"Mr. Bezos, I am truly sorry about this. No one expected them to be so brazen as to kidnap your brother, ruining everything!"
"Alas, it wasn't for lack of trying, but the enemy was too cunning!" Mr. Oak said apologetically in Bezos's home. Bezos, opposite him, remained expressionless, as if he hadn't heard a word.
Bezos had been in this state for days. After all, anyone who suddenly found their company handed over overnight, and the controlling shares were ones they had willingly sold, would wish they could chop off their own hands. xxs12
It was his own folly, believing their specious words. Not only had he lost his shares, but his brother was now locked up in the police station.
Bezos had met with Mark Bezos, who explained the entire situation. Only then did Bezos learn of the charges his brother had been threatened with.
Once he understood, Bezos no longer resented his brother as much and redirected all his anger towards Oak and the capital forces behind him. If not for their "sleeping dragon and phoenix" scheme, he wouldn't be in this predicament.
"Alright, if you have something to say, please be direct. Otherwise, I'll have to see you out!" Bezos said coldly. Oak, however, maintained his smile. "Of course, there is something important. My benefactor is also very sorry for this incident and, at the same time, deeply despises the methods used by Jiangnan Group. We cannot allow someone with such poor character, who disregards market rules, to run rampant. This is a destruction of the future of the entire e-commerce industry!"
"Therefore, we are willing to join forces with Mr. Bezos once again to rectify the situation and reclaim the entire market. Since Amazon was taken by our opponents, we will create another Amazon."
"Wait... given our current situation, is there still a need for such subtlety, constantly referring to a 'benefactor'? I cannot cooperate with someone who hides their identity!" Bezos interrupted. Oak froze for a few seconds, then said he needed to make a call for instructions.
A few minutes later, Oak returned with a beaming smile. "Mr. Bezos, you are correct. For our cooperation, Goldman Sachs is willing to invest 20 billion US dollars to establish a brand-new e-commerce platform and invite you to serve as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer."
"If you are unwilling to invest, you can directly own 10% of the new company's shares. However, if you are willing to invest, you can invest up to 4 billion US dollars and obtain a total of 30% of the new company's shares!" Oak said quickly.
"Please convey my thanks to the gentlemen at Goldman Sachs for their generosity!" A hint of a smile finally appeared on Bezos's face. "However, Mr. Oak, you know my rules. I have my own long-term strategies and considerations and do not wish to have too many people interfering with my operations. Therefore, I hope that this time, we can still distribute shares according to A/B stock. Ten percent of the company's shares will be Class A stock, which I will control entirely. The remaining 90% can be Class B stock. I wonder if the gentlemen at Goldman Sachs are willing to agree to these somewhat audacious terms of mine?"
"I cannot make this decision on my own. I need to make a call." Oak said, and then he went to make another call, which naturally was to the elder's chief secretary. However, the chief secretary did not dare to make such a decision on her own and then turned to the elder for instructions.
"These scoundrels, so self-important, always thinking they're smarter than us. They want to run businesses and escape our control, utterly foolish!" the elder grumbled after hearing Bezos's request.
But the elder had no choice. Goldman Sachs truly did not know how to operate businesses, let alone compete with top experts like Jiangnan Group and Huang He. Therefore, such matters had to be handled by professionals, and there was no one in the world who understood e-commerce better than Bezos.
More importantly, Bezos possessed a large pool of experienced human resources, which was why Goldman Sachs had to cooperate with him.
Under normal circumstances, Goldman Sachs would have undergone over a dozen rounds of negotiation for this A/B stock structure. However, they couldn't afford to wait any longer. Ultimately, Goldman Sachs readily agreed to Bezos's terms.
The next day, with the full coordination of Goldman Sachs, all departments fast-tracked approvals for Bezos. In just three days, a brand-new website named "Wanxian Pavilion" was officially established.
Speaking of this website's name, there was a period of divergence.
This name was not actually chosen by Bezos, but by Goldman Sachs as the majority shareholder. Bezos originally wanted to name the new website "Sahara."
It was obvious that the name Sahara would be a stark contrast to Amazon. Amazon was a rainforest with abundant water and diverse flora, while the Sahara was all dry sand. Bezos wanted to use the formidable Sahara desert to completely bury the Amazon he had once created.
