57: Chapter 57 A Secret Report of a 30 Million Yuan Buyout! The Thorn in the Hearts of Beijing's Elite Young Masters

Half an hour later, the two drove to Shanghai's top-tier clubhouse: Yonglu.

On the third floor, inside an acoustically insulated, classically decorated private room.

A waiter brought up a bottle of vintage wine without even a basic label.

The bottle looked unremarkable, stained with mud and dust.

But those in the know understood.

This was premium stock sourced through special channels, unavailable on the open market.

The value of this single bottle exceeded 500,000.

As the scarlet wine released its aroma in the decanter, Qin Tiankuo waved the waiter away.

He stood up himself to fill the wine glasses in front of Young Master Shen and himself.

"Clink."

With a crisp sound, the two took a small sip, setting the perfect tone for the negotiation.

Putting down his glass, Qin Tiankuo savored the mellow fragrance in his throat.

He looked up, his eyes showing a touch of tipsiness, and cut to the chase:

"Young Master Shen has focused all his energy on Shanghai recently. You might not know yet. Recently, the Beijing Circle, thousands of miles away, has been turned upside down because of you."

Shen Du leaned back in his chair.

His fingertips rubbed the rim of his wine glass, and he didn't interrupt, silently signaling for him to continue.

"First, the offline transformation brought by Meituan, and immediately after, The Three Young Masters of Shanghai joined forces to support JD.com."

Qin Tiankuo tapped his fingers on the table, his tone filled with admiration:

"Now, these two companies are exerting force in the express delivery business and logistics networks."

"In just half a year, their business outlets have spread across the country."

"They have single-handedly created millions of grassroots delivery jobs in society!"

"What's even more fatal is your extreme operation."

"With the ten-million-level traffic pool of Xinghuo combined with Meituan. You have essentially kneaded express delivery, local life, Meituan Wallet, and e-commerce delivery into an impeccable closed-loop ecosystem!"

Qin Tiankuo took a deep breath and reported a number:

"After this combination of moves, the circulating capital stirred up across the entire network in one year has already reached a scale of over 100 billion!"

At this point, the smile on Qin Tiankuo's face faded. He leaned forward and lowered his voice:

"Young Master Shen, this is a cash flow of 100 billion level!"

"You have subverted the interest structure of traditional industries."

"Especially in the eyes of those second-generation heirs in Beijing. You have crossed the line and snatched the piece of meat that is Meituan right off the plate they were eyeing!"

Qin Tiankuo stared fixedly at Shen Du's calm eyes, enunciating each word:

"Now, the core families of the entire Beijing Circle have a thorn in their hearts because you snatched Meituan."

"They are completely green with envy."

The conversation stopped there.

A flicker of understanding flashed in the depths of Shen Du's eyes; he completely understood what was going on.

Before, although Meituan had developed rapidly, many deep-level businesses were not fully exposed to the public eye before combining with Xinghuo's traffic pool.

But now, with the high-profile alliance between the two sides, Meituan's hidden cards were laid out on the table.

Those envious second-generation heirs in the Beijing Circle understood what Meituan was relying on to accumulate wealth:

Express delivery, local life, Meituan Wallet, and online-to-offline e-commerce delivery.

It sounded like only four sectors, but they were tightly intertwined and affecting the lifeblood of countless traditional industries across the country.

How could such a huge piece of meat not make people covet it?

Shen Du calmly picked up his wine glass and finished the wine in it.

He raised his eyelids.

Looking straight at Qin Tiankuo across from him, he said lightly:

"You mean they are preparing to take action against me directly?"

"No, no, no."

Qin Tiankuo, sitting opposite him, shook his index finger upon hearing this, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth:

"Young Master Shen is the core direct descendant of the Shen Family in Shanghai."

"Even if those Beijing Circle young masters were given the guts, they would absolutely never dare to break the rules and openly take action against someone from the Shen Family!"

"Their real target is the trump card in your hand: Meituan."

Qin Tiankuo lowered his voice and threw out the core secret of this dinner:

"It's like this. In the early years when Meituan was just starting to raise funds, its scale was small."

"At that stage, some small shareholders got mixed in. They did some things in the financial accounts that were easy to find flaws in."

Shen Du frowned upon hearing this.

Qin Tiankuo continued: "Young Master Shen, you are an expert, you should know what this means."

