Chapter 233: Irrational Madness

On Saturday, 12 January 91, the usually clean Stanford Network Centre became extremely lively. Countless vehicles formed a long line in the road in front of the building, as if they were drawing a cordon. There were even more vehicles that, unable to find a parking space, could only drive repeatedly along the nearby roads in the hope of finding a place to park.

At the main entrance of the building, a red carpet stretched from the main entrance to the roadside. Hundreds of security guards in black uniforms maintained the order of the security line. Countless reporters with cameras and a large crowd of onlookers who came to admire the scene looked forward with anticipation beyond the security line on both sides of the red carpet.

This spectacular scene, which was like the red carpet at the Oscars, undoubtedly made many Stanford faculty members, who did not care about the world, feel curious.

'My God, what on earth is going on here? Is the President coming?'

'I don't think even the President would cause such a scene. I heard it was the opening ceremony for some company called Soso, which is said to be a newly developed search site.'

'I think it must be a very impressive super company. After all, I have been at Stanford University for more than 20 years. From the inauguration of the governor to the donation of a certain tycoon and the founding of a certain nobleman, I have seen so many things, but I have never seen such a scene today.'

'I don't know what kind of super company it is, but what I can tell is that there will be many tycoons today that we can't imagine, so the security today must be the tightest since Stanford University was founded.'

Two ordinary faculty members discussed among themselves in the crowd, and just as if to prove their words, as they reached this point, a commotion suddenly broke out not far away.

It turned out to be an extended Lincoln limousine parked at the entrance, and then a young Chinese man and a middle-aged white man got out of the car one after the other. As they got out of the car, the reporters and onlookers on both sides of the red carpet stretched their necks and took out their cameras to shoot frantically. It's a good thing smartphones didn't exist back then, otherwise I don't know how many people would be posting on WeChat moments today.

'Oh my god! Look, there's Tang Lin, the chairman of Peida Investment, and Mr. Thomas, the CEO. Peida Investment is an investment company that came out of nowhere after the stock market crash on Black Monday. No one knows how much money they made in the O'Reilly Real Estate bankruptcy, but it could be billions or even tens of billions! In total, the young chairman Tang Lin is a super-rich man whose assets are impossible to estimate. Rumour has it that he is also an important figure in a certain consortium, and he has invested in several media companies.'

'But you know what the best part is? He's only 26 years old. Do you know what that means? It means that even if we spent all our savings on a lottery ticket and played the same numbers, we'd still be poorer than him even if we won the first prize! All he has to do is move his fingers and he can buy any company we are working for now.'

Tang Lin and Thomas walked on the red carpet, smiling and waving to the people on both sides. Listening to the conversations around them, Tang Lin felt even more heroic, as if he could challenge any hero in the world.

However, the smile on Mr Tang Lin's face soon froze as he saw the person standing at the end of the red carpet. He quickly walked over and shook hands, saying, 'Hello, General Manager Cheng Qian, thank you for meeting me here.'

Cheng Qian smiled and said, 'Mr. Tang Lin, you're too kind. President Tang and Vice President Zhou Ming are waiting for you inside.'

Hearing that nightmare-inducing name, Tang Lin suddenly slumped a little. After all, no matter how many romantic figures he had counted in the past, they were all insignificant in the presence of that person.

So Tang Lin finally just said, 'I know,' and walked

(This chapter is not yet finished, please turn the page) into the Stanford Network Center Building, without even saying hello to the reporters behind him.

As if by appointment, when Tang Lin walked into the Stanford Network Center Building, several guests also arrived as scheduled.

Tang Wan'er and Tang Yi, along with the CEOs who worked for them, were also heirs to the Tang family and naturally received the same treatment as Tang Lin, which caused a lot of people to gasp in surprise.

'Am I dreaming? These companies can buy the entire Stanford University if they want, but now they are just attending the establishment ceremony of a new company? This is unbelievable, I'm curious which company is so lucky!'

This exclamation represented the thoughts in the minds of almost everyone outside at that moment. Finally, after confirming that everyone was present and the security guards had lifted the cordon at the entrance, everyone entered the building together.

The Stanford Network Centre Building is a new network building built in line with the Internet era. It was designed to cater to the needs of Stanford University and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, while providing Stanford University with the best network services and conducting academic research on the internet. Therefore, this is a building for both academic and commercial use. There is a large conference hall on the third floor, where today's company founding ceremony will be held.

Driven by curiosity, the place was packed in just a quarter of an hour.

Tang Lin, Tang Yi and Tang Wan'er then took to the stage and sat down. After they had all sat down, four more people took to the stage, causing a gasp from the crowd.

'Oh my god! Are those the people from the new company? That's Mr. Jobs, I recognise him, he's the one who created Apple!'

'And that's Cheng Qian. I know him too. He may not be as famous as Jobs, but he's a master of marketing and is now the general manager of the miracle-working company Jieke!'

