187: Chapter 187 Leaving Hangzhou

Chen Fan didn't answer immediately; instead, he leaned back in the rear seat, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

Was it worth it?

Of course it was.

Three million wasn't much money to him,

but in exchange, he got a 40% stake in Bilibili. No matter how you calculated it, this was a massive profit.

Even if future rounds of financing diluted his shares to twenty or thirty percent, once Bilibili went public in a dozen years, the return would be dozens or even hundreds of times the investment.

Moreover, when he arrived today, his bottom line was that securing 30% would be considered a success.

He hadn't expected Xu Yi to be more flexible than anticipated, eventually negotiating up to 40%—a genuine pleasant surprise.

In his past life, Chen Rui only obtained 18% of the shares the first time.

Speaking of Chen Rui, Chen Fan felt quite conflicted about him.

In his past life, this man was Bilibili's earliest angel investor, its later chairman, and the key driver behind Bilibili's transformation from a 'shabby little site' into a 'listed company.'

When he first invested, he only received 18% of the shares. Chen Fan's initial move secured 40%, nearly double what Chen Rui had.

This man didn't have a great reputation among Bilibili users and had been criticized for countless years.

His detractors said he betrayed his original intentions, over-commercialized the platform, and turned an ACG community into a traffic-driven business.

Whenever memes like 'I, your uncle, love money the most' appeared in the comments, the bullet chat would immediately be flooded with messages.

For over a decade, few internet company bosses could compare to him when it came to being lambasted.

The title 'Uncle' changed from a term of respect to one of irony, and jokes like 'Chen Rui, give me back my hard-earned money' circulated widely among users.

The most famous was the 'Mongolian Top Laner' incident, which completely made Chen Rui famous outside the community.

However, that fame wasn't exactly a good reputation.

But Chen Fan knew clearly that reputation was one thing, and ability was another.

Chen Rui was truly capable.

Bilibili's ability to grow from a 'shabby little site' tucked away in an old Hangzhou residential compound into an ACG empire—going public, breaking into the mainstream, and seeing its market value soar to tens of billions of US dollars—couldn't have been done by Xu Yi alone without Chen Rui.

It could be said that without Chen Rui, Bilibili likely wouldn't have survived those difficult years of copyright wars and commercial transformation.

But that was the script of his past life.

In this life, Chen Rui hadn't appeared yet. He was still serving as a co-founder at Cheetah Mobile.

Chen Fan would not let him join.

The main reason Chen Fan didn't want him to join was that this man's stance in his past life was problematic.

Not only did he host Japanese 'Summer Festival' events in Jinling, but it was also rumored and exposed that he once wanted to take up Japanese citizenship.

Chen Fan utterly loathed such 'fake foreigners' who turned against their own country.

To be honest, if it weren't for the issue of his stance, Chen Fan would have been very willing to let him join.

After all, this man had the ability to develop Bilibili; Chen Fan would only need to sit back and wait for it to go public.

But it couldn't be helped; in this life, Bilibili was destined to be without Chen Rui.

However, even without Chen Rui, Chen Fan was confident that Bilibili could still thrive.

He was a loyal user of Bilibili in his past life and understood its developmental history very clearly.

He had been a loyal user, seeing everything from the earliest bullet chat culture to the later waves of mainstream success; he saw Bilibili's decade-plus development path with complete clarity.

He knew which pitfalls to avoid, which paths were worth taking, which decisions were later proven wrong, and which directions were validated by time.

As long as he controlled the general direction, even without Chen Rui in this life, he was confident he could lead Bilibili to heights even greater than in his past life.

...

Two days later, Chen Fan signed the investment agreement in his own name and transferred one million into Xu Yi's account.

The moment he received the text notification, Xu Yi was completely stunned, staring fixedly at his phone screen.

One million.

It had arrived.

His fingers trembled slightly, and an uncontrollable smile spread from the corners of his mouth across his entire face.

With this million, there were so many things he could do.

He could move to a decent office so the founding team wouldn't have to squeeze into that rental room where even turning around was a struggle; he could upgrade the bandwidth so the playback progress bar, which lagged to death during every evening peak, could finally run smoothly; and he could hire more people—development, operations, community management—every position was short-staffed.

To his current self, this million was like a flask of water suddenly appearing before a traveler about to die of thirst in the desert.

At this point in his past life, Bilibili had also nearly failed to hold on. It was Chen Rui who invested one million in early 2011, allowing the 'shabby little site' to slowly catch its breath and advance step by step.

In this life, however, the person handing over that million had been replaced by Chen Fan.

"The money has arrived," Chen Fan looked at Xu Yi. "What are your plans next?"

Xu Yi rubbed his hands, the light in his eyes still bright.

"Change offices. The current place is too cramped and out of the way, making it inconvenient to discuss business. The bandwidth needs an upgrade too; user numbers have been growing fast recently, and it's already starting to lag during peak hours. Then there's hiring; we're completely short-handed right now, and I'm handling several jobs on my own."

Chen Fan nodded and didn't say much else.

"Alright, since you have a plan, I'm relieved." He patted Xu Yi on the shoulder. "We'll be heading out first. Once the company is registered, get in touch anytime."

He didn't have any advice to give.

Bilibili was too small right now, like a newly sprouted seedling; any improper external interference could cause it to grow crooked or even wither prematurely.

So what Chen Fan did was let Xu Yi take the lead himself.

In the early stages of the past life, Xu Yi had been the one leading Bilibili, and it wasn't until 2014 that Chen Rui took over.

Therefore, Chen Fan felt relatively at ease with Xu Yi.

Once Bilibili had a few more users, he could slowly guide Xu Yi to make changes according to Bilibili's developmental path from his past life.

But now was not the time.

Company registration would still take some time, and there was no point in Chen Fan staying in Hangzhou any longer.

The next day, he took Qiao Linlin for a stroll around West Lake, visiting all the spots tourists should go: Broken Bridge, Su Causeway, and Leifeng Pagoda.

After a day of walking, their legs were a bit sore. At dusk, the two took a taxi to the airport, checked in, passed through security, and boarded the plane.

As the plane taxied, Chen Fan leaned against the window, watching the lights of Hangzhou grow smaller and smaller until they finally dissolved into the night.