Chapter Twenty-Nine: Ma Teng’s Descent into Darkness, a Devastating Blow

After the meal, the two decided to take a stroll along the Lizhiwan Creek. It was not only picturesque but also filled with hidden shops selling handcrafted goods. In one quaint, antique-style shop, they were captivated by the exquisite Guang embroidery.

The delicate stitching, vibrant colors, and the auspicious meanings woven into the patterns showcased Guangzhou’s profound cultural heritage. Liu Suxin chose a piece featuring lychees as a keepsake and smiled at Yan Fei, "This is not just a piece of art; it is a beautiful memory of our trip to Guangzhou."

They returned to Shen'an City by evening. No sooner had Yan Fei dropped Liu Suxin off at home than he was summoned by a frosty-faced Liu Zhe to the study upstairs. Seeing this, Liu Suxin cast a worried glance at Yan Fei but could only sit down with her mother.

Zhang Su took Liu Suxin’s hand and comforted her with a smile, "Don't worry. Your father won't do anything to Yan Fei. After all, it was your father who agreed to your relationship with him!"

While the mother and daughter talked, Yan Fei stood in the study upstairs, feeling flustered as he faced Liu Zhe’s livid expression. He whispered, "Uncle Liu, I have not crossed any lines with Suxin. Please rest assured."

Hearing this, Liu Zhe’s expression softened slightly. He said in a low, heavy voice, "It is good that you are sensible. There must be no improper behavior before marriage. Furthermore, you need to keep a low profile. Some people have set their sights on you, though I have already warned them off."

Yan Fei’s expression turned solemn at these words. It seemed that after reaching a net worth of hundreds of millions, he had become a target for those who viewed him as a "fat pig" before he had even established a corresponding social status. What audacity they had.

Seeing that Yan Fei understood his point, Liu Zhe said quietly, "I expect some will try to court you for investment opportunities. Just reject them directly. As long as you don't violate the law on the surface, they won't dare to burn bridges with the Liu family."

After half an hour of instruction from Liu Zhe, Yan Fei gained a deeper understanding of the world's perils. That night, he matured significantly, realizing that simply having money made him a target; he also needed the social status and influence to match.

Come Monday, Yan Fei went about his routine of watching the market, managing positions, and trading. At ten o'clock, he liquidated his long positions on the SHFE Copper 0912 contract and reversed into a short position. The total account assets reached 200 million, with a position value of 200 million as well.

He closed all positions on rebar futures, bringing total assets to 300 million. He then opened a long position of 100 million and planned to withdraw the remaining 100 million the next day. The CSI 300 index remained in an upward trend with no signs of reversal, so he kept those positions open.

The next day, after checking the market, everything went as expected. He withdrew 100 million from the account, transferred 40 million to Liu Suxin to inject into Momo Technology as paid-in capital, and then transferred his own 60 million share. With this, the 120 million registered capital of Momo Technology was fully paid in.

Armed with substantial funds, Momo Technology began pouring money into advertising, rapidly expanding its territory. By focusing on location-based social networking for strangers, they created an atmosphere of intrigue that drew countless young men and women to download the app.

A week later, Yan Fei’s futures account reached 600 million. He left 400 million to continue rolling in the market and withdrew the rest, investing it all in Vanke and Poly stocks. Looking at his portfolio, Yan Fei estimated that both companies would see at least a tenfold increase, given the rapid development of the real estate sector.

By mid-September, Zhang Xiaolong called with good news. After hanging up, Yan Fei immediately drove to Guangzhou. Upon meeting Zhang Xiaolong, he asked excitedly, "Mr. Zhang, quickly open the backend data for me to see."

The company’s CTO opened the server dashboard. Seeing that WeChat had reached 1,024,857 registered users with 657,842 daily active users, Yan Fei could no longer contain his excitement; he punched the air and cheered.

Once he calmed down, Yan Fei asked, "How much money is left in the account? We must strike while the iron is hot and increase our investment to push the registration numbers even higher."

The CFO replied immediately, "Boss, there is over 35 million left. We haven't spent heavily this past week, just some internet ads and offline gift-giving campaigns."

Zhang Xiaolong, noticing Yan Fei’s confused look, smiled and said, "Mr. Yan, the explosion in registrations is due to your 'Moments' contest idea."

Opening the leaderboard, Zhang Xiaolong said excitedly, "Look, Mr. Yan. The top-ranked post, 'The world is so big, I want to go and see it,' already has tens of thousands of likes and shares."

Yan Fei looked at the exquisite travel photos and the accompanying caption, marveling at the content. It was indeed eye-catching—no wonder it had garnered over ten thousand likes, far surpassing the second-place post.

Looking at the leaderboard, Yan Fei said happily, "Increase the budget. Make this contest a grand event to attract more participants. I want WeChat to hit three million registrations this month."

Zhang Xing'an spoke up with a serious expression, "Boss, we have a dilemma. Tomorrow is the end of the first week of our 'Most Beautiful Moments' city contest. How should we set the reward criteria?"

