence.
"You're quite like Huang Shiyu when you say that." Song Chaoye still had that forced smile, but anyone could tell that his words were sarcastic.
"What's the use of having unrealistic ideas and relying solely on the experience of predecessors without any prior guidance? In this cutthroat business world, you'll still lose to me in the end. Go ahead and follow a stray dog if you want." Song Chaoye spread his hands at her, smiled slightly, and couldn't help but feel smug.
“Song Chaoye, you’re so hypocritical. Huang Shiyu is much more sincere than you. Besides, your vision is too short-sighted. You don’t actually think that Speed Technology’s transformation from a small workshop into a startup is all your doing, do you?” After a pause, Wang Ping concluded with a final statement, as if to say, “Then let’s see who wins in the end, you or Huang Shiyu.”
Watching Wang Ping's disappearing figure, Song Chaoye sneered inwardly: He can't even get past the threshold of collecting millions of medical case data, what's the point of talking about the end?
Song Chaoye didn't take Huang Shiyu seriously at all, nor did he take Wang Ping's words to heart. In the field of smart healthcare, who could compare with Sunac, which was backed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong Group? Song Chaoye wasn't worried at all.
Someone will eventually teach Huang Shiyu a lesson. Now that she's lost her title as his girlfriend and her status as the CEO of Speed Technology, who will pay attention to her when she goes out into the world?
Just then, an uninvited guest arrived at the office.
"I heard that President Song fired Wang Ping."
Before Song Chaoye could even look up, a pair of black leather shoes came into view. He glanced at them briefly out of the corner of his eye and knew exactly who they were.
"What? Can't I fire her?" Song Chaoye sneered, his tone anything but friendly.
“Of course, but right now, with the two companies restructuring, we need a lot of talent.” Silas had been quite relaxed since he entered the office. He slowly took a bottle of wine from Song Chaoye’s cabinet, placed two wine glasses in front of Song Chaoye, and slowly poured the deep red wine, which looked like ruby, into the glasses.
A not-so-friendly glint flashed in Song Chaoye's eyes. His cabinet contained several bottles of red wine from different brands. Silas really knew how to pick them; he had picked out a bottle of Romanée-Conti worth over 200,000 yuan.
A pang of heartache shot through him, but he maintained a polite smile and accepted the red wine Silas offered.
“This wine is good.” Silas swirled the wine in his glass, admiring the red wine swaying up and down in the glass. “If employees don’t listen to you, you should suppress them. Don’t you Chinese have a saying that goes, ‘Strike the snake at its seven-inch spot’?”
That's true, but he firmly believes that disobedient employees should just be replaced. This is also the idea of many business managers.
Song Chaoye walked to the French windows and gazed at the distant river. He liked to do this when he was thinking.
The red liquid swayed in the glass. Song Chaoye didn't drink it, but slowly said something.
"She is very talented, capable, and hardworking, but so what? Shanghai has no shortage of people like her. Looking down from the floor-to-ceiling windows here, there are plenty of people like Wang Ping, who are cheaper, more useful, and more obedient than her."
At a height of one hundred stories, one obviously cannot see the people walking below, but the towering high-tech building, with its layers of brightly lit blocks, is crowded with the kind of people Song Chaoye described.
"Ha, so-called meaningful and valuable things." His gaze shifted from the technology building across the street to the red wine in his hand. "If it can't bring value to a company, what difference is there between it and a stone to me?"
"Let's not talk about that. How are you doing? Are you getting used to living in China? Are you enjoying the food?" He turned to Silas and asked.
“What could I possibly not be used to? I’m not picky about food, nor am I particularly interested in it,” Silas said with a smile after taking a few sips of red wine, his long, narrow, triangular eyes almost squeezing into an obtuse triangle.
"Then tell me, what brings you here today?" Song Chaoye's gaze shifted from Silas's face to the glass of red wine in his hand. He really disliked that eye shape. "The layoff plan is already halfway through, and the project can be put on the agenda in a few days."
"Wait a minute."
Song Chaoye frowned: "What are we waiting for?"
Silas said calmly, "I don't think it's the right time to force things forward."
Song Chaoye struggled to suppress the urge to curse. "What do you think? What standards do you use to judge? I need to discuss this with the chairman."
"President Song, this is President Zhou's intention. It concerns the group's performance, so President Zhou must have considered it carefully." He gave Song Chaoye a deep look. "I hope you are also aware of this."
President Zhou is the son-in-law of Chairman Xie of the Black Tower Group. He is in charge of the group's mergers and acquisitions and is more than 20 years older than Song Chaoye.
He looked at Silas, who was a few steps away from him, and his eyes, nose and lips seemed to say, "Don't be ungrateful, you should listen to me."
"Is that so?" Song Chaoye asked with a smile, barely suppressing his anger.
"The message has been delivered. Mr. Song, I'll take my leave now." Silas finished what he needed to do as before and didn't linger.
Silas's figure disappeared around the corner, and the wine glass he was holding was smashed to pieces. Crimson liquid splattered on the white floor tiles. Outside, the sky was a clear blue, and inside, the light aroma of tea from Xuefangzhai filled the air.
“Sam’s proposed merger and acquisition plan is utterly worthless.” Silas pushed a document in front of Song Chaoye. “This is the merger and acquisition plan I brought today. I think you should know that I am the investment manager of the merger and acquisition department of Black Tower Group, while Sam is just a small investment manager who made a mistake and was pitifully placed in Youshe.”
