Reborn with Consumption System

...

By the time Tang Xintian woke up the next day, it was already noon.

Dragging her exhausted body out of bed, she had just reached the living room when she saw Gu Zicheng devouring food in front of the coffee table.

The sly fox looked quite disheveled, but was in much better spirits than herself.

His skin was fair with a hint of rosiness, and there was a spring-like sensuality in his eyes and brows.

In an instant, she understood everything.

"Hmm!"

Sister Da Tang snorted coldly and headed straight for the bathroom, supporting herself against the wall.

Was she angry?

A little bit, but not as much as she’d imagined.

Right now, her body was sore, muscles relaxed, stomach full, and mind fulfilled yet lazy. She just wanted to quickly take a shower, eat a filling meal, and then nap again, completely uninterested in dealing with Gu Zicheng.

...

At this time, Han Lie had already arrived at Byte’s headquarters.

On the 10th floor of Yingdu Building, Zhichun Road, Chen Lin was leading Han Lie, Panzi, and Liu Minghao on a tour of Byte’s headquarters.

Yu Ping’an and Manager Liu from Yunfeng’s investment department had also come to the Imperial Capital, but didn’t follow them to the company, instead visiting friends and preparing for the evening banquet.

This signal was quite subtle.

It could generally be understood as—our Yunfeng is willing to act as a bridge to introduce you, and in a certain sense, endorse [Tianhang’s] credibility, but will not fully support your negotiations with Byte.

This result has its pros and cons.

The advantage is that Zhang Yiming does not need to consider the stance of Yunfeng’s major shareholders, avoiding pressure and resistance.

Yunfeng’s major shareholder, those who know, know.

The disadvantage is that Han Lie doesn’t receive professional support from Yunfeng and must personally tackle the details with Zhang Yiming.

Where does Tianhang have professional investors now?

Liu Minghao counts as half; he’s handled the legal work of investment cases but isn’t an expert negotiator.

Therefore, not only can Yunfeng not be used as a bargaining chip, but Han Lie also has to engage in direct negotiations with Zhang Yiming, Zhang Lidong, and Zhang Nan.

But isn’t that interesting?

Fully entering into battle mode, Han Lie listened carefully to Chen Lin’s introduction, while also diligently observing everything about Byte.

The 700-square-meter Yingdu Building was less than a third of Sky Capital’s size.

And their staff had already grown from the few dozen when they first moved in to over two hundred people.

Excluding the reception, meeting rooms, bathroom, rest area, and public spaces, the remaining office space was quite narrow, and even two people would have to squeeze together at a less than 2.5-meter-long narrow desk.

However, this open-plan office without partitions had a vigorous vitality that Sky Capital lacked.

Chen Lin had been to Guojin Building, and he laughed, "President Han, our conditions can’t compare to yours. When we first settled here, our initial team even thought 700 square meters was too extravagant..."

Company legal representative Zhang Lidong accompanied Pan Shengwu, calmly observing Han Lie.

It wasn’t the first time he had heard Han Lie’s name; the inquiries had all praised and highly regarded Han Lie, making him keen to find out what this young man was capable of or what magic he possessed.

"It’s different."

Han Lie lightly waved his hand, his smile sincere but not the kind of clear foolishness or naive brightness typical of a usual college student.

Then, almost instinctively, a set of theories came out.

"In our finance industry, there are very few people who actually create value; the remaining employees are all serving those few. The better the company environment, the more it reflects the capabilities of those part of the management. Only when they’ve created enough value that there’s a substantial overflow even after distributing per head, can various aspects like environment, welfare, human resources, and others be wasted.

Actually, we know it’s wasteful, but we must waste to show clients.

Only then can we keep their confidence in the management team in the ever-changing market environment.

Whereas in your company, everyone is creating value. What you’re doing is aggregating everyone’s wisdom, effort, and belief to form a culture, then spreading it through products to impact more ordinary customers.

The tighter the environment, the more it fosters the concentration of strength.

The closeness of hearts inspires the consistent collision of passion and wisdom.

This is great; I really like your spirit."

Looking at the slogan "Inspire Creativity, Enrich Life" on the wall, Han Lie casually elaborated, not only providing a way out for their cramped environment but even elevating it to a level of corporate culture.

Not only did Chen Lin listen, blushing with pride, but Zhang Lidong also felt a sense of finding a kindred spirit.

This guy is also a passionate entrepreneurial fanatic, and on the spot began expressing his ideals.

"Investment institutions that have come to assess us always praise our control over operational costs; in fact, saving money is really just a secondary goal. Can saving money save us a great company?

I already reached a consensus when chatting with Yiming, Zhang Nan, and the technical team—

Focus on getting things done, not those superficial gimmicks.

If we can, we don’t even plan to build a headquarters building, promoting flat management, transparency, always keeping hearts connected, encouraging employees to think independently rather than emphasizing processes, hierarchy, and orders..."

Zhang Lidong spoke at length, explaining Byte’s management philosophy to the three.

This insight was important; Han Lie listened very intently.

The more he listened, the more he felt that Byte’s success was truly not an accident.

Zhang Lidong is a smart person; he has already clearly seen the big-company malady of those internet giants and is trying to change, paving a new path.

