230: Chapter 230 Going to ByteDance for a Meeting

The sky over Beijing was gray and overcast today, hanging low, with the air feeling dry and parched.

Outside the window, a row of office buildings had blurred, indistinct outlines.

In the twelfth-floor conference room, the glass was wiped clean, but a layer of dust on the outside couldn't be removed. The sunlight shining in looked washed out, creating a stifling atmosphere.

Li Xin sat in the middle of the long table with a cup of tea in front of him. He picked it up and took a sip; the temperature was just right. The tea leaves were ordinary—not bitter, but lacking any real fragrance.

There were about a dozen people in the conference room. Zhang Yiming sat at the very end, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. As he spoke, he held a pen; he didn't write anything with it, just twirled it back and forth between his fingers.

"Growth in North America has reached a Bottleneck," he said.

Zhang Yiming spoke at a measured pace, one sentence at a time: "The core strategy now is to first solidify our existing user base, then tackle the growth in Southeast Asia. The data for TikTok Shop in Indonesia just came out this week, and the conversion rate is better than expected."

The man in glasses opposite him chimed in: "The payment process in Southeast Asia is still not up to par. Local wallet coverage is insufficient, and user habits haven't been fully cultivated yet."

"That depends on how much effort we put into promoting it."

Someone else interjected, "Natural growth alone isn't enough; we need to pour money into it."

"Pouring money in can solve short-term problems, but in the long run, if the infrastructure isn't improved, user stickiness won't increase."

The conference room was filled with chatter and continuous discussion, with everyone taking turns to speak. Li Xin remained expressionless, leaning back in his chair. His gaze occasionally landed on the speaker, and occasionally drifted toward the window.

Downstairs, most of the leaves on the sycamore trees had fallen, leaving the grayish-black branches poking at the gloomy sky.

Zhang Yiming didn't interrupt anyone. After the others had finished, he paused quietly for two or three seconds, then turned his head to look in Li Xin's direction.

"Mr. Li, what do you think?"

Li Xin was holding his tea cup; when his name was called, he casually set it down. The porcelain cup clicked against the table with a crisp sound.

He looked at Zhang Yiming, his tone flat and calm: "You've discussed this in great detail. I have nothing to add."

After saying this, he took another sip of tea, as if he really had nothing to add.

Zhang Yiming looked at him for a second or two, then nodded: "Alright."

He turned back to discuss the details. The eyes of the people beside him lingered on Li Xin for a moment before shifting away.

The meeting continued for nearly another hour, covering a wide range of topics: refined strategies for North American user operations, building local promotion teams in the Southeast Asia market, and increasing the automation rate of content moderation.

For every point, there were people speaking, arguing, and making decisions. Zhang Yiming controlled the pace throughout, tightening or loosening as needed, without any drag.

When the meeting adjourned, everyone began to pack up. Li Xin stood up, took his coat from the back of his chair, draped it over his arm, and walked toward the door.

At the door, Zhang Yiming caught up with him, accompanied by an assistant—a girl with a ponytail clutching a notebook. Zhang Yiming smiled and asked, "Mr. Li, I'd like to ask, do you have any additional comments regarding today's meeting?"

Li Xin adjusted his coat collar, looked up, and smiled: "Thank you for leading the charge. If anything comes up, we can communicate anytime. I'll take my leave now. See you, Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Yiming smiled and stepped forward, making a gesture to stop him: "You've come all this way, Mr. Li. Don't be in such a rush. Stay for a few minutes and have some tea in my office before you go."

Li Xin shook his head gently, his tone peaceful: "I have other arrangements, so I won't delay any longer. Thank you all for your hard work."

Seeing that Li Xin seemed to genuinely have somewhere to be, Zhang Yiming said regretfully, "Ah, alright then. I won't delay your schedule. We'll meet another day. Let me see you out."

The group saw Li Xin downstairs. Just before he got into the car, Zhang Yiming smiled and said, "Safe travels, Mr. Li. I will sync the core progress with you promptly. Until next time."

The two shook hands and exchanged a brief gesture of acknowledgment.

Li Xin nodded: "Alright, see you."

...

The group returned to the conference room.

Zhang Yiming stood quietly by the table, reaching out to gather and stack the spread-out meeting Materials, his movements unhurried.

The CFO beside him pondered for a long time, unsure, and tentatively whispered, "Mr. Zhang, this Mr. Li didn't find any faults or suggest any rectifications the entire time. Does this count as him approving our proposal?"

Zhang Yiming looked up, his expression calm, his voice lowered:

"Neither praising nor criticizing, refusing to stay longer, leaving in a hurry. Not taking the initiative to state his position isn't perfunctory; it's leaving space for us to execute."

"Entrusting full authority to me, not asking about the process but only looking at the results—this delegation of power is the greatest form of approval."

The CFO was stunned for a moment, didn't ask further, and packed up to leave. Only Zhang Yiming remained in the conference room. He stood by the window and looked out. The sky was still gray; there was nothing worth seeing. He stood there for a few seconds, then left as well.

Half a month later, ByteDance sent out an internal email adjusting the priorities of its globalization strategy, increasing the human resources budget for the Southeast Asia market by thirty percent. The direction was basically consistent with that day's meeting.

