Chapter 108: Chapter 97: Trust
One-twentieth! Zhao Shao mulled over the words.
He closed his eyes and thought for a moment before making a decision. "Ah Zhu," he asked, "let’s be frank. How much equity are you looking for?"
"What’s the maximum amount of equity you’re willing to give?" Chu Bamboo asked in return.
Zhao Shao stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the scene outside. People bustled along the streets below. His brow furrowed tighter and tighter. He opened his mouth to speak several times, only to close it again. Finally, with a hint of dejection, he said, "I don’t know."
"?"
"For anyone else, the absolute maximum I’d be willing to give is twenty percent! Giving one person too much equity is too dangerous for me," Zhao Shao said with utmost sincerity. "After all, my company has only been open for a short while."
Cautiously holding onto equity in the early stages is an essential lesson for any entrepreneur.
Even someone as brilliant as Apple’s founder was kicked out of his own company under the wrong circumstances, losing all control.
Zhao Shao let out a heavy sigh. "But you’re different!"
The value of the algorithm Chu Bamboo had provided, even just one-twentieth of it, was perhaps already worth more than Z Company in its entirety.
"So, you should be the one to name a price..." Zhao Shao said softly. "If I really can’t accept it, we can just part ways. No hard feelings... Of course, you’ve already shown me the algorithm. Even if you don’t invest in the future, even if we go our separate ways, as long as you don’t demand I stop using the insights derived from it, I will still give you ten percent of the shares!"
Zhao Shao was being incredibly frank. In reality, even if he used these structural optimizations from the algorithm and just denied it, what could Chu Bamboo do to him?
"...You’re very clever," Chu Bamboo remarked.
"Exactly!" Zhao Shao knew Chu Bamboo understood his implication. Ten percent just for usage rights might seem unbelievable.
But if Zhao Shao really turned hostile here, Chu Bamboo could easily use the other nineteen-twentieths of the data to build a company that surpassed Z Company. At that point, with this new grudge on top of everything else, Z Company would be targeted and likely driven to bankruptcy.
This ten percent wasn’t really a toll; it was a "friendship fee" to get on Chu Bamboo’s good side.
"I won’t make things difficult for you. Whether your company goes public in the future or not, I must be guaranteed that my shareholding is maintained at thirty-one percent," Chu Bamboo stated calmly. This was the amount of stock he would own in the future.
’He didn’t actually plan on making things difficult for Zhao Shao. To put it bluntly, Zhao Shao was only feeling insecure because of the algorithm, but wasn’t that algorithm essentially created by the Zhao Shao of the future anyway?’
’While he was willing to "plagiarize" from the future, he wouldn’t go so far as to drive the original creator to ruin in the process... Chu Bamboo had a very clear understanding of himself. If he was "copying," it was for the sake of helping human civilization survive the apocalypse, not simply to usurp profits.’
"The way you say it, so definitively! Can this company even go public anymore?" Zhao Shao was dumbfounded, but he breathed an internal sigh of relief as gratitude filled his eyes. ’That’s so little! He had thought the other party would demand at least fifty percent!’
’He had already prepared his arguments in his head, planning how to negotiate it down to forty-nine percent if possible.’
’That was his bottom line. After all, it was still the early startup phase; he couldn’t let a single shareholder’s ownership surpass his own—if it came to that, he might as well start a new company and just hand Z Company over to Chu Bamboo.’
’But he never would have imagined that the other party would be this generous!’
"I’ll give you the rest of the algorithm in a little while."
"Understood! Just let me know when the time comes," Zhao Shao said sincerely. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, "Um, may I ask... when can you transfer the funds? We could sign the contract at the same time and formally confirm the share allocation. Things are a bit tight on my end!"
"To bring this up at a time like this... I really don’t know if you’re being sincere or something else..." Chu Bamboo nodded expressionlessly. ’He was now genuinely starting to wonder how his self from that other timeline got scammed out of all his money by Zhao Shao. The classic "I’ll be back next week" scam shouldn’t be this pathetic, right? Or did Zhao Shao have some kind of misunderstanding about his current self, causing him to use completely different persuasion tactics than he did in that other timeline?’
After mulling it over, he finally said, "I’ll consider it."
