Chapter 359 Wang Xing out
Shenzhen, evening.

The rosewood tea table reflected a warm luster. Zhang Lei put down his black square-framed glasses and rubbed his face to relieve his tiredness.

He was skiing in New Zealand these days, and received a call from Liu Chih-Ping, so he flew back to China for more than ten hours.

The third person sitting in front of the tea table was Bao Fan from Huaxing Fund. He thought for a moment and was the first to break the silence: "The risk of a stock market crash will gradually spread to the primary market. The relationship between investment cycles will not show anything this year, but next year's capital shortage will cause everyone to suffer."

It’s August, just a few months away from next year.

Zhang Lei tapped his knuckles on the tea table and thought, "The fundraising for the two funds opened by Grapefruit Capital ends at the end of the year. It will be difficult to raise 50+150. What will he invest in?"

The other side of the panic in fundraising is inevitably accompanied by a panic in investment projects.

So far, good tracks and good projects have basically been tapped out from the mobile Internet dividend. Due to the difficulty in fundraising and the reduction in investment, the practices of taking a gamble by squeezing out a little money from one's fingers will become a thing of the past next year.

There are many projects that seem to be good ideas but are not very reliable in execution and require burning money on trial and error. It will be difficult for them to succeed if only one or two top venture capital firms take the lead without follow-up investment from small and medium-sized institutions.

So where will Xie Jingxing invest the 450 billion yuan in funds? Is he really determined to focus on local life and will not stop until he kills Wang Xing?

"I've talked to Pony (Xiao Ma Ge), let it rain if it wants and marry if my mother wants. No one has the patience to continue the fight."

Liu Chih-Ping paused and said thoughtfully: "At least we should sort out our own situation first before competing with Alibaba."

"What?" Zhang Lei was puzzled.

Liu Chih-ping forced himself to control his emotions: "For Alibaba's shares in Meituan, our negotiations have made progress and they have agreed to sell it to us."

"They still want to hold it off until the last minute. On the day when New DAEI acquires Meituan, Alibaba will most likely sell its shares to Grapefruit Capital."

Bao Fan took over the conversation and analyzed the situation: "And Xie Jingxing went to Hangzhou yesterday. He and Jack could have talked about anything. If you really want to merge, no matter how incompetent you are, you can't be in a situation of mutual suspicion. Any information gap may lead to a complete loss of control and collapse."

“It doesn’t matter what Grapefruit Capital wants to invest in later. The money in their pockets means they are determined. They won’t stop until they fight to the end… New Big Hungry is the terminal entrance to Yunshan Group’s ecosystem.”

By now, smart people from all sides can see that Xie Jingxing is a strategic layout rather than a financial investment, and Liu Chih-ping has laid it out on the table for the first time.

Industry + Internet, huge ambition, very tempting and oppressive...

Zhang Lei put his glasses back on and said, "Martin (Liu Chih-ping), don't tell me these things. To be honest, Hillhouse, as a financial investor, is now completely held hostage by you. I will be the first to raise my hand if you want to discuss a merger."

"Can you explain it clearly to Wang Xing?" Bao Fan interrupted.

Zhang Lei looked at the bald guy and thought he was an eyesore. What a shame! Since he started at Didi, he has tried to use his experience to pretend to be a peacemaker. Has Xie Jingxing ever given you face?

However, this boiled egg was indeed trying to ease the atmosphere at the moment, and it had to give some face after all.

"Wang Xing's bottom line is that Zhang Tao is out, so he didn't have a direct conflict with Xie Jingxing. It was Xie Jingxing who wanted Meituan but also wanted to kick him out." Zhang Lei played dumb.

Bao Fan was helpless. Everyone understood the truth. The key was that if he couldn't deal with Xie Jingxing, he could only deal with Wang Xing!
If you play dumb, then I'll let you be dumb to the end, he thought to himself, and just go along with it on the surface: "Otherwise, you can arrange a meeting with Xie Jingxing on behalf of the Meituan investors."

"I... No, this is not something that should be discussed internally among you, the new investor." Zhang Lei almost suffocated.

Liu Chih-ping smiled bitterly: "He is now traveling all over the place and doesn't see us at all. He has a falling out with Shen Nanpeng. Mr. Bao finally managed to find out his schedule, but he disappeared the next day."

"You go to meet him on behalf of Meituan's investors. You can communicate the bottom lines of both parties more intuitively, which is more suitable than us." Bao Fan encouraged.

This sounded like a reasonable thing to say. Zhang Lei hesitated and accepted the task: "Where is he now? Please help me make an appointment with him."

"..."

Liu Chih-Ping and Bao Fan were both silent, looking at each other in silence for a moment, which was a little awkward. Zhang Lei's mouth twitched.

After a while, the three of them picked up their phones and paced back and forth in the room. After finishing the call, they sat down and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.

"In the Magic City."

It wasn't until it was completely dark outside the window that I finally determined where Xie Jingxing was. Then the second question arose: how to make an appointment with him? I couldn't just wait outside the door of the Grapefruit Capital office.

After all, he is a big shot in the industry, and he can't afford to be embarrassed if the news gets out.

