Dragon Raja: I practiced Naruto ninjutsu next to Lu Mingfei.

Page 172

"Bring it on! Who's afraid of who!"

Gu Ran chose Hattori Hanzo to fight her Nakoruru.

Samurai Shodown 2 is probably a fighting game that Nuwa has played for a long time, so her skills are more refined.

Gu Ran used his Sharingan to his advantage, and the two were evenly matched, with the outcome hanging by a thread.

The two played games all afternoon, engaging in one exhilarating battle after another.

In the end, Gu Ran won 2-0 and got two free bets!

"Kid, you played well. It's been a long time since I've had this much fun playing games with someone," Nuwa said with satisfaction. "It's a pity you're leaving next week."

Gu Ran put down the controller, stretched, and said, "How about I bring a classmate over during summer vacation? He's really good at playing games."

He was referring to Lu Mingfei.

As for arcade fighting games, he remembered that Erii also enjoyed playing them.

"We'll see..." The little girl put down the handle, wiggled her fingers, took a bite of the baked pudding on the coffee table, and then sipped some hot tea.

Nuwa wiped her mouth, then suddenly sat up straight, a hint of majesty appearing on her lovely and delicate face.

She said to Gu Ran, "Let me tell you about Lü Yongbin."

Gu Ran listened attentively.

Nearly half a month has passed, and there is still no news from Lü Yongbin.

Most recently, Gu Ran learned that he was in Mumbai, the capital of India, through Norma's surveillance.

However, the infrastructure in India is poor, and there is very little surveillance. It was difficult to find his whereabouts, but he was at the train station, and we don't know where he went after that.

Lu Xue'er fabricated a lie for Lu Yongbin, saying that his grandfather was suffering greatly because he was not receiving medical treatment due to his escape, and urged Lu Yongbin to come back as soon as possible.

If he still has any conscience, he should come back.

But Lü Xueer couldn't be sure. Ever since her younger brother left home, she found herself understanding him less and less.

Nuwa said, "Please delay regarding the Lü family's matter and give them some more time."

"can."

Gu Ran doesn't really care about Lü Yongbin now; he's just a nobody.

Then I reported it to the executive department and let them handle it.

If he were caught by the Secret Service, the worst outcome would be that he would be imprisoned on one of the Secret Service's deserted islands.

If Gu Ran catches him in the end... then he'll be handed over to Li Enshu to deal with; she'll probably execute him.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing I need to tell you, consider it my disclaimer." Nuwa stood up and stretched, the little girl's slender waist as delicate as a newly sprouted willow branch.

"what's up?"

"The Zhang family will take over your girlfriend's security work."

Chapter 205 Returning to School and Parting

Nuwa said calmly, "I usually have the 'snake' monitor your girlfriend's movements nearby, and I also send people to protect her secretly. But the Zhang family offered to take over the secret protection a couple of days ago."

After a moment's thought, Gu Ran understood the Zhang family's intention: they still wanted to mend the relationship between him and the Zhang family.

“The person in charge is Zhang Wanjun. In short, she will be responsible for the security around Su Xiaoqiang from now on.” Nuwa spread her hands. “Of course, I will continue to have the ‘snake’ monitor the area and issue warnings if there are any abnormalities, but the Zhang family will be responsible for close protection.”

"I understand." Gu Ran nodded.

"Your girlfriend is great, a very independent and lively girl." Nuwa said, hands behind her back, looking like a seasoned official. "When are you planning to tell her about the hybrid race and the inner world?"

“…Let’s wait a little longer,” Gu Ran said in a deep voice.

The things about the other world will have to be told to Su Xiaoqiang someday; it can't be kept a secret forever.

However... he didn't know when the right time would be, so he put it off for now.

“There’s no need to have so much psychological burden.” Nuwa thought he was worried about the rules of the Secret Party. “There are also many ordinary people in the Secret Party, so they don’t care about marrying ordinary people. Besides, the world of mixed-race people that they are involved in is only a small part of it.”

"I know." Gu Ran naturally knew these things, but he was worried about something else.

The young woman thought to herself, "Young people these days are always so worried about this and that when they're in a relationship. They care too much about the other person's feelings."

She occasionally plays dating games and understands Gu Ran's feelings to some extent, so she doesn't say much more.

……

A small incident also happened these days: an elderly woman from the neighborhood committee came to deliver an award certificate to commend Liu Miaomiao and Su Xiaoqiang for donating money to repair the road.

Several middle-aged women came to the house with certificates of merit, banging gongs and drums, saying they would publicize their story widely.

Gu Ran immediately said that if two young and beautiful girls live together and go out, they might be in danger if they spread the word and attract the attention of bad people.

The older woman agreed, so she stopped taking pictures and concealed the house number, but she still had to write a news article to submit to the newspaper to publicize the good deed.

As for the road surface damaged by Gu Ran, it has been repaired in the past two days.

The extra money was used to repair the potholes around the street, which was indeed a good thing for the nearby residents.

……

Gu Ran had a relaxing and enjoyable winter vacation, and before she knew it, it was coming to an end.

On the 14th, Gu Ran and Su Xiaoqiang arrived in Beijing from Shanghai and met President Lei at a teahouse near Xueyuan Road.

