"Liang Jingjing, why didn’t you ask him to wait for me!"

Liang Jingjing detected the strange note in Qi Siyu’s tone and asked in confusion, "Siyu, do you know that guy who was just here?"

Qi Siyu nodded, looking at her best friend and becoming a complete sour grape. "Yeah, that’s Li Yuan. Aren’t you the one who’s been dying to meet him?"

Liang Jingjing’s eyes widened. "What?" she exclaimed in shock. "He’s Li Yuan? Your rumored younger boyfriend?"

Qi Siyu nodded.

Liang Jingjing swore, "Damn it! Why didn’t you tell me he was coming to find you? I thought he looked a little familiar."

"I didn’t know he was coming to see me, either." Qi Siyu felt a pang of disappointment. She had still wanted to pry that beautiful song out of him.

Liang Jingjing observed Qi Siyu’s expression intently and teased her, "You little minx, don’t tell me you’ve actually fallen for this younger guy?"

Qi Siyu’s pretty face flushed, and she murmured almost inaudibly, "He’s hardly small!"

「...」

Li Yuan arrived on the sixth floor and, as if following a map, found Ma Tengfei’s office.

Standing before the door, he suddenly felt a surge of nervousness, just like in his previous life when he had to report to a senior leader at work.

Li Yuan knocked. A deep, middle-aged male voice came from inside.

"Come in!"

Li Yuan turned the doorknob. Upon entering, he saw a middle-aged man sitting behind a massive, luxurious, and tidy desk, hunched over his work. Li Yuan composed himself, put on a smile, and calmly walked over to the sofa in front of the desk. He casually placed the Maotai and tea he was carrying on the floor.

"Principal Ma, you wanted to see me?"

Ma Tengfei looked up at Li Yuan, instantly recognizing the young university student before him.

"Li Yuan, you got here quickly," he said with a smile. "Have a seat!"

Li Yuan sat down, placing his hands on his knees in an attentive posture.

"Li Yuan, I called you here mainly to discuss the matter of university students starting businesses. I hope I’m not taking you away from anything important?"

Ma Tengfei’s words were like a breath of fresh air, completely devoid of any domineering attitude.

Li Yuan had more or less guessed what Ma Tengfei wanted to talk about. He answered with a faint smile, "Not at all, Principal Ma!" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Ma Tengfei continued smiling as he asked, "Li Yuan, your company’s website, ’Zhihu,’ has been up for a little while now, hasn’t it?"

"Yes, for about a month," Li Yuan replied.

Ma Tengfei looked curious. "Oh? You started thinking about developing a website the moment you got to university? Could you share your thought process with me?"

Li Yuan didn’t answer immediately. He knew this was Ma Tengfei’s way of testing him. After taking a moment to organize his thoughts, he began to speak slowly.

"Principal Ma, after graduating from high school, I spent some time browsing forums and websites, mainly Qiandu Tieba, Weibo, and others. But I felt these sites were missing something. They lacked a channel where people could freely share and discuss their work, lives, relationships, and even their knowledge... So, I had the idea to create a website myself, and that’s how ’Zhihu’ was born..."

As Ma Tengfei listened to Li Yuan’s explanation, he nodded to himself, his smile growing wider. Based on Li Yuan’s reasoning for creating ’Zhihu,’ it was clear he had his own insights about websites and was genuinely passionate. This wasn’t just a whim, which meant the venture had a much higher chance of long-term success.

"Li Yuan, you really do have some great ideas. Excellent, excellent. The internet is the main trend for future development. Although it’s facing some setbacks right now due to the economic crisis, this is also a process of separating the wheat from the chaff. In the future, many more internet companies will be born and grow strong..."

After praising Li Yuan, Ma Tengfei shared some of his own views. Seeing Li Yuan listening so intently made him feel even more pleased.

"Li Yuan, here at Daxia University, we see the school as a mother and the students as her children. The university fully supports its children when they decide to start their own businesses."

"Have you encountered any problems during your entrepreneurial process that the school could help you with?"

He was dangling a carrot. Li Yuan was a bit surprised, and his already positive first impression of Ma Tengfei improved even more.

"Principal Ma, to be frank, from starting the company to the recent launch of ’Zhihu,’ we haven’t faced any major difficulties. It’s just..." Li Yuan trailed off, putting on a troubled expression.

Ma Tengfei, astute as ever, saw Li Yuan’s hesitation and laughed heartily. "It’s alright, speak freely. If you’ve truly run into a problem, the school will certainly do its best to help you resolve it."

Li Yuan feigned embarrassment and said, "Well, Principal Ma, I’m worried that as the company grows, we might encounter some unfair competitive tactics from others in the industry..."

Ma Tengfei’s expression faltered for a moment. He had expected Li Yuan to ask for support in terms of personnel, material resources, or finances. He never imagined that this would be Li Yuan’s concern.

Ma Tengfei took a long, deep look at Li Yuan, finding his worry quite understandable. He was a university student from out of town who had achieved fame at a young age, earning millions a month. On top of that, he had founded a technology company whose website became a massive hit right after its launch. Following a normal development trajectory, he was poised to carve out a slice of the internet market for himself.

The problem was that Li Yuan and his company had no real backing. If his website had only achieved lukewarm success, that would have been one thing. But now that it was truly taking off and cutting into the market share of other companies, he was likely to face fierce business competition, and possibly even unscrupulous, non-commercial attacks.