Then, he hung up the phone. Chu Bamboo ran his hands through his hair. ’He was starting to suspect... could Zhao Shao be on the verge of not even being able to make next month’s payroll? It... couldn’t be that bad, could it?’
"You need money?" Lin Xia didn’t hesitate for a second. "I can pull together 300,000..."
"It’s not that bad," Chu Bamboo said, shaking his head. ’Even if Z Company really couldn’t make it to next month’s payroll, he could at least hold out until next month before asking Lin Xia for money. By then, after multiplying his funds through stock trading, he could pull out at least a million!’
"Lin Xia, what you said before made a lot of sense," Chu Bamboo said with a wave of his hand as he stood up. "I’ll leave my account for you to manage from now on."
"Um..." Lin Xia watched Chu Bamboo’s departing back, hesitated for a moment, and spoke again. "I don’t really understand why you want to invest in a company. But if you can really keep producing new patents and breakthroughs, wouldn’t it make more sense to start your own company?"
Chu Bamboo froze, then turned his head to stare at Lin Xia with an unreadable expression.
"I know you don’t have time! But if you want to, I can start learning now! I can find some upperclassmen from the law and business departments, see if I can put a team together for you and get a company off the ground," Lin Xia said, his words flowing more and more smoothly.
He looked directly into Chu Bamboo’s eyes, his expression earnest and sincere. "I don’t really know what your relationship with that person is, but he is definitely not as trustworthy as I am! You might have conflicts of interest with him, but in the future, as long as you give me a good enough reason, I would pull out any amount of money I make and give it to you without hesitation!"
"Because I might be the person in this world who understands you best! And besides you, I’m the only one who firmly believes that... that thing... might happen in the future."
Chu Bamboo crossed his arms, his mind racing. Finally, he said, "You’re already under a lot of pressure... If you have some free time, you can do some prep work on this. But I might not necessarily start a company in the future... Even if you give up on the idea, I’ll understand. Let’s leave it at that."
Chu Bamboo stepped forward and clapped Lin Xia firmly on the shoulder. Then he turned to leave...
Lin Xia watched Chu Bamboo leave, then clenched his fist, a look of excitement spreading across his face. But just as he let out a "YES!", he saw Chu Bamboo coming back. "..."
"You...!" Lin Xia froze, his mind racing. Finally, he forced a brilliant smile. "What a coincidence! HAHAHAHA... What am I even saying?"
"Forgot about this," Chu Bamboo said, holding up his empty food tray.
"Oh, that!" Lin Xia breathed a sigh of relief, then felt a bit speechless. "You can just leave it here, I can help you..."
"You’re wrong." Chu Bamboo cut Lin Xia off, and now it was his turn to look directly into Lin Xia’s eyes. "You’re not working for me, and you’re not my subordinate. You, like me, are doing this because you want to resolve that future event."
"Therefore, we’re friends! And allies! If I dump something I can easily do myself on you, what do you think I see you as? An employee? Or a slave?"
Chu Bamboo gave a noncommittal smile and turned to leave. ’Even after everything Lin Xia had said, in his eyes, there was only a difference in their roles, not in their status.’
Lin Xia stood stunned for a long moment before rubbing his face hard, his voice choking up slightly. "Haji Bamboo, you bastard!"
After staring at his finished meal for a while, a smile touched the corners of Lin Xia’s lips. He stood up, stretched languidly, and picked up his own tray.
...
Chu Bamboo was on his way to find his academic advisor, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks, a look of dawning realization on his face.
"So that’s how it was!"
He understood now!
’In the previous timeline, Lin Xia had probably made the same suggestion to him at the same time—’
’But the Chu Bamboo of that time couldn’t travel to the future to pull out patents, so the company was never successfully established. His self in the main timeline, however, didn’t have that restriction...’
’Okay, now that I’ve figured out the reason, this is something I can work with. Still... if things go smoothly on Lin Xia’s end, starting a company is an option. If not, then we won’t.’
Chu Bamboo pushed the matter to the back of his mind and continued on his way at a brisk pace. A company in the Real World was a lever for him to influence the future without having to rely on the government.
From this perspective, whether it was Z Intelligence Co., Ltd. or some other company—exactly how much equity he could get or how much money he could make from them didn’t matter to Chu Bamboo.
The butterfly effect they created—what kind of butterfly effect they could create—that was what truly mattered.
