Forcing Me to Be Reborn?!-Chapter 690 - 482: Giving Shen Qingning Some Pressure

"Getting investment from the capital behind takeout platforms for us?" Shen Minglang felt a buzz in his scalp.

He had never thought of this before.

In fact, in Cheng Zhu’s past life, Dragon Ball Capital (also known as Meituan Dragon Ball) had invested several hundred million into Hey Tea.

This capital focused on three categories: "new catering, new retail, local life services," and had invested in several top companies in various subdivisions.

Hey Tea’s ability to grow and strengthen had a lot to do with them.

But Cheng Zhu’s current situation was drastically different from Hey Tea’s in his previous life.

The reason was simple: with his own strength, he had ushered in the new era of milk tea, overturning the traditional milk tea table with one hand, leading the industry into the Milk Tea 3.0 era.

At this time on the current timeline, all major takeout platforms were in a critical period of burning cash fiercely.

The year 2015 was the climax stage of a battle royale!

At this time, who cared about Dragon Ball Capital or whatever it was?

Platforms like Meituan Takeout and Eleme were in the throes of fighting with all their might.

There were even rumors on the street that Eleme was requiring its frontline personnel to learn combat, and when they fought, it was for real!

Everyone was on the same track -- burning money!

Each one hoping to outlast the other and leave them depleted!

How intense was the battle?

Eleme, which had raised over a billion dollars, and Meituan, which had secured over twenty billion, by the end of the year were all feeling the strain and gradually reducing subsidies.

Therefore, Cheng Zhu didn’t expect takeout platforms to invest in his Youu Tea at all.

"They don’t have a damn dime! They’re even less wealthy than me!" the young king declared arrogantly.

Cheng Zhu was always clear that even being reborn could only serve as a reference and not as an exact replica, because the era was completely different!

Fortunately, he was capable on his own, having amassed assets of over a hundred million out of nothing in his previous life. For many ordinary people, even if they did get a ticket to rebirth, their achievements might ultimately be limited.

Nowadays, these takeout platforms were all desperately in need of more capital to sustain them.

"It’s all: ’Oh dear investors, save me!’"

But if you look at Cheng Zhu, with his QQ industry, he was making an eight-figure sum every month.

His second round of financing was not even really about the money!

So, when Shen Minglang talked about how even the second-in-command at Baidu Takeout had personally made a call, showing sincerity and giving face...

What a joke, that’s just because that’s all they were capable of.

Each one is more strapped for cash than Youu Tea, and without money, they’re done for!

If they can’t pull out substantial cash, they can only express an attitude and sincerity.

However, the capital behind those takeout platforms was another story altogether.

Their strength could be said to be formidable, one after the other!

Now, anyone with a bit of sense could see that playing the O2O (Online-to-Offline) game is all about burning cash. Without top money power, you don’t even qualify to enter the game. And if you do, you’re just a wealthy dunce tossing money into the water.

Thus, the initial battle of "A Thousand Groups" eventually turned into a "Two-Horse Race," and the Takeout Wars that unfurled over the years also devolved into a "Two-Horse Race."

So, Cheng Zhu didn’t even consider Baidu Takeout.

He was discussing all these things with Shen Minglang, in fact, to give the Shen family a sense of pressure.

He was essentially conveying a message to Shen Guoqiang through him: "I have a clear layout for the future."

"And as for my thoughts on the second round of financing: I only want money from investors that are useful to me."

Sunny and cheerful Shen Minglang couldn’t think of these things, but Ningning could figure it out.

But no matter, for Cheng Zhu’s purposes, he needed an intermediary between himself and Shen Guoqiang, just as he needed one between himself and Shen Qingning.

"And is there a more suitable intermediary in this world than the ’Secondhand King’ Shen Minglang?"

"I only need to subtly exude my ’aura,’ and he’ll mimic my words one-for-one," Cheng Zhu said with a smile.

...

...

Night fell at the Shen family’s residence.

After returning home today, Shen Minglang immediately used the family printer to print out all of Youu Tea’s data for the month of May.

He planned to show it to Shen Guoqiang when he got home, believing that hard copies were better.

"Last time I told him that Youu Tea was about to start its second round of financing, he just said, ’I know.’"

"What do you know!"

"Do you know what kind of investors we’re looking for now?"

"Humph! You know nothing at all!"

The proud eldest stood in front of the printer, smirking slightly.

He didn’t realize that his father’s performance was due to a current cash flow problem at home that was driving him crazy, so he didn’t want to be too optimistic from the start.

He just thought Shen Guoqiang wasn’t being proactive enough with his investments!

After punching holes and binding the material, Shen Minglang picked up the documents and sauntered downstairs with confidence.

Instead of going back to his room, he aimlessly wandered around the living room, pure and simply looking for trouble.

His young stepmother Wang Yushan, with whom he had a poor relationship, wasn’t hanging around the living room bothering him and had chosen to go back to her bedroom to binge-watch TV shows.

She could see at a glance that Shen Minglang was waiting for her husband, and judging by his demeanor, he was probably going to tick off his father tonight.

After pondering for a moment, she went upstairs and knocked on Shen Qingning’s door.

When the door opened, she said, "Ningning, your brother seems to be downstairs waiting for Dad; do you want to go take a look?"

"Okay," Shen Qingning nodded.

She didn’t have much to do today and had just been reading new reports about Cheng Zhu in her room.

Seeing that Wang Yushan was relieved by her willingness to keep an eye on the situation, she said, "Then I’ll go put on a facemask and chase dramas." She laughed, feeling that her skin had been a bit dry recently and not as moist as she would like.

Shen Qingning nodded.

The leggy girl walked down her long legs to the living room and, seeing Shen Minglang strolling around and humming a tune, understood why her aunt wanted her to come down and keep watch.

