Chapter 205: What exactly is Zhou Ming?

Stanford Hotel is a high-end luxury hotel in Palo Alto. Not only are many company events in Palo Alto held here, but many companies throughout Silicon Valley also like to choose this location. For the signing ceremony between Jieke and Suffolk, Zhou Ming also chose this location.

December 26th was the first day after Christmas. At 8am that morning, Zhou Ming, Tang Ran and other people from Jieke Company arrived at the hotel to prepare for the signing ceremony. Yesterday, the hotel had already decorated the venue for the signing ceremony, and at 8:30, Suffolk's chairman, Hillier, and president, Lieberton, also arrived at the hotel.

'President Tang and Vice President Zhou, I didn't expect you to come so early for the ceremony scheduled for 9 o'clock. It seems that you attach great importance to this signing event!'

Xilei exchanged pleasantries with Zhou Ming for a while, but since Zhou Ming had just asked him to pay an extra 3 million for no reason, he wasn't interested in exchanging pleasantries with him. He then said 'Since we're all here, let's get started with the signing ceremony right away. Our company's signing is fully delegated to the president, Mr. Liebowitz.'

Zhou Ming didn't have any objections to Zhou Ming had no problem with Hillaire's words, but the lawyer they had invited deliberately stood up and expressed his opinion, demanding to verify the power of attorney that Suffolk had granted to Liebermann.

Very quickly the power of attorney of Liboten was confirmed, and Liboten then sat in the chair where the contract was signed. At this point, Zhou Ming asked them to wait a little longer. Xilai was surprised and asked, 'Hasn't everyone already arrived? Or your chairman is going to come here in person to sign the contract today?'

Zhou Ming shook his head and said, 'No, I mean the party you are signing with today is not us, but Apple Inc.'

'Apple Company?' Xilai felt even more surprised, "What does this have to do with them?'

'It's simple. We have already handed over the project of upgrading your company's database to them. In order to consider the interests of the three parties, I suggest that the best option is to choose a tripartite contract," Zhou Ming replied.

If If before Hile was only a little confused, now he was completely at a loss. However, his confusion was not because he couldn't figure out the situation. He understood that the reason there would be another Aipai company coming in was simply because they were going to hand the project over to them. But the the key is that, isn't it usually the case that when a project is handed over, a large company will take it on and then split it up and give it to smaller companies to do? How can a small company take on a project from a large company?

You have to know that no matter what kind of company it is, they will always put profit first. Perhaps some small companies, due to their own technology and products, can only choose to make concessions on price, but large companies have an absolute advantage in terms of products and channels, so why would they allow such low-profit second-hand projects? This is logically doesn't make sense at all!

'Mr. Xilai, if there are some things you can't figure out, just forget about it. You just need to know that handing it over to Apple will not increase your budget. Apple is a well-known company in Silicon Valley, and their technology and products will not be discounted in any way. That's it,' said Ming Zhou.

Xilai had no choice but to trust Zhou Ming, but he was still curious.

Time Half an hour later, someone else pushed the door open. It was a middle-aged man with rimless glasses. As soon as he pushed the door open, Xilai recognised him immediately: 'Campbell, you're the vice president of Apple Inc. I'm Xilai, the chairman of Suffolk, and we've worked together before!'

Xilai was surprised. In fact, Zhou Ming was also slightly surprised, because earlier at the technology exhibition, Zhou Ming had deliberately

(the chapter is not yet finished, please turn the page) held the media to pressure the chairman of Apple Inc. Paul into agreeing to provide follow-up services for the project. Then, in Zhou Ming's opinion he must have been very angry and just sent some random project manager to get rid of the problem. But he never expected that they would send a vice president.

However this also put Zhou Ming at ease, because from this move by Apple, he could see that they still had a strong work ethic, and that even if they were forced to take on a project, they were not going to ruin their reputation.

Hill was surprised. Zhou Ming was surprised, and Campbell was also surprised. As the vice president of Apple, he of course understood what kind of what kind of contract he was about to sign. What he didn't understand at all was how Apple Inc. had fallen to such a state that it had to sign such an OEM contract. Who exactly was this Ming Zhou?

When everyone arrived, the signing ceremony officially began. Jack, Apple and Suffolk sat on the three sides of the table. Their contracts had been checked by lawyers before being signed. After the signing, Suffolk immediately handed a cheque to Tang Ran. This was what Zhou Ming had agreed with Suffolk before the contract was signed: a lump sum would be paid immediately after the contract was signed, with the rest to be paid later.

The entire signing took more than an hour. When it was half past ten, Campbell, the vice president of Apple Inc., and Hillel, the chairman of Suffolk, each took their people left, while Cheng Qian took the others back to the company. After arranging everything, Zhou Ming went back to the lobby, but found Tang Ran still sitting there. Curious, Zhou Ming asked, 'What's wrong, Ran? Is there a problem with the cheque?'

Tang Ran shook her head and replied 'There's nothing wrong with the cheque, but you've spent 20 million, Ming, and that's a loss.'

