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The seminar over the next two days basically consisted of the preliminary preparations for the dig.

Xu Tingsheng sat together with a bunch of old scholars. Just the number of books they had read alone was sufficient to bury him eight hundred times. Unless he planned to act knowledgeable with the help of his foreknowledge, all he could do was keep his mouth shut...

He chose to not say anything at all. When asked questions, all he did was act ignorant and brush it off.

The rest of the time, he was mostly hiding in a corner, secretly sending texts.

He was actually rather busy. Over this period of time, there were actually quite a few conflicts in the internet industry.

First, at the end of September, one of China’s three major domain name service providers, Xinnet, had been hacked. This had led to around fifty thousand domain names registered under it, amounting to almost thirty percent of all websites in China, being unable to operate. Twenty hours later, Xinnet had resumed its services. However, the subsequent demand for massive reparations and the debate on internet safety had seen no successful resolution after a long time.

This time, Xingchen Technologies was engulfed too and had suffered quite a loss. The specific compensation was still being looked into. Xu Tingsheng’s opinion was very simple: Go with the flow.

Similarly having been negatively affected, Hucheng Tongcheng maintained Lu Zhixin’s usual domineering style as it had already long since launched a lawsuit for a colossal amount right after the incident.

Hucheng’s Lu Zhixin’s reputation of being the lawsuit demon was again refreshed across the internet.

At twenty-two years of age, she might already be China’s most well-known domineering female CEO. Still, as she was young, beautiful, did not make reckless comments and had safeguarded public interests during the gutter oil affair...her reputation was actually very good as the netizens were virtually all supportive of her.

Lu Zhixin’s online fan club was as domineering and forceful as her.

Next, Yesky and Baidu were currently in the midst of an intense war. They had started out from a verbal spat and progressed to the courts. While many major websites were taking sides, Xu Tingsheng just chose to be an observer-the way things were now, he had no spat with Baidu.

If they were to clash, it would be due to Qihu 360’s Zhou Hongyi in the future. Xu Tingsheng was but one of the investors too.

The area where Xu Tingsheng truly needed Zhou Hongyi was actually still Tencent.

Xingchen Games had previously used its substantial funds and offered a high price. Also considering the exceptional performance of Crazyracing Kartrider, they had launched a sudden assault and successfully persuaded the Korean game companies, snatching away the rights for <> and <> from Tencent.

There was nobody in this world who better understood than Xu Tingsheng just how popular and profitable these two games would later on become.

How great was the significance of beating them to the chase this time? It entailed that Xingchen Games would, in the area of internet gaming, officially become a hegemon akin to Tencent. As long as they were able to invest in Riot in time and obtain the rights for <> in the future, Xingchen would stably hold the position of number one in the foreseeable future.

Having been ‘robbed’ at the brink of success, Tencent was furious, enmity old and new erupting together. Tencent’s declaration that they would take revenge on Xingchen and have a battle to the death with them spread throughout the industry. Apple’s father, Cen Xishan, informed Xu Tingsheng secretly that Zhou Yuandai was currently seeking to invest in Tencent to form a suppressive effect on him.

Actually, those with a clear mind knew that having lost the rights for the games at the very last moment was but an excuse. The true reason for Tencent being in such a rush to act was: This was very likely the last chance for Tencent to suppress Xingchen.

If they did not suppress them now, Xingchen would fully rise to the point of being able to stand against Tencent on equal terms.

As another critical moment arrived, it was rumoured that Xu Tingsheng had actually gone with some old men to dig a mausoleum...would Xingchen descend into a perilous storm once more?

At this time.

Zhou Hongyi who was known as the internet ruffian got to work. Because it had gained funds and channels from Xingchen in this life, 360 Security’s installations had skyrocketed past a hundred million within a short period of time. A few days ago, it had seen a new upgrade.

After the upgrade, everyone was delighted to find that all of Tencent’s software, QQ included, no longer had advertisements...where had they gone? They had all been intercepted by 360.

This might be a good thing to the netizens, but to Tencent, it meant that their rice bowl...had been smashed. The crazy war between Tencent and 360 in his previous life...played out three years prior.