Zhang Xiaolong added, "Mr. Yan, you need to make the call. This is no small expense. There are too many cities. Even if we calculate by prefecture-level cities, there are 333 of them. If the rewards are too small, they won't have an impact; if they are too large, the company can't afford it."

After reflecting for a moment, Yan Fei said firmly, "Treat provincial capitals as cities—that’s 28 awards. Hong Kong and Macau count as one. We aren't in Taiwan yet, so exclude it. First place gets 10,000, second gets 9,000, and so on. That’s 550,000 per provincial capital, totaling 15.4 million nationwide. For other cities, we will issue honorary certificates and medals, both digital and physical."

Hearing the reward figures, everyone gasped. Zhang Xiaolong said in shock, "Mr. Yan, these standards are too high. We will spend over 60 million on rewards alone this month, not even counting the national monthly contest."

Yan Fei waved his hand dismissively, his expression resolute. "It’s fine. We’ll only do this for the weekly contest. In the future, we will only issue certificates, medals, and virtual items. For the national monthly contest, we can offer cash: one million for first place, 800,000 for second, 500,000 for third, 300,000 for fourth through sixth, 200,000 for seventh through tenth, and 100,000 for eleventh through twentieth. That’s five million total. The effect will likely be even better than the weekly ones."

The team agreed and immediately updated the contest rules, pushing them to all WeChat users.

In a rented room in Beijing, a pretty girl looked at the WeChat Moments leaderboard on her phone with a joyful smile. If she held her spot until tomorrow, she would win the first-place prize for her city.

Suddenly, a WeChat notification popped up. She opened it to find the updated rules. Her face fell; the first-place prize wasn't as much as she had expected. Reading further, she saw that the weekly cash rewards would end next week, replaced by gifts. She felt WeChat was running out of money.

Just as she was about to delete the app, she saw a bold, red-lettered banner for a million-yuan prize. She was instantly hooked. She carefully read the details and excitedly submitted her best post to the national contest.

Opening the national leaderboard, she saw the top post had only a few hundred likes, but the number was climbing rapidly. Beside it was a discussion forum. Opening it, she saw a platform similar to Tieba where people could post and reply, with new content flooding in like a waterfall.

In Chongqing, Zhang Xiaohu scrolled through the posts and commented happily, "I was furious when I saw the small WeChat prize, and when I saw it was only for one week, I was ready to uninstall. But seeing the million-yuan prize, it’s looking good again."

"Not bad, not bad!" a user named 'Big Broadsword' replied, "I had already pulled out my forty-meter broadsword, but upon seeing the million-yuan prize, I put it back and quickly submitted my post."

As more people joined, the number of posts soon exceeded ten thousand. The WeChat Technology team, seeing this fervent response, became excited and poured more money into massive promotional campaigns.

As the grand event reached its conclusion, WeChat’s registered users broke the 1.5 million mark. The 15 million in prize money became the climax of the campaign, and WeChat became the hottest topic across all media and the internet.

Countless winners across the country posted photos of their cash prizes online, sparking envy among netizens and creating a massive wave of new sign-ups.

On Monday, after Yan Fei finished trading, Zhang Xiaolong called, shouting excitedly, "Mr. Yan, we’ve broken through! WeChat has exceeded two million users! And there’s more good news: my application for mobile number integration has been approved. This will simplify the cumbersome registration process, and we’re about to see an explosion in new users!"

While WeChat grew rapidly, Tencent held a closed-door meeting. Pony Ma sat at the head of the table, looking sternly at the hundreds of senior executives. His voice was cold, "WeChat is aggressive; it is a massive potential threat to our social empire."

Zhang Cong remarked, "Mr. Ma, I think you’re overreacting. Feixin had tens of millions of users, and look at it now—it’s on the decline. I suspect WeChat will be the same."

Li Jian stood up and said, "Mr. Ma, I think we should update QQ to be mobile-friendly. The era of mobile internet has arrived; we must focus on it."

Song Jiang added, "I agree with Mr. Li. We have 400 million daily active QQ users. We just need to update it so users can use QQ on their phones with all the features of WeChat. We will own the mobile social market instantly; there’s no need to fear Feixin or WeChat."

Qin Fang frowned and said, "QQ is the king of the PC era, and users have established impressions. It’s hard to change, and it will make QQ bloated. I don't suggest making QQ the face of mobile social. We need a tool like WeChat."

Many executives supported this view. Tencent's leadership split into three factions: one argued against wasting resources and simply wanted two versions of QQ; the second argued for simply adding WeChat-like features to the existing QQ; the third argued for a new brand to avoid confusing users and to crush WeChat in the cradle.

Pony Ma slammed the table and shouted, "If we can't agree, let's vote! Two options: update QQ with new features, or launch a new name for the mobile social field."

The result: 80% supported updating QQ, and only 20% supported developing a new tool.

Pony Ma made the final decision: "Execute both. 60% of the group's traffic goes to the mobile QQ update, and 40% goes to the new TT mobile social app. Whoever succeeds gets the group's full backing. Also, I want the investment department to move—try to acquire WeChat. If we can't buy it, take a controlling stake. If not, take a minority stake and suppress its growth. Finally, spare no cost to poach Zhang Xiaolong."