"Aren't you all from the same group?" It's unheard of for a parent company to snatch up a subsidiary's project.
"So what if we are? We're still competitors." Silas didn't seem to care at all, acting as if it were perfectly natural.
Song Chaoye didn't understand whether he was referring to the competitive relationship between the subsidiary and the parent company, or to him and Sam, or perhaps both.
But he didn't care about the twists and turns involved, as long as the final result was what he wanted.
He signed the contract readily and decisively, pressing his fingerprint on it. The faint red fingerprint covered his name, and in retrospect, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a massive trap.
Looking out the window at the scattered high-rise buildings, Song Chaoye saw them as a chessboard, with himself at one point within it. The lights that shone down resembled a large net, and it was too late to back out.
He looked out the window, a rare hint of dejection in his expression.
Who is that hand of God?
Under the clear, bright blue sky, the flowers in Xuefangzhai stood out against the wind outside the carved windows, flourishing like a blazing fire. Inside the room, Huang Shiyu placed the half-finished cup of tea on the tea table and quietly watched the woman opposite him flip through the financing plan she handed him.
She's here today to raise funds for a smart healthcare project; this project can't wait any longer.
"I've read your fundraising plan, and it's quite good."
"Did you really write this?" The woman looked up at Huang Shiyu from the financing document, a rare but faint surprise in her eyes.
The person in front of her was the one who sent her the message that day. He was the famous angel investor Zhang Jinyan, who studied finance. He received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Harvard. After graduation, he worked at a top investment bank on San Francisco's financial street. Then he started his own company. However, he later sold the company for some reason. It wasn't because he had cash flow problems or because of a hostile takeover. He sold his shares overnight.
In short, she was a legendary woman.
"I can't say that I wrote it all," Huang Shiyu said humbly to his senior colleague. "There are some points that I consulted with my two partners. Do you think they're acceptable?"
Li Xingzhou, who had just finished a business meeting next door and was relaxing while enjoying his tea, recognized Huang Shiyu's voice from the first half of the sentence. He paused in his tea drinking, then put down his half-cold cup and listened quietly to Huang Shiyu's conversation next door.
It wasn't that he intentionally wanted to eavesdrop; it was just a coincidence, a matter of fate. You can't stop it when it happens, and he also wanted to know what trouble Huang Shiyu had encountered.
Huang Shiyu added, “I have been following you and have attended all your speeches. I have always wanted to visit you and now I finally have the opportunity.”
"The electronic equipment used in my previous company were all from brands you invested in. I bought all the books you published, especially your book 'How to Learn Precisely,' which was my guiding star. I always remember the sentence in your book: 'Don't be afraid of failure, because winning and losing are essentially siblings. If you fall to the bottom, it's okay. Just look at the scenery from the cliff first, and then think about how to fight back.' Whenever I encounter a problem and don't know what to do, I take it out and read it several times."
Upon meeting her idol, Huang Shiyu couldn't contain her excitement, which spilled out of her words. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him, a rare feeling that made her feel like she was back in her student days, waiting for her teacher's praise.
"Thank you for your kindness, but you don't need to keep addressing me as 'you,' I'm not that much older than you." As she spoke, she handed the financing document back to Huang Shiyu, and naturally noticed Huang Shiyu's somewhat frustrated expression.
She took a sip of pre-Qingming tea to moisten her throat and said, "Times have changed. Today's artificial intelligence is different from the artificial intelligence of the past. The success of a field is judged by whether it can make money."
“But haven’t international giants already given their answers?” Huang Shiyu said, his voice trembling with excitement. “The ultimate result of artificial intelligence is that it will enable machines to replace humans in performing simple and complex tasks, and the medical field is the most promising area for AI to be implemented first.”
Li Xingzhou, sitting next door, thought to himself: Huang Shiyu didn't do his homework properly. AI has already gone through a process of natural selection since 2018. The companies that can make money now have mature technology. Capital likes to chase hot topics. In the early stages, a large number of companies rush into the market to grab market share. Later, as the technology players and investors mature, they will slowly choose to enter the next market.
After listening to her, Zhang Jinyan was silent for a while before saying, "I know you want to create a smart medical platform, which is a great idea, but you don't have user resources. Right now, all you can give me is... well... let's just call it a preliminary plan. And as you know, the angel round only invests in the first round of funding, but at least I need to be able to see the subsequent development. It's like raising a child; you can tell what a child will be like at three and what they will be like at seven."
Huang Shiyu finally picked up the half-cup of tea she had placed on the tea table and drank it all in one gulp. To her left was a television that was playing an interview with Zhang Jingyan, the person she had previously negotiated with.
"What kind of startups do angel rounds fund? That's a good question." Zhang Jingyan smiled on TV and said to the camera, "Our angel round has always been committed to helping entrepreneurs who use original technology to start businesses and benefit society. It has always been something I want to do."
The phone screen on the tea table lit up, and Huang Shiyu glanced at it, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
University C invited her to give a speech, but she wasn't the only one; there were two other people who gave her a real headache. She couldn't help but rub her forehead.
Looking at the dappled light and shadows outside the window, he sighed, clearly not in a good mood about the situation.
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Author's Note: I'm so sorry, everyone, I haven't been feeling well since I woke up today. Here I am~
To all the readers who have persevered and read this far, I am truly grateful that you enjoy this book. This is something I never imagined when I started writing it, and I am so thankful to everyone!
If you could, please bookmark my pre-orders and my author page!
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