Chapter 570 - 410: 10 Billion Advertising Fee! Ma Liyun: What? You Want My Life Too?

On the surface, Ma Liyun’s visit was to pay his respects after having copied Senlian Star Shining Card’s business model.

In reality, he was after Mimo Short Video’s overseas traffic and wanted to sign an annual advertising contract with Chen Yansen.

Furthermore, the exposure from products like Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, Orange, the Aurora Future Application Mall, and Xiaohongshu was also very tempting to Lao Ma.

Ah Li was, at its core, a traffic broker. Buying and selling traffic was just part of its daily operations.

Chen Yansen wanted to boost his products’ profitability, and Ma Liyun wanted to secure more third-party resources. They hit it off instantly, their cooperation unhindered by any reservations stemming from their rivalry in the e-commerce sector.

Both men were pragmatic enough to be guided solely by profit, without letting any personal feelings get in the way.

Outside the window, the night had deepened and the lights were dim.

Accompanied by his assistant, Ma Liyun staggered back to the hotel, hastily washed up, and passed out on the bed.

The phone on the nightstand rang incessantly, but Lao Ma’s snores were thunderous, and he remained completely oblivious.

’He’s not picking up?’

Wang Xin’s brow furrowed. He decided to call again tomorrow.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen settled into the back seat of the Gusteau and instructed Lao Huang, "Back to the Delta."

Huang Boxiang nodded, silent and focused on the road.

Over the past few days, he had seen Meng Jie, Song Yuncheng, and Ye Qiuping in succession.

At first, Lao Huang was a bit shocked. But as he gradually got used to it, he started to think Chen Yansen didn’t have *enough* girlfriends.

He seemed to have forgotten that before becoming President Chen’s driver, he had despised unfaithful, fickle men more than anyone.

Now, however, he thought, ’President Chen is young, rich, tall, and handsome. Three isn’t even that many.’

People really do change!

When one’s gratitude was magnified to such an extent, Chen Yansen’s flaws seemed like nothing more than insignificant quirks in Huang Boxiang’s eyes.

"It would be great if the Senlian Star Shining Card could be patented," Song Yuncheng remarked with a helpless sigh. "Sohu and Ah Li at least gave us a heads-up. I’m sure there are even more who just started copying it without a word."

"It doesn’t matter. I copied Ah Li’s e-payment system and Penguin’s social media app anyway. This is the internet—you copy me today, I copy you tomorrow. No one gets to feel wronged."

Chen Yansen said dismissively.

In his opinion, execution would always be more important than ideas. It’s the people who make things happen.

Creativity determines your ceiling, but execution determines your floor.

Take Wang Xin, for example. He once made a one-for-one ’copy’ of Facebook’s blue-and-white theme and features to launch Xiaonei Network. But did he succeed?

In the end, he sold the product to Chen Yizhou for 2 million US Dollars. All the guy did was change the name and pivot the product’s direction, and within a few short years, its market value skyrocketed to several billion US Dollars.

Then there was Liang Changlin, who copied Nextdoor’s community app model and ended up with nothing to show for it.

When Chen Yansen chose project leaders, the first thing he looked for was execution ability. That was the foundation. Strategic planning, risk assessment, communication skills, and innovation all came second.

It’s not a bad thing to be able to talk a big game, but if that’s *all* you can do, you’re in trouble.

"I have some good news. Want to take a guess?" Song Yuncheng said with a bright smile, no longer concerned about Ah Li and Sohu’s plagiarism as she changed the subject.

"You’re pregnant?" Chen Yansen teased with a mischievous grin.

"Pregnant with what?" Song Yuncheng was stunned for a moment, not understanding at first. But she was quick to catch on. A blush instantly crept up her face and earlobes as she chided him softly, "You’re always spouting nonsense. I bought a house."

"Congratulations. How many?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

"Five," Song Yuncheng said with a grin, holding up her right hand. "They’re all in Luzhou. I plan to live in one and rent out the other four to cover the mortgage."

She did exactly as Chen Yansen had advised.

"Nice. I can’t call you Little Orange anymore. I’ll have to start calling you the Landlady," Chen Yansen joked.

’You can call me Mommy, too,’ Song Yuncheng thought, smiling but saying nothing.

In the night of Xucheng, a thin, veil-like mist had unknowingly risen. The car’s headlights cast halos of orange-yellow light as it sped toward the villa district.

The next morning, a pleasant spring breeze was blowing.

The fog from the previous night had condensed into dew on the new buds of the camphor trees, refracting the morning sunlight with an iridescent sheen.

A Mercedes 62S with Hang City plates slowly drove into the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park. Inside, Ma Liyun was lost in thought.

That morning, he had received a call from Wang Xin, who got straight to the point: was he interested in buying Meituan for just 200 million US Dollars?

’That’s not expensive!’

If he could integrate Meituan’s food delivery and Group Buy businesses, Ah Li would no longer have to rely on Kuai Pao in the local lifestyle sector.

But the thought of going head-to-head with Senlian Capital gave Lao Ma pause.

Ah Li and Senlian Capital had already clashed on a smaller scale in the e-commerce and food delivery markets, and Ah Li hadn’t gained the slightest advantage.

Senlian Capital was already an established powerhouse. It lacked neither capital, user devices, nor traffic.

In a fight against Senlian Capital, Ah Li would be constrained at every turn.

Ma Liyun was torn. He knew that if he bought Meituan and made a large-scale push into the O2O space, Chen Yansen would almost certainly turn on him.

The advertising partnership between their two companies would be blown as well!

But if he didn’t buy it, he couldn’t stomach the thought.

Even Qian Du Network had established an LBS division. Why couldn’t Ah Li?

’Ma Liyun, you don’t even have an electronic navigation map. What are you going to build Ah Li’s O2O ecosystem with?’

’If I don’t have one, I can buy one. If that doesn’t work, I’ll build it myself. How hard can it be to make an electronic navigation map?’

For a moment, two diametrically opposed thoughts battled in his mind.

"Sir, we’ve arrived," his assistant said.

Ma Liyun snapped back to reality and looked out the window. A dozen or so office buildings came into view, each with a different company logo on its facade.