Liu Chih-Ping and Bao Fan left their work behind and went to the outdoor restaurant to order food, leaving Zhang Lei alone, holding his phone and losing his hair, looking extremely worried.

Players of Lu Dan and Shen Nanpeng's level have no face at all. They scroll through their WeChat contacts one by one, and it seems that no one can do it. [Today is my junior sister Xiao Zhang~]

Zhang Lei saw the refreshed Moments and clicked on the picture to enlarge it. The person drinking in the corner of the photo was Dong Zi, and the person next to Dong Zi with only half of his face exposed seemed to be Xie Jing Xing.

My junior schoolmate is a Columbia University alumnus who was highly hyped by the media last year. She is so nice!
"You guys eat. I have an appointment with Xie Jingxing to meet tomorrow. We have to leave for the Magic City now."

Zhang Lei set off calmly and expectantly, with Liu Chih-Ping and Bao Fan looking at him with admiration. It was hard to tell that he had just used both soft and hard tactics on the phone with Dongzi, and had almost threatened to hang himself to get the upper hand.

…………

The next morning, we were still at Sheshan Golf Course. It was a rare drizzle in August to relieve the heat.

Xie Jing Xing looked refreshed as he stood on a high place breathing in the fresh air. Although he drank until he vomited last night, he got drunk early. He was young and slept until dawn, and his whole body was clear from the inside out.

Brother Qiangdong was not so happy. He talked to him for a while while having breakfast, feeling depressed, and then hurried back to Beijing alone.

Leaving Xiao Zhang alone to deal with the situation was somewhat unfair, but her actions did make her man feel awkward being caught in the middle.

It seemed like yesterday's affectionate look was actually quite scheming.

“When the domestic venture capital industry was just starting out, most people working in e-commerce probably learned a few words from the capital market, such as the asset-light model, and then everyone said they had a light-asset business model.”

Zhang Lei, dressed in a full set of golf uniforms and holding a golf club in his hand, said: "But we all know that the light asset model has been taken to the extreme by Taobao and Alibaba, so there is not much opportunity."

"We are looking for companies with heavy assets. Some people are really doing this, but they are too embarrassed to say that they are doing this, for fear that the investment will be too large to scare us away."

He explained: "Qiangdong was the only one who told us seriously that he wanted to do this. He was not exaggerated or vague. What you see is what you get. He was down-to-earth in warehouse distribution. I thought it was a good idea and we hit it off immediately."

“A beautiful story.”

Xie Jingxing agreed in a light tone. Brother Qiangdong was a rare down-to-earth person. He only acted as a matchmaker and didn't get involved in any specific communication. He would rather let his newlywed wife be embarrassed and at a loss as to what to do.

After getting rid of the middleman and asking questions in a few words, Zhang Lei got straight to the point: "Mr. Xie, what do you think of the competition between New DAE and Meituan?"

"Merger and acquisition, Wang Xing is out." Xie Jingxing said simply and straightforwardly.

Zhang Lei was prepared and was not surprised: "Xin Da E sold 10 yuan of business, of which 2 yuan was earned by Yunshan Group, Yunhe Logistics and other affiliated companies. In the eyes of the investment shareholders who hold 80% of the shares, it is inevitable that it will be suspected of being in a melon field."

"Harming the public interest for personal gain? That's a good explanation." Xie Jingxing nodded and signaled to continue.

"I believe Mr. Xie will not do this. Whether others believe it or not, you can suppress it with your current prestige."

Zhang Lei changed the subject and asked frankly, "With the time scale relaxed, New DAE will be listed sooner or later. What are your plans for the secondary market?"

"Thanks to your good words, I will try to lead Xinda E to the day of listing first, and then consider your reminder." Xie Jingxing disagreed.

Because he has strong control over New DAE, he must support the more capable Wang Xing to maintain the independence of the merged company as the founder and ensure that the interests of other investors are not harmed by Yunshan Group.

This makes sense, but there are many ways to balance interests, and among the many options he can think of, Wang Xing is the only one that does not include it.

"As long as the competition is not over, we will have to keep burning money, which will also make the investors behind both sides very uneasy. We are under great pressure in terms of funding, supervision, and public opinion." Zhang Lei changed his angle and spoke subtly.

"Shhh."

Xie Jing Xing suddenly listened carefully, pointed his finger and said, "Boss Zhang, there are waves of pine trees, haha!"

A moist and cool breeze blew, and the leaves rustled. As he spoke, he started walking down the hillside.

There is no pressure at all, it's just that the tree wants to be still but the wind doesn't stop.

Zhang Lei looked at Xie Jingxing's back and understood his bottom line. It was a pity for Wang Xing.

He lost nine battles and nine times, but the tenth time he met an opponent whose money no one knew how much money he had in his pocket or how high his connections were. It was not his fault.

In fact, Zhang Lei knew a little about the latter, and so did Liu Chih-ping and Bao Fan, but they didn't dare to look up. Otherwise, apart from trying their best to communicate, was there really no other way to match the deal?
On the contrary, from this perspective, from the beginning to the end, Xie Jingxing has been clean and innocent in the fight between Xinda E and Meituan until today, without any transgression.

At this point, Wang Xing's exit is the best option.

(End of this chapter)