Chapter 317: Introducing a Third-Party Force

Words : 1782 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

"Wanda?" "We have commissioned Wanda to help us with the bidding, and we will take over the project from them afterward." "That could not be better." Zhou Yi understood immediately, his face breaking into a smile, as having an intermediary could also reduce the dark operations of the bidding conference. In the first half of the year, although Wanda was deeply mired in a crisis of both stock and debt and had sold a large number of core projects to protect itself, A thin camel is bigger than a horse. Wanda Group, bidding normally, was qualified to compete with Hengtai Country Garden—not to mention with their support. Lu Liang stayed in Su City for two days, then went to Wanda’s headquarters in Beijing to meet with Old Wang and inform him about the bidding meeting in the latter half of the year. As long as the preparations were normal, the result was already predetermined; no matter how many companies competed, the winning bidder would only be them. "Mr. Wang, please take care of it. As for the expenses, Wanda will pay first, and later, when transferring, we can round up the total." Hearing Lu Liang’s words, Old Wang waved his hand with a carefree smile, "Money is a minor matter. Helping to secure 1450 acres might even boost Wanda’s stock price." Lu Liang understood and, amidst the casual talk, mentioned Panda, "Cong should be leading the team to New York for the first document review by now." "I heard, they seem to have left last night, probably still flying." Old Wang sighed, Wanda was headed to Hong Kong, and Panda to America. Although the size of the two could not be compared, owning their own business was the most comforting thing for a parent. "I hope it goes smoothly." Lu Liang glanced at Old Wang, who, if he remembered correctly, was born in the ’50s and was sixty-three this year. Last year he was still the wealthiest Chinese globally, with a plump face and a strong, impressive stature. But this year, with Wanda suddenly encountering misfortune and falling from grace, possibly due to overworking, he had become drastically thinner, looking as though drained of spirit, and appeared quite aged. "I hope it goes smoothly." Leaving Wanda, Lu Liang went to Byte, thinking he hadn’t seen Yang Zhenyuan for a long time and decided to visit. S~eaʀᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. But Zhang Yiming guarded against him as if he were a thief, "Mr. Yang is on a business trip, he’s gone to Los Angeles." After a few words, he directly escorted Lu Liang to a private dining room in the restaurant downstairs. Anyway, preventing him from appearing in the company, lest uninformed employees get poached. Lu Liang had a bad reputation in the Beijing Circle, and Yang Zhenyuan’s Douyin was just one aspect. The development of Tianxing Car Machine System couldn’t be separated from the support of various friendly merchants in Beijing. He no longer covertly poached people but rather openly raided them, offering a 50% raise, or if that did not work, 100%, and if not, then 150%. As long as they accepted and signed the contract, they would have assured income for the next three years, the better the technology and the higher the position, the higher the resettlement fee would be. Now the research team had expanded to 500 people, all engineers from Byte, Meituan, Baidu, and even Xiaomi. "Mr. Lu, I think you should carry an umbrella when you go out, beware of sudden flying rotten eggs." Zhang Yiming clenched his teeth in anger; this guy liked to take advantage of familiarity—the closer the relationship, the more people he poached. Byte was hit the hardest, followed by Xiaomi and Baidu, who each had dozens of people poached by him. But it seemed he had recently set his sights on Qihu, with the Red Robed Sect Leader openly blasting Lu Liang for unfair competition on Weibo. "If someone throws a rotten egg at me, it’s definitely either your doing or Old Zhou from Qihu’s." Lu Liang smiled, knowing why Zhang Yiming hated him so much; the poaching was one aspect, another was the increased cost of employment. They poached people by offering salaries 100% above the industry standard; if companies wanted to retain their employees, they either had to offer stock options or increase salaries. According to his knowledge, since the establishment of Tianxing Technology, the average salary of computer professionals in the Beijing area had increased by 42%. Those people loved him too much to ever consider throwing rotten eggs at him. Zhang Yiming glared at him irritably and sincerely advised, "Mr. Lu, you really need to change this style." Lu Liang’s venture into automobile manufacturing was a done deal. Coming from a finance background, he was never short of money and loved to solve problems with money. Let the internet companies be smashed; after all, it’s a high-profit, low-maintenance industry where it’s normal for technical staff to have high salaries. But once entering the manufacturing sector, where everyone else is earning a monthly salary of three to five thousand, if Lu Liang offers seven to eight thousand or even more, it’s easy for him to stumble. "What’s the point of industrial upgrading? Isn’t it to increase the wages of ordinary people?" "If