Becoming a Movie Star, System Only Finished Loading After Ten Years

"Ah, you look really good, much better than on TV."

An Feng's granny held Qi Hao's hand, beaming with satisfaction.

In her simple view, as long as her granddaughter likes him, that's what matters.

Although her daughter married the one she loved back then and it didn't last long, she always felt that life is so long, and if you're with someone you don't like, how agonizing would that be?

She asked An Feng if she truly liked Qi Hao.

To like him purely for who he is, not because of his conditions, not moved by his fervent pursuit.

An Feng's answer was straightforward.

She told her granny that she and Qi Hao were just like in "First Love, This Little Thing," they had secretly liked each other for years. It was just that the conditions were not ripe then, so they didn't get together.

But all these years, they had always had each other in mind, and only recently did they break the ice.

Elderly people love to hear stories of lovers becoming family, and at once felt that her granddaughter and this young man were destined companions.

"Thank you, Granny, your compliment makes me shy."

Qi Hao smiled happily.

"Granny, don't praise him too much, or he'll get too smug."

An Feng helped speak on the side.

Qi Hao quickly became close with her family.

When they saw Qi Hao could even cook two dishes, the family had no criticism left for him.

Our silly girl won't be starving.

Even Ms. Liu began to suspect that opposing Qi Hao from getting too close to her daughter might have been wrong.

At this point, past objections became pointless.

However, Qi Hao still showed her great respect.

He didn't mention at all how Ms. Liu lost a lot of money in stocks.

This matter was still a secret within the family.

Actually, Ms. Liu recently recouped quite a bit of money.

But almost losing five million dollars, if the family knew about this, it would be a serious issue, and Granny Liu would likely chase after her dear daughter with a rolling pin to give her a lesson.

The food was about ready.

The family sat down to eat, chatting as they did.

First, they inquired about Qi Hao's family situation and his future life plans, then the men talked about careers.

"Qi Hao, most of your investments are quite successful, how do you do it? I've heard quite a few people in finance call you Little Buffett."

The uncle poured a drink for Qi Hao, who took it gracefully.

"Actually, there's no secret, it's mostly analysis. The stocks I buy can usually withstand scrutiny, if the industry is too superficial I generally avoid it..." Qi Hao didn't forget to add at the end: "And I might have been lucky, a few times selling risky assets at their peak."

This was related to some "dummy accounts" the system made.

Under the system's arrangement, Qi Hao was a seasoned stock trader, buying and selling many stocks over the years, leaving behind only the best ones.

"Haha, luck is a kind of skill too, it's a divine gift, can't deny it."

The uncle marveled.

"I'm curious, you hold a lot of stocks in Penguin and Sina, but why did you sell off those in Qiandu?"

The aunt's husband wasn't in finance, but occasionally bought stocks for investment.

His approach was rather conservative, with stocks in internet enterprises still outside his reach.

He was not questioning Qi Hao, but genuinely seeking advice.

Because in his view, Qiandu seemed stronger than Penguin.

From 2000 till now, it could be said Qiandu's golden decade.

In this "golden decade," Qiandu captured the internet's traffic portal, built a "moat" around search, owning star products like Qiandu Tieba, Qiandu Zhidao, and Qiandu Baike, with a powerful "information distribution" portal and content ecosystem.

Qiandu acquired the most trafficked navigation site—hao123.

By this year, Qiandu held 76% of the Chinese search market share, even directly ousting Google from the Huaxia market.

Meanwhile, Penguin, caught in the 3Q battle, though gaining advantage over 360, lost public favor, criticized by many netizens for bullying.

Mounting negative news on imitation, monopoly, and money-grabbing plagued it.

Penguin now even relied on buybacks to mask its downtrend in the financial market.

Yet Qi Hao not only didn't sell his Penguin stock but sold off others to invest all his cash flow into subscribing Penguin stock.

He currently held 16.6 million shares of Penguin stock.

"Actually, I didn't think much of it, I just didn't like Qiandu as a company..."

Qi Hao didn't know what would become of Qiandu.

There's no theory where stocks given by the system are good, and those not given are bad, nor could the system secure stocks of all good companies for him.

Thus Qi Hao could only discuss the topic from a personal preference angle.

Firstly, he felt Qiandu's revenue came from advertising, which is unsettling.

Moreover, Qiandu's ad revenue largely came from bidding ranking.

Where merchants bid on search keywords, whoever bids higher, their page ranks higher in search results.

Each time a user clicks a page, the merchant must pay Qiandu a fee.

However, Qiandu never screened these merchants' product and service quality, nor could they.

Thus, this money was earned without a moral bottom line.

It could even be said it's heartless money.

Playing games may indeed disrupt studies, but your bidding ads can sometimes be life-threatening.

Secondly, Qi Hao feels that though Qiandu has invested in so many companies, every investment ends in failure. The feng shui of this enterprise is truly terrible.

A company that purely survives by trampling on moral conscience is hard to envision having any future development.

