Chapter 708: 11 Billion, 400,000 Square Meters of Land! Everyone Is Stealing, Why Blame Only Me?

“Bro, you’re flaming the wrong person. iQiyi belongs to Li Yanhong.”

“Good thing I only use Kuai Bo.”

The comments section erupted with discussion.

The three major portal websites—Sina, NetEase, and Sohu—soon reposted the news one after another.

Even more independent media outlets jumped on the bandwagon. On platforms including Mimo, Miaopai, Kuai Shou, and Weishi, a slew of content creators posted review videos, offering concrete video proof that iQiyi was leeching off its users’ bandwidth.

In an instant, public opinion completely exploded!

Qian Du had just been sued by Sohu for condoning video piracy, and now it was trending for stealing bandwidth.

Panicked, Qian Du and iQiyi scrambled to initiate their public relations procedures, but the bandwidth theft was an undeniable fact. They didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Left with no choice, iQiyi could only bite the bullet and present its user agreement.

Buried within the long-winded, densely packed terms and conditions was a clause authorizing the use of the user’s bandwidth.

The result?

It would have been better if they’d said nothing. After seeing iQiyi’s official response, users immediately flew into a rage.

“This is outrageous! Who the fuck actually clicks open the user agreement when logging in? The font is smaller than a mosquito’s asshole. Who can even read that?”

“They sneak it into the agreement, and you can’t use the service without clicking it. Most people just click through. How is that any different from a scam?”

“If Li Yanhong stuck an IOU in there, would we all suddenly owe him money?”

“‘The user consented’? You can’t even use the app if you don’t consent! That’s just forcing our consent!”

Complaints!

Reports!

Netizens immediately flooded the phone lines of Yanjing’s market association, making them perpetually busy.

“Everyone’s stealing, so why am I the only one getting flamed?”

Li Yanhong grumbled indignantly.

Simply put, domestic bandwidth costs were too high. To cut costs, using PCDN technology to leech off users’ bandwidth was practically an unspoken rule in the industry.

Li Yanhong had wanted to drag his competitors out to share the blame, but he was afraid of offending too many people.

As a result, the statement submitted by the public relations department went through three revisions: the first draft vaguely mentioned, “this is a common industry practice”; the next one tried to emphasize that “the technology itself is neutral”; and the final version was left with the dry, simple line, “The user consented.”

The air in the office seemed to have frozen solid.

He stared at the screen, his expression growing darker as the trending scores for “Qian Du steals bandwidth” and “iQiyi steals bandwidth” continued to climb.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen received several more calls from the Central Bureau. It had to be said, quite a few cities had their eyes on the Xingyuan Technology project.

This was 2013, after all, not 2023.

An investment of 30 billion, spread over two phases, was enough to make many cities contemplate the possibilities.

What’s more, he had brought on Liang Jingsong as the CEO. Many places were willing to offer generous terms for the sake of Liang Jingsong’s name alone.

Liang Jingsong, after all, had been deeply involved in the semiconductor industry for over two decades. He knew the entire chain inside and out, from wafer fabrication to packaging and testing. Several technological breakthroughs he had spearheaded in recent years were still industry benchmarks.

Chen Yansen’s attitude, however, was warm and polite, but no matter what was said, he never gave a firm commitment.

It wasn’t until five in the afternoon, as twilight descended outside the window, that he pushed the door open, left, and took the elevator to the underground parking garage.

Seeing this, Xiaoli quickly got out of the car to open the door for him. Only after his boss was settled did he walk around to the driver’s seat.

“Back to the Delta.”

Chen Yansen instructed Xiaoli.

Xiaoli acknowledged, driving the Gusteau out of the Science and Technology Park and speeding down Xucheng Avenue.

…

…

The next morning, just as Chen Yansen arrived at the office, Meng Yun came over to inform him, “Boss, Zhou Junkun from the Hu City Central Bureau, the one in charge of investment attraction, has arrived. He’s accompanied by the head of the Hu City Investment Attraction Association, Xu Hongwei, and their entourage. They’re all in meeting room A1 on the second floor.”

Chen Yansen stood up and said to Meng Yun, “Get President Gao, and also call the directors of the finance, legal, and strategic development departments. We’ll meet in A1.”

With that, he walked toward the elevators.

Meng Yun followed close behind, typing messages on her phone as she walked, sending them to Gao Weilin and the others via Cloud Ship.