Unexpectedly, this name was directly rejected by Goldman Sachs, as the Sahara had always been perceived negatively by humanity worldwide, associated with death and thirst. Such a name was not suitable for an e-commerce platform serving people globally.
Before Bezos could object, Goldman Sachs immediately presented the new name, "Wanxian Pavilion," and told Bezos it was the best name.
Bezos was bewildered upon seeing the name. It wasn't that he hadn't heard of Wanxian Pavilion before. In fact, he had heard of this name because it was a famous shop from the renowned film series "Misty Journey."
According to the portrayal in "Misty Journey," Wanxian Pavilion was one of the seven major sects in the cultivation world. However, Wanxian Pavilion was not known for cultivation but for its business acumen. It was famous throughout the cultivation world for having its own sales outlets on various planets and for being the place where all rare and precious treasures of the cultivation world could be purchased.
In the second film of "Misty Journey," there was a nearly ten-minute scene related to Wanxian Pavilion. At that time, the protagonist and his companions entered Wanxian Pavilion for trading, and Wanxian Pavilion transformed into an omnipotent super-dimension that could expand infinitely in all dimensions.
Upon entering Wanxian Pavilion, Li Qiang and his group only needed to think of what they needed, and the phantom of that item would immediately appear in their hands. They could also directly experience the actual effects of the product on the spot.
Moreover, through the infinite dimensions of Wanxian Pavilion, they could even see future fragments of themselves dominating the cultivation world after purchasing the item.
To put it simply, it was somewhat like the extremely impressive five-dimensional space in the movie "Interstellar," but with more dazzling and unscientific visuals and special effects.
Later, in the television series version, the content related to Wanxian Pavilion was expanded from about ten minutes to seventy minutes. There was a dedicated side plot about Wanxian Pavilion, through which Li Qiang witnessed how Wanxian Pavilion, with its accumulated cultivation resources and its ability to probe future dimensions, influenced the entire cultivation world by manipulating the spiritual resources it held and its infinite dimensional space that could detect the future.
In any case, after witnessing the setting of Wanxian Pavilion, all the viewers at the time were stunned by its concept. The name Wanxian Pavilion, clearly a brand unique to China, had become as well-known in the United States as the name of Gringotts in Harry Potter, even surpassing it tenfold in status.
After all, Harry Potter was only released in theaters and had never been adapted into a television series.
"Believe me, Wanxian Pavilion is definitely the best name. The number of Americans who know of Wanxian Pavilion is more than five times the number who know of Amazon. We have conducted specific data analysis!" The vice president of this newly established company, who was also Goldman Sachs' representative, pushed up his glasses and said with a somewhat arrogant and confident tone.
"..." Bezos could not refute this assertion, so he could only say, "But don't you think it's disgusting for us, companies that have been bullied to this extent by Jiangnan Group, to use a brand created by Jiangnan Group?"
"Of course, I find it disgusting!" the vice president nodded and then said with a serious expression, "But according to the data, this is the most suitable name with the highest market recognition. This single name alone can generate over 300 million US dollars in brand value!"
"Disgusting is disgusting, and profit is profit. They are two different matters! President Bezos, you don't understand the world enough yet!"
"..." Bezos opened his mouth. Considering his recent cooperation with Goldman Sachs, he couldn't afford to fall out with them at the outset, so he nodded and accepted the name.
However, he then asked curiously, "The copyright for this name should belong to Jiangnan Group. If we use their name directly like this, won't they sue us?"
"No, they cannot sue us because the brand Wanxian Pavilion has always been in our possession. We applied for the trademark Wanxian Pavilion with the trademark management committee on the 7th day of Wanxian Pavilion's release, and Jiangnan Group only reacted on the 9th day. Therefore, the ownership of this trademark is currently in our hands. We are unable to prevent Jiangnan Group from continuing to use the name as the creator of Wanxian Pavilion, otherwise, we could have made Wanxian Pavilion change its name!" The Goldman Sachs vice president said indifferently, once again making Bezos experience what true capital meant and suddenly a surge of confidence emerged.
With such shameless capital by his side, he might win this time!