The payback of this ‘tiger-rearing’ scheme that Xu Tingsheng had planned for since way back finally appeared now.

Being in the midst of tragically warring against 360, Tencent no longer had space to take revenge. They also had no way of stopping Xingchen Technologies’s frenzied progress...

Xu Tingsheng had been behind these grand happenings in the internet industry as he single-handedly stirred the winds and the clouds.

“Huh?” He regained his wits.

“Tingsheng, Professor Xia has something to discuss with you,” Yan Zhengyu felt a bit helpless.

“Oh, okay. Please say it, Professor Xia...” Xu Tingsheng looked around and, finally finding the old man with the Qingbei plate in front of him, hurriedly responded respectfully.

“It’s like this. I got a call from our university’s office yesterday. The school hopes to collaborate with Xingchen Weibo, reporting exclusively on this time’s mausoleum excavation online...what do you think?” The old man asked.

“This is a good thing! I agree. You have my support...and funds. However much is fine,” Xu Tingsheng straightforwardly and enthusiastically agreed.

Having an exclusive live on the excavation process of Cao Cao’s mausoleum via Xingchen Weibo-what a great idea this was. This excavation was destined to be a hot topic that all citizens paid attention to. Also, such a collaboration could help with Xingchen Weibo’s propagation and mainstream use to a great extent.

So, this was definitely a super-duper advertisement that could not be bought with just money alone!

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Xu Tingsheng wondered, “Looks like I’ll have to properly thank that Qingbei higher-up afterwards.”

Professor Xia coughed lightly as he looked at him, easing his expression as he said, “I don’t know about the monetary aspect. Let’s not talk about that. Still, this was proposed by our university’s student reporter squad and the higher-ups are very supportive of it as well.”

“Since you believe that it’s possible...Student Xu. Well, our university’s reporter squad is ready to send a small squad over first. Will you meet them now? One one hand, you can understand each other’s needs. On the other, they can better coordinate with your company beforehand.”

“Yes, we should do that,” Xu Tingsheng said, “I’ll get the company to dispatch people over to Yanjing to coordinate our work right away.”

Xu Tingsheng called He Yutan. Hearing the news, Old He and Hu Chen were happy beyond themselves and extremely supportive.

A five-man squad personally led by He Yutan immediately set off for the airport to fly to Yanjing.

Soon after He Yutan’s departure, Hu Chen called him, saying, “That chess move of 360...while it seemed like just a casual move at the time, it’s turned out to be the crucial step now. You’ve predicted the world with this, Tingsheng. The entire industry’s convinced. Yesterday, Old He and I had a rare drinking session...we both got drunk, laughing and yelling...it was not the wrong choice to board this ship! Thank you, Tingsheng. Thank you for thinking so much of us, bringing us here step-by-step, always believing in us.”

“What are you saying, Bro Hu? If not for you and Bro He, I’d surely have been able to achieve nothing at all. I should be the one thanking you...let me express my thanks with shares. At the start of 2007, your promised shares will be duly gifted,” Xu Tingsheng replied sincerely, yet did not want to linger on this topic for too long as he instead asked, “Right, why is it that Old He has personally brought a squad over for mere coordination work like this?”

“Don’t you know?” Hu Chen asked, “Old He is enamoured with antiques. He’s even a collector in the public. In his early years, people called him Yanjing’s Panjiayuan antiques’ number one blind man...who knows how much of his assets he’s all spent on it all these years...so, this is really him seizing on the opportunity to use work to satisfy his personal desires. Just wait for him to hassle those experts to death.”

“So it was like that. It’s fine. I don’t know about all that anyway. He won’t be able to hassle me,” Xu Tingsheng said, “As for the company, I’ll have to trouble Bro Hu.”

“It’s fine. There aren’t many things to handle. The teams below have all been formed too. The feeling of sitting on the mountain, watching the wind and the clouds...it’s wonderful!” Hu Chen laughed emotionally.

After hanging up, Xu Tingsheng looked for Professor Xia and told him that he had made the relevant arrangements.

Professor Xia said, “The student reporter squad is already here. The student who made the proposal is a member as well. How about you meet them first? Anyway, since you are all of similar ages...”

“Alright.”