Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 540: Doing Business

Shen Yu knew that what she did last night was indeed inappropriate, but she genuinely wanted to be friends with Li Shiqi. Watching Li Shiqi walk away without even looking back, Shen Yu could not understand why her resentment was so deep.Meanwhile, over in Zhou Yuwen's office, Tao Tian explained why Jiang Minmin should be made the manager of the cultural media company. Tao Tian's reasoning was that back when they were in school, Jiang Minmin had co-led teams to exhibitions with her and possessed a certain amount of experience with exhibition modeling and runway shows. Now that it was the start of the freshman year, the company had taken on quite a few new recruits. Coupled with the fact that a number of models had chosen to leave after graduating, making Jiang Minmin the manager seemed highly appropriate.

That was what she said.

However, Zhou Yuwen still felt that letting a newcomer step right into a managerial role carried a trace of personal bias.

Another point was that Zhou Yuwen strongly disliked this girl, Minmin. He could not shake the feeling that her intentions were far from pure.

Therefore, Zhou Yuwen's stance was that Jiang Minmin could become the manager, but she would first have to undergo at least a six-month probationary period and prove herself with actual results.

As for Tao Tian's involvement in this matter, making a mistake meant accepting the punishment. Zhou Yuwen had always been clear about rewards and penalties.

Thus, this time, he had Tao Tian lie prone across the office desk.

Zhou Yuwen thrust into her from behind a few hard times to show her he meant business, serving as a minor punishment to teach her a lesson.

Although the impact did not actually hurt, it still made Tao Tian blush. Eventually, she pleaded for mercy, "Alright, I know I was wrong, Hubby. Please forgive me."

Zhou Yuwen scoffed and sat back down in his seat. "I don't think you've truly realized your mistake yet."

Tao Tian pulled down her skirt and smoothed it out, a faint blush still lingering on her cheeks. She giggled as she sat on Zhou Yuwen's lap. "How could that be? I really do know I was wrong, Hubby," she said.

Seeing Tao Tian's attitude, Zhou Yuwen decided not to press the issue. He told her that while his feelings for Qu Jing were indeed not as deep as his feelings for her, Qu Jing was still his woman, no matter how one looked at it.

Anyone with eyes could see exactly what this Minmin was plotting.

"A woman as smart as you, I refuse to believe you can't see right through it."

Zhou Yuwen said, locking eyes with Tao Tian. Under his gaze, Tao Tian naturally felt a bit guilty and could only play dumb. "Ah, see through what? They always say big breasts mean no brains. Look at me, I'm clearly that kind of brainless woman."

As she spoke, she purposefully swayed her body a little.

Hearing this, Zhou Yuwen burst into laughter. He patted Tao Tian's head and said, "You are far from brainless. The way I see it, you have three brains."

"How mean."

Afterward, Zhou Yuwen chatted with Tao Tian for a while longer, mentioning that as the company continued to grow and employ more people, there were still very few he could truly trust.

"Out of all the sisters, you are one of the rare few who is capable and actually willing to put in the work. You need to help me share the burden. If you really need an assistant, there is no need to look outside. Li Shiqi and Shen Yu, who just arrived today, are both quite excellent. They are our own close sisters, and you should be getting closer to them."

Zhou Yuwen said, wrapping his arms around Tao Tian as she sat on his lap.

Tao Tian pouted slightly at his words and said she understood.

After a moment of thought, she brought up Jiang Minmin again. She hesitated before finally saying, "Hubby, whether you believe it or not, I do care for Minmin. Furthermore, I think you have some misunderstandings about her. Minmin is actually a very simple girl. She might be a bit of a gold-digger, but don't you think that makes a girl easier to control?"

"Alright, I will think about it," Zhou Yuwen replied.

"I know she is your friend, but the company's rules are the rules. Letting her join the company was already giving you face. Appointing her directly as manager isn't just a matter of breaking the rules; the main issue is the gossip it would invite. Minmin isn't a girl who can sit quietly in the background, and with all the whispers going around, it would be impossible for me to explain things clearly later. You really didn't consider the consequences when you did this."

Tao Tian pondered this and concluded that Zhou Yuwen simply did not want to get involved with Minmin.

Truthfully, this was something Tao Tian could not quite comprehend.

Zhou Yuwen was willing to take Qu Jing, so why would he mind adding Minmin to the mix?

However, since the conversation had already reached this point, saying anything more would be redundant.

Thus, Tao Tian nodded and said she understood.

"Alright, off you go," Zhou Yuwen said.

"Remember to spend some time teaching your two new sisters," Zhou Yuwen added.

Tao Tian nodded and took her leave.

Once October rolled around, the weather visibly began to turn cold. In early October, the girls were still wearing camisoles and shorts. But a mere half-month later, even when Zheng Yanyan went to school for classes, she had to wear a pair of leggings under her jeans.

Lu Lin teased Zheng Yanyan, "Oh, I thought you were naturally immune to the cold? Why are you so fragile now?"