When Chen Yansen reached the second floor, he stepped out of the elevator to see Gao Weilin and the others already waiting by the door.

“Finished with the Semir Online business? I’ll find you a deputy later. With you not in Xucheng recently, I’ve felt like something’s missing.”

Chen Yansen said, patting Gao Weilin’s shoulder.

“Boss, to be honest, I’ve had the same feeling.”

Gao Weilin chuckled, shamelessly sucking up.

He understood the subtext in Chen Yansen’s words: the boss was going to assign him a co-CEO to handle the daily operations of Semir Online, while he would remain the actual decision-maker and concurrently serve as the Chief Financial Officer of Senlian Capital.

In terms of status within the group, even people like Zhou Shouzhi, Liao Wei, and Pei Yi were below him.

Chen Yansen smiled and rolled his eyes at Old Gao.

The guy had been in Xucheng for three years. His personality had become more lively, his work style more steady, and his professional abilities had improved by leaps and bounds.

After all, being tempered by dozens of projects, large and small, anyone who wasn’t a complete idiot would eventually hone some real skills.

Besides, Gao Weilin had originally been a top student at Hong Kong Island University of Technology; his foundation was already solid.

Chen Yansen walked straight ahead, with Gao Weilin and Meng Yun flanking him on his left and right.

The directors of the finance, legal, and strategic development departments walked in the third row, each accompanied by a subordinate.

The group of nine walked briskly toward meeting room A1.

Chen Yansen pushed open the door and walked in. He saw a row of people—six in total—sitting by the window.

The man in the lead was in his forties, wearing a light gray jacket. He carried a heavy, imposing air, similar to Xu Zhenhui.

“Boss, this is Mr. Zhou Junkun of the Hu City Central Bureau, and this is Mr. Xu Hongwei from the Investment Attraction Association.”

Meng Yun introduced them in a low voice.

“Mr. Zhou, Mr. Xu, a pleasure to meet you.”

Chen Yansen extended his right hand and shook hands with the two men, exchanging pleasantries.

“You know, we go way back, in a sense. Orange Pay’s Hu City Branch is within my jurisdiction. Compared to Luzhou, Hu City is clearly a more suitable location for Orange Pay’s headquarters. Don’t you agree, Mr. Chen?”

Zhou Junkun said with a grin.

‘Move to Hu City? Meng Yuanzhi would probably show up in Xucheng overnight ready to kill me.’

“That depends on the company’s business direction and actual development needs. We can discuss this matter at a later time.”

Chen Yansen replied, politely deflecting.

Zhou Junkun nodded and took the opportunity to sit down.

“Mr. Chen, please take a look. These are the preferential policies the Hu City Investment Attraction Association has prepared specifically for Xingyuan Technology.”

Beside him, Xu Hongwei received a look from his boss and immediately presented a stack of documents.

There were six copies.

Chen Yansen accepted the documents, then pushed the remaining copies toward Gao Weilin.

Gao Weilin took one, and the directors from the finance, legal, and strategic development departments each came forward to take the rest.

They began to flip through them quickly, and soon the only sound in the meeting room was the soft rustle of paper.

The content was extensive, but the valuable information was concentrated in five main points.

First, the provision of 400,000 square meters of industrial land in Lingang with a fifty-year lease, to be used for building factories and an office complex;

Second, a low-interest loan of up to 10 billion, with an interest rate of 3.1%;

Third, they would undertake the construction of the production, R&D, and dormitory buildings, and guarantee they would be ready for production by October 2014;

Fourth, a factory construction subsidy of 1 billion, which would be a non-repayable grant;

Fifth, for the first three years of Xingyuan Technology’s operation, all corporate and value-added taxes would be waived; for the following three years, taxes would be halved.

Additionally, there were some extra resources related to talent settlement, recruitment subsidies, and supporting infrastructure.

To sum it up, Hu City was willing to provide a 1 billion yuan ‘signing bonus’ and cover all the funding for the first phase of the project, but it would come with interest.

Perhaps in Zhou Junkun’s eyes, the greatest sincerity he had shown was the 400,000 square meters of industrial land just outside the outer ring road.

After all, this was Hu City, where every inch of land is as precious as gold!

Chen Yansen’s brow furrowed slightly as he put the document down.

Seeing this, Zhou Junkun’s heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself, ‘Could it be that he’s not satisfied?’