Chapter 251 - Meeting with Zhen Xu
Translator: Lav
Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia
Seeing that it was about time, Shi Lei gave Zhen Xu a call.
Zhen Xu had yet to do anything, since he was waiting for Shi Lei’s call. The moment it came in, he immediately picked up. Shi Lei hadn’t heard the sound of the call successfully connecting before a man’s voice suddenly sounded in his phone, making him jump.
“Hello, Mr. Shi. Are you free now?”
Shi Lei composed himself. “You picked up way too quickly,” he replied. “Where are you now?”
“I’m home,” Zhen Xu said immediately. “Mr. Shi, are you saying that you can meet up with me right now? What about this, you tell me where your company is, and I’ll go find you there.”
He wanted to use this chance to gain more knowledge about Shi Lei’s abilities because he didn’t want to be scammed by a fraud.
Shi Lei hadn’t thought about it too much and said straightforwardly, “I don’t have a company. I just have some spare money on my hands. I live around Wudong University. If it’s convenient for you, we can find a cafe around there and have a talk.”
“Right…” Zhen Xu obviously hesitated after hearing what Shi Lei had said. After all, the technological aspect of the app he’d developed wasn’t too hard. It was mainly that his conception was rather unique and that he was worried that if Shi Lei wasn’t capable enough to invest in it, then he would have to hire two programmers himself to write the same app after finding out its contents.
That was also the reason why Zhen Xu hadn’t found investors for such a long time.
Usually when others looked for investments, he needed to write a detailed plan and a trial version of the product had to be tested and examined by the investors. But Zhen Xu insisted that he could only talk about the details after meeting with them and he only used words such as a “search function for the city” to describe the project itself. If you put yourself in their shoes and imagined, who would be willing to invest in a project when there were no details available on the project itself?
Shi Lei heard the hesitation in his voice, but he didn’t know why. “Mr. Zhen, what’s wrong?” he asked in confusion. “Do you have any questions?”
Zhen Xu was nervous. He thought that Shi Lei didn’t seem trustworthy since he didn’t even have a company, but he had seen the way Shi Lei had spent money at the racecourse. As for his project, the assessed value wouldn’t be too high in the first stage and the angel investor would usually receive ten percent at most, but definitely wouldn’t receive more than twenty percent of the shares. Some may only have five percent, which was a few hundred thousand yuan. In Zhen Xu’s heart, he would be more than happy to have an assessed value of 2.6 million for his app.
This meant that he only needed about 250,000 yuan in the first round of financing to perfect his idea and begin doing small promotions Wudong.
Regardless of that, Zhen Xu thought that around 200,000 yuan wouldn’t be a problem for Shi Lei, considering how much money he’d spent at the racecourse.
So Zhen Xu finally made up his mind and said, “Ah, it’s nothing. I thought that Mr. Shi was an angel investor, but it looks like I misunderstood you.”
“Why can’t an individual be an angel investor? Do I need a company?”
Zhen Xu froze again and thought: Right, aren’t there many independent angel investors nowadays? Of course, they have their own companies, but when they invest, they often do so as an individual.
“I don’t live far from Wudong University either. I know there’s a Tree Cafe there. Do you mind talking there? Oh, if you think it’s inconvenient, you can suggest a place.”
Shi Lei nodded. “Tree Coffee is fine. I’ll see you soon. If you get there first, order something to drink first.”
With that said, Shi Lei hung up and got ready to leave the house.
Before he left, he read the process he’d written himself. He warned himself that it didn’t matter what Zhen Xu said. He needed to take the conversation back to what he’d planned. One aspect was that he really didn’t have any experience with it and could follow the process. The other aspect was that Shi Lei could also show off his dominating attitude.
Mhm, he needed to be domineering. Nowadays, investors were kings!
Shi Lei’s phone rang as soon as he walked down the stairs. He took it out and found that it was his classmate. But ever since he became part of the student council, Shi Lei had never spoken to him again and this phone number hadn’t shown up on his phone for two years.
Shi Lei walked toward the car he’d ordered and picked up along the way.
“Hi, Lü Jiaqiang, do you need something from me?” Shi Lei asked as he opened the door and got into the car. “Do you know where Tree Coffee is?” he asked the driver.
The driver smiled. “It doesn’t matter if I don’t. There’s GPS anyway.”
Shi Lei nodded and realized that he had ignored Lü Jiaqiang’s reply. “I’m sorry, I was talking to the driver. What did you just say? Can you repeat it again?”
Lü Jiaqiang clearly sounded unhappy. “Shi Lei, you really are something. Think about it yourself. How many days have you skipped class?”
Shi Lei was confused, but didn’t take it seriously. “Did the teacher ask you to contact me?” But after a thought, he realized that wasn’t right. If the teacher was looking for him, then they would contact the class president, or at least the commissary in charge of the class. Why would the teacher tell Lü Jiaqiang, who was in charge of general student life?
“Does the teacher have to be the one to look for you? You’re right. It is nearing graduation and everyone’s busy looking for companies for internships, but there are still a few classes in the first semester. Other students still go to class every now and then, but you? You haven’t been to any lectures for at least two months.”
Shi Lei felt that the situation was even more strange. “First, I went to class a few days ago, but I didn’t see you there. Second, it’s true that I’ve being skipping, but I don’t think that’s enough to warrant you coming to look for me. Where is the class president? Where is the commissary?”
“What, do I not have the power of discipline you? Only the class president and commissary do?” Lü Jiaqiang became even more unhappy.
Shi Lei composed himself. He was sure that Lü Jiaqiang was looking for trouble. However, he didn’t understand when he’d offended this guy. Theoretically, Shi Lei hadn’t been to class for more than two months and he hadn’t see Lü Jiaqiang for at least a month, which made it impossible for him to have offend the guy.
“Theoretically, you really don’t have the right to discipline me. Positions in the class are elected for the purpose of serving the students, not for the purpose of allowing you to act like an official. Even if you are part of the student council, it is still a student service group. I’m asking you, did the teacher ask you to look for me? If there was anyone who really has the ability to disciple me, that would be a teacher of the school. Well, I’m almost at my destination, so I’m going to hang up now.”
Shi Lei just wanted to hang up. He didn’t want to deal with that kind of random trouble, since it wasn’t on the same level as the previous one.
Lü Jiaqiang was even more angry. “I’m telling you, Shi Lei,” he yelled. “I’m going to discipline you! If you don’t come back to school today, I’ll report you to the teacher!”
Shi Lei was similarly unhappy. “Do as you please,” he said.
“Fine! Shi Lei, that’s what you said! I’m going to report to the school that you don’t return to the dorm every night and don’t live there anymore. I already asked. They said that you rented a house outside and live there now.”
Although Shi Lei didn’t think that this kind of small report would hurt him, Lü Jiaqiang’s words made him feel uncomfortable. Since Lü Jiaqiang was the person in charge of student life, it was really within his power to do so.
Seeing that Shi Lei had remained silent, Lü Jiaqiang was pleased with himself. “Hurry up and come back to school,” he said arrogantly, “or don’t blame me for not giving you any face as a fellow classmate!’
Shi Lei shook his head. “I can’t be bothered to talk to you. I’m busy right now. I’ll go back to school and check it out after I’m done with my business.” With that said, Shi Lei hung up.