'So Ranran worried about my money.' Ming Zhou smiled and sat down, then said to Ran Tang, 'If we simply look at the income and expenditure, we spent 20 million but only earned 5 million, and even now only two million in our hands, we have indeed lost a lot of money on this deal, but many things are not as simple as looking at income and expenditure.'

'Brother Ming, are you going to say that we are doing this for the sake of inheriting the Tang family?' Tang Ran asked.

Zhou Ming laughed and scratched Tang Ran's small, delicate nose and said with a smile, 'If I said yes before, I wouldn't say that now because we've built a good relationship with Jobs through this incident.'

'Jobs? are you talking about the former chairman who was driven out of Apple? Why is this person so important?' Tang Ran asked in surprise.

'Ran, if I told you that this person would return to Apple in the future and lead it to become one of the top 20 super multinational companies in the world, would you believe me?' Zhou Ming said.

'Only I believe everything Ming says!' Tang Ran said firmly, but she still subconsciously let out a cold breath. 'But is that person really that amazing? But that's a long time in the future, isn't it?'

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and replied, 'It did take a long time for him to lead Apple Inc. into the top 20 multinational companies in the world, but he has a very good project recently that we can invest in invest. If this investment is successful, not only will I get back all the money I invested this time, we will even make a huge profit!'

Tang Ran wanted to say more say, but Zhou Ming said first, 'Okay, Ran, don't think about it anymore. Let's just get rid of this cheque first.'

Tang Ran nodded and said okay before they left together.

Meanwhile, far away on on Quan'an Island in the San Francisco Bay, an old man hurried out of the Tang ancestral

temple (the end of this chapter, please turn the page) and returned to the old Tang family residence. This old man was none other than Tang Jingsheng, the most prestigious patriarch of the Tang clan.

He hurried to his his study, where a person was waiting for him, his cousin Tang Huiyin.

Tang Jingsheng didn't beat about the bush when he saw Tang Huiyin, and asked straightaway, 'Huiyin, what's the matter? Have those boys gone too far?'

'To be honest, I really hope so,' Tang Huiyin said. 'The truth is that since that last incident, after you gave them a good scolding, at least now they've all become very cautious. Although they can't help but pull a few tricks behind your back to make trouble for Tang Ran, but overall they are still within a rational range. I came this time to tell you something else, about that Zhou Ming.'

Tang Jingsheng raised his eyebrows and made a gesture inviting her to speak, because Tang Jingsheng's concern for Zhou Ming was no less than that for the heirs to the throne.

'There is no news yet from the mainland situation has no news yet, but there is other news from Brighton and North Russia,' Tang Huiyin said to Tang Jingsheng, looking up at him. 'You need to be prepared.'

Tang Jingsheng nodded silently head, and then Tang Huiyin told how Zhou Ming had started out in Brighton by running the business of the dormitory convenience store, and how he had gradually turned it into a super investment company by taking on Councillor Brooke, and how he had united the other three major families to use subprime loans to take on the Addams family.

'I know cousin you'd think he'd gone too far in Brighton. After all, the Brighton Consortium is the oldest in the US and the Addams family is a dynasty. But you'd never guess that this is the same man was involved in Project Tochka, which aimed to destroy the economy of the former Soviet Union. He eventually profited trillions of dollars from this by turning a key figure. 'Tang Huiyin said.

After hearing Tang Huiyin's words words, Tang Jingsheng was silent and furrowed his brow deeply, because this Zhou Ming had completely exceeded his expectations.

Originally, Tang Jingsheng simply believed that Zhou Ming was at most someone sent by another consortium, but now it seems that Zhou Ming's background is much more complicated than he had imagined. Perhaps I am too naive. You have to know that the Addams family is known as the superfamily of the first American dynasty. The Tong family is very powerful in San Francisco, but not outside the city. Since Zhou Ming dares to confront even the Addams family, what does the Tong family matter?

Tang Jingsheng rubbed his temples. 'Any other news?'

Tang Huiyin nodded and said, 'Although we have not yet found any connection between Zhou Ming and the Yanjing authorities, I can be sure that we must not touch him. His connections on the mainland are definitely not simple.'

Tang Jingsheng looked up and asked Why? Tang Huiyin replied, 'Because when he was in Brighton, it was Consul General Cheng Jun who picked him up at the airport. Later, when he was about to be arrested, he was granted a presidential pardon. I think these two things could not have been achieved without the help of forces behind the scenes.'

Tang Jingsheng sighed and put his hand on and said, 'It seems I really need to have a phone call with the mainland.'

'What about the assessment on Tang Ran's side?' Tang Huiyin asked.

Facing this troubling question, Tang Jingsheng hesitated for a long time before answering, 'Let's continue for now. Until we have accurate information, we have to tell the other kids to work harder. We can't just let Tang Ran inherit everything.'

Then Tang Jingsheng raised his head and said with great pain, 'At least, this way we can ensure that our Tang family will remain a Tang family, and at least some of our assets will be under our own control.'