"What are you holding in your hand?" she asked abruptly.

"Sss! How come you walk so quietly that I was almost scared!" Shen Minglang turned and complained. freeweɓnøvel~com

Glancing at the papers in his hand, he said, "Nothing much, just some recent data from Youu Tea, which you can see anyway."

Shen Qingning nodded, she had been keeping up with Youu Tea’s daily data.

"Is it for Dad?" she asked.

"Smart!" Shen Minglang grinned, "I want to give him a shock with the data to encourage him to invest more!"

Shen Qingning sighed helplessly upon hearing this.

"Don’t you know the family’s been tight on money lately?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"We’ve just taken a new plot of land for building a shopping mall; didn’t you know?"

"Huh?"

Shen Minglang was completely clueless.

He scratched his head, acting as if he wasn’t part of the Shen family, and blurted out, "I really didn’t know; I’ve been busy with Youu Tea recently."

— What do the Shen family’s businesses have to do with me? I’m with Youu Tea!

Shen Qingning was beside herself with his attitude. While they waited for Shen Guoqiang to return, she warned, "Dad would certainly be willing to reinvest, but how much money he can pool right now is hard to say."

"I think after the second round of financing, we’re likely to be diluted. The question is just how much," Shen Qingning shared her honest thoughts.

"Huh? How can that be, wouldn’t that make us even less significant in Youu Tea? The two of us siblings must hold on to our cousin’s coattails!" Shen Minglang spoke without a filter.

Shen Qingning: "..."

The haughty girl snapped, "You’re so keen on holding on; you go hug him yourself."

As if I would cling to his coattails.

In his anxiety, Shen Minglang said, "Hey, I don’t mean it that way, Ningning. I tell you, our cousin amazed me again today. Damn it, he secretly harbors many plans we don’t know about. He’s so ruthless!"

"Hmm?" The elegant, cool leggy girl frowned slightly, immediately interested in Cheng Zhu’s hidden intentions.

Just as the siblings were about to delve into a serious discussion, Shen Guoqiang entered the house, the head of the family returning home.

Today, he’d been busy trying to raise money for Youu Tea.

Shen Guoqiang glanced at the siblings in the living room and directly asked, "Are you waiting for me?"

Shen Minglang nodded, taking the lead in the conversation in a manner sure to irritate anyone, "Dad, are we out of money at home?"

Shen Qingning: "..."

Shen Guoqiang: "****!"

He began to wonder if he’d been too harsh with the beatings in the past, dumbing the boy down.

He could guess the siblings were concerned about Youu Tea, but did this rebellious son have to start so aggressively?

Taking a deep breath, Shen Guoqiang tried to keep his temper in check, "We’re talking about Youu Tea?"

"Yes!" Shen Minglang immediately nodded, then handed over the papers, "These are Youu Tea’s recent stats; Dad, take a good look."

Shen Qingning inwardly sighed, "The ’good’ part was really unnecessary..."

The middle-aged father twitched at the corner of his eye and casually flipped through the stack, already having a general idea of Youu Tea’s situation.

Lately, fueled by reports in Zhejiang Daily, articles about Youu Tea were everywhere, and he’d read quite a few. He just played it down.

"Dad, maybe you should look a bit more?" Shen Minglang spoke up.

Are these royal decrees that you respond to with a casual glance?

Look properly! Pay attention!

The middle-aged father gave him a glance and threw the papers onto the table with a "slap!"

He was thoroughly annoyed with Shen Minglang and could only say, "I have a rough idea about Youu Tea, and after briefly checking now, it’s about what I expected."

"Oh, okay," Shen Minglang nodded.

Then he made his stance clear, "Dad, I really feel we shouldn’t let the second-round financing opportunity slip by. Believe me, Youu Tea will really keep improving."

"These past few days, all kinds of takeout platforms are contacting Cheng Zhu, cough, and contacting me. Yep, and that includes the deputy head of Baidu Takeout."

When he got to that part, he truly began to play the part of "Secondhand King."

Shen Minglang repeated some of the things Cheng Zhu had told him, but where Cheng Zhu said "I," Shen Minglang changed it to "we."

"We want the capital behind the takeout platforms to fight over the second-round financing slot for Youu Tea!"

The middle-aged father listened silently, automatically filtering the information and completely ignoring Shen Minglang’s presence.

The haughty girl did the same.

Listening to her brother, she became even more impressed by Cheng Zhu’s foresight and his business acumen.

"So, he’s always had a clear target."

"And so he’s arranged everything around this particular time point?"

Shen Qingning admired Cheng Zhu’s business moves.

She could fully understand what was going on, but if she was honest with herself, understanding and coming up with it on her own were two very different things.

At that thought, she felt a bit dazed.

Because not long ago, this man had just been an ordinary customer at her brother’s bar, brought over by Jiang Wanzhou to watch soccer, with only the red envelopes from his elders in his pocket for celebrating college admission.

Both Shen Qingning and Shen Guoqiang caught the key information.

This Cheng Zhu, he knows exactly what he wants!

What he wants isn’t money at all!

What he wants is usefulness!

He had already planned who the second round of funding should go to. Perhaps he already had an idea.

But what value could the Shen family provide to Youu Tea at this stage?

What started as a store given a backdoor entry in the Star City mall had grown into a towering tree!

With the capital from behind the takeout platforms, Youu Tea could deeply bind with one of those platforms.

The future benefits of this partnership didn’t need to be spelled out.

Moreover, the capital behind these takeout platforms was incredibly impressive!

But what about the Shen family?

For a moment, the pressure Cheng Zhu passed on enveloped the father and daughter.

...

(P.S.: Second update, please vote for the monthly ticket~)