Zheng Yanyan retorted, "Well, Zhou Yuwen isn't at school anyway, so why should I dress so revealingly?"

Zhou Yuwen truly had no time to be at school lately.

It felt like the moment one stepped away from the university campus, there was an endless mountain of things to handle.

Ever since he returned from New York in late September, Zhou Yuwen's tasks had piled up one after another. From official meetings to company financing, the stream of work simply never stopped.

The Shared Bicycle Project was an initiative from June of this year. In just three months, it had blossomed all over the Southern Jiangsu region. Practically every college and university school gate in Southern Jiangsu had a shared bicycle docking point, and the bikes had spread to every corner of the city.

When the Shared Bicycle Project was first launched, the slogan Zhou Yuwen put forward was to serve the students and give back to society.

At the time, Zhou Yuwen claimed that since he had been making so much money, he wanted to solve a personal frustration. Whenever he traveled in the past, his biggest headache was dealing with destinations that were neither too close nor too far—too inconvenient for public transportation, yet too exhausting to reach on foot.

Therefore, he wanted to create a shared bicycle network. Naturally, these bikes would be free for university students to use.

Upon hearing this, people nodded in agreement, feeling that this young man, Zhou Yuwen, possessed quite a strong sense of social responsibility.

However, there were also those who mocked him, thinking to themselves that he was just an inexperienced youth after all. He hadn't even made that much money, yet he already wanted to give back to society?

Did society really need an inexperienced youth like him to give back? He had only earned a few tens of millions.

Even big bosses worth hundreds of millions didn't talk so grandly.

That was until the Shared Bicycle Project's network was fully rolled out.

Nearly one million university students across Southern Jiangsu had all registered on the Fun Campus app.

Within three months, Fun Campus had forced its way into the top ten social apps nationwide. Its daily active user count was remarkably high, especially for the short video section Zhou Yuwen had introduced. Although it hadn't experienced a massive explosion in popularity like Kuaishou, it had already amassed a solid base of loyal users.

In mid-October, the Shared Bicycle Project released an announcement stating that while they had always strived to run the service for free, they discovered that many people were abusing public property for private gain. Users were cutting the locks on the shared bicycles and secretly taking them home to claim as their own.

In order to better maintain order and ensure the shared bicycles were available for more people who truly needed them, starting from that day forward, the Shared Bicycle Project would charge a deposit of one hundred yuan.

Of course, this deposit could be refunded at any time. As long as a user registered an account and paid a two-hundred-yuan deposit, they could use a shared bicycle whenever they wanted.

This one hundred yuan wasn't a massive sum, but to a university student, it still counted as a small fortune.

When the announcement came out, quite a few university students chose to refuse, inevitably grumbling a bit about Zhou Yuwen behind his back. However, the majority still placed a certain degree of trust in him. They figured they might as well pay it—it was only a deposit, after all, and considering they had been using the service for so long, putting down a small deposit seemed perfectly reasonable.

Out of the nearly one million university students in Southern Jiangsu, seven hundred thousand users had already registered for the shared bicycles. Perhaps only one hundred thousand of them were actually willing to pay the deposit.

Yet even if it was only one hundred thousand people, at two hundred yuan a person, that was still a massive sum of twenty million yuan.

The crazy part was that the announcement had only been out for three days.

In that short time, an extra twenty million yuan in deposits had landed right in Zhou Yuwen's hands.

To ordinary people, this might not seem like much, but for those playing the internet tech game, they suddenly realized—something wasn't right!

This was absolutely insane!

As everyone knew, 2014 was a year when even a pig could fly if it stood in the right wind of opportunity. Countless people were running wild during this era, but the most crucial asset of all was cash. Whoever had money in their hands could use that money to make even more money. Countless individuals were taking out loans, seeking financing, and crowdfunding. When it came down to it, wasn't everyone just desperate for capital?

Yet Zhou Yuwen had quietly launched a Shared Bicycle Project and suddenly raised a massive sum of twenty million yuan out of nowhere—and this was only in a single city.

What if this expanded to every city?

What if the target demographic was no longer limited to university students?

At that moment, countless capital investors began to mobilize at the first scent of opportunity. Essentially, by the second day after the announcement was published, the wolves came running, following the scent. They declared they wanted to offer Zhou Yuwen financing, praising the Shared Bicycle Project as an absolutely brilliant endeavor that would benefit all of humanity—a project that absolutely had to be introduced to every single city.

Zhou Yuwen knew that this project did not require any high-level technical expertise. Even if he rejected their financing, they would simply develop their own versions. Instead of letting that happen, he might as well ride their momentum to earn more money. Once he had made enough, he would simply flip the business and sell it off.

Therefore, Zhou Yuwen quickly reached an agreement with a few major capital firms. He would retain a fifty-one percent stake, while they divided the remaining forty-nine percent among themselves. His side would provide the technology and the bicycles, while they would take charge of promoting and pushing the service nationwide.