Currently still on the way, yet already showing the potential to devour a tiger.

Their team is simply a match made in heaven.

The three are all people who respect technology, humble and reverent, complementing each other’s strengths and covering each other’s weaknesses. From the very beginning, they established a great company culture and have always maintained their original intentions—this is extremely rare.

Before and after Douyin was released, short video products on the market never stopped making waves. Only they managed to stand out and even become a worldwide sensation; the team’s contribution far exceeded the product’s.

Liang Rubo, Xie Xin, Chen Lin, Zhou Shouzi... Byte’s executives are not just capable individuals, but all are humble, stable, and pragmatic.

When Han Lie first met Liang Rubo, this tech expert was squeezed in a cramped cubicle discussing technical issues with an ordinary employee, and the surrounding employees seemed accustomed to it, clearly indicating this was a regular occurrence.

Panzi found an opportunity to mutter to Han Lie, "This company’s management team can get things done. I don’t understand much else, but this company has a certain drive!"

Indeed, it has a certain drive.

Truly upon arriving here and immersing amongst the ordinary employees, Han Lie finally felt that unique solidarity belonging to idealists.

Early Alibaba had this drive too, but it soon faded.

Tencent in its early days racked its brains to survive, with everything focused on money; later they learned restraint and inclusiveness instead.

As for Baidu... it never had that kind of united entrepreneurial atmosphere.

From a future perspective, Han Lie had no reason not to like Byte.

"Alright, I’ll talk to Zhang Yiming as soon as possible."

Han Lie said so, and he did so.

"When does President Yiming have time to meet with us?"

Zhang Lidong hurriedly waved his hand, "Can’t possibly call it a meeting... Really sorry, Yiming is dealing with an algorithm issue, it was a sudden situation. He’ll be here soon... Ah, there he is!"

Han Lie finally met the soul of Byte, Zhang Yiming, who at the moment did not appear exceptionally remarkable. He was gaunt, wearing a crumpled long-sleeved T-shirt, drenched in sweat, rushing around, his speech somewhat stammering and inarticulate.

His ability to communicate wasn’t an issue, but it was limited to familiar circles or technical discussions.

Socializing with strangers was clearly not his forte.

He had ideas but was not adept at expressing them with inspiring language.

Once the three Zhangs got together and communicated in the company with Han Lie, Pan Shengwu, and Liu Minghao, Zhang Yiming didn’t speak much.

Panzi and Hao Zi thought nothing of it; at present, Zhang Lidong was the legal representative, the communicator with the outside world, and the spokesman for the team.

But Han Lie knew this wouldn’t work.

If they couldn’t communicate smoothly with the true soul of the team, forming enough mutual understanding and recognition, this visit would be a failure.

Thinking it over, Han Lie decided to break the deadlock with a different approach.

"Gentlemen."

Finding a gap, Han Lie asked sincerely, "Would it be convenient to show us your previous office address? The residence in Jinqiu Park was the place where your dreams began, take me to see your initial dreams!"

In an instant, Zhang Yiming, Zhang Lidong, and Zhang Nan all brightened up.

"You know Jinqiu Park?"

Han Lie smiled and nodded, "I know. If that house is still there, I’d like to have afternoon tea there."

"It’s there, it’s there!"

Zhang Yiming became animated, his eyes shining, "Now Qiu Liang and the others are living there, and the company’s chef has moved there as well..."

So the group moved to Jinqiu Park, also on Zhichun Road, only a ten-minute walk away.

Byte sent five people, accompanying Han Lie’s group of three on foot.

Along the way, Panzi and Liu Minghao intentionally created some distance, keeping one person occupied with two, creating the opportunity for Han Lie to chat alone with Zhang Yiming.

Han Lie, calm and collected, didn’t rush to ask anything.

Instead, it was Zhang Yiming who held a strong curiosity about Han Lie and took the initiative to ask some questions.

"President Han, I heard from Chen Lin that your stock trading has been exceptional, making him 50% profit in a short time. Why did you suddenly want to get involved in venture capital?"

Talking big, Han the Actor came prepared.

"The secondary market only transfers wealth without creating value. I’m a young person too, and after making an excess of money, naturally, I’d think about whether I could change society, create something, leave something behind.

Venture capital is a great medium. I can’t build great companies or products myself, but I can support some young and trendy dreams.

Would President Zhang harbor doubts about a hunter like me in the financial markets?"

Han Lie’s response was polished, and his query even more so.

Zhang Yiming stuttered a bit, uttering "Well, this..." before he replied, "Uh, of course not, with fundraising, as long as your money is legal, why would we be picky?"

That implied there was some hesitation.

Crocodiles in the secondary market often leave an impression of being ruthless, calculating, shrewd... Negative more than positive.

Byte is relatively weak now, with a valuation of $500 million, to be honest, it’s hard to give Zhang Yiming enough confidence.

If given a choice, he wouldn’t want to accept purely financial capital.

This was his truthful inner thought.

And Han Lie, through a clever and sudden reverse query, timely probed out Zhang Yiming’s thoughts, which was extremely important.

Finding the problem early allows for targeted solutions.

So now, it’s time to demonstrate real skills...