the salary was three thousand before the upgrade and still three thousand after, then what’s the point of upgrading?" Lu Liang smiled at the corners of his mouth, unconcerned. He could afford it and didn’t care about the money. Moreover, his only advantage now was having money. If he didn’t invest heavily, sticking to so-called fair competition, how could he catch up with others? Lu Liang always felt that the so-called fair competition was a term invented by those already aboard to block newcomers. Competition is competition, there was no such thing as benign or malignant. Zhang Yiming sighed, "Kindness bitten by you, you’ll know when the time comes." He then asked, "What are you looking for Old Yang for?" Lu Liang said with a smile, "I miss him, just came to see him." "Do you think I would believe that?" Zhang Yiming was speechless. Narrowing his eyes with a smile, Lu Liang revealed the matter, "I also came to ask him to recommend some talents. The car machine development has hit a bottleneck." "Damn it, I knew you weren’t holding anything good back." Zhang Yiming’s face darkened, suddenly changing the subject, "What kind of talents are you looking for? I can also help recommend." When it rains, mothers will marry off, and when employees resign, it’s the same, it’s better to let go than to block. Let Lu Liang hustle others. Instead of always targeting their Byte for wool, Lu Liang was almost shearing them bald. "High-precision maps, talents in positioning technology." Lu Liang didn’t hide it. Byte was weak in this area and was not within his consideration. Zhang Yiming blurted out subconsciously, "Baidu... probably not, Mr. Li would probably kick you out." His face showed contemplation, then suddenly inspiration struck, "Mr. Lu, don’t always focus on us in Beijing Circle, you can consider the south as well." "Think about it, DJ, Huawei, and especially Tencent. Recently, they have been promoting Tencent Maps heavily. There are more talents in the south, and your reputation there is relatively better." Lu Liang was displeased, "Is my reputation that bad?" "Hehe~~" Zhang Yiming gave a forced laugh. "Let’s see later." After parting with Zhang Yiming, Lu Liang went to the SOHO building in Zhongguang Village. Hu Weiwei informed him that the system’s promotion was not going smoothly, currently only Wuling and Weiliao were in. Xiaomi is collaborating with Beiqi to empower Jihu, representing that after internet mega-companies, smartphone manufacturers are also entering the field. Tianxing OS was outstanding, ranking first among the many self-developed car systems in China. But it wasn’t so outstanding that others couldn’t do without it, after all, it’s just an auxiliary system, not even sufficient for assisted driving. Qihu 360’s idea, which was also the idea of most car companies, was that cooperation could happen, but it must be open-source for joint development. Data was hitting a bottleneck, and smart driving development was also at a standstill, so there was a need for talents in maps and positioning to break through from another angle. Hu Weiwei paused and then said, "Mr. Lu, NIO, Li Xiang, and Xiao Peng have all established their drive technology companies one after another." Although it was unclear whether they were taking a jab at him, seeking benefits, or genuinely intending to develop their car systems, it was all a bad sign. As long as their R&D pace and the speed of technological updates slightly lagged behind market development, they would be immediately abandoned. Even if Tianxing Private Equity was their shareholder, it wouldn’t change that, because cooperation was based on mutual benefit—the main reasons they were willing to adopt Tianxing OS were that the system was quite good, and also the good relationship with Lu Liang. If the relationship with Lu Liang jeopardized the company’s interests, even if they were willing, the other shareholders wouldn’t agree. "Relying on others is not as good as relying on oneself," Lu Liang pondered. He thought it was time to involve third-party forces to accelerate car machine development. He muttered to himself, "Too strong isn’t good as it could take over. Too weak isn’t eligible. It’s best to be in development, related to automobiles, but not in direct competition with us." Hu Weiwei furrowed her brows and, after much consideration, asked uncertainly, "Are you talking about DiDi?" She thought it over and felt that only DiDi met the criteria. As of last year, there were a total of 3.85 million rideshare drivers. With so many cars running on the roads every day, if they could access their database, the smart driving development would progress as if it were on steroids. And the key point was that there would be no need to bear the cost of installing car machines, as the DiDi driver app itself served as a data collector and transmitter. "Brilliant, very clever," Lu Liang said with a smile at the corner of his mouth, and asked, "Do you still have contact with them?" They were of the same generation, both rare female CEOs, and he had heard that Hu Weiwei had a good relationship with Liu Qing. Hu Weiwei said, "It’s been a long time since we last contacted, but if you invite her, Mr. Liu won’t refuse."

Chapter 317: Introducing a Third-Party Force

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