During this period, Zhou Yuwen became incredibly popular. The media constantly hyped him up as a once-in-a-century business prodigy, even claiming that the Shared Bicycle Project alone could earn him tens of billions!

In truth, the project had only just begun and was nowhere near that profitable. However, the people below him were excellent at blowing things out of proportion, even boasting that the Shared Bicycle Project would be highly sought after even if expanded overseas.

The media was in an absolute frenzy.

However, Zhou Yuwen himself kept a very low profile. The Shared Bicycle Project was originally just a minor pawn meant to secure cash flow. His second step was to acquire his very own office building.

By the time December rolled around, following the massive popularity of the Shared Bicycle Project, Zhou Yuwen was named one of Jinling's Top Ten Outstanding Young Businessmen. Among the awardees was another familiar face—Jiang Xinyi, who also happened to be the only female recipient on the list.

Having not seen her for a few months, Jiang Xinyi had matured significantly. Yet, from the start of the event to its conclusion, Zhou Yuwen barely spared her a single thought.

It was a very simple, small-scale commendation ceremony. Aside from the ten relatively well-known businessmen under thirty in Jinling, a certain deputy official from the city was also in attendance.

After the event concluded, Zhou Yuwen took the initiative to approach this official, bringing up his desire to acquire a plot of land to construct his own office building.

The official listened with great interest and asked if Zhou Yuwen had any specific locations in mind.

Zhou Yuwen explained that all of his current projects were located near the university town, but he would eventually have to step out of that bubble. The area around the Olympic Sports Center boasted excellent transportation links and a prime geographic location.

"Near the Olympic Sports Center?"

Hearing Zhou Yuwen aim straight for the Olympic Sports Center, the deputy official felt somewhat conflicted. If it had been two years ago, allocating a plot of land there wouldn't have been an issue. The problem was that it was now 2014, and the future development plans for the area had already been finalized, even if they hadn't been publicly announced yet.

He couldn't understand why Zhou Yuwen had targeted this specific plot of land with such uncanny precision. Nevertheless, after giving it some serious thought, he recognized that Zhou Yuwen was a rare, highly promising young businessman in the city. With everyone outside boasting that the Shared Bicycle Project could generate tens of billions in profit, keeping the project's headquarters in Jinling would undoubtedly count as a significant political achievement for himself.

Therefore, after just a brief moment of contemplation, the deputy official said, "Little Zhou, your request poses quite a bit of a challenge."

"But it isn't entirely impossible to solve."

"Tell you what, give me a couple of days to think about it. In two days, I'll have my secretary contact you."

"Understood. I appreciate your effort in this matter," Zhou Yuwen said with a nod.

Zhou Yuwen knew that this deal was basically set in stone.

If the issue couldn't be resolved, Zhou Yuwen would simply head to Suzhou to select a plot of land for his building.

As it happened, land prices in the Suzhou New District were cheap. He estimated he could secure it for around three or four thousand yuan per square meter. It was worth noting that in four years' time, commercial housing in the Suzhou High-Tech District would skyrocket to thirty or forty thousand yuan per square meter.

Just as he parted ways with the deputy official, he heard a voice from the side remark, "President Zhou's speed of development truly makes one look at him with new eyes. It's only been a few days, and you're already preparing to construct your own office building."

Zhou Yuwen knew exactly who it was just by listening to the voice.

Sure enough, it was Jiang Xinyi, wearing exquisite makeup and dressed in the complete ensemble of a wealthy rich young lady.

Truth be told, when Jiang Xinyi fully embraced her identity as a rich young lady, she possessed quite an elegant aura.

With her hair pinned up, she wore a black turtleneck base shirt that perfectly accentuated her tall and upright figure. Her slender waist, so narrow it seemed one could wrap their hands around it, was paired with a well-fitted straight-cut skirt.

Below the hem of her skirt was a pair of thick black stockings, and her feet were slipped into a pair of expensive-looking business flats. Between her brows, she exuded the absolute aristocratic grace of a wealthy heiress.

Zhou Yuwen cast a brief glance at Jiang Xinyi. Her aloof, high-and-mighty demeanor was still far too childish, reflecting an overly eager desire to show off in front of her ex-boyfriend.

Unfortunately for her, Zhou Yuwen had absolutely no time to play house with her right now. He merely gave a slight nod and said, "I've recently seen some reports about your company. A real estate company is a solid track to be on. Work hard, and I believe you'll achieve great things in the future."

After saying this, Zhou Yuwen nodded once more and prepared to leave.

Seeing Zhou Yuwen act so formally and politely with her, treating her exactly like a stranger, Jiang Xinyi could not help but feel a twinge of resentment in her heart.

Unable to hold back, she chased after him. "Zhou Yuwen."

"Is there anything else, Miss Jiang?" Zhou Yuwen asked, his tone perfectly flat.

"?" Jiang Xinyi froze in surprise.

Staring at the calm and unflustered Zhou Yuwen, she opened her mouth to speak, eventually saying, "I sought you out because I have a business proposition. I wonder if Mr. Zhou might be interested?"

"Oh?"