This was the first preparatory meeting for Xiaomi's startup, and it was at this meeting that the company name was decided as Xiaomi.

Lei's speeches are always inspiring, and he is also very approachable and down-to-earth.

Those present were all entrepreneurial talents specially recruited by Lei Jun. Some were engineers from Microsoft, some were product managers from Google, and some were the chief engineer of Motorola's R&D center... In short, they were all industry leaders.

Only two college students, Su Xiaoqiang and Gu Ran, sat on one side, their faces as youthful as children who had just left the beginner village.

"It's okay, we're rich. Rich people are always the bosses!" Gu Ran whispered to his girlfriend beside him.

Upon hearing this, Su Xiaoqiang couldn't help but cover her mouth and smile, and her nervousness dissipated considerably.

As Gu Ran said, those with money are always the bosses, so the big shots present did not look down on the two young people.

These two are investors.

Lei's meeting had three main purposes: first, to gather his team and offer them motivational speeches; second, to try and secure Su Xiaoqiang as an investor; and third, to meet with Gu Ran, since Su Xiaoqiang had mentioned that her insights were taught to her by her boyfriend.

"Gu Ran, what are your thoughts on our Xiaomi company?" Lei Jun stared at the handsome college student.

Gu Ran knew about the future development of the industry, so he spoke eloquently. Many of his views coincided with those of Lei Jun, and he believed that Xiaomi would bring down the price of mobile phones in the future.

But Gu Ran also pointed out a problem: "I think Mr. Lei's concept is very good, making it possible for everyone to afford a good mobile phone, which is a really good ideal, but..."

The first part was just polite flattery; the real point came later when the conversation shifted.

Everyone present was indeed drawn to the young investor's opinion.

"I think Mr. Lei also understands Xiaomi's problem, which is that we don't have enough resources and no patented technology. You know, when making mobile phones, communication technology is unavoidable, and we don't have any of those."

At this point in time, 3G and 4G communication patents in most parts of the world were basically monopolized by foreign countries, either Qualcomm, Nokia, or Samsung.

At that time in China, the main mobile phone manufacturers were ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo, the four major players. They had been developing for many years and all had their own patented technologies.

Xiaomi had nothing; it was dirt poor.

Lei Jun's initial approach was to partner with Qualcomm, because at the time, only Qualcomm could manufacture advanced mobile phone chips.

However, Qualcomm's chips have a shady clause: if you use my chips, you have to pay a communication patent fee, even if you don't use my technology.

Domestic manufacturers dared not speak out against this, because Qualcomm held a monopoly.

Xiaomi doesn't care, because it doesn't have patented technology, so paying money to anyone is the same as paying money.

Therefore, Xiaomi and Qualcomm were deeply intertwined in the early days.

After the Qualcomm antitrust case, this patent fee was no longer required, but Xiaomi was then put in a passive position.

Because established domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo can use their own communication patent technologies to save a large amount of patent fees.

Xiaomi is different; it's only been established for a few years, so it doesn't have any patented technology.

It was at this point that his cost-effective approach encountered difficulties.

This was its short-term growing pain, but under Lei Jun's leadership, it weathered the storm.

Later, Xiaomi acquired a domestic chip company and tried to make a mobile phone chip, but the market did not accept it. Moreover, the production cost of mobile phone chips was too high, and the young Xiaomi could not afford to spend the money. So, it decided to start from scratch.

We'll start by trying to make chips for batteries and cameras, and then gradually move on to more challenging breakthroughs.

The above is a general overview of Xiaomi's development. Gu Ran only knows the basics.

The communication patent issue he is raising now is very advanced, but it is also an issue that is bound to be encountered.

Sure enough, Mr. Lei fell into deep thought, as did the other bigwigs present, who were also pondering solutions and engaging in in-depth discussions.

At this point, Gu Ran and Su Xiaoqiang, being laymen, were completely unable to get a word in edgewise.

Ultimately, these industry leaders reached the same conclusion as later ones: they could only initially partner with one of the telecommunications patent companies.

For Xiaomi to open up the market and offer high-quality products at competitive prices, Qualcomm was the best choice.

The meeting lasted all afternoon, and in the evening, Mr. Lei treated everyone to dinner at a very upscale place.

During this period, Gu Ran also made his first investment of $300 million, with Su Xiaoqiang as the shareholder.

Xiaomi's shareholding structure is a dual-class share structure, also known as a dual-share system.

Simply put, the shares are divided into two classes, A and B. Class A shares have only ordinary voting rights, while Class B shares have higher voting rights than Class A shares, which may be 2, 3, or even 10 times higher.

Gu Ran made it clear that shareholder rights didn't matter; he was willing to accept Class A shares with ordinary voting rights. He wanted to make friends with President Lei and for Su Xiaoqiang to learn from President Lei how to manage a company.

As for controlling the company... Gu Ran has no interest, and Su Xiaoqiang probably has no interest either.

Xiaomi really can't function without Lei Jun.

Gu Ran will also invest in subsequent rounds of financing, depending on the situation. Even if he only owns 5% of the shares after the IPO, the annual dividends will still exceed 100 million yuan.

You won't lose money.

……

The next morning, the two flew back to Shanghai.