Chapter Ninety-Five: Aftermath

As Xue Ling’s words fell, the banquet hall instantly fell into a dead silence, so quiet that the dropping of a needle could be heard.

Zhou Xuan and the others had also heard it clearly. Xue Ling’s meaning was simply that Deng Ting'an should just focus his energy on his Star-Moon Lake project. As for the several plots of land left behind by the Tengfei Group, he had better not interfere; otherwise, the planning approval for Star-Moon Lake would be in jeopardy.

Subconsciously, everyone turned their eyes toward Deng Ting'an, who was seated right in the middle. How would he respond?

"Heh..." A faint chuckle broke the brief stillness.

"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint Young Master Xue. Just this afternoon, the company's planning proposal for Star-Moon Lake was officially approved, and our next step is to begin detailed design." Deng Ting'an unexpectedly announced a piece of news that startled everyone present.

Opposite him, Xue Ling’s expression shifted slightly as he silently wondered where the problem lay.

Realizing that someone had outwardly complied with him while covertly defying him behind his back, Xue Ling wore a sneer. "Oh, is that so? Well, that truly is wonderful news. Then I wish President Deng's Star-Moon Lake great success."

Deng Ting'an gave a faint smile. "Thank you for your concern, Young Master Xue. Would you care to come in and have a couple of drinks, along with President Meng?"

"Hah, that won't be necessary. Let's just wait and see." Suppressing the anger rising within him, Xue Ling turned on his heel and walked away.

"Have a safe trip back!" Watching the group exit the banquet hall, Deng Ting'an felt a slight sense of relief.

Then, turning to the people beside him, he asked, "Do any of you still have questions about what we discussed earlier?"

One of them looked at Deng Ting'an and hesitated slightly. "Old Deng, he is that person's son. If we offend him, we won't have an easy time in the province from now on. I think we should just let this go for now."

"Heh, Old Yu, what do you mean by saying that now? Are you trying to go back on the agreement we just made? But let me remind you, even if you want to back out now, do you think it's still not too late?" Another president asked with utter disdain, immediately mocking Old Yu's backtracking.

Old Yu opened his mouth to retort, but Deng Ting'an interrupted him.

"Alright, let's go inside to talk. Do you want to stand here arguing and make laughingstocks of ourselves for others to see?" With that, he stepped forward and walked toward the inner room.

Though still hesitant, the rest of the group followed along.

As Deng Ting'an passed by Zhou Xuan's group, he exchanged greetings with Jiang Yun, Zhou Xuan, and the others before continuing toward the private dining room, his expression unreadable.

Once seated, Deng Cheng let out a cold laugh at the thought of Old Yu. "He got scared off just like that."

"Heh, that's only human nature. But you don't need to worry; Uncle Deng will certainly handle this matter properly. From what we just saw, however, the Star-Moon Lake planning has indeed been approved. The moment Xue Ling arrived in S Province, so many people refused to give him face. We're going to have a good show to watch now."

Seeing Xue Ling's thwarted expression earlier, Zhou Xuan felt immensely pleased. Xue Ling had just uttered threats moments before, only to be slapped in the face immediately after—it was profoundly satisfying.

At the same time, Zhou Xuan knew that Dongling Real Estate had entered the fray aggressively over the Tengfei Group matter and would certainly not let the issue rest.

Yet Zhou Xuan could not offer much help; his own company was only valued at tens of millions. Facing a behemoth like Dongling Real Estate with tens of billions in assets was truly like a mayfly trying to shake a giant tree—utterly powerless.

The situation in this lifetime had never occurred in his previous life; with Zhou Xuan's early intervention, the course of events had fundamentally changed. Therefore, he could only take it one step at a time and hope the situation evolved in a favorable direction.

With Xue Ling disrupting the pleasant cocktail party, nobody had the heart to linger any longer.

After chatting for a little while longer, Zhou Xuan exchanged phone numbers with Shang Yunzhou, and everyone dispersed.

Zhou Xuan was not overly concerned about the battle between Dongling Real Estate and the Blue Sky Group. No victor would be decided within ten days or half a month. As for the final outcome, it would likely have to wait for the government's official announcement in the second half of the year.

On the contrary, Zhou Xuan was extremely interested in Lu Daming, whom he had accidentally learned about. Zhou Xuan now felt an urgent lack of talent within his company and desperately needed senior professionals to join.

Rongcheng, located in the western region, simply could not compare with major metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen. Finding senior talent—especially professionals well-versed in computer and internet technologies—was even harder.

Having unexpectedly learned of such a person, it was no wonder Zhou Xuan was burning with impatience to meet him as soon as possible.

Based on his judgment from his past life, Lu Daming was not only exceptionally skilled in programming, but also highly proficient in business investment. Otherwise, how could a company he invested in have been sold for 2.7 billion, yielding him a return of over a billion?

"Perhaps the person in charge of our YY software will end up being this Lu Daming. Coupled with the development experience of QQ that I witnessed in my past life, YY will definitely be able to secure the throne as the overlord of instant messaging software."

Upon returning home, Zhou Xuan pondered how to meet Lu Daming sooner and lure this talent into his fold, making him a part of his growing business empire.

"Oh, right. Haven't Universal Software already purchased several Unix servers? These servers are going to be deployed for the hao123 website, the Universal Software official website, the chain internet café official website, and a series of other software. Lu Daming's current job is managing such Unix servers at a bank while simultaneously developing Windows system administration and system optimization software. I can use the pretext of having him moonlight to help manage these servers to gradually poach him over."

Recalling the information he had read previously, Zhou Xuan remembered that Lu Daming developing software like LuMaster was merely a side project for him, while his primary job all along had been developing intermediate banking business systems on the UNIX platform. Because of this, the man had his own independent mindset, and poaching him would certainly not be an easy task.

Having made up his mind, Zhou Xuan decided to visit Shang Yunzhou in a few days. He would then bring up the idea of meeting Lu Daming to exchange programming experience, and proceed with the next steps depending on the situation.

Back home, Zhou Xuan turned on his computer, logged into his email, and was pleasantly surprised to find a new message.

Opening it, he saw it was actually sent from Sohu, which filled him with great joy. Although he had registered a great many domain names, recently he had only sold a few, and at relatively low prices, netting a total income of just a few hundred thousand.

One had to remember that internet companies of this era were in their infancy and practically tightening their belts to get by. At times, they couldn't even afford to pay salaries; who would spend hundreds of thousands or millions to buy a domain name?

Consequently, Zhou Xuan always asked for relatively low prices for those domain names, typically just tens of thousands of yuan. He certainly didn't want to prevent many of his past life's companies from using their original domain names and becoming unrecognizable just over tens of thousands of yuan.

Doing so would run entirely counter to his intentions; he simply wanted to earn what he could. For companies with immense potential, he hoped to see if he could use domain names as equity contributions to secure a stake. If he could manage that, it would be even better.

In fact, Zhou Xuan found it rather strange: Sohu had been established for several months already, so why were they only sending an email now to inquire about purchasing the domain name?

Scanning the contents of the email, the gist of it was whether the Sohu domain name registered by Zhou Xuan was available for transfer, and if so, what the asking price was, followed by a request for a prompt reply.

The email had been sent under an individual's name, but Zhou Xuan knew that at this point in time, who else could it possibly be wanting to buy this domain name besides Sohu?