Compared to Jobs and Cheng Qian, Tang Ran and Zhou Ming, who were at the forefront, are basically unknown to most people. People tried hard to search their names from their meagre memories, but in the end it was all in vain.

They walked to the centre of the stage and sat down. Tang Ran picked up the microphone and said, 'Thank you very much for coming. Today is the founding ceremony of Soso Company, which was restructured from Jack Company. The company will be dedicated to research in internet technology, inventing and promoting all new internet technology. Our company's goal is to lead a new internet technology with our innovation!'

Tang Ran's words were met with sparse applause from the audience. After all, what she had just said sounded too official to them, so the applause was a courtesy for the young girl's pretty voice.

After the applause, the Tang family's performance began. As usual, Tang Yi first stood out with great generosity and patted his chest, saying, 'I can feel that this will be epoch-making performance. The internet is also the centre of future development, as I have always believed, so I have decided to invest 200 million US dollars in Soso and their project.'

As Tang Yi's words came out, there was an instant uproar, and everyone was very surprised. You have to understand that these days, although everyone thinks that internet technology will be the driving force for future development future driving force, but most investments are in the hundreds of thousands or millions, and at most a few million. Now Tang Yi has directly invested 1 billion, what is the concept? That is, the first day this Soso company was founded was the same as when Appier went public.

It cannot be denied that the local tyrants' investments are indeed unreasonable.

However, before these people could close their mouths in surprise, Tang Wan'er continued, 'Soso's future flagship project is an information search service. I personally have great expectations for the prospects of this project, so

(This chapter is incomplete, please turn the page) I decided to invest 500 million US dollars.'

If Tang Yi's words earlier only surprised everyone, then Tang Wan'er's words at this moment set off an incredible whirlwind at the scene.

'What's going on? Tang Yi's investments were already hard to understand, but at least Tang Yi was a guy who didn't play by the rules in the long term and just did things according to his own preferences, so it was understandable for him to invest 200 million. But Tang Wan'er isn't like that! She has always been very cautious with her investments, so why would she invest 500 million directly now? This is clearly a way of getting back at Tang Yixing, or is this project really worth that much money?'

Everyone gasped in surprise, but before they could catch their breath, Tang Lin added, 'Since you are all being so generous, I naturally cannot be left behind. My company, Peta Investment, is prepared to invest one billion US dollars in Soso and its information search project.'

When Tang Lin's investment figure was announced, the scene exploded. Everyone was incredulous and their exclamations almost brought down the ceiling of the conference hall.

'My God, a billion dollars! Is Tang Lin crazy? This amount of money is enough for him to buy this entire building and recreate a Soso company! Could it be that the Soso company is not just a simple internet company, but that he has found King Solomon's treasure?'

'In my opinion, Tang Lin was just saying that to impress us. Can't you see that they were trying to outbid each other just now? So if you ask me, Tang Lin's words were simply a way of showing off his wealth to everyone, letting us know that his company, Peida Investments, is very rich, so rich that he can casually invest a billion dollars in any project he likes.

'Please slow down. A long time ago, someone said I was not suited to business because I couldn't keep up with them. Now it seems that this is true. I can't think of any reason why he would invest a billion dollars!'

In the face of the surprise from the audience, Zhou Ming picked up the microphone and said slowly, 'I am very grateful to the three gentlemen for their trust in Soso and me. On behalf of all the staff at Soso, I am also very thank you for your generous investment, but I want to say that based on the amount of your investment, I can give you non-voting shares of 20%, 10% and 4% respectively.'

Zhou Ming's words caused the crowd to erupt once again. For them, if Tang Lin, Tang Wan'er and Tang Yi's previous speeches could be explained away with the answer of a local tyrant's wilfulness, then Zhou Ming's words at the moment could only be described as unimaginably crazy.

What kind of joke is this? Their investment is billions, hundreds of millions and hundreds of millions, not 100,000, 50,000 or 20,000. How can they only have a maximum of 20% of the shares? What's more, they only have non-voting shares, which means that despite their huge investment, they have no say in the company's development plans and cannot influence any of the company's affairs. They can only receive investment dividends.

This is an exaggeration. Are you saying that this unremarkable project of yours is worth tens of billions of dollars?

You have to understand that all investors want to have a firm grasp on the project they invest in. They may not interfere at first, but they must end up taking control of the board of directors. But now Zhou Ming is directly forbidding them from meddling. Aren't you driving investment away? Who else will invest in you? You really think you're a treasure!

But in the end, what made everyone confused and dumbfounded to the point of collapse was that Tang Lin, Tang Yi, and Tang Wan'er all nodded in agreement in the face of Zhou Ming's conditions: 'No problem.'

Oh my god! I must be dreaming, or that Zhou Ming is the God who controls everything. Otherwise, either I'm crazy or they are crazy, or simply the whole world is crazy!

This was the last thought in everyone's mind.