"Once the authorities step in to audit the accounts, they won't care how massive Meituan's scale is now. All processes must stop to cooperate with the investigation."

Hearing this, Shen Du quickly deduced the calculations of those people in the Beijing Circle in his mind.

If a scandal about financial fraud or accounting irregularities broke out at this juncture, with Meituan's current anti-risk capability, it certainly wouldn't be taken out in one wave.

But this would be like throwing a handful of sand into a high-speed engine.

A series of case filings, audits, freezes, and public opinion crises would follow.

Wang Xing and Meituan's management would have their energy constrained.

Meituan's unstoppable development progress would be forcibly braked!

And the logic of internet business warfare has always been cruel.

If competitors supported by the Beijing Circle took the opportunity to exert force and spend money to grab territory during this dragged-out gap, Wang Xing would be unable to cope.

At that time, the speed of Meituan's rise would be severely dragged down.

On this track, as long as you are one step slower, it means handing over tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of market share to others.

This was a move to pull the firewood from under the cauldron.

After figuring out the cause and effect, Shen Du realized the weight of this intelligence.

If this hidden mine were suddenly detonated by the Beijing Circle without any prior knowledge, Meituan would definitely fall into a passive position.

But now that he had the trump card in advance, Shen Du had plenty of means to let Wang Xing clean up the house and fill the loopholes in the accounts, letting the long-planned killing move of the Beijing Circle group hit cotton.

This piece of intelligence directly preserved Meituan's first-mover advantage on the 100-billion-level track.

A sharp glint flashed across the depths of Shen Du's eyes.

He didn't say any empty words of thanks.

Instead, he unhesitatingly picked up the bottle of 500,000-value unlabelled fine wine, stood up himself, and filled it for Qin Tiankuo opposite him.

"Brother Tiankuo, such important news."

"Just treating you to a meal would be too shabby."

Shen Du put down the wine bottle. In front of Qin Tiankuo, he directly dialed General Manager Chen Shengqiang's number.

The call was answered almost instantly.

"Shengqiang."

Shen Du's tone was calm, yet it revealed dominance.

"Change the amount in the text message I just sent you."

"Change 10 million to a 30 million cash cashier's check."

"It doesn't matter if you pay a price to go through the express channel."

"But today, this money must be delivered to Qin Tiankuo without a single cent missing."

General Manager Chen Shengqiang on the other end of the phone was stunned for half a second.

He hadn't felt urgent when he received the text message earlier, but now that the boss had personally called to increase the amount and used words like "must," this internet veteran immediately understood the weight behind this money.

"Understood, President Shen."

"It's just 30 million, the book funds are sufficient."

General Manager Chen Shengqiang's voice came out clearly from the receiver.

"Within an hour, I will have Xu Hao personally deliver it to Young Master Qin!"

Hanging up the phone, the private room fell into a brief silence.

Qin Tiankuo did not open his mouth to ask for money.

For a second-generation heir of this level, a top-tier dinner plus owing a favor was enough to buy out the value of this news.

But Shen Du still added 20 million without blinking.

This wasn't because Shen Du had too much money to burn.

Instead, he was demonstrating "the art of managing people" to Qin Tiankuo.

He wanted to use this sky-high toll of 30 million to smash open Qin Tiankuo's psychological defenses and convey an absolute signal to him: If you work for me, Shen Du, I will definitely not treat you unfairly.

Shen Du knew the reality of human nature well.

Regardless of whether Qin Tiankuo usually ate people or not, as long as the benefits provided were large enough, in the future, when he measured the value of Shen Du against other forces, this scale would definitely tilt towards Shen Du.

Wolves will only follow those who have meat to eat.

Regardless of who this meat-giver is.

After listening to Shen Du's phone call, the smile in the corners of Qin Tiankuo's tipsy eyes became intense.

He picked up his wine glass and looked at Shen Du opposite him through the scarlet wine, secretly admiring in his heart:

He really hadn't misjudged the person.

Those second-generation heirs in the Beijing Circle certainly had deep foundations, but that group of people were arrogant, and even if he went to grovel, they might not necessarily be willing to reward him with a sip of soup.

But Shen Du was different.

This cross-river dragon from Shanghai was the type who would directly stuff meat into your mouth.

"Young Master Shen, straightforward!"

Qin Tiankuo raised his wine glass, clinked it from afar with Shen Du, and drank it all in one gulp.