Later, at an internal management meeting, a new business head asked Zhang Yiming, "Mr. Zhang, did this strategic adjustment in Southeast Asia take into account the opinions of those major shareholders?"

Zhang Yiming was looking down at his phone; he looked up after hearing the question, thought for about two seconds, and replied, "Mr. Li said at the meeting that he had 'nothing to say.' That means he is completely reassured, and we should just proceed at our own pace."

The newcomer didn't dare to ask any more and lowered his head to take notes.

Li Xin stayed in Beijing for a few days during that time. There was nothing special; he just met people for a couple of meals and reviewed a few project briefs sent by Li Jiayi.

One evening, while lying in his hotel bed scrolling through his phone, he swiped through his social media feed and saw an investor share a news article titled "ByteDance Accelerates Globalization Strategy; Southeast Asia Market Becomes New Growth Pole."

He clicked in to take a look; the article was standard and didn't contain anything new. Then he exited and casually liked it.

After that like was posted, a few comments appeared under his post, but he didn't look at them.

Zhang Yiming was also scrolling through his phone that day and saw a familiar name in the list of likes under that news article. The profile picture was a very ordinary landscape photo, with no distinguishing features.

He stared at the avatar for a few seconds, then handed the phone to his assistant.

"He liked it."

The assistant took it, glanced at it, and handed it back: "So... are we celebrating something?"

Zhang Yiming took the phone back: "No need to celebrate, but our direction is correct."

The assistant nodded and said nothing more.

No one knew that Li Xin was just scrolling through his social media that night, and it just looked right, so he casually tapped it. The news article happened to be in the middle of his feed, and he thought the headline looked okay, so he clicked it. It was that simple.

But a version later spread within ByteDance: Mr. Li had liked the post, which meant he fully approved of the adjustment direction for the globalization strategy, and that the meeting that day hadn't been in vain.

Before long, ByteDance's Southeast Asia business data came out; the user scale had more than doubled, and revenue growth was faster than in the North American market. At an internal review meeting, when mentioning that strategic adjustment, Zhang Yiming said, "Although Mr. Li didn't say much at that meeting, his silence at the time was the greatest support. We were on the right track."

This sentence was later written into an internal summary and someone took a screenshot and sent it to an industry group, where it spread far and wide.

When Li Xin saw that screenshot, he was eating lunch at a Cantonese restaurant. At his table were Chen Hu and two people from Yansheng Bank. His phone lit up; he picked it up and glanced at the message, didn't open it fully, locked the screen, and put it back.

Chen Hu saw that his expression hadn't changed and asked casually, "Boss, what is it?"

Li Xin picked up a piece of roast goose: "Nothing, someone sent a news article."

He didn't mention it again.

After some time, a new high-level executive joined ByteDance. Having just started, he wasn't very familiar with the company's unwritten rules. Once, after a meeting, he pulled a colleague aside and asked, "What does Mr. Li usually say during meetings?"

The colleague thought for a moment: "He usually says 'I have nothing to say.'"

The new executive frowned: "Then how do you judge whether he approves or disapproves?"

The colleague said: "Him not speaking is his attitude."

The new executive pondered for a while, still not quite understanding, but didn't continue to ask.

Two months later, at a quarterly strategy meeting for ByteDance, Li Xin sat as usual in the middle of the long table with a cup of tea in front of him, looking very relaxed. After Zhang Yiming finished explaining the first-quarter situation, he routinely scanned the room: "Does anyone have any additions?"

By convention, Li Xin usually wouldn't speak. But he was in a genuinely good mood that day. When he left in the morning, Beijing had rare sunshine, the sky was blue all morning, and he had casually bought a cup of coffee on the way, which he found quite good.

So he spoke up: "This direction is okay."

Just six words.

After the meeting ended, on the way back to his office, Zhang Yiming said to his assistant in the hallway: "He said 'It's okay.'"

Assistant: "Then..."

Zhang Yiming: "It means we are doing very well."

Assistant: "Then what needs to be done?"

Zhang Yiming didn't stop walking: "Don't do anything; maintain the current pace."

After that door closed, the entire third floor was quiet for a while. Someone sent a message to the department next door, just three words: "He spoke."

Next door replied: "What did he say?"

"He said 'It's okay.'"

"Doesn't that mean the evaluation is even higher than 'I have nothing to say'?"

"It should be."

The news spread quite quickly; within two hours, several departments were discussing this matter. Although no one could clearly explain where "It's okay" ranked higher than "I have nothing to say," everyone felt that this must be a good thing.

Only Li Xin himself knew that it was purely because the sunshine was good that day, and that cup of coffee was indeed quite good.

Later, at a private dinner with friends, Zhang Yiming talked about the relationship between investors and founders, and he said something.

"I fear Mr. Li asking me questions at meetings the most. Because that means he has really found a problem. If he doesn't ask, if he doesn't speak, I know we haven't gone off track."

A friend asked: "Then what about when he says 'It's quite good'?"

Zhang Yiming thought for a moment: "Then it really is quite good."

A friend laughed: "Then what if he says nothing at all?"

Zhang Yiming picked up his cup and took a sip: "That means he is completely reassured."

That meal left no record, and these words were not recorded. But those present remembered them.

Li Xin didn't know these things. He had stayed in Beijing for a few days, and on the afternoon of the third day, he flew straight to Hong Kong.