Although Uncle and Cousin-in-law find Qi Hao's reasons somewhat absurd, filled with youthful idealism, in business, such behavior is quite irrational.

But for Qi Hao, as Qianqian's partner, having such a strong moral compass is a good thing.

At the dining table, it's mostly the men chatting, leaving no room for the women to speak.

There are indeed too many topics to discuss.

The internet industry itself is a grand theatrical show, and Qi Hao holds stocks of Penguin and Sina, leading others to believe Qi Hao must deeply understand the internet.

For instance, the discussion about Ding Lei trying to sell NetEase but failing due to financial audit issues; Zhang Chaoyang being sidelined by the board, almost losing control; Wang Zhidong wasn't so lucky, he tanked the company's stock from $55 to $1.6, and was directly ousted by the board.

Successful men are most charming.

So everyone enjoys bragging, boasting about a sort of fake success.

Nowadays, Qi Hao has no need to brag.

He currently holds shares in Sina, which Wang Zhidong once founded, and the stake is not small.

He even had meals with the current president of Sina and executives at Penguin, making him truly authoritative when discussing such topics.

"What are you planning to invest in next?"

Uncle once again poured a drink for Qi Hao. As an elder, offering a drink, it's hard for the younger generation to refuse, but fortunately, Qi Hao can drink endlessly without getting drunk.

"Uncle, have you heard of Xiaomi?"

The system in the new task rewarded business information about Xiaomi.

Although Qi Hao currently doesn't know what this information is, his focus now is definitely Xiaomi.

In the past few days, he has asked people to gather some information on this, preparing to invest in this company.

"Are you talking about the company Lei Jun just founded last week?"

Uncle was the first to relate to this enterprise. He works within the banking system, very sensitive to such news.

"Yes, Lei Jun's company."

Qi Hao didn't expect the system would provide information about Lei Jun's new company.

This company was just registered in March, founded on April 6, located at the intersection of North Fourth Ring Road and East Zhongguan Road in Yinggu Mansion, diagonally across the Forbidden City from Qi Hao's new company address.

"He, he's quite capable."

Uncle didn't know how to appraise Lei Jun. His impression of Lei Jun is tied to Kingsoft Software.

They developed a software called Pangu to compete with Microsoft Office, and naturally, they were defeated. However, Lei Jun, who was the general manager at that time, became well-known.

Lately, they developed WPS Office, demonstrating perseverance.

There are many legends about Lei Jun.

Some say that Ma Huateng wanted to sell QQ to him when he was just starting out, but he didn't buy it; others say Ma Yun sought investment from him when he had just started, but he didn't invest.

Then there's the story about NetEase.

It's said that when NetEase was just founded, the company had only five or six people, and Lei Jun offered a price of ten million yuan, which wasn't a small amount at the time. But Ding Lei refused. Just two months later, NetEase raised ten million US dollars, with a valuation of sixty million dollars.

Lei Jun also embarked on Joyo.com, but didn't succeed, painfully selling Joyo.com to Amazon, thus becoming Amazon China.

Nobody expected that just over six months later, a new wave of the internet boom would arrive, heralding the full rise of B2C e-commerce.

It can be said that Joyo.com was founded after the internet bubble burst, and collapsed before the e-commerce boon.

What does this imply?

It implies that this person's timing is truly unlucky.

So many internet moguls sought his help, implying he has both experience and wealth.

But whatever he does fails, missing the whole internet era.

"He seems unreliable…"

Uncle feels inadequate in front of Qi Hao, teaching a Little Buffett worth billions how to invest is something he finds hard to articulate.

But since Qi Hao is now in love with a young family member, he still tactfully expressed his concerns.

Ms. Liu is even more worried.

She has no idea about Lei Jun, but from what she heard, this Lei Jun doesn't seem to be well-regarded by the public.

Yet Qi Hao intends to invest in the company Lei Jun just established ten days ago.

The same principle applies; she doesn't have the confidence to give advice to Qi Hao.

If it weren't for Qi Hao's advice, her stock market money might have already been mostly lost.

"I'm mainly interested in the business scope of his new company. Although it's still the PC era now, I feel the rise of smartphones is unstoppable."

Qi Hao mentioning his interest in the mobile phone industry doesn't seem abrupt.

The BYD he invested in is a crucial supplier of mobile phone batteries worldwide, and Apple is professional in making phones.

Smartphones are becoming increasingly common.

"An internet guy making phones…"

Cousin-in-law's implication is skepticism that a non-expert can create something professional.

"Haha, I think… maybe it takes someone from the internet to stir things up in the mobile phone industry."

Qi Hao casually found an excuse.

He had people watch Xiaomi Technology and Lei Jun, waiting for the news of their A-round financing.

Regardless of whether he gets exact information about Xiaomi from the system, Qi Hao doesn't mind throwing some money their way during their A-round financing.

After all, A-round financing can't have a valuation that high.